A/N: One reviewer, Pokemaniacneo, gave me such an uplifting review that I wanted to speak to those reading and leaving me sincere comments.

Your reviews means so much to me! I've been really happy to see that not only were people pleasantly surprised to see this continue on again, but that they encourage me to go at my own pace. You guys genuinely care about where the story is going and how the characters are developing! It makes me very happy to see that people are enjoying it... I wanted to do my best and give it all of my heart so that was why I took my hiatus until my heart pounded for this story again. I felt if I had done that, the quality would never falter.

I'm also glad to hear this story is a favorite to many others! It inspires me to give you guys more enjoyment to the best of my still developing abilities.

-.-.-.

Claus's nap was turning out to be a full out slumber with how he slept until the sun dyed the sky a deep orange. Lucas was leaning on the living room's wooden window seal, yearning to go outside. He wanted to scout for the perfect hill just to watch the sun set and then lay on the cool night grass to stare at the stars; he just couldn't figure out how to do it. He didn't wish to wake Claus who failed to take care of himself in his worry, and he himself said that he wouldn't stray too far... but for the first time in ever, he felt excitement and impatience. He wriggled in anticipation as he murmured to himself, "I did say I wouldn't go too far..." and got up from the couch. Passing a near by table, he examined the unopened ink tin and thought that he could write Claus a note.

He clasped his hands together and grinned at the simple brilliance of the plan and looked for a piece of paper to write on. In the miniature tool drawer, he found a few slices of paper and plucked just one to neatly write on. He hadn't noticed it was a habit he picked up from his mother.

Dear Claus,

I apologize in advance, I simply couldn't help myself and have wandered somewhere outside.

If I'm not around the house, I've wandered out to find a hill to watch the sun set.

Please don't worry about me! I'll be back and safe before it's too late!

Lucas.

"Now where to place this...?" He thought as he idly wandered around the main room. Claus would immediately rush out of the front door and he wouldn't check any tables... He gave the main room one last look before sighing and deeming the lower part of the house to be unideal. Refusing to give the idea of a stroll up, he wandered up the stairs and entered their room. Upon entry he saw his twin tangled up in their cover with his feet hanging off the side of the bed. It was as if he just walked to the bed and fell over with a slight tumble and slept instantly. Lucas smiled and walked over to to his exhausted brother and cooed, "I don't think you can catch up with rest like this..." He then gently shifted Claus to properly lay on the bed. He unfortunately couldn't untangle him from the covers, but the weather wasn't cold so he was okay this way.

Inspection take two.

Their room didn't have very much now that he actually looked around it. The two of them were always outside and merely came in here to sleep at the end of the day or play if it rained. Lucas smiled softly at the memory of the silly hand games they would play for hours. They would even go as far as make up variations of rock paper scissors. Other times, they would play one of his newly learned games from the girls. Of course Claus never admitted he found those music oriented clapping games amusing since the girls done that, but whenever Claus put effort or emphasis in anything, it showed that he liked it and that he liked to rhyme with Lucas.

He glanced over at his twin once again and smiled softly. He hoped that the two of them could find time to play together again, explore together, and be simply be happy again. His smile fell as he continued to watch Claus's chest rise up and down. He questioned their happiness. He could say that they were happy because they had each other... but their parents were no longer here, Alec stayed at his mountain in grief and they were unable to visit him to their knowledge. It did not help that the people feared the path to the plateau. He then calculated the answer to his prior thought of playing and strolling together again; they had jobs to fill for their passed parents, as well as energy to curb for the following days.

Ironic how they became adults so fast after all.

Just as his fingers loosened up, the paper he forgot that he was holding slipped and floated to the dusty floor. He softly gasped and scurried to pick it up off the floor. Once retrieving it, he held it close to his chest shortly afterward; there was no where to place it here, either. Just like there was no where to place a lot of things he felt or wanted. He swallowed a whimper down and exited the room, slowly walking down the stairs now that his legs gained emotional weight to them. Stopping on the second to last step, he hesitated before sitting down and staring at his note to Claus.

Digesting his prior anticipation and impatience, he return to his usual logical self.

"Claus is tired of waking up alone, isn't he...?" He paused before breathing out, "certainly..." and tried to put himself in his his twin's shoes. He thought about how restless he was after only a few hours of being by himself as Cluas slept, while Claus put up with weeks of his coma, and months of his blindness. He felt his eyes sting as he slowly brushed his sensitive finger tips across his eyebrow where his scar was. He heaved and clenched the stair rail trying his best not to sob or even silently weep. It was his tears that pushed Claus to his limits in the first place; to risk himself to go challenge the drago just to make him happy, whether he asked him to or not. He wondered just how did he motivate Claus to do so much anyways?

He wanted to hit himself over his weakness, how he was already failing at putting himself in Claus's shoes; he already yearned for some form of company to support his distress. He guiltily stood up and wandered out of the door, seeing that the sun had already set and the sky was preparing for the stars to come out.

A tear slipped.

He heard their dog whine in concern. In reply, he wandered over to their furry relative and sat down next to him.

"Boney..." he murmured without any idea what would come out next. To his relief, there was none. He continued to pet Boney's fur that had gotten shaggy from not being brushed in so long. If he were in a cheerier mood, he would groom the both of them. He looked at his dog's big brown eyes and smiled sadly in reply. "I missed those big brown eyes," he stated quietly as he scratched behind his ears. "I missed a lot of things..." Boney whined once more and nuzzled into his owner's leg. "Boney...what can we do?" He sincerely asked while giving Boney his own pair of large eyes. The intelligent dog stared for a few moments in thought before going back into his dog house and pulling out a thick smooth stick.

Lucas was confused when Boney placed it in his lap. He asked, "What do you want to do?" Boney wasn't one for fetching. So what else would they do with this? He watched at Boney wandered over to the gate from home. "A walk?"

His dog barked and reply to signify that he was correct.

"Ah, but Boney... we can't leave Claus alone," Lucas stated as he fiddled with his thumbs. He was tempted for a walk again. The curiosity to see the changes he couldn't before he once suppressed. "Ah, Boney, come back here for a moment I have something..." When Boney obeyed, he picked up the paper also in his lap and explained, "give this to Claus for me. I'll go on a brief walk to clear my head, okay?" The precocious canine was persistent when it came to that stick, so Lucas was sure to take it with him. As he walked away he continued to look back at Boney in his dog house who kept the paper firmly under his paws. He felt a bit of regret the further he walked away, and was finding it hard to look forward as he kept walking. But he certainly decided to be more careful after he tripped on a rock.

.-.-.-

As Lucas wandered into town, he didn't notice anything different. People were all still inside by this hour if they weren't at the inn drinking. He continued to walk north and saw weird imprints on the ground, kinds he never saw before. They didn't look like wheels of anything he seen before and they traveled to Osohe as well as to the forest. His feet carried him west. He looked up at the church and would've loved to go in, but heard a familiar cry in the distance.

"Gaooo... Gaaoooo."

Lucas hurried to the small and familiar cry and it did belong to the baby drago he met on his birthday.

"Oh my, what are you doing here...?" He asked with worry and patted its belly. The pup had gotten larger than the last time he saw it. It was still round with small limbs and weird ears, however. It was frowning and let out a little whimper noise. "Are you lost...?" He asked. He wish he could understand it more like he could Boney. It didn't reply to him and just hopped away and further into the forest. The once restless boy now felt frightened. Claus had warned him there were weird creatures in the forest now, and it was getting darker by the hour. It also didn't help that the drago pup was here, either. Where was its mother...?

He cringed when he thought about how dangerous but absolutely tragic the father was.

"Gaaaoo!" It was if it was calling for him.

He also wondered if that baby drago would've hopped all over the village or something like that, and if it really did want him. With the way it was crying for him it seemed like it...but he was so scared. He realized that change wasn't so easily acceptable, that walking into the unknown wasn't so great and that being alone absolutely sucked. He kept thinking of Claus as he tightly squeezed the smooth piece of wood in his hand. The arm that held it trembled the more he heard the drago, his heart squeezed and he felt waves of heat travel down his neck the more he hesitated.

"Waaooo!" That cry sounded it different and it caused the terrified boy to gasp. He swallowed as much of his fear as he could and ran through what trees that were still standing. He didn't see the drago pup anywhere, but he continued to hear its crying. He was wondering just what it was crying about and what was going on. He held his weapon up high as he looked around the unusually clear forest that was still recovering from burn markings, but it was now being scarred by those weird tracks that he saw before. To his luck, there weren't any weird animals around. The weird trembling probably scared them away; scared them like how he and the drago child was.

He swallowed another lump in his throat and willed himself to run. He nearly tripped when he heard explosions and cries of another animal? It sounded like a weird screech. So much noise was filling up the eroded forest. As he bravely ran to find the rather large and brightly colored pup, he saw it hopping up and down with its thankfully safe mother. He exhaled a shaky sigh of relief and ran over to them.

"I-its such a relief to see you two!" He breathed out and patted the mother drago's leg. She purred at him as well as snorted in reflex. Were the dragos migrating? He saw there was another pair wandering to a different part of the forest... As he tried to figure things out, he heard angry yells of what sounded like a man saying very naughty words. Lucas was scared, but also curious. He looked up at the dragos and then up ahead to the ruckus and weird smell. Something was burning...but it didn't smell like how the trees did. The baby drago kept up with Lucas rather easily, but the mother was still seemingly communicating with the other adult dragos.

What Lucas saw was one of those pig people that Claus and Fuel had mentioned, but he looked banged up as well as the contraption that he was in. Lucas frowned at the nasty things that he was shouting, they made him feel bad even though they weren't directed at him.

He then heard a brave girl yell, "we'll never surrender to ya chumps!"

Lucas continued to creep up and saw that she was accompanied by Wess and that monkey he saw with Fassad, but the monkey was hiding behind Wess and the girl. To Lucas's surprise and dismay the baby Drago hopped into view and made a growling noise; it appeared that he recognized someone in this noisy group of people and he did not like them.

"Oh my pork! What is that baby drago doing here?"

Lucas felt an urge to protect the drago and ran to its side.

"And what are you doing here?" Something about the tone of his voice was no longer kind, and with these dangerous machines around and Wess on the side of that girl with weird hair...he was beginning to feel an ill air from Fassad.

"I should be asking that!" Lucas shouted back.

The group of pig people behind Fassad all squealed like pigs and patted their fat bellies in what seemed to be laughter.

"Haha! What's a kid doing demanding from us?" One of them stated amongst is grotesque grunting.

"Yeah, what a stupid kid!"

"Stupid kid!"

"Totally a dumb kid!"

It was weird how they all spoke after the other so quickly and in a redundant way, but it didn't falter Lucas. If these were the people hurting the forest and the animals... he would most definitely do something about it. He whistled a call and though nothing came immediately, there were slow quakes getting stronger by the step. He pulled the baby drago behind him as he glared at the odd pig-people, and also gestured for the girl and Wess to come over to his side.

"Pff, what was that whistle supposed to..." Fassad froze when he saw the mother drago in view right behind Lucas and the others he was chasing.

When the mother roared, Lucas smiled and walked over to her, and patted her leg once more. She felt the same way he did about these pigs. How terrified those soldiers were confirmed their wrongful acts. It was satisfying that they were able to receive their rightful punishment. Lucas had no words for them, he whistled again.

Fassad sneered to the best of his abilities trying to swindle his way out of this. He was confident in his charismatic abilities and said, "look, your fancy whistle tricks don't frighten me! We took down one of your stupid over-sized lizards before! We'll do it again and again!" As long as the group in front of him faltered, they had a chance of getting out of this and exterminating the opposing group of unsophisticated people.

The mother then hopped over the group she was once standing behind of, startling everyone who didn't know that even the adults hopped around, and pretty far. Those freaskish pig people were backing up into their tanks that once seemingly blocked the path for Wess and company; the irony that it was now sealing their fate. The mother swung her tail, knocking two soldiers hard and far into the trees. After her action, she threateningly walked over to the rest of them. Lucas covered his mouth when he saw the angry drago grab one of the men by the head and tossed him away. She and the child definitely recognized these people, and he was sure to inform Claus and Fuel of this.

"No...stop...!" Fassad pleaded as he leaned against the tank. He had no time to climb into it, neither would it do any good because he was sure the angry Drago would crush it while he was loading up a cannon ball. "Stop!" He cried as she kicked the tank many yards into the distance.

"Haha! Feeling better now, lil' monkey?" The girl besides Lucas laughed as she smugly crossed her arms at the sight. Lucas looked at the monkey that was dancing in glee, it must've been the monkey he once heard Claus talk about. His attention geared to the angry Drago when she made a heartfelt roar. She then kicked the man that was once cowering in fear at her powerful wrath. She hollered in vengeful satisfaction before finally settling down.

"That was...impressive, Lucas," Wess commented as he kept his attention on the drago. He was absolutely amazed.

Lucas blushed and sheepishly rubbed his head at the praise he felt he really didn't warrant, it was all the mother's doing.

"Yeah, kid! That was awesome!"

Lucas's blush deepened. So much praise at once... he wanted to ask her name, but his tongue was tied up and he felt so embarrassed.

"A-ah..." Was all he managed to utter out to his dismay.

"I'm Kumatora! I was recently just with Duster and Wess and I decided to save this lil' monkey from that creep who kept hurting him!"

Though the mama Drago hopping away with her cheering child made quite a bit of noise, he was able to hear Kumatora. It was a little difficult for Lucas to take in the information she gave him, if not confusing. Someone who, for some reason, helped him just tried to hurt so many others and has destroyed so much. Still, he was speechless as he looked over at Wess who was heading his way.

"I'm sure you wish to know what's going on?" He asked as he wiped some sweat from his balding head.

"D-definitely..."

"Well, it goes like this..." Before Wess could even begin he was already interrupted.

"Lucas!" It was none other than Claus who was missing a sock, but he at least had both of his shoes on. Along side him was of course their faithful dog who done as told as well as leaded the worry wart here in the first place. "I thought you said you weren't going to go far without me! Especially while I was sleeping!" He was fully aware of the further wreckage of the forest, but that wasn't his priority.

"I'm sorry, Claus! One thing lead to another-"

"But still!" The stressed filled twin was getting into full-scale scold mode before he was interrupted by Wess.

"I understand your worry, Claus, but he saved our lives." It was a little weird to see the child he once knew as a prankster scold Lucas, but with how things were, it wasn't too far off.

Claus's eyebrows were twitching in resistance to show his fears. He was mildly satisfied when Lucas stood by him and away from the stranger girl with messy hair that rivaled his.

"Whose that guy?" Kumatora asked with a slight smirk and walked over to him.

"He's my brother," Lucas sheepishly answered. That guilt for worrying him so badly sunk in, but it was also on the amusing side for him as well.

"Haha, you're spunky!" She teased as she directly looked into his glaring electrifying eyes. She was surprised and exclaimed, "Whoa! Y'have Psi in you!"

Claus vaguely recalled the word 'PSI' but he still refused to properly reply to her. Lucas did with a question, "PSI?"

"Yeah, it's magical power that very, very few people have! Like me!" She said and balanced a little ball of flame at the tip of her thumb. "See? If I wasn't so tired I could make it bigger! I was burning up tanks with this stuff!"

Lucas again, was very intrigued by this magical power and intently stared at the flame on her finger tip. He wished he could do something like that, if a little bit on the pointless side to want it so much. He excitedly replied, "my brother does that! But it's not fire!"

"It's not?" She turned over to the distrusting looking boy and asked, "What'cha got?"

He was still ever so stubborn and turned his head away from her. He didn't like the attention, and he didn't like the attention she seemingly brought along with her.

Wess was bemused at Claus's behaviors and commented, "why the moodiness?"

"I'm tired of strangers," he mumbled and crossed his arms, still defiantly looking away from them.

"But she's a friend of Wess and saved the monkey from Fassad!" Lucas rebutted.

"There's nothing to be on guard about with her, Claus. She is the princess of Osohe. The pig-enemy has also invaded and trashed the castle."

His twin and Wess caught the better half of his attention with their information. Fassad was as rotten as he expected, as well as those pig people, and he and his twin weren't the only ones having things important to them trashed.

"Well, great to know I guess," he said and grabbed for Lucas's hand to take him home. "We'll be going now."

"Hey, y'can't just leave like that!" Kumatora said with a questioning eyebrow raised. "There's stuff to iron out!"

"Iron it out with Wess," Claus replied. He was less hostile, but still not on absolute good terms with her.

"Hey, now, calm down you fiery snappers," Wess stated as he got in between the two explosive people with equally explosive magic. "We'll discuss things another day, it's extremely late and we should retreat to our homes!" He looked between the three of them and continued, "Princess, you most definitely need your rest, and the twins live a bit far away, so we'll take them home first."

"I can handle that by myself!" The offended boy protested. He done so much on his own for so long, he wondered where he got the idea that now he suddenly needed an old man escort and a weird girl with weird hair that reminded him of those freaky man-woman fairies?

"...Claus..." Lucas gently murmured. He wasn't angry, but he didn't like Claus's attitude. He didn't like seeing him so harsh and edgy. It worried him, his brother was never like this. He was pleased to see his prickly stance falter and his posture relax at his plea.

"F-fine..." He muttered and pulled the happily complying Lucas ahead.

He had an irritable feeling that this girl was going to be stuck with them for a while...