Whee! Update, update, uuupdaaate! (dances) Apologies for delay, because even though I could've had this up, like, four days ago, someone decided to get me sick and I have been laying on the couch going, "Yes, Vikings...! Kick the Cowboys' asses so I can go back to sleep...!" No offense to Cowboys fan out there! ;)

Iline: Hey, I like Naesala, don't get me wrong! I just kinda wish they gave him a bigger role... (sob) For my favorite character, Ranulf and Tibarn are tied at five. In no particular order, Sothe, Ike, Naesala, Tormod, Nailah, Skrimir, Volug, Zelgius, Leanne, Reyson, and Lethe are at four. Annnd...I'm gonna say that Kurthnaga, Nephenee, Soren, Bastian, Ilyana, Marcia, Jill, and Haar are at three. They go up and down depending on how well they fight in my games, haha. (does a fanfare) Thus concludes my answers! Hehe, thanks for reviewing!

Predator Drone: Thanks so much for your review, new reviewer! (=-P) I'm happy to know people sneak in to read my story at 3 a.m.! Just don't get caught!

Knowlee: Well, due to some phenomanal force, I survived finals. (triumphant music plays) However, I'm not sure yet which of the two (triangle or random hawk guy) to do yet... (music fizzles out) Still, thanks for your input and your reviews! And...rush? Me no know what you're talking about! (innocent smile) This chapter just sorta... BOOM! ...Yeahhh...

Okay, minna-san! Let's-a get-a this-a showww on-a da roaaad! (gotta love randomness!)

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

XxXxXxX

Chapter 20

"Everybody, run downwind!" Keenan bellowed over the roar of the sudden flames.

Aislyn, having already predicted what he king would say, was running down the hill, heading to the head of the herd. All of the laguz shifted to their full forms to allow themselves to run faster. "This way!" she called as loud as she could.

The horse laguz people ran after Aislyn, following her away from the flames. Keenan stared with ire at the combustion burning before him. Was it those damned rebels again? Or someone else?

Either way, Keenan had to make sure his people got away safely first. He ran down the hill, checking for anyone who may have been left behind. He hoped that those at the castle could see the smoke, for he didn't have time to go run all the way there to tell someone. Maybe that hawk who was "Tibarn's eyes" could see it.

"Lord Keenan!"

Keenan looked around frantically, searching for the owner of the young voice he'd heard. He looked over closer to the flames and saw a shadowed figure against it, struggling on the ground. He ran to the figure and saw it was that of a female. She was on the ground, holding her leg tenderly. "My lord...!" As he ran closer to her, she tried to explain her predicament, "When everyone started stampeding, I hadn't the time to transform...! I got hit by someone's hooves...!"

"Will you be okay enough to hold on?" Keenan inquired, already kneeling down beside her, feeling anxious as the flames grew closer.

"Y-yes..." The red headed woman dragged herself onto Keenan's back with only one restrained cry of pain and leaned down on his neck. She held tightly onto his mane as he stood up, running after the herd, still looking for others who may have been stranded alone and in danger. His ears caught the woman's faintest voice, saying, "Thank you, my lord..."

XxXxXxX

He watched the smoke on the horizon, smirking with pleasure. The continent would soon be engulfed in yet another war...and all would fall to chaos from the goddess of order. He scoffed. Quite ironic. Soon...this world will pay for what it's done to me. Soon, I'll finally be able to hold-

"Vlas? Are you okay?" Ginia walked up beside him in the hall, not looking out the window, as he had been.

Vlas, who had been slightly startled by her sudden appearance, jumped. "Uh- Yeah. Yeah, but, I-I think we need to go get Generals Janaff and Ulki. I see fire out in the fields!"

"You-?! Ah! You're right!" Ginia's eyes widened and she raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh, I hope that Lord Keenan and his people are okay! You're right-! We must get help right away!"

"Let's go! You look that way, I'll look this way!" Vlas took off down the left side of the hall. "Hurry!"

"R-right!" Ginia ran off the opposite direction.

Vlas, while he kept running, smirked yet again. Now may be the right time for my disappearance.

XxXxXxX

Keenan walked into the room in the castle, seeing the injured horse laguz woman that he'd rescued laying there, looking disapprovingly at the wrappings that had been put on her leg. At his sudden appearance in the room, she quickly bowed her head. "Lord Keenan."

Keenan cleared his throat. "There's no need for that." He gestured to her injury. "How's your leg, Gwenna? Better?"

"They said after a couple days of keeping pressure off of it," her gray-blue eyes appeared sad, "that I would be able to walk. I'd need to wait a little longer before running again, though. At least a week and a half, even with our healing."

"You're lucky your leg didn't get snapped and that it was only one of the foals who hit you."

"Y-yes, I know..."

"There are others who have to be treated, so we will not leave until you are all better. We will leave no one behind."

Gwenna gave a smile. "Thank you, my lord."

"There's no thanks necessary. Now, I'll leave, so you can get some rest-"

"M-my lord? Would...you..." Gwenna blushed, looking downward, her voice quieting. "St-stay a little...longer...?"

Keenan's ears flicked forward, as though he had not heard her correctly. Yet, still, he said, "...Sure."

XxXxXxX

"So, Yune really did tell everyone to be ready for war?" Ike looked around solemnly.

"...Yes. She came to me a while back, saying that it was 'just in case', but...I've been having dreams..." Mist trailed off momentarily. "Nightmares, more like... For the past couple of nights."

Shinon scoffed. "Dreams, schreams. Nightmare, schnightmares. What's the difference?"

Gatrie rolled his eyes. "Shinon, that's what we all thought before Yune."

"Tch. That's still what I think."

"Be quiet, you two," Titania ordered. "Nightmares about what, Mist?" she inquired, directing her attention to the female commander.

"...Ashera, mostly."

Ike instantly said, "You don't have to worry about her. We're going to deal with her."

"So, then...she's been released?" Rolf mumbled.

The hero of Tellius frowned. "Yes."

Silence fell in the room. Soren, naturally, was the one to break it. "We shall simply deal with Ashera again. How is a different story, but we will, one way or another."

"For once," Mia said, "I agree with Soren."

Ilyana nodded. "Agreed. Ashera must not be given another chance to destroy the world."

"So..." Boyd scoffed lightheartedly. "Here we go again."

Ike grinned. "I suppose you could say that."

XxXxXxX

Mihara sat quietly outside the castle of Gallia with Sylvia. Only once more that day had Ranulf woken up, but the healer had needed to speak with him to decide if her treatment was doing him any good, so Mihara had been kicked out of the room. The two friends sat upon a crumbling wall outlooking the forest. Shoen was going to accompany the two, but decided that they may want some time alone together to catch up. Tibarn was also nowhere to be found. Neither was Skrimir, so that probably just meant that they were still talking about stuff.

"So..." Sylvia looked up at the setting sun. "You...really like Ranulf, don't you? Like, not in a fangirl way, either."

Mihara chuckled softly at the added part about the 'liking as a fangirl'. Then, she said, "...I think I do. It's just...something deep-"

"You think or you know?" Sylvia demanded, interrupting Mihara.

There was a stretch of silence and the two could only hear the animal sounds coming from Gallia's sea of trees. Mihara brought her knees up to her chest. "...Yeah. I do know."

Sylvia smiled. "Hmm... I wonder if I can get that way for IIIkkkeee..."

Mihara then laughed out loud. "Who knows?! Something very dramatic might have to happen, though..."

Sylvia gaped playfully, as though she were shocked, then punched Mihara's arm. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Ohhh, I dunno." Mihara grinned, rubbing the offended limb.

Completely out of nowhere, there was a loud roar in the forest, echoing fiercely. Mihara looked up, her head moving quick as an animal's, towards where she had heard the source of the sound. Sylvia, however, had jumped a few inches into the air. When Mihara saw her touch the ground again, she smirked. "Spook ya much?"

"Well- It just sorta came outta nowhere!" Sylvia flushed a light tint, dusting her clothes off as if she had meant to do that.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh..." Mihara looked back to where she had heard the roar.

"What was that, anyway?" Sylvia looked towards the same direction.

"Tiger," was the simple answer.

Sylvia gave Mihara a confused look. "How can you tell?"

Mihara, too, looked confused. Then, with a sheepish grin, she said, "You know, I don't know!"

The lightning mage scoffed. Then, she pondered aloud, "Maybe it's your...laguz senses, I suppose you would call it."

"Maybe..." Mihara frowned as the tiger roared again.

"Can you tell what he's saying?"

"She," Mihara immediately corrected. "And no. But...I can tell that...something's wrong."

Sylvia looked alarmed. "Wrong? What? Can you tell exactly what's wrong?"

Mihara cocked her head. "No... I can just tell that she's trying to..." When there was one last roar, Mihara's eyes widened. "Trying to warn everyone?!"

"Warn?!" Sylvia backed up, as though archers were about to shoot the two that sat on the wall. The laguz that were in the small protected areas along the wall had also heard the female tiger and were shouting orders at each other. "Warn us?!"

"I...don't know..." Mihara stood up on the wall, the wind blowing her hair in her face. "Hey, you head back to the castle. I'm gonna go check it out."

"Did you just say 'check it out'?! Mihara, wait-!"

But Sylvia was too late. Mihara had already thrown herself from the wall, snapped her wings open, and was now gliding along on the wind. Sylvia watched after Mihara with her mouth gaping. Before she was too far away, Sylvia called, "I'm so much older than you! Why don't you listen to me?!"

Hearing that comment, Mihara laughed to herself. She had never really payed attention to age differences back on Earth. The only ones she obeyed that were older than her were her mother, father, sisters, and Lord knows, the band director! But, between her friends and her, she had never really cared. One was older by a month or two, one was younger by three or four months. So what? She glanced backward, seeing that Sylvia hadn't moved yet.

She looked around, knowing she should've been in the right area by now. She looked around for the tiger she had heard but caught sight of nothing. However, her body felt tense...like something was about to happen. Then, just at that moment, bam. A splitting headache came onto Mihara. Knowing what that meant, she growled silently, instantly thinking, Oh, damn.

-So...daughter of Tibarn. We meet again.-

Once again, just by hearing Ashera's voice, shivers went down Mihara's spine, the laguz faltering in her flying. I would hardly call this a 'meeting', she thought sourly.

-Don't be so smart-alecky with me, child. If I wanted to, I could simply crush your brain in right now.-

"Then why haven't you yet?!" Mihara screamed out loud.

-Well, if you must know, it feels a little something like this.-

Just as Ashera barely finished her sentence, Mihara dropped like a stone from the air, the girl not even able to hear Sylvia shriek her name from the distance. Mihara couldn't even think. It felt as though someone had just strapped her down to the bottom of the oceans with all the billions of trillions of gallons of water pressing down on her. She couldn't breathe or even operate her eyes. She couldn't tell that she clipped a large tree branch, cutting her right arm, just before she crashed into the ground. She couldn't feel it. Then, out of nowhere, it vanished. Mihara, only then, could scream. She closed her eyes and sucked in air as fast as she could. She felt lightheaded and sick to her stomach. The small cut on her arm from the tree branch felt as though someone had stabbed a lance through her arm.

-So, now, young Mihara...would you like me to kill you that way? That would be an awful death, wouldn't it? Feeling all that pain until you suffocated.-

-I knew she was a jerk in the game, but she is just criminal and psychotic in real life!- Mihara screamed deep inside herself. Directed at Ashera, she hissed, "What...do you want...with me...?"

-Does it really matter? All you have to know is that I'm about to make you one...last offer.-

I don't need to know what it is in order to say 'no' to you!

-Oh, no, I really think you'll want to hear this.-

Just by the way Ashera said that, it left a horrible pit in her stomach. While she leaned against a tree when she had gathered the strength to push herself up, Mihara hissed with anger. ...What is it?

-You see? I knew you would want to hear this.- Her voice laughed evilly in Mihara's head. She said, -Now, you see, I have a certain skilled assassin that has a contract job with me. As of this moment, he is headed in your direction. No, my dear, not for you...- Ashera added when Mihara sat up with alarm. -For your brother. And your father.-

"Wha-what?! No! Why don't you just leave them alone?!"

-Because otherwise, you would not agree to my terms. Have no fear, young one, for he will not kill them until I give him a signal. Are you ready to hear my final offer?-

Rage shot across Mihara's features and her hands balled up into fists. Even though she didn't want to listen to the crazy goddess, she grumbled darkly. "...Yeah."

-Heh. Good. Now, what I want you to do is leave your father and your brother. And that human friend that Yune dared to bring over from that all-human world. I want you to join forces with me. Lend me your power. I will not ask you to kill anyone and, in turn, I shall not kill anyone.-

Why are you so interested in me?

-You have a bond that no one else has. I need that bond, but I cannot force you in order to use this bond.-

A...bond?

-That's right, young one. Now...what is your answer?-

XxXxXxX

Sylvia ran along the wall, back towards the castle. She said swiftly told some guards at the wall what she had seen happen to Mihara, and they said they would send out word to find her. Now, she decided, she needed to find Tibarn. Longer than she thought it would take, she arrived back at the main part of the castle. Her legs throbbed and her heart pounded heavily in her chest. Why had Mihara just fallen like that?!

"King Tibarn!" she cried in the halls of Gallia's castle. Many heads turned to look at her, but she didn't care. Maybe someone had seen the direction Tibarn was last seen headed. Sylvia began running. "King Tibarn!!"

When she turned a corner, she crashed into someone. Instantly, a male voice said, "Oh- I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Sylvia looked up and saw Zihark staring down at her with concern, worried he might've hurt her. Sylvia flushed a little (fangirl mode kicking in at his actuality), but remembered she had more pressing matters. Quickly, she blurted, "I'm fine-! Sorry-! Gotta go!"

She ran past Zihark, calling again, "King Tibarn!"

Zihark shouted after Sylvia, "If you're looking for King Tibarn, he just headed out towards the back!"

"Thanks!" she answered. At least Sylvia could remember which direction was the back since she had wandered about the castle while Mihara visited Ranulf. Turning left down the next corridor, she continued calling for Tibarn, until, at last, she found him. "King Tibarn!" She sighed with relief.

The Hawk King turned with confusion, then realized Mihara wasn't with her. "Sylvia? What is it? Where's Mihara?"

"That's what I need to tell you!" Sylvia finally stopped running, and while she caught her breath, she quickly explained, "Mihara was flying to look at something, then just suddenly fell out of the air!"

Tibarn's eyes flashed. While he began heading the way Sylvia had come, he demanded, "And Shoen?"

Sylvia frowned. "What about him?"

"He said he was going to look for you."

"He never found us..."

With a curse, Tibarn turned the corner and disappeared. He ran out of the castle, towards the wall, where he followed his daughter's scent to. He heard a few of the guards call his name, but he ignored them. Surely, though, if they had seen her fall, they were looking for her in the forest below. As Tibarn jumped off the wall, he growled to himself. The damned currents of wind was throwing Mihara's scent all over the place. At least he could tell the general area of where she had gone. Quickly, he swooped down to where her scent had dropped. Once his feet hit the ground, he caught sight of her. She was laying on the ground on her stomach and seemed unconscious. Tibarn rushed over to her side and flipped her over. "Mihara? Mihara, can you hear me?"

Mihara moaned quietly when Tibarn shook her lightly, trying to rouse her. He sighed with relief. At least she was alive. It must've been Ashera again, he muttered in his mind. Damn goddess.

Tibarn quickly caught another scent hiding nearby. He frowned slightly and turned his head in the direction of the other laguz. "Shoen?"

Tibarn's son emerged from behind one of the trees with a terrified look on his face. "Dad..."

This alarmed the Hawk King. "What is it, son?"

"It's...Mihara..."

"What about her?"

"I...think...Ashera was just here. That goddess with long red hair?"

Tibarn's eyes widened. "What happened, Shoen?! Did she hurt you or Mihara?!"

Shoen began breathing heavily. "No...not me, at least... I'm...not sure what she did to Mihara, but...they were talking, and...I think that Ashera...brought Mihara over to her side...!"

Tibarn was struck speechless. He felt as though he had just gotten stampeded over by a pack of lions. "What...makes you say that?"

"Because...Mihara seemed really scared, and...Ashera did...something – she flashed a light at Mihara – and...Mihara dropped and Ashera disappeared after she said...'you made the right choice.'" Shoen looked at Mihara with worry and fear. "So...I don't...know what really...happened..." Shoen's eyes suddenly shot wide. "Dad! Her wings!"

Mihara's wings, which were usually light red and maroon, suddenly shifted slowly into a black color. Tibarn's body shook with rage. "They're like...a raven's wings..."

XxXxXxX

"That is none of your concern," Ranulf spat at the man, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, really? Well...I think it is." He chuckled. "Because, you see, this creature is not what you thought she was."

Ranulf growled. "What?"

"Just take a look," the man offered, throwing the knife away. "Go ahead. No tricks. I want to see this."

Ranulf kept his guard up, not moving a muscle. That is, until he heard Mihara's weak voice say, "Ra...nulf..."

The feline slowly looked down at Mihara, only to notice her eyes were a crimson red. They were swimming with tears and displayed grief. Ranulf sucked in air quickly and held it. "Mi...hara? What...?"

"I had...no choice, Ranulf..." Her tears began spilling over. "I...couldn't help it... She would've...killed everybody... Including you...and my dad...and my little brother... I'm so sorry..."

"Mihara, you...you aren't make any sense!"

"I'm so sorry, Ranulf...!"

XxXxXxX

"I'm so sorry...!"

XxXxXxX

Hmm...what to say, what to say...?

MEEP!

(locks self in room)

Naesala: You know, I got the feeling that that little room isn't going to protect you from the reviewers. Actually, you know what? Forget the reviewers; worry about Tibarn.