The Guardian is a creature who never sleeps so the Master found him most suitable to be in charge of supervising the Jungle. When he was personally asked by the Master to do this task, he happily consented without asking questions. The Guardian believes that everything should be utilized to their full potential and he thought that this is absolutely the perfect opportunity for him to do so. So it was no surprise at all when the Guardian instantly liked his job and excelled at it. While the other units in the Being suffered occasional breakdowns, the Jungle is always in tiptop shape. Under the Guardian’s leadership, the groups in the Jungle are so efficient in their tasks; repairs are done without delay, things are always right on schedule, and communication among the different groups is excellent.

Everything in the Jungle is perfect and this pleased the Guardian very much. Sometimes he finds himself asking if this is just a dream because he finds all these too good be true. Yet for someone who never sleeps, this is not possible. So instead of dwelling on this absurdity, he just spends his time and energy on keeping up his good work.

One day, the Master came to the Guardian’s quarters. The Master never comes to the Jungle just to check on things so the Guardian instantly knew that the Master has something important to say.

“I can very well see that everything is doing well in the Jungle, and I would like to commend you for that,” the Master told the Guardian as he looked at the web of sparkling trails from the enormous window of the Guardian’s quarters.

“Thank you, Master,” the Guardian replied.

“But you know very well that that is not what brings me here,” the Master continued, “so let me get down straight to business.”

With his blue eyes still on the pathways, the Master began speaking again. “I’m bringing in two new additions to the Jungle and they are to stay at the Core. You don’t have to worry about more responsibilities since you do not need to check on them from time to time. All you have to do is hand them a purple sheet of paper that I will be giving to you from time to time. I want no one else delivering them the sheet of paper except you. Do you understand?” the Master said, now looking at the Guardian.

“Yes, Master,” the Guardian nodded in reply.

“Thank you. I am sorry for this but you are the only one that I can trust. Have a nice day,” the Master said as he started to walk to the door.

“It is alright, Master. Honestly, this is not enough to show you how much grateful I am to be here.”

The next day, the two new additions came to the Guardian’s quarters after he did his daily rounds in the Jungle. As instructed, the Guardian took them to the Core.

“I am the Guardian of the Jungle,” the Guardian introduced himself as he walked both of them. “I am in charge of the whole place. If you have any questions or problems I am the one to approach.”

“I am Gaeln,” said the taller of the two. “I am very pleased to meet you.”

“I am equally pleased to meet you Gaeln,” said the Guardian as he quietly admired Gaeln’s emerald green eyes.

“And you are…” the Guardian turned to the other one.

“Veldi,” said the lad without even looking at the Guardian.

“Welcome to the Jungle Veldi,” the Guardian cheerfully said without seeming to mind the lad’s rudeness.

That was the last time the Guardian saw both of them. Every time he comes to the Core to deliver the purple sheet of paper, he would just slip it under the door and knock three times on the door to let them know of a new delivery. Therefore, he does not really get to see them. Nonetheless, the Guardian doesn’t really mind at all. As long as everything in the Jungle is in order, he is perfectly complacent with the way things are.       

Being its trading center, the Rocofale Square is the Kingdom’s busiest area. The place has buy and sell written all over it; all of the goods inside the Kingdom, from the most worthless rug to the most expensive gem, can be found here. For this reason, one can rarely encounter somebody who haven’t heard of the place.

The Master is a frequent visitor of this place with the rest of the Kingdom’s inhabitants being unaware of it. That is because the Master is a master indeed, and that includes being a master of disguise. He is really a tall handsome dark-haired guy with gentle blue eyes, who keeps a clean shaven look all the time. No one else in the Kingdom has seen the Master in his true form except for his subjects.

To the folks inside Rocofale Square, he is the young traveler and treasure-hunter who constantly goes to the square to trade his rare finds for something else. On that particular afternoon of the second day of the eleventh moon, two decades after the Clan of the Phoenix had their disastrous fate, the young treasure-hunter appeared on the streets of the Rocofale Square once again. Yet this time, he did not bring anything with him except for two pouches of angel’s breath. The angel’s breath is considered the most precious commodity inside the Kingdom. So when the treasure-hunter came into the jeweler’s shop asking for the black piece of stone accumulating dust at the corner of his store, in exchange for his angel’s breath, the jeweler was really taken aback.

“Young man, you can buy the whole Kingdom with that baggage of yours. Are you sure that you only want the ugly piece of stone for those? ” the jeweler asked as he eyed the pouches with awe and longing.

“Certainly, sir,” the young man replied without batting an eyelash.

“I’ve been a jeweler all my life…” the jeweler replied back, “…and my experience tells me that this stone has absolutely no value at all.” “I can give you The Crown of Thousand Tears for the angels’ breath, or even sell you the whole shop if you want.”

“I really appreciate your good intentions, sir, but I would really want that stone in exchange for these,” the man said as he held up the two pouches for the jeweler to see.

The jeweler sighed. “If you really insist on having this stone then I will gladly hand it over to you. But before we trade our goods, can you at least tell me why you want this stone very much?”

The treasure hunter only smiled back without even trying to open his mouth to speak.

The jeweler got disappointed but his anticipation for the precious pouches held him from asking more questions. “I understand,” he said instead. “The stone will be yours, then.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” the young man replied when the jeweler finally agreed to give him the stone.

As the jeweler saw the young man off, he held on to his most precious angel’s breath as he told himself over and over how he cannot seem to understand young people these days.

- - - - - - -

The Master looked very happy as he strolled down the alleyways of the square. If I will be able to pull this off, the consequence will be worth a million times greater than all of the angel’s breath in the Kingdom combined, he thought. While the Master is in the middle of his reverie, he suddenly felt a hand try to snatch away the small pouch that he is holding. But because He IS the Master, the hand was not able to elude him no matter how swift it was.

The Master looked at the face of the thief as he held his wrists tightly.

“Don’t you know that stealing is against the laws of the Kingdom?” the Master told the thief who was trying so hard to break away from the Master’s grip.

The thief tried to bite the Master’s hand but before he can even get close, the Master had already managed to slip his free hand onto the thief’s neck.

“I just want you to know that the more you resist, the more that I am not letting you go. So if you are wise enough to understand this situation, you will promise to come with me,” the Master said as he looked straight into the thief’s hazel eyes.

Realizing his defeat, the thief tried to give the Master the best nod he could while the Master’s hand is still on his neck. The Master understood and decided to let the thief go.

Nobody saw the Master and his companion arrive at the palace. As soon as they got inside, they proceeded to enter the chamber where the Great Yellow Owl last encountered the lovely creature with silvery white hair and emerald eyes.

Once there existed a tribe of people who lived until they are 100 because their bodies possess the ability to heal themselves. But once they reached the age of 100, their bodies naturally rotted away until they became completely pulverized into ashes. After one hundred days, a new life rose out from these ashes to complete another hundred-year cycle. Because of this, the Clan of the Phoenix stayed undefeated by enemies for thousands of years.

Yet on the eleventh moon during the first year of the Age of Merihim, a horrendous plague befell the Clan of the Phoenix which wiped out the whole tribe. One by one, the members of the tribe were visited by nightmares from which they never woke up. Their bodies eventually turned into ashes when their time was up, but instead of making way for another hundred-year cycle, the ashes surrendered to the whims of the Mighty Wind.

- - - - - - -

Four hundred and eighty half-moons after the Age of Merihim, the Great Yellow Owl came across a valley a hundred miles west from the Land of the Glaciers. Tired from his journey, the Great Yellow Owl decided to spend the rest of the day in the valley. Yet instead of resting, the Great Yellow Owl chose to do some exploring in the valley. This place definitely is not on the Map. It’s quite surprising that this one eluded Zephyr’s sharp eye, the Great Yellow Owl said to himself. So the Great Yellow Owl took out his tools from his bag and began sketching, taking into account the exact latitude of this tree and that bush, their precise proximity from this stream and that, and the number of footsteps from this prairie to that.

Finally, the Great Yellow Owl reached the edge of the valley. After putting the final touches to his work, he praised himself for a job well done and put the tools back to his bag. He was about to go back to the spot he chose to rest on when something caught him on his tracks. Right before his eyes was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. It had long silvery white hair, eyes as green as emerald, and skin as smooth as silk. It looked so immaculate in its white flowing gown that the Great Yellow Owl first thought that it was an angel. The Great Yellow Owl was so caught up in his admiration for the creature that he almost didn’t hear it speak.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” said the creature.

“F…f…for me?” the Great Yellow Owl finally managed to utter.

“Now I can finally be free.”

“I…I…don’t understand.”

“Take me with you…. please.”

“I can’t. I will be punished by my master.”

“You will be fine. Trust me.”

For some reason not known to the Great Yellow Owl, he cannot seem to find the will to say no to this lovely creature. So he gave in to the pleas of the creature in the end. The Great Yellow Owl immediately went to see his master when he arrived home. After the usual greetings, the Great Yellow Owl proceeded to fill in his master about the details of his trip. He deliberately made his report lengthy and elaborate so as to put off the thing he was fearing the most - the moment when his master could finally ask about the creature that silently stood beside him all along. When he could not push it back any longer, the Great Yellow Owl finally admitted defeat and prepared himself for the worst. But to his surprise and relief, the Master told him to rest instead and leave him alone with the creature.    

It is called THE JUNGLE. It is the main control unit of the Being.

One can easily get lost inside its unruly labyrinth of trails that are interconnected with each other. Beneath this veneer of disorder however is an orderly but complicated communication system that is the heart and soul of the Jungle. From time to time, sparks are seen dashing through anywhere along these pathways. These sparks are triggered by the reaction of positive and negative energy that are constantly at par with each other inside the Jungle. Without this reaction, which is called depolarization in Jungle jargon, the Jungle dies and the Being will perish.

With the survival of the Being, and therefore of the Jungle, in mind, a special group called Jungle Conservation is in charge of checking and balancing the positive and negative energy levels inside the Jungle. Jungle Conservation personnel are constantly seen flying in and out of the pathways just to make sure that depolarization is continuous. At the slightest hint of a glitch, the personnel will immediately go to the synaptic point to fix the problem. The synaptic point is where two or more pathways come together. This is also where the crucial process of depolarization takes place. 

Though Jungle Conservation is regarded as the most important cluster in the Jungle, the other factions are integral to the existence of the Jungle as well. The Pathkeepers make sure that the pathways are in tiptop condition all the time to ensure the smooth travel of the sparks from one pathway to another. Time is also important in the Jungle so the Chronos make sure that the sparks are right on schedule. At the outskirts of the Jungle, the Ambassadors check the condition of the sparks before they are dispatched to the other functional units of the Being. To make sure that all of these processes are in place, the Guardian oversees all of the activities in the Jungle round the clock.

There is another group thriving deep within the heart of the Jungle. The Jungle can definitely do without this particular group but this group is extremely important to the Being. For this reason, the other groups wouldn’t dare touch them or even call them names though they are mildly annoyed by the fact that they are merely parasites of the Jungle. Nobody in the Jungle, even the Guardian, knows anything about this group or why this group is even in the Jungle and not in the other functional units of the Being. All they know is that these parasites call themselves Gaeln and Veldi.