AN: Hey! If you can leave a review with any thoughts/suggestions/criticisms/feelings you have, I'd really appreciate it because I want to know what you think :)
The Leather Bound Book
It took a couple of days for Mel to complete Terra's 'treatment', and he seemed much better for it. In fact, the day after Mel had pronounced him cleared and balanced, Terra was found chasing Ven through the castle, laughing and yelling at each other in great high spirits. Aqua couldn't remember the last time he had been as hyper as Ven; it made her laugh. Mel shrugged and smiled vaguely, saying it just happens that way.
"He's brighter than I've seen him for a long time." Aqua commented before lunch, deftly scooping a box out of the way before Ven went ploughing through.
"I think he was dwelling a bit too much."
Aqua stopped to look more closely at Mel, but she was leaning against the windowsill and staring up at the sky. "What makes you say that?"
Mel considered her words very carefully before she spoke. "It's a really nice atmosphere here, but…it feels a bit melancholy at times. Like something happened that this place hasn't quite come to terms with. She looked down at the rolling hills in the distance, and watched the progression of a far off bird flying in a great arc. "Terra's carrying a burden that he's slowly resolving inside. I can see that in his aura. And…" she bit her lip and glanced swiftly at Aqua before going back to the bird outside. "It feels like everyone here's had something to contend with emotionally…"
Aqua dumped the box on a table and went to stand beside Mel. She tensed, as though expecting a reprimand, but Aqua ruffled her hair and chuckled. "You're very perceptive, aren't you?"
"Well, not everyone is good at hiding what's in their aura – or the electromagnetic field around their body's, as some people call it. And some people are sensitive to it, those fluctuations. I probably shouldn't be commenting on it, it's not my place…"
"Don't worry. We've all been through a lot, collectively. We were separated for a long time, but now we're back together, and to us that's all that matters."
Mel cocked her head to one side, eyes bright with curiosity. "Ven said we were going somewhere this week."
"Ah, you heard? We've got some friends in another world, who train heroes. We haven't seen them in a long time, and I thought we could get you some additional training at the same time. I'm sure Ven would love it, too. I can't keep up with him at the moment!"
"Sounds fun,"
"I was going to tell you at lunch. We'll be going on Saturday, so we can get most of the chores done before hand." They had also established that Wednesday afternoons were work out time, Friday morning sparring, and weekends were lazy days in which Ven had vowed to train extra hard – so naturally last week Aqua had found him face down in a book fast asleep tucked up in bed. "Oh, and we have some friends who will be visiting the world too, the other keyblade wielders I told you about."
"Sora, Riku…?" Mel struggled to remember, looking at the clouds again. "And…"
"Kairi."
"Very elemental."
Aqua stopped to ponder this. "How so?"
"Sora and Ventus mean sky and wind. Riku means continent and Terra means earth. I think Kairi means ocean, and Aqua is a word for water." Mel had a sharp mind within that soft exterior.
"I guess so. So where does that put you?" Aqua said teasingly, startling her.
"Huh? Oh- um…" she cast around wildly for something to say.
Aqua laughed and patted her head. "I guess you can be the music that ties them together!"
They had discovered Mel had a musical talent, and last night she and Aqua had stayed up late playing together; Aqua on her newly strung violin, and Mel on Master Eraqus' piano they had dragged out of a storage room. She smiled sheepishly up at Aqua before shaking her head.
"I'm not that great…"
"Give it time, and you'll fit in here with us like a glove!"
After lunch they spent an hour trying to retrieve a coin token from under a large cabinet. Ven had accidentally dropped it while aiming a swipe at Terra, and they were hell bent on getting it back; it had been Master Eraqus', and as silly as it may sound, they wanted to recover it to help keep that connection to him strong. Terra had a torch, which he shone into the black void beneath the cabinet, and Mel as the smallest was scrabbling around underneath trying to reach it. The floorboards were uneven by the wall, so it kept sliding around in and out of reach. Aqua was worried she was going to get stuck, but Ven hovered by her side ready to pull her out if she got into distress.
"Got it!" she said at last, half hidden from sight beneath the cabinet, something clinking in the small space.
"Great!"
"You need a hand getting out?" Terra asked, sticking his head under to try and see her.
"I'm good, thanks." She said, wriggling backwards slowly.
Something behind them made a terrific crack, and they all jumped. Terra cursed as his head collided with the underside of the cabinet, and Mel yelped from her trapped position. Aqua and Ven searched the room, but they couldn't find the source of the noise, and they didn't hear it again. Terra suggested it was the building's structure settling, though Aqua doubted this since she had never heard a sound quite like that before, and she had grown up within these halls.
"Well you did turn it into Castle Oblivion," Terra reminded her as they left the room, trailed by a sniggering Ven and Mel with her little canvas satchel and her curious stone.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped at Terra, getting annoyed when he laughed at her.
"Maybe the castle didn't agree with it?" Terra said innocently, grinning at her.
Ven fell about laughing at this point and she rounded on him, losing her 'Master' air completely. "Oh shut up, Ven! It's not even funny!"
"Then why is your face all red?" he pointed out slyly, dodging out of the way before she could physically retaliate.
"You know what, Melody?" she said loudly, throwing an arm around the girl and leading her away from the two boys, now guffawing and hanging onto each other for support. "It's a relief to have another female presence in this place. Promise you'll never leave?"
"Should I chain myself to the doors?" her wide-eyed expression soon cracked into a smile as Aqua laughed.
"Just promise wherever you go, you'll always come back."
"I promise. It's the nicest place I've ever been."
XOXOX
Ven sat on Mel's bed, skimming through a book Terra had lent him; it was about Keyblade Gliders, and he was intensely fascinated with the detailed pictures. Mel had expressed an interest in it, purely from an artistic point of view. She had her own set of armour, but try as she might she couldn't summon a glider of her own, so beyond the attention to detail in the drawings, the book held little interest for her.
Instead, she had been rearranging some of her magic pouches and their contents, and now she was sat on the floor applying a final coat of nail polish to her fingers. Every other day she changed the colour; one day it was pink, the next blue, and a couple of day's later acid green. Ven had been trying to work out the pattern, but apparently there wasn't one.
"Oh, I just chose the first one I pull out of the box. Or I might chose a couple and figure out a pattern." She had explained. It seemed a very 'Mel' way of doing things.
"Hey, what do you think of this one?" Ven leaned over and waved the book in Mel's face. The page he wanted her to look at was filled with a sketch of a really cool looking Glider – it looked like a huge bat shaped speeder in charcoal black and faded grey, accentuated with royal purple along the wing like structures.
"Oh, cool!" Mel took the book and stared at the Glider enviously. "Can you imagine turning up to a battle on that thing? I'd run for cover! And look at the insignia," she said, pointing with a purple fingernail at the symbol on the front of the Glider. "It looks like the old symbol for Fire Warrior."
"The what…?" Ven laid flat on his stomach and looked over Mel's shoulder at the picture.
"My grandfather told me this old story about four warriors, one for each of the elements. It's probably a fable warped from the original, like most fairy tales…but apparently each warrior had command of a particular being. Like, there was a water phoenix, and-"
"Water phoenix?" that didn't make much sense…
"Yeah, it was a bit unconventional." Mel said, tracing the outline of the Glider with a finger. "I thought he was making it up, but there was this tapestry he showed me and it depicted almost everything he'd told me about the four warriors. The other two were an earth unicorn and a cat-of-the-air – I don't quite remember the actual name…but the tapestry was torn and a section was missing, so I don't know what the fire animal was supposed to be. My grandfather said it was a wyvern, but no one really knows for certain."
"Wow! I've never heard of that legend before." Ven wondered why. "How come you know all this stuff and we don't?"
"I've been world hopping for years, and there are as many worlds as there are stars in the sky – probably even more. It's impossible for any one person to know even half of the information out there. I know loads that you three don't, but on the other hand you all know so much more than I do,"
Ven nodded to himself. "Okay, that's fair enough."
"But that's beautiful," she went on, stroking the page. "I wish I could summon a hover…"
"Maybe if you keep practising you will one day! Sora keeps pestering me about it whenever I see him. But, they're gonna get a Gummi ship so they can travel around too."
Mel opened her mouth to say something, but there was an almighty crack that resounded throughout the room, and they both jumped out of their skins.
"What is it?" she asked, dropping the book and hastily getting to her feet.
"I dunno," Ven slowly made his way around the room, scrutinising everything he came across.
Mel had completely unpacked her Bergen, which was now lying at the bottom of the wardrobe. Her few books and other precious possessions were arranged on the bookshelf, and she had started to disgorge her expansive art works and sketches from her collection around the walls. Ven looked from wooden figurines to lumps of crystal and bundles of feathers. A mummified owl's wing was attached to a rattle wrapped in animal fur was hanging from the door on a clothes hook – it seemed to him the most likely culprit. Carefully Ven poked it, and it rattled softly, the feathers ruffed by the motion, but it didn't make the same sound.
"Maybe its-" Mel began when the crack resounded again.
"It sounded like it came from over there," Ven said, picking his way over to the desk. A small lamp was set there, along with a pile of paper and a small tin pencil case containing pencils, rubbers, a sharpener and several sticks of charcoal. Set carefully beside the lamp was the canvas bag. Ven was just about to give up and admit defeat when the bag wobbled violently, and the flap slid open as the whole thing lurched to one side. "It's coming from the bag!"
"What?" Mel rushed to the desk, ignoring Ven's warnings. She lifted the flap and carefully extracted the stone, holding it high above the table and inspected the inside of the bag. "I don't see thing unusual…" the stone in her hands emitted a colossal sound like a tree being uprooted, and a deep fissure appeared right down the middle.
They both stared at it, dumbstruck.
"Wha…?" Mel lowered the stone, eyes wide. "What's it…?"
Another, softer noise issued from within – almost like a chirrup.
"Is that an…egg?" Ven breathed. The thing was nearly as big as his head – what the hell hatched out of something that big?!
"What do I do? I thought it was a rock! What do I do?!"
"Okay, stay calm!" Ven said, tying not to panic himself. "Put it in the bag and we'll show Aqua. She'll at least know where to start!"
"Right," she tenderly placed it in the canvas satchel and they tore off to look for their master.
Aqua was in the Master's study, pouring over a world map with Terra. They both jumped when Ven came crashing through the door, panting with exertion. "Ven!" she chastised him, clutching her heart. "What is it? You gave me a heart attack."
"It's hatching!" he shouted at them, waving his arms to get their attention.
"Calm down," Terra said, getting up and patting him on the back. "You're all worked up. So, what's hatching?"
Mel fell through the doorway, panting, clutching her bag as though she were drowning. "You're- too fast- Ven,"
"Her stone, it made that noise earlier! It's cracking open – we think it's an egg! And," he turned to an astonished Aqua. "We don't know what to do!"
"Okay, firstly – Ventus, take a deep breath." She said, moving to Mel's side. "All right, let me see."
They placed the stone, still nestled in the bag, on the table, while Terra went to ransack the bookshelves to see if they had anything in light of this discovery. Aqua watched intently as the stone wobbled and pitched sideways, cracking and fracturing slowly. Every so often it squeaked and cooed, like a baby bird. Ven shuddered to think what sort of bird had laid this thing – they still weren't entirely sure if it was an egg yet, anyway. Terra didn't find anything, so he sat down with them to watch, murmuring, "Maybe its in the loft?"
"We'll look later. We still don't know what this is," Aqua said, raising a hand hesitantly to prod the stone.
There was a sizeable cleft now, splitting it roughly a third of the way across, and it was slowly getting bigger. The chirping had stopped, and then for a time all movement and sound did too, but then it began again with increased vigour. The top section started straining, as though something was pushing it upwards from the inside. Then, without warning the stone gave way and a thin piece like a segment of an eggshell went rocketing into the air, landing on the tabletop by Aqua's elbow. A long, spindly looking leg was sticking up through the gap left in the stone's surface. They all leant forward, holding their breath. Then, with one final shudder, the cracks and gullies across the surface all collapsed at once, and a creature fell tumbling into the mass of broken shell and stone, wailing with surprise and indignation to find itself on its back.
Ven chanced a glance at the others very briefly, and saw their jaws had also hit the floor. It looked like a long limbed, skinny little lizard, but it was covered in a sort of downy fuzz like a new born chick; long fingers of skin and bone stretched out from joints behind it's shoulders, reminding Ven of a baby bird's undeveloped wings. The soft fluffy fuzz extended across most of its body, white over black skin, and ending at its feet and chin. At the end of its length tail were more protrusions, like a set of fins; a fleshy looking sheath covered with the same fuzz. Its head was distinctly reptilian, with two horns above its tiny ears curling back over its head; brilliantly blue eyes stared out of its face over a long snout that had a large tooth like structure pointing up from its nose.
The hatchling thrashed around on its back until it managed to roll onto its side, then it unsteadily stood up and wondered a few steps across the table, completely punch drunk. It squawked loudly, raising its head and zoning in on Mel, before it attempted to jump at her, falling short of its target and crashing into the tabletop with a bang.
"Is…that…?" Terra said slowly, but he didn't finish.
"A baby dragon?" Ven asked disbelievingly.
Aqua suddenly slapped her forehead and groaned loudly. "All this time I was looking for minerals! It was an egg!"
"I think we gathered that, Aqua," Terra said, reaching a hand towards the baby.
"No wonder we didn't find anything." Aqua said, exasperated with herself. "We were looking up the wrong entries!"
It shrieked and backed away, tripping over its tail and getting tangled up with its wings and tail fin. It squeaked and tried to escape its ensnarement and nearly pitched itself off the table completely. Mel flew like a lighting bolt and caught it just in time, gently arranging it in her arms so it couldn't fall.
"Its okay, Terra's a friend." She said soothingly to it, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to hold a newly hatched dragon.
"What are we gonna do?" Ven asked Aqua, watching the hatchling chirrup happily and attempt to lean up to lick Mel's face. It had a long, purple tongue like a human's, but with a noticeable cleft at the centre of the tip.
"I think we'd better contact Yen Sid." Aqua said decidedly. "I'm sure he'll know something." She then turned to Terra and said, "Could you go get him for me? I think we need to see him in person about this."
"Sure thing. I'll go now,"
"What'll we do?" Ven asked, itching to help.
"I'm going to double check those books we put in the loft. Now we know what the stone was, it should be easier to find the right information. We must have something,"
"I'll help you," Ven said.
"I'll try to," Mel said, struggling with the squirming dragon. "I don't think we should leave him on his own."
"Him?" Terra asked striding over and bending down to get a better look. The dragon cooed, head cocking from side to side as though it couldn't quite focus on him. "How do you know?"
"Let me guess," Ven put a hand on her shoulder, and grinned when she smiled at him. "His energy signature?"
"Essentially, yes." She nodded. "He's bursting with Sun Energy."
Terra left to fetch Master Yen Sid, and Ven led the way up to the attic where the rest of the books were in storage. At first he and Aqua sifted through them, periodically checking on Mel and the dragon until he fell asleep in the canvas bag, leaving her free to help. After two hours of heaving boxes around and rifling through battered books, Mel crawled out from underneath a tall pile of junk, heaving a heavy wooden trunk behind her. She walked around it, staring intently at the lock before she pinched the metal in three different places and pulled. The lock came to pieces in her hands and she pushed it aside, manoeuvring the lid out of the way. At this point Ven had come to see what she was doing, and together they lifted another, smaller box from inside the trunk. It was made of thick red wood, and looked very old – it was covered in a thick layer of dust that came away on their hands as they handled it.
"What's that?" Aqua asked, peering over Mel's shoulder.
"I don't know, it just sort of leapt out at me and I couldn't ignored it." She wiped the dust off the lid and squinted at the faded letters there. "I can't read it,"
Neither could Ven or Aqua; instead they opened the lid and found a small herb pouch, several sheaves of paper with faded ink drawings depicting odd looking contraptions, and an incredibly old tome bound in stamped leather and falling to pieces. The leather may have been green once upon a time, but now it was a dirty yellowish brown. Aqua laid the book on top of the trunk and started carefully flicking through the pages while Ven and Mel tried to make sense of the drawings.
"It looks like a saddle or something," he said, turning a sheet upside down to see if it made more sense.
"I think this one looks like a tree…" Mel said, tracing the outline of something on another paper.
"Guys," Aqua said slowly, standing up with the book and staring at the open page. "I think we've found what we're looking for," she showed them the page she was looking at; it was right at the front, and it had a beautiful illustration of a full-grown dragon with feathered wings roaring up at the words that made up the title. It was a script that Ven didn't recognise, but he could just about understand the gist of it: Dragons' KeyBlade.
XOXOX
"You summoned me?" Yen Sid inquired, stepping into the great hall after Terra.
Aqua sighed with relief. "Yes, thank you for coming on such short notice!"
Ven stood up and bowed politely, and Mel struggled to follow suit – the dragon didn't seem to like the sudden change in altitude and squawked in protest. They had been sat on the steps of the dais, wondering out loud what baby dragons ate, when Terra had returned. After gentle inspection they discovered that the dragon had no teeth, just lilac coloured gums and a thick purple tongue. It's wings kept flapping uselessly at the air, completely out of sync; it's tail was another problem, as it kept clipping things as it swept past, and getting hooked in people's clothes.
"Now then," Yen Sid said calmly, surveying the group and lingering on the dragon. "It is good to see you again Melanie, and in such good health, too."
"Thank you, Sir," she said, bowing low before snapping upright; the dragon didn't like the new angle.
"This is the dragon Terra told me about?"
"Yes," Aqua picked up the book they had found and offered it to him. "And we found this in a trunk in the loft,"
Yen Sid waved it aside for the moment, and held out his arms to Mel. She carefully placed him in Yen Sid's hands, after Ven disengaged the tail from her belt. Yen Sid very carefully examined the dragon, turning him over and studying every minute detail. The dragon complained weakly, but he seemed to have lost his energy now – it must have been exhausting to break out of that egg.
Eventually Yen Sid handed him back to Mel, and then turned to the book. He was silent for a long time while he digested what he was reading, but finally he closed the book and looked up, addressing them all.
"I must admit, I thought the legend of the Dragons Key was a fairy story designed to keep apprentice keyblade wielders in check. Neither myself nor Master Eraqus ever saw merit in relaying to you what little we knew ourselves, so it was never mentioned." He tapped the cover of the moth eaten book. "I have not seen this book before, and I do not know what it contains."
"So what do you know?" Terra asked, watching the dragon struggle weakly to stay awake and active.
"Only that once every few generations there was said to be a Keyblade Master who rode a dragon that took them between the worlds. The like has not been seen outside of myth for nigh on a thousand years. If what I remember is correct, the Keyblade Dragon could be utilised by several different warriors, but only one could call forth its true potential. There are many different worlds with their own native dragons, but generally speaking they will not or cannot cross the multi-verse, and will live and die in the world into which they were born. This one," he gestured at the napping dragon in Mel's arms. "Is unlike any other I have ever seen, from any of the worlds. We cannot be certain this is a dragon of yore, but I would hazard a guess that it is very likely given the circumstances."
"So this dragon is linked to the keyblade?" Aqua asked, her mind racing through the possibilities.
Yen Sid chuckled. "I asked Mickey to bring Melanie to you because I could feel in her a very powerful gift that has as yet gone almost wholly untutored. There is only so much she could learn about the keyblade by herself. That she brought a dragon egg with her merely adds credit to my theory."
"W-what should I do now?" Mel piped up, absently tickling the dragon under the chin as though he were a cat.
"Well, that depends on what Master Aqua thinks is the best course of action." Yen Sid turned to her, and Aqua felt keenly her lack of experience being the authority figure.
"I guess we'll have to keep him and see what happens. But, I'm not sure how much help I can be…"
"Don't say that!" Ven said, looking saddened.
"We have faith in your abilities," Terra said teasingly, bowing with an elaborate flick of the wrist. "Master."
Aqua smiled and pulled a face at him. "Well, we have this book, which should give us some clues. The dragon on the inside cover has feathers, and this one looks like he will grow some when he's older."
"He looks like a mutant chicken." Terra said without thinking.
They all laughed, even Master Yen Sid; the dragon woke with a feeble squawk before falling straight back to sleep. Since Mel couldn't read the script in the book, Aqua read it to her, and started making her own notes from the text; Yen Sid leant her a small translation book before he departed, and she set to work straight away. In the mean time, the other three started puzzling over what baby dragons ate; they set up a trial on the kitchen floor while Aqua sat at the table with the book. Terra took different minced meats and grated some vegetables for nutrients and fibre before making up lots of small bowls with different combinations of food. He placed them on the floor, and the newly awakened dragon ambled around on unsteady legs, using its large skeletal wings for balance by propping itself up, sniffing at the different scents in the air. After a little coaxing, and a fake display of eating from Ven (which Aqua didn't approve of, even thought he didn't really eat any of the raw meat) the dragon stuck its muzzle into a bowl of beef and carrots. Apparently, he liked Terra's gourmet cooking so much that he ate too much, cleaning out half the bowls before being violently sick.
Ven helped Mel to clean it up while Aqua held the poor little thing. After that, they tentatively fed him on mashed up meat laced with raw vegetables by hand; afraid he would try to gorge himself again.
"He needs a name," Ven said suddenly as Mel experimented with ground up meat and warm milk.
"That's true," Terra said, deftly picking him up as he tried to take a shower with the water bowl they had put down for him, spraying water everywhere. "Any ideas?"
"George?" Ven suggested.
"Sir George was a dragon slayer," Mel said, offering the new mix to the hatchling.
Aqua tapped her pen against the table, and the dragon whipped around at the noise. He stared at the shiny metal clip like a sparrow caught in the stare of a snake. "Likes shiny things, doesn't he?" she joked.
They wrote a list of names between them, and sat debating them while the dragon fell asleep again after an enormous burp.
"At least he's not hungry!" Ven laughed.
"Better out then in," Terra said sagely.
In the end, Mel said tentatively, "I think these sketches are for dragon saddles." She pushed them across the table and Aqua took a closer look. "They look like something Da Vinci drew."
"Who?" Ven asked.
"He's a famous inventor who travelled between worlds centuries ago." Aqua told him. "He was apparently a really good artist, too."
"I really like his work," Mel said, gently stroking the dragon. "People used to say he was ahead of his time."
"Well, travelling the multi-verse would give you an advantage, but its also called cheating." Terra said.
"My grandfather used to say there's no such thing as cheating – there's rules and then there's creative thinking."
"No one ever listens to rules," Ven bragged, and Aqua rolled her eyes at Terra.
"Every rule is meant to be broken." Mel said seriously. "Including this one."
"Your grandfather sounds cooler every time you mention him," Terra said teasingly.
"Da Vinci…" Ven tried the name out.
"His first name was Leonardo. Leonardo Da Vinci."
"Sounds kinda weird, don't you think?" he pulled a face.
Aqua left the conversation to keep ploughing through the book. She didn't get further than the first chapter, which was admittedly short, but what she learned from it was invaluable. After she had copied up the notes, she called the table to attention.
"Okay, I think I understand what's happened. Basically, the first people the dragon sees are like its family, but it'll bond more easily with the one who had the egg first. I'm guessing that means you, Mel."
"How long did you have the stone for?" Terra asked.
Mel looked at the ceiling. "About…three weeks? The man who let me stay in his house in exchange for doing chores gave it to me. He wasn't afraid of my magic, even though he didn't really understand it. I was very grateful to him for giving me a roof over my head."
Aqua didn't want to press the issue, but she got the strong impression that Mel had been physically abused for her 'strange' branch of magic in the past. In some worlds witches and magic users were feared, whether rightly or wrongly. It had taken some time for Mel to see that they also had magic, and the fact that they also bore keyblades had cemented trust between them quite quickly. Even so, there was a lot they didn't know about her that she wasn't ready to tell.
"A dragon baby is called a hatchling, and then when it's a week old, a chick. I haven't found anything on diet specifically yet, but they are omnivores. I think if we just experiment to see what he'll eat…"
"So…" Ven said, tickling the dragon under his chin. He burbled in his sleep and rolled onto his back, right hind leg twitching. "He's Mel's dragon, then?"
"I think its more a case of I'm his human," Mel said wonderingly.
Aqua laughed. "Probably! Anyway, it looks like he's part of the team now."
The other things Aqua had managed to glean from the book was that one day he'd be big enough and strong enough to ride, and with the sketches they had a good idea of how to make a saddle. But that was a while off still, and Aqua wasn't sure how quickly he would grow. This was new territory for her, as well as the others. She voiced her concern, but Ven waved it away almost instantly with a haughty air.
"It's not like we're going to blame you for getting it wrong. You're just like us! Completely clueless,"
"Well, that might just be you, Ven." Terra slipped in.
"We're all on a journey of discovery together." Mel said, sliding in before the argument could escalate. "We'll learn from each other. And him," she gestured at the sleeping lump.
Much later, when the others had gone to bed, Aqua was staring out of the double doors of the entrance hall, the chill autumnal wind floating by. She felt burdened by the responsibility she now faced. When she had agreed to over see the younger Keyblade wielders, she hadn't felt too worried because she had Ven and Terra to help her, as well as Master Yen Sid. Now faced with the prospect of teaching another new warrior, who had a legendary dragon that even Yen Sid had thought was a myth…now that was daunting. How could she teach and guide them down this road when she had no experience or knowledge to offer? All she had was a musty old book and a trial and error footing.
"Aqua?" Terra appeared from the shadows of the corridor, yawning widely. He came to stand beside her, and looked up at the dark cloudy sky. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm thinking." She said bluntly.
"About…?" he pressed.
Aqua sighed and rubbed her eyes. Thinking was too difficult…
"I'm not sure I can do this…"
"What, exactly?"
"Be a Master. How can I teach about something I don't even understand myself? I wish Master Eraqus was here, he always seemed to know what to do," after she had been taken to the Land of Departure to train with a Keyblade, Eraqus had been like a father to her – and father's were notorious for possessing the ability to fix problems. She still had that childlike ideal of him in her head.
"Well, he can't be here with us now." Terra said firmly, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze. "You're in charge. And you're on the same plane as us – we don't know anything either. Just like Mel said, we'll discover it together. We don't expect you to have all the answers. Master Eraqus didn't have all the answers either. We'll be fine, as long as we stick together. Right?"
Aqua looked at the ground, and felt tears welling up in her eyes. Between restoring the castle and dealing with Mel, and now the dragon chick, she hadn't had much time to dwell on what had happened. She had guessed Terra brooded on it, and that had been confirmed by Mel's observations, but that was just Terra. Ven was…Ven. No other way to describe him – he was taking things in stride and focusing on the good things in life, and as ever that kept him going. But when she stopped for a moment to reflect on the last decade or so…she wanted to collapse and scream.
An arm went around her shoulder, and she leaned instinctively into Terra's side. For that moment, the only solid thing in existence was him; Aqua buried her face in his shoulder and concentrated on steadying her breath, breathing in his scent as she did. After a while she gained her composure and drew back, wiping her eyes and avoiding his gaze. Terra placed his hands on her shoulders looking at her face intently.
"All right?"
Aqua nodded mutely.
"C'mon, let's go bed. If we don't sleep we won't keep up with Ven tomorrow,"
Aqua giggled and let him steer her towards the dorms. She checked on the others before she retired; Ven was passed out face down on top of the bed covers snoring gently, so Aqua threw a blanket over him so he wouldn't catch a chill. Mel was fast asleep curled up into a ball with her back close to the wall, and nestled against the small of her back was the dragon, just visible from the doorway by his long wings that hadn't developed yet. Finally, Aqua fell into her own bed, and despite all the thoughts whirling around her head at high speed, she feel asleep very quickly.
XOXOX
The following morning after the egg had hatched, Mel said to the others, "If it's all right with you guys, I want to call him Leo."
"You don't have to ask us – he's your dragon!" Terra said teasingly, ruffling her hair. It was down today; a blonde cascade of curls down to her waist, still partially obscuring her face with coiled tendrils that hung either side. Terra managed to partially turn it into a haystack.
"Well, since you're also part of his new family, I thought I should ask your opinion." She said, carefully smoothing the mess in her hair out.
"Leo. For Leonardo?" Aqua asked, looking up from the pan of milk she was warming on the stove.
"Yeah,"
"Sounds great!" Ven bent down to scoop the chick up. He squeaked with alarm and struggled. "Hey Leo! Nice to meet you again, I'm Ventus!" The chick stopped struggling and looked up into Ven's face, eyes bright with curiosity. Then he stretched up and licked his cheek, chirruping loudly. "Ugh! Aqua," Ven rubbed his face against his shoulder while the chick squealed with delight. "Please tell me you've found something in that book about brushing dragons' teeth!"
"He doesn't have teeth yet!" Terra reminded
Even after the first week, Leo grew exponentially. They tried to vary his diet, and while the dusty book detailed graphic aerial manoeuvres and battles that no one could figure out if they were fictional or not, it lacked on the basic care and nutritional information. Leo seemed to like meat, with grated vegetables – though the first time he encountered an onion he squeaked and ran away looking for cover. Warm milk mixed with blood that dripped from the raw meat seemed to be a preferred drink to water, but Mel threw a few dice and knucklebones around along with some tarot cards and insisted they also make him drink plenty of water. Everything had to be virtually blended for him to eat since he had no teeth; the sharp protrusion on his nose fell off like an umbilical cord after the first day, and Mel kept it in the box that the book had been found in, along with the pieces of eggshell. Ven had tried to dent and fracture what remained of it, and had failed to make even a scratch – that dragon chick was strong. Terra had taken the nose-tooth and scraped it across a piece of shell, and found it left a deep gash as it went. They carefully laid it to rest after that, worried about the damage it could cause.
While Aqua put everything on hold for a few days to keep translating the book and make her notes, Ven and Mel made their own notes about what they observed with the chick, and Terra made them a binding folder to put everything in. They delayed their visit to the Coliseum by a day so they could put everything in order.
By that point, they had figured out a diet for Leo (Mel had pulled out a dowsing pendulum and worked her way through weights and percentages before drafting a weekly menu for him) and Aqua had a good idea how you could fight from a dragon's back using a Keyblade. There was an awful lot about fighting and training regimes for dragons, but almost nothing about care and handling. Traditionally in folklore dragons breathed fire; they couldn't get even a wisp of smoke out of Leo, and he seemed far more intent on getting his nose into things than setting them alight. No traces of fire breathing abilities were found in him at all.
When Sunday came around, they had decided to go visit Phil and Hercules, and take Leo with them. Two people could handle him at all times while the others trained and took part in the games – because they had postponed their intended visit, they would be in time for the next championship. Since Leo couldn't breathe fire, had no teeth, and his claws were miniscule, they guessed he wouldn't be a danger to anyone, and provided they kept a constant eye on him he wouldn't get lost.
They got up early Sunday morning and ate a hurried breakfast. Ven packed a rucksack full of food for Leo and Mel pulled together a few things together for him to play with, namely noisy and shiny objects like the crude rattle Terra had made and a very pretty rock Mel had in her collection that split and refracted light into rainbows. Aqua had spent the previous day learning a spell to give Leo his armour so he was protected in the Lanes Between, and also because they couldn't fit him into the satchel anymore – or any bag for that matter.
"Okay," Ven said, dumping the bags in a heap in the middle of the courtyard. "That's everything!"
"Here," Mel handed him a flask of water. "You need to drink."
Ven laughed, and took a swig to placate her. Mel went on about the importance of hydration a lot.
"Ready?" Terra asked Aqua.
She nodded, and touched her shoulder to call her armour. The other did the same, though they kept their helmets off for the moment. Mel picked up Leo and held him out to Aqua, struggling to keep her arms straight. He was used to being held now, and kept quite still, nose snuffling curiously at the air. The downy fluff that covered his body was slowly thinning, revealing a bony looking black skin that was slowly lightening in some places. His blue blue eyes were darkening into a colour they couldn't quite guess at yet, and his squeaks were deepening into more throaty gurgles and whines. He had also just about doubled in size – probably just a little bit more.
Aqua raised her Keyblade and touched it against his forehead. Ven had practised with a wooden blade to prepare Leo so he didn't freak out. The spell she was about to cast was adapted from an original into Aqua's mother tongue, and she had spent ages trying to get it to rhyme like the book said it should.
"Be shielded from the space between," she recited, drawing on her magic. "And return from whence you've been; Homeward always in safety. With each experience learn and grow; Through every high and low; Feel your progress innately." The air around Leo flashed for a moment, and then he was engulfed in a set of armour like their own. It was deep purple chased with silver, and shone glaringly in the sun.
"Cool!" Ven said, grinning. It almost matched Mel's – her armour was like her boots, silver and amethyst; Leo's was much darker, and the silver was far more lustrous. "So he's got the same protection as us now, right?"
Aqua smiled and leant over to scratch his chin beneath his own helmet, and he growled in much the same way a cat purrs. Less formally, she said, "Be shielded from the forces of darkness and ill intent."
After that, they grabbed their things and got ready to leave. They had decided Mel would travel with Terra as his Glider could support all three of them, so she climbed onto the seat behind him, clutching the squirming protesting chick, and held on to his waist.
"Okay back there?" he said over his shoulder as Ven jumped onto his own Glider.
"Yeah, hey-!" she rearranged the hatchling, clamping firmly between her legs with as little room to manoeuvre as possible. "Steady, Leo. It's all right."
Leo squawked in protest at being confined so, especially when they were out in the open air; he had had one jaunt out to the training area with Terra the day before, and he had loved it. Now he was outside again, and forbidden to even move.
They left in convoy, and Ven relished the feeling of freedom as he soared through space, alongside his friends. They followed the pathway through the Lanes Between, and soon they were at the Coliseum, touching down outside the gates. They debussed and dropped their armour – Aqua had to do Leo's for him – and the chick wriggled out of Mel's arms the first chance he got, scampering away across the dirt courtyard, shrieking indignantly.
"Oh no!" Mel said, hand over her mouth.
"Hey, come back here!" Ven called, running after him. "Leo, you'll get lost!"
"I doubt he can understand you," Terra said, shaking his head.
"He'll be interpreting the tone of voice," Mel said, tensing herself as though she was about to dive.
"What do you think he's reading it as?" Terra asked as Ven chased Leo back towards them.
" 'I'm the blonde one, I'm running after you shouting'." Mel said. She waited for a moment, and then as Ven drew level with her she really did dive. Springing on her left hand, she grabbed Leo with her right and landed with a skid on her back, holding the chick up in the air triumphantly. "There! Staying with us is more fun then running off by yourself, isn't it?"
Leo cooed, tail trashing happily from side to side, glad to be free again. His wings beat at the air, and a small tuft of downy feathers floated upwards on the breeze. Ven leant down to give Mel a hand and helped her to her feet; Leo hooked his claws and tail into her clothes and clung there quite peacefully.
"Fluffy little git," Ven muttered to Terra as they set off towards the vestibule. "He never sits like that for me."
"You were the one chasing after him shouting," Terra reminded him, grinning slyly.
"Guys," Aqua said in a bored voice. "Knock it off,"
"I was just saying!" Terra defended himself, hands in the air.
Aqua pushed the door open, and held it for them, eyes narrowed as they ducked inside sheepishly. Even if they weren't willing to openly acknowledge her status over them, they still inwardly respected it.
"Oho!" said a familiar voice, and Ven grinned, forgetting his spat with Terra instantly.
"Phil!"
The ageing satyr had been stood on a plinth inspecting the match up draws on a chalkboard, but he jumped down and was promptly run over by Ven, who picked him up and spun round in a circle, whooping loudly.
"I'm so glad to see you, Phil!"
"Whoa! Put me down!"
Ven placed him back on the plinth, but had to hold a hand out to keep him from falling off in a dizzy daze.
"Sorry," Terra apologised. "Ven's a little over excited these days."
"Eh, no worries!" Phil said, shaking his head to clear it. "Terra! Aqua, good to see ya again! And who's this?" he gestured at Mel, who had surreptitiously hidden herself behind Terra's elbow. Leo looked fascinated with the room, especially the flickering flames, and started chirruping loudly. "Your new apprentice by any chance?"
Aqua smiled and gently took Mel by the shoulders, wheeling her out of Terra's shadow. Leo made another bid for freedom by scrabbling onto Terra's arm and landed on his shoulder, trying to bat at the flames with his forepaw.
"Oh no you don't," Terra said firmly, grabbing him under the forelegs and holding him well out of harms ways, much to Leo's vocal indignation.
"Phil, this is the student I was telling you about – Melody. Mel, this is Philoctetes, trainer of heroes."
"Extraordinaire!" Ven put in, making Phil chuckle. He seemed to have developed even more of a potbelly over the years, and his sparse hair was showing the first signs of going grey. He was aging with his own sort of grace…
"Flattery'll get you no where, but it's a good place to start!" Phil chastised him. He turned to Aqua and said, "If you want the Rookie trained you'll have to wait. I'm sortin' all the applications for the games today. Maybe I can slot you in afterwards."
"That'd be great, Phil."
"And what's with the chicken?"
Leo gave a high-pitched whine that may have meant to be a roar, and struggled feebly in Terra's hands. He gave up and stared dejectedly at the floor, grumbling deep in his chest as Ven said, "You're holding him wrong! That's why he's complaining,"
"Aren't we supposed to teach him patience or something?" Terra said through gritted teeth; Leo had started struggling again and wasn't going to give in so easily this time. It had been relatively easy to hold him when he had just hatched – now he was a writhing ball of fluffy limbs nearly as long from nose to tail as Terra's outstretched arms, finger tip to finger tip. It made hanging onto him very difficult.
"Umm…" Mel said, biting her lip. She had reverted to the girl who had first crossed their doorway the moment she met Phil, but now Mel scuttled over to Terra and took Leo into her custody. From a pocket she drew a small orange, and expertly relieved it of its peel one handed before slowly feeding him one segment at a time. Like magic, Leo stopped complaining and struggling, and seemed quite happy with all the noise from the stadium and the comings and goings of various fighters while Phil listened to Ven talk about their new training regime. As Aqua and Mel were giving Leo a drink from a baby bottle they had found (goats milk mixed with blood from the joint of beef Terra had roasted yesterday) Phil started pleading Terra to join the games.
"I'm not really here to fight," he said, scratching the back of his head and trying to sidle out of the situation, making Ven snigger.
"Well, you'll be disappointing all your fans – you're still considered a legend around here! 'Specially after you disappeared for years on end!"
"Well disappointing fan's is my specialty today," Terra was about to make a run for it when Ven grabbed his arm.
"Aww, c'mon! It'll be fun! If not I'll fight in his place,"
"Ah, actually," Phil checked the room, which was empty apart from them. "I need a favour."
"What?" Terra sighed, resigned.
"Well, Herc's been off for a while dealing with… 'Family matters'. So I got a troop of newbies coming through here for the small time games. Some of those kids ain't half bad, but their hearts aren't in the right place, if ya know what I mean. They think just because they can swing a sword they're the Gods' given gift to the world. Maybe you could show them it takes more than fighting skills to be a true hero?" Phil hammed it up by going all wide-eyed and starry, trying to emotionally blackmail Terra. "Cause of course, you're the perfect example of what a hero is! Not to mention if you win over the head honcho of this group the others will follow, and it'll save me a lot of trouble,"
"So basically," said a familiar voice from the doorway, and they all swung round to see Lea leaning against the lintel, smirking. "You want Terra to do your dirty work for you?"
"Lea!" Ven bounced over, waving. "It's been a while!"
"Hey, Sparky," he ruffled Ven's hair.
"It's not that!" Phil huffed, incensed. "I'm not as young as I used to be, and with Herc gone I can't handle the situation by myself. I got Sora and his friends keeping an eye on it at the moment, but it's gonna take more than that!"
"What situation?" Aqua asked, giving Lea a one armed hug in greeting. He had ditched his black coat in favour of clothing reminiscent of those he had worn when Ven had first met him, though these were admittedly cleaner and less raggedy, and also brighter in colour.
"The head of this little group will turn out to be a petty thug if he doesn't stop bullying the other kids. Which is a shame cause he's actually a good fighter. But that doesn't stop him being a nuisance!" Phil fumed.
"Okay," Terra said slowly, thinking very carefully and taking so long that Ven felt the need to nudge him. "I'll enter, and see what I can do. Who am I looking out for?"
"You can't miss him," Lea said, tucking a stray lock of vibrant red hair behind his ear. "Killion, wears a purple tunic and a red scarf. Long blonde hair held back by a stupid leather Alice band. Got it memorised?"
"Where're the others?" Phil demanded as Lea proceeded to lounge on the one chair in the room.
"Beats me. I'm not their babysitter, besides! Riku's got it all under control."
"They're here already?" Ven demanded, itching to look for them.
"Yup. They decided to stay a bit longer since you guys bailed on us yesterday," Phil said, picking up a stack of entry forms and rifling through them.
"That wasn't our fault!" Ven said before Aqua could say anything. "We had to figure out how to look after a baby dragon – that no one knows anything about!"
"Whoa, cool it kid! You're as bad as Sora,"
"So!" Lea got up and strode over to Mel, who was holding said dragon in her arms. He put a hand against the wall and leaned over so he was looking straight down over her head. "This is your new apprentice, right?"
Mel shied away, wide eyed and obviously intimidated by this tall, muscular, over-confident man. Ven stifled a laugh and came to stand by her side, so she was sandwiched between two people she knew and trusted. Sadly, that didn't do much for her own confidence.
"Lea, this is Melody and Leo. Mel, this is our friend Lea."
"N-nice to meet you," she bowed, quite formally, and Lea did a double take.
"O…Kay."
"Hey, Ven! Why don't you sign up for the tournament too?" Phil said, distracting him. "There's one more space," he wheedled.
"All right! Sign me up!"
Aqua shook her head, smiling to herself.
"What?" Ven demanded.
"Take it easy, okay?" she asked him, leading Mel to the doors with an arm around her shoulders. "We're going to look for the others, catch up with us when you're ready."
"Kay!" Ven waved them off.
Lea sniggered.
"What?" Ven rounded on him, irritated. "Why is everyone still treating me like a kid? I'm an adult now!"
"Cause," Lea said, flicking him between the eyes as he walked past, flipping his scarf over his shoulder. "You spent all the time when you should have been emotionally maturing and growing up – fast asleep."
Ven snarled at his retreating back. Why did everyone have to keep reminding him of that?! Then Terra put a soothing hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at his best friend balefully.
"You should know better than to listen to that doofus!"
They both laughed until a fireball came hurtling towards them. Phil got angry when Lea stalked back menacingly with ire in his eyes. "Hey! Hey hey hey! Take it outside, you guys!"
"Race ya!" Ven shouted, barrelling forth so Lea had to dodge out of the way. "Last one's the referee!"
"Like hell!" Lea shouted, chasing after him.
Terra turned to Phil and said, "I'll gladly help you out, Phil. But first I need to prise those two apart."
"Heh, say no more! Do what you have to, just make sure I've still got a coliseum for the games when they're done!"
XOXOX