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Note: This book is fictional. Everything written here is generated from the writer's imagination.
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There was mist everywhere—so thick I struggled to keep my feet on the ground.
Smoke and dust choked the air, the smoke billowing from the dragon's nostrils and the dust rising from its endless trampling.
As I stumbled blindly through the fog, a powerful gust of wind swept across the ground, making my view even worse. I kept running forward until I crashed to a halt in front of a Jinko tree.
Jinko trees are ancient messengers, recognizable by their thorny, spiked exteriors—at least, that's how I identify them. I mean, I'm not one of the old ancestors with mystical wisdom, so duh, the thorns are the only clue. (Great, now I sound like my mum…)
The gigantic tree towered over me. If it had eyes, I would have looked like a flea at its roots.
Relief flooded me. Help had found me. To receive a message from a Jinko tree, you must pierce your index finger on one of its thorns.
I swallowed hard and pressed my finger into the spike.
"Azhurla…" a voice whispered.
A cold sensation surged through me, shivering down my spine. Fog swirled thicker around me until suddenly—I wasn't in the dragon's cove anymore.
I rubbed my eyes, stunned. Whoa. You're not going to believe this…
The Jinko tree before me shimmered in perfect clarity. And around me—thousands more. Messenger trees as far as I could see.
"Phew…" I muttered, wiping the sweat from my forehead. The heat from the dragon's fire still lingered, but here, I was safe. I was in the Jinko-Verse.
"Speak, Jinko messenger," I demanded, my voice trembling from both pain and exhaustion. My finger throbbed where the thorn held me captive.
"You have been summoned home by your brother, the Fire Sage Phynyx," the tree intoned. "Your mother insists that you return, and abandon your search for the crystal ball."
"It's called the Zephyr's Heart, duh. And I'm not going back." I rolled my eyes and tugged at my finger. It wouldn't budge. Stuck.
Panic surged. No, no, no—I couldn't go back. Not now. I thought the tree would promise help, not drag me home. After everything I had survived, how could I return empty-handed?
I needed the Heart. I needed it badly enough to risk my life. My only chance of saving Mama from becoming one of Jinx the Necromancer's slaves lay in finding it. Nothing else mattered.
"I won't go back yet," I growled. "Tell my mother to hold on. I'll find the Zephyr's Heart—and I'll come back alive."
With a final desperate yank, I tore my finger free. Blood welled from the wound, pain searing up my hand. Tears blurred my eyes as the Jinko tree shimmered, teleporting its message away.
I screamed, clutching my hand.
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Leaving the dragon's cove now would have been foolish. I'd fought too hard to get here.
I escaped Kaururse Castle, slipping past siblings, father, guards, and countless traps. Then came the Eramaus Forest of Gothism, where even the sand is alive. I almost died three times there:
Once, when I sank into living quicksand until a rogue vine dragged me free.
Second, when a school of walking sharks chased me across the Scaly Hills.
And third, when a Komodo beast nearly cracked open my skull for dinner.
By some miracle, I survived long enough to reach the Jarion Gates of the dragon's cove. Crossing them regenerated every body part I'd lost along the way.
I rested for two days in the pavilion's fruit dome. But luck ran out when I touched the Devil Fruit of Snitch. Its alarm woke the guardian dragons, and that's how the battle in the dusty fog began.