Disclaimer: Same as before.
A/N: Spoilers for people who haven't read up to volume 7. And uh yeah.... It would seem I've gone on a writing frenzy. Apparently the plot bunnies I thought I lost under the bed have made their return. Anywho, this chapter is based off the whack ideas I gathered while taking a bath earlier. The actual writing of this chapter is based off several cans of Dr. Pepper and some Strawberry Blasted Honey-Combs...(Very good cereal I might add.) So uh, just watch out for typos and don't trip over the missing "n"s. Ah yes, and beware mild OOCness.... sometimes I get carried away. .;; Oh yeah, and watch out for random usage of Japanese words. I've been watching a lot of subs lately so some of the language is stuck in my head. And one more thing! These [ ] mean that Fire's holding up a sign.
New A/N: Eheh... Gomen minna-san! I know, it's taken far too long for me to get this chapter out. u.u;; But what can I say, I've been busy! I went to Akon14 last weekend! ^-^ I got a spiffy little mini DK manga for free too! ^-^ This one dealer had all the manga under $3 for free and me and this other group of girls discovered a whole stack of Dragon Knights. Anywho…. There ended up being a tie in the final wish between Vuirneen and Luki Dimension's suggestions. I decided I'd combine the two….Somehow….Haven't figured out how yet, but I will! Maybe I could cut out one of my wishes? *shrug*
A/N: Changed the Dragons' names to the Japanese ones, mainly due to the chapters to come. But anyway for those who don't know:
Fire = Honou
Water = Kahaku
Earth = Riku (Meh… I keep thinking of Kingdom Hearts now. u.u;;)
I'll put in their names when they show up again so don't worry too much.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Wishes Requested
"Anything that happens, happens."
"Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen."
"Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again."
"It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though." ~ Douglas Adams
The mini genie boy perched himself in one of the taller trees in the garden. He would need a good high place in order for his WishCatcher machine to work properly. Granted he couldn't go very high due to every time he tried he had a panic attack. But the tree would suffice, he'd at least be able to capture the majority of the wishes made in Dusis.
Reaching into one of his other chibi pockets, the little genie pulled out a small red box with gold blazing from its shining sides. The boy gently shook the box, smiling in satisfaction at the rustling noise it made. It would be perfect for the job at hand. He carefully opened the top of the box and something else hidden within it. Waving the box just beneath his nose, the chibi genie took a deep breath and smiled some more. So powerful... So tempting... So tasty! The boy reached his arm into the box and pulled out a handful of little discs with holes in them, some even pink. As he munched on them, he pulled out a crystal orb from his pack (which had taken him several minutes to yank out from inside the lamp.) Because the orb was practically bigger than his head he had to use both hands to hold it. Gently setting it down in a dip on the branch he was sitting upon, the chibi genie spook a few words and the orb began to glow as an image formed in its swirling depths.
He was doing it again. Watering the plants. Garfakcy watched as Kharl repeatedly sprinkled the same plant with water over and over. The demon wannabe turned back to his cleaning with a sigh. At least the alchemist was doing something out of the way yet productive. In his dusting frenzy Garfakcy came across a cage of living Water Lights. He wondered why Kharl hadn't killed them yet, or for that matter, why he didn't remember catching these ones. Shrugging it off he continued dusting around the cage until one of them eventually sneezed.
Kharl's head snapped up and dropped the watering can onto the unsuspecting plant below. "Garfakcy? Was that you?" The wizard's heart began to pound.
"Umm..." The water light sneezed again, right during the middle of Garfakcy's "Um."
Kharl walked over to Garfakcy and stared down at the cage of Water Lights beside him. Damn! He'd found them. With a hasty cough the alchemist quickly draped a towel over the cage. "It's nothing. I need them alive for an experiment."
Garfakcy could see a slight tinge of red creeping into his master's face. "Su-ure." The human boy shook his head and went back to dusting. Was Kharl keeping some Water Lights as pets or was he only just imagining that?
Garfakcy continued cleaning the rest of Kharl's pad, occasionally glancing at the towel covered cage. His master had mentioned that he enjoyed turning faeries into demons at one time. Did that mean, deep down, he liked faeries and was turning them into demons so that he could be with them? The boy shook the thought out of his mind. How weird... but then, Kharl himself was weird in a delicious sort of way. Garfakcy bonked himself in the head. Bad thoughts!
Kharl went back to watering his plants. He'd eventually moved on to watering a different one, as the previous plant had been beaten and drowned. Every now and then he risked a look at Garfakcy and then the cage, a glint of desire creeping into his eyes.
Not long after the cleaning was through, Garfakcy lay on his bed staring up at the er.. ceiling? Maybe, if he were a faerie, then Kharl would like him more. The young human shook his head and rolled over onto his stomach. That was stupid; Kharl killed faeries. But still, the thought that perhaps his master would like him more pleased him. "I wish I were a faerie...." He mumbled to himself.
"Hm?" Kharl stared at him curiously as he passed the boy a cup of instant noodles. "Did you say something?"
"No." Garfakcy blushed and took the noodles from Kharl; their lunch was eaten in silence.
Rath yawned and turned his cards on the table over; a jack and a queen. "20."
"21." Thatz smirked and gathered together his winnings for that round.
Rath glared at him and took another bite from his cookie. "I swear if I find out you're cheating Thatz…"
"He's not. It's just that your luck only works against yokai." Kai-stern shuffled and passed the cards back out. Leaving one face up and one face down in front of each person.
"It's not luck! It's raw skill! But I suppose it would mean you're the one cheating, Kai-stern. You are dealer after all." Rath frowned at Kai-stern's previous comment and his hand. "Man!" He had a two and three, he'd need a miracle to get even relatively close to 21. He'd always known he wasn't any good at games.
"Suuure." Kitchel grinned at the sight of her hand. A king and a queen.
"Hmm… Hit me Kai-stern." Rath glared at his new card. Another three. What kind of rotten luck was this?
Kai-stern gave himself another card and frowned. "Anyone else?"
Thatz nodded. "Hit me, hard." Kitchel's fist came slamming into his shoulder in answer. "What was that for!? Wait, don't answer that." He glared at Kitchel as Kai-stern slid a card over to him.
"Is that it?" The others nodded at Kai-stern. "Alright, Rath, you first."
"8." Rath flipped his other card over. Two threes and a two sure didn't add up to much.
Kitchel broke out laughing. "I have twenty. Beat that!" She smiled, figuring she had this round won for sure.
Kai-stern flipped his card over. "15." A queen, a three and a two.
"Hand it all over." Thatz flipped over his remaining card, the last three along with a jack and an 8. He had a perfect 21 again.
"Thaaatz! You are cheating!" Kitchel threw her cards at Thatz's face and crossed her arms. "Let's play something else!"
"I'm with you there." Rath shoved his cards over to Kai-stern. "What other game could we play?"
Kai-stern gathered the cards together and shuffled them. "Umm…"
"Strip poker!" The thief smirked innocently.
"You hentai!" Kitchel glared at Thatz indignantly.
"Why not, at least I won't lose anything besides clothes by playing it." Rath whimpered as Thatz took another cookie from him.
Kai-stern blinked several times, and then, just because the author loves Kai-stern, "Let's play it!"
"Play what?" All bodies froze at the sound of the voice. It was the voice that slaughtered all devious minds within seconds, the voice that over-complained about the budget, the voice that many people chose to ignore!
"Alfeegi! What are you, uh, doing here?" Kai-stern gulped, inching himself away from the explosive White Officer.
"You weren't... gambling.... were you?" Alfeegi glared at each of the players in turn, his pale eyes daring anyone to challenge him.
"We were just using cookies, Feeg. Don't get so stressed. At least we're not out hunting demons." Rath took up that challenge with an innocent, yet evil, grin.
Alfeegi had to take a deep breath to prevent himself from dismembering the smart-aleck knight. "Gambling is gambling all the same. None of you should even be here."
"We were only going to play strip poker! There's no gambling in that!" Thatz ventured a protest towards the menacing dragon.
"STRIP POKER!?" Veins popped out on Alfeegi's head and his eyes narrowed to demonic slits.
"Bad move, Thatz." Kitchel murmured as Alfeegi advanced towards the gambling table with slow predator-like movements. "We're all busted now..."
During the time that the two foolishly brave knights had stood up to Alfeegi, Kai-stern had managed to slip out of his chair and was now creeping towards the door and escape of Whitie's wrath. Just as he'd reached the door, Alfeegi's arm reached out unnaturally far and yanked the Blue Officer back by his shirt collar, slamming him down onto the table in front of him. "Kai-stern.... Where do you think you're going? You owe me some money...." Alfeegi cracked his knuckles and leaned over the pinned officer. "It's time the lot of you learned who's in control here."
In the moment that Alfeegi was scaring the daylights out of Kai-stern, the other dragons had formulated a counterattack. Granted it wasn't a very good counterattack, it was at least something to do. Rath slipped off to the other side of the room and called out to the officer. "Hey Whitie Tighties!"
Alfeegi whirled around with a vicious glare aimed at Rath, a faint tinge of white glowing around him. "What did you call me!?"
"I said, 'Hey Whitie Tighties!'"
"You're asking for it, Rath. I'm going to--" Alfeegi paused in his series of threats as he realized that a small something had just beaned him in the side of the head.
"Fire!" Thatz dropped his arm, and Kitchel, Rath, and several other random Dragon Fighters flung powdered bean bags at Alfeegi.
Alfeegi coughed and spluttered in the mist of powder, wondering to himself how they had managed to get powder on the bean bags to begin with. "Gah! I wish there were more of me, then you guys wouldn't get away with things like this!" Echoes of laughter rang in the White Officer's ears as the dragons fled the room in mad cheers of victory.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Chantel, a certain faerie lover is after his one desire again....
"Please! Please! Will you please marry me!?" Nohiro bounced along the road, trying to keep up with the female faerie who was so obviously trying to ignore him. "Come on!
"For the last time, no!" Delte stopped in mid-step and turned to face the far-too-eager-to-please-boy. "I refuse to marry you."
"Demo...." The energetic boy's head drooped down and he seemed to lose the aura of eagerness he'd had before.
"I'm sorry, truly I am." Delte looked at the boy with extreme regret. He looked so sad standing in front of her with his head downcast. It was hard not to feel sorry for the poor rejected guy.
"I just wish I could marry a faerie." With that said, Nohiro trudged off and headed towards Draqueen. Maybe he could hang out with Rune or something.
Ringleys's eyes darted back and forth across the kitchen. "Good, no one's here." The water light fluttered down to a large table piled with food ready to be served for lunch. "Man, am I ever starving!" He wasted no time in picking out what to eat first; he just grabbed the nearest tasty looking item and shoved it in his mouth. He chowed down gobs and gobs of food in hurried frenzies until at last he felt a firm grip on his wings. He gulped down the last pieces of chicken and twisted around to look up at his captor. "Uh-oh.... Please don't hurt me! I was so hungry, and lunch was so far away!"
Cernozura sighed and carried the water light out of the kitchen. "Watch it, or you won't get any lunch! Same goes for you Thatz!" She flung the little water light out of the kitchen, hardly caring if he'd be able to catch himself, and slammed the door.
From his hiding position around the corner of the hall, Thatz blinked several times in shock. "Man! You ruined my plans Ringleys!" Thatz trudged out from behind the corner and picked up the dazed water light off the ground. "I could have stolen some food if it weren't for you!"
Ringleys dusted himself off and looked up at Thatz angrily. "Yeah right! She already knew you were in the hallway! If you had gone into the kitchen, she would have caught you for sure!"
"Wanna' bet!"
"Yeah, actually I do!" Ringleys placed his hands on his hips and attempted to glare at the Earth Dragon Knight threateningly.
"You're on! How much?" Thatz slipped his hand out from under Ringleys and dug around in his pocket, pulling out a few coins.
Ringleys produced an apple core and some buttons from his pocket.
"You sure don't have much there, pal." Thatz eyed the buttons and apple core skeptically.
"Well, neither do you. How about we settle it with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors then?" He tossed the apple core aside and put the buttons back in his pocket.
"Sounds good to me." Thatz slipped the coins back into his pocket and held his fist out in front of him.
"1! 2! 3!" Ringleys held out scissors whilst Thatz held out rock.
"Ya' gotta' love Earth, baby!" Thatz smirked and winked at the pouting water light.
"Not fair! I never win anything!" Ringleys crossed his arms and frowned at the knight. "There's nothing to do around here!"
Thatz raised a brow at Ringleys's random change of subject. "Hmm... You do have a point." Thatz shrugged. "Oh well, The Dragon Lord will probably send us on another mission soon. Maybe we'll find treasure!"
Ringleys sighed, "It won't matter! I probably won't get to go with you! I wish you were a water light! Then we could play together and steal food from the kitchen without getting caught!"
Thatz resisted the urge to pat the water light's back in order to comfort him. That'd probably knock the poor guy out of the air. "Hey now, we can still do things together."
"It's not the same!" Ringleys shouted and flew off with tears streaming down his face.
Thatz shook his head and sighed. "Is it me, or do all of the elfin kindred have mental issues of some kind?"
Alfeegi slammed a large stack of colored papers and fancy envelopes down in front of Rath.
"What the? What are all of these?" Rath picked up one of the envelopes, the faint sent of rose perfume reaching his nose.
"Your fan-mail." Alfeegi placed another equally large stack in front of Rune, Thatz, and the Dragon Lord. He then moved on to place several smaller stacks in front of the other Dragon Officers.
"Goody! Do you think my fans sent me any demons!" Rune thwacked Rath over the back of the head with one of his own letters. "It was just a thought...."
As the others ripped open their hundred upon hundreds of letters, Tetheus stared down at the single, lone envelope that lay on the table in front of him. It had no return address, the envelope wasn't covered in dozens of girly stickers, and it certainly didn't carry the smell of perfume. The Black Officer glanced around at the other dragons and then back at the plain envelope in front of him. With a shrug he reached down and picked up the envelope, opening it with extreme care. Inside, written in very precise letters were the words:
"Dear Tetheus,
Get a life."
Tetheus blinked several times before reading it over and eventually setting it back down on the table. He glanced back around the table, watching as the dragons broke out into various fits of laughter and smiles. His dark eyes traveled back down to the letter in front of him. "I wish more people liked me."
"You say something Tetheus?" The Dragon Lord was staring at his officer with concern spread across his face. (The Dragon Lord always looks at people with concern, no da.)
"Nothing." Tetheus rose from the table and stalked out of the room, the eyes of the other dragons following him as he went.
Rath reached over and picked up Tetheus's letter, skimming over it quickly. "Do you think he'll find one?"
"Find what?"
"A life." Rath handed the letter over to the Dragon Lord.
Honou/Fire sighed and rested his head down on the pillow. [It's so boring.]
The other dragons nodded. It was unusual for Kahaku/Water and Riku/Earth to be out of their swords, but Thatz and Rune had granted them a free day. The dragons had been taking a nap in Rath's room for the past hour or two and now all three were wide awake and restless.
[Soo....uh... what should we do?]
Kahaku/Water and Riku/Earth shrugged.
[We could go chase around that little water light, Ringleys?]
Kahaku shook his head and Riku simply shrugged.
[How about stealing food from the kitchen?]
Kahaku shook his head again and this time Riku nodded.
[Well, how about it Kahaku? Won't you come?]
The water dragon shook his head and glared at Honou/Fire, displaying a firm unspoken "No."
[Party pooper..... Any suggestions?]
The other two dragons rolled their eyes at Honou.
[Right. How come you guys don't talk much?]
They shrugged.
[I wish we were dragons like our masters were. No more staying in a stupid sword for several hours a day.]
Kahaku and Riku glared at Honou, the two of them displaying the same thought, 'like you're ever in your sword.'
[What? Don't look at me like that!]
Kahaku and Riku nodded at each other and tackled the fire dragon off the bed.
[HELP!]
SNAP! The impudent cracking of a twig echoed throughout the castle garden.
Rath winced as the twig snapped beneath his feet. Why do twigs always snap when you're trying to be quiet? It's like the insolent things do it on purpose. He turned is head to make sure no one had heard him. No one was there. Good. He turned back around, and there was a large obstruction in his path. Damn! "Uh… Hello Tetheus." He coughed and shuffled a few steps back from the officer. "Nice day for a walk in the garden, isn't it?"
"Where were you going?" The ever-serious Tetheus cut straight to point. He always cut straight to the point. But this time he was in a bad mood, so he cut straight to the point faster. Which is totally beside the point. ( *Tetheus runs in and smacks Nightmare over the head* Get to the point!)
"Uhh…" Rath floundered.
"You weren't planning on leaving the castle to go demon hunting, were you?"
"Er…" Rath continued to flounder until at last he came up with something to say. "No?"
Before Tetheus could carry on with his interrogations, Alfeegi came running up. "RATH! You weren't planning on leaving the castle to go demon hunting, were you?"
Rath raised a brow. Was it him, or was there an echo in the garden. "I was uh… Checking to make sure that there weren't any demons in the garden!" Rath put on the most persuasive look he had, which unfortunately wasn't enough to convince the two dragon officers.
"Rath, I swear! I wish you didn't have the capability to kill demons. Maybe then you wouldn't have a fetish for hunting them down and killing them." Alfeegi managed to seem a little less demonic than he had earlier that day. The fan mail must have cheered him up a bit, unlike Tetheus.
"I wish you were a girl!" Rath screamed at the precise moment Alfeegi spoke his wish.
An insanely long period of time went by in which all three dragons could do nothing but blink, stare, and look confused. Then finally, they all managed to say something, "WHAT!?"
The three paused to blink and look around at each other some more. Tetheus was the first to recover from the dual blinking incidents. "Rath, why would you want one of us to be a girl?" Alfeegi nodded his agreement with the black officer.
"Uh… Well… I just felt like yelling so I wouldn't have to hear Feeg." Rath shrugged. He wasn't too sure himself why he had said that.
"Don't call me that." The white officer snarled.
For a brief instant, Rath remembered the wish Alfeegi had made earlier that day and shivered. He edged away from the pair of mad dragon officers and took off running back towards the castle.
A/N: Before anyone asks, I changed the dragons' names to their Japanese ones because when they turn into dragons (.;; That doesn't sound right, dragons turning into dragons… -.-;; ) Right well, as I was saying, I changed it because it would have seemed awkward (at least to me) to having them still be called Fire, Earth, and Water in their human/dragon forms. I put human/dragon because I was getting tired of saying dragons turning into dragons… Right well, I'll mention this while I'm at it. The idea for someone becoming a woman was from Vuirneen and Rath's unfortunate demon problem was from Luki Dimension. Thank you so much guys! ^_^ Oh yeah! And I'll be redoing the second chapter shortly. I came up with a better idea for whom the chibi genie should be. *snicker, snicker* *cough* Anyway, I thought I'd just let you know….