Dragon-kissed

Sunlight filtered in through the shoji paper of the windows. It was a beautiful day outside. Aki could hear birds singing, children laughing. She imagined kites gliding on the breeze. And here she was indoors practicing calligraphy. Seventeen-year-old Aki sighed in boredom. She didn’t even realize it until the sigh had escaped her nostrils. By then it was too late and the calligraphy sensei, an old man who looked like the mythical tortoise Genbu, which had been around since the creation of the world, glared at her from above the thick frame of his rivet spectacles.The glasses were basically magnifying lenses riveted together (hence the name) and were better-suited for scrutinizing the faint underwriting on the pages of dusty tomes in the Imperial Library. Supposedly they made the wearer over-dependent and as helpless as a mole without them, but the eyes of the sensei still looked like those of a hawk and felt like they could probe right into Aki’s sinful soul and then banish her to

That night, Aki tossed and turned on layers of featherbeds. Temujin had been locked up in the dungeons as per the Emperor’s orders but no extra precaution had been taken to ensure the safety of the Egg of the Dragon God. In short, they didn’t heed the red Slayer’s warning.Aki hated to admit it but the Clan of Stork could be supremely proud about their appointment as guardians of the Egg. Although it was true that the section of the Treasure Vault leading to the most coveted power source in the world was riddled with booby traps and various obstacles, and not even Aki had heard tell of what those were precisely, there was still a human variable in the defense system: the chief architect who had devised the whole thing.Unless the Storks were a barbaric people who killed helpers just as soon as they had rendered their service, the chief architect was the weak link. And criminal elements always seemed to know exactly where to apply pressure to get what they wanted.Aki was aware that he

Aki cried her eyes out in her room. It was almost daylight but she hadn’t slept a wink. She couldn’t understand all the mixed emotions she was feeling. Mostly it was indignation about Temujin’s innocence and her clan’s unfair treatment of him. But it was other bigger issues as well; older issues. Temujin just stirred up all the frustrations she had long been denying. On the strict regimen of a princess and under the watchful eye of the Emperor and his extensions, she felt like a bird in a cage. It was golden, but a cage nonetheless. There were also many things they wouldn’t tell her; about her father, that day ten years ago when he perished before her very eyes. It was strange but all the knowledge she had of him was the little she could glean from History books and from that sole, hazy memory of her childhood. They had always treated her like a child, incapable of making her own decisions or surviving on her own. And every mistake she made was magnified in the eyes of her tutors and

Aki was woken up by strong winds blowing against her face. She opened her eyes groggily and saw the glare of the sun above her. She turned her face away and tried to turn over to her side. “Just a few more minutes,” she mumbled to her chambermaid. When she couldn’t turn or twist her body, she opened her eyes and looked down at… the ground two miles below! She screamed. “Whoa!” Temujin cried out from somewhere above her. He had to shout above the roaring winds. “You’re awake!” Aki couldn’t believe her eyes because Temujin appeared to be RIDING a giant eagle. Aki was sure it was a giant eagle because the monster actually twisted its neck to peer down at her even as it continued flapping its gargantuan wings, stirring up a hurricane around her. The eagle made a series of high-pitched whistles as though to say something to her, who was by deduction clutched in its huge claws. The grip wasn’t so tight as to squeeze the breath out of her but it was definitely not a comfortable spot to b

Aki was stunned. There had ever only been four elements in the known world. This sounded like a whole new set of challenges altogether. She was starting to feel she was in over her head. Like she was in the middle of something much larger than them, dealing with legends that were older than time itself. “Don’t worry,” Temujin reassured her. “You’ve got the best detective on this case. There’s another piece of information I haven’t mentioned to you yet and this is our next clue.” Aki leaned closer in anticipation. “How the thieves knew about the exact location of the Egg and the design of the security system could only have been through the chief architect of the Treasure Vault.” Aki felt her excitement rising. Her hunch was right! The human element in the security system was the chink in the armor, and the chief architect was where the bad guys had put pressure to get to the Vault. “All we need to do now,” Temujin proudly finished, thinking himself so clever for coming up with t