The Black dragon.

\"In the real world, as in dreams nothing is quite what it seems.\"
-The book of counted sorrows.

Jazm sat at home staring at the ceiling contemplating about all that happened the night before. Clare had gone off to work and since there hadn\'t been a death in a long time the morgue was unusually empty, therefore giving his parents an easy time in managing it alone. There was nothing for Jazm to do, and since he had no friends he was alone once again. But strangely the solitude did not ease his soul as it had all his life; he felt strangely vulnerable and needed the presence of somebody to ease his paranoia.

\"A shadow lies amongst you. To defy the future cast.\"

Strangely that sentence from his dream stayed in his mind the longest, lingering at the eof aof all his thoughts. It was like a premonition, a hidden message of sorts. He also did not like the way \'it\' had said that all shall be revealed in due time. To him it sounded like this was only the beginning. The beginning of your psychiatric downward spiral Jazm thought to himself bleakly. Perhaps I should just admit myself voluntarily right now. Laying on his bed, Jazm stared up at the ceiling fan, it was slowly twirling, recirculating the dank humid summer air. Jazm stared up at the fan as he slowly drifted off to sleep. His eyelids feeling heavy as he closed his eyes to be surrounded by the darkness once again. He awoke with a sudden; it looked like he was in the same room that he had fallen asleep in, so familiar, that he had been there before. But it felt strangely different, like he had just slipped into a dream within a dream. Like he was trapped within a parallel universe of dreams.

\"On the 13th day of the 47th month of the millennia it shall begin.
The gateway between darkness and earth shall be opened and for many it shall be known as \'Judgement day.\'
From the ashes 5 shall rise, 5 to carry the light and vanquish the darkness.
Shall they succumb to the darkness? Or will they bring the light back to the world?\"

A small childlike voice was heard from behind him, whirling around Jazm was confronted with a small child, whom looked to be only about 8 years old with long white hair. He was dressed in a white tunic and had eye\'s that glowed from within. The child beckoned him to sit on the bed next to him. Jazm sighed to himself, struggling to think of a suitable explanation for his voluntary visit to the psychiatric ward. Sitting down onto the bed wearily he studied the child. It seemed to be giving off an almost ethereal aura as they studied each other. Jazm was the first to break the ice.

\"So I suppose you are another guardian? Do you guys have names or do I just have to refer to you guys by the cheesy title of \'guardian of the north\' or whatever you happen to be the guardian of. You know if I call you by real names it might make the people in the psych ward less liable to keep me as an involuntary patient.\"

The child smiled and giggled.
\"Ha ha. I AM the guardian of the north; you may call me by my real name if you would prefer its Zaedea. I am also known amongst others as the prophet.\"

\"Ok then, Zaedea, I suppose you wouldn\'t know the name of that big lump of a cousin of yours? You know that big black, kinda scaly and intimidating looking guy. About 12ft high with a big mace.\"
Jazm replied, feeling more at ease with talking to this figment of his imagination as opposed to his other incarnations.

The child frowned, and made a slight growling noise from deep within his throat.
\"The one you must be talking about is the Guardian of the south, and he is no blood brother to me. He is the Dark prince cast out from his empire of darkness by his father Angsttaler I believe his name to be Astaroth, his blood is tainted with deception and malice. If he is with us on our journey then I would advise that you tread around him with extreme caution. Everything he touches is tainted with poison.\"

Jazm grinned,
\"Well he sounds like my kind of guy. If you don\'t mind I should best be off, since this is the beginning of my mental breakdown I don\'t doubt that I shall be seeing you very soon. Knowing my luck it will be in a 6x6 padded cell doped up on lithium. But we do our best. Cya soon Zaedea!\"

The child smiled and nodded, beckoning Jazm to lie back down onto the bed. Sighing to himself he climbed back onto the bed, welcoming the clean sheets wrapped upon his body as he drifted away back to sleep. An escape from his insanity back to reality.

The sound of the door knocking brought him back to reality, waking him from his slumber. He looked around the room, there was no weird looking child or 12ft monstrosities. Sighing in relief he got up of of bed. The sound of somebody knocking on the door resounded up the hallway again as Jazm climbed out of bed, his hair everywhere from his slumber earlier as he stumbled towards the door to answer it. Opening the door he was greeted by a grinning Clare. She jumped forwards hugging him mid-air, bringing Jazm down onto the floor with her momentum. They landed with a resounding thump, the sound reverberating throughout the house.

\"Ouch.\" Jazm said, greeting Clare with a wince of pain.

\"He hehe sorry baby, I thought you needed abit of excitement in your life to keep you from going morose.\" Clare replied grinning as she got up off him.

\"hmm I think I need a raincheck on that.\" Jazm replied, getting up off the floor brushiff tff the dirt from his clothes.

They got up off the floor and Jazm looked at Clare, there was something different about her. Her hair was still the same, as was the clothes. Something else... perhaps a trinket of some sorts?

\"What are you wearing?\" Jazm said, noticing a rather large bulge below her neckline, he was pretty sure that it wasn\'t a tumour, from what he learnt in human biology tumours usually took abit over 24hours to reach a bulge of that magnitude.

Clare grinned excitedly, as she reached underneath her shirt to fish out the trinket.
\"Check out this!\" She squealed pulling out a medallion half the size of a golf ball.

The medallion shone in the dim light of the room as they both bent forward to study it better. It was circular in size with runes surrounding the exterior with the centre piece compromising of a marble sized green stone, The stone was surrounded by two dragons on either side of the stone interweaved, their mouths bared towards each other, with the green stone separating the two. They were scaly and black in colour with one of the dragons being slightly larger and older looking than the other.

Jazm shuddered inwardly, but he did not know why. He had a strange feeling that this medallion was a lot more significant than it looked.
\"So where did you get this from? Please don\'t tell me its another one of your
\'Mysterious packages.\'\"

\"No no, this is a gift from my grandmother, she passed away about a month ago and she gave this too me as a part of her will, stating that I must wear it at all times. Strange, I have never heard from her til now and she gives me this chunky medallion, stupid cow. Ah well I guess it kinda looks cool, mum was horrified when she saw it. Kept going on about how it looked \'sinister\' pfft. Personally I think it looks rather pretty.\" Clare replied putting the medallion back underneath her shirt, reverting her attention back to Jazm.

\"...And according to the calender, it is a very special somebody\'s birthday tomorrow. The 13th of November. Man you are going to be so old, how does it feel? Maybe I should buy you a wheelchair for your old age.\" Clare teased poking Jazm.

\"Ow. Stop. My bones get very brittle in this old age you know. So what\'d you get me?\" Jazm replied, smiling broadly.

Clare winked and poked Jazm hard in the ribs again.
\"Well... I don\'t like to give surprises away, but I can give you a preview if you want.\" Clare whispered sultrily as she nibbled on his ear.

\"Two previews in two nights? It\'s like Christmas has come early!\" Jazm laughed pulling her over him. Little did he know that after tomorrow Christmas would be the last thing on everybody\'s mind.