CHAPTER TWO

Luck is a funny thing.

Life itself is riddled with a mixture of oddities, random occurrences, karmic moments and fatalistic happenings. But throughout it all…there is luck, sweet, pure luck. And Luck at that moment came bursting into play in the form of a hand that suddenly began shaking Ridley.

The first thing he was aware of was that his wounds hurt far less. The second that his wing was…bandaged. The third, as he opened his eyes, was that he was in a smooth room, apparently an abandoned bedroom for one of the ship's crew. And the fourth…

His savior was a human kid, who had a smile that made Ridley want to either punch him in the face or smile right back. Since he was too tired, he just blinked and tried to focus more on the kid, who stopped shaking him once he realized that the space dragon was awake.

"Good morning smiley person!" He told Ridley, with an attention-grabbing, almost melodramatic voice. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. You need to be awake if you're going to eat something, here."

Something was thrust before him…a chocolate bar. Ridley snapped his jaws on it just as the kid let go, gobbling it down. It was a little warm and soft, but had a nice feel to it, and was very good, quite rich in its taste.

"It's a Ghiradelli. I bought a little pack, it's in my backpack. Here, how about some water?" The kid held up a bottle of water with a label of "Poland Spring" on it. Ridley eyed the kid over…what was the human playing at? Didn't he know who Ridley was? Still…his throat was parched.

He took the water and forced it to his lips, drinking it down. It was also a bit warm, but it quenched his desert-dry throat, and he allowed a sigh of relief to escape from his mouth. He nodded at the kid. "Thank you." He got out in a colorful, mild baritone of a voice. "Who might you be?"

It seemed odd that he was asking for the kid's name, he'd probably end up killing him anyway…why get to know an animal you raise for slaughter? Still…the kid piqued his curiosity.

"Nick's my name." The human kid responded. He rubbed the back of his neck with a hand, grinning. Ridley looked him over…besides the smile, the most noticeable thing about this child was his necklace…it was a mood necklace, with a blue circle on the end of it, and a…tooth of some predator was hanging from the top of the circle. The kid was wearing a green shirt with a blue vest, white sneakers, and blue jeans. He had curly/wavy hair that was brushed back, and those hazel eyes were staring right into Ridley's green/yellow ones.

"So, what's your name?" The kid asked.

Ridley blinked. The kid didn't know who he was? But he was RIDLEY for pete's sake! Scourge of Zebes, infamous commander of the space pirates, second hand of Mother Brain, the list went on and on! He'd been on "The Galaxy's Most Wanted" for YEARS!

Hmm. Hmmmm.

"Where are you from?" Ridley asked.

"My planet? Oh, Earth." The kid responded. "I kinda ended up here by accident. Crashed into the surface while I was on a big trip, a grand tour."

Well, that sort of explained it. Earth still had cities, states, countries that were, by intergalactic standards, underdeveloped. The kid was probably a country bumpkin who was new to space. But…how'd he end up here?

"Anyhow, what's your name?" The kid asked nicely again.

"Oh, Ridley." He responded, thinking it safe.

"Cool." The kid said. "But…isn't that a girl's name?" He asked.

Ridley looked offended. "Hey, I'll have you know-" But before he could stand up and whack the kid, pain shot through his wing again. "ARGH! D—n it…" He closed his eyes, panting.

"You should lie down for a little while. Your wing needs time to heal." The kid said. He walked over to a backpack in the corner of the room and pulled out a small white box. "Good thing I always carry a first-aid kit wherever I go, ever since that incident…the life I save could be my own and all that jazz!"

Ridley clenched and unclenched his claws as he lay down on his back. He noticed suddenly that the kid had put him on a blanket, and had given him a pillow to boot…d—n decent of him.

"Why are you helping me?" He found himself asking. He wanted to say "Don't you know who I am, boy?!?", but didn't.

The kid simply shrugged. "I don't really need a reason to help someone, do I?" He said. "It's just the right thing to do. Now then…" He pulled up a nearby chair in the room and sat down in it, his back facing a desk. "Tell me about yourself! You've got a long while before that wound heals, so there's lots of time to kill. An icebreaker or two will pass the time!"

Ridley groaned…but not in pain. He HATED this sort of thing.

"Oh, you hate icebreakers huh? Me too. How about I just tell you something interesting about myself, you do the same for you, and we call it even?"

Ridley raised his head, nodding. Already his mind was thinking…what could he safely say?

"Well something interesting about me is that I have a Hawaiian girlfriend, and she has a HUGE family, or as we like to call it, ohana."

Ridley blinked a few times. "Ohana?"

"It's a Hawaiian word. Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind…or forgotten. I keep that lesson with me ever since I had to say goodbye to her, so I can never forget her."

Hawaiian? Oh yes, he'd heard of that island. Lovely little place, still a great vacation spot after all these years. Odd though…the kid didn't look Hawaiian. Hmm. Now then, what to say, what to-

Suddenly Ridley realized that…he could say it. He could get what he'd been wanting to scream out for years off his chest. He'd never told this to anyone else, not the whole story anyhow. The kid wasn't going to live to tell anyone else, and it would feel good to tell SOMEONE.

Then the kid said something.

"Ridley…I have to ask this…how did you get injured?"

The kid actually did care. Hmm.

"Well…Nick…how about I tell you my interesting thing?"

The kid nodded eagerly. "Okay! Fire away!"

Ridley gave a sad, harsh chuckle and smiled wryly. This would distract the kid from asking about his wounds, alright. "Well, I guess an interesting thing about me is that I'm probably the last of my kind because my race was exterminated right before my eyes on my home planet of Zebes… and by the very government that regulates this galaxy."

And with those words, Ridley knew there was no turning back.