I got out of the tent still wearing my clothes from the day before.  We had made camp near a stream and I walked over to wash my face.  The water was nice, cool and refreshing.  I splashed my face a few times and then I took a couple of sips.  I got up from the stream’s edge, but when I turned around, there was Sora, standing right behind me.  “Geez Sora; you nearly gave me a heart-attack.  How long have you been standing there?”

He had a sad and angry look on his face.  He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I just got here, but if I had been an enemy, you would have been killed or at the very least injured.  Todrick always said to never let our guards down.”

Did Sora just say “said”?  He used the past tense when referring to our dad.  “I am aware of what daddy told us Sora; but, is everything all right?  You look upset about something and I can’t seem to figure out what it is.”

Sora began to circle me.  “I’m fine.  Hey, we haven’t sparred in a while.  Why don’t we go a few rounds?”

“Right now, and so close to the water’s edge?!”

“Of course right now; we need to have our morning exercises.”

Something was clearly wrong with Sora.  For some reason he was angry with me and I haven’t ever done anything to him.  Could it be….did he know the truth?  I tried to probe his mind.  I wasn’t able to see anything.  I think he put up a mental block.  I taught him how to do that a few years ago in case someone like me ever tried to invade his mind.  The only reason he would do that would be to keep me out.  How did he know that I would try to read his mind?  I decided to play along to see how much he really did know.  “Okay Sora, let’s spar.”

I shook my head to remove the sleepiness and then began to stretch.  He also began his stretching routine, but he never took his eyes off of me.  The way he was looking at me made me think I had done something to piss him off.  The only thing that came to mind would be what happened to our dads, but how could he possibly know about that?  In our entire time living together, we had never once had an argument or a disagreement about anything.  There was this one time at band camp when….oh no, that was something else.  A few years back, Sora stole my food off of my plate because he was still hungry, but Sauza spanked him for it so I let it go.  He didn’t need me to come down on him as well.

We both finished stretching and got into our fighting stances.  I heard Betti moving around in her tent behind me, but I didn’t let that distract me.  I made the first move by throwing a quick left jab to his face.  Sora side-stepped to the left and caught my arm in both of his.  He brought up his right knee and drove it into my left side.  He put so much force into that blow that I heard, and unfortunately felt a rib crack.  This was not a sparring match at all.  At least, it wasn’t one for him.  He was seriously trying to hurt me and doing a fantastic job of it so far.  Well, two can play that game.

I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his head and pulled him down.  I rolled backwards and got back up.  As he was getting back up, I ran towards him and slid, taking out his legs.  As soon as he came down to the ground, I elbowed him in the stomach.  I jumped back up but he then knocked my legs out from under me.  Before I hit the ground, I turned around so I could land on my hands and I did a kind of push up.  Sora had already gotten up and was about to bring his leg down on my back, but I rolled out of the way and flipped back onto my feet.

He ran for me and started throwing punch after punch.  There was a right cross followed by a left upper-cut and then two quick jabs to my stomach.  He kept punching and punching.

One punch finally connected with my jaw and I stepped back from the blow.  Throughout all of this, I could see tears running down his face.  When he came at me again, I focused my thoughts and got real serious.   I caught his fist with my hand and slapped it down.  He screamed and tried to kick me, but I blocked with a kick of my own.  He came at me one more time but I was done with this whole thing.  He had lost his focus so I ended it.  As Sora approached me, he accidently lowered his guard and I punched him square in the jaw.  He flew back twenty feet and landed right on his ass.

I walked over to him and tried to help him up.  He brushed my hand away.  “Goddammit Sora, what’s wrong with you?  Why are you acting like this?  What did I ever do to you?”

“You didn’t tell me that our parents died!!”

I stepped back, but not totally from surprise.  “What did you say?”

Betti had come out of her tent at that point and walked up to me.  Sora got up off of the ground and brushed off all of the dirt from his clothes.  He looked at me with tear-stained eyes.  “Last night, when you thought I was asleep, I heard you and Betti talking!  You said that Sauza and Todrick died!  You felt it!  You also said you knew it was going to happen!  If you knew it was going to happen, why didn’t you tell me?!  We aren’t related, but we are family!  How could you leave me in the dark?  I’ve done everything to protect you and this is how you repay me?!?”

That was the most Sora had ever said to me in his entire life and I was speechless.  What could I possibly say to him that wouldn’t sound like an excuse?  And he was right; we were brothers and in a sense, I’d betrayed him.  I didn’t know if Sora would ever forgive me let alone if I would forgive myself.  “Sora, I am deeply and truly sorry.  I wanted to tell you, but our fathers swore me to secrecy.”

Sora got up and got really close and was screaming in my face.  “So, that makes it all right?  Why didn’t they just tell me themselves?”

“They probably didn’t tell you because of the way you’re acting right now.  Go and look at yourself.”  I pointed to the stream.  Sora walked over to the water’s edge and peered downward.  He quickly stepped back.  “I never wanted this responsibility Sora, but I got it and I accept it!  Having to feel them die was pure agony, so forgive me for not wanting you to have to feel the same pain!!” I shouted.

Sora looked down at his feet and then kicked at a stone sending it soaring into the distant woods.  He began to cry and both Betti and I came over and hugged him tightly.  “I’m sorry James; it’s just that I’m going to miss them so much.”

“Sora, ever since we were seven, you’ve been trying to protect me just like our fathers have always done.  Now, it’s my turn to protect you.  I wanted to spare you the pain of their death until you were ready.  Since that didn’t happen I will let you in on a little secret.”

Sora perked up and asked, “What secret?”

“Before they died, they told me that we would see them again real soon.  I don’t know what that means exactly, but they never lied to us before so it has to be true.”

This news seemed to lift Sora’s spirit slightly.  He gave me a friendly punch on the cheek.  After our little moment, all three of us had breakfast and then broke camp.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We continued heading east.  About four hours later we arrived in the town of Little Flower.  We got off of the bike and took a look around.  We walked around for about thirty minutes when I realized there wasn’t anyone around.  It was the middle of the day and no one was outside.  The town looked like it was still functional but it seemed like a ghost town.  Cars were in the street completely abandoned.  There was a bicycle on the sidewalk.  A doll lay in the grass beside it.  It was almost as if people left in a big hurry.  I decided that the best way to get to the bottom of this would be to split up.  I sent Sora with Betti since she wasn’t a fighter.

I headed for the town center and to where I thought the mayor’s office might be.  When I got to the center of town, I found….nothing.  I didn’t find the mayor.  I didn’t find the town center.  There was absolutely nothing.  What once was the town’s center was now a gargantuan hole in the ground.  By hole, I mean it was a crater.  It was like an asteroid hit there, but there was no damage outside of the hole.  It was about 100 feet deep but there wasn’t anything at the bottom of it.  Not only wasn’t there anything in the crater but the surrounding buildings were unscathed.  It was like a massive beam of energy shot down from the sky and vaporized the center of town only.  I decided to call the others to see this.  Sora, Betti, can you hear me?

Yeah James, we can hear you.  Though, Betti freaked out a little bit at you talking to her in her head; she nearly jumped out of her skin.

I saw the mental image of a smile on Sora’s lips.

That is a rude thing to do to a girl James.  You have to warn a girl when you go poking in her head!

I smiled.  I’m sorry Betti; I’ll warn you the next time.  Have you guys found anything?

We haven’t found anything brother.

That’s not entirely true James.  We have found more evidence that people left in a hurry.

I nodded my head.  That supports what I just found.  Come meet me here. I sent them an image of where I was.  Thinking back on it, I guess a giant hole would be hard to miss.

They got there ten minutes later.  Betti let out a little shriek and Sora just stared at the hole in the ground.  “Um James, what’s going on?  What is this?”

“I honestly don’t know.”  I was about to continue when I noticed something in the crater’s center.  I jumped down and slid along the side.

Betti screamed in terror.  “James, what are you doing?  Come back up here this instant!”

I continued down the side and finally hit the bottom.  I made my way to the center and saw what I needed to see.  I jumped back up.  “Sorry guys, but I needed to take a closer look.”

“What did you find?”  Sora was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.  He was such a little kid sometimes.  Well, he was only 12.

“Well, at first I thought it had been a massive explosion, but because the surrounding buildings are intact I had to change my mind.  I saw something in the crater that convinced me that I had made the right choice.  A person did this.”

“What do you mean a person did this?  How many people are we talking about here?”  Betti was a little scared.

“No, not people; a single person did this.”

“But how is that even possible?  There isn’t anyone on Earth who is that powerful.”

“That’s not completely true.  From what I’ve heard, Master Chow could generate enough energy to do this.  But, I don’t think it was him.  This looks like an accident.  Someone in this town had a great power sleeping inside of them and it woke up on one fateful day.  They were probably minding their own business and it manifested.  When I was in the crater, I was able to see the spot where they stood.  From the shape and size of the footprints I can tell it was a girl around my age.”

Betti looked into the crater, afraid of what she might see.  “Did you find any…bones?”

I walked to Betti and patted her on the back to calm her down.  “No, I didn’t find any bones.  If she died, it wasn’t in that hole.  I don’t think that she is dead.  In fact, we will probably run into her one day.”

“I wouldn’t want that to happen.  She could be dangerous!”  Betti was really freaking out.

“I don’t think she’s dangerous at all.  I think it would be fun to fight her in a match or something.”  Ah that Sora.  He wasn’t even reticent about fighting a girl.

That statement took the fear out of Betti.  All that was left was anger.  “That’s terrible Sora.  You would fight a girl just for the sport of it?”

“Of course I would; especially if she were strong.  I wouldn’t fight someone weak; that’s just unfair.”

Sora was too much.  Though, I had to admit that I wanted a shot at fighting this girl too.  Maybe it was my Panteran blood talking but it would be a great challenge.  Perhaps it could happen someday.  Not to mention, I had a feeling that it might actually be another Panteran.  This was the same kind of crater that formed around Sora when he transformed into a dragon.  Honestly, I wondered if that was what we were…Panteran that is.  That name is based off of panthers and we were dragons.  I wondered what they called the planet.

We finished checking the rest of the town for people or clues and we found neither.  One thing we were able to find was more supplies, so we loaded up the bike and set off again.  We continued heading east.  Along the way we stopped in different towns and asked the locals about Little Flower.  The town next door from Little Flower had some of its citizens, but no one was able to tell us what happened on that day.  A few had actually seen the light show, but not a single person we spoke to had been close enough to know who started it or where the person went.

We traveled for weeks and never got closer to discovering what became of the person who caused the disaster in Little Flower.  Despite that setback, we were definitely getting closer to finding the wizard stones.  We stopped in a place called Dalian City.  Betti got us two rooms in one of the hotels and we stayed the night.  The next morning we went into the lobby and noticed they had an information desk.  Betti walked up to the lady working the desk and asked about the stones and any rumors surrounding them.  Apparently there was a local legend about one of the stones being embedded in a mountain in the center of the desert.  “Where is there a desert around here?”  Betti was getting a little excited.

“The desert is north of town and extends for thirty miles.  The mountain is smack dab in the middle of it.  The thing is, no one has been able to get the stone out because of how deeply it is lodged in the rock.”

I stepped up to the counter and was just barely able to see over it.  Sometimes I really hated being a kid again.  “Excuse me miss, how far is it to the mountain from here?”

“Well aren’t you the cutest thing ever?  Well dear, it’s about thirteen miles northeast of town.  But I wouldn’t bother trying to get the stone out; it’s been in there for over 100 years.”

“That’s all right; we just want to look at it, but thank you anyway.”

The lady at the information desk blew me a kiss and said, “Anytime sugar, anytime.”

We spent another night in our hotel rooms and headed out first thing in the morning.  Betti packed the bike and Sora and I got in the side-car.  The three of us headed north to go out of town.  

The houses were fewer as we approached the outskirts of town and made our way to the desert.  This town had done a good job in keeping the desert at bay, but it was clear this desert would not be beaten.  The last house we came to was half buried in sand.  No one seemed to live there any longer.  The house was totally abandoned and it probably had been that way for a long time.

The sand was very fine.  I was wondering how the bike was going to make it through.  I was about to ask Betti what we were going to do when she pushed a button on the handle.  Ski like treads came out of the side of the wheels and then lifted up the bike.  As soon as we hit the sand, it was like we were on a jet ski in a lake.  The ride was so smooth.

After we had gone a few miles into the desert, the three of us began to relax.  Sora was staring at the clouds and I was enjoying the scenery.  There wasn’t a lot to look at per se, but spending 12 years in a forest away from civilization, made me appreciate a little sparseness.  Also, it was the first time either one of us had traveled since being born.  I was very careful with my wording, because I did recall the last trip I made in my dimension to the Vatican, but that was more or less work related.  This journey was being taken because we could and because we wanted to help Betti’s mother.

I hadn’t gotten so lost in thought like that in so long.  I almost didn’t hear something heading our way.  It was getting louder by the second, but I didn’t see anything.  It had a sort of whining quality, like a ball going really fast.  It was like whatever it was had broken the sound barrier.  I asked Betti if she could see what it was, but she wasn’t even able to hear the sound of the thing, let alone see anything.  It didn’t take long for me to see what caused the sound.  It was a rock the size of a volley-ball, and it was headed our way.

Before I could move, because it was about to hit my head, Sora jumped out of the side car and kicked the rock.  It shattered into little pebbles.  Another rock came at us, but it was my turn.  I jumped up and kicked it into dust.  Someone was attacking us but I didn’t see who it was.  The rocks were coming out of nowhere; or so it appeared.  Sora and I kept pounding away at the rocks as they came at us.  We stopped riding and pulled over.  Betti had taken cover behind the bike.  The way the rocks were being thrown at us, I assumed it was being done by telekinesis.  It was too precise to be done by hand.  That meant the attack had to be executed from close by.

While dodging and attacking the rocks coming at us, I scanned the desert with my mind.  Our attacker wouldn’t be able to hide his thoughts from me, even if they were hiding their body.

I scanned and I scanned and then I heard our attacker.  It was a guy.  These kids are pretty good, but I can do this all day.

Oh you can, can you?  Well, we’ll see about that! “Guys, cover your ears!  This is going to be really loud!”  I took a deep breath and then I let out a scream.  A sound that resembled 1000 or more people scratching their nails down a chalk-board came out of me.  It was mostly from my mind, but it was amplified through my vocal chords.  I called it my psychic scream.  I didn’t actually call that out; that would have been really lame.  Who called out their attacks?  You just attacked.

Betti and Sora were both crouched behind the bike and were holding their hands over their ears as tightly as possible.  I could tell it was hurting them, but not as badly as it would have if they hadn’t covered their ears beforehand.  This scream attacks the brain but enters through the ears.  If the ears are covered, it only hurts them and not the brain.

The windshield on the bike shattered.  A few birds that had flown overhead fell down with their heads exploded.  Finally, a guy jumped out from behind a group of boulders twenty feet in front of us.  He fell to the ground screaming.  I stopped my attack.  I looked to the right where the rocks had been flying from.  There wasn’t a single stone in that direction.  That meant that this guy was able to send the stones around so we wouldn’t know the original direction they came from.  He was pretty good.  That took a lot of control to manage.  I wondered who this guy was and how he had gotten so good.  Sora and I approached him while he was still on the ground.

As soon as we got close to him, the guy sprang back up and mentally lifted some stones into the air.  “Back off!  I don’t know who you kids are, but I won’t go easy on you just because you’re small!”

I didn’t know when it happened, but at some point, Betti had gotten behind the guy and then she slapped him really hard in the back of the head.  “Stop picking on my friends you big bully!”

One of the stones dropped onto the guy’s foot and he started hopping around in pain.  It was a really funny sight.  I started laughing and so did Sora.

As the telekinetic was hopping around in agony from Betti’s slap and the probably broken toe, I got a better look at his face.  Ah, of course!  It was Jackson Yukon, but everybody called him Yukon.  He was Betti’s future boyfriend.  In the show he didn’t have telekinetic powers so that was why I didn’t quite recognize him.  I needed to know for sure.  “Hey you, mister hoppy, what was your reason for attacking us?  What did we ever do to you?”

He stopped hopping and felt the back of his head where Betti slapped him.  He gave her a venomous look and stepped toward her.  I was about to stop him when Sora ran over and got in front of him.  “Get out of the way small fry unless you want to get hurt too.”

Sora stood his ground.  “You better leave Betti alone!  She’s my friend and I won’t let you hurt her!”

The guy threw a punch at Sora’s face but Sora stepped to the right and then kneed him in the groin.  His eyes bugged out like in the cartoons and he grabbed his junk in pain.  He certainly wasn’t having a good day.

I stepped in and said, “Guys, there is no need for any additional violence.  Sir, we’re just trying to pass through the desert.  We don’t want any trouble.”

Still holding his wounded pride, the guy stood up as straight as he could and then he said, “I’m a bandit and Jackson Yukon never lets people by unless they pay a toll.”  He put two fingers between his lips and let out this piercing whistle.  Suddenly, a wolf came bounding from behind the boulders.  It was a massive shaggy beast the size of a Shetland pony.

The wolf came beside its master and bared its intimidating fangs to us.  It began growling in the back of its throat.  I had to admit, because it was much taller than me, I was a little afraid, but Sora never budged.  That was why I loved him; he was so cool.  Jackson Yukon looked at all of us with less foreboding since his wolf arrived.  It’s like he got his mojo back or something.  He said, “Now, unless you want Alistair here to chew you a new asshole, you better pay the toll.”

Betti was coming up behind me with her fists punching the air in frustration.  “You really are a bully, you know that?  Why are you using a wolf to intimidate passersby?  Oh, I hate you so much!”

“You can hate him all you want to little girl, but you will still have to pay him.”

The three of us looked at one another and then back at the wolf.  He just spoke.  The wolf just spoke…..  That was very freaky.  Well that was a new one.  Sora walked up to the wolf and was making an attempt to pet it on the head.  “Did you just speak boy?”

As Sora reached to pet the wolf, it snapped its jaws and Sora pulled back his hand really fast.  “I’m not a dog you little brat!  I’m a wolf!  Now, pay attention and give the man what he wants you little twerp!” he snarled.

Well talking wolf or not, he was starting to piss me off and I could tell that Betti wasn’t happy either.  I decided to teach the wolf a lesson.  I turned my psychic scream into a high pitched whistle and Alistair the wolf whined in pain and everyone else flinched.  “Now that I have everyone’s attention, I wanted to let you two know that you aren’t strong enough to take us on.  I can tell that you are pretty strong, and your telekinesis is awesome, but I don’t even have to lift a finger to put you both in your place.  Or, do you need another demonstration of my scream?"  They both flinched.  "I suggest that you both move out of the way before you get hurt.  What do you say?”

“Kid, how old are you?  Why are you talking to me as if you were older?  I am so over you people; pay me or die!”  He looked ready to pounce but at the same time, he was trying to ponder the situation.

“I’m twelve years old, but you can’t be much older than me; maybe about sixteen years old yourself, so stop calling me a kid.”

Jackson Yukon was taken aback.  “How did you know that I was sixteen?”

“Lucky guess; so are you going to move or do I have to make you move?”  I whistled again and Alistair the wolf whined and sat on the ground putting his paws over his ears.

“No, no; we’ll move, just don’t do that thing again.”

The two of them moved to the side and we walked back to the bike.  I looked back at Jackson Yukon and Alistair the wolf.  They looked thoroughly defeated and I felt a little bad for them.  “Wait up you two.”  I walked back to where Jackson and Alistair were and asked, “Hey, why don’t you both come with us?”

Betti nearly fell off the bike.  She jumped off of it and walked over to me.  “Have you lost your mind James?!?  We can’t, and I won’t, go anywhere with the likes of them!!  Do you hear me?!” she screamed.

“Yeah kid, that’s a nice offer and all, but my only traveling companion is Alistair here.  Why would I go with you?  You guys are a bunch of losers.”

“Who are you calling a loser you….you… idiot?!?”  Betti fumed.  I had never seen her get so angry.  I wondered if it were because she liked him.  In the show, they dated off and on for more than a decade.  This could be the beginning of that romance.

Jackson laughed.  “Ha, that was a great comeback legs.  Do you have any other witty one-liners you can share with us?”  He was on the ground laughing hysterically.

“Listen Jackson---."

“The name’s Yukon.”

“But you said your name was-----."  He kept cutting me off.

“I know what I said toddler, but I go by Yukon,” he insisted.

“Fine then; Yukon, why are you even out here?  It doesn’t look like you’re pulling in tons of money being a bandit.  Also, we three are traveling the world and as you can see, we’re just kids.  It would be nice to have at least one more adult-like person with us.”  I was trying to appeal to his better nature.

“Hey, what then am I James?”

I looked back towards the bike where Betti was standing and shook my head.  “No offense Betti, but you are no older than he is and you can’t protect us.  You aren’t a fighter like us, but he is.  I’m not saying that we really need protection, but Sora and I are unfamiliar with this world.  Having a few more experienced people seems like a benefit to me.”

Yukon looked at me and started to scratch his head.  “Are you some sort of genius or something kid, because you don’t talk like any kid I’ve ever met,” Yukon said as he came closer to me.  “The other kid with the spiky hair sounds more like a kid than you do, even with your high pitched voice.”

Sora grabbed the top of his head and tried to look at his hair.  “Hey, my hair isn’t spiky!”

Betti and I laughed.  “Yeah it is Sora, but I like it that way.  And the fact that you don’t need any gel is a major bonus in my book,” I said.

“What’s gel?”  Sora looked puzzled.

Yukon scratched his head again and then burst out laughing.  “You know what?  I will come with you guys.  The laughter alone is worth it.”

Betti looked at me and shook her head.  I just shrugged my shoulders.  She looked down in defeat and walked back to the bike with an angry scowl on her face.  I was sure she would give me an earful later, but I didn’t care.  I knew that this was necessary.

After we got the bike re-situated, Yukon went behind the boulder and gathered his things.  He got on Alistair’s back and we resumed our journey with two new companions.

Next Chapter: The Dragon Race