Hi! Here I am again! Many thanks to BladeBreaker Girl, Artificer Urza and To live is to be Evil for reviewing. Also thanks to BladeBreaker Girl for pointing out that I need to space out the paragraphs and sentences. I just realized that it's a little cramped. Me will remember to space it out. In addition, thanks for recommending that site to me, Artificer Urza, and rest assured that I'll go to read and review your fic. I'm sure that it'll be great.

Disclaimer: I don't own BoF. So stop trying to find excuses to sue me.

Legend:

+++~Change in scene~+++

^^PoV^^

The Dragon Warrior Chapter Two: Squabbles, Punishments and Lessons Learned

          Princess Riana was not in a good mood. In fact, if she was allowed to do whatever she felt like doing, half the palace would be lying in ruins now. Many servants were directing curious looks in her direction as she stormed her way back to her room, probably because she looked as if she had just came in from a rainstorm outside. Ryu matched her stride for stride, but remained silent, knowing that one wrong word from him could cause potentially disastrous repercussions from his best friend. When they finally reached her quarters, Riana slammed the door behind her, which was no mean feat for a little girl who was barely 4 feet tall, and almost squashed Ryu into the doorframe in the process. It was only through sheer luck, combined with natural reflexes, that Ryu avoided being plastered onto the doorframe. The disgruntled princess completely ignored her companion and instead flopped onto her bed, not caring that she was making the sheets wet.

          "Err… Riana, don't you think that you should change out of your wet clothes first? You'll catch a cold if you stay in that condition." Ryu tentatively put the suggestion forward.

Riana gave him a cold stare and snapped, "Who do you think you are? My father? I don't need someone like you to tell me what to do!"

Ryu winced inwardly, and he inevitably also felt slightly offended by her spiteful remark, and before he could stop himself, he answered back a little defensively, "Well, I did help to get you out of that pond. Couldn't you be just a little grateful instead of acting like a completely spoiled child?" The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted saying them immediately.

Riana's eyes flared dangerously, and her answer was flat and bitter, "Well well, what do we have here? Someone who thinks he's a great hero, is he? 'I saved the princess' indeed! Well, did you have to go to my father in the first place? Now I'm in trouble, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT. Go away, I don't want to see you ever again!" Ryu bit his lip. How could he have been so stupid as to say those words? Gathering up the last shreds of his dignity, he bowed stiffly to the princess before swiftly exiting the chamber, not noticing that right after he had turned to leave that tears had sprung to Riana's eyes and that she broke down into a storm of weeping the moment he was out of the room.

          Ryu was scowling, a rare emotion on that usually cheerful face of his. He was upset with himself for saying those hurtful words to his best friend, no ex-best friend. Hadn't she made it abundantly clear just now that she never wanted to see him again? He had never seen her with that expression on her face before, even when they had gotten into other arguments previously. He concluded that she must really hate him for yelling at her like that. He had never raised his voice at her, and no matter what happened he would always give in to her whims.

"Well, enough is enough, I guess. If she doesn't want to be friends, I won't be her friend." Ryu mumbled aloud. "What was that, my son?" A tall lady stepped out of a doorway. Ryu looked up. It was his mother, Lady Schala, the half-sister of King Rayne. (1)

 "Oh nothing really, mother, I just had a quarrel with Riana, and we more or less did everything short of killing each other." Ryu replied, his own calmness surprising even himself. His mother looked startled and probed cautiously for more information, " So you two are not on speaking terms anymore…would you like to tell me exactly what happened?" Ryu sighed and nodded, before following his mother into the set of chambers the two of them shared. He then proceeded to recount the details of everything that had happened since that morning, which provided a certain degree of entertainment for Schala, since certain events of the morning were a trifle ridiculous, not to mention also very comical.

          After Ryu had finished his story, Schala nodded gravely and said, "You shouldn't have said that to her, you know. It must have hurt her feelings terribly, even if you were absolutely right about her behavior. Riana can be quite immature sometimes, but still, she's a girl, and you are supposed to be a gentleman and not shoot off your mouth the way you did." Ryu looked a little offended by that particular comment, but before he could open his mouth to protest, Schala continued, "I know it's not particularly fair, but it is going to be one of the things you have to learn to do in order not to offend the female population in general, my son. Look upon this incident as educational, instead of learning the hard way in the future."

"But it's all so unfair!" Ryu blurted out in indignation, his face filled with a kind of innocent outrage. Schala smiled down beneficently at her young and as yet unworldly son and lightly teased him, saying, "Do you truly believe that life is ever going to be fair to you? We all have to learn to accept these little setbacks once in a while. Besides, wouldn't life be so much less exciting if everything was so nice and predictable?"

Ryu's eyes grew thoughtful and troubled, as he pondered his mother's words, before finally answering, "I think I'll need more time to think about all this, mother. Can you please tell Uncle Rayne that I can't go to that little meeting after lunch? I'm not really going to be involved in that meeting between Uncle Rayne, Kain, Karl and Riana anyway, so no one's going to miss me very much… I think I will have to take a walk, maybe near the shrine…" Schala agreed and told him not to stay out too late. As she watched his retreating back, she had a sudden, ominous feeling at the back of her consciousness. "The black wind howls…" (2) Schala murmured, as the icy grip of fear and dread insinuated itself around her heart, "Please, Ladon, keep my son safe…"

+++~ In the King's study, after lunch ~+++

          The three children had gathered shortly after their midday meal. All of them were none too enthusiastic about the upcoming confrontation with their usually easygoing father, as they all had a premonition that this meeting was not going to be all filled with joy and good cheer.

          King Rayne emerged shortly from a back room. He glanced at his children, satisfied that they had obeyed him and came on time. He was about to address them when Riana interrupted timidly, "Father…isn't Ryu supposed to be here as well?" Her brothers also nodded their agreement. Rayne gave them, especially Riana, a somewhat amused look, "Didn't you know? His mother informed me that he needed to spend some time alone for a while." He delivered the last part of his response looking a little purposefully at Riana. Riana felt a wrench of guilt. She knew that Ryu must have been hurt by their spiteful exchange of words in her room somewhat earlier. She felt bad for what she had said to him, that much she was willing to admit privately, although if someone were to say the same thing of her, she would have immediately denied it.

Princess Riana was like that sometimes.

Sensing her obvious discomfort, Rayne changed subjects. Instead, he delivered some very startling news indeed. "I have decided that, since you three can't seem to grow up and learn to be more responsible and to get along with each other, I will personally have to take more drastic measures." He paused for dramatic effect. The eyes of his three offspring were more than a little apprehensive.

Smiling inwardly, he continued, "I will send the three of you away from the palace to the outlying cities to learn how to be independent. Don't think that you will be waited on hand and foot during your stint there. You will have to fend largely for yourself. And you will learn how the day-to-day events that happen out of your sight here in the palace can greatly influence the stability of our kingdom. This will promise to be a very educational trip for all three of you. Don't think that just because you are only six years old exempts you from this, Riana. I was about your age when my own father sent me out on this sort of trip to gain more experience." He stopped, letting the information sink into his children's heads, while privately smirking at their chagrined expressions. (3)

+++~ Meanwhile, at the Shrine of Ladon ~+++

^^Ryu's PoV^^

          I've always loved coming to this shrine. It just seems so peaceful here, just the perfect place for me to sort out my thoughts…

          Mother gave me a lot to think about. She practically rearranged the way I looked at the world. I never knew that being a gentleman involved so much sacrifice, and I certainly never even realized that ladies enjoyed these little 'special benefits' from men. It's just isn't fair, but I guess mother was certainly right about what one thing: life was not going to be fair.

          I guess this points to one thing, that I'm going to have to apologize to Riana. I hope she won't scream at me too much…I hope…I am so not looking forward to this…

          "Ryu…" I jumped about three feet into the air. What was that? I was almost positive that someone called my name. Maybe I was just hallucinating…

          "Come here…Ryu…follow mine voice…" There it was again. This time I was sure of it. I was most definitely not dreaming. However, before my confused mind had finished going through its logic process, my body had already begun moving forward, as if it had a mind of its own, toward that mysterious voice. There seemed to be some kind of subtle leash in that silent voice, urging, directing me towards it.

          I guess I should have been absolutely terrified by this strange and unexpected phenomenon. But I wasn't. There was something strangely soothing in that voice, as well as the presence that I sensed accompanied it. I was totally at ease. Somehow I just knew that whatever this was, it was not going to hurt me.

          I kept moving. I passed through the main body of the shrine, and started towards the inner chambers, which are normally restricted to the priesthood. Part of my rational mind informed me that I was forbidden to enter that place, but I just had to get to that voice. No matter what the cost…

          I followed that twisting and winding passage further and further in. Surprisingly, I did not meet a single soul in the walkways. That should probably have disturbed me, but my mind was too caught up with following that voice to notice. Finally I emerged from the gloomy passages and stepped out into a light-drenched chamber.

          Blinking hard, my eyes finally got used to the dazzling sunshine and I was finally able to behold the wonders of the chamber I had just entered. This place seemed to have somehow been integrated with the mountain that flanked the back and sides of this shrine, and the ceiling seemed be refracting the sunshine into gorgeous shades. That's when I realized that the ceiling appeared to be underneath a stream of running water! How could that be possible? But it would certainly explain how the sunlight was being turned into a light show in this cavernous chamber. There was a profusion of beautiful plants growing in certain corners, where cracks in the ceiling allowed water to flow through and enable plant growth.

          However, what seized my attention was what was in the middle of the chamber. It was positioned in such an angle and in a position that when the light cascaded down, shifting through its myriad forms, it would fall exactly upon that object and cause it to be illuminated in a halo of rainbow light. It was a breathtaking sight indeed.

          "Ryu…stretch forth thy hand and place it upon the orb which thou hast seen…" It was the voice again. Again I was unable to resist that command. I reached out my hand and started towards it…

Footnotes

(1) Schala and Rayne have the same father, but Rayne was the son of his father's first wife, while Schala was the result of the union between the previous king and his second wife.

(2) Yes, I poached that from Chronotrigger. So I'll state here that I do not own that line. Satisfied? And Schala is actually a seer, someone who can see into the future, well, sort of.

(3) Yes, Rayne is being a little 'evil' in this chapter. But he's sending his kids away for their own good, for them to learn more about the kingdom.

Well, how was that? It's slightly longer than my first two offerings, mainly because I'm building up to a mini climax. Plus, what do you think of the cliffhanger? Promising or not? What do you people think? And I apologize for Ryu sounding so mature. I didn't want him to think and talk like a baby. Next chapter will be quite a bit of fun, that much I can promise. Also, this story will not only focus on Ryu's journey to seal Tyr, but will shift slightly to the generation before him. In other words, about his parents and also about a certain someone... Just thought you people should know…there would be some violence in the next chapter. (Just to justify the PG-13 rating, I guess.) Remember everyone: READ AND REVIEW!!!!!!