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Shin's gaze was locked onto a relatively unbeaten path overgrown with vines and underbrush. His body urged him to move down that particular path, despite having no idea as to where it led.
"It's that way." He said with a sort of finality. To illustrate, he pointed down the path. "That's the way to the nearest city, I'm sure of it."

One of Kayne's eyebrows rose; the finality in Shin's voice told him enough. It wasn't just him who felt the enigmatic, irresistible pull. He turned to follow Shin.

"Ah, finally, on the move," he said jovially, as if he had not noticed the things he had. "It seems I wasn't paying enough attention during the briefing. Shin, you never fail to amaze me yet." He extended a hand to Kira. "Shall we go, Miss Kira? It doesn't seem like Shin will wait for anyone."

((OOC: I'm waiting for Fae...has anyone seen her recently?))

Shin stared, open-mouthed, at the weapon that had just materialized into Kira's hands.
"I guess this is where we become heroes, then." He remarked, slightly tilting his head to the side. He glanced back at Kayne, and then stepped forward to the edge of the lake. After a gulp, he looked straight down into it.
At first, there was nothing. Shin didn't see rocks, or fish, or even his own reflection. Just an unbroken expanse of white. Slowly, a figure emerged. It was like a rodent, about four feet long, and with a pink, snubbed nose. The creature stood up on its hind legs and gazed at Shin. He wanted to state his confusion, but found himself able to move or speak.
Suddenly, and without warning, a spear was standing point-down in front of Shin, stuck between the silver rocks of the lake's shore. Bewildered, but able to feel his limbs again, Shin lifted the weapon. The hilt was made of petrified wood. Shin slowly rotated the spear to examine the blade; it was extremely broad and thick at the base, but tapered and thinned to a point. A ghostly white copy of the rodent from before was balancing on the very edge of the spear; presumably, it had materialized when Shin had picked the spear up.

Behold the mongoose, who deflects its enemy's blows with ease and grace.

The words seemed to emanate from the spear itself. Shin continued gazing at the mongoose, until it made sort of a nodding motion and vaporized.
"...what kind of lame guardian beast is that?" Shin said loudly.

The white-haired youth watched the events unroll with his two companions, a mixture of bemusement, curiosity, and surprise on his face.

"Fascinating . . ." he murmured to himself. "It seems the lake possesses some programming that selects a weapon and bestial avatar of some kind . . . I wouldn't be surprised if it had access to personality quizzes and every electronic database on us to make the choice . . . I'd usually be upset about people delving into my records, but this is most interesting . . ."

A phoenix and a mongoose. Kira's made the youth smile a lttle. Phoenixes, known as Feng in his culture, represented women, and in ancient times symbolized the Empress. No one except her was allowed to wear the fiery bird. Nowadays, the phoenix was seen in almost every large Chinese restaurant there was; the regal creature represented the bride in weddings. In one Chinese belief, the Vermillion Feng was the symbol of Zhu-Que, one of the four gods that ruled the heavens. He was responsible for the southern portion of the heavens, and represented summer, passion, and love. Kayne allowed Kynum his ignorant belittlement of Shin's guardian; mongooses were, in real life, known to be very vicious and precise when attacking. Even a weasel had many meanings behind it: cunning, dexterity, flexibility, and determination. His mind began to wonder just what he would get. Based on my academic records, it would be clear that a mage-like class would be best suited for me . . . tactician would be another obvious choice . . . He broke out of his speculating to see the others staring at him, almost expectantly. He let out a sheepish laugh.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I was thinking of something . . . I'll go look in, then."

Standing at the edge, he peered at the shimmering surface, so much like quicksilver or mercury. To his surprise and intrigue, he found that he wasn't looking at the surface, but rather the suddenly endless depths of the "water" when by logic he should see the bottom or the surface. What happened next was only in his mind. His body would have crumpled to its knees as his silver-grey eyes took on a glassy sheen and he stared blankly at the water.

It appeared, small at first, but growing in size and length as it neared. Kayne had expected an owl, a raven, a fox, something to denote cunning, intelligence, and wisdom. What he beheld before him was a great Oriental dragon, its scales shimmering a myriad of blues, silvers, whites, and blacks. In one five-taloned paw, a large pearl glowed with some strange inner light. Its eyes were hurricanes and icy snows and pounding surfs, holding infinite wisdom, benevolence, and might. An Imperial Chinese Long, its lack of yellows and golds the only thing stopping it from being dragon royalty. The voice that Kayne heard in his head was like the rolling of thunder.

I am who you seek, as you are the one I seek.

The dragon released its pearl, which floated to Kayne and entered his mental chest in a sensation that he could only relate to the shock of lightning. Before his real body, a black lexicon and a white staff materialized in a swirl of icy winds and hazy clouds. The youth blinked and gasped, as if he had held his breath for a long time. He blinked; eyes clear once more, he stood, albeit a little shakily, and reached out, grasping the tome in one hand and the staff in the other.

The lexicon was leather-bound, decorated with silver ink. The language it was written looked strangely like Chinese, yet they were alien enough not to be; Kayne understood it nonetheless. It was quite thick, but for some reason it didn't feel heavy. The pages were vellum, yellowed with age, but it was in pristine condition, the text was still clear as if it had been written very recently. A dark blue ribbon, equally aged and preserved, served as an attached page marker. The staff felt like wood, bleached to a white so pure its shadows were ice blue and sanded down to a fine, smooth texture. The wood was carved to look like the Long was curled around the head of ths staff, its sinuous body strung with minute pearls, moonstones, opals, and other pale blue and white precious stones. Clutched in its wooden embrace was a crystal, clear as flawless diamond, yet whose depths sparkled with countless pinpoints of multihued flecks when he turned the staff about in his hands.

With these, I anoint and crown you scion of the lord of the skies and the waters.

Kayne blinked; the dragon was gone. He turned to Shin and Kira, and shrugged. "So I guess my theory was right . . . though my guardian was a bit of a surprise."

{{hmmm. Well we could either work with her absence by making her character 'disappear', and make the goal of the RP to find her, or we could let this RP end. I would rather not have this one end, we've built a lot of ideas into it.}}