Awakening - Part Six

     First, the figure staring back at me had been a blue Shoyru. But...it wasn't anymore. Instead, a ghost Draik stared back at me, red eyes shining like mirrors. The Draik in the sword cried out, "Fight!"

     That word snapped me back to my senses and I instantly slashed at the snake. I missed, but something was different about the serpent. Something saying it was afraid. I grinned; my confidence was growing.

     "I am MirrorEyes!" I roared unexpectedly, flying up and slashing the sword across the snake's underbelly. I was rewarded when the massive reptile roared in pain and blood was released. The snake, now infuriated, lunged at me again.

     This time, I felt powerful experience take over me. I jumped up and met the snake in mid-lunge, slashing it across the face. Blood splattered from the wound and I was covered in it, but I kept fighting. With a roar I slashed at its face again but missed.

     A voice rang out in my head, You wield the Light Bringer, MirrorEyes. You were a vessel at one point, but now, you are my reincarnated heir. Kill the snake and save your friends!

     The power grew to an extremely high rate and I felt overwhelmed with it. The sword grew to a sharp point and flashed with deadly light. I leapt at my opponent and slashed at the snake...

     It bit me.

     I screamed in pain and the power began to fade. I could feel blood running down my shoulder and Hiterkuna screamed. Everything was getting blurry... Couldn't stay up... I knew that the snake's poison was working at its full, desperately trying to kill me as fast as possible.

     With a final roar of defeat, I jumped at the snake. The sword flashed with blood and met the snake's neck...

     ~*~

     "MirrorEyes?" A voice called out to me. I opened my eyes and found myself in a foggy plain. The voice called out again, and I answered.

     "I cannot be MirrorEyes..." I whispered out to the darkness.

     "Yes, you are."

     "But I'm dead!"

     "So? I've been dead for a long time, and I've still found life in you." That statement confused me. "You've been living inside me?" I questioned. The voice replied, "Yes."

     "How can you be sure it's me?" I asked.

     MirrorEyes replied, "If you hadn't been my heir, you wouldn't have transformed the sword. You little sister... Hiterkuna, I think her name is, noticed it first. Haven't you ever wondered what those random power surges were?" I didn't answer.

     "It could've been a chance thing-" I began, but I was cut off.

     "Don't play the fool," he snapped, "You know something strange has been going on. Why did you take the form of a ghost Draik? Why did the sword change for you and you alone? None of this is by chance, MirrorEyes."

     "How did the assassins get the sword?" I asked. There was a pause, than he answered.

     "That is a different story, different time. You will find out in the course of time, MirrorEyes. Now, I think I'd better return you to the world of Neopia. Your friends are working up quite a fit over there..."

     The mist began fading, and I opened my eyes.

     ~*~

     "Kyradose? Kyradose, wake up!" I moaned in my sleep and turned over, but I finally opened one drowsy eye.

     "W-what?" I asked. The pets around me breathed a sigh of relief and began bombarding me with questions. I held up my paws frantically, "Whoa, whoa, one at a time!"

     "How did you turn into a ghost Draik?!" Yubioke demanded, "You're a regular Shoyru now..." I looked at myself and found that she was right.

     "Not sure," I muttered, "It just...happened." Yubioke didn't like the answer, but she shrugged and dismissed it.

     "Dude," Mesbeto began, "How did the sword change like that? That was totally awesome!"

     I shrugged, lying, "I'm not sure about that, either. Neopia is a strange place, that's all." Mesbeto didn't probe any further, but Hiterkuna cast me a suspicious glance. I noticed the baby Zafara on Yubioke's shoulder.

     "Who's that?" I asked.

     Yubioke shrugged and said, "Whelp."

     "She found him when the city was burning," Hiterkuna explained. My eyes snapped wide open and I asked quickly, "Is everyone okay?!"

     Mesbeto answered, "A few deaths, unfortunately. Whelp's mum was gone too." He cast a nervous glance at the baby, who was sleeping on the Aisha's shoulder.

     "The citizens are going to live in a camp just north of the city until it's rebuilt. The castle went down, too." Hiterkuna's Uggatrip, Spike, nodded and chirped.

     "What about you?" I asked, "Are you staying at the palace once it's rebuilt?" Hiterkuna grinned and shook her head. "I'm staying here, as a commoner pet."

     "What about that traitor, Victoria?" Yubioke asked. Hiterkuna's face darkened and she said, "She escaped with the rest of the assassins." Tears came to her eyes, "And Gizial...she didn't make it out."

     I, not knowing who Gizial was but understanding Hiterkuna's pain, put a paw on my sister's shoulder. "It happens, Hiterkuna. We all die some time, it's just part of life."

     ~*~

     I sat on the branches of a huge tree and watched the city being rebuilt. A slight breeze tickled my scales and I sighed. Soon, Meridell would be back to normal, and it would be as if nothing had happened at all.

     The sword was gone. Strangely, it had disappeared after the fight with the serpent. Not that I really cared, but down in the pit of my stomach, I felt like I had lost something dear. I shrugged it off, it had just been a sword, nothing more. At least we were all safe and sound, and the legends would stop bothering me, hopefully.

     Hiterkuna lay down in the grass and wrote in her journal. Spike sat next to her and bathed under the sun's rays as she wrote.

     "Dear Diary," she pondered to herself, then began to write.

     Meridell is currently being reconstructed. Every day, we wait for the news if our beautiful city is fit to live in yet. Strange things have been happening lately, things that I can't really explain.

     First, I just had the luck to nearly lose an eye and get saved by Jeran (you know, our champion). At first, I thought nothing of it, but then I was chosen to become a princess! Imagine that! I wanted to go home all the time; the palace just wasn't my life.

     After a day or two, Kyradose and Mesbeto came looking for me. I'm not sure what really happened, but Mesbeto said that they were thrown in jail and escaped, but I'm not sure how. I'd like to write it down...

     Well, afterwards I met Gizial. She was the kindest thing to me in the palace, even kinder than the others. She always told me stories and never got mad.

     Sadly, I had to meet Victoria. She hated me, obviously, and tried to kill me. I don't think I should've let her get away, but I don't like killing others, even my enemies. Kyradose was fighting a HUGE snake out on a field, and I gave him the sword from Whelp.

     The fight was so neat! Yubioke says that the best thing about it was when she scraped the serpent on the head, but I personally thought that the part when the sword transformed was cool. I never knew that Mesbeto could shoot arrows so well! He hit the snake right in the eye! Then, Kyradose started fighting it with the really sharp sword, and blood splattered everywhere...yuck. But in the end, he got poisoned and cut off the snake's head, but I don't think he remembered that.

     We were lucky that Kyradose didn't die. Even though he's not as strong as the famous pets like Laurensama's Tahoshi, or sara_mossflower's Sisslio, or Tdyans's Achilles,or even battlesunn's Shelleylou, Kyradose is very strong on the inside. He denies it, but I think he knows more about MirrorEyes than he lets on...

     I don't think Kyradose realises that I'm growing up. I hope he'll understand if I ever tell him, but I'm not a baby anymore. Just a kid now, and I hope that's good enough for me to start protecting myself. I just know that we're going to run into more than this adventure, don't you think, Diary?

     Well, goodbye for now, Diary. I've got to go search for firewood. That's how it is now, we all shift our own weight. Yubioke's coming with me, so I got to go, or she'll be mad that I'm late again.

     Sincerely, Hiterkuna.

     Hiterkuna put the journal in her knapsack and picked up Spike.

     "Let's go home, boy," she suggested, and the Uggatrip nodded.

     ~*~

     I watched the stars that night. As they winked at me in the sky, I whispered to myself,

     "I am MirrorEyes."

The End