Where am I?
What is this place?
Is this a dream?
Or have I finally woken up?
Klonoa wearily opened his eyes, almost afraid to find out where he was. To his relief, he was alone, save for Huepow sleeping in his ring. The landscape was green with vegetation, a forest, and very peaceful. Not a sound could be heard, at least not immediately so.
The sky suddenly turned a bloody shade of red, casting its hue on everything it touched. The air around him turned hot, and Klonoa covered his face, struggling to breathe. The immediate, powerful stench of fresh blood stung sharply in his nose, and a wave of heat washed over him before he again lost consciousness.
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"Hey!" came a child's high-pitched voice. "I think the weird youkai is waking up!"
Again, Klonoa opened his eyes. This time, he was in a hut with a small boy peering down at him. The child's appearance was human, as far as Klonoa could tell, but the pointed ears and tiny fangs suggested that he was some sort of elf or otherwise.
"Oh…" Klonoa sat himself up and rubbed his head. "Where… Where am I?"
The little boy just giggled childishly.
"You talk funny!" the child laughed.
"You think I talk funny?" Klonoa wanted to say. "You should listen to the stuff coming out of YOUR mouth!"
The door opened, and an older boy entered with a girl. The boy's hair was a silvery shade, and two canine ears peeked out from amidst the wild mane. He looked down at Klonoa, a mixture of anger and annoyance in his eyes.
"What the hell kind of youkai are you?" The older boy asked gruffly.
"Eh? Youkai?" Klonoa blinked before registering the question. "I'm not a youkai! My name is Klonoa, Klonoa of the Wind."
"Klonoa?" the girl repeated. "What kind of a name is that?"
"He talks kinda funny if you ask me." The little boy smirked.
"Be quiet, Shippo!" the girl scolded. "That's not nice."
"I don't care what your name is," the older boy sneered. "If you're not a youkai, then what the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
Klonoa finally managed to get to his feet. He rubbed a ruffle of fur on his ear smooth before answering.
"I don't know what I'm doing here," he toyed with his shirt zipper. "Only that I show up in dreams where I'm needed."
"'Show up?'" the girl blinked. "And in dreams?"
"Keh!" the older boy spat. "Probably after the jewel like every other youkai we run into!"
"I told you that I'm not a youkai!" Klonoa barked back. "And what's this jewel you're talking about?"
"The Shikon jewel, of course!" the older boy bellowed.
"Inu Yasha! Calm down!" the girl shot the silver-haired boy a glance that quickly shut his mouth.
"Shikon jewel?" Klonoa cocked his head curiously to one side and scratched it. "Never heard of it."
"How can you NOT have heard of the Shikon jewel!?" Shippo's jaw hit the floor in disbelief. Klonoa shrugged.
"Probably because I've never been to this dream world before." he replied.
"Dream world?" it was Shippo's turn to look confused. "What do you mean by 'dream world?'"
"Well,…uh…" Klonoa was caught speechless. "Well, it's where I come from and where I travel to. That's why in some lands, I'm called the Dream Traveler."
"How is that possible?" the girl asked.
"I don't know." Klonoa replied. "Just my destiny, I guess …a lonely one…"
"Lonely?" Shippo blinked.
Klonoa nodded.
"I can never stay in one world for longer than I'm needed there." He explained. "I almost dread making friends anymore…'cause once I leave, I never see them again."
"How sad…" the girl breathed.
"It's alright… I've gotten used to it over time… WHAT THE----!?" Klonoa began looking around the room in a panicked state, desperately searching for something. "Oh no! Where is it!? Where's my-"
"Giant ring?" Inu Yasha produced the oversized ring from its hiding place in his haori.
"My ring!" Klonoa, relieved, reached for it, but Inu Yasha held it up too high for the shorter fellow to reach.
"Hold on a minute!" Inu Yasha growled. "How do I know that as soon as you get this back you won't attack us?"
"I'll give you 2 blue dream stones if you'll just give it back!" Klonoa's tone was desperate.
"Keh!" Inu Yasha spat. "What the hell would I need dream stones for? I don't even know what they are!"
"GIVE HIM BACK THE RING OR I'LL MAKE YOU GIVE IT BACK, YA JERK!" came a high-pitched, squeaky voice.
"What the--?" Inu Yasha's ears swiveled in all directions, straining to pinpoint the source.
A strong pulse of light burst from the ring, startling Inu Yasha enough to drop it. Something round and blue popped out and gave the hanyou a good whack to the head.
"Huepow!" Klonoa's face lit up at the sight of his old friend.
"Klonoa!" Huepow cheered.
"Wahoo!" the two friends said together.
"Where the hell did HE come from?" Inu Yasha grumbled.
"The ring, stupid, where did you think I was?" Huepow raspberried.
"First, a cat with rabbit ears, then this thing that lives inside a piece of jewelry." Inu Yasha shook his head, annoyed. "What the hell is next?"
*********************
"I have heard of the dream worlds," said Kaede after she'd listened to the Dream Traveler's plight. "and those who live in them. But passage between this world and the dream worlds is supposed to be impossible, forbidden even! How is this happening?"
"Klonoa-kun, you said that you find yourself in another dream world each time you wake up, am I right?"
"Wahoo." Klonoa nodded.
"Hmm…" Miroku's brow creased in concentration. "It must have been some odd sort of dream for you to come to the real world then."
"A different…" Klonoa blinked.
"…kind of dream?" Huepow finished.
"It might not have even been a dream at all." Kaede suggested.
"But he said he only travels through dreams!" Sango shifted her giant boomerang so that it came down rather hard on Miroku's wandering hand. "How is it possible otherwise."
"Perhaps it was not a dream that brought him here…" Kaede spoke seriously. "but a state of consciousness…"
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Contrary to popular belief among Klonoa fans, Klonoa does NOT speak Japanese, but a Japanese-like jibberish. That's why Shippo made the remark about the way Klonoa was talking. To ease things up, I made it so that Klonoa's language is very similar to real Japanese, which is how the Inu-tachi characters can understand him.
This is Chapter 1. Where would you like to go next?
