Dragons

"And that is the mission I would like to hire you for," Lamium told the four, "Go to the Iron Dragon's Nest, near Jolly Roger, and set the detonator. Then, make your escape as fast as you can. Payment can be discussed with Helga at the mine. But be careful, monsters tend to live in places like that very often."

'No duh monsters live in places like that. He acts like we're a band of newbie Drifters or something. I guess he's concerned about our well being, after what happened the last time we were on a mission that involved a little pyrotechnics. Well, at least it just might pay well,' Jet thought as he stood near Virginia.

The team had completely recovered from Yggdrasil, and was now trying to earn a little more Gella for their next mission. Thus, this assignment from the Ark of Destiny. For they had no idea of where to go to find the other Guardian Idols, so the team had decided to get some more money and hear a few rumors to aid them on their quest. After this, they would look for the Dragon rumored to be in the area near Laxisland.

They sailed to the cave, and met with Helga. She offered them thirteen thousand Gella, but Clive had said that was too little for the dangers they were facing. So after some furious debating, they decided on fifteen thousand Gella. Jet and Virginia were shocked, they didn't expect Clive to argue about the money like that. Usually, in a debate situation, it was one of the others who would decide they were getting jiped.

As they walked through, Clive gave them a lengthy but informative lesson on Dragons and how they used to rule the world. But those mighty creatures died out, and were now just fossiles. He also spoke of how the Dragons, like Demons, had bodies that were part flesh and part machine. Jet began to feel as if his stomach was doing flip flops inside of him during that part of the lecture. Virginia gave him a sympathetic eye, to tell him that she still loved him. He knew she would do that, she had a truly kind heart and soul.

Finally, they found a pair of Radical Sneakers for Jet. Using them, they could jump up to the top of the platform where the detonator was located. Clive, being the mechanic of the group, began to set it up to blast the whole cave. Once ready, Jet found himself having to carry everyone through the shortcuts he could access with his sneakers. He mentally complained, 'Gallows, you should really lose some weight, you're way too heavy for me. Clive's ok, still a little big but at least he's ok. And Virginia, I can carry her no prob.'

At long last, they arrived at the entrance. But a large monster attacked the crew at that time. The young girl found herself trying to shoot, to no avail. It seemed they would need a new tactic. Jet found it out when he aimed a Saint spell at the monster. Light scared it, and it would let down its guard to expose its inner core. Then, they could actually shoot at it. Once that was done, the monster went down pretty fast.

* * *

Helga let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that kind of freaked me out a little. But here, I promised to pay you the fifteen thousand, and I will." She handed Virginia a sack of Gella. Then, she left. But not too long after that, Virginia began to feel a strong surge of dread from the Mediums. The others felt it too, but she had a much more violent reaction. Suddenly, a light flashed through the sky, heading west of Jolly Roger.

"What in the world was that?" inquired Gallows, "We should ask my Granny, I bet she'd know. I mean, we're all kind of inexperienced at actually focusing our minds to tell a prophecy of some sorts. But I know she's always doing that, and then yelling at me to learn how to do this for myself in the near future."

"We're supposed to meet the Dragon first. Then, we should pull our efforts to finding the statues of the High Guardians. Once we go to release them, or find we're unable to locate them on our own, we can go to Baskar and talk to Halle about the situation. I'm a little afraid myself. I guess it's these wings, they make me connected to Filgaia herself or something. Heck, I still don't know if they're a gift from the Planet Guardian, or a side effect of the healing process. But I've always felt the visions and the pain that we all can feel from the Guardians in a greater amount than the rest of you. So I could be right about the connection to Filgaia," Virginia said. She let her wings unfurl, a little bit timid at the moment. Virginia was also relieved that the others couldn't feel the same pains she felt. For it was the most unpleasant feeling of all to the girl.

After the strategy meeting, they headed towards the Inner Sea. There, they went to get the rumors from Laxisland itself. In the ARMs shop, the team talked to Zim, the ARMs Dealer. He told them about the cursed dolls that were used to summon the Dragon, and how they always found their way back to him, In desperation to get rid of them, he handed the Kramer Dolls to Gallows. Jet found out where the Dragon had made its home from another townsperson. So with all that information, the team then went to the southern mountain. It was a mess of traps and rising smoke, they would have to be careful while they were there.

* * *

At the top, Gallows summoned the Dragon with the Kramer Dolls. In flew the large creature, who the gang then realized was female. Her name was Lombardia, and she wasn't a pushover. All the rumors they'd heard were true, her breath really was powerful. After defensive moves for two turns, she turned on her full power, which would allow her greater attacks, but at the expense of easy exhaustion. Virginia and the others took advantage of her drowsiness in order to give themselves repose to the attacks and heal up their bodies. Also, it was a great time to use the Gatling in order to weaken her, as her defense also had taken a nose dive after losing all of her power. So by the end of Lombardia's rest, she was already weak.

She asked, "Humans, what dost thou seek by calling me here?" The Dragon was eyeing Virginia specifically, sensing she was the leader. Virginia needed to come up with a really good response, or else Lombardia would go on a rampage, and kill all four of them. Luckily, the girl was a really good debater.

Virginia stepped forward. "We only want what you want. I know that you must get bored with all the fighting that you do, else you would be satisfied plenty by now. All you want is a nice rest, where you can sleep peacefully for as long as you want. If you help us to defeat the evils that are trying to consume Filgaia, then you will be able to gain that rest real soon. So can you come with us and be our wings?"

"Human, thou dost speak the truth," Lombardia replied, "Very well, I wilst come with thee and thy allies. Thou wilst be my Dragoon. Now then, tell me thy name, human child with the great power inside of her." Everyone was shocked, how could the Dragon know that Virginia had powers that no one else had?

"You are very perceptive, I should have expected no less from such a noble creature as yourself. I am called Virginia Maxwell. I thank you for your aid in our quest," she stated. Then, Virginia let her cloak fall back, and flew into the air on her wings. The others climbed onto Lombardia and they all flew away from the mountain. Together, they began their search for the other lost idols that held the three High Guardians.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

Sky's getting a fleabath, sweet revenge. That baka cat of ours brought fleas into the house last year when she got outside (she hasn't been out since, I might add, she's not that stupid). Now Sky's got them too. And I'm not comfortable at the moment, cuz all my sheets and pillows got stiff from the flea spray, and now they're all in the wash. So I'm sitting on just a mattress to do my work. Well, Lu tells me at least I didn't bomb on the Old English, seeing as most of what I know comes from songs, RPGs and a few Shakespearean plays read in High School. Then she tried to shove me into a costume like BOFIII's Nina for another one of her parody art scams. I always said she'd make a good Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura (and I bet I spelt it wrong too).