A Very Merry Christmas To You
Chapter Four
The Orb Of The Black Hunchback Dragon
Jet's mouth dropped. "The orb of a what!"
Mr. Igans continued to smile. "The orb the Black Hunchback Dragon." He stepped closer to the fearless drifter. "Can you get me what I want?"
Jet smirked. "Yeah, I'll get you your stupid orb. Just tell me more about this "dragon."
Mr. Igans scratched his head. "Um...let me see...hmmmmmm..." Pointing a finger in the air, he started to point South. "Well, the dragon lives South from here, and it's not that far from here, maybe about a 25 mile trip. Riding your horse, it won't take you that long. All I know is that this dragon ain't the usuall Dragon. I hear that this dragon can multiply, using the gem that's somewhere on it's hunchback."
"Where can I get the orbs?" Jet asked, just wanting to go now so he can get started before Virginia realizes that he's gone. "Is it like by the dragon, or do I have to kill it first in order to get what you need?"
"Who said you had to kill the dragon?" Mr. Igans said forwning. "It only attacks when the the thing or person attacks first. Oh no my dear boy, this is not your average dragon."
"Then why would it multiply?"
"I have no idea." Mr. Igans replied dreadfully. "But it's not for a defense skill or an attacking skill. People who venture never return though. But I highly doubt that this dragon ate them. Nope, has to be some magical esence thingy or somethin'."
"You still haven't answered my question." Jet said in a rushing tone. "And okay fine, I won't hurt this thing or kill it. But how the hell do you expect me to get the damn orb?"
"Dunno." Mr. Igans answered. "Maybe you need to do something in order to get it, or something else maybe."
"So you expect me to figure this out meself? You positively have no idea where the orb is or how I can get?" Jet was angry. He was supposed to go through all of this trouble just for some stupid orb that he had no idea how to get? Maybe he should just find something else for Virginia. But then he feared on how disappointed she'll look if he gives her the wrong gift, or a gift at all. Isn't there anything he can do right?
"I'm sorry, but that's all the information I have." Mr. Igans said apologozing. "If you think it's too hard, then we can just forget about it-"
"NO!" Jet cried out all of a sudden. Looking around hoping that nobody will stare at him, like what Mr. Igans was doing right now. "I'll get it, just don't even think about selling it to anybody else. Or you'll never see the day of Christmas." Without a word, Jet left, and was heading towards the barn to get his horse. He just wanted to get this over with.
"Have a Merry Christmas Jet!" Was the last thing Mr. Igans said before Jet disappeared into Filgaia.
Virginia lied on her bed, just thinking about what she said to Jet before he left. Had she been too harsh? Or did she really need to tell him this? Perhaps it will help Jet think about what he says to her, or does to her before it's too late? Rubbing her stomach, she winced at the pain that was spreading through her whole body. Jet had kicked her very hard, and she still hadn't healed from it yet. Peering at her bare flesh of her stomach, there was a huge bruise right above her navel.
"Oh well," Virginia said to herself, "atleast he didn't break my ribcage or something else." Needing some fresh air, she hopped out of her bed and headed downstairs in order to go outside.
The Baskar Colony had done a very good job at decorating for Christmas. I should come here more often! Virginia thought happily to herself as she looked around, trying to think of what birthday present Jet might want. Walking down the narrow streets, she did a little bit of window shopping, before deciding which store to go into.
After what seemed like hours, Virginia finally found the perfect store for Gallows and Clive, but none for Jet. Walking out of the store, she put Clive and Gallow's presents together for the time being. Walking back towards the hut, she nearly ran into a plae and horrified Gallows.
"Virginia help me!" Gallows cried and jumped behind her. "Granny won't stop chasing me! Help me!"
Shrugging Gallows off, she turned to face him. "And what have you done now to your grandmother?" Virginia asked sighing. Do those two ever show love for eachother?
"She's mad at me for spending all my hard working gella that I earned today for Clive, you, Kaitlin, Shane, Catherine, and the sulky punk himself." Gallows explained.
"Why would she be mad at you for that?" Virginia asked, still confused.
"Well, since you and Clive still have their space o work, i already finished my up. And that means i don't have any money to get Granny something!" Gallows shrieked. "And she's furious that I never thought to get her a gift!" Gallows paused. "And I was wondering if..." He stopped and started to use the old puppy dog face on her.
Virginia started to laugh. "Alright alright! I'll can give you some money to buy Halle's gift! Just let me finish up my Christmas shopping."
Gallows stared at her. "What! You already did your chores?"
The young woman shook her head. "I have about twenty thousand gella that I've been saving since we started this journey. You know, just in case we needed an emergency money situation. Like Christmas, and in your case."
The Baskar opened his mouth to say something in shock, but was cut off by Virginia's giggles.
"All I need to do is buy Shane, Kaitlin, Catherine's presents." Virginia reassured. "Oh, and Jet's!"
"What!" Gallows looked really shocked.
"I know I know, that's a lot of people but I'll hurry up!" Virginia quickly said.
"No, no, no, no!" Gallows laughed shaking his head. "I mean you haven't bought Jet's gift yet? I expected that he'd be the first one on your Christmas list." He let out a slient snicker.
"Oh, it's just really hard to find out what Jet likes and-" She stopped and looked at Gallows more carefully, who was looking like he was about to explode in laughter. Realizing what he meant, she turned a brilliant shade of pink. "Cut it out Gallows! I do not like Jet!" But her blushes were just getting darker and larger which caused Gallows to laugh even harder.
But he did not stop laughing. To make Virginia's matters worse, he started to skip around her and making googily eyes towards her. "Oh I'm going to start hanging misletoe around the colony! Maybe the punk's present to you is a big smack on the lips under the misletoe! I can just here you saying "Oh Jet, I love you-"
BAM!
Feeling the wind knocked out of him, he looked at Virginia in pain who was towering over him, growing angrier and angrier by the second.
Man, girls can be so dangerous when you joke around with them!
Note to self: Never joke around about her and the punk with Virginia listening!
"IF-YOU-SAY-ANYTHING-ABOUT-ME-AND-JET-ONE-MORE-TIME..."
"Okay! Okay!" Gallows cried holding his hands to cover his face, or more likely to protect it. "You win! You win! Just spare me of being beaten up!"
Virginia started to cool down, and helped Gallows up, who was still flinchin when Virginia reached out to him. "Okay Gallows, no more jokes, so more beats." Gallows nodded, and started to walk away. But just as he took the first five steps, Virginia called him back.
"HEY GALLOWS!"
He turned around to look at Virginia. "YEAH?" he yelled back.
At that point, Virginia started to blush, "If you don't mind me asking, where did you get Jet's present?"
Gallows tried to laugh, for his sake, and replied, "I can't tell you or else you'll copy me! But now that you mention presents, I think Mr. Igans has some nice presents to sell. Maybe he can help you out!"
Virginia started to pout. "Gallows, I won't copy you! But if you're that uptight, I'll go talk to Mr. Igans then." She waved good-bye, and started to skip away.
"Whew, " Gallows said reaching into his pocket and lifting up Jet's present. "I think she'll kill me for getting him this, but all well." Shrugging, he turned back and headed toward his house.
Hmmm...why wouldn't Gallows tell me what he got for Jet? Virginia wondered as she searched for Mr. Igans. He had better bot have gotten something that includes pictures of Women! God, can't Gallow's head ever stay out of the gutter? Everything here in the stores had the most ingenious presents, only she didn't know if Jet would like it. Come to think of it, the only thing that Jet ever likes is gella, or somethin to sell to get gella. There was never anything else in his life but gella.
Still thinking, she didn't even notice she had bumped into someone. Hearing their gasp, she quickly snapped out of her daze. "Oh my gosh!" She said helping the person up. I can be a real clutz if I think too much! "Are you okay?"
The man got up, and shook the dust off his arms. "It's alright, just be more careful next time." Looking at Virginia, he let out a huge grin. "Say, you're Virginia Maxwell right?"
Taking a closer look at the man, she finally realized who she bumped into! "Mr. Igans! Hi! Yeah, my names Virginia. I was just looking for you!"
He lifted an eyebrow. "You were? Are you here to buy one of my collections?" He quickly left for a second, then came back the next carrying a mighty heavy trunk. Laying it down by a table, he asked, "So what do you want to by missy?"
Virginia let out a sigh, "I really don't know. I'm just here to look around. Gallows said you had some fine presents, so I figured I'd take a look."
"Great!" Mr. Igans said in delight. Lifting the trunk open, Virginia gasped at how much stuff he had. A lot of them were expensive, but she'll manage. Looking around, something had caught her attention completely.
"What is that?" She asked softly.
"What's what?"
"That." Virginia pointed to it.
Trying to find out what she was pointing at, he let out a gasp. Then a snicker. heheheh, this is going to be good. "Oh, you like that?"
"Very much!" It may be a little girly, but Jet would love it! She tried to rephrase that, I mean, probably want to sell it! "I would like to buy it!" Virginia exclaimed. "How much?"
"Well, it's kinda not for sale, on the count that somebody is trying to earn some money for it." Mr. Igans replied. "And besides, this is more of a woman's thing, don't you think?
"Of course not!" Virginia protested. "Just give it a better coloure, and it'll be perfect. And the person who I want it to go to would like it a lot. I really need it for him."
Mr. Igans shot a look at her. "Him?"
"Yes, it's a guy. Jet Enduro. Know him?"
Um...let me think...nope, no, never heard of him." Yet he let out a sly smile. "I don't know if I should give this to you..."
Virginia felt very bad at being very annoying, but she needed to buy it! "Oh please please sir!" I'll give you extra! Just tell me how much."
"15,000 gella. Plus extra, that would be 18,000 gella."
Virginia nodded, pulling out her 20,000 gella. "Got it." She got out everything she had and spilled it on to the table. Mr. Igans looked at her in awe.
Taking the gift and wrapping it nicely, he handed it to her. "You have a good Christmas now." He smiled at her, and waved her a good-bye as she skipped along the streets and headed towards Gallow's house.
Mr. Igans, however knew that he's a dead man when that silver haired drifter returns. But he shrugged and went back to sellling his expensive trinkets.
Jet galloped his way South, hoping it wouldn't be farther than what that bastard told him. He oh so desperately needed to hurry. If Virginia found out where he was, or where he went, she'll probably come after him. Shuddering at the thought, he made his horse run faster.
Meeting a couple of monsters on the way, he hoped they wouldn't be too big. On the count he didn't really bring supplies with him, and he doesn't have his whole team with him. "Aw man, now I think I need my team to be with me so that I can defeat a couple of demons? Argh! Come on Jet! Stop acting like a wussie!" Killing all of the demons that were in his way out of anger, he quickly galloped past all of the other ones. It was almost nightfall. Virginia was bound to notice that he wasn't there.
After about another hour, Jet finally reached a land that looked completely deserted. All he could see was a cave.
"Huh, that must be where the dragon must be." Jet said to himself as he got off his horse to look around. Scanning the area for demons, he finally noticed that there wasn't a sould in sight. "Atleast that Igans guy was right that this place wasn't dangerous." But as he got closer to the cave, it started to look creepier. "Well, hopefully."
Stepping into the cave, he saw that it was a lot different than the outside. On the count the everything looked like a black gemstone. Walking around, he looked up and down to see the marvelous work of art. Touching the walls, he gasped. The were as cold as ice. Basically, it was really cold in the cave. Warming up his arms, he walked faster in order to find this dragon faster.
Walking further and further into the cave, Jet noticed that this cave started to get narrow and darker. Searching in his pack, he finally found a match. But when he lit it, it blew out at the very same time. "Huh, that's weird." He stated. Taking another match, he lit it. But like the same, it went out again.
"Damn it!" Jet cursed.
It took about ten tries until Jet finally knew that there was no way of making this cave get any lighter.
Or any warmer. He thought to himself while shivering.
After walking a little bit longer, he bumped into something. "What the hell?" He cried and jumped back. Looking at the wall, he noticed the same drawing he saw back there. And sure enough, Jet saw what was wrong.
"UGH! I've been walking in circles! AGH! Now I don't even know where I'm going!" Kicking the wall, he felt a loud rumbling.
And that's when the ground fell beneath him.
"Hey Clive, have you seen Jet?" Virginia asked coming down from her bedroom. I can't seem to find him anywhere."
"I'm sorry Virginia, but I haven't." Clive replied. He was sitting on the table reading a book, and sipping a cup of tea. I have not seen him since breakfast."
"Which was like twelve hours ago!" Virginia whined and plopped down on a fluffy chair. "He could be anywhere!"
"Hey Ginny, Clive." Gallows said cheerfully as he walked out of the kitchen apparently snacking on Shane's leftover cooking. "What's the problem Ginny? You looked depressed." He sat down by Clive, and gave her a worried look.
"It's nothing Gallows." Virginia answered, quite tired since she spent the rest of her day working for gella and searching for Jet. "I can't seem to find Jet anywhere though. It's like he disappeared! Have you seen him?"
"Uh...not recently." Gallows said. "The last time I saw him he was in the barn. He seemed to be in rush or something."
Virginia quickly sat up. "Oh no! I wonder if he left! Did I hurt his feelings that bad at breakfast! Has he left? Is he gone? I hope he's not mad at me!" She quickly ran out the door, at the verge of tears. Clive and Gallows quickly followed their distressed leader.
"Ow...my freaking head." Jet mumbled as he dusted some of the stone off him. What a fall. It was like the pain wouldn't end. "I hope I haven't been out too long." Getting up slowly, he realized he was in another part of the cave. "Well atleast I'm not going around in circles any more."
"Your the first one who has actuallt made it here. Nice one." A voice called out in the darkness.
Jet reached for his ARM, but then the voice called back.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You don't want to see me angry."
Jet listened, and let his gun drop. "Who are you?" He called out.
Looking toward his right, he saw a black dragon emerge out of the darkness. It was very large, and had a huge hump on it's back, with a huge garnet gem on it's back. It's eyes were a golden yellow, and it had spikes running along it's back. "I am the last of the Black Hunchback Dragons, the healers and bringers of this earth. Kill me, and so will your life." Help me, and you will be rewarded."
"Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk..."Jet stepped back a little, but then finally spoke. "I need something of yours."
"Hmmm...I see. And what is it that you want?"
"One of your orbs." Jet answered, fearing what the dragon may say.
"Ahhhhh, you mean this garnet gemstone on the my back?"
Jet stepped closer, and took a great look. It appeared that this "gem", had a full golden circle around it. "That's the one."
"Well then, you may not have it."
Jet sent the dragon a venomous glare. "And why the hell not?"
The Dragon's nostrils started to flare. "Because this thing gives me all of my powers. If I gave it to you, then I would be a weak and powerless dragon like so many others."
Jet nodded in an understanding way, but he wasn't going to give up now. "I see, but I still want it." He confirmed.
"OH NO!" Virginia cried. "His horse is gone! So that means that he's gone!" She let out a bawl and ran back to the house.
"Damn that punk!" Gallows yelled and kicked the wall, which made all of the horses glare at him. "First he hurts our leader, then he makes her cry! Than stupid, heartless, meaningless, damn-"
"Gallows! Please!" Clive shouted back. "Jet may have a good reason for leaving. We must not draw ourselves into conclusions."
"WHAT!" YOU'RE ACTUALLY STICKING UP FOR THAT HEARTLESS BASTARD!" Gallows cried.
"No I'm not," Clive said firmly, "but we need to understand that maybe Jet may be doing something right now that doesn't involve running away. Jet's actions are inexcusable, but we must not get too ahead of ourselves."
Gallows sighed in defeat. "You're right Clive." He said. "It's just, I can't help it! I hate when are leader cries or is in pain. And Jet is the cause for both!"
"I know, I know." Clive answered back. "Let's just go back to the hut, and comfort Virginia."
"Yeah, and pray to god that Jet comes back." Gallows added.
Sighing once again deeply, the two of them headed back towards the hut, not knowing why Jet had left.
"I'm sorry human, I cannot let you." The dragon said. "Why must you have it so badly."
"I need it to buy a gift for someone." Jet answered.
"Oh, I see. Ah yes, your human holiday is coming up. What's it called again?"
"Christmas."
The Black dragon slowly stomped up to the drifter, and lowered his back down. "Take it." He demanded.
"What!" Jet asked completely dumbfounded. "You finally say yes because it's Christmas!"
"No, I'm asking you to because you need to learn a lesson." The dragon replied softly.
Jet was beyond confused. "And what lesson is that?"
"The true meaning of Christmas." The dragon said.
"Why do you suddenly know everything about Christmas?"
"I have my ways."
"And what ways are that?"
"I'll show you if you want me to live."
"How can I make you live?"
"By not taking out the orb."
Jet looked hurt. He traveled all this fucking way, to hear he can't have the orb? What the hell is wrong with this world? He just stood there for a while...and said nothing.
The dragon looked at him for the longest time...
Suddenly he whipped his tail and crushed the wall behind him. "Go." It ordered.
Almost looking like he was going to cry, Jet left silently. Jet was soooo hurt, it wasn't even funy. Now he had no gift to give Virginia... it was like the world crushed beneath him. Without warning, he heard the dragons voice behind him.
"Take this with you." Something flew in the air, and Jet caught it. Looking down at it. His eyes grew sullen, and with confusion. When he looked back, the Dragon was gone.
And with that, he jumped on his horse, returning to the Baskar coloney with the mysterious trinket he held in his hands.
A/N:I love leaving you all to think about what's gonna happen next! School's soooo hectic, I didn't even think i was gonna finish it! God. WELL, here it is. enjoy and write reviews. I know the dragon thing was werid, but who the hell cares? all well, chapter 5 is coming soon. ttul all l8er. PeAcE