Welcome to Gaia! ::

The next morning Ocarina dude was pulled away from breakfast and led to a room with three dojo instructors and the dojo master. “Young Ocarina dude, you’re progress in the dojo can be called nothing short of a miracle. But miracles don’t only happen once. There have been others like you who have separated themselves from their fellow students. It is time you learn something. This is the ‘Dojo of the White Tiger’.” Ocarina’s jaw dropped open. “I thought this was the School of the Yellow Dragon!” the young boy shouted. “It is in a sense. You see, the School of the Yellow Dragon was divided into four factions since its creation. The White Tiger Dojo is the faction that focuses on training people to build bodies of iron and more importantly, looking for talented individuals worthy of proceeding to the next level. Your raw talent in fighting and endurance has pushed you through the ranks in this dojo. But in the next school, your natural gift will not help you. It is your choice weather to stay here and develop your skills as a black belt in the White Tiger Dojo, or to leave and try to progress further.”

Ocarina dude looked at the floor. The head of the dojo had just laid down a heavy truth on him. After giving it much thought, Ocarina dude looked up at the three instructors and the dojo master. “Sensei, I cannot remember why I decided to come here in the first place. I cannot recall how long I have been here. But I do know that I cannot stop progressing. I understand that the journey ahead is nothing but an uphill slope, but I feel I can go the distance. The raw talent in fighting that you call a gift, I consider a curse, and you would too if you understood the true nature of that power. But if I don’t continue to push myself to the limits, I feel that I will never find what I am capable of and more importantly… where I belong.” Ocarina dude stood up and bowed. “Sensei, I humbly accept your offer to progress further and leave this dojo.” The dojo master stood up and looked at Ocarina. “Young Ocarina, at midnight tonight, you are to come back here to this room with only your most valued possessions and prepare to leave immediately. What was said in here does not leave the room. You are dismissed.”

Ocarina went to his room and gathered the only things he considered valuable: his ocarina, his black belt, and Dougie’s hammock. That night, Ocarina dude quietly returned to the room he had been taken to earlier that morning. He entered and saw the four men waiting. The three instructors stood up and moved to the back of the room and the sensei went to the back too, instructing Ocarina to follow. Two instructors and pushed the walls and slide them apart, reveling a hidden passage. Ocarina dude, the Dojo master and the other instructor traveled down a stairwell to a room underground. There, three sets of uniforms were set out on a table. “Ocarina, choose you the outfit of your choice. It will be your outfit during your time in the second level of the Yellow Dragon School.” The outfits were near identical. Short, thin gi tops and a pair of matching pants and were tight around the ankles. The outfits were obviously meant to fit snugly. They also came with a pair of tabi socks and shoes. Ocarina dude looked at the options: a white and gray set, and gray and black set, or a black and red set.

Ocarina dude figured the white would be too difficult to keep clean and the gray one looked ugly, so he picked out the black and red set. After changing into his new uniform, the sensei and instructor took him to the exit where a horse and wagon where waiting for him. “Now I’m sorry to say, but we can’t let you know where you are going, so…” The instructor came from behind and swung a club down at Ocarina’s head. Ocarina dude sensed the attack and dodged left before kicking the club out of his hand. “You think I’m just gonna let you hit me with a club like that? You trained me better than tha-” Ocarina dude stopped in mid-sentence and fell to the ground with a dart sticking out of his shoulder as he slowly began to lose consciousness. The dojo master's voice rang in Ocarina's head. “Works every time. You distract them with a fake attack and I use a sleep dart to knock them out… it just never gets old.” The sensei laughed softly to himself as the instructor put the incapaciated boy's body into the back of the wagon. A snap of the reins and the jerk of the cart were the last the boy registered before passing out completely.

Ocarina dude finished exercising on the roof and came back down into the main hall before heading to the food station. Meals here were different then they were in the dojo. Here they served soup and bread. That was all they served. They changed the type of soup they served every couple of days, making sure that they served the students the different nutrients they needed. When you got hungry, you simply went to the food station, grab a bowl and fill your bowl with one of the many ladles that hung in one of the many giant heated pots of soup. Ocarina dude never thought that food could be made so disappointing. After filling up on soup, he went back down into the library.

The library was huge! At first it only seemed like a long hall with many passages on the sides, but once you turned and went down one of those passages, you found out just how big the library truly was. The passageways that fed into the main hallway had no walls. Instead of walls, they had walls of books. Books on history, geography, math, literature, science, health, psychology, biology, cultures, and more. There was no fiction, since this was a place of learning. The only pieces of fiction they had were old ones that were important in culture. It was a good thing that all the passages eventually led back into the main hall, because it wasn’t very hard to get lost in library. One wrong turn and you were lost. But all you had to do was continue walking and eventually you’d wind up back in the entry hall.

Returning the books seemed like an impossible task, until Ocarina found out that the informants could help you to find where you were by just looking at the book. Ocarina dude was constantly amazed by their ability. He’d find a book on western geography and take it with him to the main hall to read, and after needing to find a book on eastern geography in the same area, he’d just walk over to one of the many informants that just stood in the hall and hold up the book for them. Without saying a word, the informant would turn and calmly walk to where the book belonged. Ocarina dude would just follow and watch as the informant stopped and pointed at the open space on the wall of books where Ocarina had gotten it from before. Not once did the informants ever get lost or go to the wrong place, not even once! As far as Ocarina dude was concerned, they were using some kind of magic or something.

Ocarina dude wrote down more information on history in his new book. The part he hated the most was filling in all those blank pages. After filling the first book with ten hundred facts he had a feeling of accomplishment after seeing the pages slowly but surely fill up. Now his book was practically empty once more. He walked down the library and reached out of a book, only to feel his hand bump into another person’s hand. “Hey man, I’m using that book; go find something else to read.” Ocarina dude looked at the cold speaker. He had short black messy hair, which distinctly differed from Ocarina’s long growing spiky brown hair. His white outfit also strongly contrasted from Ocarina’s black one. The boy’s icy demeanor somehow agitated Ocarina. “Excuse me pal, but I don’t think I see your name on this book. So unless your name is ‘Ancient History of Corelia’ I suggest you back off.” Ocarina dude said in retaliation.

Five minutes later, the two library dwellers were squaring off in a more open space of the library, ready to settle who got the book in the simplest fashion: a fight. Ocarina dude and the other boy traded blows, one after the other. Ocarina dude felt they were evenly matched in strength and speed, but figured that nobody was going to beat his endurance. Then Inferno stepped into the equation. The sudden mind intrusion was all it took for Ocarina to lose his focus and the unknown opponent immediately took the opportunity and flat palmed Ocarina, sending him crashing back into a wall of books, which proceeded to fall on him after being knocked off their perch from the impact.

Ocarina dude pushed his head out of the pile of books that buried him and looked up to see the other boy take the book on Corelia’s ancient history off the shelf. “Well, looks like I’ll just take MY book now.” The boy turned and left, but Ocarina dude punched his arm out of the book pile, grabbed one of the books, and hurled it at the boy’s head. The boy spun around a swatted the book out of the air. “Nice try hot-head but I’m better than-” The boy was cut off as another book came flying and smashed into his crotch. “Eat Greek History numb-nuts!” Ocarina dude taunted as the other boy buckled his legs and held his hurt nether-regions. Instead of returning the favor, the boy picked up the thrown book and left. Two minutes later one of the informants came just as Ocarina dude had dug himself out of the book pile. In the informant’s hands was the book Ocarina had thrown earlier. “I was just coming here to return a book, but it seems like now I have more on my plate.” The informant glared at Ocarina dude. “That guy totally set me up! If I ever see him again...”

The chief counsel man glared at the man to his left. “That is enough out of you! Young Ocarina, I am against this program, but it is out of my control. But I can still make the requirements within my jurisdiction. Ocarina, you are to forget what was just said, and go on starting your fourth book.” The man threw the book and the new top at Ocarina and had him leave. After he was gone the counsel of five all looked at the fourth member. “Why did you tell him so much?” “This is the Hall of the Black Tortoise. This is a place of knowledge. Those who seek to find the truth should be granted the right to know the truth.” The silent boy took his ear off the door and headed down the hall.

Ocarina dude put on his new top and walked down to the library. With his fourth empty book under his arm, he marched down the long hall to the back door at the hall’s end. The guards looked at him and moved. Ocarina dude opened the door and found another staircase. He followed it down and reached a pair of large doors with golden handles. “Time to see what the big secret down here is.” Ocarina dude pushed the doors open and was left stunned at the sight before him. A second library, and from what Ocarina dude could tell, it had more books then the last. The boy fell to his knees and broke out in a cold sweat. “More books?! How many things can there be to learn. I thought that even if I spent my whole life reading the books upstairs I still wouldn’t be able to finish them all. But this… this is absurd. I thought I was learning so much, but it turns out that there is so much more I don’t even know.”

It was at that moment that Ocarina dude finally realized what the counsel had been telling him since the beginning. “The more I learn, the less I know. I understand it now. The more I learn, the more I can understand and learn more new things, but there is no limit to what can be learned. I thought I knew so much, but it reality…” Ocarina dude looked up at the hundreds of thousands of books that filled the second library. “But in reality, I know so little.” Ocarina dude opened his book and looked at the first line in the book saying the sentence: “The more you learn, the less you know.” Ocarina dude took his pencil and in the side margin he wrote down the number one. “One down, another nine-hundred-ninety-nine to go.”

It was the long awaited day. Ocarina dude once more stood before the Counsel of Five and presented his fifth and final book to the fifth wise one. The boy handed the filled book to the counsel man in the middle and stepped back. The last wise one opened the book and scanned the pages. After 5 minutes, he finished the book and snapped his fingers. The other members of the counsel reached behind them and pulled out the other four books Ocarina dude submitted. They placed the books in front of them. “Congratulations Ocarina. You have learned five thousand new things. You are now knowledgeable enough to move on to the next stage of your training in the School of the Yellow Dragon. But remember, just because you learned five thousand things, that does not make you wise.” “I know. All the facts I have learned can only help me learn even more.” “I see you have clearly understood the first truth. Good. Now if you choose to proceed to the next level in the school, you must travel there yourself.” The man tossed a compass to the boy. “Here is a map to the next school.” Ocarina dude opened it up and looked at the compass. It was an ordinary compass except on the inside of the clasp it had the words ‘Go North-West’ engraved in it. “This is a map? It just says go North-West. That’s hardly map material.” “Perhaps not, but it will serve its purpose.”

With that, Ocarina dude was instructed to pack up his belongings and prepare to leave the next morning. Ocarina dude gathered all his processions: his hammock, his spare set of clothes, and his ocarina. The next morning when Ocarina dude went to get breakfast, fourth wise one stood by the food hall’s entrance. “Sorry Ocarina but this food is only for students of the Hall of the Black Tortoise. You are no longer one of our students. But we do have a gift for your departure. The man pulled out a book from his over-sized sleeves. “This is a very special journal.” Ocarina dude took it from his hands and opened the leathery cover and stared at the slightly blue page. “Umm… there’s only one page in this journal here.” “For now.” “What?” “This particular journal is special in that one you fill a page front and back, it will create a new page the next time you open it. It is a magic journal that will never run out of pages. It will make more pages to accommodate for your future entries.” “Really? That’s awesome.” “And here is a pen so you can get started.” “Thanks! Is the pen magic too? Does it have an unlimited supply of ink?” “No, its just a regular pen.” “Oh…” “Well, the Halls of the Black Tortoise has nothing left for you, so we must ask you to please leave.” “Thank for all you have given me in food, resources, and knowledge. I promise to not waste it.”

The fourth wise one escorted Ocarina dude to the exit and watched as he stepped out of the gate. Ocarina pulled out his compass a looked at it and looked northwest. “Farewell young Ocarina dude.” The counsel man said as he began to close the front gate. “Oh wait, how far-” Ocarina was cut short as the gate slammed shut in his face.
“-do I have to travel northwest… before I… get to the next… school…” Ocarina dude stared at the closed gate doors. He turned around and looked at his compass once again and turned to face northwest. “I guess I find out for myself. No worries though, I’m sure it can’t be too far.” Ocarina dude enjoyed his new sense of freedom as he traveled, that is until he reached the steep mountain side that was directly northwest of the Tortoise halls. “Okay… no problem, I’ll just go around… but I’m not sure how far it’ll take me off course… but since I don’t know how far the next school is… and it does say go northwest… ah crap.” Ocarina dude groaned as he hiked up his hammock bag before climbing up the rocky slope.

As the cave dwelling demon slowly crushed Ocarina’s torso, he felt his body begin to rapidly heat up. The black monster cackled, “This is such a welcome surprise. You’ve saved me the trouble of having to hunt tonight.” The demon suddenly felt his grip weaken as the body in his grasp expanded. “This next surprise will hardly be welcome for you.” said fiery demon as he exploded in flames, releasing himself from the dark creatures constricting hold. Inferno burst into fire and lit up the cave. With his burning light source the fire demon quickly spotted the attacker and before it had the chance to process what just happened to its prey, the monster was sucker-punched and went sailing ?into a pile of bones. Inferno calmly walked over to the other demon and spoke. “Sorry but I’m afraid you’ll be going hungry tonight.” The demon bounced out of the bone pile and tackled Inferno. “Ignorant fool! You think just because you’re a demon that I won’t eat you? Ha! Demon flesh may not be a tender as human flesh, but it is still perfectly edible.” The monster chomped down on Inferno’s shoulder, sinking his teeth into the demon’s tough flesh. Inferno yelled in pain and swatted the black demon off of him.

Inferno jumped back and unleashed a massive fireball that lit up the entire cave’s interior. The demon vanished for a moment only to reappear from seemingly out of nowhere. Inferno shot blast after blast of fire, but each time the black demon vanished only to resurface from the ground. “Tell me, what the hell are you?” Inferno demanded. The black demon rose out of the shadows on the bone pile and reformed into his normal form. “I am Dgnoria, the shadow demon. I cannot be defeated by your flames. So long as I have shadows to hide in, I cannot be hurt.” Inferno engulfed himself in powerful flames, lighting up the cave. “Fine, I’ll just burn so brightly you won’t have any place to hide!” Inferno’s flames grew brighter and brighter, but suddenly he felt his chest get pierced by something. He looked down to see a black dagger with a wing-like guard above the handle. Dgnoria rose out of one of the shadows created by the bones. “Idiot, don’t you understand? No matter how much light there is, there will always be darkness. The brighter the light shines, the darker the shadows become. You cannot win.” The black demon shot off the ground and landed on the cave’s ceiling before ricocheting off and slamming Inferno into the ground.

The monster pierced its claws into Inferno’s chest. Inferno roared in pain. Blood squirted out as Dgnoria pulled his claws out of Inferno’s torso. The orange demon knew that if he kept fighting in the enemy’s terrain, he wouldn’t last much longer. Inferno kicked the black demon off his body and jumped to his feet. He made a dash for the exit only to feel three more daggers embed themselves into his back. Suddenly the dark demon materialized from the shadows on the ceiling made by Inferno’s flames. He jumped down and double kicked Inferno back. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re mine.” Inferno roared in flames. “Burning Cyclone!” The orange demon began to spin rapidly and the fire wrapped around him turning him into a fire tornado. Inferno spun straight forward at the black demon. Dgnoria tried to use the shadows to get through the vortex of flames that separated the two of them, but fire was from the floor to the ceiling, there was no way through it. The black melted into the shadows on the cave wall and watched as the fire demon escaped out of the cave, beaten but alive.

Ocarina dude pushed open the large doors and walked into the temple. The front courtyard was not that unlike the one back at the White Tiger Dojo. Ocarina dude looked around to see if he could find somebody to talk to. “Hello? Is anybody here? I’m looking for the- the- ah-ah-achoo!” Ocarina dude sneezed and as a result tilted his head forward and down. Just pass the sound of his own sneeze, the boy swore he heard a whistling sound like something flying through the air. He looked back to see a ninja star embedded in the wooden wall just behind him. It had been a lucky sneeze. But the boy’s momentary spike in luck was short lived, as another ninja star came flying out of the shadows and grazed the boy’s shirt, just missing the skin. Ocarina dude spun left and avoided the soaring metal cutters. He jumped behind a large log in the courtyard and listened as stars embedded themselves into the wooden tree remnant.

“That’s enough!” Ocarina dude yelled as he wrapped his arms around the end of the log and spun it around before releasing it and sending it flying in the direction of the ninja stars’ origin. The log crashed into the shadows and a figure bounced up out of the shadows and onto the roof of the temple. “Oh, no you don’t!” Ocarina dude ran and sprang off the ground. He pounced onto the roof and took off after the mysterious attacker. “Don’t start fights you don’t intend on finishing!” Ocarina dude kicked a tile up and snatched it out of the air and hurled it at the running aggressor. The foe spun around and flung another ninja star which cut the tossed tile in two. The unknown aggressor hopped over the roof’s edge and Ocarina jumped in pursuit. The boy was met on the ground with an old man with long white hair. “No trespassers.” said the man as he pointed at the boy with his short cane. “Hey, I ain’t trespassing anywhere. Look here, I was told to come here by the Halls of the Black Tortoise.” the boy argued as he pulled out the compass the counsel had given him.

The man popped the compass out of the boy’s hand with a flick of his cane and caught it with his free hand. The man examined it before saying, “It looks like you are the one I’m been waiting for… odd, I was expecting someone more… prominent looking after hearing about how you advanced through the White Tiger Dojo so quickly.” Ocarina dude interrupted the man, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Just how long have you been looking in on my progress?” “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you are here and now you will begin you’re next step in the training in the School of the Yellow Dragon. Welcome to the Temple of the Azure Dragon.”