Jingyi

He has gone by many names over the course of his short life; The name he was born with, Jingyi, and finally Tyle.

He was born and raised in the Land of Dragons within a temple hidden away in the depths of a bamboo forest. The forest lay on the outskirts of a small village who left gifts and offerings at the shrine as a thanks for the fertile soil and happiness the people of the town received. The ones responsible for such gifts were Tyle's parents, two fox spirits who were bound to the shrine and eagerly gave what they could to the villagers who had discovered their shrine and brought life back into it. The pair thought they could experience no greater joy then inacting playful little pranks on the townsfolk and helping their crops grow generation after generation - until they had a son. From a young age he was getting into trouble, small, curious, always on the move and not bound by the restraints of the shrine as his parents were. He'd spend days in the village playing with children, playing pranks on vendors, and bringing flowers or fruit to the sick or sad. While being unable to get track of their child caused them distress, his parents were proud of him and were delighted by his antics when he was home. Things were good and Jingyi could not have been happier - until the change happened.

Jingyi did not notice at first, so prone to wandering and spending so much time at the village, when his parents first started acting strange but one day when he came home they were angry with him and he could not figure out why. Their anger and aggitation faded when he was safe and sound at home and increased when he would leave. One day, he simply did not return home, lingering in the village and hiding on the outskirts when his parents would come looking for him. He watched from his hiding places as they scoured the village by night for him, calling out his name. They seemed worried, they apologised, but still he stayed hidden - too afraid and confused by the change in his parents to risk being found.

A week passed and Jingyi began to notice the same strange behavior in the villagers. They were irritable, jealous, aggressive and no matter how many attempts he made Jingyi could not seem to bring a smile to anyone's face. By the second week he made up his mind to go home and see if his parent's knew what was happening or how to stop it but when he got back to the shrine it was overrun by living, writhing shadows. The only trace of his parents that he found was his mother's scarf, which he had just enough time to snatch up before the new guardians of the shrine - two massive fox like shadows - attacked. He barely managed to escape with just a few scrapes and bruises and returned to his hiding place and was able to do little more than watch in horror as the shadows, led by the pair of foxes, descended upon the village and laid waste. He hid, face buried into his mother's scarf and waited in silence until the sounds of screaming and fighting finally came to and end.

He might have hid forever, trying to hold back tears and make himself as small as possible, but he heard a voice call out from the town. The voice sounded kind, though breathless. Worries that a normal person was still out there in the town, possibly hurt, and oblivious to the dangers filled Jingyi's mind and spurred him into action. He slipped out from his hiding hole and carefully made his way into the ghost town following the sound of the voice until he came face to face with a battle weary man with kind, sad eyes and a gentle face.

"It's not safe out here. Come with me, I know where you can hide and I can fix up your hurts."

He wasn't taking no for an answer even though the man attempted to tell him that everything was all right. Jingyi led him off to another hiding spot, had the man sit down, and then he was off again to collect the herbs he knew he needed. Upon returning he got to work crushing the herbs into a paste and applying them to deep cuts and dark bruises and the man introduced himself. He said his name was Auro and he said that the danger had passed, the shadows were now gone. Seeing the inuries up close for himself and remembering the eeiry silence of the town he was able to believe that what the man was telling him was true.

They sat in silence for a time, Jingyi listening for any signs of danger as the man rested and regained his strength. Eventually, Auro asked where Jingyi's parents where.

"Gone."

That was all Jingyi knew for sure. They were gone. He hoped that maybe they had gotten free from their shrine and had fled to safety, but he couldn't be sure.

Auro stayed for a time after his injuries healed, searching the town and forest for more survivors but when it became clear that there was nothing he had to call off the search and start thinking of heading home. Before he left, he offered to let Jingyi come with him. He looked after two other children just a little older than him. It would be safe there, away from those yellow eyed shadows. Jingyi was hesitant at first, wanting to wait for his parents, but the idea of being alone at the shrine waiting was too scary and lonesome of a thought so he accepted and returned with Auro to Skaia.

All at once, all the fear and wariness he had been feeling vanished and was replaced by wonder and curiosity. The city was massive, filled with people the likes of which he had never seen before. Unfamiliar and exciting scents and sounds assaulted his senses and when he looked to the sky he noticed it looked so much closer - as if he could touch the sun if he just reached out his hand. He followed close at Auro's side as the man made his way through the town, greeting people who called out to him and picking up snacks from one of the open vendors - he called it a 'peace offering', explaining that he had been gone too long and he hoped this would smooth over his return with those he looked after. Jingyi followed still even as they left the city limits and made their way into the forest and started up the mountain path to the Temple of the Sky. It was a wonder that Jingyi was able to stick to Auro's side and not wander off, so filled with curiosity and wonder as he was. They barely made it inside the temple when they were greeted by a tall individual with horns and large teeth and another boy with wild, cloud like pink hair. They rounded on Auro, demanding to know why he took so long - he missed game night, we were worried! But when Auro produced the still hot sticky buns he had picked up and handed them over the two quieted down and finally took notice of Jingyi. The one with the horns was Gray, Auro introduced, and the one already messy from the sticky bun was Vex. Tyle could already tell that they would be very fast friends - and they were.

He chose a new name for himself, something that both Gray and Vex had done when they came to live there, and spent his days exploring his new home and attending Auro's lessons. Mostly, he kept close to his new friends, tagging along with them on their adventures and getting involved in their pranks and even starting up a few minor prank 'wars' amongst the three of them. When he was not following them around, he was immersing himself in the culture of the city. His favorite thing, besides the food, were the festivals. It seemed like almost every month they were was a festival to celebrate something, some larger or smaller than others, but no less fun and exciting. He loved the magicians and the fire dancers and on his own began to practice fire dancing from memory, having an affinity for fire magic it was easy to control and manipulate the flames to do as he wille - though harder to be graceful about it. He was also fond of jugglers, in particular the contact jugglers, he could spend hours watching the smooth crystal balls float and fluidly glide across the hands and arms of the juggler. This, he also attempted to practice on his own and eventually sought out instruction from his favorite juggler and he learned quickly. Jingyi's habits of helping people had not died in the village of his old home, he still kept an eye out for people who needed help and offered his assistance freely or would bring gifts to people who were sad. He took to noticing tourists of the city and offered to show them around to make sure their experience in Skaia was just as pleasant and wonderful as his was. He never accepted payment for this, despite Gray and Vex's protests, saying he was just happy to be helpful.

Things suddenly changed again in ways Jingyi couldn't understand. One morning Auro had left early and after reading the note left behind ran off to wake up Vex and Gray - it was always exciting to have the whole temple to themselves. He had thoughts of watching movies and eating so much junk food that he got sick and spending nights out under the stars. First he got Gray awake, climbing up onto the bookcase and then pouncing down on them for fun - and that was when things got weird. Gray started awake, wide eyed and breathless and when their eyes focused on Jingyi he felt...uneasy. The look in Gray's eyes was different, colder, warier. They asked the date and seemed irritated and confused by the answer when Jingyi told them. Nervously, he hurried along and gave Gray the news hoping it would snap his friend out of their sour mood but wordlessly Gray scrambled from their bed and fled the room. Jingyi wondered if they were sick and tried to put the thoughts from his head, deciding that he and Vex should sneak off into town and get breakfast - Gray's favorite. Surely that would cheer them up. Unfortunately, Gray barely paid mind to them and seemed consumed with digging around into Auro's office until they found a letter.

The next day things continued to get weirder, as did the following day, and the day after that. Gray ignored him and Vex and Jingyi wondered if he had done something wrong. His plans for a fun couple of days was disrupted and after the fourth day Auro had not returned. Jingyi attempted to carry on as usual, hanging around with Vex with the older boy was not training and practicing his forms, and wandering through the town looking for something to get up to.

By the end of the week, Jingyi was finding it hard to keep up a happy face. Auro was still gone and Gray was still not talking to them. Vex seemed just as troubled as Jingyi but dealt with his unnease by diving headfirst into his training, something to keep his body and mind active. Jingyi took to the town hoping he could find something to distract himself, and he did. After a few hours of listless wandering he noticed a stranger dressed in black asking around town for a cave. The locals mentioned the Cave of the Ancients, but advised it was unwise to go looking for it as it was easy to get lost in the winding caverns. One suggested that they ask Auro, the keeper of the Temple of the Sky, he might be willing to give them a tour as he knew the caves better than anyone - unfortunately, he had not been around town recently. Before the stranger could get much further Jingyi came up to them.

So together they left the city and into the forest where Jingyi showed the woman the hidden entrance to the Cave of the Ancients. The place was a curiosity that Jingyi still couldn't understand. The locals sometimes called it the 'Whispering Caverns' as the further in you went the more you could hear faint whispers from the cavern. Jingyi had once thought it was ghosts, but Auro assured him it was nothing to be worried about. It was just memories of the past, of the entity that gave it's life to protect Skaia and place the city high in the sky protected by clouds and the sun. Jingyi relayed this history to the stranger as they made their way through the cave, eager to finally have something to keep his mind off Gray's strange behavior and Auro's absence.

As the whispers started to get louder the excitement started to ebb and Jingyi began to get nervous. The stranger was...well, strange. They seemed to know more about the cave than they had originally let on, making it very clear that they wanted to see the 'heart' at the center. Jingyi wanted to leave, but the woman had made it clear she would keep going on her own if she must and he felt guilty letting her continue on alone where she might get lost, so he continued on. Deeper and deeper they walked into the mountain until they finally came to the central chamber, a massive half circle of a room opening up to a sheer drop below. The cavern walls were crystaline and glittered in the light of the energy that floated at the center. It was peaceful here, the whispers were less spooky and more welcoming, warm, and a steady thrumming reverberated over the cavern walls like some great sleeping, purring cat.

The woman was entranced by the energy, the heart, and stepped closer - when she did the whispers grew louder and turned aggressive. Jingyi could almost swear he heard the cave ordering them to 'get out'. He attempted to get the woman's attention and bring her out, afraid of what might happen if they stayed, but the woman insisted that it was okay. She could fix this, she simply startled the sleeping heart - but she would need Jingyi's help. Eager to de-escalate the situation, and to be of use, Jingyi listened as the woman pressed a smooth, ice cold stone into his palm and asked him to just place it against the heart - doing so would make everything better. Jingyi turned the stone over in his hands, frowning at it's smooth surface dark surface. The glow of the room seemed absorbed by it, as if this stone were just a black hole eating up all the light immediately around it. At the growing irritation in the woman's tone, Jingyi reluctantly stepped forward and moved closer to the heart until he was close enough to reach out and place the ice cold stone against it.

Everything happened at once, so fast he had trouble keeping up. The stone adhered to the heart and sank into it, blackening the vibrant energy and corrupting it. The cavern around them lurged, the half circle of a platform they were on began to crack and pieces broke off but did not fall, they hung suspended as if time around it had stopped. The whispers had turned to screams, piercing his mind - but worse than the screams was the laughter. He could feel the woman at his side now as he crouched in fear, he could hear her laugh. He could feel her hand as it tousled his hair.

"Thank you, little one, you've been so helpful."

Over the screams it was hard to hear the voices shouting from somewhere blow their crumbling platform, or the voices coming from behind screaming his name. As Jingyi turned his head he had just enough time to see Vex racing towards him, and then just behind Vex was Gray - screaming and reaching out for the two of them.

Then the heart collapsed in on itself like a dying star and after a brief instance of chaos, there was nothing - just the cold, empty darkness.

The next time his eyes opened it was to the dim lighting in an alley caught in the middle of a warm summer rain. Flashes of what had to be a nightmare were quickly retreating from his mind as wakefulness claimed him, images of shadows and yellow eyes and cold vanished as he blearily blinked the sleep and raindrops from his eyes. He looked around and attempted to take in unfamiliar sights as panic and anxiety began to gnaw at his gut. He didn't know where he was and he was alone. So very alone. Thunder rumbled overhead and a flash of lightning made his shadow jump on the wall beside him - he flinched from it, scrambled to his feet, and ran. Instinct told him he needed to hide, someplace small and dark where no one would think to look for him but the mere idea of being surrounded by darkness, of being trapped, made his heart stutter and his mouth dry. He settled for hiding in a soggy overturned box just in the light cast from a street lamp. There, he stayed until morning when noise and chatter woke him.

It was too loud where he was. Too many people, shop keepers and vendors setting up to open, teens on their paper routes laughing and chatting together as they collected their bundles and ran off or rolled away on boards with wheels. It was too much. He scrambled out from the safety of his box and ran. It didn't take long for him to put the noise behind him and took even less time for the mystery of this new town to take hold of him. He wandered, observing people on morning jogs, admiring the massive clocktower and then immediately fleeing from it when it began to make a loud 'bong' sound that reverberated through his bones and skull. He nearly got hit by the tram, too curious and confused by the massive thing to realize it's danger until a stranger pulled him out of the way and began shouting at him. He couldn't make out the words, but their tone was loud and more people were starting to shout, so once again he fled. He fled back into the alleys, so much less scary with the sun out, and continued to wander as there was nothing else he knew to do.

Suddenly, he was pushed and everything went pitch black. He widened his eyes as much as he could trying to see something, anything, but there was just blackness. His hands felt uselessly around him and were met by something slick, cold, and hard. He was trapped. He was trapped in darkness yet again. Again? Again. He tried to cry out but the sound was choked out of him as he panicked, covering his head with his arms and hiding his face in the scarf wrapped around his neck. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he cowered, hoping for the light to return. Hoping to be set free. Then...all at once, the light was back.

"...Are you just going to stay in there?"

The voice was quiet and caught his attention at once. Peaking out from under his arms he was greeted with light and face. A girl was staring down at him with wild brown hair, alert cat-like ears, and wary brown eyes. He did not respond, but a smile stretched wide across his tear stained face. This seemed to confuse the girl further, but then she sighed and her face vanished from sight and a moment later he was tipped over and spilling out of the trashcan that he had been stuffed inside.

"Right. Well. Bye."

The girl studied him for a moment then started to retreat deeper into the alley and began to scale up the side of the building. Anxiety spiked through him at the idea of being left alone again and he scrambled after her but was not able to climb as she had. He didn't see the footholds she saw. He clawed at the wall as his breath came out in panicked, silent sobs and tears spilled fresh from his eyes. He tried to call out to her but no sound would come out, just more precious air that his lungs were unable to hold onto. When the girl poked her head over the side of the building to look down at him relief washed trough him and he smiled again and reached out to her - and that, seemed to be that. From that moment on the girl just became a part of his life, and he her's. She kept him safe when the world got dark, made sure he had food to fill his belly, and knew where to step when they ran across the rooftops. She showed him the city and all it's secrets that they could exploit. He learned her name was Neko and he learned that his name was 'Fluffbutt' - something she had begun to call him in lieu of an actual name. Over time, his voice started to come back to him - but that was all that returned. He could not remember who he was, he could not recall a name.

"Tyle."

It was the first thing to come to him, having just been walking along the tiles of the roof of a local shop.

"...Tyle? Like...'Tyler', but without the r?"

Neko seemed confused and frowned at him in that way she always frowned at something that she didn't fully understand.

"Yeah?"

He had no idea what an 'R' was, but if it was one thing he had learned during his time with Neko on the streets it was that he needed to just roll with things sometimes. With a shrug, she accepted it but told him she would still call him 'Fluffbutt'. Things might have continued that way forever, just the two of them slinking through the town never to be seen, eating fish and huddling together for warmth on cold nights but then the accident happened.

Tyle had gotten good at following after Neko. He was quick and nimble and once he knew where to step or what to trust his weight to it was like he had been born climbing up buildings and running across rooftops. One night, during a particularly bad rain storm, Tyle lost his footing and fell. The last thing he could remember for sure was Neko's horrified face as she turned to see him fall and her hand as she reached out in an attempt to grab him. It seemed so familiar...but then there was the crack. His head knocked against the cobblestone and darkness spotted his vision. His entire head throbbed and he could feel something sticky and warm on the back of his head. He was only dimly aware of Neko coming to his side, or her hands feeling his head and pulling back red. He was barely concious when she hoisted him up and supported him as they stumbled off into the night. Everything went completely black for him when he heard the sound of a door creaking open and Neko's frantic voice shouting something...? He was in and out of conciousness most of the night, reality blurring into the nightmares that creapt into his sleep. Figures, so familiar, reaching out to him, calling out to him. It was late afternoon the following day when he finally woke up. He was in a bed in an unfamiliar room and any anxiety that might have caused him was quickly stamped out by the simple fact that Neko was there at his side. Her hand was gripped tightly around his as she lay curled up beside him. If she was there, everything had to be fine.

It wasn't much longer before a new face came into the room, a worried and tired looking boy carrying fresh bandages and first aid supplies. Relief washed over him when he saw that Tyle was awake and as he changed the dressings and got him something to eat and drink they started to talk. His name was Edge and he had several questions, none of which Tyle could really answer except his name. When the boy left and it was just Neko and Tyle alone in the room again he tried asking about the other figures, something that made her frown.

"What other figures? It was just us? ...Are you sure you're feeling okay...?"

Tyle smiled and laughed it off, it must have been a dream, and he did not bring it up again. Not until later when animated shadows with yellow eyes began to pop up around town. Now a trio, Neko, Edge and Tyle had a few encounters with the creatures and after some discussions Neko admitted to having seen them before, and Tyle mentioned the strange dreams he has involving heartless. That was it then, it was decided - they would leave and try to figure out what was going on.