Baraka seemed to disappear a lot after that, and so once I stopped him, did the usual superficial glare, and asked him where he goes all the time. He said something along the lines to that he goes back to his family, emphasizing the last word, always, in some other place he called the “outworld”. Because of this, I went up to “master” one time and asked him if I could go other places. He said he didn’t care until I’m useful. So I went exploring on this place, which a later discovered was an island, although his last statement rung through my head. . . “Useful”?

This island was a strange place. Sort of a “Jungle from Hell” environment, a phrase I overheard later from. . .someone else. I assumed the “outworld” was some other realm, and although it was a slightly strange assumption, I thought that anything was possible now after I had sing Shang Tsung do very interesting things. Magic, you could say, even. A special ability us Sheng Long had naturally was that of pigments in the skin that changed color as quickly as we could move, causing the illusion of invisibility. However, it takes some concentration that can easily be lost. Of course, because of this gift, as well as curiosity, I would oveten eavesdrop on “master”, looking at what he did in his time, and what made him feared.

I was only walking through a strange, mountain and jungle like environment when I saw a strange looking, spiked green leaved plant. It was very small, and it seemed to come in small bunches. As a matter of fact, there were many different species of plant arranged in the same random positions. As well as that, there was one of those black ninja-people, grunbling and pacing in front of an out-of-place palm tree. An idea came to my head.

“Mister? Are you sad, mister?”

“Huh? What do you want, kid?”

“Do you want some of these plants, mister? They’re really good.”

So he snatched them roughly from my outstretched left plam that was holding the mysterious vegetation, and tore of his black cloth traditional ninja mask. I coludn’t help but to secretly be glad that this particular man was forced to wear that item of clothing. He stuffed the plant into his mouth. He twitched a little, but then grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted me up into the air in front of him.

My eyes boggled, and he blurted out, almost undecipherably, “Yeah, you’re the guy, yeah, this is the guy,” or such other incoherent nonsense. I smiled, just a little, nervously, and told him that if he let me go, I’d be able to make him fly.

He, of course, believed me in his strange state, and so he set me down. I uprooted another plant, that of which had purple and red leaves. I handed them to him, and he did the same action as before in consuming the plant. This time, the reaction was apparently of him being dizzolved from the inside out. I made a mental note that the spiced green plant was a hallucenogent, and the purple and red plant was a poison.

As I walked away, humming a little bit, I noticed a strange tunnel-like opening coming from a large, dark grey rock. The rest was cracked, but this smooth, perfectly cut hole was strange amidst the wild moss and trees. Nearby was also a trickling waterfall. A nice spot, really, but that hole was what mattered. . .

As I was eight years old at the time, I was tiny enough to fit into this small opening, but not without confinement. Not squeezing, but I had to crawl.

I simply crawled, on my hands and knees, through the opening. The floor was smooth.

Again, I remember all of this because we have minds superior to those of humans. Of course a human could not remember this. But I must admit it is rather strange that I cannot remember my own name, if I can remember everything else.

What I found is something not even a human could forget. This was a light bringing window of sorts to a large, large, marbled, sculptured, painted, light, four story high hall. It was simply undescribable.

Of course, it wasn’t without it’s miniature horse-like animals, but with red eyes, pointed tails and claws. About a dozen of them were pacing, walking around the room, all in different colors, but shades of brown nonetheless- except for one larger one; a black one.