Author Notes: Just a simple experimental fic. Uh, I can't really remember that much about SD3, but I'll do my best to remember. Uhm, I'm having a few characterisation problems as well. Comments and critique welcome.

Disclaimer: Do we really need them? Um...okay. I don't own SD3. I may own in it, but it ain't mine. You shall fear the all fighter group. Yus.

Seiken Densetsu 3 – You don't say?

Prologue

Why do these things happen?

Why am I here?

Why me?

My only answer is,

Because.

Intense heat gripped her body, a cry creating a flash of white across her vision. Riesz felt herself fall into a pit, the blackness threatening to envelop her. It leered at her, giving her impressions of teeth gnashing and claws reaching out for her. But from the shadows came a familiar voice.

Intruder! There's an intruder! Destroy the invader! Evil has come again!

Her mind took what seemed to be an eternity to recognise the voice. "Goddess? Faerie?" she called out to the shadows.

All she got in reply was more urgings.

Hurry! The world is in danger! Go to Wendel! The others are coming!

Then came the flashes of vague images.

Woman. Right hand. Injured.

An image of a horrendously scarred back, scratches upon scratches all over it. They crisscrossed over each other, pale streaks on an almost as pale back. A hand had a huge scar in the centre of it, the regrown skin making a pockmark on it. The fingers shook. "I can't move them..." a voice whispered in horror. "My hand..."

Monsters. Demons. Dragons.

Riesz saw overcast skies, dark clouds rolling overhead. Rain poured down, plastering black hair to a pale face. Another person, a man with rebelliously spiky blonde hair knelt beside the brunette. She could almost feel his warm breath against the person's cheek as he held her gently against him. "I'm...I'm sorry..." he whispered.

BLOOD.

Reisz gasped, the vividness of the final image startling herself from her dream. She slowly forced her fingers to loosen their death grip on her blankets, the throbbing of her head feeling like a pulse of urgency. Groaning, the amazon lay back on her bed, her thoughts a million miles away.

Now, how to get out of Rolante without a contingent of warriors tagging along?

Kevin gave one last pat to the small wolf pup Karl. Ever since the almost disappearance of Mana, the Moonlight Forest was no longer in a state of constant night. It was still dark, but now there was a sense of night and day. Some of the creatures didn't react as well with the sudden introduction of mornings and afternoons in their lives. Kevin, having gotten over that when he had swum to Jad, set aside his time to reassure Karl that the cycle of day and night was perfectly normal.

"No worry Karl!" he assured the wolf. "Be back soon. Safer here in forest."

The pup whined and buried his face under his paws, feigning crying. Kevin laughed. "You be fine here, Karl."

Karl yipped, jumping up and licking Kevin's face in farewell. The beastman gave the wolf one last fond scratch behind the ears before turning to set off for Moonlight City Mintos.

A wolf's howl was all the mournful in the three mooned evening.

Duran wished – not for the first time – that he still had the Elementals' blessings to survive Bon Voyage's suicidal contraption as he took the 'Golden' Road to Maia. Thankfully the road was mostly devoid of the annoying creatures that populated it the last time he passed through. Trade between Maia and Forcena had slowly resumed, now that the bridge had been rebuilt. Sometimes Duran as well as others willing to offer their blades would travel with the merchant carts to defend against attacks from the odd monster that appeared.

He admitted that ever since the defeat of Archdemon, there hadn't been much for him. He was honoured that he had been recruited as one of the Knights of Gold, but there hadn't been much of a challenge left to occupy his time. His life was beginning to lack direction. Before, there was the aspiration to be one of the Knights of Gold like his father. Then there was the desire to defeat Koren, and then there was the quest to save the world. Now that all that was done, he had lost his drive. There were always the lesser that need protecting, but he suspected his heart wasn't into it as much as it used to be.

Quite frankly, Duran was itching to go fight this new evil. Hell, he was starting to wish he had Flammie's little drum, despite the fact he always got slightly sick whenever the dragon swerved to catch an air current. But the person with it was probably having fun with it, randomly scaring people as he dropped in from the cute dragon. Hawk had paid the Forcenan a little surprise visit, though when he'd left, Duran noticed the security of the castle was much tighter.

Patience, Duran, he told himself sternly. You'll get your chance.

But he couldn't deny the tingle of excitement that ran through her veins at being out and about again.

"Argh! I can't believe we have to save the world again!" Princess Angela of Altena raged, wishing she still had her magic to blast things with, not counting Ancient. Well, she could always smash things with her cane, but it didn't have the same level of satisfaction as when it connected with a certain irritating Navarrian's skull.

Altena had gotten colder ever since Mana had somewhat disappeared from their lives, but there was no way she was going to be sensible and give up prancing around in her skimpy red dress.

But it was so troublesome going globe-trotting again just because the world can't look after itself for ONE month. ONE freakin' month! Geebus, most heroes only have to save the world ONCE in their whole entire lives. And now that she thought about it, wasn't it only something like ten years ago when the world was in danger? AGAIN?

"Stupid world," she growled, grabbing her cane and preparing for the trip through the Sub-Zero Snowfields to Elrand. Fun.

"Oi, wake up!"

Kris felt someone take her shoulder and shake it violently. Rolling over, she looked up at...someone...and could only come up with an intelligent, "Ugh?"

A strangely dressed man, seeing that she was now awake, let go of her shoulder. "I don't think you've paid for that bed," he said, a you'd-better-pay-me-or-I'll-chuck-you-out look on his face.

Kris blinked away her grogginess from being woken up so early in the morning. Creasing her brow in confusion, she wordlessly reached in her pockets and withdrew some coins. "Will these pay for my stay?"

"Are you crazy?" the innkeeper – she assumed he was an innkeeper – said incredulously. "These coins aren't even luc!"

Kris had a really bad feeling about this. "Uh...Bye!"

With surprising speed, she threw her blanket over the resident innkeeper's head. By the time he had finished cursing and untangling himself from the sheet, Kris was long gone. The innkeeper simply shook his head in resignation and noted her down as yet another person who had skived on the bill.

Kris wandered around, not really sure where she was. One moment she was in a nice, grassy field with sunshine that hurt her eyes, the next she was in a bed in an inn. And it wasn't even one she'd been to. Now that she thought about it, this place was kinda harsh on her eyes too. Couldn't there be a place where the sun didn't shine so bright?

She kept her eyes and ears open, looking for information that would help her identify where she was, if not, help her figure out what to do here. Kris supposed her original skills wouldn't be welcomed here; she got the impression that people wouldn't appreciate having their savings stolen from them.

After talking to the odd person walking the streets doing their business, she quickly learnt she was in a small city called Jad. There was also something about Mana heroes and saving the world, but she didn't find much interest in the topic, having met other such heroes in her travels.

Bad news. She had no earthy clue as to where she was.

Kris' attention was drawn to large crowd in one area, people clapping to a beat. Pushing her way to the front of the crowd (maybe there were some advantages of being short), Kris was greeted by an exotic dancer. The dancing lady had dark skin and her chocolate eyes were lit by a gleam of amusement. Her long wavy hair swirled around her in time with the swish of her light coloured skirts. A small, yellow rabbit-like creature bounced with her, holding a tiny tambourine in its mouth. The little bits of metal jingled with the thumps of the rabbit thing, an accompaniment to the light footfalls of the dancer.

She watched in interest. The rabbit thing was beyond cute. Cute things were evil. They always plotted behind peoples' backs, aiming for world domination...

She was vaguely aware of applause from around her. Realising the woman had finished her performance, Kris raised her hands to join in the clapping, but hesitated. A twinge of pain from her hands reminded her of an old injury. Reluctantly, she lowered her hands.

Unconsciously, she found her thoughts drifting back to the past. Would her life be the better if she hadn't gotten the injury? Certainly now it was still very troublesome, but if it wasn't for it, she wouldn't have had to have a change of occupation. Then she wouldn't have met Roan and as annoying as he was, he'd shown her there was more to the world than just plain survival. But if she hadn't gotten the injury, then Blaine wouldn't have followed her and...

"Excuse me, but the show's already over."

Kris jerked in surprise, realising she had zoned out for no particular reason. "I'm sorry," she hastily said, seeing all the coins in the dancer's bowl on the ground, "I don't have any money on me."

The lady simply shook her head gave her a wide grin. "You seem lost."

Her, lost? No, she had lost someone. It wasn't the other way around.

"Go to Wendel," the dancer advised. "It's the place where the Goddess is closest to earth. The Priests of Light at the temple may be able to guide you to your path."

Kris tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Think of it as returning a favour to someone else who told me this," she replied with a wink. Even her weird rabbit seemed to give Kris an encouraging smile.

Kris nodded in appreciation. "Thank you," she whispered, the words sounding unfamiliar on her tongue.

The dancer smiled. "Don't sweat it."

Kris turned away, wandering aimlessly about the streets of Jad.

Good news. She had an inkling of where to go.

Well, she wasn't particularly familiar with the geography, meaning she had no idea where Wendel was. Maybe she'd have to go steal a map or something...

The new Mana Goddess closed her metaphysical eyes. The land had to heal much, the blood of the fallen people in the time of crisis having long seeped into the soil. But there was a taint walking among the people, a splinter preventing the earth from healing. The taint could possibly lead to an infection, causing all her hard work to unravel. She couldn't allow that.

She hoped the heroes would have the strength to pull the splinter out. Their blessings on their previous quest had faded away along with the fading of Mana and couldn't be restored. Not yet.

Wendel. The taint was coming Wendel too.

Author Notes: Okay, I'm a flighty writer, and really, Kris is meant to be from my original fic. Please don't hate my OC just because she's an OC. And I'm not planning to pair her with any of the SD3 chars. There's no description of how she looks like yet. That'll be coming in the next chapter. Basically this is meant to be an experimental bit of writing, trying out suspense and character development. Hawk and Carlie will be in the next chapter. Review, or else the rabite will bite you!