Here, a tale is told of a young tree sprite, Nabiki. A sprite is a fantasy-type creature- or an elf-type person. Sprites come in different elements or types. Sometimes there are crossovers. Some examples of elements are water, fire, wind, and ground. Types would be more extended forms like electric, steel, rock, grass/tree, ice; and to those that go even further, there’s psychic, poison, bug, and ghost and even dragon. Crossovers are like ghost/poison, bug/poison, electric/steel, rock/ground, ice/water, psychic/water, psychic/ghost, and tree/grass/poison.

Sprites also can be in social types, for where they live. Grass is most likely in meadows and trees are more in forest. Fire is usually at a volcano or any other place, so some might be more "normal" than others. Rock can either be mountains or caves, water can live in rivers, oceans, or lakes. Wind will be either in clouds, the wind itself, or anyplace in the sky. Sometimes, though, they might be "space".

The story takes place in the medieval times of Japan, even though the style is medieval English (weird, huh?) except for most names.

Now, enough of this background stuff, here is my tale…

If I had known what I’d go through in my life I would have committed suicide the day I was born. Now; now my life is just the rotting core of a half-eaten apple. With a torn up body, my still strong fear of fire, my grandmother who still stares at me like something will happen again, and… and well, again with my fear of fire.

Oh, how I LOATH fire! If fire could just be soaked into the element of water, I’d skip and jump for joy- even though my arms and legs are burnt.

And why are they burnt? Why are they burnt?? Why are they burnt??? WHY ARE THEY BURNT?!? I can tell you a whole story of why I’m rotting away! It was that godforsaken Silver Dragon…

…I woke up from my cot and slipped my feet into my ankle-high boots and wrapped my green cloak around me to keep away the morning chill.

Walking out to the porch of my small house made of grass, I greeted my grandmother, who, in return, just glared at me suspiciously like I had just grown two horns and a tail. Wincing back, I silently walked to a stream and looked at my reflection.

A pale face, as pale as snow looked back at me. Dark brown hair hung from the head. Black eyes looked back at me when I looked, but I wasn’t just looking, I was staring, deeper and deeper like you could just fall into those eyes and never return. It was my face; my face that I was looking at.

My cloak was dipped into the water a little, but I didn’t mind, and just brushed it back while kneeling down and splashing some of the water onto my face.

I stood up again, returning to the village and back into my house, my grandmother glaring at me as usual, but I decided not to pay attention so much, as it was what she did-- no-- ‘does’ everyday.

I walked into my small bedroom and, from a wall by the window, I took my sword that was hanging from it. The light shimmered onto it, making it glow an iridescent celadon on the blade and thick roughage was wrapped around the handle for easier gripping. I had only found it in the Ubame Forest, sitting on a rock. I had thought it would belong to somebody else, and for quite a while decided to just let it be. Although for some strange reason, curiosity came over me and the moment I picked it up, I immediately became attached to it. I used it to let out any anger that I had kept in me, though it was only a swing of it that would make me recover.

I had almost become addicted to it and would spend my time at the end of my day slashing fallen leaves or branches that were slowly drifting in the air. I then didn’t spend too much time with my friends, and they’d come looking for me.

To keep my oh-so-special privacy, I looked for a place to go and just stay there while fencing. All of Ubame Forest was known by all the sprites of any element, especially since the forest was so small. There was a neighboring forest that was across a wide river that was never visited by anybody because it looked so scary. That’s why they just called it the "Dark Forest", which in some people’s opinion was pretty corny.

I was always afraid to go since I might sometimes hear the howl of a strange animal, but as long as I had my sword, I swam across the river (water sprites aren’t the only people who like to swim. Tree sprites love water!) and crept into the forest chopping down the dead trees that were in my way.

A healthy tree was rare, which bothered me a lot. There was one healthy tree that anybody could see from anywhere since it was so big that it almost reached the end of the sky.

Anyway, I suppose people would know that I kept sneaking into the "Dark Forest" and my friends would start to contact me the moment I crossed the river.

Oh, my friends-- I fear they had loved me too much… although I’m not sure of Kuno-- he had an obvious crush on Suikun, who’d spray him with water and ice every time he got near her. Kuno, how did I love thee?

1. Umm… Ehhh… number one, let’s see now…

I’m sorry, I never liked him that much since he was a fire sprite. A fire sprite that cared, but still, I’d keep my distance from him.

Well, along with the story- I shouldn’t bore you with my small side stories and such. Especially if it’s about my friends-- who needs to know about them? They’re dead.

I was going to go to the "Dark Forest" early today, but was interrupted by Zoey, who just appeared in a blur of light blue and crossed her arms, not letting me pass.

"Nabiki, you have to stop running away," she said desperately, "You don’t know all the dangers that are in the Dark Forest!"

I didn’t reply for a moment, but after a minute I said, "At least it isn’t any other forest."

She gave a sigh, and knew that even if she did stop me today, I’d go out at night and I guess anger would go over my fear. Darkness always gave me the visions of flames leaping out of nowhere and dancing around me until --WHAM-- I’d be burnt to a crisp.

After she flew off into the low clouds, I just decided to sit on the steps of my porch instead. I suddenly didn’t want to fence and just sit down.

"It is the time," a cackling voice said.

I looked to my right, where the source of the voice was from, and saw my grandmother looking at me with an even more suspicious glare at me. I shivered through my cloak at this and shifted my weight a little.

"It is the time," she said again.

"Yes, it is… isn’t it," I agreed, confused, and stood up before walking deeper into the Ubame Forest.

"You can’t ignore the prophecy!" she shouted out at me before I disappeared from her sight.

"What?" I wondered, gripping the handle of my sword handle.

But before I could take another step, a colorful aurora blew past me like paint being swept along with the wind and I stood wearily before looking up to walk along again. But instead of seeing more of the Ubame Forest, I saw a large portal that led to who-knows-where.

To the right of me, I could see equally confused sprites, whom I all knew. Yes, it was Zoey, the sky sprite; Kuno, the fire sprite; Suikun, the water and ice sprite; and it would end with me, Nabiki, the tree sprite who was considered "The Deadly Silent One" to those who didn’t know my name.

"Hey, just what is this?" asked Kuno, his red hair stuck up by the ends and seemed to glow a little.

"I demand to know what is happening here!" said Suikun and her hands glowed with a pulsing blue energy.

"Is this some kind of joke?" asked Zoey, levitating off the ground.

I remained silent as usual. Oh sure, my mind can go to inhuman heights and my world was vivid and full of the power of imagination. But none what so ever was poured out into my act of speaking and I just gave a questioning look like the other three sprites.

A chubby- looking man waddled his way up a staircase of steel, where two steel sprites that must have been his guardians, stood by.

Now that chubby man was the leader of Ubame Village, no matter how strange he looked- he was known as a mysterious leader who was also very serious and could frighten off anybody who came in his way.

"Kuno, Suikun, Zoey, Nabiki," he said to us fiercely, "Now is the day that all of you are 11, for it is Zoey’s birthday. This means that the four of you must prove yourselves worthy of life, for your ancestors have once done a deed that can never be forgiven."

Now a chorus of "Why not our parents?" or "Why not our grandparents?" rang about from them.

"SILENCE!" ordered the leader, who was backed with the two steel sprites that stomped their feet hard on the ground, and the other three sprites kept their silence. "Each of you must face the Silver Dragon, which is in the parallel forest of the Dark Forest. The portal will always be open if you want to escape…" he paused, grunting at the wide grins on everybody’s faces, which quickly turned to frowns, "…but if you come back without the dragon dead, you will pay a penalty, which is your life!"

This had immediately saddened me. I’d be stuck with a fire-breathing dragon and I HATE DRAGONS!!!

But still, they had forced us to slay this Silver Dragon for a reason we barely knew, and we cursed our ancestors for whatever they had done to make us go through with this. We were literally thrown into the portal, and before you could say "dragon" we were on the ground in a forest similar to the "Dark Forest", but it was much, much worse.

The sky was scarlet, the sun (or is that a moon?) was just this black thing hanging there. There were black clouds that streaked the sky and everywhere you looked made you feel like you’ve just entered the realm of the Forbidden (or maybe we did).

We were surprised at the site of a giant silver scaled dragon that stared at us with her gleaming eyes the color of brandy, for we had thought we’d be in search of the dragon for a while… not she was in a search for us in a short amount of time.

She was a majestic creature, indeed, though. Each silver scale shone with the color of the rainbow, hence the fact there wasn’t much of a source for light. Her wings were built for flying, but was in a rested position at her back, and would most likely stay that way since she was so big.

At the sight of her, we all had different reactions. Suikun squealed in fear and winced at it; Kuno prepared to fight like he was actually going to win against her; and Zoey… well, Zoey just stared at it. What did I do? I ran. It was a counterpart of the "Dark Forest" so I knew a place to hide.

A tree sprite, being a tree sprite, could sink into a tree and stay there for a while, which most did when they sleep for the night. I went to a quite large tree, although it was dead. Jumping onto the first branch, I then relaxed and sunk into the tree and it looked healthy again with leaves shooting out and branches uncurling, but it was only me, and if I left, it’d return to its dead state.

From here, I could watch what was going on-- and it wasn’t exactly good…

Zoey tried attacking her first and flew around the dragon like a pesky fly with a blue aura. If she stopped flying, the Silver Dragon would take a swing at her and she’d start to fly off again and around.

Her glasses, though, nearly fell off, getting tangled in her blonde hair and that’s one of the reasons she’d stop. Although, what had come next hurt me so much that I think some of the tree had returned to its dead state for a moment.

She had foolishly turned her back on the Silver Dragon, who had grown tired of her games and, standing on all fours, swung her tail at her, where each of the small hairs that were at the end of her tail were like thin blades of a knife, and when the hairs had reached her she was sliced up into thin pieces of meat.

Kuno and Suikun said something, but I couldn’t hear since I was so far away.

Suikun had chose to try and defeat her alone, saying how if it was a fire-breathing dragon, she’d win, or at least, that’s what you got from the look on her face.

She held her arms and hands out towards the dragon and shot out a beam of water and ice, which hit the dragon hard on the head. Her wings flapped for a moment out of annoyance and she spat out a stream of sharp leaves.

The leaves of course stood as anything related to a plant, and easily cut through the ice and water. The leaves hit Suikun, cutting her in several places. Though she just aimed a more powerful beam and the leafs fell to the ground. Now the Silver Dragon spat out fire which melted the ice in the beam, making the water an only obstacle. This wasn’t hard since it had a lack of size.

With the half of the bulk for her attack, the fire went right through the water and hit Suikun. The fire surrounded her like a cyclone for a moment, and what was left was a large puddle of a gooey, pasty, warm puddle of melted ice and evaporating water.

Now, the next word I could hear, since it was a cry from Kuno, going "SUIKUN!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

This was the time when I actually thought that Kuno was good for a fire sprite, since fire and fire could work out… couldn’t it?

Kuno shot out a spray of fire that seemed quite large in revenge of his beloved Suikun. Now the dragon spat out water at him. She seemed to have the power of any element, and if I were to face her, she’d either go flying up high and hitting me at the ground, or spit out fire, which was- no, "is", the LAST thing I wanted to happen.

Well, it was easy to say that Kuno’s flame was put out permanently with the water, and for that moment I was actually with the fire, but now my fear washed over me again at his death.

The whole time I was just watching in this tree. I couldn’t return or it would be the penalty of death, and if I went towards the dragon it would be a penalty of death again.

Maybe I could just live in this tree for the rest of my life. That’s a thought I had for a while.

No… I couldn’t do that. It’d just lead to my death as well. So what was around me was death, death, and death. Oooh, all the different, unique, choices there were. Isn’t this situation fun?

I had might as well gotten over with it quickly and jumped out of the tree. I had decided to face the dragon, and just… do what I could. And I had my sword, didn’t I? With a slash of it, I’m sure I could win!

I ran as fast as I could with my sword held out to my side, ready for a side cut on her leg. When I approached her, and swung the sword with all my might at her left back foot.

Great, so the scales were like built in shields and my sword did nothing. The Silver Dragon looked down at me and prepared to spit fire. I moved out of the way quickly enough for it to only burn off my right boot and singe my leg.

I got to her right leg and started to climb on it, using the slits in between each scale as a foot hold. A fierce wind blew past and my cloak flapped about like a cap, and I started to feel incredibly cold, not to mention incredibly hot from my burnt leg. I gradually fought through it, and reached the top of her back. Immediately, I grabbed hairs that whipped along from her back to keep my ground on her, and slowly moved toward her head. This was an incredibly hard task, since her wing were flapping rapidly at her knowing I was on her and she tried her best to throw me of like a wild horse.

I grabbed onto what I could of her gnarled golden horn, but my arm barely wrapped around it, and to keep my balance I was practically leaning on it instead. Her head shook wildly and she almost managed to fling me off from her head, but I still grabbed on.

I wielded my sword from the rope that held it and raised it so the point was aimed at the eyes of brandy. Now I wished I didn’t have to kill her. I was just this 11 year old girl, WHAT WAS I DOING???

The pause had given her the chance to throw me off and I plummeted down to the ground, landing on my side where I knew I’d be sore if I could live for the next day.

She spat out fire at me again and I moved out of the way, but it burned almost my entire left arm. I had a burnt arm and leg and those were the two I was more skillful with than the other two limbs.

Again she spat out fire and more of me was singed. That made all for of my limbs and part of my bare midriff. My cloak still fluttered around me, though, and the rope that held my sword as well, but that was all, and I was almost considered dead.

I decided, though, that there was nothing to lose and I threw the sword at her, hoping it would make a direct hit and kill her. And that was the bad thing-- it did. It went straight through her eye and disappeared in it, supposedly going into her brain, and so, she collapsed onto the ground with a large shudder on the earth. And it was over…

…So now, what was so bad about it? I think now you know. Now I fear fire even more, and even I pity myself for it. And just how long ago was that little story I told you? Oh, only five years ago- THAT’S RIGHT! I’m already 16 and all I do is stay cooped in my house with my grandmother, who still stares at me like this.

I get up, walking back into the straw house to get away from her.

"You can never ignore the prophecy," she says in her cackling voice.

So now it all comes together, doesn’t it. No! For shame that what she had meant was that the prophecy was the fact that she, my grandmother, was the one who had committed a devilish crime… and unable to make up because of her sacredness of age to the town, I must fill in for her… as long as she lives, and she’s immortal, so I have to go through one trial of fire after another? The Silver Dragon all over again? Oh Silver Dragon, I pity both of us and how we must go through death over and over again. There must be a way to prevent it… THERE HAS TO BE!

"PROPHECIES CAN BE BROKEN!" I kneel down and run my fingers through my hair as if it can fix my brain, but it only reaches my scalp, and now I see a tear on the soft grass. My tear. A tear of gold, but gold that can be reduced by silver… but not just one tear… it’s two tears… three tears, four, five six…

Awe, how shameful it is to live a life of pure death. A doll dragged around only to be drawn up by a child and thrown away five minutes after. I hope you enjoyed it, or maybe in this case cried upon it (well, not literally). You know, it is torture for one to live a life of death and a weak will, but one with a strong will can get used to it and use it more on strategy to win each battle. Nabiki, however, may have a wild imagination, but her soul is not lively enough to accomplish such power.