Milgazia led Lina's small tribe up the steep slope of the mountain's rocky trail, speaking casually about the history of the mountain and the Dragons that littered the sky above them. All were interested, of course, as Dragons were the most respected animals to ever walk the Earth. Filia, paying close attention to details, committed most of what the Gold had said to mind. She was NOT going to forget what this Golden Dragon had said, not until she dies. It was a rare opportunity to meet with a Dragon who had been in the War of the Monster's Fall.
Xellos, however, was subdued and wished not to hear of it. Instead, he focused on the golden sky, glittering with the scales of the Dragons. As they neared the top of the mountain, he felt a familiar presence hovering about. It was disturbing feeling this; a pang of worry shot through his midsection. The feeling was too familiar, too close for comfort. Mildly wondering, he fazed out only to appear in front of Filia, much to her displeasure.
Yet, even before she could leash out at him, Lina stopped in her tracks and pointed at a shadowed reclining figure. The sun hit him briefly, deep red seen in the mass of orange.
"Gaav!"
Gaav lifted his head wearily, shifting his eyes over to glare at the girl under his eyebrows. Without making an attempt to say hello, he turned his head back at the sky, seemingly bored with her presence. Milgazia was undaunted.
"Oh. And why are you here," he asked flatly of the Demon Dragon King. The Mazoku looked up at the Gold.
"He flew out to play with the other Dragons."
"And yet you still sit here?"
"I can't locate him." Gaav sleepily looked at the mass of Golden Dragons above him. "Have you seen a red dot in the sky lately?"
"I'm afraid not, Chaos Dragon," Milgazia smoothly replied. "Why didn't you go looking for him?"
The Mazoku growled. "Tired."
Xellos sneered. "Well, since I know that you're here now, my task is done. Besides, I wouldn't want to hang around here anymore."
"Fuck you."
"No thanks." Xellos began to faze out. But as he did, he added, "Oh, and by the way, Gaav, you'll find your little Dragon up quarreling with a young Gold. Have a nice day."
Gaav chose not to touch the last comment but lifted his head to look, as did the rest of the humans and two Dragons with him. What met their eyes were two Dragons, one crimson in colour and the other gold, exchanging blows with their tails and firing spells at one another furiously. Milgazia shook his head.
"Now look at what he's started. You weren't even watching him."
Rising wearily onto his feet, the taller man glared down at him. "Oh, what a loss. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll kill off that little bastard."
Raising his hand threateningly, the Gold replied, "How are you so sure he'll even kill him, or if he started it himself?"
Mockingly, "Golden Dragons NEVER fight without consulting an elder with connections to an elder like myself," he taunted, purposefully altering his voice to sound like Milgazia. Letting the façade drop, he growled, "Besides, that little brat of yours is always getting him into trouble."
Without another word, he stepped to the edge and sprang off, reverting into his Dragon form quickly as started to plummet down. Instead of having three heads as he usually did when appearing to fight, he had one, and was quite comfortable with it. As the Chaos Dragon flew off, Filia turned to their guide.
"What happened?"
Not even turning to her, he answered, "Gaav's little Dragon created some chaos, as he's supposed to." Lifting his head, he added, "He refuses to give him up, anyway."
Filia pointed up at the large red Dragon hovering over the Golds. "But... but..."
In no time, Gaav had taken care of the situation, given the offending Gold a swift blow of his massive tail, and had returned with the smaller Dragon in his arms. As he neared the ledge once more, he easily shifted into his human form, holding the baby Dragon carefully in his arms. The Dragon sniffled pitifully and clung to Gaav's trenchcoat before disappearing inside it, poking its head out of the top in order to breathe. There seemed to be just one thing different--its large round eyes were closed shut.
Milgazia was unamused. "He's yours, Gaav. You're supposed to be taking care of him."
"I AM taking care of the little bugger," Gaav snarled back. "And don't you even think about telling me how to raise him. He is not a Gold."
Lina took a step forward. "What kind of Dragon IS that?"
Clutching the bundle in his trenchcoat, the fiery-haired man slitted his eyes down at her. "Fire Chaos Dragon."
"But there is only one," Zelgadis reminded him carefully. "And that's you."
"Apparently not," Gaav returned. Glaring at all of them, he hissed, "In case you have dared to even think about it, he is NOT my son."
"He might as well should be," the Gold interrupted. "You're just as overly protective as any parent out there."
"Hey--there's only two members of my species. YOU have thousands."
Filia wandered up as close as she dared to the much larger man. "He's not Mazoku," she stated bluntly, keeping her spiked mallet close by. Gaav looked at her as if she was mad.
"Well, DUH," he snorted. "Like Mazoku could be a child?" Pausing, he shrugged. "Then again, after Valgaav..."
Filia screeched. "You leave Valgaav alone!"
"I didn't TOUCH him!" Gaav pulled back, disturbing the precious bundle in his arms. The little Dragon made a noise of discomfort before shuffling around, nuzzling Gaav's muscular chest until he was comfortable again. As he threw a glance of displeasure in Filia's direction, he easily unclasped his hair from the band near the bottom, gathering a good amount in his hand and throwing it over his shoulder to cover the baby Dragon's face elegantly. The Dragon gave a small sound of happiness.
Milgazia stepped between the two. "Enough. We have the Claire Bible waiting for us."
Lina pushed Filia out of her way, advancing towards Gaav. "Hmm... there's a familiar aura around that Dragon..."
Taking a step back, Gaav raised his hand to secure the sleeping Dragon. "Eh? Oh... yeah, it's Rezo."
Zelgadis, upon hearing this, swept forward immediately. "Rezo?!"
"Rezo?" Amelia and Lina both echoed while Gourry just stood there, pretending to know what they were talking about.
The baby Dragon, now affectionately known as Rezo, began to sniffle and bite at the long locks of streaming red hair covering his face. Removing his hair from Rezo's sharp teeth, Gaav rustle around in his pocket as he spoke. "Yes, Rezo. I thought it was a little more than obvious." Producing an unpeeled orange, he raised the fruit to the hungry animal's mouth, nudging his snout carefully with it. Realizing what it was, Rezo snatched it up in his mouth, gnawing on it delicately before taking hold of it in his smaller hands and daintily shredding the thick peel. Gaav didn't seem to care.
"Found him in his form crying down at the bottom of the mountain. Didn't seem to happy about something, so it just seemed right to take him in." He shrugged. "Hasn't been much of a hassle, he's tamed in a good way and it's nice to have another one of your own kind around."
"And still you father it like your own."
"Why wouldn't I? He wouldn't let you even get NEAR him." The Demon Dragon King motioned to Milgazia. "I recall him almost biting off your hand when you tried to pick him up when we found him, and then attempting to take off your head when you even DARED to touch him when he dropped his food."
"Yes, he's a picky little bugger," Milgazia mused. "Rezo knows what he likes and doesn't like, that's for sure." As if he understood what was going on, Rezo graciously threw an orange peel at Milgazia, hitting him square in the face in order to emphasize the point.
"Yeah, and he doesn't like YOU," Gaav chuckled, stroking Rezo's head tenderly. "Good shot, Rezo," he whispered to the Dragon, who squealed happily in turn. "I'm going to love you forever if you keep it up."
In order to get another praise, Rezo picked up a slice of the orange he was eating and threw it at Milgazia again, managing to get it in his hair. Milgazia glared at the baby. "Stop that."
"No, do it again, Rezo," Gaav urged. "This time, try... oh dear... you look a fright, `Gazia."
Indeed, he did. Rezo had taken this chance to spit, quite far for a child, the remains of his orange in his mouth that he had taken the time to chew into a mushy mold. Gaav laughed before laying a delicate kiss on Rezo's head. "Good job, Rezo," he praised, finding a large ripened strawberry in his pocket and giving it to the baby. Rezo babbled happily, taking the fruit into his hands and chewing on it slowly, cuddling in close to his `parent' as he did. Milgazia, dignity now shot, wiped the discharge off his head.
"Now if you'll excuse us, we have the Claire Bible waiting."
Drawing his attention away from the child in his arms, Gaav raised a thick eyebrow. "The Claire Bible? Why do you want to see that thing?"
"None of your business," Lina replied harshly, taking an I'm-so-powerful-and-scary pose upon a rock. Amelia, however, had taken fancy in the little Dragon known as Rezo and began to step forward, looking up at the larger Mazoku.
"May I pet him?"
Filia's hand shot out like a rocket, taking hold of Amelia's wrist tightly. "You do NOT want to pet him, Amelia," she scolded. "He's a Fire Chaos! Besides, that's GAAV holding him, and you had BETTER know what he's known for."
Amelia nodded absently. "Oh, I know, but that baby Dragon is adorable!" Rezo, hearing these words, gurgled and waved its tail from inside Gaav's trenchcoat. The Seyruun princess squealed. "Oh, kawaii!" Breaking free from Filia's grasp, she lurched forward, holding out her hand. Gaav, deciding it wouldn't hurt if Rezo was pet, leaned down a bit so Amelia could touch him easily.
"Oh, look, he's letting me pet him!" Amelia ran her hand over Rezo's soft head, feeling the waves of the folds of hard skin protruding from his neck and the top of his head. The baby seemingly purred as much as a Dragon could purr, but remained huddled close to Gaav's body. Everyone else, save Gaav, sweatdropped.
"Uh, Amelia..."
"Kawaii!!!"
"Uhm... Fire Chaos Dragons are not always..."
"Awww, look, he's yawning! He must be tired!"
Rezo blasted a wave of fire in Amelia's direction, blackening her with soot and ash.
"...doing what they seem."
Gaav threw his head to the side, his hair flying over his shoulder as he stood. "I guess I shouldn't have fed him that soup earlier," he said nonchalantly, shifting Rezo in his coat. "Tomato does something awful to him, ne, Milgazia?"
"Please remind me to kill you later," Milgazia returned, sweeping by the Mazoku. "In the meantime, tend to Rezo. I can sense he won't be very happy for the rest of the evening."
Looking down at his squirming treasure, Gaav stroked Rezo's scaly cheek carefully. "I'll just blame it on Gold cooking," he retorted. "You Dragons can't cook for beans."
Milgazia turned around. "All you give him is fruit, nuts, uncooked greens, rodents, chocolate, uncooked fish, and I won't even go to what you gave him last night."
"At least he LIKES it." He smirked. "And it's OBVIOUS he doesn't like you OR your cooking. Ne, Rezo?"
A blast of fire was hurled in Milgazia's direction.
"See?"
Coughing, "Lina, let's go."
Gaav waved at them as they disappeared into the rock. "I love you too, Gazia!"
"SHUT UP!"
~***~
Xellos, however, was subdued and wished not to hear of it. Instead, he focused on the golden sky, glittering with the scales of the Dragons. As they neared the top of the mountain, he felt a familiar presence hovering about. It was disturbing feeling this; a pang of worry shot through his midsection. The feeling was too familiar, too close for comfort. Mildly wondering, he fazed out only to appear in front of Filia, much to her displeasure.
Yet, even before she could leash out at him, Lina stopped in her tracks and pointed at a shadowed reclining figure. The sun hit him briefly, deep red seen in the mass of orange.
"Gaav!"
Gaav lifted his head wearily, shifting his eyes over to glare at the girl under his eyebrows. Without making an attempt to say hello, he turned his head back at the sky, seemingly bored with her presence. Milgazia was undaunted.
"Oh. And why are you here," he asked flatly of the Demon Dragon King. The Mazoku looked up at the Gold.
"He flew out to play with the other Dragons."
"And yet you still sit here?"
"I can't locate him." Gaav sleepily looked at the mass of Golden Dragons above him. "Have you seen a red dot in the sky lately?"
"I'm afraid not, Chaos Dragon," Milgazia smoothly replied. "Why didn't you go looking for him?"
The Mazoku growled. "Tired."
Xellos sneered. "Well, since I know that you're here now, my task is done. Besides, I wouldn't want to hang around here anymore."
"Fuck you."
"No thanks." Xellos began to faze out. But as he did, he added, "Oh, and by the way, Gaav, you'll find your little Dragon up quarreling with a young Gold. Have a nice day."
Gaav chose not to touch the last comment but lifted his head to look, as did the rest of the humans and two Dragons with him. What met their eyes were two Dragons, one crimson in colour and the other gold, exchanging blows with their tails and firing spells at one another furiously. Milgazia shook his head.
"Now look at what he's started. You weren't even watching him."
Rising wearily onto his feet, the taller man glared down at him. "Oh, what a loss. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll kill off that little bastard."
Raising his hand threateningly, the Gold replied, "How are you so sure he'll even kill him, or if he started it himself?"
Mockingly, "Golden Dragons NEVER fight without consulting an elder with connections to an elder like myself," he taunted, purposefully altering his voice to sound like Milgazia. Letting the façade drop, he growled, "Besides, that little brat of yours is always getting him into trouble."
Without another word, he stepped to the edge and sprang off, reverting into his Dragon form quickly as started to plummet down. Instead of having three heads as he usually did when appearing to fight, he had one, and was quite comfortable with it. As the Chaos Dragon flew off, Filia turned to their guide.
"What happened?"
Not even turning to her, he answered, "Gaav's little Dragon created some chaos, as he's supposed to." Lifting his head, he added, "He refuses to give him up, anyway."
Filia pointed up at the large red Dragon hovering over the Golds. "But... but..."
In no time, Gaav had taken care of the situation, given the offending Gold a swift blow of his massive tail, and had returned with the smaller Dragon in his arms. As he neared the ledge once more, he easily shifted into his human form, holding the baby Dragon carefully in his arms. The Dragon sniffled pitifully and clung to Gaav's trenchcoat before disappearing inside it, poking its head out of the top in order to breathe. There seemed to be just one thing different--its large round eyes were closed shut.
Milgazia was unamused. "He's yours, Gaav. You're supposed to be taking care of him."
"I AM taking care of the little bugger," Gaav snarled back. "And don't you even think about telling me how to raise him. He is not a Gold."
Lina took a step forward. "What kind of Dragon IS that?"
Clutching the bundle in his trenchcoat, the fiery-haired man slitted his eyes down at her. "Fire Chaos Dragon."
"But there is only one," Zelgadis reminded him carefully. "And that's you."
"Apparently not," Gaav returned. Glaring at all of them, he hissed, "In case you have dared to even think about it, he is NOT my son."
"He might as well should be," the Gold interrupted. "You're just as overly protective as any parent out there."
"Hey--there's only two members of my species. YOU have thousands."
Filia wandered up as close as she dared to the much larger man. "He's not Mazoku," she stated bluntly, keeping her spiked mallet close by. Gaav looked at her as if she was mad.
"Well, DUH," he snorted. "Like Mazoku could be a child?" Pausing, he shrugged. "Then again, after Valgaav..."
Filia screeched. "You leave Valgaav alone!"
"I didn't TOUCH him!" Gaav pulled back, disturbing the precious bundle in his arms. The little Dragon made a noise of discomfort before shuffling around, nuzzling Gaav's muscular chest until he was comfortable again. As he threw a glance of displeasure in Filia's direction, he easily unclasped his hair from the band near the bottom, gathering a good amount in his hand and throwing it over his shoulder to cover the baby Dragon's face elegantly. The Dragon gave a small sound of happiness.
Milgazia stepped between the two. "Enough. We have the Claire Bible waiting for us."
Lina pushed Filia out of her way, advancing towards Gaav. "Hmm... there's a familiar aura around that Dragon..."
Taking a step back, Gaav raised his hand to secure the sleeping Dragon. "Eh? Oh... yeah, it's Rezo."
Zelgadis, upon hearing this, swept forward immediately. "Rezo?!"
"Rezo?" Amelia and Lina both echoed while Gourry just stood there, pretending to know what they were talking about.
The baby Dragon, now affectionately known as Rezo, began to sniffle and bite at the long locks of streaming red hair covering his face. Removing his hair from Rezo's sharp teeth, Gaav rustle around in his pocket as he spoke. "Yes, Rezo. I thought it was a little more than obvious." Producing an unpeeled orange, he raised the fruit to the hungry animal's mouth, nudging his snout carefully with it. Realizing what it was, Rezo snatched it up in his mouth, gnawing on it delicately before taking hold of it in his smaller hands and daintily shredding the thick peel. Gaav didn't seem to care.
"Found him in his form crying down at the bottom of the mountain. Didn't seem to happy about something, so it just seemed right to take him in." He shrugged. "Hasn't been much of a hassle, he's tamed in a good way and it's nice to have another one of your own kind around."
"And still you father it like your own."
"Why wouldn't I? He wouldn't let you even get NEAR him." The Demon Dragon King motioned to Milgazia. "I recall him almost biting off your hand when you tried to pick him up when we found him, and then attempting to take off your head when you even DARED to touch him when he dropped his food."
"Yes, he's a picky little bugger," Milgazia mused. "Rezo knows what he likes and doesn't like, that's for sure." As if he understood what was going on, Rezo graciously threw an orange peel at Milgazia, hitting him square in the face in order to emphasize the point.
"Yeah, and he doesn't like YOU," Gaav chuckled, stroking Rezo's head tenderly. "Good shot, Rezo," he whispered to the Dragon, who squealed happily in turn. "I'm going to love you forever if you keep it up."
In order to get another praise, Rezo picked up a slice of the orange he was eating and threw it at Milgazia again, managing to get it in his hair. Milgazia glared at the baby. "Stop that."
"No, do it again, Rezo," Gaav urged. "This time, try... oh dear... you look a fright, `Gazia."
Indeed, he did. Rezo had taken this chance to spit, quite far for a child, the remains of his orange in his mouth that he had taken the time to chew into a mushy mold. Gaav laughed before laying a delicate kiss on Rezo's head. "Good job, Rezo," he praised, finding a large ripened strawberry in his pocket and giving it to the baby. Rezo babbled happily, taking the fruit into his hands and chewing on it slowly, cuddling in close to his `parent' as he did. Milgazia, dignity now shot, wiped the discharge off his head.
"Now if you'll excuse us, we have the Claire Bible waiting."
Drawing his attention away from the child in his arms, Gaav raised a thick eyebrow. "The Claire Bible? Why do you want to see that thing?"
"None of your business," Lina replied harshly, taking an I'm-so-powerful-and-scary pose upon a rock. Amelia, however, had taken fancy in the little Dragon known as Rezo and began to step forward, looking up at the larger Mazoku.
"May I pet him?"
Filia's hand shot out like a rocket, taking hold of Amelia's wrist tightly. "You do NOT want to pet him, Amelia," she scolded. "He's a Fire Chaos! Besides, that's GAAV holding him, and you had BETTER know what he's known for."
Amelia nodded absently. "Oh, I know, but that baby Dragon is adorable!" Rezo, hearing these words, gurgled and waved its tail from inside Gaav's trenchcoat. The Seyruun princess squealed. "Oh, kawaii!" Breaking free from Filia's grasp, she lurched forward, holding out her hand. Gaav, deciding it wouldn't hurt if Rezo was pet, leaned down a bit so Amelia could touch him easily.
"Oh, look, he's letting me pet him!" Amelia ran her hand over Rezo's soft head, feeling the waves of the folds of hard skin protruding from his neck and the top of his head. The baby seemingly purred as much as a Dragon could purr, but remained huddled close to Gaav's body. Everyone else, save Gaav, sweatdropped.
"Uh, Amelia..."
"Kawaii!!!"
"Uhm... Fire Chaos Dragons are not always..."
"Awww, look, he's yawning! He must be tired!"
Rezo blasted a wave of fire in Amelia's direction, blackening her with soot and ash.
"...doing what they seem."
Gaav threw his head to the side, his hair flying over his shoulder as he stood. "I guess I shouldn't have fed him that soup earlier," he said nonchalantly, shifting Rezo in his coat. "Tomato does something awful to him, ne, Milgazia?"
"Please remind me to kill you later," Milgazia returned, sweeping by the Mazoku. "In the meantime, tend to Rezo. I can sense he won't be very happy for the rest of the evening."
Looking down at his squirming treasure, Gaav stroked Rezo's scaly cheek carefully. "I'll just blame it on Gold cooking," he retorted. "You Dragons can't cook for beans."
Milgazia turned around. "All you give him is fruit, nuts, uncooked greens, rodents, chocolate, uncooked fish, and I won't even go to what you gave him last night."
"At least he LIKES it." He smirked. "And it's OBVIOUS he doesn't like you OR your cooking. Ne, Rezo?"
A blast of fire was hurled in Milgazia's direction.
"See?"
Coughing, "Lina, let's go."
Gaav waved at them as they disappeared into the rock. "I love you too, Gazia!"
"SHUT UP!"
~***~