Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the game Legend of Dragoon. Please do not sue me.

The Roads of Fate

By: Sora

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Chapter 2: The Race

Dart and Rose had been on the road for about an hour before they reached the Forest. For the most part of the trip thus far they had walked along the road in silence. A little ways into the forest Rose finally spoke. "You wanna stop for a while?"

"Tired already? Boy Rose you're outta shape." Said Dart teasingly.

The dark eyed woman looked at him. "Was that a challenge?"

He shrugged. "It was if you want it to be."

"Fine. Why don't we race? I'll race you out of the forest."

"What about our stuff?" Asked Dart motioning to the small packs they were carrying on their backs.

"Here." She said taking off her pack. "Let me show you a trick."

Rose took her pack and set it on the ground. Then she unsheathed the Dragon Buster that hung at her waist. A while back, she had her Dragoon Spirit embedded into the hilt of the Dragon Buster. The Spirit could be removed. Charle had helped her with that part.. She had put a spell on it so that it would come easily out of the hilt at Rose's touch, but only her touch could remove it.

Rose knelt down on one knee by her pack and stabbed the Dragon Buster diagonally into the ground so that it crossed over her knee. Rose brought her hand up to the hilt and gently touched the Dark Dragoon Spirit. At her touch it began to glow. It popped out of the hilt and hovered a few centimeters above it. Rose let it float there, lost in its black light.

*~*~*

"Charle? What are you doing?" the dark dragoon said coming around the corner into the entryway of Charle Frahma's home.

The wingly quickly hid the Dragon Buster behind her back. "Oh nothing Rose, sweetie. Just go back to bed . . "

Rose continued to walk towards her. "Charle. Where is my Dragoon Spirit?"

Charle laughed nervously. "Oh that . .um . . "

"Charle . . I'm warning you. Tell me where you hid it. Now." The dark eyed woman stopped and set her cold gaze on the wingly's face.

"I just wanted to borrow it for a few moments Rosie, honey. You were complaining earlier about having to carry it around all the time and-"

Rose snorted. "I do not complain."

"Well . . .fine you were stating that you disliked having to carry it around in your armor where someone could easily steal it . . .although how that would be possible unless . ."

"Get to the point Charle."

"Uh . .yes, well. . . I was thinking about trying out a spell."

Rose tilted her head. "Spell? Like what?"

"One that was specifically toned to your life force and would only respond to you. I was thinking about embedding the Dragoon Spirit into the Dragon Buster for you. That way you wouldn't have to carry it around everywhere."

"Oh."

"You sound as if you don't like the idea."

"No. It's nothing. Forget it." Rose walked back to the teleporter that led up to the bedroom. "Do what you want. Just don't ruin either the Dragoon Spirit or the Dragon Buster. Got it Charle?"

"Yes. Of course Rose, sweetie."

"Charle?" The dark hair woman stopped at the edge of the teleporter.

"hmm?"

"Don't call me sweetie."

*~*~*

"Rose?" The movement of Dart kneeling down next to her caught her eyes and pulled them away from the light of her Spirit.

"Hmm? Oh. Here" She took the Spirit in the palm of her hand and held it above the pack. "Now, all you have to do is will the pack into the Spirit." Rose closed her eyes and did just as she said and the pack dissolved and was sucked into the Spirit. "There." She said standing. "You try Dart."

"O.K. How come you never told us about this before Rose?" He asked as he stood.

"We never carried anything around before. You said yourself that we couldn't be slowed down by campsites when we were looking for Shana, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." After a moment he took his pack off and placed it on a nearby tree stump. Then he took out the Divine Dragoon Spirit and held it over the pack. As he closed his eyes the Spirit began to shine with a bright white light. Rose didn't think they'd have any need for torches on this trip. Dart's eyes remained closed and a few seconds later there was still no change.

'I wonder if he needs help?'

She was two inches away from placing her hand on his shoulder when the pack was sharply sucked into the Spirit. The sudden movement startled Rose and she jumped. 'He must've been getting frustrated with it.' she thought, her heartbeat still pounding in her ears.

As Dart opened his eyes he let out an angry sigh. He stood there glaring at where the pack used to be. 'I guess that proves my suspicions.' She thought as she watched him.

He turned to her; his face no longer angry. "So, we gonna race or not?" he said with his head tilted to the side.

"Sure. You'd better get your sword out though. We might run into monsters."

He nodded in agreement before unsheathing the Claymore. 'So he still has that, huh. I thought he would've gotten rid of it by now.' Dart certainly didn't need it anymore. It was strange that he would still carry around such a powerful weapon. 'Old habits die hard I guess'

"Okay. Ready" She said crouching. "Set" Dart had stepped up next to her. He turned his head to look at her for a moment before turning back to stare ahead of him. Rose waited a few moments before saying the final word. "GO!"

They raced off into the forest as fast as their legs would carry them. Rose started out in the lead but a few seconds into the race Dart caught up with Rose and passed her. He didn't waste any breath by calling out to her and taunting her. He couldn't afford to. Besides if he did he might end up having to swallow his words later.

He didn't stay in the lead for very long however, because around the corner a very nasty looking Goblin was waiting for him. As Dart dealt a one hit KO to the sorry monster, Rose raced past him and around the next corner.

"Damn." he swore under his breath as he raced after her.

*~*~*

Rose barely had time to notice that she had passed Dart before she found herself surrounded by a pack of five Assassin Cocks and one Trent.

"Dammit. You're gonna make me lose." She said slicing two of them in half with a swing of the Dragon Buster. She turned around and killed the other three Cocks swiftly, before they could slow her down anymore than they already had by ganging up on her. Now all that was left was the Trent blocking her path.

"Outta my way!" She yelled as she charged the grisly looking tree.

*~*~*

Dart got around the corner and found that Rose was having a bit of trouble with one of the residential Trents

'Heh, Sucks to be her.'

There was a tree stump near by. Dart ran towards it, jumped on it and used it as a vault to jump over Rose's head and the Trent she was struggling to kill. He continued sprinting down the path. Although he was very tempted to look behind him to see the look on Rose's face as he jumped over her head.

*~*~*

'Damn thing.' The stupid tree kept dodging her attacks. It had almost hit her when Dart had vaulted over their heads. 'Guess I ought to give him credit for being creative though,' She thought ruefully as she made a fake pass to the right. 'Ahah! Stupid tree.' Rose ran the startled Trent through with the Dragon Buster and she brought the sword upwards with one hand, splitting the tree in half.

Even before the cloud of red smoke was gone Rose had already raced around the next corner after Dart.

Rose caught up to Dart in the maze. 'He never was very good at this' she thought as she heard him run by on the other side of the brush. Rose continued to dash through the maze, taking the path she had memorized when she had to pass through the forest after Lavitz's death. Rose still missed Lavitz a bit. She hadn't known him very long before he was killed but he had become someone that she could trust to guard her back in a battle. In a way she still felt partly responsible for his death. 'If only I had known that Lloyd had the Dragon Buster I could've saved him and he'd be here now . . .'

The exit of the maze pulled her attention away from her thoughts and she pushed her legs to move faster so that she could pick up more speed. A few seconds later she heard the crunching of leaves behind her which either meant that one: Dart had caught up to her or two: that there was a monster chasing her. She didn't dare look back though, if she did she'd loose speed that she couldn't afford to loose. Not when she was this close to the exit.

The next area had a log lying across a gap in the road. . . or at least it used to. 'Where's the log?' Rose didn't see it anywhere. 'Guess I'll have to jump.' Besides what was a little eighteen-foot gap with sharp pointy rocks at the bottom? Just to make sure that she'd make it she picked up her speed again.

Rose sprinted up to the gap and jumped at the very last moment. She landed just at the very edge on the other side. The impact with the ground threw her off balance and she fell. Luckily, she was able to turn the possibly embarrassing fall into a graceful roll. She immediately got up and sprinted off, paying no heed to the way her calves where screaming at her to slow down.

*~*~*

Rose had only a few moments to catch her breath, for when she turned around after crossing the "border" she saw Dart sprinting at top speed towards her. She stood there and waited the few seconds it took Dart to catch up to her.

The dark haired woman watched with a smirk on her face as Dart came to a halt in front of her and bent down, hands on his knees, to catch his breath.

"I won." She stated.

"No . . .kidding." He said looking up at her. " And Rose . . .wipe that smug . . *gulp* look off . . .your face." He added with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"But why?" She said sweetly, just to annoy him further. "I just proved that you need to exercise more. I'm not the one out of shape."

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" He said as he straightened.

"Yes. Shall we move on." Rose turned around and headed down the road. That run was actually kind of fun. She was almost surprised that she wasn't breathing very hard at the end of it. A few feet down the road Rose noticed that Dart wasn't following her. She turned around.

'What is he doing?' Dart was just standing in the same spot Rose had left him at, staring at her.

"What?"

Dart blinked. "Huh, nothing."

"Well, come on. You want to get to the Limestone Cave before dark, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then get your ass over here and lets go." She said motioning down the road "It takes a while to get through the Prairie, especially if we have to find another tree."

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A/N: How'd you like? I really hoped you enjoyed the latest installment of 'The Roads of Fate'. Please R&R!!!!! Ja ne!