Disclaimer: Don't own nuthin' o' Monster Rancher, though de monsters be me own.


An Angel's Light

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

Squall smirked to himself as he launched another rock at the huge training gadget before him before growling in satisfaction at the sight of the large rock striking the Target's center. Squall nodded to himself before picking up another stone in his clawed paws. Chucking it with all his Garu might, Squall growled once more and picked up another rock while looking out towards the lake. Squall soon became distracted at watching the person standing by the lake and failed to notice that he had thrown the rock straight up until said rock impacted quite heavily on his furry head.

"OW!"

Startled slightly out of her training regime, Tohru looked over first towards Squall, who was now holding his large head in pain while wriggling on the ground. Chuckling to herself quietly, the Mocchi purebred looked over to where Squall had, most likely, been looking earlier while still exercising with the Life Blade in her pink paws. However, the sight that awaited the young Mocchi was more than enough to cause her steady beat to lessen until the paddle-like Life Blade slowed to a stop.

"Chi…?"

Near the two small monsters, Brillig and Van were doing quite well with their training regimes. Van, a purebred Tiger, was trotting at a comfortable speed in his training gadget, a Thunder Mac (which basically resembles a giant hamster wheel), while his purebred Dragon friend, Brillig, was riding on the docile Rodeo gadget. While trotting on his gadget, Van's canine senses drew his eyes away from the wheel towards the lake much like Squall and Tohru, and, like Squall, Van ended up messing up his training. Because he was not watching his front paws, Van failed to notice that he had planted his right paw a little too close to the center. Thus, when he started to move his left paw, his left foreleg bumped into his right and caused the Tiger to fall ungracefully. Worse yet, the wheel, already at full speed thanks to Van, kept spinning at such a speed that the adult Tiger found himself literally pushed down into the wheel.

"Cra-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ap!"

Shortly before this occurred, Brillig's training regime suffered a similar fate. Brillig may not be a Crevasse (Dragon/Tiger) but his draconic senses were as good as any Tiger's own. Just like Van, Brillig's attention was drawn away from his training gadget to look onwards towards the lake. Had the training gadget not been so docile, Brillig may have paid more attention to it. Alas, the purebred Dragon did not and paid for it. For the moment his eyes left the head of Rodeo gadget and his claws firm grip loosen by the slightest bit, the Rodeo gadget lived up to its ancient design and began to buck much like the creature it was based upon.

"WHOA!"

A little ways off from the two strong monsters, Goliath, a purebred Golem, sat on the ground before his training gadget of the week. Goliath could not help but scratch his craggy head as he stared at the strange words of the Book before him. The text was very ancient and quite hard to decipher for many monsters, including ones that had been sealed before the creation of newer texts. Standing beside the rock monster, was the breeder to all the monsters on the ranch. A teenaged human boy by the name of Phayne.

Phayne was also looking deeply at the text book as though it would suddenly reveal its true contents to him. Phayne was the kind of breeder that would never ask for anything from his monsters that he would not do himself. Every day he'd work out with one of the monsters as they trained on their gadgets. Though, in some case, he merely did a form of similar exercise near the training gadget.

Goliath sighed tiredly and glanced over his shoulder towards the lake that he lost himself gazing in. However, it was not the lake that drew the monster's attention but rather the human girl standing on the cliff overlooking it. Phayne sensed that his monsters had all lost their focus towards their training and turned himself to see what was drawing their attention.

" Rio?"

Phayne quietly crept towards the chestnut-haired assistant of his ranch. Phayne had to flinch at that thought. Ever since Rio had come and became his assistant, he never really thought of the ranch as his more like it was theirs. This fact was proven many times when Phayne accompanied Rio whenever they were in need of food for both themselves and the monsters. Creeping quieter than a Zan, Phayne hid behind a large bush to carefully observe Rio without her knowing.

It was at this time the saying, 'like breeder like monster' definition was shown for Phayne's own monsters followed their breeder's example and slowly crept along to stand next near him. Of course, the bush was only so large and Brillig and Goliath easily stuck out due to their large size. The purebred Golem tried to cover himself by grabbing to large twigs, both covered with leaves, to hide behind while Brillig scrunched down until only his head and a bit of his sinuous neck stuck up above the bush.

'What could be up with Rio?' Phayne thought to himself silently, 'Could it have to do with that Lesione, Philia brought last a few days ago? She had been acting rather strange after the Lesione showed her… whatever it was…' Phayne's former classmate had developed a sort of routine that involved her showing and asking Phayne and Rio's opinion on any new monster she had acquired for her ranch. It was because of this that Gram became even grouchier around Phayne than usual. It was only after a successful battle between Squall and Dodongo, Gram's special breed Golem, to get Gram to calm down enough for Phayne to privately explain to the slightly overweight rancher that he had no interest in Philia and that he wished Gram the best of luck to attain her heart just like she had unknowingly attained his.

It was not soon after that Gram wished Phayne luck with Rio as well.

Not that the former Elives School student needed it.

… Much…

'I'm getting off track here. I've gotta figure out what's wrong with Rio!' Phayne all but glared at the wonderful figure of the girl that had not only found a way into his monsters' hearts but his own as well. Phayne couldn't help but remember that time that seemed so long ago when he was only raising Squall and his crush on Rio had begun to grow. He smiled to himself when he remembered how he reacted when she said the family needs to grow. He had been caught in a daydream at the time and her saying that kind of shocked him enough to cause him to nearly fall off the cliff.

Suddenly, Phayne and his monsters, who had also gone through their own memories about the chestnut-haired assistant, became aware that Rio had turned around to see them watching her. There were many startled gasps before a mad frenzy to escape from the girl's eyes began. So concerned were the monsters and human about getting away so that their concerns for the girl went unnoticed, they all failed to notice the single solitary tear trickle down Rio's pale face.


Phayne sighed tiredly at the many looks that he was receiving from the townsfolk of Togle. The looks stemmed mostly from the fact that all of his monsters had decided to come with him to Togle that evening to help Phayne in attaining some advice to cheer Rio up. It was a miracle alone that Phayne had managed to convince Rio that he would do the shopping alone, so of course it take more than that to convince his monsters that they all didn't have to help. He had come close to outright ordering them to stay so that Rio wouldn't get suspicious but Tohru let loose her ultimate attack.

The puppy-pout.

So it was that Phayne found himself the center of many people's attention.

"Sigh… C'mon you guys, we'll see what help Yuri can provide." The monsters exchanged wide smiles with each other. Though they never came all at the same time whenever Phayne and Rio went to a town, especially Togle, they had learned from late-night talks with each other that Yuri had often snuck them a honey drop or two for them when Phayne and Rio weren't looking. Though Rio had her suspicions, Phayne was totally clueless, thus meaning more snacks for them.

"Mmmm! I hope Yuri-san has that new Honey Toast! I LOVE honey!" exclaimed Tohru as she twirled and danced alongside her fellow monsters. Squall chuckled to himself.

"You LOVE anything that's sweet, Tohru-chan."

"As do certain Garu," smirked Van to himself while Goliath and Brillig laughed at the blushing Squall. Though he was technically the oldest, Squall still acted much like the teenager that he was. Especially when it came to Tohru. Brillig shook his triangular head and stomped a bit ways forward ahead of them to hover near Phayne.

Like many of the monsters when they were 'born' out of mystery disks, Brillig and the others had assumed that Phayne and Rio were their parents. Though Rio told them the truth, all the monsters of Genki Ranch fully believed that though Phayne and Rio were not their parents by blood, they were their parents by heart. And so, like any loving children would do, the monsters did everything they could to bring the somewhat hyper Phayne and ever calm Rio together.

Brillig suddenly spotted a rather young breeder, a newbie by the smell of both him and his monster, a purebred Plant, eyeing Phayne much like a cat would a mouse. Growling under his breath, Brillig leaned his head down and bumped his snout gently against Phayne's face, earning a small pat from the distracted breeder and quite a wide-eyed look from the new breeder and the Plant. Though many breeders could handle a Garu, Mocchi, or even a Tiger, it took exceptional ranchers to successfully raise a Dragon.

So it was no wonder that both monster and rancher ran for the hills.


The sound of the bell signaling the arrival of a potential customer drew Yuri's attention away from her shelf-stocking in the far back of her family's store. Dusting her hands off on her cream-colored apron, the short-haired owner/manager of Togle's Item Shop, stepped out from the shelves to greet whoever had stepped into her store.

"Welcome! Is there anything I can-WHOA!" Yuri was not unaccustomed to having customers bring in their monsters with them but she had never had anyone bring in so many! Especially the one whom she had come to call one of her best friends. "Phayne? What in the world…?" Yuri glanced at each of the brown-haired boy's monsters, what some of them she could see anyway. For though her family's shop was quite large and easy for many various sized monsters, it wasn't built for such a large number. Luckily, Phayne's monsters had also come to this conclusion thus the reason why Brillig and Goliath were standing like purebred Monols outside her store.

"It's a long story…" sighed Phayne.

"Well… I'm actually about to take a break anyway, how about you tell me what brings all of you here?"


"I see… and Rio never told you what she saw…?"

"No… she just got this really sad face and walked into the house before she started staring at the lake… I don't know what that Lesione of Philia's showed Rio but I've got to find a way to cheer her up!" Phayne's monsters barked their agreement while Yuri smiled softly to herself. She had a pretty good idea why Rio was depressed but she knew it was better that Phayne figure it out on his own. It might just be the thing that both he and Rio need.

"Well… Rio told me once of this exceptionally rare flower her mother had given her once. Her mother used to be a ruin explorer and she chanced upon the flowers." Yuri smiled softly to herself, "Since she was the first to discover them, Rio's mother named them 'Angel's Light' for the flowers literally sparkle in light of the sun and moon." Little stars seemed to appear in Tohru's eyes as she sighed softly and leaned against a blushing Squall. Van merely looked up at the ceiling, silently thinking of where he had seen such a flower.

When Van was first resurrected from his mystery disk, he had the curiosity to match that of a cat. All the strange scents that were out there and Van had wanted to see them all. In fact, whenever he had gone somewhere new, Van had made sure to catalogue both the smell and sight of virtually every plant that existed. However, Van had never come across a plant, let alone a flower, that sparkled. He growled confusedly to voice this to Phayne-sama.

"What's that, Van?" Phayne kneeled down so that he was eye-to-eye with the large Tiger monster. "Do you know where we can find such a flower?" Van shook his canine head.

"No… I've never seen such a plant…" Phayne and Van's fellow monsters all sighed at the same time while Yuri hid a giggle behind her hand.

"Actually, Rio's mother told her that the flowers only grow at high altitudes such as where she had found the first patch."

"Great! So we just got to get as high as she did to get a flower! It should be no problem for Brillig!" Though the purebred Dragon was standing sentry alongside Goliath, both had been listening in on the conversation in the item shop. Brillig grinned and roared loudly to voice his agreement to Phayne's plan.

"Phayne… Rio's mother had found the Angel's Light flower near the top of Infinity Mountain." Phayne's eyes widened before he deflated like a balloon. Infinity Mountain was the tallest mountain on the entire planet. It was so high that many of the nomad tribes that lived near it believed the three beast gods lived there on its top. No one, human or monster, had ever reached the top of the mountain before.

"Well there's a first time for everything!" said Phayne aloud, startling his monsters and Yuri.

"What?"

"I may not be able to get to Infinity Mountain, but I think the plateaus in the north should do the trick!" Phayne grinned his all-too-familiar grin. "Not only are they close enough for Rio not to get suspicious but they're low enough for me to climb!"

"Phayne! You can't be serious!" exclaimed Yuri, standing up from behind her counter.

"I am, Yuri. Rio's happiness means everything to me."

"… You really love her don't you…?" Phayne's expression saddened slightly as he looked out towards the street to see the sun was close to setting.

"…… Yeah…"

"Sigh… I guess all I can say is… good luck… to both tasks."

Phayne smiled softly at his friend. "Thanks, Yuri. C'mon guys and gal! We got to think up a plan to get Rio distracted for the next few days!" Phayne and his monsters all but ran out the door, all quite eager to bring a smile to Rio's face. Grabbing a few items off some shelves, Yuri set them on the counter and rang up the cash register that Gunwale had given her for her birthday a few weeks ago. Yuri felt a small blush adorn her face, but she ignored it for now. She'd sort out her feelings for the fish-loving sailor at a more convenient time.

"Uh… Yuri…?" The Togle Item Shop owner smiled to herself. 'Right on time.'

"That'll be 50G for the potatoes and 275G for the uncooked meat, Phayne."

"Right…"