The Girl from the Unknown by The Lady of Dragons

Chapter 3: Busy day

Part 1- Beasts forged in fire

"Wait! Where are you going?" Eli called after Lyaru as she walked out to her mecha.

"Oh sorry, I forgot to tell you. I work sometimes at the beast forge for Grendle" she said turning around to face the Shane

"Really?" asked Kord, suddenly interested, having followed them outside

"Yeah" she said with a smile

"What if someone asks about me?" Eli said suddenly "Lyaru told me that you guys had told people I was away on 'Shane business' Should we tell people I'm back?"

"He makes a good point" said Trixie

"Pronto says we should not tell anyone and use this to our advantage so we can surprise Doctor Blakk" the molenoid added his input

"Actually, he may be right" Lyaru said "I won't tell anyone about Eli, unless there's someone you want me to tell?" she asked tentatively

"If you're going to the beast forge, you could tell Grendle. After all, he figured out that you weren't on a trip Eli and we told him what we thought at the time: that you were dead" said Kord "Is that alright with you guys if we tell him?" he asked, turning to his teammates

"For sure, no reason that he should think I'm dead, he is our friend" said Eli and that was that. Lyaru headed off to the beast forge to meet Grendle.

She arrived less than twenty minutes later and was greeted welcomingly by Grendle "Lya, my friend! Good to see you!" the large cave troll said as she rode up on her mecha "I haven't seen you around in a while. How is your Astra-1 treating you these days?" he asked referring to the model of her white tiger mecha

"Hi Grendle" she said with a smile "Astral is just fine thanks for asking, and I've just been busy lately. Speaking of which, before you tell me what I can help with around the forge, I need to speak with you in private"

"Alright then, follow me. We can talk privately in my office" he said and walked into the building, she right behind him. When they arrived at his office he closed the shades and made sure that the door was secured. "What did you need to talk to me about?" he asked looking at the dark haired girl questioningly

"Do you remember when Eli was taken by Dr. Blakk and you and the Shane gang thought he was dead?"

He nodded, not questioning how she knew something like that. Somehow she always seemed to know.

"Well he's not" Lyaru said quietly.

"WHAT?!" Grendle bellowed. Had the room not been sound proof, everyone in the forge would have heard him.

She had anticipated his reaction and hissed "Keep it down!" at him

"He's alive? Does Blakk have him? Where?" he asked in a rush

"Yes he's alive, and Blakk had him in some far off cavern" she answered. Her slight emphasis on 'had' was not lost on the cave troll

"So he's free and alright?" Grendle asked still in shock

"Yes"

"And I assume you freed him" it was not a question

"He is back with his friends at their Hideout" she reassured him. A wide smile slowly crept across his face and the fire was back in his eyes. He had missed the little Shane boy "But we have to keep it a secret for now" Lyaru reminded him sternly

"Then how come you told me?" he asked

"Because they asked me to" was her simple answer

"It is good to know Eli is alright" the cave troll sighed

"Yes it is. Now why don't you show me what I can help with around here?" she said leading the huge cave troll out of his office. After several hours full of hard work fixing mecha beasts Lyaru had finished for the day and was about to head back to the Hideout when Grendle stopped her

"Leaving for today?"

"Yep"

"Is there any chance you would happen to see Kord today? Because I've got some new parts for him" Grendle said

"I don't mind bringing them to him at all Grendle" she replied to his unasked question. She took the package from him, hopped onto Astral and headed off to see the Shane gang.

Part 2 – Twisted connection

Lyaru was riding back to the Shane Hideout when she suddenly stopped and dismounted. One of her slugs, Volt, chattered worriedly from her shoulder, it sensed something as well.

"Hello Twist" she said calmly, her eyes closed

"Heh. Still as sharp as ever Lya" said Twist, appearing suddenly behind her

"What do you want" she asked coldly "I haven't heard from you in two years, why the sudden visit? Finally got sick of Blakk ordering you around?" her tone shifted to one that was slightly mocking

"No" he sneered "I just wanted to say hi"

"You and I both know that you never just drop by to say hi" she told him, her eyes still closed

"Come on, can't I just come to tell my girl hello once in a while" he said with a dark chuckle

"We've been over this Twist: I don't like you and I never will!" she said, sighing exasperatedly

"So you say Lya, but I still like teasing you" he laughed. His statement was met with an angry growl from Lyaru, and she lashed out with her left foot, but instead of striking out behind her, she swept her foot up and around slashing at the air to her right.

"Ooof!" she caught the real Twist right in the stomach with her booted foot, his illusion double behind her vanished and he became visible as he clutched at his gut. "Definitely as sharp as ever" he wheezed

"Now Spill, and preferably not your guts" she said looking at him disgustedly

"I meant what I said before. I just wanted to see you and say hi. I just wanted to make sure you were ok" he muttered, still trying to get his breath back. She kicked hard.

"Then I'm out of here" she said mounting Astral and riding away

Twist watched her go "One of these days, Lya my dear, one of these days…" he chuckled, and then went off to wherever he had come from

Part 3 – Shane gang on patrol, maybe….

Lyaru returned to the Hideout and walked up to the still-open door 'They really should close that' she thought to herself. Sharking off the memory of her recent encounter with Twist she walked through the door (AN: The reason I have the door open is 1 – I think it would be awkward for her to have to open the door herself, and 2 – it added dramatic effect in the first scene where she showed up at the hideout)

"Welcome back" Trixie said when she saw the other girl enter, being the only one on the main floor of the base

"Hello Trixie" Lyaru said with a smile, "Where are the others? I have a package for Kord that Grendle sent with me-" at the mention of his name and the words 'package' and 'Grendle' Kord came pelting in to the main room so fast it looked like he had been shoot out of a blaster at velocity

"Did you say package?" he asked, skidding to a halt and rubbing his hands together excitedly

"Um, yes I did" Lyaru said giving the tall cave troll a strange look "Here" she handed him Grendle's package "Grendle asked me to take it to you on my way out of the forge. How did you manage to hear that from wherever you were anyway?"

"Oh we cave trolls have excellent hearing…sometimes" he said with a grin

"Aha…" Lyaru said uncertainly

"That aside" said Trixie "You can come in if you want to. You don't have to stand in the doorway" she said leading Lyaru to the kitchen and telling her to sit down

"Thanks" Lyaru replied, her legs had been getting sore after standing all day in the forge "So where are Eli and Pronto?" she asked again

"Eli is asleep, and I think Pronto is too" Kord said sitting in the chair to Lyaru's right. Trixie followed and sat next to him.

Uneasy silence filled several minutes while the three of them just sat trying not to look at each other, and succeeding for the most part. Kord and Trixie were unsure of what to do, they knew that she wasn't a traitor or a liar and she seemed nice enough, but it had been so long since they had had company. Lyaru was not sure what she was supposed to do, she had been alone with her slugs traveling from place to place to fight Blakk for so long and it wasn't like she was invited over to people's houses often or ever for that matter. Was she supposed to say something or would that be too pushy? Should she ask how 'things' were going or would that be strange?

"So…." Kord started "What kind of slugs do you have?"

"Lots. Would you like to see them?"

"Sure"

"Ok" Lyaru stood and pulled off her bandolier revealing a large number of sleepy slugs in the little semi-transparent tubes (AN: Are they called tubes? Or maybe capsules? If anyone knows what they're actually called please let me know and I will correct myself) "Come on out" she told the little creatures. They climbed out and scooted across the table. "This is Volt (Tazerling), Ricochet (Speed Stinger) Medic (Boon Doc) Webs (Arachenet) Crossfire (Flaringo) Razor (Thresher) Sticky (Jellyish) Smash (Armashelt) Icicle (Frost Crawler) and the rest are at home"

"Cool" Kord replied

"Hang on you missed one" Trixie noticed that one of the tubes still had a dark shape in it

"So I did" Lyaru agreed. She tapped the tube lightly trying to catch the attention of the slug inside "Wake up Dracon"

"Dracon? What kind of slug is that?" Kord asked puzzled

"Not a type of slug, that's his name. He's a Draco slug"

"A Draco slug? Never head of that kind before" Trixie said

"Most haven't" Lyaru said, gently pulling capsule off its clip "I think he's the last one. Maybe, though I'm not sure. My bet is that he's just the only one left in the inhabited caverns and that the rest of the Draco slugs are deep underground somewhere" she tapped the tube/capsule again and a little slug popped out of the capsule. (AN: Ok now that I've written it out a few times I'm pretty sure that they are capsules, though if you know they're called something else or have suggestions for what I should call them in the future please don't hesitate to tell me) He was bright red, with pale blue and green horns and spines. He had small midnight blue wings and spiked patters of the same color on his tiny stomach (AN: Ok does anyone else think that 'tiny stomach' sounds hilarious and kind of adorable?) along with a white stripe that seemed to go under the spikes. His eyes were an iridescent light blue and he had a tail.

"Wow!" Trixie exclaimed "He doesn't look like any slug I've seen before. Where did you find him?" she asked looking at the suddenly silent Lyaru

Lyaru gave a sigh "To be honest with you I don't know where he came from. Eli's dad found him on one of his patrol trips and brought him to my dad. He was kinda sick and messed up. We never found out why"

"That's amazing!" Kord said

"What's amazing?" asked a sleepy voice from the stairs. They all turned around to find Eli walking down the stairs.

"Oh sorry Eli, we didn't realize you were up. Otherwise I would have told you Lyaru was back" Trixie said as he sat down at the table.

"Its fine, I just got up anyway. So what's so amazing anyway?" he asked, Burpy on his shoulder.

"Look at Lyaru's slug" Kord said, peering more closely at the miniature dragon on the table in front of him. Dracon turned obligingly to let the cave troll get a closer look and even allowed himself to be picked up, much to Lyaru's surprise.

"He almost never lets anyone else touch him" she told them

"I guess we must be special then" Eli said

"You certainly are" Lyaru agreed, shaking her head thoughtfully.

"Hmm? What did you say?" he asked to busy staring at Dracon to pay attention to what she had said.

"Oh nothing" she dismissed

"Don't mind him" Trixie said kindly "He just loves slugs"

"So I gathered" she told Trixie with a friendly wink. Suddenly Kord's stomach rumbled loudly. They all laughed and Trixie stood

"It is about dinner time isn't it?" she declared

"Yeah I could go for some food" Eli said

"I should go" Lyaru said, making as if to leave

"You can stay if you want" Trixie said

"Yeah I've got no complaints" Kord agreed. Eli just nodded

"Alright then, would you like a hand Trixie?" Lyaru offered

"I'd appreciate it, thanks"

Kord and Eli talked about slugs while they helped with dinner while the girls just rolled their eyes.

"And people say girls are the talkative ones" Trixie whispered to Lyaru, causing the other girl to giggle.

"They don't know Eli and Kord then do they" she replied. At some point Pronto joined them, awakened by the scent of food. They all ate and shared stories for a bit, and when it got late and people started dozing off Lyaru left without anyone realizing, since they had all fallen asleep.

"Time to go Dracon" she whispered softly, calling to her slug. He shrugged and flapped up to her shoulder, the other slugs following his lead and climbing into their capsules. Burpy was still awake and waved to them from Eli's shoulder as they left. Dracon waved back, the two had become fast friends and had spent a good amount of time jumping from perch to perch on the slug home in the hideout. She walked outside and closed the door, then she mounted Astral and rode away.

Several hours later back at the Hideout, Eli woke up from a very strange dream, he looked around and not seeing Lyaru stood up to see if she was still there. Nope, she was gone. 'Dang it' he thought 'Why does she always have to disappear like that?! Seriously I just want a chance to talk with her alone when I'm not half comatose' he lightly smacked his forehead in frustration. Then he decided to go back to sleep but in his actual bed, he had an awful crick in his neck from sleeping in a chair. He would have woken the others for the same reason but they looked comfortable so he let them be and went upstairs. He sat in a chair by his window and looked out across the darkened landscape. He squinted seeing something in the distance, he looked harder and saw a small object flying slowly towards him and was shocked to see a Hoverbug slug soar up to his window. There was a message tied around its leg, he untied it and the slug popped back into miniature form. The message read as follows:

I'll drop by later. See you tomorrow

-Lyaru

P.S. Just sling Glider, he knows where to find me and can get back on his own.

He read the short message a few times, then stood and grabbing his blaster and the Hoverbug, who he assumed was Glider, went to the window and fired the slug out of it. He laid back on his bed and contemplated the last few days. 'Well tomorrow is sure to be interesting, that's for sure' he thought before drifting off to sleep.

End of Chapter 3 - Busy day

I would just like to apologize for taking so long to update this, I was not having writer's block, I just got inspired for some chapters for another story and had to write them down before I forgot about them. And I would like to thank the many people who have read and those that have reviewed my story for all the positive feedback I've been getting! I really appreciate all the support! Keep on reviewing and I'll keep on writing, deal?