Dart scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I'm sorry, but... We've got to find out why the Winglies have suddenly become so aggressive."
Shana hung her head. "But...what about the baby?"
Dart put his arms around Shana. "I promise that I'll try my best to be here when the baby's born. But, in the same frame of mind, I'm obligated to try my best to protect the peace and safety of this world our child will be born into."
"Oh, wow, I never thought of that," Shana said.
"See?" Dart said, pulling away and looked at her.
"I guess I'm being selfish," Shana said, turning away. "Who am I to have the right to want Dart Feld all to myself when a whole world of other Humans may need him? Go on ahead Dart, save the world once more. This is a sacrifice I'll have to make."
Claira walked in with Phoenix on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, but I overheard," Claira admitted. "But Shana, if it makes you feel any better, I'll leave Phoenix behind with you. He makes a great messenger."
Shana smiled at the thoughtful small lady. "Thank you. Yes, that will make me feel a lot better. That way, Dart'll know when he's about to become a daddy."
Dart grinned. "See? Nothing to worry about."
The next morning, Dart, along with Albert, Lavitz, Deirdre, Erisi, Meru, Claira, Kongol, and Haschel left Emille and Shana in the safety of Indels Castle.
"Where do we go first?" Claira asked.
"We're going back to where we were first attacked," Dart said. "There might be a connection between that attack and the Wingly attack on Bale."
"Attack? Ha, it was more like an attempt to overthrow the Serdian Government," Haschel said.
"It's called a 'coup de'tat', Haschel," Erisi corrected.
"Whatever," Haschel shrugged.
"At any rate, it is very odd for a species so close to extinction to suddenly threaten it's very existance by attacking a species with far greater numbers than them," Albert pointed out.
"Aren't the Dragoons the Winglies' archenemy?" Meru asked.
Albert, being one for proper English, automatically corrected Meru. "That's 'archenemies' Meru. Since you said 'Dragoons' to which you meant a plural, so therefore, the Winglies' 'archenemy' would be a Dragoon. But, the Winglies' 'archenemies' are the Dragoons."
Meru rolled her eyes. "There goes Mr. Perfect in His English."
Claira stifled a giggle under Erisi's glare. Erisi cuffed Meru soundly on the head. "Mind your manners and pay respect to your elders and betters."
"Elders and what?" Meru said. "I have my own way of manners, thank you."
"Yes, but smartin' off to the wrong person at the wrong time will show that you can get in way over your head," Erisi warned. "So, before you say what you think... Think!"
Meru brushed her off with a wave of her hand. "I'll think about what I say later."
Albert was watching Meru. "You know she's right, don't you Meru?"
Meru, without turning around, replied, "I really don't care if she's right or not."
Claira just stared at her friend. "You've changed a lot, Meru."
"Yeah, so?" Meru looked at Claira. "And would you please stop looking at me like that?"
"That sounds like something Shana would have said," Haschel piped up. Dart glared at him. "What? All I remember is her catching you staring at her, Dart, and she would say, 'Why are you looking at me like that?'"
Albert chuckled. "He's right."
Having enough of her bad attitude, Claira just suddenly blurted out for everyone to hear, "Meru, are you PMSing or something?!"
Meru busted out into a fit of laughter. She fell to the ground, holding her sides. "I guess I am..." She managed to giggled out. "Be-be-because I've never acted l-l-like that be-be-before... Hahahahaha!"
Erisi, smiling, walked over to the pair. "Come on, giggling Wingly, and let's get going. C'mon, up on your feet now."
Claira pulled Meru up and for about a mile or so, Meru couldn't stop giggling.
Claira just looked at Meru strangely. "Did someone knock your giggle-box over or completely destroy it?"
Sometime around midday, Dart and co. arrived at the same place in the mountains right inside Tiberoa.
"Okay, now what?" Meru asked.
"We go in the direction in which the monsters came from," Dart replied. He shifted himself to face north and pointed. "That way."
The headed north. They traveled through hilly landscape until the ground suddenly opened up into flat, barren terrain.
"Where are we?" Meru asked.
Albert studied a map and ran a finger retracing their steps. "We are...west of the Barrens."
"Oh boy, that really helped," Meru commented, surveying their surroundings. "It's just like the Barrens...only flat." She gingerly stepped out onto the exposed sand and immediately jumped back. "Yowwch! Ow!" She fell back onto the rough crabgrass beneath their feet.
Dart looked down at her. "What's wrong with you?"
Meru pointed ahead. "Don't step out onto that sand! It burns like fire!"
Deirdre walked up to the brink of the crabgrass. "So, this is the Flameless Burning Land."
Lavitz looked over at her. "What do you mean?"
Deirdre turned around, and clasped her hands behind her back. "At the abbey in Mille Seseau where I was raised, the Father Abbot would tell me about the time of the Dragon Campaign. He would tell me of myths, and of prophecy of old. He once said that at one point in time, seen from this era, that prophecy and mythology intertwined. He said that during the Dragon Campaign, twin Divine Dragons were born and slain, only to have their spirits relinquished to two Winglies referred to as the Divine Children. Now that was the prophecy part. Now, the mythology was that they actually existed. No one has anything on them. Maybe except in encyclopedias, but they only have the mythology. But, in Dragon mythology, it was said that the Divine Daughter walked across this barren land, the Flamless Burning Land without harming herself. I was also said that she cooled the land down and allowed the Dragon Knights across."
Dart and Albert exchanged looks. This young woman, Deirdre, also knew of the Dragon Campaign, and more importantly, knew at least something of the Divine Children.
"It was also said that," Deirdre continued. "The Divine Children never died, that they lived on immortal. But, if they did exist, they most probably died along with the other Dragoons during the Dragon Campaign and are going to be reborn into someone like the prophecy said."
"Yes, well, prophets don't know everything," Erisi said.
Deirdre and the others cast a questioning look on Erisi. She looked back at them. "What? I was just stating a mere fact."
Claira smiled. "She's gotta point. No one on this planet, not even a prophet, really knows what's goin' on in the mind of Soa. No one knows exactly what he's planning."
"How do we cross?" Kongol asked, motioning bluntly towards the open land.
Deirdre looked over at the huge man. "I...I don't know." She bent down and pulled up a tough blade of crabgrass. Taking a glance at it, she tossed the blade onto the sand. It almost immediately caught fire and burned to ashes.
"Ouch," Claira observed. She looked at Meru. "Good thing you aren't a blade of grass, Meru."
"Oh, hush," Meru said, standing and brushing herself off. "I can get across that desert in no time." Her wings appeared, and she was lifted up into the air. "I won't be long. I just want to see what's on the other side."
"All right," Dart called. "Be back by dark."
"'Kay!" Meru waved as she took off through the air.
"Gosh, it's hot," Deirdre commented, fanning herself with her hand. Lavitz sat next to her.
"I agree, Serdio is much more milder than this...but, more humid," Lavitz said. "But, look on the bright side, at least the sun's setting soon."
"There's a plus," Haschel said sarcastically.
"Kongol is used to this kind of weather," Kongol spoke up.
Dart looked over at the Gigantos. "That's because you're the only one here from Tiberoa."
Meru returned at sunset. She wiped her hands over her face several times. "It was hot going across that."
Dart looked over at her expectantly. "Well? What's on the other side?"
"A Wingly village," Meru replied. "Well, more like a base. You know, like a war camp or somethin'."
"What an unexpected development," Albert said. "That's probably where the Winglies who attacked Bale came from."
Meru bobbed her head in agreement. "Yes! I saw a man there who looked like the guy at Bale...what was his name? Repard? Yes, that's it. General Repard, I saw him. I eavesdropped on a conversation he had with his troops. They know you guys are here, but they assume they're safe since they're on the other side of this burning wasteland and since Human's can't fly."
"They seem to have forgotten or even not realized our winged spy among us," Haschel piped up. "And who wer eyou to spy on the enemies' tactical conversations without us knowing?"
Meru grinned. "Well, I was over there! I thought I might as well bring something back."
"At any rate, that information is helpful. Thank you, Meru," Albert said.
Meru looked around. "Where's Claira?"
"I don't know," Albert said, standing.
"Claira!" Meru called, cupping her hands around her mouth.
"Meru! Do you really want to advertise to the fact that we're really here?" Dart hissed.
Meru called a hand over her mouth. "Sorry."
"Could she have run off?" Erisi asked.
Deirdre looked over at Erisi with a worried face. "I sure hope not. There's no telling what's out there."
"Besides Winglies," Meru added.
Erisi looked out into the barren landscape. "She couldn't have crossed that land if she didn't know..." She walked up to the edge and stood there.
"Erisi?" Albert asked.
"No, I guess not," Erisi backed up.
Screams rang out. Three figures were in the night sky. Two Winglies and...Claira. She was struggling hard to get free.
"Let me go!" Claira yelled.
"Enough of that, Human!" One Wingly snapped.
"Ow! The shrimp bit me!" The other Wingly let go of Claira and shook his hand.
"Claira!" Meru exclaimed. Erisi clapped her hands over Meru's mouth, silencing her.
"Quiet," Erisi advised. "We don't want them to know we're here."
Claira had managed to get a hand free and slugged her captor in the face.
The Wingly that held Claira held his face with a hand. "You know, we could just drop this kid and let her fall to her death."
His companion nursed his hand. "Then what would we tell the General?"
"Easy. That there was no Human or Humans like he thought." Claira's captor said. He released his hold on Claira and she plummeted like a rock towards the ground.
Suddenly, a male Wingly, with strange black hair appeared and caught Claira.
The two other Winglies looked shocked.
"Traitor!" The two Winglies powered up their magic to attack.
All of a sudden, two Dragoons set upon the opposing Winglies. A dark-haired woman bore the Dragoon Spirit of the Darkness Dragon, while a young man with long blonde hair bore the Dragoon Spirit of the Red-Eyed Dragon.
As the Dragoons fought and defeated the Winglies with ease, the dark-haired Wingly gently set Claira down onto the ground.
ERisi gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. That can't be...
As quickly as they had come, the Wingly and his two Dragoon companions left.
Claira watched them go. "The one in red looked a little like my big brother."
"Claira!" Meru called, running up to her.
Claira turned around. "Yes?"
"Are you all right?" Meru asked, urgency in her voice.
"I'm fine," Claira responded with a shrug.
They soon set camp. With no tree around, Meru came up with an idea and collected bundles of the tall crabgrass that grew around the large boulders that peppered the landscape.
"Who were those people?" Deirdre asked as Meru used what little magic she had to set fire to the bundles of crabgrass. A small bondfire ensued.
"Winglies. The Winglies I knew weren't like that," Claira said. "Well, the ones around my age at the time only picked on me and tossed me around."
Meru grinned. "And then they would scatter like butterflies in a whirlwind when Guaraha showed up. He was like your Guardian Angel."
"You cold say that," Claira said. "Since I never aged those five years, he called me 'Small Lady' 'cause I was five years older than my appearance."
Dart looked sternly over at Claira. "And where did you run off to before those Winglies got a hold of you?"
Claira stared at the ground. "I was hoping to find away around this barren land. I...I wanted to help Meru out."
Dart shook his head, and Deirdre piped up. "Not this land. No way around it. Now that I look at it, maybe the Dragon Mythology is actually true."
"Dragon Mythology?" Albert asked. "Could you tell us more about it?"
"Sure," Deirdre answered. "I know a lot about it. It is said in prophecy that the offspring of the Divine Dragon that represented the antipodes will come into the world, but will shortly be slain. Their spirits would be encased inside small glass balls and each given to a 'winged Human'. The one with the spirit representing death was the stronger of the two with physical strength. The Divine Daughter, the holder of the life spirit, could 'walk on water' so to say. She supposedly walked across this burning wasteland as I told you before. The Divine Son couldn't. It was written that the Winglies sought after the Divine Daughter after they discovered her. Naturally, the Dragon Knights protected her."
"Why was she sought after?" Meru asked.
"Because of her great magical power. Prophecy states that the youngest daughter, the last princess of the Wingly Royal Family, who in Dragon Mythology was the Divine Daughter, had the strongest known magical power in the world. Greater even then Melbu Frahma," Deirdre explained.
Dart and Albert exchanged looks. "How powerful?" Dart asked.
Deirdre met his eyes with a serious expression. "Powerful enough to destroy an entire planet."
"Whoa," Claira breathed.
"What really points out the near truthfulness of this is the Wingly encampment on the other side of this desert," Deirdre said. "Just as both the mythology and prophecy states."
Conversation carried on as Erisi sat alone with her back up against a large boulder with her arms folded across her chest. Everything as she foretold is correct. Deirdre, what are you? Who are you? Erisi looked up and stared into the night sky at the bright pointed stars. She remembered the three saviors from earlier tha tnight. She centered her thoughts on the Wingly who saved Claira. Matthias...that was you, wasn't it? I miss you so much, and I know you long for me too. Why can't we end this game of hide-and-go seek? Can't we just be reunited and end our sorrow?