A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter, if there were any. As of right now, I don’t know if any have…

“Well, if you hadn’t put that big huge warning at the start of the thread on that website, people would be reading it by now,” Vion said, thwaping the author on the back of the head. Ow! Hey! Don’t make me have you singing in soprano, mister! "Alright, alright... I'll stop..." That's better...

Dragon in the Mist: The Beginning

Chapter 5: The Start of Something Big

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'You know that will never keep me out, Vion. I am part of you now, thanks to that spell,' the voice in his mind told him.

"I don't have to listen to you anymore," Vion said, pulling a bucket out of the shed. "I chose my own path long ago. You don't control me, and you never have."

'You keep telling yourself that. You know what I say carries weight with the world, though.'

---

“Vion! Vion, come one! Wake up! It’s Festival Day!” someone called from the door of Vion’s bedroom. He groaned and turned over to face away from the annoyance and pulled his pillow over his face.

“Five more minutes…” he muttered.

“Vion! You promised!!” Ryuko said as he jumped on the kitsune to wake him up. He grabbed his pillow and held it up away from his reach. "You were going to take me to the faire today!"

Melerissa walked into the room then with a laugh. "That isn't the best way to wake someone up, Ryuko."

"I know," the bluenette said, climbing off the bed and sitting on the chest at the foot of the bed as Melerissa opened the curtains.

"Don't worry about it Mele. He's been doing this all week since they started setting up the faire," Vion said, glaring at the sunlight that poured through the south-facing window. "May... It's been a year..."

'Don't mourn to much, I'm still here you know,' the voice said silently as Mele and Ryuko left the room.

'Don't remind me. I've tried to forget about you in the past month,' Vion swung his legs out from under the covers and to the floor, which had been wood a week before, but now sported soft lambs-wool rugs. He made his way over to the large walk in closet and opened the door. 'One more day,' he thought. 'One more day and I can put the past behind me...'

You know this will never be done with. I won't let you forget what you did, the voice said.

'Just stay out of my head,' Vion replied. 'I don't need your quips.' The kitsune walked out of the closet, securing the black band of mourning around his bicep. He walked over to the chest that Ryuko had been sitting on and opened it, revieling a dagger with a glowing pommel stone.

You'll never be rid of me.

'I'll find a way... Don't worry, I'll get you out of my head,' he thought as he pulled the dagger out and secured it around his waist.

---

After breakfast, Vion and Ryuko walked down the street towards where the seaside market was usually held. "So, what are you going to get?"

"A mirror," Vion said simply.

"A mirror? Are you really that worried about your appearance?" the bluenette replied.

"Maybe I am?" the kitsune said with a grin. Ryuko punched him in the arm and gave him a look that said "Seriously." "Okay, okay, Mele's been getting on my case about getting a mirror-portal set up."

"Oh sure, like you won't use it to primp and preen like a girl," the young boy said, pushing his hair up in an imitation of the girls in the city. Now it was Vion's turn to punch the boy lightly.

"I don't primp and preen," he said firmly.

"Then why do you spend so long in the bathing room?"

Vion pulled the braid that held his hair back over his shoulder. "You see this? This takes twenty minutes to wash, twenty minutes to rinse and another thirty minutes to dry. That's why I take forever to get out of there." The kitsune threw the braid over his shoulder with a definite feminine air.

"Sure, whatever you say, Vion. Hurry up!" the pre-teen said, racing ahead of the kitsune. "We're going to miss all the fresh sweets!"

Vion laughed and ran after the boy, the ends of his black arm band flapping in the generated wind.

---

When they got to the festival, they split up. Ryuko went right for the games and food while Vion searched the stalls for a suitable mirror. Many merchants tried and failed to get his attention with rings of gold, earrings of silver, and strands of precious stones. It wasn't that he didn't want any of these things, he couldn't by tradition until he had forgotten a year and freed himself from his self-inflicted servitude.

A strand of song reached his ears, making them twitch towards the make-shift stage set up in the middle of the market.

I am death, so they say
Be on guard, keep away
Do not touch me,
Do not even try.
I hold death in my hands
Bane of peoples and lands
Anything I might reach for will die.

Do not break down my walls,
Little Elighn
Do not tell me what I would not hear.
Do not challange my lies
Nor reproach me with your eyes
Do not waken the nightmares I fear.

I am death, harsh and cold
Like the sword that I hold
Like this blade that slays
Foeman and friend.
We were five now alone
Into worlds yet unknown
I wage warfare that Time never ends.

Do not break down my walls,
Little Elighn
Do not tell me what I would not hear.
Do not challange my lies
Nor reproach me with your eyes
Do not waken the nightmares I fear.

I am death, like the sea,
And your conscience will be
Little Elighn, that sea is too wide!
I shall swollow you whole
I shall drown your poor soul
And the wreck will go out with the tide.

Do not break down my walls,
Little Elighn
Do not tell me what I would not hear.
Do not challange my lies
Nor reproach me with your eyes
Do not waken the nightmares I fear.

I am Death, let me be
You mean nothing to me,
I shall use you
and cast you away!
Why must I feel your pain,
Does no armoring remain
If I ask you to leave me...

"Would you stay," Vion whispered along with the end of the song. The woman on stage was young, maybe just out of her teens, with pale skin notorious from the northern country of Hakkar. Her hair was jet black, and fell to just above her shoulders, though it had the look of a fresh cut.

The man next to her started playing his guitarin agian, starting up the thread for the next song. Vion hummed along for a moment, but stopped when he heard someone calling his name.

The kitsune looked around him, while the young woman sang the counterpart to her first song, though it was lost to the kitsune as he searched the crowds for the one who could have called him.

Over towards the smithy, a cloaked figure was checking out the swords and blades that the burly blacksmith had to sell, without actually catching the man's attention. Vion pushed towards them, though when he got there, the person had moved further down the street.

Vion followed, dodging crowds and people with large stacks of boxes. He passed more makeshift stages, many with actors putting on a comedy for the faire-goers. The cloaked figure was never less than two stalls ahead of the silver-haired kitsune, but was still close enough for Vion to find.

When the figure seemed to stop, or at least for more than a few moments, it was right in front of the glassmakers shop. Through the large bay windows, Vion could see that the old glassmaker had several mirrors for sale, ranging in size from large to miniscule. "What the hell? Why would you bring me here..." he thought out loud.

A crowd of people passed between him and the cloaked figure. When they passed, the figure was gone. Vion blinked a couple of times. "Damnitall!" The kitsune walked up to the glassmakers shop and looked in the window past the mirrors. Nothing.

Sighing, Vion walked into the shop, seeing as he had to go there anyways. The aged shopkeeper walking from the back of the store when the bell above rang. "Ah! Hello there!"

"Hello Kaz. Any good mirrors for sale today?" Vion asked, walking over to one of the displays.

"Of course! Mele needs a new mirror, does she?" the glassmaker asked, going over to another desplay and unlocking it with of the keys off his big ring.

"No, she asked me to get my own mirror to key to myself." Vion looked at the mirror's, expertly grading them. One of them, the frame perfect for holding Gate Gems, wasn't right. The silver on the glass was too thin and would burn off as soon as he activated it. Another one, the silver to glass ratio perfect, wasn't in the right kind of frame.

"Well, you're in luck then, boy. I have just the thing for you." Kaz pulled out a medium sized mirror, the frame like the first one Vion had looked at, but bigger, and the glass was black insted of clear. "I've been saving this for when she came by for another Link Gate, but it looks like you need it more than she does."

"That's perfect! How much do you want for it?" the kitsune asked, reaching for his coin pouch.

Kaz stopped him. "For Mele's student, nothing. I owe her too many favors to ask for anything from someone she's teaching. Who knows, maybe I'll owe you a favor or two," Kaz said with a grin. Most of his teeth were missing, but it didn't seem to scare anyone away.

"Thanks Kaz! Do you mind if I come by later to pick it up?" Vion said, walking back towards the door.

"Not a problem, kid. Just come back before I close tonight, and everything will be all-good."

Vion smiled at the old man and walked out of the building.

----

Later, after the festival was packing up for the day and Vion had gone to get his mirror, he and Ryuko walked back to the manor. "So, did ya win anything today, Ryuko?" Vion asked, shifting the mirror in his hands so it was under one arm.

"No, not really..." Ryuko said. He looked at the ground ahead of himself and kicked a rock down the street.

"Ryuko..." The bluenette looked up and his vision was filled with the sight of a glass flower. "For you." Ryuko just stared in shock for a few moments. "Go on, take it. I'm not moving until you do."

Ryuko took the flower and held it to his chest. "Thanks Vi!" he said with a smile.

"No problem, Ryuko..." he replied. I only wish I could give you more... he added silently.

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Well, there we go with yet another chapter! I hope this time I actually get reviews...

"Well, if you don't scare the readers away with these things, then maybe they'll read!"

Oh, shut up Vion....