Author’s note: I want to say Thank you to Skunk/Fox for giving my first review and for saying that my story is great. (I don’t deserve it! XD) And A Massive Thank you to Zantac the Barbarian for pointing out to me that this story belongs in the Misc. Cartoons category and NOT the TV X-overs! LOL!

The song is “Sunrise” By Angel city

Skunk Fu and it’s characters do not belong to me (But I don’t know who they belong to either. LOL)

Aika DOES belong to me.

Long ago, when the Earth was younger than it is today, Budda, the supreme god all, invited all animals to his New Years banquet.

“It will begin at dawn tomorrow, don’t be late!” He told them.

When the Rat heard this, he mischievously went to his neighbour, the Cat and told him that the party would not be tomorrow but the day after.

The next day, twelve animals arrived at the Budda’s palace. The Rat arrived on the back of the Ox and was the first to enter the door. Then came the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit and all the other animals. The banquet lasted all day and all night and as the others were enjoying themselves, the Cat slept though it all, dreaming of the banquet that he was missing.

To honour them for being the only one’s that came, Budda gave them two gifts. The first gift, Budda named a year after the twelve animals like the Year of the Boar. The second gift, Budda gave them their own names, their own special names.

The wind blew though the long grass of the Valley as the clouds drifted across the blue sky. Swallows twittered in the air, swooping down and upwards to catch the breeze. They scattered as a large red Chinese dragon flew past them, twisting his body as though he was swimming though water.

Dragon scanned the meadows for any unusual signs. Seeing none, he flew higher into the air and started to bob in and out of the clouds.

When Budda had appointed him to be the Protector of the Valley, he had thought that he would see some action and actually have something to guard the Valley against. However, there had been no danger, no disasters and no action.

“Well…” He thought, “unless you call, stopping Panda from giving himself indigestion though bamboo, Action.”

Tired of dodging clouds he drifted over to the lake, hoping maybe he could push someone in and “save” them. It would have been a little entertainment.

He hovered over some rushes before landing on his hind legs. Dragon sat down and lazily swished his tail from side to side. In boredom, he gazed across the water, only seeing the Light of the Valley and some fish bobbing on the surface before diving down into the waters again. Looking upwards toward the sky, he wished again.

“I wish something, ANYTHING would happen…”

Dragon let out a sigh and closed his blue eyes and let the wind buff his scaly face. At first, there was only silence but after a few minutes, he heard something. It was faint at first but then it became clearer as it drifted across the lake towards him.

“Talk to me, what are you doing,
What are you thinking right now?
Set me free, I'm just a prisoner to you. Time goes by.
I'm still waiting forever and a day now, I thought I saw you yesterday,
I thought those words I heard you say.”

Dragon opened his eyes and scanned across the lake again for the singer. However, even though the voice was clear as a bell, he couldn’t see anyone. Standing up, he used his ears to located where the sound was coming from. It seemed to be coming from his left, near the far side of the lake. He pondered whether or not to fly over but then If he did that, whoever was singing might run and hide if they saw him flying towards them.

If he walked over there, he would at least see them before revealing himself. Putting his plan in action, he crouched on all fours and weaved his way though the reeds toward the singing voice.

“When I look at the sunrise, sunlight melts my fears away,
When you’re living this feeling,
Don't ever let it go, when I look at the starlight, it feels right,
I want it on my mind, I set you free, I set you free, I set you free.

Look at me, what are you thinking, tell me what your seeing.
Let me go, if there’s nothing you believe, time goes by,
I'm still waiting forever and a day now,
I thought I saw you yesterday, I thought those words I heard you say.”

Dragon crept along the lake bank toward the sound until he came to a large willow tree. Even though he was larger than most of the inhabitants of the Valley, this tree, maybe thousands of years old, dwarfed him. He used this to his advantage as he hid himself behind the trunk. Slowly, he peered around the corner and gave a sharp in take of breath at what he saw.

“When I look at the sunrise,
Sunlight melts my fears away,
When you’re living this feeling
Don't ever let it go,
When I look at the starlight, it feels right,
I want it on my mind,
I set you free,
I set you free.
I set you free, I set you free.

Ohhh ohhhh ohhhh

Sunrise, sunrise, sunrise”

Sitting by the lakeside, singing was another dragon. As far as Dragon knew up until then, he thought he was the only dragon in the Valley. He looked around again to get a better look. The other dragon had a slimmer build to him and had pea-green body with lighter green head spikes. The other dragon also had their back to him so Dragon couldn’t see what they looked like from the front. He wanted to get closer, to see this stranger. He leaned on the tree trunk for a second before looking up it with interest.

“When I look at the sunrise,
Sunlight melts my fears away,
when you living in feeling,
Don't ever let it go.
When I'm under the starlight,
It feels right... I want it on my mind, I set you free, I set you free.”

The other dragon finished the last note of her song and paused for a moment. She didn’t know why but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched….

Suddenly she heard a cracking sound above her. Before she could look up, another red dragon fell down and dangled upside down in front of her. She gave a yell of surprise and fell back. Picking herself up, she glared at the red dragon, who was more preoccupied with trying to untangle himself from the willows drooping vines.

He muttered and cursed as he was trying franticly to free himself, with little success. The female dragon watched him for minute before trying to get his attention.

“Err…. Need some help there?” She couldn’t help smirking as the red dragon stopped struggling and glared back at her.

“No thanks, I’m doing just fine here.”

He tried again to release the hold of the willow branches wrapped around him but he was getting more tangled up than getting close to releasing himself. He heard giggling as he looked up from the vines to see the other dragon trying to hold back a laugh. When the other dragon saw him watching her, she did her best to compose herself and spoke again.

“Really? Correct me if I’m wrong but it looks like your not getting any luck in getting out of those.” She said, teasingly.

Dragon couldn’t help but feel embarrassment as he glared at the female.

“Well, It…It takes time to figure out, Okay!!” he snapped.

“Okay, if that’s how you feel, I’ll leave you to it.” The female replied, turning around and walking away from him.

Just as the green dragon was going to walk away she heard him calling to her.

“All right, all right, I do need help. Can you please get me down?” Dragon said, feeling annoyed with himself and embarrassed that he couldn’t get himself free.

The female dragon turned to face him and walked up to him. She reached out up to the branches that were holding his legs as she answered him.

“That’s kinda better, and if I loosed it like this…”

She managed to unravel a couple of branches just as Dragon fell to the ground with a “Thump”.

“And you are now free.” She finished as Dragon picked himself up from the fall.

He mumbled thanks to her as he brushed some leaves that had fallen with him. The female dragon just smiled.

“No problem, always eager to help.” She then looked at him quizzically.

“So why where you up a tree anyways? She asked.

“Well, I heard someone singing and I hadn’t heard the song before. So I came to take a look at who was singing and because I didn’t want to disturb you or anything, I climbed up the tree to take a closer look and I guess the branch I was sitting on wasn’t strong enough to hold me and well….” Dragon finished miserably.

“So you were stalking me?” The green dragon answered.

Dragon looked up quickly and replied, “NO! I told you I was just curious that’s ALL!”

“Sure and you’re a stalker.” She retorted back.

Dragon felt himself blushing. Man, she was so annoying! He clenched his fists as he tried to think of a comeback.

“I am NOT!”

“Yeah, Whatever.”

“It’s true! The only reason I climbed up that stupid tree was because I haven’t seen another dragon, let alone a girl dragon in the Valley before!” He yelled.

She giggled and smiled at him, replying,

“Well, might as well take a photo cause this girl dragon is the only one around here besides you and this girl dragon has a name you know. I’m Aika.”

Dragon was silent for a moment. He drew himself up to his full height as he replied. He hoped that this would impress Aika.

“Well, I’m Dragon, Guardian of the Valley. Appointed by Budda himself, to protect the Valley from any disasters.”

For a moment, there was silence. Until it was broken by Aika, who burst out laughing. Dragon looked at her in confusion.

“Hey, What’s so funny?”

Aika was holding her sides, trying to stop herself from laughing. After a couple of minutes passed, she managed to control herself before speaking.

“Dragon? That’s your name? And what’s with the macho pose, you like you’ve eaten a wasp and doing the jig!” She giggled.

She grinned before having another attack of the giggles.

Dragon, fuming, yelled

“Hey, I’m telling you, I’m the most powerful being in this Valley! ”

Aika, once again managed to calm herself down enough to talk to Dragon.

“Really, and this is coming from someone who couldn’t untie themselves with out help.”

Dragon couldn’t help but be angered by her. She was so annoying and irritating! How dare she laugh at him! Okay, he guessed he did look pretty stupid hanging upside down but that was no reason to rub it in! He gave her a glare before he answered her, dripping in annoyance as he spoke.

“Well it doesn’t explain why you’re here. How do I know that your not here just to cause trouble.” He finished, crossing his arms.

Aika face changed to a serious expression. Dragon was sure he had the last word; there was a minute of silence between them. Suddenly she spoke, her voice had changed from mocking to a serious tone as well.

“I’m not here to cause any trouble, far from it. I just needed to…. Get away for awhile, that’s all.”

She looked saddened a little as she finished her sentence. Dragon glanced at Aika. This person who had poked fun at him just a minute ago, had altered into someone who was lost. He felt bad about some of the things he said before, so Dragon uncrossed his arms. He walked a few paces towards her until he was next to her. Feeling awkward, he smiled at her before asking.

“How do you mean, Get away? Where do you need to get away from?”

Aika looked at him, surprised at first but after seeing his encouraging smile, she relaxed.

“Well…” She began, “You don’t get much fun when you’re a Zodiac.”