Heat, burning the air all around him. Taecyeon's eyes hot open, and he gasped, scrambling to his feet.

"What the ..." he trailed off, his mouth hanging wide open. Then he noticed the change and looked down, his eyes growing wider. Robes ...? He felt the crimson fabric flutter slightly, the golden patterns sewn on glinting in the firelight. He raised his head warily, taking in his surroundings.

For a fleeting moment, he thought that he was in the place of his dream - he was standing on a large, red, rocky cliff, with the same searing heat that somehow didn't bother him. 

Then he turned around, and his eyes widened.

"Holy ..." he gasped.

Rising in front of him was a temple. Not one of the greek style ones with clean, white pillars, or things like that. It was made of a ragged, rough black rock with streaks of red in it, the red emitting a faint glow through the doorway. The door itself was magnificent - made of a dully shining grey metal, rimmed with gold and carved with intricate patterns. He raised his gaze and caught sight of the pillars, and the tall, slim, sharp spires rising up to meet the roof above him, with shards of obsidian and white glass spiking out of it in irregular patterns.

He let out a breath in awe.

Wow.

He then turned his head towards the doors. He was going to have to get in - but how ...? He raised his hands, and all of a sudden he felt a surge of power, and at that moment, the doors swung open without a noise, revealing the faintly red glowing passages that lead down into the shadowy darkness. A faint breeze of cold wind came rushing out, burshing his face, and he swallowed nervously. There was something not right.

But there was something not right about all of this, wasn't there?

Taecyeon took a deep breath and strode in, his robes fluttering behind him. 

When he was down the corridor, the great doors swung closed, and melted back into the walls, as if it was never there. 

Taecyeon brushed his hair out of his eyes as he quietly walked down the corridors. Where was he going? He rubbded the back of his neck, then suddenly froze, his eyes widening. 

.

He backed into the walls, his hands gripping the worn rocky surface of the rock, his heart pounding. He attempted to calm his breathing as he stared, wide-eyed, at it. 

The monster prowling around the main chamber. Thick red skin, curling horns protruding out of his skull, gleaming yellow eyes, curved talons, and the last, a pair of huge, leathery black wings that cast looming shadows over the area.

Dragon.

Taecyeon swallowed nervously, his hands still gripping the walls as he stared fixatedly at the dragon. How was he supposed to get past that? How?

He pondered for a while, until suddenly, the dragon stopped in its tracks and whipped its head around to look directly at him. Taecyeon's face drained of colour as he faced on with the beast.

. ... he mumbled under his breath as he scrambled away as the beast started to lumber after him, a low growl issuing from the depths of his throat.

Uh-oh. Taecyeon raised his hands, and then hesitated. Could he really harm this ... beast? Was it good or evil? He froze, undecided. But then the dragon let out a roar and leapt at him, claws extended. 

Taecyeon instictively ducked, flattening himself on the floor as the huge shadow leeapt past him. He raised his hands and fired a colum of flame at the beast - but is only burnied out on the thick, wrinkled, leathery skin of the dragon.

From that, Taecyeon let his powers take over.

He could barely remember anything - he was firing colums of flame at the beast, and rolling away from the blasts of flame that was sent by the roaring dragon. At one point, the great beast reared onto its muscular hind legs and unfurled its wings, casting a red shadow over Taecyeon. He froze for a moment, terrified, then snapped back into action as the forelegs came crashing down, missing him by a hair.

But he was tiring - and he knew it. 

His enegery was fading fast, and his bolts were coming on less powerful, the flames dying from a burning red to a flickering orange. The dragon could sense it too - the beast leapt up, giving a roar of triumph, before unoleashing a series of rentless attacks on Taecyeon, who barely managed to fend it off.

One blast forced him towards the edge of the room, in the corner. He was trapped - he backed against the wall, then stumbled over a shard of dull white that he almost yelped to see was bone - a shard of a broken skull. He fell backwards and landed on the ground, scrambling away from it with every last ounce of strength in him. 

It was over.

He was about to slump back, defeated, when a voice in his head - voices -

It's not over yet.

He suddenly felt a surge of energy flood into his body, and he managed to summon up all of his powers and unleash it with a yell. A bright red, almost blue colum of flame can bursting out of his palms, striking the beast. A ear-spiltting screech was emitted from it, and a cloud of black smoke burst forth, obscuring it from veiw. Taecyeon collapsed back onto the rock, regaining his breath. He could still faintly hear his yell hanging in the air.

Then the cloud cleared, and Taecyeon scrambled to his feet in alarm. What ...

But then it lowered its head, and Taecyeon summed up the courage to step closer. He could now see the spark of intelligence in its eyes. The dragon its snout into his hand, and for a moment Taecyeon's breath hitched and his eyes widened, but then he realised - the huge draogn was nuzzling him, like a horse. A smile broke on his face, and he patted the dragon, running his fingers over the thick skin of its head as a spark of comradeship passed between them.

Then a voice, fain t but definately there, passing through the temple as Taecyeon saw the walls crack open revealing light of the same familiar yet alien world that he was trapped in last time.

"Born, the Fire Mage."