Chapter 10: Home Again.

Lloyd knocked on the door. "What is it?" a gruff voice shouted from inside.

"Dad! It's me!" Lloyd shouted. "And my friends!"

"Come on in!"

Lloyd waved his friends over and went inside.

Dirk was standing in front of the forge, hammering at a piece of glowing metal.

"Be with yeh in a minute, Lloyd," he said.

They watched as Dirk pounded the metal into shape, stopping every so often to examine it critically. Finally, he plunged it into a water barrel.

He turned to the group. "Good t' see yeh, son." Then his dark eyes focused on Lloyd's clothes.

"What happened to the clothes I made yeh?"

Lloyd turned red. "Well, er...uh...they're at the cleaners, Dad..."

Sheena gave him a hard look. "What is it you said? 'Lying is the first step to the path thievery?' Tell him, Lloyd."

"I wasn't lying!"

"Tell him all of it."

Dirk had noticed the thin purplish scar slanting across his adopted son's chest. "How'd yeh get that, son?" he said abruptly.

Sheena turned to the rest of the group and gave him a bright smile. "Why don't all of you go outside while I tell Dirk about Lloyd's case of bravery?"

Lloyd went to leave, but Sheena grabbed the back of his vest. "No, you stay here!"

They left Lloyd to pay the piper. Genis went to poke around, and found Noishe asleep in his pen. Listening to the murmur of voices with half a pointy ear, he gently woke the arshis up.

The protozoan whined, and licked Genis' face.

Athan turned to the rest of them. "What did Lloyd do?"

Ribs got out his slate. HE BECAME GRAVELY WOUNDED AND KEPT FIGHTING, EVEN AS HE WAS BLEEDING TO DEATH.

Athan winced. "Admirable bravery, but not much common sense. Sheena loves him a lot, doesn't she?"

Raine nodded. "We all love Lloyd in different ways--brother, friend, student, whatever our relationship to him is--but Sheena's probably who he's going to marry—even if he doesn't know it yet."

Genis petted Noishe. "What's wrong? You seem tired."

Noishe whined.

The others listened. They hear the murmur of Sheena's voice, if not her actual words.

Then they heard Dirk roar, "YEH DID WHAT?" followed by Lloyd's voice. He sounded like he was in a hard spot.

Sheena came out, her smile almost benign.

Raine looked at her quizically. "Are you ever going to let him live it down?"

"Of course," Sheena said. "I'll do that right after he tells Colette."

Lloyd hung his head. "I'm sorry, Dad."

"Yeh'd better be," the dwarf growled.

Lloyd looked up. "Hey, where's Noishe?"

Dirk shifted. "Noishe's been actin' kinda funny, son."

Lloyd felt like a bucket of ice had hit his stomach. "What's wrong?"

"He sleeps a lot. And when he's not sleeping, he's eatin'."

A memory surfaced through the worry. "I think I know why," Lloyd said.

"Huh?"

"Remember I told you Noishe isn't a dog? He's some kind of animal that changes as it gets older?"

"Yeah?" Dirk asked.

"Maybe Noishe is getting ready to change."

Dirk thought about it. "Yeh could be right," he conceded.

"Oh, can I tell you why I came?" Lloyd said.

"What's that?"

"I'm thinking of going to the dwarf city, Moria, and Altessa told me to ask you why you live here on the surface."

"I was scoutin' out th' land an' people for the folks back in Ganogrin and--"

"You're not from Moria?"

"No, I'm not. There's more'n one dwarf city, yeh know. Anyway, let me finish. I was in the area, and then I found you and yer mother at the cliff in the forest. She begged me t' take care of you—so I did. And here I still am."

"How do I get to this Ganogrin place?"

"There's a cave in the mountains on the Ossa Trail. There's others ways, but that's how I come up here."

"Alright. I could find that, I guess." Lloyd knelt and hugged his adoptive father. "Thanks, Dad."

"Oh," Dirk grinned behind his beard. "Be sure to go by Iselia. They'll be glad t' see yeh."

Lloyd went outside to find Raine speculating. "Those dragons that attacked might have escaped from Rodyle's ranch after Mithos broke the dome. I don't know how many of them there were in there."

"I don't know about that, but they could have been wild," Athan pointed out. "They have huge ranges, and it wasn't too far from some mountains."

Lloyd moved through the group to find Genis scratching Noishe's enormous ears. Genis looked up at him. "I think something's wrong," he said in his baritone voice.

Lloyd petted the arshis. "No, I think he's just getting ready to evolve."

"Really?" Genis asked.

"That's my guess," Lloyd said.

They petted him a final time, and then stood up. "What are we going to do?" Genis asked.

"Let's walk to Iselia. It's a nice day, and it wouldn't hurt to see everyone back in town."

Ribs nodded. All right. Help me get dressed, his hands said.

The walk through the forest was leisurely. The monsters had thinned out in the past couple of years, and the rest ran from the group.

It took them not even thirty minutes to get to the town of Iselia. When they came through the gates, several people hailed them.

"It's Lloyd!"

"Is that Genis?"

"Welcome back, Professor Raine!"

"Mr. Lloyd, that scar looks so cool!

"Why's that man all in black?"

Lloyd looked at Sheena, a bit embarrassed. She wasn't paying attention—she seemed to be listening to an inner voice. "What is it?" he asked her.

"Verius wants to talk to me. If you won't need me, I'll go to the temple and see him."

"Alright," Lloyd said. "I'll see you later."

He watched her walk away, through the paths of the little town. Then he turned back to the crowd. "Does anyone know where Colette is?"

"She's up at her house."

"Right, I'll go see her," he said.

He walked through the town in a reflective daze, his feet on automatic.

He was honest enough with himself to admit he'd probably have ended up with Colette—if he hadn't met Sheena. But, then, if he hadn't met Sheena, Colette would have been lost and the world would still be split. Now that he could be objective about it, he could see he did love Colette—but not romantically. She'd been a sister to him for most of his life.

He was a bit surprised to find that he was at her house already. He knocked on the door, taking a breath.

"Yes?" Frank's deep voice said from within. "Who is it?"

"It's Lloyd," he called.

The door open. Frank stood there, his face beaming. "Welcome, Lloyd."

Lloyd came in, looking around.

"Where's Colette?"

Phaidra was sitting at the table. She smiled at Lloyd. "She's upstairs, reading."

"Thank you, Phaidra," he said.

He went upstairs. "Colette?" he called.

"Lloyd!" a voice exclaimed. He was met at the top of the stairs by a near-bonecrushing hug.

"Ow! Hey! C'mon, that hurts!"

She let go. Lloyd got a good look at her. She was eighteen now, and, if anything, more beautiful than the last time he saw her.

Lloyd rubbed absently at his chest; the scar was a bit tender. She immediately noticed it, and gasped. "Lloyd, what happened?"

"I—er...I..." he fumbled. Then he stopped, took a moment, and started again.

He told how the king had summoned him and requested his aid. He covered their short fight with Ribs. He recounted of the ambush. He finally talked of his fight with Joseph.

"He ran away, his men followed him, Ribs reassembled himself—that's a creepy thing to see—and then I passed out." He took a breath. "It turned out Joseph cut me deeper than I'd thought. Ribs and Sheena and Zelos said I nearly bled to death, and I spent ten days unconscious."

Her eyes filled with tears. Lloyd put an around her shoulders. "I'm still alive, Colette. I'm fine now."

She wiped her eyes. "Why'd you keep fighting after you got hurt? Nobody wants to lose you! Don't do that any more!"

Lloyd smiled slightly. "Everybody keeps telling me that. Especially Sheena."

"How are you doing with her?"

"We're fine. I love her, and she loves me. She does charity work because of her vows, and I help her—when I can."

Colette smiled. "You two make a cute couple."

Whew. Lloyd felt that had gone easily, compared to what could have happened.

She went over to the window. "Who's that person in black?"

Lloyd looked out. "That's Ribs."

"Why's he dressed like that?"

"We needed something for him to wear in towns so people wouldn't freak out over a walking skeleton."

"That's smart," she said. "Who's the cute man with the tattoos?"

Lloyd was startled momentarily. "That's Athan. He's a monk from some hidden monastery in Tethe'alla."

She continued watching. "Genis has grown up, hasn't he?"

Lloyd grinned. "Yeah. I was seriously surprised." He changed the subject. "If you want to come with us, we have a spare Rheaird."

"I don't think so, Lloyd," she said seriously. "I've been exceptional for almost all of my life. Now that's over with, and I've been ordinary for the past couple of years. I've gotten to like it. When it's over, come and tell me the whole story, okay?"

Lloyd looked out of the window. His friends were down there. "Well, at least come and say hi to everyone—and meet the two new guys." He'd already decided not to tell her Ribs' identity—a person needed to know how Ribs was now before they could properly understand who he used to be.

Lloyd and Colette came out of the house. Raine and Genis automatically absconded with Colette. Presea turned to Lloyd. "Where's Sheena?" she asked.

"She went to see Verius."

"Who's Verius?" Athan asked curiously.

"He's a summon spirit," Lloyd explained.

The monk's face went white. "What?" he demanded.

"Didn't we ever mention it? Sheena's a summoner."

He shook his head. "Where's she from?" he asked intently.

"She's from Mizuho."

The monk gulped. "When will she be back?"

"I dunno," Lloyd admitted. "Why? What's wrong?"

Athan took a breath to steady himself. "Nothing's wrong. I just need to talk with her when she gets back."

To pass the time, Genis, Raine, Colette, and Lloyd reminisced about life in Iselia. Presea, Ribs, and Athan listened, and laughed at the various trouble Lloyd and Genis had gotten into.

While he talked, Lloyd watched Athan. The tattooed monk had recovered, but seemed a bit nervous.

Finally, the anecdotes stopped, and Colette began talking to Ribs and Athan—with Lloyd as an interpreter for the sign language.

She made a great deal of fuss over Athan. "Your tattoos are so cool!" she said, examining his forearms.

"They're signs of my rank," he said. He held out his arms, and glanced down at the curving vine-pattern going up the left side of his chest and down his back. "Novices have to pass a test before they're accepted to the first rank. Upon achieving the first rank, a novice gets a dragon tattoo. Then another one on the second rank. For the third rank, he gets a flower design." He traced the fluid lines of his own. "My order's a fighting order. The dragons stand for power."

"And the flowers?" Raine asked, her eyes lit up.

"The flowers stand for the wisdom to restrain yourself from using power rashly—control, I guess you could say. I have another rank to go before I'll be able to be considered for Master. At that rank, I'll get another tattoo of flowers. And when I reach master, I'll get a dot on my forehead."

"That's it?" Lloyd asked, dismayed.

The monk smiled a bit sardonically. "Almost everyone says that when they find out." Then his face paled.

Lloyd looked over his shoulder and saw Sheena coming towards them.

The fighting monk politely waited for Colette to greet her and Lloyd to have a quiet conversation with her. Then he cleared his throat. "Sheena?"

She turned to him. "Yes, Athan?"

"I want to talk with you—privately."

She looked at him strangely. "...Alright."