History

[heir_of_dragons]

Tai grew up in a small town in New Jersey where nothing ever happens... At least until the summer before his senior year of high school. It all started at the yearly carnival/faire.

The day had started as it always did - he went with his best friend since pre-school Kou Mikano and Kou's little sister Naomi and a friend of hers. They were the designated "baby sitters", although in their town it was safe for Naomi and her friend to wander off alone. Kou and Tai had broken off themselves, meeting up with various of Tai's friends from the baseball team throughout the late afternoon and early evening. It was that evening when everything changed.

It started with a strange headache and then what he would later learn was a premonition of things to come. Tai had naturally panicked, uncertain of what was happening. Kou had made him sit down, telling him to stay put while he got him some water. It was while Tai was trying to make sense of things that he noticed a young woman staring at him from one of the booths. Her name was Maria, she was doing tarot readings. She offered to give him one free of charge because, in her words, she was bored out of her skull. Tai never put much stock into that sort of thing, but agreed because what harm was there?

If you asked, Tai couldn't remember what his reading had been except for thing. The Hanged Man was in his future.

Kou returned, irritated that Tai had moved, with water. Maria offered to do a reading for him. When Kou dismissed tarot as "nothing but bullshit", Maria drew a card spitefully. The Tower. Tai didn't understand; but it coupled with her words had an immediate effect on Kou. It was his turn to freak out, running off with Tai chasing after him. By the time he caught up to his friend he had worked himself up into a panic attack, and Tai felt his own brewing. But Tai was always good at ignoring his own panic in favor of his friends... And it was very clear something was wrong because it had looked like Kou was hallucinating and Tai made the mistake of suggesting he call Ms. Mikano. It had the opposite effect that Tai had hoped for.

It made Kou start running again, and Tai running after him. All the way into the carnival's Fun House. It was only after bumping into five hundred mirrors in the maze that he finally caught up with his friend. In retrospect, he really should've realized something was off with this situation. Despite how crowded the carnival was there had been no one around the Fun House, not even someone to take their tickets to enter. Tai had just rushed in. But he didn't realize at the time. Kou had been a mess, claiming that "he was here", even though Tai didn't see anyone outside of the two of them and that took priority then the strange emptiness. Going back the way they came through the mirror maze was out of the question as the mention almost sent Kou spiraling again, so Tai had no choice but to half carry/half support his friend as they made their way through the rest of the Fun House.

Then they ran into what Tai would refer to as some "creepy bastards" and he did not curse often or lightly.

It didn't take a genius to know whoever they were, they weren't good news. And when they told him to step aside so they could kidnap Kou? Nope. That wasn't happening. So he ran, dragging Kou behind him. He ran through the different rooms, trying to stick ahead of the group who seemed always just behind them. They wouldn't be able to outrun them, so Tai did the only thing his adrenaline raddled brain could think to do. He pushed Kou ahead, telling him to run with the intention to stall for time.

And then he felt a knife in his back.

Everything came in bits and pieces after that. He remembered Kou screaming, getting carried off despite struggling, he remembered lying there as he felt himself bleed out and then he remembered the strangest thing. He remembered Maria appearing, then another woman. They talked but he couldn't make out or remember anything they said until it was the woman asking him a question - "do you want to die?"

He didn't. He didn't want to die.

She said something else - something about if he wanted to form a pact with her. He didn't understand, she repeated it, and when Tai finally nodded she seemed relieved.

Then came a searing pain and then a rush of warmth that was overwhelming -

And then he was in a hospital bed. Kou was missing and Tai had been found unconscious in the fun house without a sign of injury. The fatal wound to his back was no where to be seen and when he insisted on the events that had happened, well, the doctors seemed to chalk it up as a stress reaction and maybe a concussion.

It wouldn't be until month later that Tai finally discovered the whole truth when Maria went apparently against everyone's back to pull back the veil and fill him in.

What he learned still felt straight out of one of Naomi's animes or a fantasy novel - yet somehow it made sense.

Magic was real. Magic was real and he and his friends were in the epicenter of some magical battle that had been waging for centuries. It had all started with a man named Markel who had, at the very least, set the entire magical world on metaphorical and probably literal fire in his attempt to open Pandora's Box. He was stopped by a woman named Serenity, and with his dying breath cursed her. That cursed, as it turned out, took hold and in a twisted sense of humor the fates decided to trap the two in a seemingly neverending cycle of pseudo-reincarnation where their souls would reside in an innocent bystanders body. Serenity would do her best to stay out of the way, letting the person live their life unbothered. Markel, if he could, would try to take over to kill her again and continue with his original goal. It was a cycle that would continue on and on... Until now, at least.

Kou, as it turned out, was taken by (in his opinion) a cult who followed Markel. Because he was the new "vessel".

And Naomi was the new vessel of Serenity, and Maria was a member of Serenity's followers referred too as the Court of Earth... Though Tai sometimes calls them a cult too, but only to annoy Maria or point out when they were being weird.

If that wasn't enough, he was introduced to Kaida who turned out to be a (young) dragon who, in a last ditch effort to save him from dying, formed a pact with him. As a result, Tai found himself with the ability to use magic. Actual, honest-to-God magic.

It had been an awful lot to take in, naturally, but there was one thing Tai was grateful for - it proved that he hadn't hallucinated that night. All of that had happened.

After that day Tai had more questions then answers, but Maria and the others he met in the Court did their best to fill him in. One thing became very clear during this time - that Tai was going to learn what he could and he was going to figure out a way to save Kou and stop this from ever happening again. The second thing was that no one should tell Naomi what was happening. For whatever reason they agreed, honoring his request. Tai wasn't sure why, but he wasn't going to question it.

There were other things he discovered as the weeks progressed. It wasn't only the fire magic that he unlocked. Tai found himself having more of those strange visions - and discovered he had been born with the "gift of sight". Something he was progressively finding more and more annoying then helpful as they began occurring with more frequency. But then on Halloween night the stupid visions came in handy because while at the library/community centers party he saw Kou. Of course he didn't realize it at first, but when he did he called Maria, the two putting the pieces together.

He found Kou in the basement of the library turned haunted house, scared out of his wits and very clearly traumatized, but safe after escaping somehow. It was a whirlwind after that with police and EMTs involved and for the briefest of moments Tai thought that would be it. Everything was solved and they could go back to normal.

But it was only the beginning - and now Tai found himself not only in the middle of this mess trying to protect his friends, but also with a large target on his back as became a very large thorn in the side of Markel's cult and -

And really, Tai just wanted a normal senior year.