Argent Eye III

17

Adam sat there for a moment, his eyebrows raised, trying to take in everything I'd just told him. I started from the night I got stabbed with the Black Prometheum, to Ronan and the development of my ice abilities, to David and Stella and Haydn, to the prophecy, and then Irina and Kate and Doctor Geralds. I was absolutely certain I hadn't missed anything out, although couldn't be sure that Adam didn't have any unanswered questions.

"You've been through quite a lot, then." He said, and brushed his hair back with his hand. "And there was me thinking I'd been through some shit."

I chuckled nervously- it was 1am. I'd been talking for nearly two hours straight, and Adam hadn't interrupted once. I yawned.

"Are you tired?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, but it's okay. I wanna hear your story."

"Are you sure?" He asked. "I can always tell you tomorrow-"

"No." I said firmly. "I won't sleep, so you may as well tell me now."

He laughed. "Okay. Well, I guess I better start from the beginning as well." He took a breath, thinking for a moment. "So, I grew up relatively normal with my dad. I didn't know about Spirit Warriors or anything like that, and neither did my dad. But Akio was my father's best friend, hence why I call him uncle Akio. I'd always known him as that. Akio used to tell me that my spirit was strong, but I thought it was some weird religious thing, you know? I always thought it was gibberish, and I think my dad did as well.

"But then my dad was in a bad car accident. He didn't die straight away- he was in a coma for about a week, but then I guess he couldn't hold on any longer. He died when I was seven, and all through the grieving process, it was Akio who took me in. He supported me the entire time, and so saw it fitting to adopt me.

"I remember one night I came home from school, and went to do my homework, but Akio said he had something important to tell me. He seemed rather excited about it, and so sat me down and started telling me about Spirit Warriors. He said to me that if I wanted, I could become one too- if I accepted it now, then when I turned eighteen, I would be chosen by one of the twelve spirits and I'd have to undergo extensive training to control the element.

"Of course, at seven years old, this all sounded incredibly awesome and I said yes. Akio did this ritual thing with a couple of others- they all work in the kitchen downstairs. And then that was that. I'd have to wait until I became of age. Akio warned me that it might not work, although seemed pretty certain that my spirit was strong enough for it to happen.

"So, when I turned eighteen, it happened. I had this strange dream- I don't think I'll ever forget it. I was walking along a pebble beach, alone at first, but in the distance I could see this shape. I walked towards it, and as it got bigger, I started to see that it was a dragon. It was huge, and seemed to be black at first, but when it moved it shimmered a dark blue. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before, but I wasn't afraid. The dragon looked at me, and then bent down so that we were face to face. For a while, we just seemed to stare at each other, but then the dragon blew a load of smokey stuff in my face and I woke up."

I knew that this dream was very similar to the one I'd had with the dragons, but I didn't dare interrupt Adam.

"When I woke, Akio was sat on the end of my bed, waiting." Adam continued. "He knew that I was having the dream. He looked really excited, and asked me what I'd dreamt about. So I told him- there was a blue dragon." Adam smiled at the memory. "He jumped up from my bed, and dragged me out and started dancing around the room. He couldn't believe it- not only had the spirit element accepted me, but I'd been chosen by the dragon.

"But of course, I had to be trained as soon as possible. If a Spirit Warrior doesn't learn how to control their spirit, it can build and start attacking the body. It can kill its host if it doesn't get used."

A little like our elements, really. Although I wasn't sure if ours killed us, as such. They just exploded.

"At first, Akio tried training me himself." Adam said. "For the first few months, it was fine, but Akio started to struggle- he said that my dragon spirit would need more expertise to be tamed. So off I went, to Japan. Akio had friends and family out there who took me in, and trained me over the next two years. I was able to tame the dragon, and was offered to stay in Japan, but I knew where my home was. I decided to come back to London and let Akio continue to train me. He'd teach me how to utilise the water element that came with the dragon spirit, and all the other tricks that come with being a Spirit Warrior."

Adam sighed. "But I guess that's being put on hold at the moment." He said, and looked back at the door as if expecting to see his uncle there.

"Hey." I said, and reached out, placing a hand on his arm. "We'll get it back."

Adam didn't say anything, but managed to muster a smile.

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