Ack. Fanfiction hates me. I swear. Sorry, again, about the late update.

Dedication: Dedicated to The Shadowess. Partially for possibly including Thatchel, and partly for adding a bonus scene to "Rising Thunder, Raining Lies" involving Kitchel oggling firemen in speedos... XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Knights. Seriously.

Warnings: Not much.

Note: This is the third version of the chapter, drastcally different from either of the two before it. I wrote it on the day I was to upload it, so sorry if it's not quite up to par.

:n:

There was no brilliant display of colors that night.

Kitchel and Ringleys were gone.

They had, much earlier that day, entered the cave of the Three Treasures, leaving the third member of their party by himself on the island.

Thats had wasted no time in realizing that the boat they had taken over had been smashed to bits by the violent storm on the previous night, and had instead ridden Earth back to Dusis, dismounting a few miles out of sight of Luwa.

His mind was still swimming with thoughts of his fellow tresure hunters and of the treasure himself.

But now it was late. The moon and stars had already come out, and he, the Dragon Knight of Earth, was safe in a cheap room in the very inn Kitchel, Ringleys, and himself had stayed in before setting off for Arinas.

It might have been even the same room. He didn't notice.

His mind was elsewhere.

There was a small window over his bed, but it faced towards the east, away from the spent sunset. That didn't matter much. What little sunset there had been had not been worth much. It had been nowhere near as good as the ones he had watched from the ocean.

He hadn't been in the mood to watch it, anyway.

It would be foolish to assume that all his mental energy was focused on the girl pursuing the treasures a world away.

She was currently commanding a fair portion of his thoughts, however.

Thats was seated on the soft bed, relishing the thought of actually being able to sleep on one for the first time in this long journey. The sky outside had long darkened, and the small room was lit only by the flickering yellow light of the oil lamp next to the mattress.

He lay down on his back, allowing his body to feel the comfort of a real bed beneath him, and closed his eyes. Thats reached up and blindly turned off the light, almost burning his hand in the hot flame.

"Maybe I'll go see Delte tomorrow," he mused out loud to himself, the consuming question of the faeries' dissapearance tugging on his mind and consience.

There was a long silence in which it appeared the young man had drifted off to sleep inside the whitewashed walls of the room.

The he rolled over onto his side, making it so he took up only half of the spacious bed. His green eyes snapped open, staring at the empty mattress and the wall beyond it.

Outside the room, the sky was dark and overcast. Not a star peaked

through the thick blanket of unspilled rainclouds.

Thats gave himself a mental shake, and spoke outloud, chiding himself.

"Relax. You can figure out what to do in the morning."

The inner room mirrored this gloom. White walls fading to gray in the dark housed a solitary figure, seemingly unconcious to the world.

Then a memory flickered to life in the sheer cold black.

A night of insults, a night of waiting, a night of chatter, a night of stars.

The Earth Dragon Knight sighed, and spoke again.

The words were muttered softly, almost in an undertone, barely audiable to his ear. That didn't matter, however, for they were merely a repeating of a voice and phrase in his head. They had been brought to life by a few weeks of journeying across two continents and one vast blue ocean, during which ideas, experiances, and opinions had been tested, broken, and reforged.

The phrase rang alive in his mind, reminescent of a hard wooden floor, a warm summer's night, a star-filled sky.

And although they were the last thing he remembered before loosing conciousness, in the morning they were pushed furthest from his mind by the next day's duties, responsibilities, and a burning latent flicker.

"Go to sleep."

:n:

Note: This might be the last chapter. This might not be. At any rate, this is the furthest in the time line I will go, as this is already heading out of Book 5 for Book 6. However... This is far from the ending chapter I originally had planned out. If, and only if, I feel it's needed, or if i realize I am short on something, I -may- consider pulling my original end chapter out of retirement. Any thoughts on this?