"Let it rip!"

"Launch from a greater angle Max."

"Sure Cappy!" Max waved cheerfully at their stolid team captain. Kai snorted in reply.

"Sourpuss." Tyson muttered to himself as he prepared to launch Dragoon into the other Beydish, earning a glare from Kai.

Kai leant against the wall of the training room, silently watching the progress made by each of his team mates. They had a beyblade tournament next week. Though it wasn't as big as the World Championships, Mr. D still wanted them to give their maximum effort and train hard for it. However, it was a pain to make his team mates take it seriously, not that Kai wanted to try.

Kai grimaced as he looked at Tyson, lying sprawled on the floor and continuously complaining about practice. He looked out of the window. They were in a new training centre, deep inside a forest. For some reason, Mr. D believed that close proximity to nature helped one practice better. Not that Kai was against the idea. Personally, he liked the feeling of solitude and calmness prevailing in the forests.

Kai looked back towards his team mates. Rei was the only one practicing now. Max was loudly complaining of poor network and pointing towards his smartphone, while Tyson was looking through every box and container in the room in hopes of... a late afternoon snack, probably. Daichi had gone back to his hometown for the summer break. Hilary and Kenny were supposed to drop by after a few hours to show them the new attack ring upgrades Kenny was working on. Everything was... just the way it was supposed to be. Perfectly in routine. Kai looked out of the window again. The forest seemed to beckon him. Surely, roaming about outside for a little bit of time would not hurt...

Kai had just entered a few steps into the forest when he felt a light tap on his right shoulder. Spinning around, he was mildly surprised to see Rei grin at him.

"Uh, Kai... going somewhere? "

"Hn." Kai nodded towards the forest.

"Mind if I tag along? "

Kai shrugged noncommitedly, then turned around and started walking through the forest. Truth be told, he was much more comfortable around Rei than the others. He considered all of them as his friends (he's never going to confess it though) but Rei was the most mature amongst his team mates and talked less than the others. Also, he was almost of the same age as he was.

Rei walked alongside Kai, his amber eyes constantly trained on their team captain, although they talked very little with each other. The battle with Brooklyn had taken a geat deal out of his best friend, and he was still injured (though he refused to admit it). Rei was worried about his friend going all alone into a dense forest, so he decided to come along.

Their respective lines of thought were suddenly broken when a bush rustled, to the right. A magnificent deer strolled out of the bush and without any warning, galloped away - startled by human presence. Kai furrowed his eyebrows. He had never expected a forest so close to human civilization to have deer roaming in it...

The bush rustled again. Both Kai and Rei tensed and readied themselves to tackle whatever creature that came out of those bushes.

"Max, give me back my energy bar!"

Kai wrinkled his nose in disgust as Max burst out, followed by a red-faced Tyson. "Tyson! Why are you screaming like that?" Rei scolded Tyson. The navy-haired teen pouted and pointed towards Max, "Rei, please tell him just how much important that energy bar is for a growing boy like me!"

Kai rolled his eyes at Tyson's words. Max laughed and took a bite out of the energy bar. Tyson looked as if Max had taken a bite out of his leg. He almost howled in pain and chased after Max. Max started running and simultaneously cramming the entire snack into his mouth, unheedful of the other's shrill protests. Rei quietly covered his ears.

Kai could take it no more. "What are you two doing here?" He glared at them. Max rubbed the back of his head, "Well, you see Kai, I... suddenly had this great idea that maybe signal's poor in the training centre, so I," He gave a silly grin and and waved his smartphone over his head like a banner, "came out in the open to see if I can get a better... signal?" Rei looked at him in sheer disbelief. This was the first time he had ever seen anyone search for a mobile signal by roaming deep into the forest. Kai, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes. Why did he get this distinct impression that Max was hiding something?

Tyson had turned a little green on seeing the whole snack disappear into Max's mouth. He sat down in the grass.

"I was peacefully looking for a snack and had just discovered that tasty-looking energy bar when Max stole it and disappeared into this forest. Of course I came after it. But now, you," He jumped up and pointed towards Max's stuffed mouth, "give me my energy bar back NOW!"

"Um, Tyson, I don't think that's possible..." Rei tried to make him see reason, while Max almost choked with laughter. Kai stared at his team mates in dismay. They really were hellbent on not letting him feel peaceful, weren't they?

Noting the somewhat placid expression on Kai's face, Max finally swallowed and clapped his hands together, "Ok folks! Now here's the real deal! Gather in." He took out an ancient-looking paper from his pocket, parchment to be more precise, and unfolded it, immediately piquing Kai's interest. So this was what Max had really come into the forest for, Kai realized. He had made a lame excuse before because Kai was fairly pissed-off then. "Where did you find this?" Kai couldn't hide his growing curiosity. "It was in one of the boxes lying outside in the training centre's backyard. You know what? I think it's a treasure map." Max's eyes twinkled in anticipation. He held out the yellow, crinkled piece of paper towards Kai to reveal several hand-drawn details, those of a forest, not unlike the one they were in. Rei's eyes were wide. Kai wanted to feign indifference, but his love for historical artifacts and antique items overpowered the urge. He took the map from Max's hands.

"A map of a forest."

"I think that it's of this forest." Max looked barely unable to contain his excitement.

"Hn... "

"Oh really? Then where's the cross?" Tyson joined them. Kai eyed him oddly.

"You know, the cross-thingy," Tyson to explain, "the one which shows where the treasure is... where's that? This is a treasure map, right?"

"Not every map has a cross on it." Kai retorted. Rei took one look at the map and knitted his brows, "Max... how do you know that this is a treasure map?"

It was a good question. The map did look real old, but there were no special markings on it whatsoever. Before Max could answer, Kai spoke up. "Because of this. " He pointed towards the bottom left part of the parchment. If one looked closely enough, one could see writings in ink faded with time. Yet, the discernible part went something like this:

"A tale awaits for you, young knights

A ballad of valour and true heart,

If you but dare, a legend awaits

The path lies open, walk your part.

Time might fly, time might tarry

But only water shall put out a fire,

Follow the path etched true above

To reach your heart's true desire."

Just as Kai finished reading aloud the verses, Max started jumping up and down, "You got it! 'Heart's true desire', see? Everyone knows that it's treasure." Rei looked more or less convinced. Kai, however, had serious doubts. He glanced through the writing once more, noting the style. The handwriting style was like that of the early medieval period-strict, identical alphabets, elaborate cursive letters and little space in between. Something at the very bottom of the parchment caught his eye. In very faded ink, two letters were barely visible. It looked like an R and an H.

R.H.-must be the initials of the author, Kai reasoned, the person who must have made the map and written those verses. Kai looked up, the verses clear in his mind. Max was jumping about, probably perked up due to the promise of treasure. Rei was looking forward to the adventure it guaranteed. Kai himself was more interested to know more about the legends and tales and ballads mentioned in the verses. He realized that all of them were reacting differently to the heart's own desire part in an individually unique manner.

As for Tyson... Kai looked in his direction and nearly started on seeing the wild gleam in Tyson's eyes. He looked as if some cluelessly unfortunate restaurant had awarded him a lifetime access to free food. Suddenly, he came to life and snatched the map straight out of Kai's hands.