Showing off ivory fangs, a black ogre wolf jumped into the center of the reforming worms, scattering the mass and barely dodging a massive flash of black and white.

Kohaku's massive form was back on all fours and was whipping his tail indiscriminately. A sinister black light bled from his eyes which he kept squinted in the bright light of the afternoon sun. With no pupils, Raider couldn't tell if the dragon could see the tiny bug bodies or if they were just too scattered.

"Kohaku!" Raider cried, jumping over the tail that had swept towards him.

The dragon continued his frantic swings, though any worms that were left now seemed to be wiggling their last.

Raider gave a half-hearted curse under his breath. "Haku!"

A set of long pointed ears swiveled in the wolf's direction as the rest of him stilled. Working his jaw up and down, the dragon appeared to be trying to speak. Only strange growls came from his vocals.

Walking quickly up to the dazed dragon, Raider raised himself onto powerful hind legs and grabbed the nose of the dragon in his powerful jaws.

Dragons instinctively hate anything that controls their movements. Haku's body jerked with seizure-like movements, but the black beast closed his mouth a little tighter. Finally, when the dragon lowered his head closer to the ground, Raider relaxed his jaw slightly but still kept his hold. It took several moments, but the black light faded.

"Raider?" came the mental call. Raider looked at the brute whose eyes were now a familiar light green.

"Are you ok?"

"Yea, you mind letting go?"

Never hesitating, the shadowy monster released his captive.

"Mind if I ask?" the typically not-so-sociable Raider questioned. I've been around Chihiro too much.

Kohaku gave a slight nod. Geez, you'd think a moki spirits were using my brain for a drum! Oh my head throbs.

"Why did a worm spirit go after you?"

"I'm not sure. He was asking too many questions and I became suspicious."

"Well, worm spirits are typically fairly docile, but if it thought you were going to kill it…."

"Chihiro!" he gasped, interrupting Raider.

Utterly horrified, it was Raider's turn to whine as the dragon scooped him up with two talons and flew him back towards the Mara's den.

"No! Kohaku!" he half-growled, half-whined.

It was one heck of a ride. The dragon soared as close to the earth as possible up the steep mountainside and continued his hectic flight straight into Mara's den.

Raider couldn't remember a time when he'd ever needed to pass a meal up (like wolves do for their pups…). He couldn't remember vomiting from a sickness. However, Haku's reckless flight gave him the repugnant experience at least twice. I swear I'll never eat anything green again! Wait, what did I eat that was green? At that thought, the wolf almost churned again, but the dragon set him down on the floor.

The nauseous beast didn't even look up.

Kohaku had set his friend at the entrance of the cave, even he was not distracted enough to tune-out the wolf's distress. Continuing on, the dragon increased his speed, tracking the smell of a very familiar dragon and a certain other female. If Mara so much as pulled a single hair from her manegrr…

Rounding one of the last turns in the tunnel, Haku barely registered that the scent of the two dragons led him to the deepest chambers in the den, the treasure room.

He dropped to the earth when he finally entered the room.

There was his mother,

there was Chihiro,

both were contentedly chatting next to a roaring fireplace and grooming each others' manes.


( Slightly Haunted ): Ok, I'm tired! Hopefully I'll scrape up enough energy for one more chapter today…..if not, then Monday…..BTW: "moki spirits" will be probably be used later...hehehe ;)

KatzEye: no, not quite 'blind'. You'll just have to wait...also, consider that Haku was stuck underground for six freaking years...

Tai'sGirl345: LoL, yea, I like to drag things out. Keeps everyone in suspense (insert the ooooo's and ahhhh's). I'm so happy to have more people admit they read this stuff!