It was a beautiful day in Inashia when Janey woke up in the morning. Sunlight shining in through the small slits in the straw roof of her makeshift house. Birds chirping in the forest surrounding her and her cousin snoring annoyingly beside her as she took in the refreshing, grassy forest air.

Never would she have imagined that by the end of the day her cousin, a dragon friend, and herself would be hurdling towards a seaside warehouse from fifty feet in the air. Especially not in the way it happened. Though, considering the life she led, she really really should have expected it.

Janey and her cousin, Yoshinoia, went back to their home town of Pupsie that morning to gather provisions for their little "expedition" to an ancient temple that could hold a spell that could either bring back one's lost memories or create a portal to another world. Presumably, the alleged "Earth". In which case, both would be useful to Janey, seeing as she had slowly regained fragments of her memories by returning to Inashia but was still missing quite a few important events from her past while at the same time trying to find a way to get back to Earth (which by the way she was not from. At all).

Janey and Yoshinoia were often thought to be siblings rather than cousins, which made sense considering they looked extremely similar. They both had short, naturally white hair, wore long coats, and carried weapons. Most of said weapons were unconcealed swords and blades.

Yeah, that's right, unconcealed. These two had no shame and a pretty good reason not to. But that's not important.

Janey had short shaggy hair that somewhat curled around her face in the form of bangs just missing her golden eyes and a tail of long hair in the back of her head. She wore a black sleeveless, hooded, zip-up coat with yellow lining all the edges over a blue-green, bell sleeved long, sleeve shirt. She also wore dark gray pants with black leather buckled shoes, and always harbored two swords on her back, a dagger her father gave her as a child, and a small leather pocket that is actually able to hold an infinite amount of items so long as they can fit through the opening, as well as a small pouch of ashes from the spot where her mother burned to death in the castle she lived in with her parents before the war. She also held numerous other concealed weapons along with some other shady items and was often times mistaken for a boy, which didn't make sense at all. I mean, just everything about her screamed "I'm a teenage girl". It's totally not like she dressed like a guy or had short hair.

Yoshinoia, or a Janey called him, Yoshi, had short ruffled hair and usually wore a white, long tailed, open coat with red sword shaped emblems on the ends of its bell sleeves, a long unfolded collar covering his neck from nearly every direction but his front with a crimson red shirt underneath. He wore light gray jeans and white buckle boots with only one sword strapped to his back. Pale blue eyes peeking through his white bangs that covered pretty much everything but his eyes and lower face.

Their home town was actually made up of survivors of the kingdom that used to reside there but had destroyed by the war nine years ago. No one knew what happened to the royal family. No one, that is, aside from a select few. And those few weren't going to tell anything.

"Gu morn' miz Tempist." A baker said to Janey as they came into his bakery.

"Good morning Mr. Cris, would you happen to have any pastries this morning?" Janey asked, putting a sugar stick in her mouth as her cousin inspected some donuts.

"Why yes, lassie, I have a batch fresh out of de oven."

"Great! Could we have ten pastries to go please?" Asked Yoshinoia.

"Ten pastries!? Why does ye be needn' so many? Be ye hav'n a party and didn't invite me?"

"No," Janey replied with a sparkling smile, "We'll just be going somewhere and we're gathering provisions. If it was a party we'd definitely bring you. You're the life of the party!"

"Wail, where'z ye goin?" He asked quizzingly, raising an eyebrow as he passed the bag over the counter.

"Oh, well, we're just going to that ancient temple in the forest." Janey said as she walked through the door.

"Okey," Mr. Cris said. "Wail, ya two love birds be havn' fun." He shouted to them cheerfully, waving to them with his hooked hand as they left.

"We're not lovebirds!!" Janey and Yoshinoia shouted simultaneously before the door closed, nearly catching Janey's tail.

Mr. Cris chuckled to himself. Turning around to finish cooking his morning goods, he came to a moment of realization. "Wait just one secn'd, isn't da temple in the forest near a dragon's den!?"

The two teens spent the rest of the morning going around town buying things they might need for their little adventure. When lunch came around they went to their friend Kyle's farm and had lunch with the Awesomes.

"Sooooooooo, where are you two love doves heading off to after this?" Kyle's mother, Mrs. Awesome, asked, putting one arm in front of her and leaning in like she was about to talk about shady business.

"Yoshi and I DON'T have that kind of relationship!" Janey exclaimed, bolting out of her seat and shocking Yoshinoia and one of Kyle's two younger siblings who were sitting next to her.

"Oh, come on. It's okay to show your feelings for someone." Kyle's father, Cannan, said in a teasing voice.

"How many times do I have to say this, Cannan?! Me. And. Yoshinoia. DO. NOT. Like eachother. In. That. Way. Got it!?" She said solidly, sending another shock to her cousin.

"Jeez, calm down, Janey. They're just joking." Yoshinoia said, rubbing his shocked arm.

"Fine." She said, plopping down in her chair to fall into the grass behind her, hitting her head on a rock. "Gah! Hey! Who moved my chair!?" Janey asked looking at the chair beside her in the grass, just off the concrete of the pavilion. They all burst out laughing. "Hey! I'm serious, who did it?"

"Okay, I pulled it out from under you with magic." Kyle said, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Ey! No fair, I can't use magic!" Janey complained, still sitting in the grass holding her head.

"Just where are you guys going anyway?" Kyle asked as he went to help Janey up as the pulled her chair back to the table.

"Oh, you know," She said, sitting down. "Just going to that ancient temple in the middle of the Blue Forest. Nothin' big."

Red liquid sprayed all over the table as Cannan spit out his drink in surprise. "Are you insane!?" He asked. "That forest is the reason no one ever comes from the east! It's filled with vicious beasts and poisonous plants! Not to mention the dragons! Not even the royal army would go in there!"

Oh, Right. I forgot this guy used work for the royal guard. Man was he a scaredy cat though. But at least he kept every one's heads strait. The rest of the army had almost no common sense. Janey thought bitterly, remembering a time in her childhood when her four year old self could slip past the army's centuries unnoticed in and out of the castle and was still held responsible for keeping her quad in line.

"Daddy, don't spill youw owenge juice. Dats bad." Kyle's youngest sister said to their father.

"It's okay sweetie, we still have lots more blood orange juice left." Mrs. Awesome said soothingly.

"Hey, calm down ,Cannan. It's not like we plan on running into the dangerous parts and even if we do, we'll heed your warning and steer as clear as possible." Janey said, patronising him while she pulled her chair back up and plopped back down in her seat.