KY: sorry to drop the F-bomb so many times. It's just that Zell + mad very many bad words...

Chapter XVI: shadow

Shen's POV

So lovely, unordinary. The ability to bring forth a tsunami, but with the slightest touch comfort me. Oh Shalusta, all those years. Many years together. I hope you never fade, you can't fade away like all the others. You have to be my Guardian Force forever. I won't let you fade and turn to stone. Ever since I found you, you have been the best. You always took care of me. You even took me away from that person. That bastard. He hurt me. My mother and father are gone because of him. Shalusta? Don't you remember?

...I remember.

"I don't want to go!" tears streamed down my face as I cried.

"Go, you little brat!" he grabbed my hair as he said it and threw me into the darkness.

I tumbled down into the pit, feeling slight blood draw from the scrapes that began to form on my legs. The tumbling stopped and I sat in the dark, quite disturbed from my recent fall. Across from my position I heard a somewhat loud thud and the sound of metal hitting rock. In the glinting over head light I saw my sword. He had thrown it in after me, so maybe if I needed it to protect myself. The light slowly began to fade away as he slid a cover across my pit, leaving only a small beacon of hope. It was almost dark, as I sat there waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light and also silently weeping I heard a sound of rocks being broken and pebbles being moved. I reached for my sword blindly and held it in hand. I heard it again. It sounded as if it was a snake of some kind, or something of that nature slithering across the earthen floor.

I began to panic. I was scared I must admit. Me, Shen? Of all people scared, I'm pathetic. My father would be disappointed. I held out my palm and randomly shot out fire. It quickly died out. I had wasted one spell upon nothing, from my fear sprouted shame. As I looked ahead in the little glimmer of light. my small pathetic sword reflecting a tiny percentage of hope. I saw two vibrant red eyes glaring at me. The seemed to glow just a bit illuminating bluish-green scales surrounded by darkness. Naturally I was scared to death being so young, at the ripe age of eight. As in the name of defense I acted, I brought the sword up high and was ready to strike. The creature came closer. I could hear it, slowly slithering. Its scales bumping across the dirt and stones that lie in its path. My heart beat at an amazingly fast pace. Ready I was at it came into the light. I frantically slashed at the monster across the dark. My sword striking the hide with a dull clang. The rough vibrations of the aftershock knocked the weapon to the floor faraway from my reach. I cowered at it came closer. Closer.

The light hit it perfectly. Scales of the deep ocean tides almost seemingly transparent. Red eyes of quite forlorn. This body created a sense of fear and beauty into my eyes. It's scales changed within a blink of an eye. All the shades of blue, green, and purple that you could ever imagine. And as this heavenly creature stared down into my eyes It released a majestic coo. I realized then that this thing wasn't going to hurt me. After staring at it long enough my studies clicked in and I recognized what I was looking at; this was no monster. This was the heavenly Leviathan, ruler of the seas. Beckoner of hurricanes. Such glory and mystery before my eyes.

"Your a Leviathan..." was all I could come up with as I was staring in awe.

It nuzzled my face as if it had always known me. I felt a strange connection to this beast. A familiarity of childhood.

My eyesight muffled and my breath a bit hasty is how I awoke. I stuttered and shook, my eyes uneven in their paths of sight. I had no idea where I was. It was damp and dewy. The air smelled faintly of embers...

It all came back. I jumped up.

"Ahh! Uh...um...I.." my voice stammered.

"Huh? Wah?" Seifer groaned. He stretched and rolled over. I think he fell back asleep.

"I...er..." I slipped and skidded my way up the lengthy hill and realizing I couldn't go back the way I had came.

I traveled to the main entrance. I waved a confused 'hello' to the gatekeeper and scanned my identification card. The faulty gate creaked its way open to let me into Garden.

"YO!" cried out some high pitched voice. "Shen!"

"eh?" I twitched around, eyebrow cocked.

"Shen, over here!" I saw Selphie, excitingly jumping up and down. Squall was next to her and so was a short young kid in a sweat suit. I walked over.

"Dude, Squall so SUCKS at Triple Triad!" Notice she emphasized on the word 'suck'.

"Um, yeah, sure, okay..." Whatever. I don't really care. I am so HUNGRY. Notice I emphasized the word hungry.

"Crap, I lost again. All I want is your damn minimog card! Can't you just hand it over, I already lost all my great cards..." Squall is incredibly whiney.

"Ah, no. Win it fair and square." with that said the sweat suit kid walked off gazing at his prizes.

"It's not fair when your good!" Squall screeched.

"Yeah, sure, uhm...I want breakfast..." my face contorted into an unhappy grunt I squeezed my stomach which let out a pitiful cry for help.

"Shen, breakfast was like, three hours ago..."

"what...?" oh no. It's too early for these emotions.

"Yeah, it's like 10:12. Lunch isn't 'till twelve." Selphie gave me 'what were you doing all night' look.

"awwwwww shit..." NOOOOO! So hungry...

I basically crawled back to the inside of Garden passing the sweet smell of lunch being prepared. I made my way to the quad and slugged up to the snack machine.

"Yo."

"yes..?" I see you packaged food of delight and doom. All your sugary coated sweetness, individually wrapped calories...

"Let me buy you breakfast..." I looked up. Oh Zell! "Since you know, you weren't in your dorm last night. So I guess you must be starving." Oh shit. Fuck Fuck Fuck...

"Yeah about that..." Zell slammed his fist into the side of the machine. A skittles and a pack of crackers came tumbling roughly down. Hitting the bottom with a clang.

"Don't fuck with me!" Zell was shitting angry vibes allover the place. "Don't you dare fuck with me!"

"Zell, I was just.." what? Sleeping next to your life's greatest rival. Ooh yeah, that makes everything better.

"I know what the fuck you did! Don't you ever fuck with me...don't fuckin'..." His voice trailed off. While walking away I noticed a bruise on his arm and another on his face.

"Zell..." I grabbed the packaged food and started off toward the dorm. What a mess. Bruise? Where'd he get those I wonder?

To be continued...

KY: so everyone enjoy the chapter update in like four years? Oh yeah thought so. Hey guess what. It took me that long to write the damn thing. Look how far it's come. Chapter Sixteen. The original (never posted) Dragon in my Sky was one hundred and fifty three pages, hand-written. I gave up on that one. They fell in love WAY to fast (like two days). But this is the new Dragon in my Sky: the revised edition! I am editing all earlier chapters fixing things like 'skejule' and other such nonsense. It's just that when I started writing this I did not have a spellchecker/microsoft works at all. Now I have up graded. Damn it took my five to six years to come this far... I started this story during the eighth grade and I am now a senior in high school. Where have all the days gone? Sorry to spend such valuable space reminiscing. You could have had a whole nother complete set of dialoged. Oh how evil I am...mwah ha ha. Sorry no omake theatre this time. I know that is the only reason you read it. - inner thoughts of every reader I'll think of one for next chapter. I already have it!