Well, I'm back from vacation. I've gotten hardly anything done writing-wise, due to my inablility to concentrate when stuffed in a car with my entire family. However, I promise to chain myself to the keyboard again, now that I'm home.

kanz - Thank you! Although, personally, my knowledge of Middle English isn't that great…and I'm using a really bastardized version here, both to match the game and so that my readers understand.

Please see introduction for disclaimer regarding this work.

Chapter Thirty Two

Our Master's Lady

"Stay away from her!" Taking his life in his hands, Darnik darted forward at the massive animal. He'd be damned if he'd allow the body of his fallen friend to be a meal for some overgrown canine!

He promptly found himself on his back, a heavy paw grinding his spine into the dirt. His fragile wings were half-caught under his body, and he instinctively struggled to free them, stirring up a cloud of sand as they vainly beat against the ground. Massive claws easily penetrated his heavy armor and carved superficial wounds on his chest as his hands came up to pull futilely at the crushing weight that threatened to suffocate him. The blue wolf's nostrils flared and the creature rested its weight further against the windian's torso, growling, "Thou carryeth her scent." The rumbling voice was accompanied by a breath of hot air that stirred the human's matted hair. The exhalation smelled of metallic blood and stung his eyes and nose.

"What doth a mortal with our Master's Lady?" the other asked inimically, tail lashing the air. The being loomed over its brother's shoulder, his bared teeth an unmistakable threat. The five-inch incisors glistened with a sheen of blood and saliva, tinting their white surface copper.

"Don't hurt him!" his cousin cried, moving anxiously toward them. The blue-haired boy intercepted her and murmured quietly to her. As a result, the princess drew back, though her wide blue eyes betrayed her distress.

As Darnik choked and attempted to draw enough breath into his compressed lungs to answer, the blue-haired boy interrupted, walking slowly to stand beside the two entities. His sword was sheathed over his shoulder, its red tassel bobbing. His voice was soft but confident as the youth spoke. "Your master? You serve Fou-Lu, then."

His face registered no fear as the two creatures swung their heads round to regard him, one of them growling softly as his blue eyes dauntlessly met both golden and silver. As they caught his scent their aggressive stance vanished into surprise. The wolf-like one whined softly and the other's tail abruptly arrested its slashing movement.

"You know who I am," the blue haired one said quietly, his following request holding some unknown weight with the two creatures. "Let him go, please, if you've any respect for me."

The pressure gradually eased, and Darnik struggled to his knees. He would have made a break for it, but the canine entity swung back around at the sound of his movement and the animal's slit-pupiled eyes compelled him to justify his presence. "I came with her as her guide, to help protect her!" he panted, swallowing a mouthful of dust he had inhaled. Of course, Yahla hardly needed a guide now.

Before his interrogation could continue, Nina stepped between the creatures and knelt by Yahla's body. Both beings turned suspicious eyes upon her and Darnik caught a flash of concern in the blue-haired boy's eyes. He himself wondered nervously what his cousin was up to.

"Princess Nina!" Darnik exclaimed, coughing as he finished, "What are you doing?" He was fond of his cousin, and the way the two animals were looking at her gave him the impression that she was in immediate danger.

His cousin raised her chin, a stubborn light in her eyes. Darnik had seen that look before, generally when Nina insisted on doing something dangerous against the express wishes of her father. Such as personally running off to search for her sister in the depths of the Empire. "I want to see if I can help!" the windian defended herself, seeming unaware of the reason for his worry.

Help her… "She's dead, dammit!" he responded angrily, tears still in his eyes. "Look at her!" His explosive outburst ended in a choked sob as he stared at the woman that had become so dear a friend to him. She lay on the desert floor, her head at an unnatural angle to her body. The bloody ruin of one wing was coated in sand, the rest of her green skin dulled to gray by the dust.

Nina shook her head empathetically, "Darnik, I knew a boy who broke his neck and lived! Of course, he was paralyzed for the rest of his life, but…" she trailed off uncomfortably, her hands going to check the dragoness' life signs. Her face brightened and she exclaimed triumphantly. "There, see! She still has a pulse." Suddenly hopeful, Darnik alighted at Nina's side.

"Indubitably, she liveth," the leonine being rumbled, seemingly more cordial as it became clear that all present wished only to aid the dragoness.

"Be she not Endless?" the other creature finished, also warming to the mortals.

The blue-haired boy spared them both a glance. "Can you heal her?" he asked seriously, nodding to the prone body.

The creature looked somewhat ashamed, tucking its tail between its legs. "Alas, 'tis beyond us to do such," it admitted remorsefully, as though its inability to heal the female was a definite failure on its part.

"She's really badly hurt, Ryu," Nina told the blue haired boy, her eyes worried. She nibbled on her lower lip, a nervous habit he suspected she had developed sometime during her recent adventures. "The bones are really messed up. I think there are some bone fragments floating around in there, and her spinal cord is pretty badly damaged."

The machine spoke from behind the boy named Ryu, startling Darnik badly. "Ershin says that the break must be set, or the backbone will not heal properly."

Wringing her hands before her, Nina exclaimed unhappily, "But I don't know how to do that!" As none of Nina's other friends volunteered their aid, Darnik assumed Nina was the only healer among them.

Remembering Nina's reference to life-long paralysis, he pleaded, "Don't you have a spell or something, Coz?" The wonder of magic could often reduce weeks of healing to a few days, although truly gifted healers were rare.

"Not to deal with broken bones!" she said in somewhat of a wail, "My spells could make them heal faster, but unless they're set they'll still heal all wrong!"

Ryu nodded grimly, sapphire eyes closing in thought. "Alright, Nina. Can she be moved?" He glanced back up at her as she started to answer a negative, then reconsidered.

"Well, we'd have to totally immobilize her head and neck," the little windian replied, "Or else she'll just get hurt even more."

"Okay, here's what we'll do, then," the leader of the party decided. "Nina, you make sure she stays alive. Scias, Ershin. The three of us will see about making a stretcher. We can pack cloth and sand around her head to keep it still when we move her onto the sandflier. Then we'll try to drive to the nearest settlement with a professional doctor. Hopefully you'll be able to keep her alive until then, Nina."

Apparently accepting the boy's words as law, the two creatures seated themselves on either side of Yahla and waited for the mortals to complete their appointed tasks. Their position relative to the dragoness seemed intended both to guard her and to shade her from the rays of the rising sun.

"I'm helping," Darnik declared resolutely, scrubbing the tears from his face with the back of his hand.

Ryu nodded, willingly accepting the additional aid. "Sure…Darnik, was it?" he asked as the four walked over to scavenge the dead bodies of the Ludian troops.

"Yeah," the windian said as he pushed his tired limbs to keep up with the three strangers. He couldn't help but to envy them their health and energy, have lost most of his in the last twelve days. As soon as he got back to a place where water was a free commodity he intending to drink his weight's worth.

"I'm Ryu," the young man said benevolently, nodding to each of his companions in turn, "The windrunner is Scias and the animated suit of armor to your left is Ershin."

The windrunner stuttered a brief greeting, shortly followed by Ershin, who said, "Ershin is glad to meet you, she is." The armor nodded his way, its electronic sensors blinking mockingly at him.

Greetings out of the way, Darnik mused absently that he was cursed to be surrounded by oddly speaking individuals in his life. Well, this Ryu seemed a normal enough individual, at least in the linguistics department. Although…his vividly blue hair and the way the two beasts had obeyed him had been disconcerting and had suggested that something was very strange about the young man. Darnik suddenly realized he had seen these people before, when Nina had returned to the castle some time ago. He had heard rumors she was on her way to speak to the wind dragon, but hadn't been afforded a chance to speak with her. However he had caught a glimpse of her, along with her four companions, three of which still accompanied her presently.

The four set to work quickly, the rising sun beginning to return the air to its sweltering daytime temperature. They gathered spears and shields from the deceased Ludians, along with anything else they thought could be useful. The shields, small curved affairs, were eventually discarded as useless. However, the spear shafts proved useful and they spent some time removing the spearheads and created a basic frame for their stretcher. Cloaks and capes from the enemy, originally used to block the blazing sun and prevent unduly rapid evaporation of sweat that could result in an unhealthy chill, were ripped into strips and braided into impromptu ropes. The resulting rope was to be used to tie the joints of the rectangular frame together, although their project never actually reached that stage.

The burning sun finally drove Darnik to collapse around noon. He had been helping rip up cloth for their stretcher when a dizzy spell swept him off his feet. He had not thought to ask his new companions for food or drink, concerned with Yahla's well being as he was. Besides, the ache of thirst and hunger had become his constant companion over the last twelve days and he hardly noticed it anymore. He had forgotten how much the deprivation of the basic necessities had weakened him.

The youth, Ryu, caught him as he toppled and helped him to sit down. "Are you alright?" the other questioned, clearly concerned. His eyes narrowed as he inspected the trembling windian, who looked definitely woozy. A moment later, he asked sternly, "How long has it been since you had enough to eat or drink?"

"Twelve days…I think," the windian admitted, feeling strangely detached from his failing body. Though the sun was high in the sky, he wasn't sweating buckets like the others were. His body couldn't afford to lose precious moisture through perspiration. In fact, the heat wasn't bothering him much at all. He felt strangely cold, for some reason.

Ryu swore softly, helping him to stand and practically carrying Darnik over to the shade of the sandflier. Darnik was surprised at the strength the smaller man displayed, since he not only weighed enough to make carrying difficult, he was also wearing over fifty pounds of armor. That made yet another oddity about the youth. Who was this Ryu and what was he doing with Nina? What was he doing here?

Ryu set him down against the side of the airship and jumped up onto the deck to retrieve a sack of provisions. Landing lightly back down on the sand, he offered the windian a jug of water and some food. The offerings were neither anything fancy. The food was the sort of hard bread that lasts months and fruit dried to the consistency of brick. The water would no-doubt have absorbed the flavor of its leather container, an unappealing occurrence that no traveler could avoid.

Darnik tilted his head back to let the blessed liquid run down his throat, barely hearing Ryu's caution that drinking too much on an empty stomach would make him sick. The water, having sat in the desert heat for an unspecified length of time, was warm and stale, but it was the best thing his dehydrated mouth had ever experienced. He stopped after a few gulps, aware that wasting water was the last thing any of them could afford to do. He moved on to the humble fare that had been given him, chewing determinedly until it at last yielded to his teeth.

"Stay here and rest," Ryu instructed him, forestalling his protest, "We'll finish the stretcher soon, and you need the rest more than we need your help. Unless you want us to need two stretchers after you drive yourself into collapse again?"

Darnik opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by Nina's cry, "Ryu! There's someone coming this way!"

The blue-haired youth reached her side momentarily, putting a hand up to shade his eyes as he peered into the desert. Several sandfliers cruised straight for them in a formation that was vaguely military…