A/N: Wow…it's been a long time, hasn't it? -__- () so sorry. *sigh* … anyway … I think I've finally finished the conclusion of Chicken-Kel and the Beanstalk… whether or not Selatyriaf is continued is up to you… if I get lots of reviews begging me to keep going with the insanity, then I'll think about it and hope that my creative juices start flowing again (b/c they hadn't been the last three months or so… x__x) and now: on with the show!

…actually… little PS here: the stupid HTML is deciding to be annoying…and doesn't want to cooperate with me, so I'm sorry if everything is all cramped … the spaces decided that they didn't want to be there so they just up and left as soon as I uploaded this chapter.

Disclaimer: If I didn't own anything last time…do you think I own anything now? Noooo…

Presenting, for your reading pleasure, the Conclusion to Chicken-Kel and the Beanstalk!!! (finally.)

… Chicken-Kel and Dom left the secluded corner where the harp was still singing silently to itself and resumed their hunt for "that stupid hen" as Kel called it. The sleeping giant let out a particularly loud snore and startled the snoozing hen, who let out a squawk. It unwound itself from its curled up position on a pouch of gold and peered around. It didn't even have time to chip before Dom tossed a sack over it and hauled it out of the room. When they reached the landing at the top of the endless stair, Kel and Dom attempted a high-five … and failed, foiled by Kel's lack of fingers yet again.

The two hen-nappers dashed down the stairs and out the castle gate, past a flabbergasted Buri who yelped and went to wake the Giant. Chicken-Kel and Dom reached the top of Neal-the-Beanstalk who was still standing there impatiently, muttering to himself. They fell to their knees (A/N: do chickens have knees?) on the ground … err … cloud … panting, and prayed that the Goddess would appear before Raoul got to them. They were in luck – she appeared in a puff of sparkly blue smoke … and a bathrobe. "Excuse me!" she huffed and winked out again, to reappear moments later, decently clad. "Well?" she looked down her perfect nose at them. Dom held up the wriggling bag. The hen poked her head out and looked at Dom, who pointed behind her. She swiveled her head the other way, saw the Goddess, and ducked back into her sack. "My hen!" the Goddess gushed, snatching the bag from Dom.

Kel glared and motioned at Neal and herself with her wing. Dom nodded, "Yeah. We fulfilled our part of the bargain – now you do yours! Make everything normal again."

The Goddess signed, clasping the bag that held her precious hen to her. "As I did not do this to begin with, I do not know if it is within my power to undo … but I will try."

They heard giant footsteps thundering toward them as the Goddess closed her eyes and raised her hands. There was a faint shimmer in the air and with a *pop* Kel was back to normal. A yelp and a *thud* from Raoul's direction told them that he, too, had changed. Hopefully, Kel and Dom looked toward Neal …

… who wiggled his leaves in annoyance. "I'm feeling just a little left out over here!"

Kel giggled and then jumped when the cloud under her rumbled unexpectedly. She and Dom looked at the Goddess questioningly. She was beginning to fade out when she replied faintly, "None of this is real. You asked me to put everything to rights … and now everything is coming apart …" she trailed off and disappeared completely in a blue haze …

… just as a hole opened up in the cloud beneath Kel. She shrieked and tumbled downwards. Dom grabbed her hand and tried to hold on to it as the clouds dissolved around him. Neal squealed (A/N: haha … it rhymed!) and returned to his normal form at last. Kel's finger's slipped and Dom snatched her other hand just as he lost his hold on the first one and …

… Kel sat up with a start, blinking rapidly in the dim candle light. Bleary-eyed, she scrutinized the room around her, noting with amazement that she was in her own room at Mindelan. Belatedly she realized that someone still held her hand, and that she was hanging on to it for dear life. She looked down to see Dom's dark head lying on her quilt and the rest of him sitting on her floor. Thoughtfully, she pondered how can that be comfortable … and then, I wonder how long he's been there… A thought struck her as she lay back down on the pillows. She sighed contentedly and murmured, "You didn't let me go…" as she closed her eyes again and slept the sleep of the exhausted.

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When she awoke again, the space beside her bed was empty, but her mother was bustling about her room opening the heavy drapes to let some light in. "Mama?" she asked, like a little girl again.

Her mother turned, "Oh, you're finally awake. Good. We'd though you were planning on sleeping forever. You had an extremely high fever and were starting to worry us."

Just then, Neal walked in, carefully carrying a steaming mug of something that smelled bitter and a bowl of broth. "Neal?" she asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

He walked over to her and put his tray on the table by her bed. His green eyes were glossy and rimmed with black circles. "Nursing you back to health, as it seems."

"Just how long have you been here?" Kel wanted to know.

Her friend motioned for her to scooch over and he sank into the space she vacated wearily. "I got a note just after Midwinter saying you were very ill and hadn't woken in two days. I rode here as fast as I could, and have been here nearly a week since then. Now sit up and drink some of this tea. We need to get some fluid back in you."

Kel obliged as she digested what he'd said. "I've been asleep for a week?" she yelped.

Neal grinned, "…and three days. You were delirious half the time, muttering things about cows and beanstalks."

Kel sipped her tea and her dream started coming back to her. She pictured Neal as the Beanstalk and chuckled into her mug. Neal made an inquiring motion at her, but she decided not to tell him that she'd dreamed that he was a vegetable. She feared the results.

"Well I for one am glad you're feeling better. Maybe we can all get a good night's sleep now." Neal remarked.

"We?"

Neal nodded. "Dom came when I wrote how badly you were doing. He's sat up with you when I couldn't prop my eyelids open any longer."

Kel's mother smiled, "We had to drag him into another room to get some sleep after he passed out in here…"

"Not without extreme protest on my part," came a voice from the doorway.

Kel's mother pulled Neal out the door with her, telling him that it was high time he ate some real food too. Neal stuck his head back in the doorway. "Just make sure she drinks all that broth. Can't have her getting dehydrated after all that work, now can we?" he said as a parting admonition to his cousin.

Dom nodded and turned back to Kel, who smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks for sitting up with me, even if I wasn't awake to appreciate it at the moment," she told him.

"Oh it was no problem at all," he replied. "What are friends for, after all?" 'Friends,' he thought as he sighed wistfully. Is that all we're ever going to be?

'Friends,' mused Kel as she yawned and reached for the broth. Is that all we're ever going to be?

Dom pulled the bowl toward him and handed it to her as he sat carefully on the edge of her bed. Pretending cheerfulness, he asked, "So, how are you feeling?"

"Glad to be awake," she joked, sipping the broth. Kel looked at him over the rim of her bowl. "You know, I had the strangest dream while I was sick."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. You were in it. So was Neal and my lord Raoul and Buri and Yuki and Shinko and Cleon, and…" she grimaced, "and Joren."

Dom made a face. "So what was this strange dream about?"

Kel laughed. "Everything was so mixed up, like something out of an old, old story. I was a chicken…"

"A chicken? Really? Wow."

"That wasn't the weirdest bit, though. Neal was a beanstalk…and we climbed it and found a giant's castle where Raoul and Buri lived… but Raoul was short, and wouldn't eat any meat." Kel giggled. "But when we found the Goddess's hen for her, she put things back to normal, and the clouds started to fall apart and I slipped…" she trailed off.

Dom looked at her questioningly.

"…but you grabbed my hand and wouldn't let me go. And when I woke up … you were still here …" she looked up at him. "I hadn't remembered that. It seems I owe you double thanks then, don't I?"

He took her empty bowl from her and set it down on the table, taking her hands in his own. "Haven't I gotten it through your head that I'm always going to be there for you, even when you don't particularly want me to be there or when you think there's no possible way for me to be with you?" he asked softly.

She looked down at their hands. "I'm just so used to doing everything myself," she said in a small voice.

Dom tilted her chin up so he could see her face and traced the tiny tear track with his finger. Kel shivered and he tugged up the extra blanket from the end of the bed, put it around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. He stayed with his arms wrapped around her for a while, her head on his shoulder, then asked softly, "Kel?" He peered into her face. She was sleeping. Not again, he thought wryly. He laid her gently down on her pillow and pulled the blankets up to her chin. Checking to be sure no one was coming, he bent down and kissed her forehead. Kel's lips turned up in a ghost of a smile and she gave a little sigh as she curled up in a more comfortable position. Dom took another extra blanket and settled down in the chair by her bed to wait, thinking he was about due for another nap himself.

…and that's how Neal found them when he looked in an hour later, wondering how Kel was doing. Sure took him long enough to admit he's crazy about her, he thought. Now how long will it take before he does something about it? He blew out the candles sitting on the table and left, shaking his head.

The End.

(for now…. *Erm grins madly at the computer and cackles*)

Well??? Was it worth the three month wait for the conclusion? *Erm grimaces* I'm not too fond of my ending…can't do all that mushy stuff all that well… *sigh* but it doesn't matter…I can revise it later when I don't have to worry about finishing Gulliver's Travels by the end of the week for my evil English class…

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Tell me what you think and if I should continue the story thread with other characters, other fairytales, and the possibility of more Kel/Dom scene-age.

TTFN!

~ Erm the Penguin ~

PS: Review!!!! See look at that lonely little button down there…won't you cheer it up by clicking it and leaving a message? It would really make the button's day (not to mention a certain little penguin who is starved for attention… hint, hint!)