I saw the man approaching our humble home from some distance. At first, I thought he may be lost. There is no other building off the road leading to my father's cottage, merely a small herb garden, a slightly larger vegetable plot, and our rice paddies stepped up the hillside like a giant's staircase. I could tell by his height he was not of these parts, for he was over six feet, and well built with it. His skin was dark ebony more so than the heathens of Babylon. A cape of flowing midday blue swirled around his scarlet hose. He had left his upper torso bare, revealing a muscled chest the eunuchs of the emperor's palace would have been proud of.
He had a determined stride that carried him with ease up the incline to where I watched. From quite some distance away, the man stopped, lifting his cape with an exaggerated flourish, revealing a small brown leather bottle strapped to his waist. He took a drink from this and fastened it once more upon his side. Before he continued his walk, he waved at me. Somehow, I knew he intended the greeting for me. I roused myself to wave back. I could see the flash of white of his grin from half a mile.
The stranger came right up to the gate of the farm, forced into a stoop to open the latch and enter. He carefully avoided the ducks which inhabit the yard to this day. Not the same ducks. Closer, I could discern more of the tall man's features. He wore his dark hair in a curl clinging tightly to his head. He had large eyes the colour of the willow's bark. He touched his forehead in my direction, inclining his head ever so slightly, I could tell the irreverence of his gesture and returned a large smile, overwhelmed with the curiosity of a twelve-year-old at this stranger.
At that moment, my father came around the corner of the house with a wicker basket of eggs half full from the hen house. The stranger turned to my father.
"Well met, Nan Jin. I am here to meet your eldest son, Nan Laoshu."
I almost fell from the window when my normally taciturn father laid down the basket of eggs and greeted the stranger enthusiastically, as though they were long parted friends reunited under happy circumstances. Clasping the stranger on the arm, my father called out for my mother, who emerged beneath me, a large chopping knife held in one hand. When she saw the stranger, a large smile split her face, and she laid the knife down on the kitchen windowsill to give the tall black man a hug the like of which she normally reserved for close cousins and siblings she currently allowed us to mention.
With the shock, my mouth hung open. " Laoshu, close your mouth, you are catching flies."
I heard the words, but when I looked at him, he continued speaking with my parents.
Closed the shutter, I trotted down the dark wooden stairs into the airy kitchen as my mother ushered the newcomer into our home. My father followed in, conscientiously bringing in the basket of eggs and the kitchen knife.
"Son," my father said to me, seeing me standing beside the stairs, "This is -"
"Espoo." I knew not where the name had come from. Perhaps I had heard his name mentioned in the yard beneath my window.
"You remember him then?" asked my mother.
"No." I saw no reason for dishonesty, for I had never seen this tall man who stooped in our kitchen.
"You would have been, what?"
"Three," Espoo prompted.
"Three," my mother parroted. "Espoo performed in the town. We all went to see his show."
I looked askance at this tall man who had cast such a strange spell over my parents. Normally they delighted in revealing my entire history to any friends I made whilst working exchanges with neighbouring farms. They had never mentioned a show. I resolved to ask my grandmother when I went to see her later that week.
"Espoo would like you to join him for his next show in Beijing," my father enthused. A beaming smile erupted across his face like a frog capturing a lotus lilypad.
"And you would let me go?" I could barely keep the amazement from my voice. Normally, my parents would no let me beyond the gate unless I had a ball of string to find my way home, never mind accompanying a stranger over three weeks' walk away.
"Of course," my father smiled, "It would be a pleasure for my son to accompany the great Espoo."
May I be forgiven if I admit that I almost swooned? At the tender age of twelve, witnessing a great reversal in my parent's attitude. Once the amazement had passed, exultation, like I had never felt before, tingled my extremities. Accompanying my father on market day paled in comparison to this.
"Well Espoo," I said, acting as grown up as I knew, "When will we begin this great journey of ours?"
"On the morrow." He spoke as though unaccustomed with conversation. "At first light."
We retired for the night, though I barely slept, preferring instead to watch the stars blink on and off in the dark vault of heaven. The Wheel Of Life spread its vastness across the eastern skies, obliterating the nearby pinpricks of light. It was said to be a time of omens when the Wheel was so plainly visible, and I felt that this was the case. The morning seemed an eternity off. I watched the Wheel rotate, shedding some souls to become new stars, carrying others back to earth for reincarnation. Eventually, I slept the sleep of youth.
As the birds of the day pulled the sun behind them, I awoke, the sunlight passing across my face. I dressed quickly, clattering down the stairs, ensuring anybody asleep in the house would wake. An adventure looming before me, enticing me forwards with every step. I wanted to be on my way as quickly as possible. Sleeping magicians would not help.
Fortunately, I found Espoo already awake, seated at my parent's table, eating rice porridge and boiled egg. My mother had her back to me, preparing food for the journey; good hard travelling bread and boiled eggs. The sound of repetitive chopping told me of my father's location, in the yard adding to the woodpile. His movement held a mindless monotony. I wondered what this man had done to bewitch my parents.
"You can talk freely, lad." Espoo paused in his eating of my family's fare. "They won't hear you."
I didn't understand what he meant and kept my mouth clamped firmly shut, opening only to spoon in my breakfast. My mother ignored me, my father split more logs than even my mother could use in one winter. Worry made my fingers tremble, the spoon clattering against the bowl. If this man had cast a spell over my mother and father, what did he want with me?
"I want to show you the world, lad," he said, as though reading my thoughts.
He had finished his breakfast, and it seemed as though my parents could not wait to get rid of me. Mother pushed a sack into my hands containing clothing and food for three weeks. They stood at the gate, more to ensure I left than to see me off. We were halfway down the track towards the village when I started having thoughts of turning back.
"It's no use, lad. They won't remember who you are." Espoo glanced down at me and rested a hand upon my head. I knew then that he had to be reading my thoughts.
"You read my mind!" I cried out loud, preparing to run back.
"I can show you how," the wizard said, "You have the power. This is why I came here. I came for you. I want to take you to meet the dragon."
As he spoke, images flooded my mind of persuading huge crowds of people and of facing a fearsome beast with a long green scaly hide. I could picture quite clear the belching smoke and flames pouring from its wide aperture of a mouth. I quailed like an infant alone. Fear coursed through my veins setting them aflame. I could not face a dragon. I was no Japanese samurai. Oh, I had joined in the New Year celebrations with the pretend dragons, but I had not, of one moment, ever envisaged I would meet the real thing.
Only the certainty that Espoo spoke truly about my parents no longer remembering who or what I was stayed me from sprinting back the way we had come and hiding under my bed covers.
"The only way to force remembrance from your parents," Espoo continued, "is to learn how to do it yourself. I shall never do it for you."
He spoke sternly and I lapsed into silence. If he gave me genuine words, I had a magical power within me. Perhaps this explained why Espoo had not merely overpowered me with his mystical abilities. I smiled a secret smile.
"If you want to keep secrets from me, lad, you'd best learn how to mask your thoughts." Espoo's words spoke directly into my mind, his voice like a huge echoing drum beneath my skull.
I imagined a large soup tureen upturned over my head, and Espoo's voice came quieter, "Good, but I can still see some things, lad."
"My name," I enunciated clearly, "is Nan Laoshu."
"It may be, lad." Espoo's voice boomed. It echoed rattling my mind. I slammed an imaginary wok over my head. The voice vanished entirely.
Espoo beamed his smile at me, and spoke normally."Keep it there."
We spoke little during the next few weeks. I learned to stop Espoo from prying into my private thoughts very early. Remembering to block him continuously gave me difficulty at first, but second nature after a few hours. Every time my mental wok slipped, his voice crashed around the inside of my head until it pounded with the sound of a New Year's drum. Lesson enough for me.
Our food began to run low in the fifth week. We had left civilization behind, heading up for the Mongol border and the Great Wall. Hills surrounded us, rolling and green, lush with mid-summer growth. Trees filled the valleys and some of the hilltops. Mountaintops rose beyond, dominating the sky like a wall of grey, green and brown, their tops capped at their very tops with snow. Tibet rose away to our left, soaring into the clouds to the home of the gods. From our vantage, I could see the massive mountains punching through the clouds. Their jagged peaks came out the other side, white, some of the cotton bud clouds adhering to the purple peaks.
We had skirted the fairly major city of Lanzhou the previous week, and although we needed fresh supplies, Espoo had insisted we push on. Seeing Lanzhou confirmed what I feared; we were not heading for Beijing, instead, away from it. I had scanty knowledge of the lands to the North West of my home town back then, for travellers in the village from that direction were a rarity I never saw.
We came across a town I had never heard of. Larger than my home. Built across a narrow river of crystal clear water. Espoo identified it as Xining.
"We will wait here for our fellow travellers." Espoo's eyes turned up to the mountains. "The dragon will be unreceptive before the full moon."
Once more, I quailed. The mere mention of the dragon I could still so vividly imagine overwhelmed me. Espoo did not know of my fear now, for my mental wok was permanently in place.
Espoo led us to a two-storey tavern with overhanging eaves, painted in the traditional red and gold. Situated on the main road through the town, the tavern served as a focal point for the whole populace. Rather as War Soo's fine establishment does at home. Before we entered, I looked up the inclined road towards the mountains. I saw the source of the river which halved the town. A blue lake, like a second sky between two peaks. I distantly heard Espoo in my mind telling me that this was Qinghai Lake.
Several people already occupied the main drinking area of the tavern, sitting around an open, unlit fireplace. A brass inlaid bar quartered the room, a wide, short man serving behind it. Espoo spoke in my mind, with the soft voice of one who cannot gain entry any deeper than the surface I allowed.
"Watch." He strode up to the bar and smiled a warm smile at the barman. "Quang Ho, my old friend, have you any rooms?"
"Espoo!" the man's face broke into recognition. A trick I knew, the same trick he had pulled on my parents. Casting a wicked spell over the unsuspecting victim. A spell I would have to learn to free my parents.
"A room?" Espoo prompted, "You wish us to have a room for the night?"
"I wish you to have a room for the night, my good friend, Espoo."
I looked at the man, sensing his confusion, it seemed etched upon his face. I tried to do what Espoo did so well, filling in the blanks in the inn keeper's confusion with my name and the fact I was hungry.
"And I shall lay on a feast, young Nan Laoshu looks like he could so with a good feed."
Espoo shot a hard glance in my direction, I returned it was a slight smile. "That would be wonderful, my friend."
The barman led us to a small room up a narrow flight of stairs. Two small beds had been made up with thin mattresses. An oil lamp stood on a small shelf under which I stored my sack of clothes.
"You should not have intervened." Espoo blasted through my mental wok, shattering it. "We each bring candidates for the dragon we think will survive! Do you think yourself so cock sure that you could face the dragon alone? Do you want the dragon to think I have been training you? If this is the case, the dragon will kill you. Nobody will mark your passage. Your parents do not know you. I can easily forget you." Espoo threw up his hands in disgust as I trembled before him.
He seemed so large then. As wide and massive as the Tibetan Mountains. Power radiated from him like the spokes of an ornate wagon wheel. His black skin glistened and heaved as he stared at me. My bag flew from under the shelf to crash against the side of my head. The beds lifted clear from the floor to crash against the walls. Espoo seemed to swell to fill the space he had created in his berserker frenzy.
As suddenly as he had rounded on me, Espoo calmed. The beds returned to their normal places, and he no longer seemed the giant he had of moments before.
"Every seven years," Espoo said in mind, "we are required to bring a candidate for the dragon. Without doing so, our powers fade, until we are little more than weaklings like you." Espoo turned away from me to look out of the window at the vista beyond.
I stumbled into silence, clutching my sack. Much of what Espoo said made no sense. Who were those we waited for? Why every seven years? The full moon was three days away, I would have to wait that long at least.
I knew somebody like me approached, long before she arrived. I could hear her. Whereas Espoo had given me the need for a mental wok, this candidate for the dragon had no such need, and her approach deafened me. She came like an army wearing cymbals for armour. Her companion I heard through inference from her, for he trod lightly through the world. Before she arrived, her name had preceded her, Kwan. I went to the porch to meet her.
I could single her from the midday rush. Her long black hair, a wide, honest face, chattering fiercely with an old, stooped man. The man stopped both her and himself by lifting his hand. A boy pulling a cart swerved to avoid them, carrying on up the street partially obscuring the ill-matched couple from view. The scene struck me with poetic beauty. Mountains climbed either side, framing rolling green hills. Gaudily painted buildings towered up framing the street of people milling about in ordered confusion. Standing, isolated by some force I could not see, but I suspected lay within the ageing wizard, they appeared frozen, people flowing around them. The old man looked at me. I could not guess at his origins, for he was paler than the Japanese, but had the facial structure of the Babylonians.
"Franz Marlin." Espoo's voice came clear in my mind, "A great man. The first to find the dragon."
Marlin and Kwan moved once more, approaching rapidly, steadily, without seeming to hurry. His dress had slight differences from Espoo's, but they looked to be a pair. Instead, of a loose vest, he had a bodice of quilted cotton, his blue cloak wrapped around his legs, clutched in one hand. His other gnarled fist was curled around a long staff with which he propelled himself onwards. I watched them approach as Espoo came to stand at my shoulder. There was no obvious communication between the two, but I knew it was there. These two great sages, these two wizards of great power spoke volumes to each other on the old man's approach.
I greeted Kwan with a shy smile. She had easily two years on me and in my eyes the prettiest girl in China. Until her mind chatter began. It drowned out all else. I had to shut it out and put up a Great China Wall between us. She never noticed, but the ringing bell in my mind lessened enough so I could greet her. Had the cacophony continued, I may have fainted.
Later that day, a third candidate arrived: a tall gangling youth of sixteen with the flat, wide cheekbones of a Mongol. This close to the border, I should have been surprised he had been left unmolested, but his companion may have prevented this, for the man had a lithe athletic build, carrying a katana. I suspected him to be Japanese, however, with a rounder face. Despite his dangerous air, he had to be a magician to explain why the pair had not been attacked, waylaid or murdered on their journey. This pagoda of protection covered his lumbering companion also.
That night I lay away awhile, hearing the banging dreams of Kwan, and sensing the dull throb of Khanis Jan. I wondered if they could hear my thoughts as loudly as I could hear theirs. I doubted it. Espoo's crescendo in my brain had put paid to that. As sleep neared, I realised that the next day we would set out, to arrive in time for the full moon at the lair of the dragon. And yet we were only three candidates. There were only three sponsors. Surely, had they been bringing candidates every seven years, there would be a whole host of candidates to await the test. Unless failure was terminal. The thought chilled me, giving me terrible dreams of fiery beasts, and demons of all shapes and sizes, djinns assailing me from one side, banshees from the other. I awoke with relief.
A cloudbank formed over the plains behind us as we climbed the road beside the river towards Lake Qinghai. The path became tortuous as our six strong party climbed higher and higher, leaving the main route behind, following little more than a goat track. Always the lake drifted far from us, a rainbow ever receding into the distance. The clouds continued to pile up in the east threatening rain later that day. It added an urgency to our hike.
Rocky terrain with scrubby bushes springing up on either side of the track made the going difficult, but the delicate flowers that eked out an existence added a delicate jasmine perfume to the air. Few trees survived on this wind-blasted side. As we crested a bluff, the landscape changed. Trees grew in long swathes, interspersed with meadows filled with delicate flowers. It created a beautiful valley, nestled down the centre of which was Qinghai Lake. I must confess, I did pause for a moment, to enjoy the wondrous sight. Espoo quickly urged me on once more, his voice a threatening murmur at the back of my mind.
We trudged through shin-high grass, inhaling the summer scents provided by the millions of flowers surrounding us. I could sense Kwan's and Khanis' joy at the vista which had unfurled for us on a summer's afternoon. For the first time, I truly understood the miracle of the magical power I had been blessed with. I could share the joy of others, console the misery of grief suffers and prevent a rascal from tricking an innocent.
Or as Espoo had done, become a travelling entertainer.
Or Khanis' sponsor, Takamoto, I could become a warrior and a thief.
Takamoto and Khanis formed a surly pair together. The lumbering Mongolian and the lithe, dour Japanese communicated entirely mentally, never once giving any hint of what they were speaking of. From the patterns I could sense around the Mongolian, his news was not good. I framed a question, trying to imagine it on the outside of the wok of my mind in the area Espoo spoke to me.
"What do Khanis and Takamoto speak of?"
"I fear Khanis is being instructed in the way of the dragon." Espoo's reply tasted of surprise, tainted with pride, my ability to understand the nuances of this magician's power grew with every passing footfall on my journey towards the dragon. Like a flower picked shortly before the bud is open, making the bloom brighter, stronger and longer-lasting, or fruit picked at the point immediately before ripeness, so the flavour is enhanced at the time of eating, Espoo had found me. What had drawn him to our remote village I do not know.
"What is wrong with instruction?" I framed the question carefully, taking my time, but the reply was instantaneous.
"The dragon would know." Espoo's voice smelled of pain, "Please do not shout. It is painful."
I wrote the words on the surface of my wok image smaller, apologising. Espoo smiled a tight smile and clamped a hand on my shoulder. I winced, for he was a strong man, his grip was like the cooper's bands as the barrels soak. Unbreakable, sturdy.
Whilst our exchange slipped away, Khanis and Takamoto had reached the edge of the lake. Takamoto skipped lightly out across the surface of the lake.
"Can you do that?" I asked, Espoo, marvelling at Takamoto standing several feet from the bank, barely a ripple about his almost bone dry feet.
"Should I want to, I can fly." Espoo said, "But the birds get jealous, so I do not do it often."
"What is Marlin's story?" I asked, looking at where the old man plodded on footstep after footstep, not moving fast, but moving steadily. Whenever we paused, Marlin would catch up with us within moments.
"He is perhaps the most powerful here." Espoo glanced at the old man, "And older than you think. He has seen the world, travelled from distant countries that you will never have heard of, to continents you will never see. He found the first dragon in an exotic land and became the greatest magician to ever walk the face of the Earth. And now he brings one here. I think he knows where all of the dragons sleep."
"There are more than one?" I was dumbstruck enough to temporarily let the wall slip between myself and Kwan, instantly, her mind chatter flooded out all sensations with images from her active mind.
It was a blizzard across my vision, a thunderstorm in my ears, wild onion in my mouth, pinpricks across all of my body.
"Shut up!" I cried mentally, writing the letters in fiery red in the air.
Kwan silenced, and all five people stopped, temporarily stunned.
"Thank you, young man." Marlin said, "I wondered when her mind talk would cease."
Kwan looked at me with wide eyes. I could see that she was hurt at my shout.
"I'm sorry." I said aloud, "You overwhelmed me. I overreacted."
"You've found a fierce one Espoo." Takamoto called from the lake, "He might even challenge me one day!"
Chagrined, I continued along the pebbled beach, blind to the beauty of the trees dipping leaves in the calm waters around me, the heady fragrance in the late afternoon air. Only when darkness started to fall, and my fear rise with the setting sun, did I snap out of my melancholy. The terror of the meeting with the dragon forced me to return to myself.
We had neared the head of the lake, a waterfall some fifty feet across and thirty feet high. Water flowed into the lake from here from the surrounding mountains, and out down the river which ran through Xining. The stone wall behind the frothing water seemed darker than I would have expected. I looked closer, seeing beyond the water with my magical second sight and saw a cave. Marlin halted the flow of the waterfall as we approached. We now followed a narrow, slippery path slick with the remains of the falls.
Tentatively, we entered. Takamoto strode in first, followed by his candidate. I ushered Kwan in before me, Espoo followed myself, and Marlin brought up the rear. Inside, Takamoto conjured light from his hands and led us deep into the cave. Before Marlin released the water in the falls, I heard a deep bass rumble in the depths of the cave, rising and falling, like the breath of a sleeping man. Or dragon.
The cave sucked heat from me as we walked. I felt myself shivering. Looking at Khanis and Kwan, I saw that they too trembled with the cold. Although the rushing water and the damp stone robbed the cave of all heat, neither Takamoto, Marlin nor Espoo appeared concerned, despite Espoo and Takamoto's lack of clothing.
The corridor twisted sharply, and there, in a spherical hollow, lay the sleeping, curled dragon.
Thick, oily smoke curled about the base of the beast, obscuring it slightly, but I could make it out well enough. A green glow pulsed through the entire chamber occluded at our entrance by Takamoto's brighter light. Its mouth lay open, orange-yellow light deep in its belly issuing forth rhythmically opposed to the green light. Millions of minuscule scales made up the skin of the coiled beast, just touching, but never overlapping like the scales of a basilisk or snake. I could not see where the eyes were or could be, though I searched intently about the mouth. The nostrils were visible black slits above the open mouth.
The huge body of the beast was wrapped into a circle, its spine arched in the centre, raising the middle of the monster. The tail wrapped under the chin, lifting the gaping mouth off the sandy floor of the cave. The scales held a deep sheen, as though tougher than stone. I cannot describe it fully; the majesty, the power, the barely contained fury this creature emanated. It was a scent, it was a sound, it was a taste. It was all of these and more. The dragon had got into my head. The universe expanded, as though I had died and journeyed around the Wheel of Life, I could sense the stars and infinity. My head swirled.
"It will get worse," Espoo said.
"No coaching," Marlin warned, his voice strong in my mind. "The dragon will know."
"Firstly, you shall enter." Takamoto beamed at us candidates, sweeping his arm magnanimously.
"Why does the dragon replenish your power after we go through?" I asked, halting at the edge of the tunnel mouth. Beyond I saw a deep drop into the dragon's innards. I felt myself being lifted down into it. I held onto the thought of heaviness. The movement stopped. Takamoto looked under strain.
"The kindness of its heart?" Espoo patted me on the shoulder, "I have a feeling you will be fine."
The memories came back to haunt me, I pieced the bits and pieces together.
"If I fail I will die." The realisation caused me to forget to hold out against Takamoto, throwing me over the edge of the tunnel lip into the dragon's lair. I think Espoo caught me, for I lowered gently to the ground.
"Try to leave and you shall die!" Takamoto called at us, "I shall personally see to that!"
The warrior thief fashioned a blade of shining, blazing steel from the air, and caused it to vanish again.
"Enter the dragon's mouth." Marlin called, "There is a passage beyond, head for the fire!"
Kwan hung back, Khanis sprinted into the dragon's mouth, his face set with determination. I approached more sedately, leaving Kwan to her own devices. I remember, she looked terrified. I set my mind and decided to get it over with. At the step to the dragon's throat, the sulphurous smelling oily clouds coiled about my feet. I hesitated, inside I could hear Khanis screaming. One look over my shoulder at the stern Espoo, the gleeful Takamoto and the kindly Marlin forced me onwards, into the ammonia and sulphur smelling belly of the dragon.
Alas, my memory of the inside of the dragon is scanty. All I have is impressions.
The universe speared into me.
In the smooth white mouth leading towards the throbbing, pulsating fiery heart of the beast I saw it all from the start to the end, with every second between.
The unnaturally regular throat, square at the corners, vanished at the edge of vision. The inky black depths held inhuman shifting patterns, creating pulsating nausea. The smell of sulphur was choking. The deeper I got, the more impressions flooded my mind. Alien concepts and images of different landscapes assailed me from all sides. Buffeted, scared, I acted merely on impulse and reaction. Monsters of the id came at me from all sides, bearing fangs, dripping ichor. An image of the torment awaiting the evil souls at the bottom of the Wheel. At one point I think I may have floated over a pit the bottom of which contained the writhing form of Khanis. If I could have stopped I would have.
I remember the heart of the beast.
A huge globe of fiery light contained within nothing, pulsing regularly, giving out no heat.
Towards the heart, they had said.
Well, I was there, and nothing.
I looked into the dancing flame, feeling drawn into it. It reminded me of a naked candle flame, twisting and writhing.
It hypnotised me and like a moth, I floated into the heart of the flame.
The source of the dragon's power, and I bathed in it.
Memories flooded me: Of Khanis, dead at the bottom of a pit, his form a black silhouette. The pink and purple silhouette of Kwan, dying by degrees of terror and fear from the monsters in her mind. Following them, drinking upon the energies of the drained minds of Kwan and Khanis were Marlin, Espoo and Takamoto. I could read their innermost desires. See their darkest fears, read their most sacred thoughts. Nothing was hidden, everything was plain, as though written before my eyes.
Espoo disliked these excursions, only partaking because he had no wish to become weak and lose his hopefully long life. Marlin had long been inured to it, having done it countless times before in lands more distant than I could imagine. The dragon focused my thoughts on Takamoto with his enormous ambitions. In this, his fifth visit to the dragon, he deliberately chose people he knew would fail. deliberately wanted the most energy he could drink to make himself as powerful as he could. He would defeat Espoo and Marlin, and take over the world when he had the power. I sensed that the dragon wanted him stopped.
And stop him I would!
The full power of my magic had been granted to me in that moment of pure fire.
I stepped from my trial by immolation and waited for Takamoto.
He arrived soon enough, wanting to be the first into the flames.
"Stop!" I commanded straight past his mental shield, putting up an invisible wall between him and me.
"You are a puny child, you cannot harm me." Takamoto brushed aside my wall, I felt the pain of it crumble.
I saw a ghostly blue ball of fire fly towards me from Takamoto's outstretched palms. I casually stopped them with my own, dispersing them like candle smoke. Peripherally I saw Marlin and Espoo arrive, but my silent battle in the heart of the dragon with Takamoto continued. The Japanese forced his experience advantage throwing many tricks he had learned over the years at me.
Knives I stopped, the constricting wall I destroyed. I sensed Takamoto beginning to flag.
I pressed an attack of my own, throwing Takamoto back the way I had held myself to the ground in the cave beyond.
It caught the flagging warrior by surprise, throwing him off his feet. I dropped a wall on him, almost crushing him beneath it. He expected a twelve-year-old to be a pushover.
Well, I showed him.
I pressed my advantage in silence. What Takamoto had unwittingly taught me, I threw back. I had the reserves of youth, the inexperience not to know my limits. And I exceeded them.
In the belly of the dragon, I threw one last fireball at Takamoto and tumbled to the floor, feeling drained and weak all of a sudden.
Darkness descended.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on the hillside outside the cave. The sparkling blue lake lay like a carpet before me. Marlin crouched on his heels a few yards away. Espoo dripped conjured water over my brow.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You beat Takamoto." Espoo told me, "And in doing so exhausted your powers."
I realised then that I could no longer sense my wok, and Espoo spoke.
"Will they come back?" I asked, fearing for my parents.
"They might, in time." Marlin said, "I cannot say. As for your parents, if Espoo will not remedy what he has done, then I shall. I read from the flame what Takamoto planned. You have done us all a great service."
I lay back and looked at the early morning sky, had I been asleep that long?
"Two days," answered Espoo, reading my mind, and I could no longer stop him. "We'd best be getting back."