Call of the Dragon
by Zaxxon
Part 3

[Shambalha:
Thursday Morning, Relative]

     Kwai Chang Caine and the Masters got all the present Masters
together to discuss the situation. Lo Si sat to Caine's right. The
Speaker sat facing Caine. 
     "And where is this place that houses the Book of Eternity?" asked 
one of the Masters.
     "The map does not say," Caine replied, "Not exactly. It says that
the /Cave/ of Eternity is actually a pocket dimension, like Shambalha
is, to reach the Cave one must find a gateway, like the one created by
the link the lesser Books of Shambalha have by being connected to the 
Great Book that always remains here, thus allowing the traveling between 
the two."
     "The Scroll of Gates," Lo Si said softly.
     "What?" came the reply to Lo Si statement.
     "The Scroll of Gates is said to contain the location of all the
known Gates. It was written by the shaolin priest Ka over a thousand
years ago," Lo Si answered.
     "And where is the 'Scroll of Gates'?" Caine asked.
     "In the Master Zhang's temple in Northern California with the
other scrolls kept in the Inner Sanctum," Lo Si replied, "It is a
day's drive from Sloanville to the Temple."
     "Why not open a Portal straight to the Temple?" Caine asked.
     "We need Peter," Lo Si answered.

* * * * * * * * * * *

[Sloanville 
Thursday Morning]

     Peter Caine decided he had spent enough time in the park and he
needed a change of clothes. As he walked out of the park he noted that
there was a spring in his step. The spring was because he was happy,
at peace with himself for the first time since the destruction of his
father's Temple. As he went, he noticed all the people on the streets
that he passed. While normally as a cop he would noticed them, today
he saw more than he normally saw. Each person, young and old, had a
glow around them. The aura differed from person to person, young to
old, and married couples to single people. Each person had their own
unique color. The few children that were out had bright, fuzzy auras
while their parents, Peter saw the links between parent and offspring,
had dimmer, more defined auras. Which made sense to Peter, children
would have more energy yet less direction than their parents would
have. The married couples' auras were joined some how, at times Peter
could not see where one of the couples began and the other ended. This
too made sense. /Isn't a marriage, a joining?/ Peter thought.
     Peter was not surprised about the auras of the people since his
father and his training as a Shaolin had talked about such thing. What
did surprise him was the auras of the buildings and other inanimate
objects. After seeing some people driving their cars, Peter realized
that the objects retain a piece of their owner and creator's auras.
Peter noted that he was not shocked at today's events, he was still
One with himself and the World. He could still hear the beating of the
World's heart. His heart had duplicated the same rhythm. After a while,
he realized he was listening to more than the sound of World's and his
hearts beating. He heard music that seems to be the thoughts and
feelings of the people around him. Before he had tried to filter out
such things, they seemed unnatural and annoying like bees buzzing
around his head, but now they were apart of a melody of a symphony.
     /A Symphony of Souls,/ came the thought. /Each person was a
different sound a part of the Symphony, yet a complete song in
themselves,/ another thought followed, /Better watch it, Peter, you're
getting philosophical./ The Symphony was beautiful. No note was
repeated that Peter could tell and there was no pause to it either.
Even when he entered an alley, the Symphony played on. Peter let the
Symphony fall back down and out of his conscious mind. It was
similar, he amused, to turning down a radio.
     It was the moment sound of static that happens in a radio that
brought Peter's attention back to where he was going. He looked at a
spot that was twelve feet in front of him. A black fog had come from
nowhere and began to condense into three humanoid forms. The three fog
forms were outlines of the human body without any details, only the
outer lines, three three-dimensional shadows come to life. 
     The forefront one came at Peter with a fog-shaped knife in its 
hand. Instincts kicked in before Peter realized what was happening and
he blocked the knife's arm with his forearm. He then delivered a punch 
into the creature's abdomen. The creature doubled over and was temporally
incapacitated, Peter's attention turned to the other two, both
creatures also had fog-shaped knifes and were changing him. At the
last moment Peter stepped out of the second creature's knife-swing and
hit the creature's back, causing the creature to fall. The third
creature came with the first creature from opposites directions,
charging at Peter. Peter simply moved out of the way and allowed the
two creatures to crash into each other. Peter noted that the second
creature was getting up along with the other two, yet the second
creature was not in striking range but if Peter did nothing now then
all three would attack him. Peter was not sure he could handle all
three at once due to the size of the alley. So Peter gathered his chi,
concentrated a bit into a small ball the size of his hand, and throw
the chi-ball at the creature.
     Peter could see, both mental and physical, the path the chi-ball
made towards its target. Peter had only tried this once before, during
his Shaolin training, it worked then and it seemed to be working now.
Then the chi-ball had pushed the Shaolin in the mask back a few yards
and Peter expected it to do the same now. But that was against a human
target, the chi-ball made a hole through the creature. Both the
creature and Peter was surprised. So surprised was Peter that his
focus faltered for a moment. The chi-ball no longer held together by
Peter's will exploded just as it passed out of the creature. The
explosion blew its energy into the creature, destroying it. The other
two creatures, the first and the third, paying no attention to their
companion's /death/ attacked Peter. In his disbelief and unfocused
state, Peter was cut by the third creature's knife and screamed at the
pain the wound cause. Peter accepted the pain as his father had taught
him, once accepted its was easily moved into the background of his
thoughts.
     The excerise got Peter over his shock with the realization that
chi energy could hurt, even destroy, these fog creatures. Refocusing,
Peter imagined that there was a chi field surrounding himself,
concentrating more chi energy around vulnerable spots like his back and
around his feet and fists, Peter attacked the creatures. Peter's chi
punch went through the third creature like the chi-ball did. After the
followup punch the third creature dissolved like the second creature
did. The first creature went the way of the third did. 
     Peter realized that the fight had not lasted long and things
were back to normal. The only reminder that what just happened was not
a dream or nightmare was the pain in his left side. With nothing else
to call his attention away, the pain came back full force. Peter moved
against the right side of the alley and slid ed down into a sitting
position with the wall as support. Peter slowly opened his shirt to
look at the wound. What he saw was a deep cut about four inches long
with a lot of blood coming out of it. As Peter looked at the wound, he
thought he saw it begin to heal. It was healing a lot faster than
other cuts had.
     "Nasty looking cut there, Peter," a voice said out of nowhere.
Peter gave a start and looked around. The disembodied voice was soft
to his ears but it had also sounded in his mind. He also noted that
his chi field still surrounded him. /With all that energy I'm using
the field should have collapsed by now,/ Peter thought. After he let
the field flow back into himself, he noticed a man was looking at him.
The man was six feet tall with white hair and brown eyes. He seemed to
Peter to be a martial artist like himself and his father, Peter
concluded from the way the stranger moved towards him. Yet it was the
strangers aura that truly started Peter. It was bright like a child's
yet as well defined as an old man. What's more Peter could not see
where the stranger's leakage was.
     Each people that Peter had encountered in his new enhanced state
had an aura which Peter believed that represented the external
manifestation of a person's chi. A person was born with a certain
amount of chi energy. This inborn amount was supplemented by the
World's life force that came into the body with a person's breathe
and left the same way. As the years went on the inborn amount of chi
would decrease with the years until the amount fell to a small amount.
At this point, a person would die. Yet the person in front of him
seemed to gather the World's life force like the other, but unlike
the others it did not leave him. Peter also realized that his flow of
chi that was escaping from his wound was decreasing to the point that
the wound itself was drawing in the planet's life force. 
     As Peter looked again at the stranger, he asked "Who are you?"
     "That, Young Peter, is not a simple question nor is there a
simple answer," the stranger replied. 
     "I really hate it when people call me 'young,'" Peter said.
     "You'll get use to it or out grow it in a couple hundred years,"
he said softly. He sighed and continued, "For now, simply call me
Zaxxon."
     "Okay /Zaxxon,/" Peter said, "Can you help me?"
     Zaxxon looked at Peter with a confused face and asked, "Why?"
     "Why? Because I got a cut in my side and I'm tired," Peter said
heatedly.
     Zaxxon smiled and said, "What cut?"
     "Huh?" Peter replied. "The cut on my right side over here." Peter
pointed to his right side that was perfectly normal. "It was cut," he
said defensively.
     "Yes, it was. Now it's healed," Zaxxon answered. "What does that
tell you?"
     "It means I'm healing faster than normal," Peter returned. "Does
it have something to do with your comment about a couple *hundred*
years?"
     "Yes, Peter," Zaxxon said, "When you're centered and grounded
like you're now, you'll heal at a very acceralated rate and you're
aging process is consciously controlled. Your chi, for the most part,
remains at a fix level."
     "Huh?" Peter went stupid. "I do not understand."
     "It's simple, you're immortal, Peter Caine," came the reply.
     "What?" Peter said startled.
     "Unlike other people, Peter, you can keep the World's energy that
comes from the Dragonlines. You can not be killed, destroyed, yes,
kill, no. How many 'close calls' have you had?"
     "A few. Comes with the territory," Peter answered with a shrug.
     "What if I told you that those close calls were not close but
fatalties?" Zaxxon asked. Zaxxon did not wait for an answer but 
continued, "Your first 'close call' was at your father's Temple, right?"
     "Yes," Peter said, not understanding.
     "Yet Ping Hai convinced your own father, who you have always had
a psychic link with, that you were dead. He also convinced you that
your father was dead instead of the truth that he had left thinking
*you* were dead. Ping Hai did not lie to your father," Zaxxon said.
     "What?" Peter shouted, "Then you mean to say that I was dead?"
     "In a manner of speaking, yes," Zaxxon said calmly. "Like the
other 'close calls' that you had. You 'healed' from wounds that a
mortal would have died from."
     "Why me?" Peter asked quietly for he knew from last night's
soul searching that Zaxxon spoke true.
     "That's a hard one to answer. I could ask you 'Why not you?' but
I won't. I'll simply say this, your great-grandfather became a Shaolin
priest despite the fact that he was a half-breed, not full Chinese
that had been required. Your grandfather, also a half-breed, became
the Master of the Temple he trained in. Your father was the Master
of the Temple of his own temple and now he's a Shambalha Master. And 
you .... Well, you're a Guardian of the Dragonlines."

[=== End of Part 3 ===]

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