From the time she was a young girl, Azalea could never stand the sound of crying.

So it jerked her awake. Her hands went to her ears out of habit, but once she recalled where she was, she removed

them.

Still bleary-eyed from another night of sleeping like a jumping bean, Azalea couldn't see much at first. After a few

wipes at her eyes, she rested her arms on the edge of the bed that she still wouldn't sleep on and squinted out to the

bleak horizon. The sobs echoed all around her, making it difficult to pinpoint the source.

Eventually, Azalea noticed another bed. It was just as big as hers, with blue accents instead of her pinkish ones. She

could make out a smallish lump under the lavish covers. She achingly stood and stumbled drowsily towards the other

bed.

Once she was within twenty feet, she could hear a "tsk, tsk" sound. It was Fagan, to her utter joy.

"Not so fast, Princess."

She abruptly slammed into an invisible wall. A pulse of red light came from the impact.

Rubbing her nose, Azalea called out, "Who else have you captured?"

"Just a little girl," the spirit's voice replied innocently.

"Don't take the credit." It seemed for a moment that someone else had spoken, but it was so quiet Azalea

disregarded it.

"She's crying!" Azalea told him, gazing through the translucent barrier at the shaking mound.

"So? Crying is a natural response, you know," Fagan told her, as if he were an expert on humans.

"Let me comfort her," Azalea said confidently.

Sounding interested, he challenged, "Why should I let you?"

Pursing her lips, she said coyly, "Do you really want to listen to her crying for however long you're planning on

keeping us?"

There was a long moment when all that could be heard was the girl's resonating cries. Without a word, Fagan misted

into form and glanced at Azalea as if saying, "Well played."

His fingers swept over the invisible barricade, and another pulse of energy ran through it, but coming in instead of

rippling out. Then, the spirit disappeared, and left Azalea to go to this girl.

She stepped slowly, avoiding making any loud noises. Settling onto the end of the bed, she hesitantly rubbed the

mass of human under the sheets. It shivered.

"Don't touch me," the girl said, quietly but fiercely.

Azalea obligingly took her hand away.

"I won't hurt you," she told her.

The person underneath the sheets moved around, and a pair of puffy blue eyes came up to examine Azalea.

Narrowing these eyes, the girl demanded, "You aren't friends with that cat, are you? Where is my brother?"

"Your brother? Cat?"

"Yes, my brother. He's tall and blond and has grey eyes. If you met him, he would probably hurt you to save me, so I

guess he hasn't met you." She mentioned nothing more about the cat.

This girl sounded slightly out of sync, perhaps traumatized, so Azalea just smiled.

"I'm not crazy," she hiccupped.

The older girl sniffed. "I'm sure if anyone here is crazy," she said, "it's me."

The little girl sat up a little. Azalea saw how pretty she was, even while sobbing. It only raised her suspicion of

Fagan's motives.

Azalea then told her quietly, "If you don't mind, I think I'd like to be friends."

There was a pause.

"Okay," said the girl.

"I'm Azalea," she said, grinning.

"I'm… Ariel," said the little girl, pushing off the covers.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Ariel," said Azalea. And she added, "I promise you, we'll find a way out of here. No matter

what."

Fagan's voice drifted past her ears, oddly mingling with another tone: "Good luck with that."

A/N- Phew, now Azalea has a friend. Yes, I am mixing up the different references and storylines of games on purpose. While it's fun, it gets kind of confusing, so please bear with me.

Fagan, Ariel, and Azalea are mine, and the events of this chapter in particular are not even similar to Nintendo's canon.

I own nothing but frozen bananas. They're good in smoothies.

-Rajeela