Chapter nineteen: A new day and encounters.

Morning dawned gracefully bringing a new day. The sun rose and invaded the Bladebreakers camp, waking everyone who wasn't already up. They all groaned and cried out. It seemed only Isis wasn't that bothered, and was still asleep.

"You can so tell she's related to Tyson can't you?" Hilary grinned. "Isis? Isis..." She tried waking her up quietly, shaking her softly.

"Five minutes grandpa..."

"Isis!" Mariam yelled, shouting in her ear.

Isis cried out and fell out of bed.

"Aw man! What was that for?" She grumbled, rubbing her head slightly.

Mariah and the rest of them just laughed.

"Just like Tyson. You can so tell you two are related." Mariam sniggered. Isis scowled and attempted to get out of her sleeping bag. Not like that was any success.

Ray and Max poked their head though the canvas door.

"Hey you..." Ray was met by a load of pillows and Mariah's stuffed toys.

"We could have been getting changed! Now knock." Mariam snarled playfully.

"How?" Max asked; no reply.

"Er... Knock, knock?" Ray guessed.

"Now you can come in." Mariam pulled them inside. "So what do you want?"

"We were wondering whether Hilary or Isis has seen Tyson. Only he isn't here and we have our first battle today." Ray explained. Hilary looked at him, a dark frown written on her face.

"Do you seriously think we would walk around in our night things talking to Tyson? NO!" Hilary almost yelled. "And Isis has just go up." She added as an after thought, talking more casual.

"Great, there goes Chief again." Max sighed, though his happy glimmer was still in his eyes.

"Tyson where were you!?! You have a battle in one hour's time! You have to prepare!!" Kenny was practically yelling.

"Sheesh Chief, chill out. We'll be fine." Came the reply.

Isis suddenly looked alarmed.

"Heh, is Chief like that on ALL you're matches? Please say he isn't." She asked. Max and Ray laughed quietly, though they had wary expressions on their faces.

"Not all of them..." Max began.

"Just the ones he finds important." Ray finished.

They both winced as they heard Kenny call them over.

"Ray! Max! Come here now!" He practically screamed.

Isis gave out a low whistle as Ray and Max climbed out hesitantly.

"It's like he's got a serious case of PMS." She said.

They all giggled.

"You should see what he's like during the finals." Mariah warned her.

"When they first started; Max and Gary had to battle in the Asian finals. We could hear Chief practically screaming at Max because he said it was going to be easy." She chortled.

"What happened?" Everyone was interested.

"Heh, Max lost, but that's not the point." Mariah giggled.

They all got out and dashed over to the shower cubical. Luckily for the lads there was a separate shower block for them. Otherwise they would have never gotten one.

Isis had been trying to attempt to cook some of the stuff in the cool box. Unfortunately for her nobody could get the fire started. She growled and threw the packet back into the box.

"Where is Kai anyway?" She grumbled.

Everyone stopped what they were doing. They hadn't noticed he was gone.

Kenny started hyperventilating.

"Oh no! What if he's not here for when the doubles start?" He panicked. "We'll get kicked out of the tournament! We'll get..." He doubled up.

"Relax Chief. He probably needed some time to get into his frame of mind. You know, get psyched up before the doubles." Ray grinned, attempting to light the fire in front of a disgruntled and hungry Isis. "There, not hard is it?"

"Feh." She grumbled, retrieving the packet of waffles from the cool box for the second time.

"Maybe he just went for a walk?" Mariah suggested to them all.

Everyone grinned, the kind you give someone when you realized she was most probably right after all your conspiracy theories.

Kai felt the morning rays on his face. His whole twitched slightly unused to the sudden brightness. He went to turn over; then just stopped himself, almost falling out the tree. He woke up properly when he realized where he was.

Kai? Where is Dragweena?

She's back at camp. Why?

She is my spirit mate Kai. I have not seen her in one thousand years.

Kai tried to imagine alone for that amount of time.

Kai?

What?

Do not feel guilty about what happened to Dragweena's human.

I don't.

You can not lie to me Kai.

Feh.

She coped. She is fine, she escaped your grandfathers grasp.

I know, I don't see what this has got to do with me.

She escaped. Have you?Dranzer asked, before fading back into his subconscious mind.

Kai scowled, he hated it when his bitbeast did that.

"Yeah, I'm sure if Voltaire knew we were here he'd have killed us by now."

A familiar voice. Kai looked down.

The Saint Shields, or at least all but Mariam.

"Oh yeah? Well he's either playing with us or the Bladebreakers." Joseph scowled.

"That's why we're here Joseph, to warn them." Ozuma this time.

"I thought it was for Mariam."

"She's travelling with the Bladebreakers remember?" He sounded resentful.

Kai remained unemotional.

"Why are you so quiet Dunga? Unusual for you."

No reply.

"Nothing is wrong."

Kai jumped out of the tree in front of them, startling all three.

"Kai! What?" Joseph asked him.

"Feh." He said, beginning to walk off.

"Hey where're you going?" Joseph called out.

Kai ignored them as they ran up to him.

"How are you doing? How're the matches?" He asked. "How's Mariam?"

The torrent of questions irritated him.

"Hey where're you going?"

Kai stopped.

"I'm going back to camp."

"Can we come?"

"If you must."

"Thanks Kai."

"Hn."

They walked back into the camp. Kai with a scowl on his face and Dunga, Joseph and Ozuma all behind him, much to Mariam's delight.

"Joseph! Dunga! Ozuma! What are you doing here?" She beamed a happy grin on her face.

"Oh sure, we came to see you Mariam. Not to tell the Bladebreakers that they're in trouble." Joseph smirked. "Again."

It was only then he noticed that Kenny, Tyson, Ray and Max were missing.

"Where are Max, Tyson, Ray and that other kid... Er, Kenny?" Ozuma asked. Mariam just beamed.

"Oh they're doing there first battle." She was apparently in complete ecstasy mode in seeing her friends again.

"Er... Mariam? I can't breathe." Joseph complained, muffled slightly. She hastily let go.

"Sorry about that Joseph." She apologized slightly embarrassed, then started babbling on about what they had missed and last night how Tyson found out the Kai had been going out with his cousin. Ozuma, who hadn't really been listening, stopped her in surprise.

"Kai has a girlfriend?" He tried to hide his disbelief.

"What? Isis? Yeah." Mariam lost rhythm of her story.

Mariah shuffled out of the tent.

"Sheesh Isis! The least you could have done was wait around for me to find my blade..." She grumbled before noticing Mariam and her friends. "Oh, hi! You're the Saint Shields aren't you?" She grinned at them.

"Er... yeah, we are. Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Mariah! I'm part of the White Tigers but then Ray asked if I wanted to join him on this tournament." She started chatting away as well.

Ozuma inwardly groaned, he suddenly wondered what Kai's girlfriend was like. Most likely pressured into it poor bloke. He thought to himself. Yup, probably just like those two. His thoughts on the two girls chatting about - He wasn't even going to try to understand what they were saying.

"Feh, Hilary I seriously don't think Ty will do something that stupid." The raven haired youth walked into camp carrying a bucket stylishly in an African style.

"Well he did try stuffing all that pizza into his mouth when he was eight." Hilary reasoned, carrying her bucket by conventional means, i.e. in her arms.

"Yeah well I'm sure he's matured by now. All Kinomiya's go through that stage." Isis said, vainly trying to defend her cousin. "Okay, maybe not. Just Tyson." She added as an afterthought.

Both girls set the water down. Hilary with a loud thud and Isis with stylish grace, but then everything about her seemed to be elegant.

Hilary noticed Ozuma and the rest of them.

"Oh hi guys! When did you arrive?" She asked them.

"Oh we snuck on the boat. We found Kai and he took us to see you guys." Joseph grinned and winked at Hilary, who gave him a disgusted look.

"Sorry but Hilary's taken." Isis grinned. "I'm Isis, you are?" She asked him. Both Ozuma and Joseph seemed too stunned for words.

"Oh that's Ozuma, Joseph and Dunga; Mariam's team-mates from the Saint Shields." Hilary told her.

"Oh! Mariam talks about you guys all the time." She grinned and shook each of their hands.

Dunga frowned as she shook his hand. To him she seemed so fragile and cold as well. She noticed his surprise.

"They said that the masters of Dranzer and his spirit mate Dragweena have their qualities entwined in both of them." She explained, a confusing explanation that some how made sense.

Isis smiled and went back to help Hilary with the water. Having to boil the water before using it for anything.

"Can you believe they never even gave us any decent water?" She grumbled to Hilary; who sniggered at her playfully.

"You'll get used to it babe. Gah! Darn fire!" Hilary cursed as Isis accidentally spilt water over it.

"Sorry Hil," She winced; somehow she knew that she was never going to get used to this...


Yesh! I am back from my hols! Thank you Stella for telling me I've spelt Kai, Kei. I didn't realise, so from now on it's Kai. (just in case you were wondering!!) Now I've got to kinda go and write some more up on this story. See ya, oh! Oh wait! I love getting reviews and things so even if it's just to say you like it or even hate it I seriously don't mind okay! Bye bye!!