Rise of the Western Dragon (Incomplete)

[Sim Kid]

(warning: 5 pages in Word)

Rise of the Western Dragon


Author’s note: This isn’t based off of actual culture; this is a super alternate history of isolationism.


The Ryu Monastery lies in a valley in the middle of a mountain range. To the monks who live in the monastery, it is called, “The Valley of the Red Dragon”. To travelers from the outside, the only dragon they know is the dragon who guards the valley.
The monks of the Monastery leave every decade to look at neighbouring villages. From there, they take very young children (And sometimes their families) from the villages into the valley. Not many know why they do this, it’s simply thought to be a religious practice, as the monks were Holy men.

Yasuo was one of the children who were taken to the Monastery at a young age. Yasuo was actually an illegitimate child, but he was never told. In fact, only some of the older monks knew about his birth. While the details were never clear, some thought that his father had been a womanizing samurai, a ronin, who had simply handed him over to the monks after he was told that Yasuo was worthy.
Yasuo also had someone else his age, a girl named Kita, who had an unknown past. For children like Yasuo and Kita, their birthdays were changed to the day they arrived at the monastery, and Yasuo and Kita had arrived at the monastery at the exact same day.
Yasuo was outside the Monastery grounds and noticed Kita kneeling on the ground.
“What’re you doing?” he asked.
“Feeding Masa,” Kita said.
Masa was the Monastery’s “Pet Fox”. Masa had lived on the monastery for about three years. Frequently, Masa would walk down to the Monastery grounds and get some food from the children or monks. Despite being friendly, Masa wasn’t truly tame so whenever a child tried to pet him/her, s/he’d just yip and run away. Only a few of the monks ever touched Masa, the higher ones.
Kita and Yasuo were the only children that Masa even trusted a fraction. Despite that s/he’d never let them touch him/her yet, Masa would get close enough to Kita or Yasuo to get some food. However though, if they reached out to pet Masa, then s/he would just back off.
It was assumed that Masa (Who had been named by the monks) was actually a kitsune, and Kita hoped that she could see Masa grow another tail as s/he got older. To Kita though, Masa was a ‘she’, and to Yasuo, Masa was a ‘he’ as no one knew Masa’s true gender. (Masa never let anyone get close enough to look)
Masa sniffed at the leftover persimmon Kita put in front of her. Masa never really cared for persimmon before, but s/he ate it anyway. Masa mostly came to the Monastery for food when s/he was really hungry and couldn’t find any prey. While Masa was chewing, s/he kept her eyes on Kita, in case she or Yasuo would try to reach out for him/her. (Masa assumed this to be a threat)
“The others sent me here to look for you,” Yasuo said while Masa chewed more persimmon, “They found something that they want us all to see.”
“What is it?” Kita asked, getting up. Masa took a step back.
“I don’t know, they just said ‘go find Kita, Yasuo. This is important.’”
Kita simply shrugged and walked towards the monastery grounds. Yasuo followed her.
Masa got back to eating the persimmon. S/he felt something strange emanating from the Monastery and quickly ran away into the mountains.

Yasuo and Kita reached the grounds and they were greeted by a large crowd around the courtyard.
“What’s this?” Yasuo asked.
No one answered him. They all simply talked among eachother. Yasuo grabbed an older man’s shirt and tugged on it a little. He looked down.
“Oh, Yasuo! They were waiting for you and Kita!” he said.
“Well what’s going on?” Yasuo asked.
“Haru-senpai found something buried in the ground. It’s really unusual.”
“I can’t see!” Kita complaind.
“Found them!” the older man shouted.
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes, and then the voice of Haku, the abbot, rose out.
“Haru has found this interesting thing today,” he begun, “It appears to be a bone of some sorts, but it’s too big to be a bone from a human. It may actually be from a former god of the valley.”
“I can’t see!” Kita complained.
Yasuo and Kita maneuvered through the crowd so that were in front. Haku’s immense 6’6” frame stood head and shoulders over the crowd, especially since he was above and addressing everyone. At Haku’s feet was a giant bone, with some dirt still on it, clearly visible in sight.
“Whoa,” Yasuo and Kita both said.
“There really is some power emanating from these bones,” Haku continued, “And we intend to excavate this entire skeleton. Perhaps we can experience what this god appeared to be while it was alive.”

After the monks begun to excavate more of the bones on the Monastery grounds, they begun to change a little. They seemed more distant, as if they weren’t truly there in spirit. It was as if their sole purpose in life was to excavate this skeleton, while everyone else tried to place it back together somehow.
The monks also got a bit touchy whenever Yasuo or Kita went to look at their handiwork. In one case, a monk even raised a shovel at them and yelled at them to go away or else. What suddenly changed their personalities like this?
Kita was also experiencing some odd dreams as well. At first, it was just one, but eventually, she begun to have them almost every night. She didn’t tell anyone else, not even Yasuo, because of her suspicions. Kita thought that the dragon skeleton and the strange power she felt coming from it could be responsible.

Something large was flying over the valley. The valley actually didn’t appear to have a monastery there; it was as if this was a vision from the past. Kita couldn’t tell if she was there or not, whenever she raised her hand or looked down, she saw nothing.
The large flying object was some demon. Its belly had yellow scutes running all the way from its neck to its tail, and it was probably 20 meters long. Kita couldn’t tell how tall it was, but it the demon was bloody huge. Kita couldn’t even guess how big its wings were, they were always flapping.
The demon breathed fire all over the valley, lighting all the grass and plants ablaze. She could feel heat, but she didn’t burn. Kita heard a lot of other people scream in agony, and even she would join in, but no one would hear her. Even in the waking world, she hadn’t been screaming otherwise she would have been woken up from this vision of fiery hell.

Kita woke up in a cold sweat. A cold breeze blew through the open door. Kita was the only person inside the room where everyone slept. She could see torches and hear conversations going on. Many of the monks now didn’t even sleep and took less and less time to eat. It was disturbing Kita every minute.
Masa had also not shown his/her face since the bone was discovered. Kita was getting worried; Masa should still appear occasionally, even though it wasn’t the winter season.
Kita just got up out of the futon and walked out of the sliding door. She noticed the people on the excavation site, digging out more and more of the beast’s bones. Kita walked down to the other bedroom and found Yasuo, asleep.
“Yasuo! Yasuo!” she said, shaking him.
Yasuo opened his eyes.
“Oh thank god!” he said, practically hugging Kita, “I NEVER thought I’d get out of there!”
“What?” Kita responded.
“That horrible horrible nightmare…ugh, some huge demon was burning the entire valley…”
“You’ve been having those nightmares too?!”
“YOU’VE been having them?!?”
Kita nodded.
Yasuo jumped out of the Futon and walked too the door. He grabbed a torch on the ground, which was lit fortunately.
“Kita,” he said, “Have you seen that skeleton they’re putting together?”
“No,” she responded.
“I’ve seen parts of it…I think the demon from our dreams is that skeleton!”
Kita’s mouth dropped open.
“What should we do?!” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Yasuo said, “If we stay here, we’ll probably die in that inferno…”
“Ryu!” She said.
“Excuse me?”
“Ryu! The guardian of the valley! Ryu can probably help us!”
Ryu was the dragon who guarded the valley. He had no name otherwise and no one had seen him, but the children were raised to believe in him. According to what the children were taught, he lived at the shrine on one of the edges of the valley.

Yasuo and Kita had no trouble sneaking out of the Monastery with the lamp. No one even so much as gave a damn that they were missing. It was easy to find where the Shrine was; oftentimes Yasuo and Kita were brought there to pray.
They walked up to the shrine. Yasuo put the lamp down while both he and Kita kneeled. Both of them begun to pray to Ryu in hopes that he would help them.
Meanwhile, Ryu was awoken from his slumber. He now sensed that something horribly familiar was coming from the valley. It was him, he knew it! Ryu had to do something. But…in his current state, he could do nothing, only watch powerless as the foreign dragon slowly took over the valley.
But wait…Ryu saw something. Two children. He had recognized these two, they were children who lived in the Monastery and were about the same age. Ryu could at least use the boy…

Yasuo looked up. He saw something around the shrine. Yasuo gasped. He had seen Ryu…A massive red dragon, his body appearing to wrap around the shrine. His head stared down at Yasuo, making eye contact. It jumped and then encircled him.
Yasuo could feel the restraints being put on him as the dragon begun to wrap around his small body…although they were not physical restraints. Yasuo felt as if his spirit itself were being tied up by Ryu. Ryu’s back legs moved to inside Yasuo’s feet, his hands did the same, and then Ryu’s head covered Yasuo’s own head. Soon, it appeared as if Yasuo were staring out of Ryu’s eyes; for he could see Ryu’s snout, beard, and whiskers as if they were his own nose.
“Yasuo! Are you alright?!” Kita shouted, noticing Yasuo appearing to struggle.
Yasuo tried to respond, but it appeared as if the restraints affected his mouth as well. His spirit appeared to have been completely bound.
“I know you, Kita,” he heard himself saying, “Do not fear, Yasuo is not gone, I am simply borrowing his body for the moment.”
Yasuo felt as if he was saying that, but he knew that Ryu was using his mouth to speak. It was as if his spirit had merged with Ryu.
Kita was still surprised, practically in shock.
“I can only affect the physical world through worthy bodies. The holymen of the Monastery knew this and thus, many of the children and people they brought to the monastery were such worthy people. My physical body was destroyed.”
“Ryu!” Kita begged, “Everyone’s gone mad! They’re working feverishly trying to excavate some skeleton they found! It’s giving me nightmares of something burning down the valley, and our fox Masa’s gone!”
“I know, little Kita, I know,” Ryu/Yasuo said. For some reason, Yasuo felt as if he WAS Ryu now, “The dreams you and Yasuo have been receiving are visions from the past, when the skeleton, the foreign dragon, was alive.”
“Foreign dragon?! What was it?!”

“One Century ago,” Ryu/Yasuo begun, “I was the guardian of this valley. There were people in this valley, like they are now, and I was therefore their guardian as well. We lived in peace, they knew that I was a god but I in turn treated them with as much respect as they treated me. However though, that was changed when it came.”
“It was a dragon, like me, only much much different. If my physical body had not been burned too far from the physical world, then you would have seen the difference. It set the entire valley ablaze and nearly killed everyone. I of course rose to stop him, but he fought back viciously.”
“Our battle raged for almost a year. The entire valley was in ashes, devoid of life. Eventually, both of us collapsed into the fires we both started from exhaustion. My physical body was burned so far that I could never ever return to it…not even an atom of it still exists, leaving my spirit nomadic. However though, the foreign dragon appears to have not been burned…its spirit still remaining within its skeleton.”
“After the entire valley was lost in the ‘Eternal Fire’, the Emperor passed a law upon all of the country. No citizen was allowed to exit or enter the island. The Emperor simply wanted to protect his people from this threat, and all knowledge of the continent was forbidden. The Emperor simply did this to protect his people from the evils of that outside world.



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


And I kind of have writer's block after that. Do you have any suggestions to how I can finish this?