2. The Dragon Marble
By: Inuki **Ookami**

The next evening after eating a meal they all gathered around the game. This time Tri-Link brought some food
supplies, not knowing how long they might be there, and they each had agreed the night before to bring a pouch of
some sort in which to carry a container of water. Once more they were shot through the strange world, except instead of
watches and clocks hundreds of cats and cheetahs and tigers surrounded them. They didn't approach the three figures
though. There were small black and white dotted cats, big orange and black stripped tigers, black spotted cheetahs, fat
tabby cats, tiny scrawny little white cats, panthers, and even one massive white tiger. Some sat, while the smaller ones
were moving around the three in circles, some lay lazily, and some yawned, others hissed, and the larger ones lay
asleep. Everything went purple once more, and then black as they were once more shot through a pitch black hole
below.

This time when Tri-Link and Inuki awoke they found that Scorpion wasn't there. They were there by themselves.
"Uh-oh" said Inuki figuring that Scorpion was going to be pretty mad, wherever he had ended up. Inuki flipped out the
compass, and soon found that there was a marble west of them. He clicked the Red Amulet closed, and then the two
headed west. They crossed a field, and were soon on a dirt path. Perhaps not everything was advanced in technology, it
had been almost a whole day, that meant that this was almost an entire year after the woman had died, so nobody would
be suspicious of them in these parts either. They continued walking along the path until they came to clearing. There
wasn't very much there, bits of grass and ground. Inuki flipped open the compass.
"This is going to be harder than I thought. The marble isn't here, yet it is. It's either below us, above us, or invisible."
muttered Inuki. Tri-Link sighed, and looked doubtfully down at the ground, then he looked up at the sky. He sighed as
all he saw were clouds and- but wait! What was that he saw? Was it something? Or had it just been his imagination?
No! There it was again! He swore he could see the golden-brown edge of something. It almost looked like a wall or
something. He pointed it out to Inuki, Inuki suggested that they fly up. So Inuki used some magic and shape-shifted
into his demon form. Now he was a massive red creature with two small white horns atop of his head. He had two huge
red bat-like wings, and a hunched body, completely red and black. His fingernails and toe nails were now claws and
sharp gripping talons.

Tri-Link gave a nervous sigh, and half backed away, partially in fear, partially again in inexperience. Inuki snarled,
and swooped towards Tri-Link, digging his talons into Tri-Link's back, and pulling him up with him, but Tri-Link was
too heavy, so Inuki let him down, and Tri-Link casted a spell to fly. He pulled open a rather thick magic book. He
turned to a page entitled "Flying Spells". Immediately gold writing lept upon the blank page, as if it were being written
at that very moment by a ghost pen and a ghost writer who were completely invisible. Yet it was so much more magical
than that. It was one of the most beautiful things Inuki had seen in quite some time, almost as high a quality magic
book as that of his own, which wrote itself in pure silver, unlike Tri-Link's false gold one.

"Yu yangama gi swe ku ba ba fu yagayma, Yu Yangayma, these feathers of father, father gave to me" Tri-Link
recited, and slowly a white sparkle of magic started very dimly at first around his feet, it grew larger and moved up to
his heels, then the bottom of his legs, then his ankles, his knees, his legs, and finally as it reached his waist it exploded
in a soft cloud-like "puff" sound. Inuki's eyes glowed an ember red. His crimson and dark black wings fluttered quietly,
like a soft wind blowing through a fair maiden's hair. His deep-set beady ruby eyes watched as Tri-Link flew gracefully
through the air, and then in a gargoyle-like fashion swooped straight upwards. Soon they had come to the strange
palace in the sky, and there infront of them sat a massive tower and a huge wall, which loomed over them like an
immense shadow of a huge snake-beast.

Two large guards stood so still they appeared to be frozen. They wore armor completely made of gold, and had a
breast-plate with a dragon engraved into it, the one on the right guard's head faced left, and the other guard's dragon's
head face right. As Inuki and Tri-Link landed on the clouds Inuki shape-shifted back to his Ookami form. He trotted
towards the building, and still the guards did not move. He humphed, and tapped one nimbly with a paw. It was
hollow, he motioned for Tri-Link to follow, and entered the walls. As he found his way in a massive castle loomed over
them, and a sign above the entrance read "Dragon Guild" in great big swirling letters. The D itself was probably taller
than if Tri-Link were to stand upon Inuki. Slowly they peeked through a massive window. The door was gigantic. Only
a giant could have opened doors such as those.

As Inuki peeked through the window he found that he could see huge figures walking through the corridors from
within. You could hear their rumbling footsteps. But they weren't just giants, they were green, and red, and yellow, and
blue, and had huge wings, and some had more serpent-like bodies than others, some were rather fat, some were thin,
long snakes. Inuki pulled his head in, breathing heavily at the wonderous sites he had just had set before him. Slowly
he turned to Tri-Link, who was trying to look through the window, but couldn't get close enough without bumping into
Inuki. A sly grin crossed Inuki's face, like the old fox from ancient fairy-tales of far off years.
"What do you mean? Everyone knows that dragons have been extinct for hundreds of years!" Tri-Link muttered.
"No, not yet. Why do you think these doors are so big? Giants? Everyone knows that giants can't fly, stupid. It has to be
the dragons. Besides, this isn't our world, who knows what is still alive here. Humans might even be the most
intelligent beings!" Inuki chuckled for a moment, since it was widely known among Ookami how stupid humans were.
"I don't think humans could be the most intelligent beings, it would have to be vampires." said Tri-Link in reply.
"No they're not stupid, Ookami are." muttered Inuki. Tri-Link was about to ask what an Ookami was, when he
remembered what was going on. They decided they needed a plan. Neither could come up with anything. Suddenly
there was a loud creak from behind them. As Inuki turned his head he saw the hollow golden armored guards
advancing on them.

"Oh-no!" cried Tri-Link. But Inuki used Brushland, which made large thorny green bushes sprout up, trapping and
tripping the guards, scratching them. Unfortunately they broke free from the vines, and smashed them into the ground,
flattening them. When the guards were free of the vines their golden armor shone like before, without a dent, without a
scratch. Then Inuki used Trump Card, and a golden deck of cards appeared in his right hand. He threw card after card
at the guards, and each card's edges were as sharp as knives but what would normally slice up an enemy in a matter of
seconds only left a few scratch marks upon their surfaces, now angered the guards sheathed golden swords and ran at
the two. Inuki casted Trump Sword, an a large golden sword appeared in Inuki's hands, the entire sky flashed gold for a
second. Then the sword, still in Inuki's hands, as if it had a mind of it's own began slashing at the guards wildly, it
chopped off one of the guard's golden helmets, and the other's golden arm. Inside the arm was nothing. It was hollow.
The headless guard collapsed, as if dead, while the armless guard ran at Tri-Link. Just as it was about to hit Tri-Link,
from behind Inuki threw his sword at the guard. It flipped in circles towards the guard, and then with a perfect shot
chopped off the guards head. The guard collapsed.

It was much later that day when the two had finally decided upon the perfect plan. Tri-Link would become a
dragon, and Inuki something tiny, like a fly. At night Inuki would shapeshift into his human form, grab the marble, and
the two would flee. As they entered a large sign read "The Golden Dragon Festival" in huge letters. Below it was a
strange block of wood, engraved into it read "The Golden Dragon Festival started over two hundred years ago, when a
great golden dragon prince lived here as part of the royal family, he was destined to become king of the Dragon Guild,
but mysteriously vanished, some say he ended up being transformed into a human."

"Don't you see? It's perfect! It's like it was here to be our destiny! We can't go against fate! Come on! You be the
great golden dragon, and I'll be a human. Then you'll be like a god to them! They'll have to praise you! Then you can
steal their marble!" Tri-Link sighed. It was fine and dandy to be some little dragon nobody payed too much attention to,
but being a prince, well, that was very different. So he shape-shifted into a dragon, and Inuki followed him to a huge
hall where all the dragons had gathered. Slowly they found an entrance around the back and entered it, they were
behind some curtains.

"Two hundred years ago our prince was transformed by an evil witch into a human! He swore he would come back
when he had been cured! It has almost been the time he swore to return by, next year is the last year! So if he returns he
will come back during some time this year! So we must remember our grand dragon heritage and swear to-" a thin old
blue dragon was saying, he had a very peculiar, tired, old voice. He was cut off when Inuki stepped out from the
curtains. Standing next to the dragon he was no more than half way up to the dragon's knee, barely reaching half-way,
and he was almost seven feet. That meant that the dragon's knee was fourteen entire feet off of the ground! Suddenly
Tri-Link threw some old pixie dust, which was now useless, but glowed a bright gold. Then he pulled out a smoke
bomb, and smoke exploded everywhere, turning gold from the pixie dust. Inuki stepped behind the curtain, and Tri-
Link stepped out, as a massive, awesome golden dragon.

"I am your king!" muttered the dragon. "Err- I mean prince!" he said, trying to clean up his mistake. The crowd
cheered and applauded, and Inuki silently followed as two green dragon guards led Tri-Link to a room, Inuki slid
through the crack under the door, after it was closed. Tri-Link was only brought food the entire day, no dragon was
allowed to see him. That night Inuki slid under the door, and ran towards the treasure room which was clearly marked
"Treasure Room" above the door. This is where the problem began. Everything was too high to see. So he climbed up a
pile of gold coins, each coin was the size of a large couch, but circular, and flat. Once he sent a gold coin flying down
the entire pile, and had he not jumped from it a moment before he would have surely been killed. Finally he reached the
top, and looked around. He could see an enormous golden pillar. Ontop of the pillar sat a small red velvet case. He
casted a flying spell, and flew straight towards the case, he opened it, which was extremely hard, even for someone
with as much strength as himself, and then found the marble. It must have been like a tiny speck to them! It was so
small, but he grabbed it, stuffed it into his pouch of marbles, and flew down from the pillar, towards the exit of the
room. He ran under the door, and ran back to Tri-Link. Tri-Link was hesitant, because he was living so luxuriously, but
Inuki forced him to leave. Tri-Link shape-shifted to his vampire form, and the two ran under the door, and out of the
palace of the Dragon Guild. Soon they had escaped the entire and the game finally ended, and they returned home.

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