Part 25
~ Present day: Little Brook ~
Ash stared at the cell phone in his hand, sighing as he contemplated whether or not to call Mary-Lynnette. The cell phone was one of the types that could have it's cover changed, and the particular cover on Ash's phone was one he had had specially made; midnight blue with an amazingly realistic pattern of stars, and on the back, was a pair of beautiful bright snapping blue eyes, just like the beautiful bright snapping blue eyes that belonged to his beloved Mare. Mare. His wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, blue eyed Mare. He closed his eyes and continued to say sigh as he remembered how he'd spent Christmas with her, the month before.
It had been the first time they had been together since Ash had left Briar Creek, the year before, to make up for all the evil things he had done up until he'd met Mary-Lynnette, found out she was his soulmate, and had subsequently fallen madly in love with the beautiful blue eyed human girl. Mary-Lynnette had looked so beautiful at the Christmas Party at Burdock Farm, wearing a stunning, shimmering, sapphire blue strappy evening dress that had bought out the colour of her eyes. Ash then sighed and grinned stupidly as he remembered that after the party, he and Mare had spent a good deal of time making out; not having seen each other for over a year, they'd had a lot of catching to do in the romance department.
"Ash, if you don't stop sighing like an idiot and grinning like you've had too much to drink, I will be forced to skewer you with something sharp, wooden and pointy."
Ash stopped sighing, then opened his eyes and looked across the room, at Rashel, who was glaring at him slightly, over the top of a scroll she was trying to decipher. Immediately the stupid grin on Ash's face, dropped. Even though Rashel wouldn't really stake him, Ash knew that she was getting pretty annoyed with him.
Deciding to take his mind off Mary-Lynnette, Ash turned to talk to Arizan, who at that moment had all her hair stuffed into a huge floppy velvet hat placed firmly on top of her head.
"So Riz," Ash asked the newly discovered Dragon Child, "are you getting the hang of your powers, yet?" The young mixed-breed dragoness sighed in response.
"Sort of" she answered him vaguely, pulling the floppy hat further down over her head, "I've pretty much gotten the hang of the red dragon fire, and I'm getting quite good with the mind listening powers." When she said this, Arizan looked at Rashel and frowned slightly.
"I'm not taking off the stupid hat Rashel" she said stubbornly, still frowning at the dark haired female vampire hunter, "Until I get the hang of doing a normal shift, this hat, in all its velvety floppiness, is staying firmly on my bonce."
Ash was slightly puzzled at the mention of a normal shift, but didn't let it show. "You don't usually let your hair bother you, Little Blue" he said calmly to Arizan, raising an eyebrow casually, "Don't worry. No one will laugh at you if you take off the hat." Arizan gave him a serious look.
"I'm not worried about anyone laughing at me," she said calmly, pulling her legs up so that she was sitting cross-legged in the chair she was seated in, "I just want to get the hang of normal shifting my hair before I show anyone, so I don't end up looking like an idiot."
"You'd never look like an idiot, Riz."
"Thanks Ash, but right now my hair looks like a team of hair colourists attacked it with several bottles of hair dye, but had an argument over the actual colour."
"Ah."
"My point exactly."
"Your eyes seem different, though" Ash said thoughtfully, noticing Arizan's rainbow flecked eyes had changed to a natural dark chocolate brown colour, "Were you able to do a normal shift with them, or have you just got your contacts in?" Arizan gave a wry grin at Ash's question.
"Nope," she said with an almost proud smile, "these are my own eyes sans coloured contact lenses." And to prove her point, the young mixed-breed dragoness did something strange with her eyes. She actually shifted the colour of her eyes. One moment her eyes were dark chocolate brown, and the next, all the different colours of the rainbow she normally had flecked around her eyes gradually reappeared, and stayed for a brief moment, before the dark chocolate brown colour appeared once more.
Ash was impressed. He'd never seen anyone able to change the colour of their eyes at will, before. Even he had no control over what colours his eyes kept changing to. "So, how come you can change the colour of your eyes," he asked the young Dragon Child questioningly, after a moment's thought, "and not the colour of your hair?"
"I like this colour."
"Then why don't you pick a colour you like for your hair?"
At this point, Rashel stopped what she was doing and looked at Ash. "I already suggested that to her, Ash," the black haired female vampire hunter sighed, "but the silly girl is too indecisive."
"I am not indecisive" Arizan retorted, before grinning sheepishly, "I just happen to like a lot of colours, that's all." Rashel rolled her eyes, shook her head, and went back to trying to decipher another scroll.
Ash was just about to suggest to Arizan that she should just try picking her favourite hair colour, when a book was thrown into his lap, and a small figure clambered up beside him. "What's this?" he asked, looking puzzled at the picture of a cat wearing boots and a big hat with an enormous feather in it on the front of the book currently in his lap.
"I believe it's called a storybook" Quinn answered him, not once looking up from the scroll he was helping Rashel to decipher, "Little children like to read them." "Or" he added casually, "have them read to them."
"Huh?"
"Little Faline wants you to read her a story" Arizan said, making the current situation more clearly to Ash, "Isn't that right, Faline?" Ash looked down at the dirty fair haired green eyed little girl seated beside him and saw her nod her small head calmly.
"Okay," Ash sighed, picking up the book and opening it to the first page, "but I should warn you, I might not be able to do the voices."
"Awww, come on Ash," Quinn said, putting on a mock pout and imitating a childish voice, "we want to hear you do the voooiiiccceees."
Ignoring Quinn's teasing, Ash began to read from the first page of the book; making sure to do the character's voices for Faline, despite Quinn still teasing him about it. When he was about to turn to the next page, Ash noticed something small flat and rectangular fall out. It was a photograph of two girls. The girl on the left of the picture had long honey blonde hair and strange grey brown eyes, while the girl beside her looked exactly like Arizan, except for the fact she had long shimmering white blonde hair and bright sapphire blue eyes. Thinking that the picture might help Arizan with her current problem, Ash handed it to her.
Arizan looked at the picture and looked almost sad for a moment. "What's wrong, Riz?" Ash asked, worried that he'd somehow upset the young mixed-breed dragoness by giving her the picture.
"Oh, it's nothing" the young Dragon Child sighed, still looking at the picture, "It's just that one of the girls in this picture reminds me of someone."
"Maybe because she looks almost like you." Ash answered her thoughtfully.
"No, that's not it" Arizan said sadly, putting the picture down, "The person I'm remembering died when I was little." "Anyway," she went on, her sad face melting into a calm smile, "This picture has given me an idea what colour I want to shift my hair to." With that, she closed her eyes and let a look of calm concentration appear briefly on her face.
When she opened her eyes again, Arizan grinned proudly. "I think I've gotten it right this time" she said happily, beginning to pull the floppy velvet hat off her head, "Let me know what you all think." Ash watched amazed as a waterfall of long shimmering white blonde hair was revealed as Arizan took off her hat.
"That's very good, Riz" he said, smiling at the young mixed-breed dragoness, "What do you guys think?"
"I think she looks pretty," Faline's small voice answered him first, "like a fairytale princess."
Across the room Quinn chuckled quietly. "I have to agree with young Faline." he said calmly, before turning to his soulmate and asking, "What do you think, Rashel?"
"I agree with Quinn and Faline." Rashel answered him, smiling solemnly as she put down the scroll she had been deciphering, "You look great Arizan. Just remember you have to stick to that look when you're out in public. We can't risk the wrong people discovering who you are, you know that?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know" Arizan sighed, rolling her eyes, obviously not liking the sudden over protectiveness she was getting thanks to her being the Dragon Child, "Don't go out without doing a normal shift first. I got ya." To prove her point, the young Dragon Child did a mock salute, before grinning mischievously.
Although Arizan didn't seem to care about what she was, Ash could tell from her mannerisms that she did. "Don't worry, Riz" he reassured the young mixed-breed dragoness, giving her a kind smile, "As long as you've got me, Quinn and Rashel, plus all your other friends who care about you, no one working for the Dark One will lay a finger on you."
"Thanks Ash."
********
~ Back in the past: The Old Kingdom ~
A sinister hissing growl awoke Hadrian and Pandie from the deep slumber they'd both fallen into. Hadrian opened his eyes to see cruel orbs the colour of molten lava staring back at him. Immediately he pulled Pandie closer to him to protect from this evil looking creature before them. It was big as a bus, had the body of a panther, with mottled black and brown scales instead of fur, and an elongated muzzle and huge pointed ears. On its back was the most ominous thing of all; a pair of jet black wings, that not a single bit of light shone through.
The creature threw back its head and gave a loud rasping growl, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. As it did this, Pandie struggled out of Hadrian's grasp and stood facing the creature. What she did next amazed him. She began changing form until she was no longer a girl but what looked like a cross between a girl and dark blonde cat. She had cat-like eyes, pointed cat-like ears on the top of her head, a long swishing tail, dark blonde paws instead of hands, and soft dark blonde fur all over her body except for her arms.
Standing in front of Hadrian, Pandie hissed at the creature and drew her claws. The creature took one look at her and laughed cruelly. "Little fool," it hissed, throwing black fire at Pandie. Pandie screamed and fell to the ground.
Immediately Hadrian went to her side and pulled her close into his arms. "Who are you?" he asked the creature in a demanding voice, stroking Pandie's back soothingly, "What do you want with us?"
The creature laughed again and started pacing towards Hadrian and Pandie. It was just about to throw more black fire, when it suddenly stopped and lurched forward. Hadrian looked up and noticed a strange looking girl standing some distance behind the creature holding a bow and white gold arrows, along with a strange curved decorated sword. She was tall with short chin-length dark blue hair with ruby red hair framing her face, and almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes. The creature turned to face the girl, revealing a white gold arrow in its back between its wings, and threw black fire at the girl. Instantly the girl retaliated with her own red fire, causing the black fire to turn back and hit the creature.
"Roz raqa uz ekze, Chatazra," the girl called out bravely, walking towards the creature, "You cannot fight the white gold poison, black wing." The black wing laughed.
"You think you can stop me?" it hissed at the girl, throwing more black fire at her.
"I don't think I can," the girl answered back sincerely; "I know I can." With that, she leapt out of the way of the black fire, landed on the black wing's back, and with one fell swoop, severed the cruel black wings from its body. Quickly the girl leapt off the black wing's back as it let a piercing howl and then crumpled into dust.
"Terrible nuisances, those black wings," the girl said casually, walking towards Hadrian and Pandie, "They don't know a thing about sticking to their own territory." She knelt down beside Pandie and examined her. "Hmmm, hardly a scratch or burn," she said thoughtfully, looking at Pandie's arms and face, "You must be the one I was sent to look for." Hadrian stared at the girl and frowned
puzzledly.
"I'm sorry," he said apologetically, still frowning puzzledly, "but who are you, and why where you looking for Pandie?"
"My name is Neemika Keshet," the girl explained, looking Hadrian straight in the eye, "I was looking for your soulmate because I was requested to do so."
"Who sent you?"
"The Six Sister Dragons."
~ Present day: Little Brook ~
Ash stared at the cell phone in his hand, sighing as he contemplated whether or not to call Mary-Lynnette. The cell phone was one of the types that could have it's cover changed, and the particular cover on Ash's phone was one he had had specially made; midnight blue with an amazingly realistic pattern of stars, and on the back, was a pair of beautiful bright snapping blue eyes, just like the beautiful bright snapping blue eyes that belonged to his beloved Mare. Mare. His wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, blue eyed Mare. He closed his eyes and continued to say sigh as he remembered how he'd spent Christmas with her, the month before.
It had been the first time they had been together since Ash had left Briar Creek, the year before, to make up for all the evil things he had done up until he'd met Mary-Lynnette, found out she was his soulmate, and had subsequently fallen madly in love with the beautiful blue eyed human girl. Mary-Lynnette had looked so beautiful at the Christmas Party at Burdock Farm, wearing a stunning, shimmering, sapphire blue strappy evening dress that had bought out the colour of her eyes. Ash then sighed and grinned stupidly as he remembered that after the party, he and Mare had spent a good deal of time making out; not having seen each other for over a year, they'd had a lot of catching to do in the romance department.
"Ash, if you don't stop sighing like an idiot and grinning like you've had too much to drink, I will be forced to skewer you with something sharp, wooden and pointy."
Ash stopped sighing, then opened his eyes and looked across the room, at Rashel, who was glaring at him slightly, over the top of a scroll she was trying to decipher. Immediately the stupid grin on Ash's face, dropped. Even though Rashel wouldn't really stake him, Ash knew that she was getting pretty annoyed with him.
Deciding to take his mind off Mary-Lynnette, Ash turned to talk to Arizan, who at that moment had all her hair stuffed into a huge floppy velvet hat placed firmly on top of her head.
"So Riz," Ash asked the newly discovered Dragon Child, "are you getting the hang of your powers, yet?" The young mixed-breed dragoness sighed in response.
"Sort of" she answered him vaguely, pulling the floppy hat further down over her head, "I've pretty much gotten the hang of the red dragon fire, and I'm getting quite good with the mind listening powers." When she said this, Arizan looked at Rashel and frowned slightly.
"I'm not taking off the stupid hat Rashel" she said stubbornly, still frowning at the dark haired female vampire hunter, "Until I get the hang of doing a normal shift, this hat, in all its velvety floppiness, is staying firmly on my bonce."
Ash was slightly puzzled at the mention of a normal shift, but didn't let it show. "You don't usually let your hair bother you, Little Blue" he said calmly to Arizan, raising an eyebrow casually, "Don't worry. No one will laugh at you if you take off the hat." Arizan gave him a serious look.
"I'm not worried about anyone laughing at me," she said calmly, pulling her legs up so that she was sitting cross-legged in the chair she was seated in, "I just want to get the hang of normal shifting my hair before I show anyone, so I don't end up looking like an idiot."
"You'd never look like an idiot, Riz."
"Thanks Ash, but right now my hair looks like a team of hair colourists attacked it with several bottles of hair dye, but had an argument over the actual colour."
"Ah."
"My point exactly."
"Your eyes seem different, though" Ash said thoughtfully, noticing Arizan's rainbow flecked eyes had changed to a natural dark chocolate brown colour, "Were you able to do a normal shift with them, or have you just got your contacts in?" Arizan gave a wry grin at Ash's question.
"Nope," she said with an almost proud smile, "these are my own eyes sans coloured contact lenses." And to prove her point, the young mixed-breed dragoness did something strange with her eyes. She actually shifted the colour of her eyes. One moment her eyes were dark chocolate brown, and the next, all the different colours of the rainbow she normally had flecked around her eyes gradually reappeared, and stayed for a brief moment, before the dark chocolate brown colour appeared once more.
Ash was impressed. He'd never seen anyone able to change the colour of their eyes at will, before. Even he had no control over what colours his eyes kept changing to. "So, how come you can change the colour of your eyes," he asked the young Dragon Child questioningly, after a moment's thought, "and not the colour of your hair?"
"I like this colour."
"Then why don't you pick a colour you like for your hair?"
At this point, Rashel stopped what she was doing and looked at Ash. "I already suggested that to her, Ash," the black haired female vampire hunter sighed, "but the silly girl is too indecisive."
"I am not indecisive" Arizan retorted, before grinning sheepishly, "I just happen to like a lot of colours, that's all." Rashel rolled her eyes, shook her head, and went back to trying to decipher another scroll.
Ash was just about to suggest to Arizan that she should just try picking her favourite hair colour, when a book was thrown into his lap, and a small figure clambered up beside him. "What's this?" he asked, looking puzzled at the picture of a cat wearing boots and a big hat with an enormous feather in it on the front of the book currently in his lap.
"I believe it's called a storybook" Quinn answered him, not once looking up from the scroll he was helping Rashel to decipher, "Little children like to read them." "Or" he added casually, "have them read to them."
"Huh?"
"Little Faline wants you to read her a story" Arizan said, making the current situation more clearly to Ash, "Isn't that right, Faline?" Ash looked down at the dirty fair haired green eyed little girl seated beside him and saw her nod her small head calmly.
"Okay," Ash sighed, picking up the book and opening it to the first page, "but I should warn you, I might not be able to do the voices."
"Awww, come on Ash," Quinn said, putting on a mock pout and imitating a childish voice, "we want to hear you do the voooiiiccceees."
Ignoring Quinn's teasing, Ash began to read from the first page of the book; making sure to do the character's voices for Faline, despite Quinn still teasing him about it. When he was about to turn to the next page, Ash noticed something small flat and rectangular fall out. It was a photograph of two girls. The girl on the left of the picture had long honey blonde hair and strange grey brown eyes, while the girl beside her looked exactly like Arizan, except for the fact she had long shimmering white blonde hair and bright sapphire blue eyes. Thinking that the picture might help Arizan with her current problem, Ash handed it to her.
Arizan looked at the picture and looked almost sad for a moment. "What's wrong, Riz?" Ash asked, worried that he'd somehow upset the young mixed-breed dragoness by giving her the picture.
"Oh, it's nothing" the young Dragon Child sighed, still looking at the picture, "It's just that one of the girls in this picture reminds me of someone."
"Maybe because she looks almost like you." Ash answered her thoughtfully.
"No, that's not it" Arizan said sadly, putting the picture down, "The person I'm remembering died when I was little." "Anyway," she went on, her sad face melting into a calm smile, "This picture has given me an idea what colour I want to shift my hair to." With that, she closed her eyes and let a look of calm concentration appear briefly on her face.
When she opened her eyes again, Arizan grinned proudly. "I think I've gotten it right this time" she said happily, beginning to pull the floppy velvet hat off her head, "Let me know what you all think." Ash watched amazed as a waterfall of long shimmering white blonde hair was revealed as Arizan took off her hat.
"That's very good, Riz" he said, smiling at the young mixed-breed dragoness, "What do you guys think?"
"I think she looks pretty," Faline's small voice answered him first, "like a fairytale princess."
Across the room Quinn chuckled quietly. "I have to agree with young Faline." he said calmly, before turning to his soulmate and asking, "What do you think, Rashel?"
"I agree with Quinn and Faline." Rashel answered him, smiling solemnly as she put down the scroll she had been deciphering, "You look great Arizan. Just remember you have to stick to that look when you're out in public. We can't risk the wrong people discovering who you are, you know that?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know" Arizan sighed, rolling her eyes, obviously not liking the sudden over protectiveness she was getting thanks to her being the Dragon Child, "Don't go out without doing a normal shift first. I got ya." To prove her point, the young Dragon Child did a mock salute, before grinning mischievously.
Although Arizan didn't seem to care about what she was, Ash could tell from her mannerisms that she did. "Don't worry, Riz" he reassured the young mixed-breed dragoness, giving her a kind smile, "As long as you've got me, Quinn and Rashel, plus all your other friends who care about you, no one working for the Dark One will lay a finger on you."
"Thanks Ash."
********
~ Back in the past: The Old Kingdom ~
A sinister hissing growl awoke Hadrian and Pandie from the deep slumber they'd both fallen into. Hadrian opened his eyes to see cruel orbs the colour of molten lava staring back at him. Immediately he pulled Pandie closer to him to protect from this evil looking creature before them. It was big as a bus, had the body of a panther, with mottled black and brown scales instead of fur, and an elongated muzzle and huge pointed ears. On its back was the most ominous thing of all; a pair of jet black wings, that not a single bit of light shone through.
The creature threw back its head and gave a loud rasping growl, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. As it did this, Pandie struggled out of Hadrian's grasp and stood facing the creature. What she did next amazed him. She began changing form until she was no longer a girl but what looked like a cross between a girl and dark blonde cat. She had cat-like eyes, pointed cat-like ears on the top of her head, a long swishing tail, dark blonde paws instead of hands, and soft dark blonde fur all over her body except for her arms.
Standing in front of Hadrian, Pandie hissed at the creature and drew her claws. The creature took one look at her and laughed cruelly. "Little fool," it hissed, throwing black fire at Pandie. Pandie screamed and fell to the ground.
Immediately Hadrian went to her side and pulled her close into his arms. "Who are you?" he asked the creature in a demanding voice, stroking Pandie's back soothingly, "What do you want with us?"
The creature laughed again and started pacing towards Hadrian and Pandie. It was just about to throw more black fire, when it suddenly stopped and lurched forward. Hadrian looked up and noticed a strange looking girl standing some distance behind the creature holding a bow and white gold arrows, along with a strange curved decorated sword. She was tall with short chin-length dark blue hair with ruby red hair framing her face, and almond shaped rainbow flecked eyes. The creature turned to face the girl, revealing a white gold arrow in its back between its wings, and threw black fire at the girl. Instantly the girl retaliated with her own red fire, causing the black fire to turn back and hit the creature.
"Roz raqa uz ekze, Chatazra," the girl called out bravely, walking towards the creature, "You cannot fight the white gold poison, black wing." The black wing laughed.
"You think you can stop me?" it hissed at the girl, throwing more black fire at her.
"I don't think I can," the girl answered back sincerely; "I know I can." With that, she leapt out of the way of the black fire, landed on the black wing's back, and with one fell swoop, severed the cruel black wings from its body. Quickly the girl leapt off the black wing's back as it let a piercing howl and then crumpled into dust.
"Terrible nuisances, those black wings," the girl said casually, walking towards Hadrian and Pandie, "They don't know a thing about sticking to their own territory." She knelt down beside Pandie and examined her. "Hmmm, hardly a scratch or burn," she said thoughtfully, looking at Pandie's arms and face, "You must be the one I was sent to look for." Hadrian stared at the girl and frowned
puzzledly.
"I'm sorry," he said apologetically, still frowning puzzledly, "but who are you, and why where you looking for Pandie?"
"My name is Neemika Keshet," the girl explained, looking Hadrian straight in the eye, "I was looking for your soulmate because I was requested to do so."
"Who sent you?"
"The Six Sister Dragons."