The guests of honor swept into the ballroom, flanked by their entourage. Colors danced in the eyes of the village peasantry as the demi-gods and heroes of the Blessed Isle entered the room. Zoila's teeth bit close together as she noticed how all eyes in the room focused on Cynis Beverly, a beautiful redhead from a house known for its debauchery. Her armor fit her slender body perfectly, accentuating every feminine curve. Zoila suddenly felt like an awkward thirteen year old dressed in her plain house clothes when compared to this shining beauty. As much as her teeth grit together at seeing a woman who rivaled her beauty, her face softened as when she saw him. His body moved with a fluid grace as he swept into the ballroom. A smile flashed across his face, dazzling everyone present with its brilliance. He was introduced as Ragara Wesley. She felt a childish sense of pride as she noticed him glance around the dining area and dance floor appreciatively. A small voice in her head softly reminded her that he was used to much more extravagant accommodations than a small island nation could offer. However, that small voice was quickly overwhelmed by the sound of her heartbeat roaring in her ears.

Noticing that his friend had suddenly much more impressive things to focus her attention on, Olen's hands deftly moved around the place settings, moving a card here and there to guarantee him a place beside the Cynis woman. Unfortunately, as Olen's hands did their dance about the place cards, about three other men were engaged in the same dance. None of them was paying attention to their partners in the quest to sit beside Beverley and not take their eyes off her at the same time.

With a shake of her head, Zoila brought herself out of her momentary daze. She quickly shot a look at her compatriots to make sure that there were indeed, not acting as buffoons. To her surprise, not only had they managed to behave themselves, but she was looking at Wesley sitting across from her.

"Oh…hello."

"Hello there. I'm Ragara Wesley."

"Oh, it's very nice to meet you Mr. aaah…" Zoila struggled to remember how exactly you were supposed to address the Dragon Blooded. Oh, now why do they have to go flip flopping their names around. It really makes things so difficult.

A smile formed on Wesley's face. "You can call me Wesley, all my friends at home do."

"It's very nice to meet you Wesley. I've never met a demi-god before. It's such an honor."

Her eyes slowly stopped wandering away from Wesley's face to check on the others sitting near her. As the words poured out of his mouth, she nodded every once in a while, amazed at all the places he had been and all the places he would someday go. Oh, how I'd love to see the world like he has and will. He must be very talented if they already want to make him a governor. I wonder how good a dancer he is.

Olen found himself engrossed in a corner in a deep discussion with Beverly. His eyes traveled over her body once, then focused on her beautiful eyes. Oh, I hope she talks forever. Her voice is so wonderful. She's perfect; I wish they could stay forever, even if they are dragon blooded. His mouth moved fluidly as he spoke to her, mind not even paying attention to the flow of conversation. Than, as soon as he had started to talk, she smiled and raised a hand, "Thank you, Olen. You can go back to your seat now."

A slight wave of sickness washed over him as he looked around the ballroom, seeing people already starting in on their salad course. His head snapped around to see what was going on that he had missed and mumbled a soft excuse as he headed for the bathroom. Sitting with his head in his hands, his mind raced with questions. Where did the time go? What on earth was I talking to her about? Why can't I remember what the hell I was saying? Zoila is going to kill me if I fucked this one up. His mind quickly focused on Zoila, and how the tiara set gently among her curls, and how that Ragara man looked at her. He felt his muscles tense suddenly. Well, I may as well get back there and make the best of this.

Tetsu found himself with the pleasure of sitting beside Glenda, with whom he had had a rather interesting evening a few months back. A soft sigh of relief escaped his lips as she spent most of their conversation nodding politely and gently squeezing the hand of the man sitting beside her. Well, good to see that this didn't end up baggage that Olen warned me against.

Gnarr, on the other hand, found himself with a salad full of fresh, delicious mangoes set in front of him. All thoughts of how he was supposed to be behaving left him as his eyes focused on those delicate peach colored slices of heaven sitting in his bowl. Hands dipped in, dripping with juice and his lips sucked the first morsel into his mouth. Suddenly, he felt as if something was boring its way deeply into his flesh. His head snapped to the right to see what was going on and found himself face to face with the most irate look he had ever seen.

"Stop acting like an uneducated swine, you idiot," hissed Zoila through clenched teeth.

He wanted to grin and slurp another piece down. He wanted to get her nice new dress sticky with mango juice. Instead, he quickly wiped his hands off and set to eating with his fork, eyes focused downward sheepishly. He grumbled softly as he caught Zoila's voice going, "Oh yes, the tiara? It was a present from my father. Yes, the next course has things grown on my family farm. Tell me about the Blessed Isle; it must be magnificent to have lived there…"

"It looks as if dinner is winding down, my lovely Zoila. Would you care to dance?"

Her eyes lit up as if someone had told her she was going to be a princess. Her soft lips parted to except his invitation, but her voice had caught on something in her throat.

"That is, unless you are already here with something. That boy over there seems a little, well, upset that I am paying you so much attention," he suggested, his gaze slipping to Olen quickly.

"Olen? oh…no. I was just so excited you wanted to dance with me that I couldn't answer right away," She laughed softly to try and set Wesley's mind at ease. Her nervousness melted away as he favored her with a bright smile. Her head felt light and airy as she took his arm to be led onto the dance floor.

Every time her foot touched the floor as she clung to his strong arm felt as if it was being supported by a cloud. A delicate fog swam in her head as she gazed into his eyes, unable to believe that someone was actually asking her to dance. Her smile was no longer to hide any sadness at not being understood He knew, he had to know, what it was like. He understood what it was to have people think your life was perfect just because it looked that way. He knew what it was like to not want to talk to others about your problems because theirs were more important. His eyes could not be so intense, so determined when they looked into hers otherwise. Her heart wouldn't flutter like this if she wasn't being understood. Then his lips were against hers and her body hummed with excitement as she leaned against his well muscled chest, completely unaware of anything that was happening.

Things were, however, happening all throughout the dance floor. In fact, most faces at the party were turned to look, glare, gaze, ogle, or in some other way eye up the couple on the dance floor. In fact, a few of the village girls were so busy glaring and muttering darkly in Zoila's direction that even Gnarr's wit couldn't get them to calm down. Great, first she won't let me eat mangoes my way, now she's so busy snogging with a dragon blooded that these girls won't even talk to me, I should do something about this.

After jauntily approaching the dancing couple, he gently tapped Zoila on the shoulder. "Hey, I think you should come get a drink with me real quick, Zoila."

"Go away, Gnarr. I'm busy," growled Zoila through now gritted teeth.

"No really, I think it would be for the best, Zoila. All those girls over there are pretty jealous"

"Gnarr, if you don't go away right now…I swear, I'll…"

"Is this lout bothering you, dearest one?" interrupted Wesley, now also glaring daggers at the well-meaning Gnarr.

"No, he's just an idiot childhood friend who should learn some manners and get lost."

Gnarr just shook his head and beat a hasty retreat, realizing that nothing he was going to say would actually sway Zoila's opinion of what was good for her. He did, however, take the time to make some rather rude gestures in her direction about what she may or may not be doing with Wesley later.

Olen had also noticed Zoila. Muscles honed over years of swinging hammers over a forge tensed throughout his body. His eyes narrowed a bit before he realized what he was doing. What the hell is wrong with me? If that bitch wants to make an ass of herself over some stuff-shirted moron, she can go right ahead. Now…where can I find a blonde?

A few moments searching found Olen on the dance floor as well, arms around a village girl who seemed thrilled that Olen had asked her to dance. Olen had set his teeth and nodded every once in a while at her prattling on about something or other while he kept his eyes on her.

"Olen! Watch what you're doing…that's the third time you've stepped on my feet, you stupid klutz."

"I'm a klutz? Fine, you know what? You can go sit by yourself and mope. I'm the only one nice enough to take pity on you and ask you to dance. Why else would you be alone?" Olen hissed softly in her ear, watching her run back to her seat, a mist of tears veiling her eyes.

Tetsu just watched and wondered. I should be doing something. What…what do I do now? They all need me, and…shit. All the powers of the Sun, and I can't help any of them.

The dinner was winding down and the leader of the Dragon blooded entourage made his way to the head table, ready to make his proclamation. Zoila let Wesley lead her to where they could have a good view of whatever needed to be said. However, she found herself quite unable to pay attention as she felt a soft warm hand start to slowly caress her bottom.

"It has come to our attention that there has been a rash of pirate attacks in the area. They have razed quite a few islands in the area, and we are taking this island as our stronghold. We will be building a fort and barracks and stationing here to protect your island and the neighboring island nations."

The governor looked green. Olen, Gnarr, and Tetsu exchanged glances and swallowed nervously, wondering what would become of them now. They were anathema to these people, things worse than demons. And Zoila seemed to be perfectly friendly with at least one of them. They needed to do something, especially since they had a damaged pirate ship docked at their port. While the fountain being uncovered was explained away by the governor telling the dragon blooded that "this sort of thing happens every few hundred years," it was doubtful that it would be easy to explain away a pirate ship.

Zoila thought she saw the three boys approach the head dragon blooded, but worried about it less as Wesley swept her up into his arms for another dance.

A slow trickle of people out the door began to pick up as the night wore on. Soon, Zoila and Wesley were one of the only couples left. The boys had apparently left in favor of doing something or other, leaving her to sway gently in Wesley's arms.

"Well, it's getting late, my lovely. I should go back to the inn we're staying at. You could accompany me, if you wish."

Zoila noticed that something in his voice changed slightly. A small shiver went up her spine as she realized that perhaps Wesley wasn't so interested in her after all, and perhaps was after something else, though it would be interesting just to go see what he wanted to do with her. As her reason started to prevail, the words, "I should go home." started to form on her lips. Something inside her beautiful little head snapped. She had to have him. She had to have him in bed with her, inside her, all over her. She needed it. She needed whatever anyone had available. "I thought you'd never ask."