Chapter four! Now enjoy.

(Loho)

It was late afternoon. Upon waking up, Isaac had almost forgotten what had happened that morning. As memory came back to him, suddenly every inch of his body was wracked with pain. I was trampled! Why am I still alive? He thought. Where am I? He looked around. This is Loho! I'm at an inn aren't I? How did I get here? As Isaac carefully thought out his situation, he was interrupted when Jenna came running in, attempting to hug him, succeeding in tackling him, not helping the fact that he was already in enough physical pain. "Stop, it... Jenna, you're hurting me!"

She released him. "You look terrible." She said. "I guess we really did get off easy."

"We? Do you mean Felix is ok too?"

"Yeah, he's still in one piece. Isn't it weird how we ended up in Loho? Somebody brought us here, but nobody knows who did."

There was a brief silence. "Okay then, that was odd."

"Yeah."

"I'm hungry." Isaac tried to stand, but a surge of pain tore through his body.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, you're not going to recover for about a day, so don't try to move."

"Figures."

"Oh, did you hear about the dragon?"

"Hear about it?!" Isaac cried. "Unless you haven't noticed, I've been unconscious- wait did you say... dragon?"

Jenna nodded. "Yup. Dragon. It's been hiding in the mines since last week, and it's already killed four people."

"Yikes. It's not a fusion dragon, is it?"

"No. They actually said it wasn't very big, but nobody's gotten a real good look at it yet."

"Well, do you think we should-"

"If you were going to say fight the dragon, no. We have to get home as quickly as possible. No buts."

(The next day.) "But...but... wait a minute! You two can't vote my decision out! I want to go home!"

Felix looked over his shoulder. "Well, we want to help this town's pest problem. It's two against one, so dragon it is." Apparently, both Felix and Isaac wanted to fight this dragon.

As they entered the mines, Jenna lingered, reluctant to go in. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Hey, are you coming? We need you!" Isaac called out to her. Giving in, she ran to catch up with the others.

After a while, their excitement turned to confusion. "Is there even a dragon in here?" Felix asked, looking around the dim cavern. "It can't be too difficult to find a dragon in a tunnel."

"There probably wasn't even a dragon to begin with." Jenna said, clearly wanting to be anywhere but this place.

Isaac interrupted them. "Ummm... guys?"

Felix and Jenna ignored him. They were busy in the middle of a "did notdid too" argument.

"Guys, listen..."

"What is it now?" Jenna said, without turning to face him.

"I think I found our dragon."

(Great Western Sea.)

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there now?"

"No."

"How about now?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"NO!"

"Okay... my bad..."

"Are you going to annoy me for this entire trip?" Piers leaned against the side of the boat. "I was hoping that maybe you would agree to calm down if I took you with me, but..." He sighed. "But I guess you... are you listening to me?!"

No, she wasn't. Pictu was staring at the ocean. "It's huge..."

"What is? The ocean? I thought you've seen it before."

"I guess I didn't bother to look at the ocean's beauty while I was drowning in it." There was a sour tone in her voice.

"Sorry."

Pictu reached for something around her neck. She pulled out a chain with a shiny blue scale on the end. "Why did that animal decide to give its life to save me? It didn't owe me anything."

"Sometimes animals understand more than humans will ever know. For now, you should be grateful to it."

Pictu tucked the scale under her shirt. "Well, even after I was saved from drowning, I would have died of a disease. I guess I owe my life to you, too." She smiled, but this smile wasn't laughing at a vulgar joke, or a teasing smirk. She actually looked...beautiful.

Piers's heart beat faster. "No, you don't owe me anything. Really, you don't!"

"Whatever. Hey, what the hell is going on over there?"

Piers turned to see what appeared to be a fierce battle. "That's Hesperia isn't it?"

Pictu laughed. "I guess somebody is going to have to step in and call a halt." She drew out her sword. "This is gonna be fun!"

THE PLOT THICKENS! Oh, god, this must be the best pocky I've ever eaten. Pocky fuels my imagination. It's dark chocolate with almond chunks. Heck, I'm probably making you hungry, sorry! Japanese food is good. Next chapter: What was Garet doing this whole time? I hope he didn't SLEEP THROUGH THE STAMPEDE!! And what is to become of Ivan, Rona, Bucky and Ryu? UNTIL NEXT TIME! (I just love capital letters.)