Wooooooooow...there is absolutely no excuse for my laziness in uploading this story, so for that I'm so sorry! But thank you to everyone who reviewed, supported and nagged me to continue, cuz without you guys I probably would have forgotten about it completely XP

On a slightly different note, whats up with the new fanfic? Totally confused me at first, and then I realized we could upload cover pics! COVER PICS! HELL YEAH! I gotta say, I've actually had pictures for all my stories hidden away on my laptop, so it's great that I get to use them! It's just a pity that they have to be so small and awkwardly shaped =/ Just so everyone knows all Images uploaded here are done from scratch by me =D and even if they aren't perfect I'm very proud of them =]

Any who, enough of my dribble, on with the story!

Chapter 10

Kaiyou rested her small serpent head on the warm rock and her forked tongue flicked out appreciatively. She wasn't sure why she hadn't thought to turn into a snake sooner, being cold blooded made it a lot easier to withstand the heat even if her body was still black, and she had a pretty good defence if someone tried to attack her. One bite and they would b paralyzed or dead, she wasn't quite sure seeing as she had never tested it on anyone. Not having arms was a little weird though, she wasn't going to get used to that in a hurry. Maybe being a snake wasn't the best idea after all. Oh well, it wasn't as if she needed them right now, so instead of worrying about it she stretched herself out over the rock and basked in the sun.

It was nice to get some alone time again, even if she knew it wouldn't last. Her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to Hao, and she found herself scowling. It was irritating how much she found herself thinking of him. Things were so much simpler when she was alone, but now she was stuck following him around for reasons she didn't know. The most annoying thing was that she no longer seemed to mind it. That didn't mean that she trusted his followers, and she sure wasn't going to do anything unreasonable on his behalf. He must know that, so what did he want? The question confused her to no end. She was growing soft too, she could feel it. Before she had met him she would have only done what suited her, and now she seemed to be thinking about other people's feelings before her own. It just wasn't right, but she just couldn't think of a way to fix it. As much as she might not like it there was no way to reverse her strange new feelings.

She heard rather than saw the bird swooping towards her in a rush of wind with its claws outstretched, and before she had time to move the creature had snatched her up and taken off into the air again. She dangled helplessly in its claws in shock, the sharp points digging into her stomach painfully. Maybe she was right in thinking that changing into a snake wasn't the best of idea's. Lounging so openly hadn't helped her chances either. She was high above the tree tops now, looking out over the expanse of dry land surrounding them. In the far north she could see the small white shapes of the tents from camp beside the pool of water, which amusingly the bird was flying in the direction of. There was a large red cliff face right beside the camp, no doubt that was where this bird was nesting. Rather than escaping right away she decided to stick out this free ride, from the suns position she guessed it was about four, so she would have needed to leave soon anyway. The thought was a bitter one, but she pushed it aside in favour of enjoying the view, even if the bird's claws were digging rather uncomfortably in her gut. She could defiantly appreciate what a good flyer this bird was, because the camp was approaching much faster than she had expected. Just before the bird went to veer off to the right, Kaiyou shifted, her bones crunching into place and her skin stretching to reform her arms and legs as she turned back into her large wolf form. As she had expected, the bird was unable to hold onto the suddenly heavy load, and with a screech of surprise it dropped her, and she went plummeting down to the ground. She changed quickly once again, this time into the form of a raven, and swooped back up, flapping her wings hard to keep her airborne until she was able to fly comfortably into camp.

To no surprise, Hao was waiting not a little distance away, a smirk plastered across his face.

"Have some trouble?" He asked, though it was clear he already knew about the bird that had tried to take her off for dinner, and not in the good way.

She frowned at him, clicking her beak in annoyance. He gestured for her to come to him, holding out his arm like a bird tamer. She went, grudgingly, and then gripped his arm a little harder than she needed to with her sharp claws. He didn't complain, and instead lifted his free hand to touch at her stomach. She didn't notice it until then, but she was bleeding from where the bird had held her, and she winced uncomfortably.

"Keep still." Hao murmured, and then a faint glow shone around his hand, and a moment later her pain was gone.

'How did you do that?' She thought to him in surprise, slightly wishing she was in a secure enough place to change and inspect her healed wounds more fully.

"I'm a shaman." He replied simply.

'Can all shaman heal like that?' she found herself asking curiously.

"Only the strong ones."

She nodded, going thoughtful for a moment. 'Wait, if you can heal then why didn't you heal when I clawed you that time?'

Hao shrugged, "I didn't think of it."

'...You're an idiot.'

He smirked, but didn't bother to respond and instead lowered her to the ground, where she obediently hopped off of his arm and turned to look up at him expectantly.

"I'll be going to make myself known to a certain individual soon. I want you to come with me. Can you change into something a little more... impressive?"He asked.

She narrowed her beady bird eyes at him suspiciously 'Why?'

"Would you rather I left you here and order Billy to watch you?"

'No.'

"Then I don't see the harm in taking you with me."

She scowled at him in annoyance, but nodded none the less, and for a moment Hao was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to get her to do what he wanted. Apparently letting her run off for some alone time had been useful after all. And then the sound of her bones clicking into place brought him back from his thoughts and his smile dropped. She sat in front of him, her small nose twitching and her large ears held high. He could hear the laughter of her thoughts.

'Is this impressive enough for you?' she mocked, perching herself up onto her hind legs and holding her paws up to her chest.

She was a rabbit. A small, black rabbit.

Hao frowned, "Not funny."

'Seemed funny to me.' She replied with a laugh, and when he glared at her she rolled her eyes, 'Alright alright, no need to get grumpy I'll change.'

A few seconds later Kaiyou had changed into her favourite wolf form, even though the daytime sun was near unbearable with the thick fur that came with it.

'Better?' She asked.

Hao nodded and called for Opacho, who quickly scuttled to his side, a large smile plastered across her face. Kaiyou looked on in confusion.

'Why is the kid coming?' she asked, forgetting that said kid was also able to hear her.

"Opacho always goes with Hao-sama." The child chirped happily.

The wolf-girl was curious, but didn't bother to question it further. It wasn't her business why the strange fire shaman thought it was suitable to drag a child along on his little trips. Without another word passing between the three of them, but with all understanding Kaiyou's thoughts, Hao summoned the flames and teleported them away from the camp.

When the flames died down and her feet met solid earth again, Kaiyou took in her surroundings and realized that not all that much had changed. To her dismay they were still stuck in the desert with the sun beating down harshly against her dark fur, except this time there was nowhere for her to escape the heat. The terrain was rocky and hot under her paws, and only a few dry shrubs poked out of the ground at random intervals. In front of them however, was a rather large cliff face much like the one beside their camp, only this one had an entire town carved into the rock. How people had ever managed something so fantastic was incredible, and Kaiyou couldn't help but wonder what kind of people had made it their home, though it was clear to her that it was deserted now. She went to step forward, led both by the assumption that it was where they were going and her own curiosity, but to her mild disappointment Hao didn't go to follow, and simply sat himself down on a large rock.

"We'll wait here. She should be here soon." He said, and Opacho merrily hopped over to where he sat and stood beside him.

Kaiyou frowned, but slowly padded over beside the little girl. 'She? You got a secret girlfriend you never cared to mention or something?' she asked nonchalantly as she sat down and lifted her hind leg to scratch behind her ear.

Hao smirked, "She is my brother's fiance'."

'You have a brother?' she thought with a start and sitting up sharply in surprise. Somehow it had never occurred to her that the fire shaman might have a family, he had certainly never mentioned them. In a strange way it made her feel a little lonely.

Before she could really think on the matter, the faint sound of a helicopter heading in their direction reached her ears, and she looked up to the small black speck in the sky. Both Hao and Opacho did the same, alerted to its presence by her thoughts.

Slowly, as the black speck began to take shape the closer it came and the sound of its spinning rotors met all of their ears, Hao began to smirk with a glance at Kaiyou out of the corner of his eye.

'This should be interesting.'

Okay, I will admit that this was actually supposed to be part of a larger chapter, but by the time I got this far I realized that it had been FOREVER since I last updated and many of you have been messaging me to continue. As such, I figured it was better to upload what I had now than to make you all wait any longer for the rest. Amusingly it is still at about the same word count that I'm used to uploading for this story so I suppose it was for the best. Any who, I promise I won't take as long to upload the next chapter! And I'm sorry if this one is a little disappointing =/

Review it you want, I love to hear what you think =D