Disclaimer: (yawns) Well, guess I hafta say it again. I only own the stuff that I created. MY plot, MY characters, MY Dragoon Judges, MY new Dragoons, MY Couran, MY Cougarus, AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT I CREATED IS MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, I am done now.

Chapter XVII: Another Ghostly Encounter

I sit up and stretch. 'That was a good nap.' I yawned. I looked over at the window and the sun was just rising. 'It's probably 'bout 5:30 A.M.' I looked over to my right and find Hajeri sleeping in the bed that was next to mine. His shirt was off and his long, black hair trailed down the side of the bed. I began to blush just looking at him, then...you won't believe what I did next. I smacked myself.

'You are NOT supposed to fall in love with ANYONE, Crystal.' I told myself. 'If you do, that person could take advantage of you. That's the bad part of love. You never know WHO you can trust.' I sighed. 'But I'm not falling in love, right? I mean, we're just friends, that's all.' I shook my head. 'Yeah, keep tellin' yourself that, girl.' I quickly decided to stop mentally talking to myself and go for a walk. Walks are always nice and peaceful, right? They're probably better than mentally yelling at yourself for strange...reasons...... I grabbed my sword and quickly ran out of the room.

Since everyone was asleep, I snuck out of the room and down the stairs a lot better than I thought I would.

"Where do you think you're goin'?"

I jumped a bit, but once I realized who it was, I let out a sigh. "I'm just goin' for a short walk, Milro."

"Why?"

"Because I need to get some time alone, okay?"

"Fine, but you'd better be back in the next ten minutes or I'm gonna send Lloyd after ya." Milro watched me leave.

"Whatever." I quickly ran out of the Inn.

Once I was out of the town, I stayed on the trail that led into a forest. 'I'll just stay on this trail and turn back when I reach the forest.' I said to myself as I walked towards the forest. 'Well, I guess I can at least walk a bit in the forest...it can't hurt, I mean, I have my weapons and my magic.' I looked around. I was now in the forest. I turned around just to make sure I could still see the town...and I could.

The bushes around me were full of berries and flowers. I continued walking until I saw a huge rock. I walked over to it, sat down, and leaned my back against it. I still held my sword in my right hand. I closed my eyes and relaxed.

'At least I get to relax some......' My eyes shot open when I heard some bushes move. I quickly stood up and raised my sword. "Who's out there?" Nothing. 'There's somethin' out there. I can sense it.'

Something came out of the bushes, or rather, passed through them, and hit me up aside the head with a small rock. I fell to my knees and put my hand to the back of my head. I could feel warm blood. I looked up and saw the ghost of my father......again......

The ghost picked my up by my hair and slammed my head up against the rock that I had been leaning against earlier. My head split opened a bit, so now I had a busted up head in the front, and even in the back from where he had hit me with a rock. I fell to my side and blacked out..................

XxXxX

A moan escaped my mouth as I began to come to.

"Ooooooooooohh......my h-head......" I would have rubbed my head if I hadn't had been......chained up. My wrists and ankles had chains around them. 'Oh, now this is just great. I'm chained up...again. Ya know, this reminds me an awful lot of somethin'.' Even with my head still hurting, I still had sarcasm in me. The door a few yards in front of me swung open. A tall, brown haired man walked in. He was dressed in simple silver chest armor and dark brown pants. The shirt underneath the armor was also a dark brown.

"I see you don't treat your guests properly." I looked at the chains, then back at him.

"All you have to do is tell me what I need to know, then when the master comes to get you, he will probably treat you better." The man smirked.

"I ain't tellin' ya nothin'."

"Oh, but don't worry. I can make you tell me what I need to know."

I looked back at the chains. 'He's right and he knows it.'

"Now, where is the Magical Staff?" The man walked closer to me.

"I don't know." I lied.

"You lie." He drew a knife and ran the blade slowly down the side of my left cheek. I felt blood run down my face.

"I don't lie." I said sternly. He put more force on the knife and the blade cut deeper into my skin. "I DON'T LIE!!"

"I will come back every hour to see if you have changed your answer. If you haven't, then I guess more blood will come out." The man turned and left.

I stuck my tongue out at him. 'I have to figure out a way outta here.' I looked around the small dungeon. 'Maybe I can transport...' I tried, but nothing happened. 'Magic probably can't be used here. That's just my luck......' I pulled at the chains a bit. 'Hey, I think I've figured out a way out...' If I summoned my wings and tried to fly out, I might be able to break free of the chains. I tried that, and ya know what? The chains were too strong!! I sighed. 'Why do I always get kidnapped?!' I continued to struggle with the chains for a good ten minutes. I began whistling. Hey, I had nothing else to do. The door opened. That same man walked in. "It hasn't been an hour yet."

"I know, but the master has arrived a bit early." The man walked over to me and unchained me. He grabbed me by my wrist and dragged me out.

'Now's my chance.' I punched the guy in the face and tripped him. He lost his grip on my wrist as he fell. I summoned my sword to me from where ever it was. It came zooming towards me, but......the cloaked guy appeared and grabbed the handle of my sword before it could come to me.

"Gimme back my sword!!"

"I don't think so." The man said.

"It's mine, not yours." Being out of that dungeon, I could now use my magic. I powered up an energy ball in my right hand. "Give it back to me NOW."

"Why don't you come and get it?"

I wanted to, but I knew it was a trick. I haven't learned my full strength so he has more power than me right now. 'What am I gonna do?'

"How 'bout you just come with me?"

I stared at him. "I'll never come with you." I transported then reappeared in front of him. I grabbed my sword. I pictured the place where I was when the ghost attacked me, but instead of transporting there, I transported back to where I was standing just moments ago. "Wha?"

"You can't transport away from here, girl." The man walked closer to me.

I jumped back and pointed my sword at him. "Stay away from me." He transported and reappeared behind me. I wanted to turn around and just stab him like crazy, but I couldn't move.

"You truly are a magnificent Wingly, Crystal." He whispered in my ear.

"Get...away...from...me..."

"Who's going to save you now, Crystal?"

'Who's gonna save you when I stab you in the gut with my sword?' "Once I get control of my body again, I'm gonna give you the beating of a life time." I told him harshly.

"Oh, but you do have control of your body. I'm not stopping you from killing me, you are."

"Oh that's a lie. I'd love to see your bright red blood spilling on the floor." I had never been this mad before. I really, really wanted to kill him.

"What happened?" The Human man on the floor finally woke back up.

"You pathetic Human. Get up NOW." The cloaked guy turned his attention from me to the man on the floor.

"Yes, master..." The man stood up. "You're gonna pay me, right? I mean, I did capture the girl for ya."

"No, that ghost did."

"But who was controlling the ghost? ME."

"But who gave you the item to control the ghost? ME. So, you don't get paid." The cloaked guy told the Human sternly.

"But-"

"ENOUGH! I will kill you if I have to." The man formed an energy ball in his hand.

"Ya know what? I don't need any money. Here, why don't you just take this thing back," The man tossed a green sphere to the cloaked guy. "and I'll be on my way." He quickly ran off.

'That is probably the thing that controlled the ghost of my father.' I stared at the sphere. 'I have got to get out of here...' I looked around for an exit. 'Aha!' I started to run towards the exit when someone grabbed my hair and pulled me back towards him. 'I'm starting to regret having long hair...'

"You ain't going anywhere." The cloaked man looked down at me.

"I can disagree with that," came a female voice.

"Huh?" The cloaked man and I said in unison.

Someone jumped on the back of the cloaked guy and just tore into him. Literally. I had managed to get free and run a bit away from the fight. And you won't believe who I saw clawing into the guy's back. That strange Couran girl from before. The guy transported and the girl fell to the ground.

"C'mon, Wingly! It'll take a while for him to recover from the scratches!" The Couran grabbed my wrist and literally dragged me out.

We both made it out of the guy's castle alive. I sheathed my sword once we had made it out.

"So, how did you know I was here?" I asked the Couran.

"I have been following you and your friends for quite a while. By the way, my name is Mariath."

"My name is Crystal. So, where should we go now?"

"There is a town a couple of days away from here. It's Ediroso, the Giganto town. We should be able to gather supplies there and then try to find your friends." Mariath explained.

I ran up ahead of her. "Well, then let's go!"

A/N: Hehehe...thanks for the 5 bucks, YSYF. If only I could spend it...oh well... Anyhoo, a couple more twists are comin', and I betcha you can't guess what they are. I can't WAIT to find out how y'all will react on the upcoming surprises. I was actually a bit surprised myself when I decided to put it in here. But, hey, I like the idea, so that's what counts. It fits in with the plot perfectly actually. If you want, YSYF, since no one else is chatting with you, I could chat with you. It really makes no difference to me. I've only got two other people that I'm chatting with, and one of them is hardly ever on. Well, this is the end of this little note. If you could call it a note, that is............