I Called You Friend
Chapter 1
Written by Michael Mark Maquilan

Menkyu yawned, stretching his arms as far as they could stretch. His muscles ached of eight hours of a deep, dreamless sleep.

Pulling the light-blue blanket off him, the monkey in pajamas rubbed his eyes and yawned, "A new day. What a bore." He sat by the edge of his bed for ten minutes or so, pausing to shake the cobwebs out of his head once in a while. By the time he stood up, Menkyu gave one last yawn before he smiled and jumped out of his pajamas into his favorite outfit--a t-shirt colored a color blend of light blue, purple and gray hues; a pair of pants of a similar color, its length midway between 'long' and 'short'; and a maroon-brown vest he buttons over his shirt.

Sensing his own readiness, he screamed, "Whoo-hoo!", hopped his way towards the open door, and jumped down from the porch of his house--which was sitting on top of a tree.

As he expected, he landed on his feet. "Ha-ha!" he declared, "I did it again!"

"Ya jumped down from yer tree-house once more, Menkyu." a voice declared.

Menkyu, still recovering from his jump, turned towards the voice. He instantly recognized the dog in the light-blue shirt and pants, a darker blue tunic decorated with pattered black lines hanging over them.

"Poch! How's the morning?" he greeted sheepishly in a wide grin.

"Fine."

"Well," Menkyu continued, "I landed on my feet. And besides, I didn't land on your roof, didn't I?"

"Sure. Whatever you say..." Poch said, scratching his head, harking back to the morning when Menkyu jumped out his bedroom window and smashed through the straw roofing of his smithy. Oh, how long it took for him to get the roof fixed. Menkyu wasn't exactly cooperative in his help, but he did help, and thanks to him, the roof took only eight hours to repair. Eight hours.

"Well, just cut that out, okay?" Poch stressed. "You shouldn't risk your life once a day if you can avoid it."

"Yeah, yeah." Menkyu replied, standing up, dusting off.

"Yeah, yeah, and you didn't wash your face and brush your teeth again before you left your house, din'cha?"

"Oh, yeah?"

Poch kept silent and eyed Menkyu.

Menkyu looked upwards. "Er-yeah." he mumbled. "How'd you know?"

"'course I know. You forget every day. Besides, we've been friends long enough that I know when you've... been taking extra time grooming."

"Ha! Whatever, whatever!" Menkyu stressed.

The monkey stretched a little bit more, then started hopping in place, as if he was in a boxing match. "Anyway, what's up for today?" He asked. "Like, there must be something to do other than stretch staff practice..."

"Well, let's see," pondered Poch aloud, "the day before yesterday was a free day. Yesterday we did some sparring... today we... um, hold on a sec." Poch fished out a notebook from within the folds of his tunic. He leafed through the pages one-by-one, then declared, "Today, what say we go visit one of the former members of our old party?"

In the days since the underworld's Queen of Evil had been defeated and returned to her old form of a young cat, the kingdom, or rather, queendom of Murgen had been returned to a state of peace and order. The twelve heroes-the 'Rangers-who have defeated the queen and ended the war have then officially disbanded by the new queen, Aurora.

Patrick (Poch for "short") and Menkyu, however bitter rivals at the start of the journey, ended up friends as close as brothers. Poch returned to the meadows, where his house-and-workshop sits in the shade under a massive mango tree. Upon the tree, he and Menkyu constructed a tree house made from furniture salvaged from ruins of a nearby village deserted in the war, along with logs from the nearby woodland.

"Today, Menkyu, I believe we're supposed to see Racchi the dragon."

"You mean, PK, the old geezer?"

Poch sighed, "Come on, Menkyu, show him some respect." The dog crossed his arms and then continued: "He's a dragon. He's the high priest of the Temple of the Unknown Gods. He could demand that we add a title to his name but hey, we really had been fortunate that he had allowed us to call his name directly while we traveled with him."

Menkyu shrugged. "Whatever. So where are we going? To the temple, right? But that's far... a few forests, and... that spiral staircase. You know, the one going around and around the large pillar of rock where the temple rests upon... oh, no... we're not going up that way. Besides, we can't use Kirinda anymore-the new queen's claimed it for personal use."

"Fear not, Menkyu. With this new invention of Wani's, we can reach the temple in no time."

"And what is that new invention you're talking about?"

"Wani prefers to call it an 'Interdimensional Transport Craft Prototype 1'. I'd call it an Interdimensional Bike, for short."

"Yeah, so-did it blow up or anything, or send anyone to the Great Beyond!?"

"Not at all. Unlike his other inventions, this one actually works-not only does it fly, you can use it to take you to one of the story worlds... if need be. Hey, I've piloted it myself."

"He entrusted you with that? Come on!"

Poch cleared his throat rather loudly, then said, "We should be going to Wani's mound immediately, that we may reach the temple before noon."

"All right, then." Menkyu voiced in agreement. "So, when do we leave, bro?"

"Anytime you're ready. Be sure to bring your brown stretch staff just in case some monster from over there shows up-and lock the doors before you leave-and wash your face too-you still look like you just woke up!"

Menkyu turned his back to Poch and muttered a few things under his breath. "Yeah, right."