A Scorching Past

**A Scorching Past** is the forty-sixth episode of Tales of Dikuda. It is also the tenth episode of the fourth season.

## Summary

With months having passed since the incident on a mission putting her out of action, Ryahno finally wakes from her regenerative slumber.

## Episode in Detail

After months of keeping her safe to heal, Gwadeweido finds Ryahno's body and the white coffin missing. The rat is enraged by the realization, taking apart the hiding spot in order to find any clue as to where her mother has disappeared to, finally coming to the conclusion that Yavei must have been involved.

Though ultimately a very much healed Ryahno woke from her slumber. The rat dragon remembers the first time where she was put into a white healing coffin, after trying to protect a village. Back then Gwady was very upset with what had happened, though the saved village became a valuable ally to the Rhythm Sundial. This previous time Ryahno ended up sealed in the coffin to regenerate for 134 years, which was the reason for her dropping her previous name LiWen, because she had to change her identity after such a long time.

Remembering how long she had been sealed away for the first time, she is now worried about how much time passed since she was put to regenerate this time. She wakes and frees herself from the coffin.

At the time, in Uuzoo's home, the snake wakes from a nightmare, one of the many she's had recently. This one in particular dealt with the legend of how one of the serpents that tormented the island got taken out, just that in her dream it wasn't The Fire that did so, but Ryahno. Seeing that she has a few hours of sleep left, Uuzoo tries to make use of the remaining time, before having to go to work.

Later on, Bueh is startled by Gwady bursting into Ryahno's home. The rat is following up on a message from The All-Seer and checking up on Ryahno, who is trying her hardest to make use of her weak body and get back into shape. Though given the long time she spent unmoving in the white coffin, she has lost some of her strength and her body gives in during her attempt at push-ups, so weak that she can't even get up on her own.

Gwady helps the visibly miffed and disappointed Ryahno to bed, though despite seeing her mother weak like this, the rat is happy that she's back. She voices her opinion on not wanting Ryahno to return to work for a while, though the woman disagrees and stubbornly does so anyway, later on.

When Uuzoo heads to work, she already expects to see Gwady doing the job of the captain of the guards as usually, though she is surprised to find Ryahno back. She asks what happened, though the rat dragon only gives a very broad generic explanation, not able to go into detail about the incident. Uuzoo voices her disliking of the decision to put Gwady in charge of the guards while Ryahno was gone, though the latter is only mildly amused, which she doesn't directly show though.

Having many questions since Ryahno disappeared from her life, Uuzoo asks her if they can have a serious conversation.
The snake talks about her nightmares, since they feature the other woman. Ryahno briefly appears surprised and agrees to have a conversation after work.

Following the end of the shift, Uuzoo then meets up with Ryahno, who talks about the history of the island and the tree that is protecting it. With time passing, the world was spiritually disconnected from the tree, causing an unbalance. To help out the people of Dikuda, a giant snake was sent to restore the balance. Three times the snake returned and two times Ryahno took it out. The third time she realized that the creature only wanted to do its job, so instead of fighting, they talked about it. With the revelation that her actions were causing so much negativity, the snake was overwhelmed with sadness and choose to end its own life, though promising to come back.

During her explanation, Ryahno reveals Uuzoo to be said guardian and herself to be The Fire and how she choose to put the snake as a guard of the Southern gates, because it's the closest to the tree. Uuzoo tries to wrap her head around these new revelations, while Ryahno leaves for the time being, heading to the Dark Auras pub to meet up with Gwady.

She gives the rat a guild mission, revealing that a BiS scientist is on the island. Gwady promises to take care of it and leaves to do so. Though when she finds the man, he is already dead, someone else having been faster than her. The rat leaves the scene with the body to give it to the The All-Seer to take care of, while Layer Deinsk watches her do so, having been the one to shoot the scientist. He then heads off to report to Bolo and Gen.

## Characters

The following characters appear in this episode (in order):

* Gwadeweido
* Kuraz Ryahno (also as LiWen and The Fire)
* *Sheenyai Yavei (mentioned as The All-Seer)*
* Bueh
* Yin Uuzoo
* Pabu Ran
* Layer Deinsk
* Akin Bolo
* Dicante Gen

## Trivia

* It seems when the centipede called Uuzoo "Guardian Shuulka" in episode 26, he was referring to her past as the protector of the tree on the island.

* There were several different versions of Ryahno's awakening from regenerative slumber planned, most of them more action packed and with fighting. A remainder of this, is the violent manner in which she frees herself from the white coffin.

* Even though Gwady was also put in a white coffin during the four parts of Mental Wonderland, she didn't come out as weakened as Ryahno, because her body was basically slowed down, since only the rat's mind needed fixing, while it was the other way around for Ryahno.

* Ryahno's mind being put on a temporary hold during the regeneration was another reason for her violent breakout, since the last thing she remembered was the warzone during the mission that caused her to be put in the coffin in the first place.