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  “?ri’vera.”

  The voice—low, soft, impossibly familiar—drifted toward me from behind, barely more than a whisper, yet it struck something deep within me, something old and unspoken.

  I jumped up and shouted:

  “Who are you!?”

  Then the Jade Dragon, with fierce jaws and sharp claws, roared in the skies. I instinctively hid behind the creature who called, because it looked friendly and called my name softly. And it looked ready to attack in a nasty way, so I screamed louder than I ever had in my life.

  “It’s me, it’s Drakos!” He hardly had time to soothe me when I saw him suddenly turn into a young novice, standing shakily by the energy and wind created. When I looked up, there appeared to be many faces, some looking like avatars, mainly in green and violet, angry—whether angry or focused, I couldn’t figure out. Then the young novice manipulated some energy and lights from his chakra points and lifted the backs of his palms, whereby all the above subsided, including the faces, leaving sadly.

  Naturally, I was witnessing and going through something that could tear my guts open.

  I turned, and he hesitated, deciding to change his form into a bigger dog than my companion, a Shepherd dog. My breath still caught in my throat, surreal tension rippled through my body as my heart faltered, unsure whether to race or stay still altogether. The world itself seemed to pause, as though holding its breath alongside me. For a moment, I could only take a step back, staring, my mind struggling to grasp what I was seeing. The very air around him shimmered, shifting subtly with his movements. His fur, once familiar, now held an ethereal quality—soft, thick, yet somehow luminous. Iridescent hues rippled through each strand, catching the dimming light and scattering it in a mesmerizing array of jade, gold, and twilight blue. The colors moved like the reflection of the aurora on water, alive yet untouchable, as if his very form was caught between the tangible and the divine.

  “It’s me, Drakos, ?ri.” Immediately, in a strange way, I recognized if Drakos could speak, it would be that timber. Then I settled down, observing his eyes—those once-familiar amber depths—met mine. They had always been warm, steady. Now, they held something else. A knowing. A quiet, infinite understanding that unsettled me as much as it drew me in. It was not just devotion anymore, not just recognition. It was as if he had glimpsed something beyond the veil of existence and returned with that knowledge embedded in his soul in ancient myths.

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  He was something unfinished, something in flux. I had time to make some deductions. He was a being caught in the tension between creation and completion, between the mundane and the celestial. His presence was both grounding and unearthly, familiar and foreign. A paradox wrapped in shifting light and quiet power.

  “Drakos? Really, it’s you. You saved me?” I whispered. My knees felt weak as I took a shaky step toward him.

  He stood tall, his head reaching my waist, his presence commanding yet calming. The snow swirled around us, though not a single flake landed on his shimmering coat.

  I imagined how he’d shielded me from the avalanche, but I didn’t know how. I recalled how he used the energy that had erupted from the mountain, the brilliance that had seared the skies.

  “You can hear me talking,” he said, his voice like a faint bell carried on the wind. He wasn’t speaking aloud. I felt his words deep in my chest, resonating.

  “What happened to you?” My voice trembled, swirling like me without ears. He tilted his head slightly, as if considering his answer.

  “I’ve become... what I was meant to be. A Cosmic Vehicle of the Enlightened Path. A guide for what lies ahead—for you, and for me. And with the change, you can understand some of the enigmatic concepts. You have achieved something. You are sixteen now.”

  Sixteen. I was barely fourteen. I was intrigued but distracted at the same time.

  “Who sent you?”

  “A Cosmic Sender of the Enlightened Path. You’ve seen some of them.” He answered lightly, as if he was grinning. “And you may be surprised that they needed us—rather, they needed our energy, generated by our consciousnesses—to prevent our deaths from happening. And as far as I can fathom now—before my rank reaches theirs—last but not least, the space and time, you know, the Mandala eons of neon, protons, and electrons churning and churning…”

  His words landed strangely in my ears, full of jargon, yet they felt natural, as though I’d always known what they meant. As they shifted as softly as snowfall, leaving me in a silence so weighty I thought I had gone deaf, Drakos approached and nudged me gently, snow cascading from his newly transformed figure.

  “Cosmic Vehicle?” I repeated, still grappling with the idea. How could I, a fourteen-year-old—a wanna-be celestial wand shooter of the Universe Destroyer—grasp it overnight?” He interrupted, “I know your secret, but scout’s cross, I would not tell anybody.” I ignored him. My fingers brushed his fur—warm, solid, real. “You are as tall as I am, yet you are soft. You sound soft. I love the softness of your Qi energy, your similarly soft heart that I can feel. I should learn from you… But, let’s find out: your real identity! I don’t need another imposter!”

  Haha! Haha! His laughter sounded weird. As if in my ear, as if in my consciousness, as if in the void…