Sorry this took so long to get out. My computer died so I've been having to use my mom's and this is the first time I've been able to get on to do anything with my story. I've also been busy preparing for my new job that I start on monday. Anyway, I hope you like it so far, and again, I'm sorry for the delay and will try to do better in the future. Thanks for everthing! =0)

Chapter Four - Questions and Answers

The three traveled in silence, all lost with in their own thoughts, trying to digest the events of the past hour, for some, longer. Vash looked at his new traveling companions and the flood of questions returned. He was about to open his mouth to speak when the unicorn beat him to it.

"I supposed your wondering who we are, where we came from, and how we got here aren't you?" Cyric asked.

Vash just nodded.

The drake, in his usual fashion, snorted, "Well we have some questions for you as well Vash, like where are we? What kind of miserable place is this, and who exactly are you?" The last word emphasized with another poke of the human's nose.

The human's eyes narrowed, "you know--"

"Fantus," the little drake supplied.

"Fantus, I'm getting really sick of your attitude. If I recall correctly I have been nothing but nice, and you guys fell on me remember?" Vash reminded him.

"She fell on you boy, not us." Snorted the drake.

Vash was about to respond to the bait when the unicorn stopped and reared, startling them both. When he landed, he gave a glare to each one, "Are we done now? All questions for both sides" looking at the drake who crossed his arms in a huff, "will be answered in due time. I think it is best to start with who we are, after all Fantus, it is his world." The drake mumbled something under his breath but said nothing more. "Thank you." said the unicorn. "Now Vash is it?" The human nodded, "What would you like to know first?"

Millions of questions popped into Vash's head. They began walking again. It took Vash a while before he finally was able to re-gain control of his jumbled thoughts. Finally he looked at the unicorn and said "The fire burner is Fantus," another snort, Vash winced at the flames, "and I heard him call you Cyric," the unicorn nodded, the human looked down at the limp body in his arms, "Who is she? And what happened to her to cause this much damage? I've never seen wounds like this ever before, and why is it possible for her to heal herself?"

Both creatures looked at the unconscious woman, then at each other. Vash waited in silence, as they seemed to be discussing something amongst themselves. Finally the unicorn nodded, the drake sighed and began talking.

"Her name is Jenna Saradinæ, daughter of His Majesty King Saradin of DragonDoon." Vash's eyes grew wide. He looked down at her and for the first time noticed a circlet of silver with two dragons holding a small ruby around her head. "You mean to tell me that she's a Princess?" he asked

"Well 'Princess' is just one among many other extravagantly useless titles." the drake rolled his eyes and nodded in response.

"Wow, its not every day you meet royalty on this planet, if ever. This is really cool! But please continue." Vash said with an over sized smile and too much enthusiasm for the drake's taste. But he figured he would humor the human that was saving his mistress' life.

Finding a more comfortable position on Vash's shoulder, the drake continued to answer the man's questions. "We, Cyric and I, are her guardians and constant traveling companions. One of the traditions of the dragons is to assign a drake to each new cub that is born. I was assigned to her. Cyric came later, she saved his life, but that's a whole other story. Any way..."

"Wait," interrupted Vash, "Did I hear you right in saying the traditions of dragons?"

"Yes"

"So that means that she's a..."

"Dragon, and that is why she can heal herself too, it's one of their gifts." supplied the drake. Holding up one clawed forepaw at the sight of Vash's stunned face "Don't ask me to explain it, besides it's not my place to tell you. She will, if she chooses too. And don't drop her!" Vash had by this time looked back down at her and looked as though at any moment she would change into a horrible monster and eat him. The drake's sharp reprimand brought him back to reality. With a guilty look he tightened his grip, with a resulting hiss from his charge.

The drake sighed "humans," and then re took his story telling pose. The unicorn snorted. Vash walked on in silence, secretly vowing to be even more protective. She's not human, like me. Maybe we are more alike than we know.

"Ahem. Are we ready to continue now?" asked an exasperated sounding drake.

"Sorry, please, continue." said Vash.

"Thank you." As the drake began once again, Vash noticed Cyric regarding him with a curious expression on the equine face. He chose to ignore it and looked straight ahead, concentrating on what the drake was saying.

"As to your second question," the drake and the unicorn exchanged glances, "we don't really have an answer."

Vash looked at the drake, "What do you mean you don't have an answer. You don't know how all this happened? What kind of guardians are you?"

"Look boy, it's not our fault that she ran the opposite direction from what she was supposed too! I told her it was a bad idea to go that way but does she ever listen to me?! NO-O! She had to go after Mirva all by herself, and then the tunnel caves in and we have to go around!" The little drake folded his arms with a foul curse and a growl that made Cyric and Vash both look at him with shocked expressions. The drake looked back at the both of them with a disgusted expression, "WHAT!?" Both man and unicorn looked up at the sky "Nothing." They both said in unison. The drake kept growling.

Cyric looked back at Vash and over the growls of the drake said, "All we can tell you is what we saw before and after we were separated from her." Cyric said.

Vash raised an eyebrow.

Again the drake and the unicorn exchanged looks; the unicorn flipped his mane and said to the drake "might as well."

Vash's eyes got really big as he looked from one creature to the other, "Would you two stop that?! It's un-nerving. I wish you two would stop being all mysterious about this and just tell me what the hell is going on!"

"Alright, alright! I'll tell you what we saw. The rest has to come from her, and believe me, she has a lot of explaining to do to us all" replied the drake.

Fantus took his pose again, Vash rolled his eyes. "Her father owned a stone that was very powerful. Some how a half demon named Mirva, stole the stone from the vaults of DragonDoon. We think it was an inside job and that that fool-"

"Fantus!" Cyric interjected.

"Right, anyway it was stolen. So being that she is one of the best warriors the Council has-"

"Our form of government" Cyric supplied at Vash's unspoken question.

"Would you let me tell this story! Or do you want to tell it instead?!" the drake yelled and shook his clawed fist at the unicorn. Vash flinched as once again, two little jets of flame shot out his nose. The unicorn said nothing and looked ahead. The drake nodded "That's what I thought! Anyway," he shot the unicorn a dirty look, Vash smiled at the antics of the little creature "as I was saying she is the best the council has, and being that she is also one of the best damn sorcerers on our world too, she was chosen to get it back.

So to make a long story short, we went on the quest and ended up at his dark fortress. Why evil beings have to have a dark fortress is completely beyond me," the drake had gone off onto another tangent.

Cyric whinnied and Vash started laughing. "Short stories never stay short when you are telling them do they my little friend?"

The drake shot them both dirty looks and puffed himself up. "We ended our quest at the demon's fortress." He continued as if the interruption had not occurred. Vash stifled another laugh and the unicorn shook his mane. "I took to the air and Cyric and Jenna circled the castle. I found a sewer grate on the eastern side of the castle, where the guards were minimal. Apparently Mirva didn't expect an attack from this side. I mind called them and we met at the entrance. Cyric was too big so he stayed behind to make sure we had a way to escape. Jenna and I entered the opening"

Vash made a disgusting face at the mentioning of traveling through the sewer.

Fantus saw it and replied, "Believe me, it's so much worse than it even sounds! So we waded through the muck when we came to a fork. We sensed Mirva's presence through the left fork and were about to go that way when suddenly she stopped, looked into the right fork, swore, and took off in that direction. I told her it was the wrong way and that we needed to go back but she wouldn't listen. She just kept running and-"

"Fantus we get it!" Both listeners cried in unison.

The drake mumbled something under his breath but continued, "So we ended up in the 'throne room,' and Mirva was waiting for us, with the stone." he shuddered at the memory. "Apparently Mirva had called her there and I hadn't even sensed it. She challenged him for the stone, they fought, she was winning, and then," the drake looked down and pointed at her chest, "that happened. For some reason she hesitated for a second. Mirva swung up and had I not warned her, he might have really killed her. She moved just enough so he caught her chest instead of her head. From where I was, and by the way she countered, it didn't look as though he had cut her as bad as he had. They kept fighting; parry, thrust, and block, with punching and kicking, flipping and dodging."

With each action described the drake felt he had to show Vash how it was done, his claws digging painfully into his shoulder each time. Vash gritted his teeth until the drake was done. He's so into this story that he might mistake me for the bad guy if I say anything. I would like to keep all my parts where they are.

The drake had finished reenacting the fight and had begun his tale again. "He kept pushing her towards a dark archway, and away from me and the stone. He seemed to have forgotten about me, so I snuck around and took the stone and began to follow them."

"Wait," interrupted Cyric, "you have the Dragon's Heart?"

"Yeah, its in my pouch. I didn't dare remove it or say anything till we got her to safety and knew that we would be alright."

"Thanks for telling me now Fantus! Here I thought we had totally failed!" snapped the unicorn.

"Well we didn't, I have it, its safe, she's safe, and we're alive thanks to this young man who I am trying to tell our story too. So if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to it!"

"Alright, I'll let you finish, but when we stop, you had better let me see it."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Can I continue?"

"By all means."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Vash had watched this exchange with a bit of confusion and amusement written on his face. Geez! This is like watching a tennis match! Good to know that this little guy doesn't just pick on me!

The drake continued where he had left off. "Just as I reached the mouth of the tunnel, the tunnel, followed by the room, began to collapse. I don't know if she killed him or if he did that to keep the stone and me where I was. If it was the latter he did a bad job because I got out through a window before the whole roof went. I found Cyric, he was battling against some guards, so I went to help. Once they were gone, we went searching for her." The little drake looked down at his hands and his voice got quiet. "I don't know how long we searched. We honestly thought she was dead, or captured. The fortress was falling apart, the land around it was sinking, and we had no idea of knowing if she was still within." He looked at the unicorn, "we called to her with our minds, trying to find her with our thoughts, but something was keeping her from us. By chance we were at the edge of the old forest on the north side when we heard her scream and felt her presence once more. I flew as fast as I could and Cyric ran. We got to her just has Mirva's minions were about to tear her to pieces. It wasn't till later that I saw she had been shot through the shoulder with an arrow. I distracted them and somehow she got onto Cyric's back. Then we all just ran for our lives."

Vash let out a low whistle, and his breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Man, you guys have been through the ringer! But all that still doesn't explain how you three got here, and why you would choose this dry planet of all places."

"That's the part I was hoping you could tell us. We don't know." Replied the drake.

Vash looked from one to the other, and then back down at her. "Do you think maybe she knows?"

The two creatures exchanged shocked glances. "We never thought of that." The drake then looked at her, then back at the unicorn. "Do you think," he began to muse out loud, "That maybe she got a hold of one of the council members?"

"Why?" asked Vash. "What good would that have done?"

"If she could get a hold of one them then they could contact her father and hope that he could do something to help her." said Cyric.

"And us! I didn't really relish the idea of being torn apart by Hell Hounds" replied the drake.

"Hell Hounds?!" squeaked Vash.

Seeing the discomfort this caused his new companion, Fantus smiled an evil smile and continued, "Or being disemboweled by hobgoblins, eaten by trolls or tortured by-"

"Enough Fantus! You forget that the poor boy is carrying Jenna! You're going to make him pass out!"

Sure enough, Vash had turned a shade of gray and was wobbling back and forth. "Hobgoblins? Trolls? Torture!" What the hell kind of place are you from!"

"A place that is never boring my human friend. Never boring indeed." The drake looked up at the wall of rock they had just come too. "I think I'll scout ahead and see if I can't find a place to make camp." He launched himself into the air, much to Vash's discomfort. "Stay here! I'll be right back!"

Cyric flipped his mane; a movement Vash was starting to realize was the unicorn's version of a sigh. "Well, you never answered my question. How did you get here?"

The unicorn looked at him, and then tilted his head so he could watch the spiraling blot that was the drake. "We were cornered on a cliff. I couldn't jump the spans; I didn't have the strength to after a run like that. I had felt a serge of power come from her, but didn't know what it was. You could have put your finger on it though. Anyway, a few moments later I felt an immense power coming from below the precipice. I knew of only one thing that could cause that much ethereal force. So I turned, and I jumped, and sure enough, there was a portal, a tare into time, taking us from our doom, to well for all we knew, our doom. Fortunately, we landed on you."

If the unicorn could have smiled and put a hand on Vash's shoulder he would have at this point, Vash was sure of it. "Thanks," he said dryly.

"Vash, seriously, thank you for all that you have done for us. With out you, she may not have survived."

The unicorn's liquid brown eyes were looking directly into his. For some reason this made Vash uncomfortable. He shifted his weight in the sand and looked down at the woman in his arms.

Before he could reply "I found a place!" came the shout from above. Vash looked up. "Over this way! Follow me!" Fantus called down to them.