Oy! Looks like I'm pretty much bound by duty to finish this story. And might I remark that I seem to have lost a lot of support for this story? I wonder where all the reviewers are.

Just in case anyone's wondering, I live in Canada, where the school year is different from America's. I don't know if it's the same for every province or for every state, but where I am, the school year lasts from the beginning of September to the end of June. Our summer holidays are July and August, instead of June and July like it is in the States. That's why I haven't posted a thing in June.

Anyhoo, I've been making quite good progress in the PSP's Riviera. I'm now halfway through Nelde Ruins, so now I have Ein's Disaresta overskill and both Serene and Cierra. I've just recently seen Disaresta at full power, and it looks real nice! Its underpowered attack is alright too. And Serene? I don't like her new English voice actress. Serene sounded much better in the GBA because her voice was softer and gentler. Now, she sounds a bit bratty. Cierra's English voice sounds a bit different from the GBA too… I wonder if she also has a new actress? The Japanese voices are quite interesting, though… Serene's Japanese voice especially. I don't know who it reminds me of… and no, I haven't heard Cierra's Japanese voice yet.

Oh, and as a side note, "Serene Combo" was renamed "Serene Combination." I wonder why they did that…

Well, without further ado, here is chapter 23 of The White Wings! I guess I was able to make it to the deadline with just a day to spare XD. Enjoy!

--

Deep in the woods of Elendia, the clanging of metal could be heard, with the occasional rustle of the leaves and vibration of a bowstring. As one moved nearer to the sounds, grunting can also be heard.

"Take this! Serene Obliteration!"

Serene launched a series of swipes with a wooden stick crudely carved into the shape of a scythe. Ein parried each blow with his own wooden sword. Ein's Angel Blade, Serene's dark scythe, and Fia's glowing white rapier rested on the grass nearby.

"Hah, I can't even touch you," Serene panted. "You've gotten so much stronger and faster since you got those wings."

Ein stood in a casual stance. He reached up a hand and patted his left wing. "I don't really think so," he replied. "Maybe you've gained weight?"

"W-what?" Serene exclaimed. She felt around her waist area. "You're joking, right?"

"Yep," Ein answered casually. "Say, Lina looks really bored over there."

A circular target created by cutting a log was leaning against a tree. Several arrows were shot into the center of the log slice. Lina stood some distance away holding her bow. She quickly loaded the bow and shot the arrow without aiming. The arrow hit the target dead center and split an arrow that was already embedded in the target.

"And whose fault is that?" Serene countered. "You're the one who doesn't want to be a moving target for her!"

"Um, have you seen what she's shooting?" Ein protested. "If I get hit by accident, don't you think I might die?"

"Yeah yeah." Serene plopped down onto the grass and dropped her wooden scythe. "Do you remember how we used to train between battles during our travels back then?"

Ein nodded. "We would be fighting images of demons we fought before. Wait a minute, you don't say…"

"That's right." Serene picked up her real scythe and stood up. "I don't particularly remember how we managed to do that several hundred times, but if we can do that again, I think we can train a lot better than we are now."

"How come I never thought of that?" Ein scratched his head and put his wooden sword down. He sat down on the grass beside the two remaining weapons. "This makes things so much easier and less risky…"

"Because Ein's dumb!" Lina's voice chirped suddenly. Ein looked up to find Lina squatting on the ground in front of him. "That's why Ein didn't think of that!"

"Um, right," Ein said. "Done your target practice? From the looks of it, you don't need to practice aiming."

"No, Lina doesn't really need to," Lina confirmed. "Lina needs to practice more with the scythe though!" Lina jumped to her feet and hopped her way over to Serene. "Hey, want to trade weapons with Lina?"

"Um, Lina, you know I don't have the slightest ability in using a bow," Serene protested. "Remember, my best ability with the bow is to chuck it at random and hope it hits an enemy."

"Yeah, but what's funny is that we always get the bow back somehow!" Lina exclaimed. "I remember you threw Ein's diviner… Einherjab or something… at least 10 times, and it always came back to us!"

"It's Einherjar," Ein mumbled. "And I have no idea why that happens."

"Yeah, Einjerhar, whatever!" Lina chirped. "And anyway, you should learn how to shoot an arrow! I think it will help everyone fight!"

"Hey, as long as we're a flying strike team, I have no need to learn how to shoot," Serene chided. "I fly, you shoot, remember?"

"But if both Serene and Lina can shoot, they can shoot twice as fast!" Lina argued. "Then they'll be twice as strong!"

Ein sighed. "Um…"

"There's no use in trying to teach someone to shoot an arrow straight in two days, and it's even worse to try to teach someone to shoot straight while flying!" Serene countered, completely ignoring Ein, who sighed again and looked over Oracion closely.

"Serene's a pessimist!" Lina complained. "You haven't even tried yet! It's not that hard to shoot an arrow!"

"I'm a pessimist with good reason!" Serene shot back. "No one learns how to shoot a bow in two days! No one learns to wield any weapon in two days!"

Lina turned to Ein, who was now studying the Needle of Light closely. "Ein! How come you knew how to use the new weapon as soon as you got it?"

"That's a good point," Serene admitted, "but you have to remember, Ein's special! And plus, he used a diviner before, and the Angel Blade is almost the same!"

"I don't think I'm that special," Ein said in a normal tone. "I just did as my instincts told me."

"See?" Lina pouted. "If Serene just do what Serene's instincts tell her, Serene can shoot an arrow too!"

"In the wrong direction maybe!" Serene replied. "Yeesh, I've had enough of this! Besides, you're our main projectile attacker, Lina. It's your job to fling arrows, and it's my job to protect you while you do."

Lina looked surprised. "Serene…" After a moment of silence as they looked into each other's eyes, Lina dropped her gaze. "Okay, okay, fine, Serene wins."

"Okay?" Serene grinned and ruffled Lina's hair. "It's okay. We can back each other up even if I don't shoot arrows, right?"

"Yep!" Lina suddenly chirped up. "That means I get to ride on you again, right?"

Ein quickly looked away at that statement. Serene's face flushed a deep red. "Lina, that was an… odd statement," Serene said. "But yeah, sure. Just don't say it like that."

"Huh? Lina doesn't get it!" Lina's cheerful face suddenly became questioning. She moved in front of Serene, ducked her head down, and looked up into Serene's face. "Are you thinking something weird?"

"No, no, nothing at all!" Serene waved her hands in front of her face with a sheepish grin. "Nothing at all…"

Lina raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ein, whose back was turned towards them. His head was hunched over and he seemed to be studying the Rainbow Sword closely. "Ein!"

Ein's body jolted upright instantly. "Y-yes?" he stammered. He turned around slowly. "Um, is something wrong?"

Lina eyed him suspiciously. "Ein, are you being a pervert again?" she demanded, stomping her way up to him until she towered over him despite her short height and his large wings.

"I-I'm a pervert?" Ein replied uneasily. "Um, I think you have the wrong guy…"

"So Ein is being a pervert!" Lina hopped back a couple steps and loaded her bow. "Prepare yourself!"

"Ack!" Ein yelled. "S-Serene! Help me! Lina's—"

Before Lina could shoot the arrow, a strange incantation could be heard in the distance in the woods. Without warning, a small fireball flew out of the woods directly in Lina's direction. Lina simply watched as the fireball zipped towards her. Serene quickly realized the danger and dashed in to grab Lina's hand and pull her up into the air as she herself lifted off with her wings. The fireball whizzed past below them and slammed into a boulder, quickly dissipating.

"That was close!" Lina exclaimed. "Thanks!"

"No sweat," Serene replied. "Who the heck was that?" She gently descended back to the ground and set Lina down.

As if on cue, a figure with a huge pointed object on the head emerged from the woods. In the figure's hand was a glimmering stick about the same length as any sword. As the figure moved out of the shadows of the trees, the three of them quickly recognized who it was.

"Cierra?" Serene exclaimed in disbelief. "What are you doing, shooting that at Lina?"

Cierra moved closer to them before replying. "Well, you were pointing a bow at Ein!" She brushed a strand of hair off her face and stood in front of the three. "How would I know you don't have any intent to shoot him?"

"Lina was just playing around!" Lina protested. "Lina would never shoot Ein!"

Ein breathed a sigh of relief. "So this means you don't think I'm a pervert, right?"

The faces of all the girls lit up a shining red. "Geez, Ein, you just have to push it that way," Serene yelled. "Just for that comment, no, you're not forgiven!"

"B-but…" Ein was stopped short at the deadly gazes of both Lina and Cierra. "Maybe I should just shut up…" he mumbled. Serene just shrugged. "A-anyway!" Ein tried to change the subject. "What's that shiny stick you have there, Cierra?"

Cierra's deadly gaze instantly dissipated. "Oh, glad you asked. This here is my own new weapon! Allow me to demonstrate its incredible compactness!" Cierra chanted the spell and the rod shrunk. "Sometimes I'm amazed myself at what magic can do."

"Oh?" Ein looked up at the staff. "That's pretty interesting. You can make it grow bigger too right?"

"Yep!" Cierra chanted the enlarge spell, and the staff returned to its original size. "In case you're wondering, that spell only works on this staff, Ein." Cierra winked. "I don't know any spells that enlarge body parts."

"As if I was wondering!" Ein cried. Serene doubled over laughing as his face lit up a burning red. Lina looked confused. "Geez, don't tease!" Ein plopped back down, his interest in the staff completely lost.

"Lina doesn't get it!" Lina complained. "Why would Ein need a body part enlarged? Aren't his wings big enough already?"

"It's better if you didn't think about it, Lina," Serene advised between laughs. "You should stay as innocent as you are right now."

"Hm…" Lina grumbled. "Lina's sure that Serene is thinking something perverted." She plopped down on the ground and folded her arms in mock frustration, refusing to look at the others. Serene gave a sheepish grin.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Cierra reassured Lina, grinning. "So weren't you three doing something out here other than sitting around?"

"Well, Ein and I were sparring earlier," Serene explained. "It's probably not that good an idea. Cierra, do you remember how we trained between battles back during our journeys?"

Cierra thought hard for a moment. "Nope, not really," she finally answered. "It's been a long time, so I don't really remember…"

Serene almost fell over in disbelief, but caught herself. "It's only been about two years. Is your memory that bad?"

"Apparently so. Hm, what's this staff I have here?" Cierra tried to appear curious.

Serene shook her head. "That's sorta pushing it. Come on, you have to remember something from the travels."

Cierra grinned. "I guess I'm not pulling anyone's leg." She scratched her head. "Something like fighting make-believe demons?"

"Yeah! That's more like it," Serene encouraged. "We're trying to do that again for training now. Maybe your magic can do something about that?"

"Use magic to re-create demons?" Cierra rubbed her chin. "As far as I can recall, you guys were training way before I joined you, right?"

"Hm, that's a good point," Serene agreed. "I just don't remember how we did it!"

"Somehow we ended up fighting the enemies we defeated before over and over," Ein added. "Does that make any sense to you? From what I can recall, it was something like this: Fia suggested that we practice using our weapons between battles, and then whenever we did, practice enemies showed up. They even attacked us back, and when we defeated them, they would drop the same items as the original enemies did."

"And it was the same when I joined you guys," Serene added. "It's been the same thing even after Cierra joined in. Plus, whenever we fought those practice battles, even the most damaged item lasted forever. Nothing ever broke during a practice battle."

"This is giving me a headache," Cierra mumbled. "It doesn't seem to be magical in any way, but there also doesn't seem to be any other explanation, does there?"

"Not unless ghosts exist," Ein agreed. "And they were sure as heck not ghosts. You can't really kill ghosts, much less with physical attacks. Not to mention they were just as resistant to holy attacks as normal."

"I wonder if it has something to do with Fia?" Serene suggested. "It seems to make sense, because she was with us when we did our practice battling, and you couldn't practice before she was in the party, right, Ein?"

"But when Fia got separated from Lina and me in Lacrima Castle, we were still able to practice… right, Lina?"

Lina perked up at her name. "What? Um, Lina doesn't know! Lina and Ein didn't fight any practice battles until after Fia joined them again, remember?"

"Well I dunno!" Ein said, slightly frustrated. "Why don't we just hack away at imaginary enemies for now! It's practically what we were doing before, right?"

"I guess I don't mind looking like an idiot," Serene agreed. "What do you two say?"

"Okay, whatever!" Lina chirped, hopping to her feet. Her usual bright smile took over the quickly forgotten frown she had for the past couple minutes.

"Well, I guess the forest can use a forest fire once in a while, right?" Cierra grinned. "Plants, grass, trees, prepare yourselves!" She started to chant a spell and wave her staff around, but the others stopped her.

"Cierra!" Serene scolded, her hand gripping the staff. "Elendia does not need to be burned to the ground!"

"Burning our house down repeatedly was enough," Ein added. "We should consider ourselves lucky that the fire didn't spread, and very lucky that the fire could even be put out."

"Lina doesn't want to live in a blackened town!" Lina put in. "Elendia is supposed to be green!"

"Haha, okay, okay, you got me!" Cierra giggled. "I was only joking, anyhow. At least, I was mostly joking…"

"I think that's about enough," Serene said, knocking Cierra on the head lightly. "Why don't we see if you can do anything else with your staff rather than burning down everything beside you?"

"Well, I'm going to have to use the staff another seven times before we can find out," Cierra reminded her. "I used it once already, so…"

"Okay, looks like we need something fireproof." Ein started looking around. His gaze fell on a couple of fairly large rocks about the size of his hand. "Are these big enough?" he asked, pointing at the rocks.

"No way, they'll be charcoal in an instant," Serene laughed. "What we really need is a lake."

"Yeah!" Lina giggled. "Let's all go to Undine Spring!"

Cierra blushed. "Um, is that really necessary?"

"Well, it's better than burning down the forest indirectly," Serene joked. "You know, heat up the rocks until they're hot enough to put other things on fire."

"Say I miss the spring?" Cierra threatened jokingly. "Say a stray fireball hits this tree that happens to be close to your house, Serene?"

"Well, I hope you can aim, Cierra," Serene replied. "Maybe Undine Spring isn't the right place, though. How about we find a lake that's surrounded by rocks and sand?"

"That's probably enough talking for now," Ein said. "The sooner we start walking, the sooner we reach the lake, right?"

"Oh come on," Cierra protested. "I don't remember causing a forest fire in Nelde Ruins when we trained there!" She began chanting a spell in frustration. "My fire spells have a limited range anyway. They can't go very far, so as long as they don't hit anything, we'll be fine!"

"Well, I hope so—" Ein was cut off by a sudden steady rumbling. "What's that sound?" He quickly grabbed the Rainbow Sword and Oracion and steadied himself. The others grabbed their respective weapons and prepared to fight.

"Huh?" Cierra gasped. "What's going on?" The Golden Rod in her hand was glowing with a strange orange aura. The vibrations in the ground caused her to lose her grip on the staff, which dropped to the ground. The staff continued to shake, and without warning, stood up straight and grew several times in both length and thickness until it towered over the trees. The aura expanded and slowly formed the shape of a long snake.

"What's… going on?" Ein cried, watching in disbelief. "Just what did you use to make that staff, Cierra?"

"That's some dragon we have here," Serene remarked. "I just can't tell what it is yet."

"Lina's scared!" Lina cried, peeking out from behind Serene.

"I don't know!" Cierra said. "I haven't heard anything about this!"

Above them, the aura continued to take a shape that resembled more closely a Naga dragon than a snake. Finished its transformation, the head of the dragon turned its head down and approached until it was just meters away from the group. Its eyes narrowed as it stared at the group intently.

"Uh… nice to meet you?" Cierra greeted uneasily.

--

A/N: Yay, cliffhanger! I love cliffhangers! Actually, at this point, even I don't know what's going to happen, heh… I suppose one can say I'm writing whatever comes to mind, with some planning on the basic direction of the plot. It's funny… when one writes, he usually has the ending planned out before the middle of the story… that's a bit like my situation here.

Ah, speculation, speculation! What would we do without it? I don't mean to poke fun at the game, but really… is there any practical way to have a practice battle the way they do in Riviera? Anyone else ever wonder about that?

To the reviewers: I don't know what happened to you all, but please review again! Reviews are all greatly appreciated, to say the least.

As a general comment with nothing to do with this chapter: isn't it about time that this website had a section for Yggdra Union? All the authors who write fanfictions for that game post their stories in the Riviera section. Yggdra Union really deserves its own section, though I haven't gotten very far in it and I haven't played it in a long time XD

On the next chapter of The White Wings…

Chapter 24: The Golden Dragon (Release on July 29, 2007)

The dragon of Cierra's staff presents the group with a challenge to deem Cierra's worthiness of wielding the staff! During the confusion, Ledah and Rose arrive to present their already old news. Can the group overcome this challenge?