Chapter 4 - Chapter Four

He turned away from me, and faced toward the raging ocean. He moved his right arm up to his face and whistled very loudly. Moments afterward, a small, golden bird came from nowhere. He whispered something to it and it disappeared just as it had arrived. He turned back to me, walking forward, and held his hand out to me.

"Come on, I'll show you around here."

"O-okay..." I said, taking his hand.

"By the way, my name's Zephro," he said coolly. We walked together away from the cliff, inland, towards a jungle. "You're probably wondering why you fell into this world... er, poster... If I remember correctly..."

"Yeah..." I murmured.

"And the reason I called you a mage."

"That too..." I added.

"Alright... Many years ago, before even I was born, there was an elegant, mysterious dragon. This dragon could mold any clay to make living animals. Of course, humans already existed so he couldn't recreate them. So he made a rare race of creatures - very similar to humans- that appeared every thousand years. That was about their lifespan, too. He placed this child within the human society so they could raise it. The mind of the child would develop years before an average human's would. The child could speak, and understand, numerous languages, without neccesarily trying. There are other powers, but I'd rather have the old man tell you... Anyway, he named them mages. And you, are one of them....... And the poster... appears about a year before the next mage is ready." he concluded.

"A-" I stuttered, "Me?"

"Yes, you."

"Me. A clumsy, immature, quiet, invisible person?" I said, not walking anymore.

"Aw, come on. Don't be so negative. I'm sure you'll be great at your job."

"Job?"

"Yeah. Job. This world is constantly at war. The population of humans is about a million here. Every day, a thousand die. This is recently, though. It's mainly the dragon population that is causing this... Almost makes me wish I wasn't dragon..."

"So, you're really a dragon? You seem kinda out of place here, though... when you're human."

"Hmm? Oh, I suppose so..." Zephro said, as if he were deep in though. "Wait a sec, how come you're taking this so coolly? It seemed to me that someone like you would be freaking out by now."

"Ah, you just met me, so you wouldn't reallly know that." I retorted.

"By first impression, though. And past experiance. Every mage I've worked with never really took finding out their abilities so lightly."

I raised my finger up to head level, "That's because I'm both, a manga, and anime addict!"

"A-a-a what?" he uttered.

I giggled, 'I love totally confusing people!' "Okay, you have heard of Japan, yes? And TV cartoons? And comic strips?"

"Yeah, I'm not that out of date..."

"Okay, to put it simple, manga is a Japanese kind of comic strip. And anime is mostly based off of manga, and is a more emotional projected cartoon aired on television."

"Oh... Okay..." he said with a hint of "Alll rightiee then, this person is really, really weird" tone in his voice.

"You think I'm strange, don't you?"

"Ah? ... Uh, back to the question I asked you, please... And I thought you said you were 'quiet'..."

"Not when I get talking about my interests... Anyway... I guess the way I was raised plays a bit of a role in it... And the manga and anime that I watch has so much fantasy in it, I started to daydream, and kind of imagined what I would do if I were within the manga or anime... Ha, I guess that shows how bored I get during the summer."

"Alright, here we are." he said as we arrived at a clearing.

While that little conversation was happening, Zephro and I had scaled down a hill, passed through a dense forest. We had come to what seemed the heart of the forest and the island. Right in the middle of the clearing, was a small, roughly built hut.

"Ah... yeah... this is where I normally stay... sorry if it looks bad... Huh?" he said with a worried expression on his face, "It's going to storm.. Hurry, get inside..."

I rushed inside, with Zephro trailing behind me. He set up some kind of strange protection on the door and two windows as I sat on his bed.

With a blinding flash, the storm made its presence known. And with lightning, comes thunder. With its growl, I started shaking in fear at once. I clamped my eyes shut and sort of curled up with my knees to my chest.

"You're afraid of thunder?" Zephro breathed, with surprise wedged into his voice.

"Isn't it i-ironic? The daughter of an electrician a-afraid of th-thunder..." I stuttered quietly.

Another flash, and another crack of thunder. I whimpered and curled tighter, biting back a squeal of fear. I opened my eyes slightly to see Zephro standing there, with a sympathetic look on his face. He came over to his makeshift straw bed on the ground that I was sitting on. He sat down right beside me, and wrapped his arms around me, as if I were a small child. Pressing me close to him, he held me in a calming way the whole night, through every bang and snarl that the storm threw...

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