Second Life chapter 2

Me and Selena went back to the temple and explained everything to the others. My strange behavior, my amnesia, how I was a human before… before whatever happened happened and how I 'wrote' this world. Trying to explain this made me feel a bit like Atrus from the 'Myst' series. There faces went from confusion, to shock, to pity and finally to what I guessed was understanding. After we were finished, I asked to be exused to my room, which I was finally granted. I made my way inside the temple and got lost before I had taken two steps. I turned back to Selena, "Umm… could you show me around?"

"Sure!" Selena piped as she took the lead. First she showed me around the first floor, first to the bathrooms, then the Kitchen and dining area. As we made our way to the stairs, I noticed a staircase going down. "Hey Selena, where does that lead?"

"That goes to the guardians' rooms and the Pool of visions. Only the guardians, Spyro, and invited dragons are allowed in there."

With that, we made our way to the second floor, where the training rooms, armory and class rooms were located. "Classrooms?!" I objected  I've graduated from high school! I don't have to go back, do I?) I asked Selena about this.

"Well, you're not of age yet, so yeah, you do. But It'll help you learn more about dragon culture and traditions, you know, stuff you have to know but you have no idea about."

I begrudgingly admitted she was right and submitted myself to yet MORE school.
Next she showed me to the third and fourth floors, which were the private rooms. It turned out that every dragon in Warfang came to live here when they turned ten and stayed for ten years unless they were orphans, in which case they had permanent residence until they got a place in the city. Selena showed me to my room; it was on the fourth floor right next to the door leading to the roof.

I entered my room and looked around. The desk was bare except for a few objects I didn't recognize. I looked at my paw and for the first time I realized I had thumbs! Not realizing this before made me feel extremely stupid. But anyway I opened the first drawer and saw something that took my breath away.

A ring.

"No way." I picked it up and looked it over, it was a shade between silver and gunmetal. It was very plain except for a ridge on either side of the ring. I looked on the inside and sure enough, the word 'titanium' was engraved on it. I couldn't believe it! My wedding ring! How did it get here? I didn't want to get it scratched up on the ground by wearing it so for now I put it on top of my desk and continued looking through the desk.

The next drawer held a book. When I opened it again I was surprised when I found it held hundreds of family pictures. After glancing through it, I put it back and continued my search. The next drawer had my MP3 player with a rechargeable battery. (Maybe I could get Zoulu to charge this up every once in a while.) The next drawer had various writing and art supplies. I opened the last drawer to reveal a familiar metal case. I took it out and opened it to reveal my eight Yu-Gi-Oh decks. (That's right, I went there.)

Putting everything except the ring back, I made my way over to the bookcase and saw it had every book I had as a human. (How on earth does all this get here?!) I guess I would have to ask the guardians. I saw a couple of books I didn't recognize. The first one was titled The Ballad of Spyro and other stories by: James Bates. I smiled. This world sure had some strange rules. The other book was a portfolio of every piece of art I ever made since I was old enough to hold a crayon in chronological order.

Making my way back to my bed and wondering about where al these things came from, I noticed a closet. I made my over and opened it, It was mostly formal robes made for dragons but I noticed something small in the corner. I pulled it out. It was a long package about 21 inches long wrapped in a large white bundle. I unwrapped it to reveal the cloth to be a traditional kimono and the object inside to be the tanto my wife gave me for my birthday. I picked the ancient samurai weapon up by the beautiful black and red sheath and drew the blade. Bright carbon steel with a diamond edged blade, this was truly the pinnacle of modern replicas. I found I could grip the weapon with no difficulty and, after cutting a robe apart, I made a nice belt that would allow me to draw the blade either normally or backhand comfortably if I ever got the hang of walking on my hind legs again. I decided to practice just that.

Walking out onto the roof, I pushed off with my forelegs and tried balancing. Easier said than done. I used my tail as counterbalance while flapping my wings if I stated to fall forward. I eventually got it and could stand without my tail for balance. Then I decided to try walking. I lifted one foot and fell on my face. I heard laughing behind me and turned to see Selena watching me.

"How long have you been there?" I asked her.

"Long enough to be impressed." She replied. You know, most dragons never get the hang of standing.

I got back up (on four legs this time) and walked to her. "Let me see your paws." I said.

"Wait, what?" She asked, blushing.

"I want to see if our paws look the same."

She held up her paw. It was very much shaped like a reptile claw crossed with a feline paw. I held up mine for her to see. Mine was much more human. My claws were half as long as hers and I had short fingers instead of toes. Then there were the thumbs.

"Wow," she said "You ARE different."

"Can you help me with something?" I asked her.

"What do you need? She asked.

"I know you're good at magic; can you grow an object, and then shrink it again?"

"I don't know. I've never tried, it sound simple enough though."

We made our way to my room. Five minutes later, I was wearing my wedding ring on my tail just in front of my tail.

"It's pretty." Selena said. "Who gave it to you?"

"It's my wedding ring." I said. Here, let me show you a picture of Perrin.

I went to get the picture book, but when I turned around, Selena was gone. I went out to the hall and saw a flash of pink running down the stairs. I ran after her, discovering I was quite agile. I got to the ground floor and saw her running out the main gate and taking off. (Crud, I'm not good at flying yet.) I thought as I took off and tried my best to catch up, surprising myself when I started to outpace her. I noticed her flying was erratic. (That's it.) I thought. (She's not flying at her top speed.) I quickly caught up to her.

"Selena? What's wrong?"

"She looked over at me, startled. Then vanished with a whistle sound. In the second I had a look at her face, I could see she was crying. I started looking around, knowing she can't teleport long distances. I did give her the power, after all and saw her heading toward the forest.

I followed her and saw she had landed in the same clearing we were in earlier. I circled over head for a minute, thinking about the dry humor in the reversed roles. Then I made my way down. As I touched down, I could hear Selena sobbing. I sat next to her. "Selena, what's wrong? You can tell me. You did say we were friends."

Selena looked up at me, then back to the water and started crying harder.

(Jeez I suck at this.) I thought. "Selena, Is it something I did? Something I said?"

"N-no." She said "I-it's not yo-you. It's me!"

I draped my wing over her and tried to give her comfort. "It's Ok. You can tell me anything. I probably know you better than anyone else. We're friends remember?"

"But I don't want to be friends!" She wailed.

I was shocked. "Wait, what?"

Selena looked up at me. "For five years we've been friends, and I was fine with it, but ever since today, when you… I don't know, reincarnated, I wanted more than I could bear to be more than JUST friends."

I just stared at her, feeling pity, surprise and sadness that I was the cause of her sorrow.

She continued. "I was afraid about how you'd feel, so I was going to wait for the right moment to ask you out. But then it turns out your married!"

"Selena…" I just lay there with her, not knowing what to do. I wanted to alleviate Selenas pain somehow, but I was madly in love with Perrin and knew with all my heart that even though I would never se her again, even in the next life I would never love anyone else. My heart was Perrins and Perrins alone. But I had to do something!

"Selena, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had these feelings, but I love Perrin. I don't know if there's anything I can do, but we can still be friends, right? Because I may not like you like that, but I do like you as a friend."

Selena again looked up at me, and smiled. "Sure James. Can we go back now?"

"Sure, but on the way, could you teach me how to fly better? I kinda suck right now."

Selena laughed. "I could, but fevers the real stunt flier, you should ask him. And have Zoulu teach you about breath attacks too!"

"Ok, but what about magic? You could teach me about that, right?"

"Sure, lets go home first, I'm starved!"

After we got back, we went to the kitchen and started gathering eggs, cheese and meat.

"What are you making?" Selena asked.

"An omelet, want one?"

"Never heard of that."

(Wow) I thought. I was going to have to teach the dragons about human things the way they were going to teach me to be a dragon.

Selena watched with interest as I made the omelets. Then we made our way to a table and stated eating. I should never made her an omelet, she liked it so much I had to make three more! After dinner, she took me to a training room. It resembled a school gym, with bleachers on either side. There were panels in the wall and two lines on the floor that I guessed were starting positions. Me and Selena each took our places.

"Ok. First, tell me everything you know about magic." Selena said.

"Well I know about mana and how to focus it. I trained my energy control as a human to improve mental and physical endurance. I also know the concept of spellcasting though I have no idea how to actually do it."

"Ok, " Selena started "There are Spells that have been recorded and are known as 'standard' spells. These will be taught to you in school if you have any talent in magic. There are also countless things you can do with magic that no one has ever thought of before. The danger in this is the result may not be what you had in mind. And lastly, If you don't have enough mana to perform a spell, it won't work which can be very dangerous in a battle situation when every second counts; so know your limits. You still with me?"

"Yeah." I said "Let me try something." I focused my mana and internalized it. Then I focused all my willpower on the space behind Selena. When that didn't work, I imagined a conduit between myself and the space I was focusing on. I heard a whistle and when I opened my eyes, I was behind Selena. I smirked at Selenas face of surprise. "How's that?" I asked.

"Good job." She said. "I'm surprised you figured it out. I invented that one and never told anyone how I do it." Then her face lit up. "Hey, why don't you try making your own spell instead of copying me?"

"Ok. I'll try. Hey! How do the hand signs work in magic?"

"Well, If your new to a spell and don't know how to visualize it, you can use hand signs to shape the spell. The danger in this is your opponent knows what your going to do and can counter. The other use is if there IS no way to visualize the spell."

Ok, thanks." I said. "Can you bring out a target?" Selena pressed a button on the wall and one of the panels flipped to reveal a set of dummies.

"Which do you want?" she asked "Straw, clay, wood, stone, metal, or… never mind."

"What?"

"We have another, but no ones ever beaten it. We don't know what the ancients forged it from, but no attack can penetrate and it's ruthless, dragons have died against it."

I chose the straw dummy to see how these things worked and had Selena set it to the maximum difficulty. The doll levitated and rushed me, a wooden club in its hand. I easily dodged it and slashed at it with my wing blade, it easily tore through the tough leather hide and left  it trailing straw all over. I then decided to try something. I remembered how I described the mechanics of breath attacks when writing The Ballad of Spyro and focused my mana through my mouth, the result was a ball of white energy flying through my mouth and hitting the doll with a small explosion. I looked at Selena who was covered in straw and frowning. All I could do is grin sheepishly.

"Your supposed to be practicing magic, not breath attacks!" she yelled at me.

"I know, but I needed to know how to project mana and how my element works for the spell I want to try, Ok?"

Selena just programmed the next dummy, the clay one. "No not that one." I said.

"Which one then?" She asked.

I grinned. "The big one"

"James no! It'll kill you!"

"Not if what I have in mind works." I told her. Then I started reviewing the steps I saw in the anime. Selena programmed the Dummy. As it came out, I had second thoughts. It was huge! The size of a Tyrannosaur and wielded a war hammer. It was made of a bright silver metal that I though I had seen before.

Before I was ready, the doll lunged toward me and I took to the air. (That thing can't be that fast!) I thought, but was proved wrong when it swung its hammer through the air, barely missing me. I could feel the wind! I backed in to corner to get as much flying distance between it and me. I then focused my mana and performed a series of hand signs: Snake, Dragon, horse, Ram, Bird, Dog, Ox, Rabbit and monkey. Then I focused all the mana I could into my right hand and stabilized it with my left. The result was a ball off lightning forming in my hand letting off a very distinctive chittering sound. Then I flew as fast as I could at the thing, I somehow spiraled around his attack and closed on it's chest. I thrust my hand out while shouting "CHIDORI!!!!" My hand sunk right through the 'impenetrable' metal, causing the doll to lose control of its body. As I withdrew my hand, It fell to it's knees and I drew my tanto. I focused my mana again, this time channeling it into my blade. I put my two front fingers on the blade and guided the mana through he blade, causing it to glow white, I continued even after the tip, producing an energy blade three feet long. I then energized my tail blade in a similar way and rushed the doll, I struck with my tanto first, cleaving through half it's neck, then as I passed t, I flared my wings and 180'd swinging my tail at the same time.

The head fell to the ground and rolled to a stop in front of Selena, who was staring at me in shock. Spyro and the other adults came in just then to see what the noise was and saw me hovering above the wrecked dummy, putting my blade back in it's sheath. As I landed the elders started yelling at me, How reckless I was taking this thing on, but more importantly, It had been here since the temples construction and I destroyed it!

"I'll fix this!" I said.

"How?! How do you plan on fixing this?" Volteer asked. We've tried every possible way to defeat this dummy, with the exception of what you did, it's indestructible! You cant fuse it back together because we cant get a fire hot enough!"

"Well You've been going about it wrong." I told them. This metal happens to be called Adamantine. The only way to melt the metal is through divine means or radiation from nuclear fusion. Since I doubt god would worry about a training dummy, We'll have to fuse it." Then the problem occurred to me, I was short on nuclear reactors at the moment. Then a thought occurred. "CHAOS!" I shouted, surprising everyone. I quickly explained my plan to everyone and we got to work.

A few minutes later, Selena had the head hovering in place while Spyro, Cynder and myself were in position. "Ready?" I asked. They both nodded. Alright then, let it rip! I took what I did to the straw dummy and took it a step further, creating a constant stream of light, causing the metal to glow. Cynder came in next, hitting the same place with shadow flames. The shadow cooled the metal, but reacted with the light energy to create an energy surge stronger than anything I had imagined. Then Spyro came in and hit our combination of light and shadow with a stream of convexity, the purple beam of twisted time and space reacting with the chaos energy we had created. The sheer amount of energy fused the metal together and we worked our way around the neck, welding it together, then we did the same to the hole in its chest.

When we had finished, the dummy stood up and returned to its standby position. I on the other hand felt weak from expending so much energy.

"I'm tired, can I go to bed now?" I asked

"You're tired?" Cynder said before laughing, "That hardly took anything out of me!"

"Yeah? Well your older than me AND took out Malefor! Of course your gonna be stronger than me!"

"That's not it James." Selena said. "I was holding that hulking head up that entire time and I'm fine too."

"Well maybe I just need to train my mana or something." I said as I walked out. As I left I said "See you tomorrow!" but Volteer responded with something I did NOT want to hear.

"Alright, just don't be late for class!"