A/N: *rubs back of head sheepishly* Well, there are always little problems when you don't check over your work ^_~ I don't think this story has enough humor for the second genre to be considered "humor".  Meaning…Something has to be changed.  Maybe I'll proofread this chapter… Well, as always, reviews are immensely appreciated.

                                                            Liona's 'Connection'

            "FISH!!!"

            Liona scrambled out of the bushes and ran up to the fire to admire the gleaming sheen off of the fish roasting over a large open fire.  Only when she heard someone clear their throat, did she peel her eyes off of it.  The first thing she saw was a gigantic red land dragon, with the usual huge body, scaly skin, and ferocious teeth, which was combined with a large pair of wings, a enormous tail, and small wisps of smoke occasionally emitting out of its nostrils, in time with its breathing.  Liona stared.  And stared.  The fire crackled and crickets chirped to fill in the large gap of silence.  The dragon appeared to be getting a bit agitated under Liona's unnerving stare.  She stared for about another twenty minutes.

            At least, she would have if the dragon's companion hadn't put in their say.  "Liona-chan?"

            Liona suddenly snapped out of her gaze and looked to the most recent speaker.  "ANGEL CAKE!  You found me!"

            Angelina gave Liona a small, closed-eye smile.  Her left eyebrow was twitching ever so slightly, but daily "training" with Liona forced her to stay impeccably calm.

            "It wasn't too hard.  Accompanying you for so long has allowed me to know your habits almost as well as my own.  All I had to do was wait a little while for you to get hungry, and then start to cook it in the general vicinity.  On the way, I met this little fella', you remember him don't you?"

            But Liona's attention had again turned to the dragon.  Her eyebrows began to furrow furiously, as if she was frustrated with herself for something she couldn't see.

            Angelina sighed and decided to wait a little before telling Liona in case she didn't remember before then.  She felt another presence and turned to Blake.  She greeted him with the common courtesy of any high-class dragon.  "Why, hello there.  I don't believe we've met.  My name is Angelina, and you are?"

            Blake jerked himself into awareness as he realized that she was talking to him.  He stepped forward and said automatically.  "The name's Blake.  I found this little girl alone in the forest playing a flute.  Do you know her?"

            Angelina smiled gently like a kindly mother.  She gestured for Blake to take a seat near the fire.  He obliged.  When he was seated, Angelina softly explained, "As a matter of fact, I do.  I've been with Liona-chan here since she was but 8 years of age."

            Blake's immediate thoughts as his eyes roved over to Liona were, 'Eight years old?  She doesn't look any older than eight or nine!'

            Reading his thoughts, Angelina continued to smile, and was about to comment, before Liona suddenly exclaimed, "AH!  NOW I REMEMBER!! YOU'RE CHOCO- PUDDING-CHAN!"  With that, Liona deftly jumped over the fire and went straight for the dragon's neck with the idea to give him a 'hug'.  As her small arms were only able to cling halfway around the dragon's neck, she had to hang on tightly to keep from falling.  That, and the fact that she seemed extremely happy to see the huge dragon, also strengthened her hold.  The dragon's eyes were as big as saucers and he was "squabbling" in a panicky sort of way.  She may have been happy, but choking is choking any way you put it.

Angelina stood up and held up her hands worriedly.  "Liona-chan, I know you haven't seen him in a long while, but I think he'd appreciate having a sufficient air passage to breathe."

Hearing this, Liona blinked, and let go, but cast a Levitation spell to come eye level with the dragon who suddenly hunched over, trying to take in as much fresh air as possible.  Several small rivulets of sweat glistened down the length of his head.  After catching his breath, the dragon glared wearily at the young girl, who was now playfully swaying back and forth in the air in front of his face.

"Pudding-chan, are you okay now?"

The dragon snapped his jaws once snarled lowly, and flattened his left ear back.

Liona seemed surprised, "You got dirt in your mouth so now you can't hear?! . . . wait.  . . . Something sounded wrong with that…"

Liona landed near the fire to sit cross-legged and contemplate it.  The dragon and Angelina sweatdropped, and Angelina sighed before seating herself again.  Liona was relieved of unnecessary thinking when Angelina corrected her.  "Liona-chan, Purin-san said that when he got into a fight, he was hit in the jaw and his ear was cut."

Liona looked at the towering animal in astonishment.  "Really?!" A short pause. "Huh."  A slightly longer, more delayed reaction.  "The cut doesn't look visible at all!"

Angelina raised an eyebrow, while furrowing the other slightly.  "Seeing him like that, I healed him upon sight!  I couldn't leave him like that!  It's against my race's code of conduct."

Liona paused.  Angelina hated when she did that, because she knew what it always meant.  Sure enough, her intuition was right on target.

"OH!  I thought you were – okay, I get it."  Angelina couldn't help but sigh again, and take a sip from her ever-present teacup.

Liona turned back to the dragon.  "Ehh…." With complete innocence, Liona asked with perky amusement, "So who'd you get beat up by?"

Normally, when a dragon can understand what you're saying, and they were just recently injured, that would /not/ be a good thing to say.  At this moment in time, it wasn't a good question.  Thankfully, this dragon was used to Liona's antics, and simply opted for scoffing up the now cooked fish in one mouthful, and curling up like a cat to go to sleep.

Having completely forgotten about the fish until that moment, Liona gaped in disbelief at the now "empty" fire.  Tears were brimming over her eyes as she looked at the dragon, that had now turned his back to her.  "MEANIE!! You know I wanted that!"

The dragon's only reply was to audibly start snoring peacefully.  Liona huffed and crossed her arms in front of her as she turned back to the fire.

Angelina attempted to calm Liona down.  "Now now, Liona-chan.  That was /his/ dinner.  I already prepared yours.  Here, have as much as you like."

Angelina had magically pulled several succulent dishes from her cloak (emphasis on the magical part).

While this was all going on, Blake could only watch in dumbfounded silence.  In all reality, who could blame him?  A little girl "conversing" with a huge dragon, and a girl with bleached hair saying how leaving a wounded dragon was against "her race's code of conduct".  He knew she couldn't possibly mean humans, so who /was/ she, really?

As Liona's tears dried with inevitable ease, she quickly went about the task of devouring everything in sight.  While she was "distracted", Angelina offered Blake some food as well.

"Are you a big eater like Liona, or do you have a regular appetite?"

Blake smirked as he answered, "I'm a regular ol' meat eater if you could spare some."

"Much obliged," Angelina pulled up her cloak again and took out a nice, juicy, pair of steaks, cut to perfection and complete with a knife and fork.  "Please use the utensils.  Well, Bon Appetite (erm…you know what I mean)!"

As Blake did not know French, he just assumed that it meant 'please eat', so that's what he did.  As for herself, Angelina chose a vitamin enriched tea and a small dish of fish.  Before long, all three travelers were finished eating.  Liona yawned and said she wanted to go to sleep.  Pulling a pair of thick blankets on the ground, she tucked herself in and was soon breathing slowly and evenly.  Blake offered to stay up and take watch, and Angelina told him to wake her up when he wanted to switch with her.  That, or wake up the dragon.  Liona shouldn't be disturbed in the state that she's in.  Blake agreed and sat himself on a log next to the fire.  With nimble swiftness, Angelina easily slipped herself under the covers next to Liona.  Again, crickets chirping and the fire crackling served as the only sounds that could be heard - that, and the soft breathing of Liona and Angelina, accompanied by the louder snores from the dragon.

Hours passed without much difference.  Blake was getting tired, but he had no desire to wake up either the dragon or Angelina.  Suddenly, he heard whispered, muffled voices and bushes rustling a little ways away.  With a turn to make sure that they were still asleep, Blake stood up and headed for the voices.  He didn't have to go very far before he found them.  Two classic bandits, each with a red skull branded on their arms.

When a branch snapped under Blake's left foot, the two men heard it and looked in his direction.  His eyes widened slightly when he recognized the two, but just as quickly, he turned his glare to one that might be given by a warrior surveying his opponent.

Blake walked toward them with quiet steps, the leaves occasionally crackling under his footsteps.  When he stopped directly in front of them, both went down on their knees and bowed before him.

He coldly hissed, "What are you two doing here?"

Nervously, the first bandit answered, "S-sir, we were sent to take out the Bandit Killer's alleged offspring permanently.  Boss said that she'd be a danger to all bandit brethren."

Blake thought to himself, "She?  The Bandit's Killer offspring?  Danger?"

Suddenly, Blake remembered Liona's words soon after they met.  "Li-o-na!  Lina Inverse is my mother."

Blake realized what they wanted to do.  Angrily he ordered back, "Go back to your boss and tell him to leave the girl to me.  Go!"

With frightened yelps, the two bandits jumped up, bobbed their heads in response, and ran off in the opposite direction of the camp.  Blake sighed in relief and began to walk back.  He was surprised by the sight of the place beside Angelina empty, and Liona nowhere to be seen.  Blake looked around on the edge of becoming worried, until he spotted her, or rather, Liona spoke, revealing her position.

"Where'd you go?"  Liona sounded like a child who just woke up in the middle of the night and was still half-asleep, and that's what it basically was.

Blake turned to see Liona with her upper torso hanging over Purin's belly that was turned towards the sky.  Slowly, he walked towards her and answered, "Nowhere far.  What are you doing up?  Little girls like you should be asleep by now."

Liona smiled wanly and yawned.  "I woke up to give Pudding-chan his midnight snack.  Hehe.  But since he's still asleep, I ate for him."

Blake blinked and asked incredulously, "You're that greedy?"

Liona rolled over lazily as she replied, "It runs in the family.  I'm gonna go back to bed now.  Unless… Do you want me to finish the night-watch?  I can be nocturnal when I want to."

Blake shook his head.  "And I can stay up all night if I wanted to.  No, you go back to sleep.  I'll stay on watch."

Liona hopped down to the ground effortlessly and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Are you /really/ sure?"

"Yes, now go back to bed."

"Are you really /really/ sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you really really /really/ sure?"

"Liona!  Go to bed!"

Liona jumped slightly but headed for bed.  She sulked, "If you're /really/ sure…"

Blake sighed as Liona went back under the covers and headed for the log near the fire.  Throwing in another piece of wood, Blake looked up at the night sky, and sighed yet again, but this time, it was a sigh of peacefulness.

Liona let out a huge yawn.  They were now packing up, and it was about an hour after dawn.  The sun was still somewhat low in the horizon.  Bidding farewell to Purin the dragon, who had to return home, Liona, Angelina, and now Blake continued down the path, with the events in Seyruun driven all the way to the backs of their mind and memory.  As they started walking, it was only natural when Blake asked, "So where exactly are you two headed?"

Angelina answered, since Liona was too far away to really hear the question.  "Calcutta City, the home of Dragon Cuisine."

Something stirred in the back of Blake's memory.  "Oh that-"

Before he could get out whatever he was going to say, he was interrupted by Liona shouting out, "HEY!!!"

Both Blake and Angelina jumped at the sudden exclamation.  They looked towards Liona for an explanation.  Unfortunately, she was running out of sight over a hill, so they had to run to keep up with her.

Angelina took a small intake of breath as she saw who Liona was trying to catch up to.  Blake, on the other hand, had no idea who the other person was, but felt slightly intrigued by the sight of him.

A/N: Are you wondering at all to find out more about my characters?  Then keep on reading my story, and review so I know you're reading.  Everyone has their secrets, and everyone is entitled to keep those secrets unless otherwise told.  ^_^  I don't know why I'm making my chapters so short all of a sudden.  But I don't think I have homework for the next four days so maybe I'll get a headstart on it this weekend.  But I'll need some boosting to get me on my way, so hurry and review!