AN: YAY, FANFICTION IS BACK UP!!! ~party~ However, also means that I
must write again :P and such a nice holiday.~puts away her party hat~
Ahem. Anyway, I have a new reviewer! Happy day! Oh yeah.dams are female
dragons and drakes are male. Dams have green scales and drakes have red.
The more vibrant the colors, the healthier the dragon.
BlueDreamer- There's really no plan for Hitomi and Van, 'cause
Hitomi is dead.but there was a plan for Miguel and Rose, because they
wanted to get her emotionally bound to Zaibach and the army, so they told
Miguel to do it, but it backfired and he wound up falling in love with her
for real. And yes, the wings are hereditary, but her parents had the
choice of letting her have them, or letting them never be seen at all.
Thanks to the Zaibach sorcerers, they sped up the 'finding them' process by
all of the experiments. Thanks for the encouraging review, and I'm glad
you like the story ^_^
Megumi of the Moon- Mwahahhah, the plot
thickens..mwahahhahah.~coughs, falls over~ @_@
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Van was restless. Ever since that encounter with that woman from Zaibach, something hadn't sat right inside of him. She seemed so.familiar. And it was driving him crazy. He still didn't get why she didn't kill him..and Dillandu was back. " You know, you shouldn't be walking around yet." Allens voice startled him, and Van whipped his head to his doorway, where the culprit was leaning against the frame. " I feel fine." Van scowled, running a hand through his hair as Allen came over. Grinning, Allen clapped him on the shoulder, and Van cringed. " Ok.maybe not completely fine. Dillandu went pretty nuts." Allen nodded, frowning. " I don't get it.Celena is fine with the guys, and yet Dillandu is here. Do you think it has anything to do with that girl that you saw during the fight?" Van nodded, eyes glazing over slightly. " It wasn't a girl, Allen. She.I dunno, something about her bothers me. She seemed so.fake, I guess. That's not the right word to describe her though. It was like somebody had pulled a painting around her to make her seem different, somehow." He rubbed his forehead. 'This is not going well.' " Well, at least there's no more battles to worry about for a while, and your advisors have stopped bothering you about a bride, right?" Allen offered, coming into the room and sitting in a chair. Van sighed. " That's another thing that's worrying me." Allen raised an eyebrow, and Van continued. " I mean, they've been bugging me for who knows how long, and then they stop suddenly? They're up to something." Allen chuckled. " Van, you've been eating too much Piscus fruit. I think you need some sleep if you're jumping to conclusions like that." He rolled his eyes at Allen. " Yes mother." " That was uncalled for." Van smirked, disguising his other concern. 'If Dillandu is back.does that mean that Folken is too?' * * * * * * * * * * * *
The sun rose slowly over the mountainside, appearing by all who were up early enough to see it as a molten mass of brightness bringing an end to the nights that were slowly starting to get cooler as time wore on. It illuminated the leaves of the trees, hanging on to the green and reflecting off of every drop of dew. As it penetrated deeper towards the forest floor, it revealed a glittering mass of greens and reds, shifting and settling on and off. Occasionally part of the mass would move, and the beams of the sun would reveal a figure in a black dress, tangled hair and one shoe missing. Said figure would then groan at the light and turn over. The groan would then cause a rumble from a member of the mass. All would go quiet for a moment, and then the process would start all over again. That is, until the figure in black bolted upright. " Wha? Where.." She blinked, pushing back her hair. " Oh yeah." 'Hair's still red, I see. Oh well, I'll get around to that in a bit. It's not like I'm in a rush." Rose made a face for a moment, peering around her accidental prison. Large male dragons slumbered on all sides of her. 'Right. Protect the runt,' she thought sourly, trying to yank out several knots. 'And it must have been a momentary lapse in judgment to not bring a comb with me.' An answering rumble chuckled around her. ' Protect the important one, more like it.' Rose scowled again, looking around at the pack. 'I hate it when they do that..never know which one is speaking to you.' ' You will in time, young one.' Rose snorted, standing. " I'll bet. Can I at least have a bath? Please?" A male cracked an eye open at her, scales gleaming a dusty copper in the early morning light. He snorted, turned his head around, and settled back down again. Rose caught a faint 'humans' with a note of disgust in it, and she stuck her tongue out at him behind his back. They had traveled all night, and Rose was dusty, dirty, sore, and tired. She needed a bath. ' Why this need to be clean?' The notes of the mental shimmer to the message caused her to turn to the younger dragon that she had first met. " Because everything feels better after a bath." The dragon tilted his head to the side, blinking rapidly. Rose sighed, crouching low. " It's a human thing." She smiled as he snorted to the best of his ability, attempting to mimic the earlier drake. " Cute." A look of consternation passed over the dragon. ' Not cute. Strong and brave.' He took a deep breath, swelling his chest out as he strutted around. Laughing, Rose reached forward and started tickling him, causing the air to come out in a big whoosh. " Fine. Cute, strong and brave. Also extremely ticklish." She giggled again, the dragon squirming in her arms. By now the entire clan was up. The larges drake shook his head, yawning. In mid-yawn, he let out a roar that made Rose wince. As if on cue, several dams and drakes disappeared into the bush. Rose blinked. 'Hunting, young one.' She shrugged, glancing at the oldest of the clan. The dams scales were faded to a rusty green, but she still moved as quickly as the rest of the clan. " My name is Koal." The dam made a deep throaty growl, sounding suspiciously like laughter. ' No, young one. You're name is Rose. You have had that name since birth. It is your right to have such a name and use it. It would be an insult to your heritage to change it.' Rose blinked. " What heritage? Why does everybody say I'm somebody special!?" She twitched, looking upwards. ' You'll find out soon enough, young one.' Rose groaned, rubbing the spot between her eyes. " I need a bath..."
Rose sighed, slipping into the pool of water. It had taken a while, but she had managed to convince the dam that it wouldn't hurt her to have a bath. Besides, some of the ruder drakes were complaining. Rose frowned. " But that was just mean.oh well." Taking a deep breath, Rose slipped under water, relishing the feeling of warmth all around her. Popping her head up to breathe, she had to bite back a shout. The baby was peering at her, eyes close to her face. 'Are you better yet?' Rose waited for her heart to stop pounding, and then reached for her dress. " Turn around." The dragon blinked, but did as she asked. ' Why?' Rose sighed, getting out of the pool and slipping the dress on over her head. " It's a human thing. What's your name, anyway? I can't just walk around saying 'hey you' or 'you over there' all the time." She shook out her hair, aiming the droplets at the young drake. He squeeked, dodging backwards out of range. Stretching her wings out, Rose flapped them a couple of times to get the water droplets off of them. They tended to smell like mildew if the water stayed on them. ' Smoak.' Rose blinked, picking him up. " Smoke?" The drake shook his head. ' No, s-m-o-a-k. That's my name. But I'm not supposed to tell humans.' Rose glanced over her shoulders, then turned to the newly named Smoak with a conspiratorial look and winked at him. " I'm not exactly all human now anyway, right? So you didn't tell me your name..I just guessed it, how about that, huh?" Smoak blew out a puff of, well, smoke, out of his mouth as an answer, causing Rose to cough violently for a moment, waving her hand in front of her face.
Rose should have known better. As soon as they walked back to the clearing, the oldest dam rumbled over to them, fixing an eye on Smoak. ' So, you told her your name, hmm?' Rose and Smoak winced, glancing at one another. 'We are so busted.' The dam flashed a grin, or what she attempted to turn into a grin. Instead, it was a gradual peeling back of the lips to reveal sharp pointed fangs in a very large mouth. Rose paled slightly. 'Scary..' ' Well, since young Smoak here has decided that you're trustworthy enough to know dragon names, I shall tell you mine before the others get back from the hunt.' Rose gaped. From the books she'd read back on the Mystic Moon-Earth, she reminded herself, Earth- a dragons name was very valuable, and wasn't given lightly. ' Yes, I suppose the humans of the Mystic Moon know a few actual facts about us.my name is Thayana. Call it but once and I will be by your side as soon as I can reach you.' Rose nodded, eyes wide. " Thank you," she whispered, feeling a surge of something extremely powerful deep inside her. She shivered violently, rubbing her bare arms. For a moment she thought that Tayanna nodded her head, but as she was about to ask, the hunting party came back with food. Rose's relief was cut short, however, when she saw that none of the meat had been burned by the dragons flames. She held her throat with her hand, swallowing down the revulsion she felt at the sight of the raw meat. 'Well, I'm part of the clan now, I guess, so.ngh.' She walked over to where the others were eating. Her stomach churned at the crunching and tearing sounds coming from the center of the crowd, but advanced until she saw Smoak, trotting out between a dam and a drake. He was carrying a large hunk of meat, looking proud of himself. He came over to her and set it at her feet. She raised an eyebrow. ' You're not a dragon. I didn't think that you'd be able to get to the meat, so I brought you some!' He swelled his chest out again and she smiled. For him to get a piece as big as that, he must have had a hard time. " Thank you, Smoak. Thank you very much." Sitting down, she picked up the meat, hesitating slightly. Smoak tilted his head. ' If you don't eat it you'll get sick. We' still have a long way to go to get to our dens.' She nodded, glancing at the meat again. Smoak seemed to sense her hesitation. ' What is wrong? It's fresh, it's not rotten. Eat.' She sighed, setting down the meat. How to explain this. " Well you see, humans.and people with wings like me raised by humans.they only eat cooked meat. We get diseases brought on by raw meat more easily than dragons and animals." Smoak seemed to consider this for a moment, and then nodded his head. ' You eat burned meat. I'll burn the meat for you.' She had to fight a smile. Smoak had apparently decided that he was to be the guardian of her for the journey. Puffing up, she watched as something shone deep in his chest, and scooted to the side, not wanting to get caught in the flames. A rather impressive tongue of flame burst from Smoaks open mouth, and the smell of cooked meat filled Rose's nose, reminding her of the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since she started walking, dropping her food pack during a rather strenuous cliff trek. Looking at the sizzling meat, Rose picked it up gingerly with two fingers, nearly dropping it. " Thank you Smoak." She smiled happily at him, and he nodded, still looking at the meat. Puzzled, Rose watched him for a moment. " What is it, Smoak?" He blinked up at her. ' What does burnt meat taste like?' And, for the first time in months, years even, Rose laughed so hard she was soon on the ground with tears leaking out of the sides of her eyes. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Van closed his eyes, breathing quietly. It was peaceful out, for once, and he wanted to keep it that way. The later his advisors found him, the better. The tiles of the roof were comfortably warm under his shirt, and he smiled to himself as a cool breeze blew over him. 'The only problem with this is, when you're so relaxed, memories just seem to flood you.' But he couldn't help smiling to himself. 'Rose was so different from Hitomi.and yet I fell just the same.' Sighing, he opened his eyes and sat down. 'But how is it that I couldn't tell her, but I could tell that woman..Koal.' Frowning, he ran a hand through his hair, listening to the birds. " Urg, why couldn't Allen and Merle told me about how she felt earlier?!? Would've made things a lot easier," he grumbled, sending a glare to the heavens. " But I suppose, for that matter, why didn't I just tell her and risk it." 'And why am I talking to myself?' Van shook his head slightly. Glancing at the horizon, Van stood. 'Zaibachs armies are just hovering inside of their borders.and we can't do anything about it. Maybe now I can start the search for Rose.' Another smile appeared on his face. 'And maybe I can even tell her how I feel.' * * * * * * * * * * * *
The hybrid paced, full-grown now. Sargon smiled darkly as he fed it, looking over the other cages carved into the rock of the cave. There were twenty of them now, enough to start breeding with. He was beginning to run out of materials to create them with. Now all he had to do was wait until he had enough of them to come out from this infernal cave and kill the girl, along with those wretched winged lizards. She was with them now, his crystal showed him that much. 'It's amusing to see that she still hasn't learned of her heritage yet. How she managed to survive this long, I wish I knew.' His face clouded over. 'Because then I could use the information to twist and bend her mind until it broke.' Clenching his fists, he allowed his wings to stretch to their full length. " I'll show her just how corrupted the last sorcerer has become, that she can be sure of.' He laughed, it's sound reverberating off the walls of the cave.
Van was restless. Ever since that encounter with that woman from Zaibach, something hadn't sat right inside of him. She seemed so.familiar. And it was driving him crazy. He still didn't get why she didn't kill him..and Dillandu was back. " You know, you shouldn't be walking around yet." Allens voice startled him, and Van whipped his head to his doorway, where the culprit was leaning against the frame. " I feel fine." Van scowled, running a hand through his hair as Allen came over. Grinning, Allen clapped him on the shoulder, and Van cringed. " Ok.maybe not completely fine. Dillandu went pretty nuts." Allen nodded, frowning. " I don't get it.Celena is fine with the guys, and yet Dillandu is here. Do you think it has anything to do with that girl that you saw during the fight?" Van nodded, eyes glazing over slightly. " It wasn't a girl, Allen. She.I dunno, something about her bothers me. She seemed so.fake, I guess. That's not the right word to describe her though. It was like somebody had pulled a painting around her to make her seem different, somehow." He rubbed his forehead. 'This is not going well.' " Well, at least there's no more battles to worry about for a while, and your advisors have stopped bothering you about a bride, right?" Allen offered, coming into the room and sitting in a chair. Van sighed. " That's another thing that's worrying me." Allen raised an eyebrow, and Van continued. " I mean, they've been bugging me for who knows how long, and then they stop suddenly? They're up to something." Allen chuckled. " Van, you've been eating too much Piscus fruit. I think you need some sleep if you're jumping to conclusions like that." He rolled his eyes at Allen. " Yes mother." " That was uncalled for." Van smirked, disguising his other concern. 'If Dillandu is back.does that mean that Folken is too?' * * * * * * * * * * * *
The sun rose slowly over the mountainside, appearing by all who were up early enough to see it as a molten mass of brightness bringing an end to the nights that were slowly starting to get cooler as time wore on. It illuminated the leaves of the trees, hanging on to the green and reflecting off of every drop of dew. As it penetrated deeper towards the forest floor, it revealed a glittering mass of greens and reds, shifting and settling on and off. Occasionally part of the mass would move, and the beams of the sun would reveal a figure in a black dress, tangled hair and one shoe missing. Said figure would then groan at the light and turn over. The groan would then cause a rumble from a member of the mass. All would go quiet for a moment, and then the process would start all over again. That is, until the figure in black bolted upright. " Wha? Where.." She blinked, pushing back her hair. " Oh yeah." 'Hair's still red, I see. Oh well, I'll get around to that in a bit. It's not like I'm in a rush." Rose made a face for a moment, peering around her accidental prison. Large male dragons slumbered on all sides of her. 'Right. Protect the runt,' she thought sourly, trying to yank out several knots. 'And it must have been a momentary lapse in judgment to not bring a comb with me.' An answering rumble chuckled around her. ' Protect the important one, more like it.' Rose scowled again, looking around at the pack. 'I hate it when they do that..never know which one is speaking to you.' ' You will in time, young one.' Rose snorted, standing. " I'll bet. Can I at least have a bath? Please?" A male cracked an eye open at her, scales gleaming a dusty copper in the early morning light. He snorted, turned his head around, and settled back down again. Rose caught a faint 'humans' with a note of disgust in it, and she stuck her tongue out at him behind his back. They had traveled all night, and Rose was dusty, dirty, sore, and tired. She needed a bath. ' Why this need to be clean?' The notes of the mental shimmer to the message caused her to turn to the younger dragon that she had first met. " Because everything feels better after a bath." The dragon tilted his head to the side, blinking rapidly. Rose sighed, crouching low. " It's a human thing." She smiled as he snorted to the best of his ability, attempting to mimic the earlier drake. " Cute." A look of consternation passed over the dragon. ' Not cute. Strong and brave.' He took a deep breath, swelling his chest out as he strutted around. Laughing, Rose reached forward and started tickling him, causing the air to come out in a big whoosh. " Fine. Cute, strong and brave. Also extremely ticklish." She giggled again, the dragon squirming in her arms. By now the entire clan was up. The larges drake shook his head, yawning. In mid-yawn, he let out a roar that made Rose wince. As if on cue, several dams and drakes disappeared into the bush. Rose blinked. 'Hunting, young one.' She shrugged, glancing at the oldest of the clan. The dams scales were faded to a rusty green, but she still moved as quickly as the rest of the clan. " My name is Koal." The dam made a deep throaty growl, sounding suspiciously like laughter. ' No, young one. You're name is Rose. You have had that name since birth. It is your right to have such a name and use it. It would be an insult to your heritage to change it.' Rose blinked. " What heritage? Why does everybody say I'm somebody special!?" She twitched, looking upwards. ' You'll find out soon enough, young one.' Rose groaned, rubbing the spot between her eyes. " I need a bath..."
Rose sighed, slipping into the pool of water. It had taken a while, but she had managed to convince the dam that it wouldn't hurt her to have a bath. Besides, some of the ruder drakes were complaining. Rose frowned. " But that was just mean.oh well." Taking a deep breath, Rose slipped under water, relishing the feeling of warmth all around her. Popping her head up to breathe, she had to bite back a shout. The baby was peering at her, eyes close to her face. 'Are you better yet?' Rose waited for her heart to stop pounding, and then reached for her dress. " Turn around." The dragon blinked, but did as she asked. ' Why?' Rose sighed, getting out of the pool and slipping the dress on over her head. " It's a human thing. What's your name, anyway? I can't just walk around saying 'hey you' or 'you over there' all the time." She shook out her hair, aiming the droplets at the young drake. He squeeked, dodging backwards out of range. Stretching her wings out, Rose flapped them a couple of times to get the water droplets off of them. They tended to smell like mildew if the water stayed on them. ' Smoak.' Rose blinked, picking him up. " Smoke?" The drake shook his head. ' No, s-m-o-a-k. That's my name. But I'm not supposed to tell humans.' Rose glanced over her shoulders, then turned to the newly named Smoak with a conspiratorial look and winked at him. " I'm not exactly all human now anyway, right? So you didn't tell me your name..I just guessed it, how about that, huh?" Smoak blew out a puff of, well, smoke, out of his mouth as an answer, causing Rose to cough violently for a moment, waving her hand in front of her face.
Rose should have known better. As soon as they walked back to the clearing, the oldest dam rumbled over to them, fixing an eye on Smoak. ' So, you told her your name, hmm?' Rose and Smoak winced, glancing at one another. 'We are so busted.' The dam flashed a grin, or what she attempted to turn into a grin. Instead, it was a gradual peeling back of the lips to reveal sharp pointed fangs in a very large mouth. Rose paled slightly. 'Scary..' ' Well, since young Smoak here has decided that you're trustworthy enough to know dragon names, I shall tell you mine before the others get back from the hunt.' Rose gaped. From the books she'd read back on the Mystic Moon-Earth, she reminded herself, Earth- a dragons name was very valuable, and wasn't given lightly. ' Yes, I suppose the humans of the Mystic Moon know a few actual facts about us.my name is Thayana. Call it but once and I will be by your side as soon as I can reach you.' Rose nodded, eyes wide. " Thank you," she whispered, feeling a surge of something extremely powerful deep inside her. She shivered violently, rubbing her bare arms. For a moment she thought that Tayanna nodded her head, but as she was about to ask, the hunting party came back with food. Rose's relief was cut short, however, when she saw that none of the meat had been burned by the dragons flames. She held her throat with her hand, swallowing down the revulsion she felt at the sight of the raw meat. 'Well, I'm part of the clan now, I guess, so.ngh.' She walked over to where the others were eating. Her stomach churned at the crunching and tearing sounds coming from the center of the crowd, but advanced until she saw Smoak, trotting out between a dam and a drake. He was carrying a large hunk of meat, looking proud of himself. He came over to her and set it at her feet. She raised an eyebrow. ' You're not a dragon. I didn't think that you'd be able to get to the meat, so I brought you some!' He swelled his chest out again and she smiled. For him to get a piece as big as that, he must have had a hard time. " Thank you, Smoak. Thank you very much." Sitting down, she picked up the meat, hesitating slightly. Smoak tilted his head. ' If you don't eat it you'll get sick. We' still have a long way to go to get to our dens.' She nodded, glancing at the meat again. Smoak seemed to sense her hesitation. ' What is wrong? It's fresh, it's not rotten. Eat.' She sighed, setting down the meat. How to explain this. " Well you see, humans.and people with wings like me raised by humans.they only eat cooked meat. We get diseases brought on by raw meat more easily than dragons and animals." Smoak seemed to consider this for a moment, and then nodded his head. ' You eat burned meat. I'll burn the meat for you.' She had to fight a smile. Smoak had apparently decided that he was to be the guardian of her for the journey. Puffing up, she watched as something shone deep in his chest, and scooted to the side, not wanting to get caught in the flames. A rather impressive tongue of flame burst from Smoaks open mouth, and the smell of cooked meat filled Rose's nose, reminding her of the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since she started walking, dropping her food pack during a rather strenuous cliff trek. Looking at the sizzling meat, Rose picked it up gingerly with two fingers, nearly dropping it. " Thank you Smoak." She smiled happily at him, and he nodded, still looking at the meat. Puzzled, Rose watched him for a moment. " What is it, Smoak?" He blinked up at her. ' What does burnt meat taste like?' And, for the first time in months, years even, Rose laughed so hard she was soon on the ground with tears leaking out of the sides of her eyes. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Van closed his eyes, breathing quietly. It was peaceful out, for once, and he wanted to keep it that way. The later his advisors found him, the better. The tiles of the roof were comfortably warm under his shirt, and he smiled to himself as a cool breeze blew over him. 'The only problem with this is, when you're so relaxed, memories just seem to flood you.' But he couldn't help smiling to himself. 'Rose was so different from Hitomi.and yet I fell just the same.' Sighing, he opened his eyes and sat down. 'But how is it that I couldn't tell her, but I could tell that woman..Koal.' Frowning, he ran a hand through his hair, listening to the birds. " Urg, why couldn't Allen and Merle told me about how she felt earlier?!? Would've made things a lot easier," he grumbled, sending a glare to the heavens. " But I suppose, for that matter, why didn't I just tell her and risk it." 'And why am I talking to myself?' Van shook his head slightly. Glancing at the horizon, Van stood. 'Zaibachs armies are just hovering inside of their borders.and we can't do anything about it. Maybe now I can start the search for Rose.' Another smile appeared on his face. 'And maybe I can even tell her how I feel.' * * * * * * * * * * * *
The hybrid paced, full-grown now. Sargon smiled darkly as he fed it, looking over the other cages carved into the rock of the cave. There were twenty of them now, enough to start breeding with. He was beginning to run out of materials to create them with. Now all he had to do was wait until he had enough of them to come out from this infernal cave and kill the girl, along with those wretched winged lizards. She was with them now, his crystal showed him that much. 'It's amusing to see that she still hasn't learned of her heritage yet. How she managed to survive this long, I wish I knew.' His face clouded over. 'Because then I could use the information to twist and bend her mind until it broke.' Clenching his fists, he allowed his wings to stretch to their full length. " I'll show her just how corrupted the last sorcerer has become, that she can be sure of.' He laughed, it's sound reverberating off the walls of the cave.