Jade Force
Chapter six: Yeoleum the Scholar
Guest-san, I'm sorry about that! It was in my head, too, but I couldn't think of anything else for the chapter name and kinda just went 'meh' ^_^" But Aubrey will be headed into the One Piece verse very very shortly! Thank you for the review!
Warning! If you aren't up-to-date with the manga as of the Tartaros Arc (ie finding out where the Dragons have been all this time), then please go and catch up! Otherwise you are going to get Spoilers in the next couple of chapters!
Arania was not sold on Aubrey's plan. Trying to both preserve Mermaid Heel's image and be able to have a civil conversation with a Dragon that could potentially lead her to her missing father…? Arania didn't have a lot of faith in this plan, no. Currently, it was to put on a bit of a show: get into a 'fight' with Yeoleum, get 'knocked out', and then have Aubrey and Kenzie 'kidnapped'.
It had started without a hitch, in Aubrey's defence. Yeoleum hadn't recognised her until she'd tried to let him in on the plan in Draconian. Unfortunately the fire Dragon had a very loud voice, and even though he'd continued to speak in the Dragon's ancient tongue, it was very obvious that he and Aubrey were close. And even if the locals couldn't understand what was being said, they could certainly understand the tone!
"Shut up, you old gas-bag!" Aubrey hissed desperately, rushing at him with her Nanarenbu blades. Jade swords clashed against Dragon talons – Arania and Risley pretended disbelief that Aubrey couldn't hit the red-and-black Dragon. "We want to help you get Kenzie-san out!"
"But it's been sooo long since I last saw you, Hisui-hime!" He exclaimed.
"We can catch up later! Go along with the plan already!"
"But I don't know what the plan is!" He whined.
"That's what you get for not paying attention!" Aubrey yelled back. Grumbling, she added, "Just keep fighting us. Eventually, do something that looks like it would knock us out, and then take Kenzie-san and myself, ok?"
The (relatively small) Dragon laughed, then gave a rather shiteating grin Aubrey recognised with some misgivings. "I'm all fired up, now!"
"U-um," Aubrey trailed off in Fioran. Arania and Risley looked at her worriedly at that. "Scatter!" Aubrey yelled at them, rushing towards Yeoleum, jade scaled growing over her body. "If you destroy my clothes, I'll make a new coat out of you, Yeoleum!" She threatened.
Arania shot a string of webs at Yeoleum's right foreleg, tying it down, before racing over to the other side and getting his back left as well. Risley pulled Kenzie 'out of the way', standing guard over her.
"Karyū no…" Yeoleum began, drawing in a deep breath. Aubrey felt the colour drain from her face. "Houkou!"
Predictably, much of the area exploded. Arania and Risley both groaned, struggling to pull themselves back on their feet, only for Yeoleum to swipe them both out of the way with his tail.
"Ris-chan! Ara-chan!" Aubrey called – this wasn't acting! Stupid fire Dragon! – before being grabbed in Yeoleum's claws and shooting into the sky. "Hey! This wasn't the plan! You better not have actually hurt them!"
The Dragon's laughter echoed throughout the small village terrifyingly, and even though there were buildings on fire, many of the tenants were unwilling to leave the meagre protection their houses provided.
_ * . * . * _
Aubrey fumed the whole trip back to Yeoleum's cave hide out. When he landed and took Kenzie and Aubrey inside, she glared the whole time, waiting for him to transform into a human man.
"Kenzie-chan," Yeoleum smiled charmingly. His human form was a dark-skinned young man in his twenties with red-tipped black hair. "Please make yourself comfortable in the spare room over there. I'll take you to the next town tomorrow, and then you are free to travel wherever you like."
"Thank you so much, Yeoleum-san!" Kenzie exclaimed, bowing low. She went into the other room, leaving Aubrey and Yeoleum to their conversation.
"I'll be blunt," Aubrey began. "Do you know where Quartzerine is? Metallicana? Igneel?"
Yeoleum hummed, taking a seat amongst the cushions scattered all over the cave floor and examining the bowl of fruit in the room's middle. "Yes." He finally answered, taking a bite out of a peach. "I know where all six of the Kings are. However, I can't tell you myself."
"Why the hell not?!" Aubrey exclaimed. "Aren't they concerned for their children?! I may have been thirteen at the time, but I was the oldest! Gajeel-kun and Natsu-kun were ten! What about Grandeeney, Skiadrum and Weislogia's children? They couldn't have been more than seven!"
"I have been sworn to secrecy by my cousin and his fellow Kings," Yeoleum told her sadly. "Their … absence is all to help you children in the future."
"Then they could have explained why they had to leave!" Aubrey yelled, switching back into her native Boscan. "If it concerns us, then why weren't we informed?!"
Yeoleum sighed, running a hand through his odd hair. "Because information regarding your future could change the paths you are all destined to walk! You know the rules, anyway, Hisui-hime. I cannot disobey the command of my King."
"You've done it before," Aubrey growled, tears at the corners of her eyes. "when you learnt the magic that allows you to wear that form!" She gestured at his human body. "Dad told me that you were the only Dragon who didn't fight in the War, four hundred years ago."
There was pain in Yeoleum's eyes, then. "That is something that has haunted me for centuries," He told her quietly, getting up and walking to the bookshelf on the opposite wall.
"And because of the consequences of those actions, you won't tell me where our parents are." Aubrey surmised bitterly.
Yeoleum ran his hands over the spines of his precious books. "Yes." He said simply, pulling one of the books from the shelf, suddenly moving around his cave with purpose, filling a bag with the book he'd chosen and other odds and ends. "Come," He said finally. "Kenzie-chan, I'll be back in a little while!" Yeoleum called, taking Aubrey's hand and tugging her back outside.
"I'll take you and your friends to the border between Iceberg and Bosco – you can find your way home from there?" He asked, turning back into the red-and-black dragon.
Aubrey frowned at him, confused. "Why are you –"
"If I were to face your father the King and tell him I hadn't helped out his precious daughter, how do you think he'd react?" Yeoleum demanded, lifting her onto his back and taking off.
Aubrey had almost forgotten the thrill that came with riding on a Dragon's back. And up here, with the icey wind whipping past her face, no one could see her tears. Yeoleum flew at a far greater speed with her on his back than he had when he had been holding her and Kenzie in his claws. They reached the village quickly; Yeoleum dived, grabbed Risley and Arania, and swooped back up and into the sky, flying towards the border. (For the record, Risley and Arania weren't screaming, they were just taken by surprise!)
The trip on a Dragon's back took two hours – it had taken them a week and a half on foot. When Yeoleum landed, Risley and Arania had struggled to get the feeling back into their limbs, whilst Aubrey stood stiffly, looking at him from behind shiny glasses.
"You still won't tell me?" She asked sadly.
He shook his great head. "No, hime." He handed over the satchel he had packed back at his cave. "Please keep this on you, though. But don't look inside until that sixth sense of yours tells you to. Ok?"
Aubrey stared at Yeoleum with her head cocked to one side, confused. "I – yes?" She answered.
Yeoleum sighed deeply, and brushed the tip of his snout to the centre of her forehead. "That is all I can ask, then. Fair winds and happy hunting, Ohime-sama." With that, the Dragon was gone, leaving behind three very confused Mermaids.
"So…" Risley began, rubbing some feeling back into her legs. "Any luck?"
Aubrey clenched her fists. "Not really, no. I know now that they're all definitely alive, though, and that they left to protect us children… But I don't know the why!"
Arania began to say something soothing, only to break off in a fit of sneezes. At her weary groan at the end, Aubrey's face softened into a fond smile. "Let's find somewhere to make camp for the night then, ok?" She asked, helping them to their feet gently. "There are some caves at the bottom of the mountains in Bosco – one of Quartzerine and my old Nests is there, if we can find it. There's still daylight enough…"
_ * . * . * _
Gajeel Redfox had been on his own for two years now. Metallicana, his no-good father, had disappeared one day, and not returned. The same had happened to the other Dragons in their Nest, and even Quartzerine, that batty geezer who lived up on the mountain range, had been missing. Gajeel had eventually made his way to Fiore, trying to make a living for himself, but something always managed to go wrong. He was in his eleventh guild already –Titan Nose, it was called. He'd been about to go on a mission when he'd heard one of the older guildmembers blathering on, and dragons had come up.
"That Aubrey Nephrite, have you heard about her?" The new woman was saying to that arsehat, Bora. "Dragonet? They say she was raised by a dragon!"
"What, like our little ruffian?" Bora teased. "Hah! There's no such thing!"
"You can't deny how powerful that Dragon Slayer magic is, though!" The newbie continued. Susie? Sally? Sarah? Something like that, Gajeel wasn't sure. "In two years, she's already made herself the number one S-class mage in Mermaid Heel! She goes out on heaps of missions! Uwah, I really admire her!"
Bora wiggled his eyebrows. "Yes, I admire her, too," He leered. Sandra ignored him.
"And they say she's looking for her precious little brother! Some fellow called Gajeel?" Gajeel stiffened at this point. He'd been on a mission when Sora joined, so she probably didn't recognise his name. "Apparently her father was a Jade Dragon called Quartzerine, too! She's been looking for him, I heard! Waah, I almost joined Mermaid Heel, but Salix is so far away, and I wanted to be close to my mother, she's very clumsy, you see, and –"
"How do I get to Salix?" Gajeel demanded.
Bora and Sasha blinked at him – he'd been almost civil!
"Well?" Gajeel demanded when they continued to catch flies. "How do I get there? I wanna meet that Dragonet!"
Ok, this is the longest chapter so far with 1720 words. I hope you've enjoyed the chapter, please review any thoughts you have on this chapter!