Chapter 35

Kari and Asoret calmly walked through the empty hallway, both being silent. Asoret had his hands in his pockets, while Kari kept walking straight ahead, but kept spinning slowly to take in everything of the hallway. However, this behavior was lightly starting to annoy Asoret.

"Will you stop it?!" he finally asked, causing Kari to tumble over.

"Kari sorry. Kari never see place like this before. Kari just want see everything," Kari apologized.

Asoret rolled his eyes and helped the girl back to her feet.

The two of them continued on, and this time, Kari was remarkably calm. The only sound in the empty hallway was that of their breathing and the silent padding of their feet on the marble tiles. It took some time before they started to talk again.

"Hey Kari, how come you talk so funny?" Asoret asked.

Kari looked confused for a moment.

"You constantly say people's names instead of 'you', 'him', 'her', or 'me'."

"Kari mother teach Kari speak like that. All in Kari village speak like that."

Asoret looked at her a little oddly, but reluctantly shrugged his shoulders.

They talked for a little longer, and they started to understand one another more and more the more they talked. However, their talk was cut short when they heard a strange tune somewhere down the hallway. It was a flute by the sound of it, and the melody was enchanting. Kari and Asoret looked at each other, before they began advancing toward it. It became louder as they moved through the hallway. They walked through a door at the end, surprised to find a miniature garden inside. And what surprised them the most was that everything was still green.

However, there was also a spirit in the room. A feminine one, that much was clear. She had short blonde hair that came to her shoulders, and light aquamarine eyes which were focussed on the ceiling as she played a transverse flute. She wore some loose clothing, a light blue male overshirt, a loose green skirt, and some sneakers for her feet. She was sprawled with her back on a rock, one leg pulled up, the other swinging about quietly. She appeared to be in her early teen-years.

Asoret and Kari walked in, and Asoret cleared his throat to make their presence known. The girl stopped playing and looked up in surprise. She sat up and looked at them curiously.

"Who you be??" Kari asked.

The girl seemed to be thinking, eyes directed at the ceiling, but she finally shook her head.

"Sorry, I can't remember. I've been here for an awful long time," she said, a quiet voice.

"What were you doing here then??" Asoret asked.

"Watching the flowers. I always enjoyed plants. But then I got poisoned by a plant somewhere near the center and I died," the spirit said. "So now I just stay here and play our song for the flowers. Flowers like music too, you know?"

Kari was a little confused, but decided not to ask.

"Hey, have you seen any of my friends? I lost them somewhere," the spirit asked kindly.

"Well, actually, we were searching for you," Asoret said.

The spirit looked a little shocked.

"Who? Me??"

"Yeah, you and your friends. A friend of us is dying and she needs some kind of song to heal her."

The spirit thought it over for a moment, then smiled and nodded.

"Sure, I'd love to help!" she said.

After telling the spirit where she had to be, she left the duo on their own. Instead of heading back however, the two of them staid in the garden for awhile. Kari was rolling around on the grass, while Asoret found a suitable place atop a rock. He watched Kari's childlike behavior, and was slightly amused by the fact that she was already a full-grown woman and still rolling around on the grass. Most adults only did that to please their children, but Kari seemed to be very pleased to just roll around with no good reason at all.

He remembered a time he saw his aunt looking at him and his parents, but not in her usual way. A ferocious scowl had been planted on her face, but when she noticed him looking at her, she smiled and gave a small wave. Asoret had smiled and waved back. He learned how to fight from both his parents, but his aunt was always away when they trained. She always came back, but that wasn't the point. It was as if she didn't fully like him. He had tried to train with her, but she kept slapping him aside with her hand, sending him sprawled to the floor. He would look up at her.

"Stay outta my way, I train alone," she would say, and she'd continue sparring with nobody.

She became locked out from the world, with no one to care about. The only ones she seemed to hang around with, were his father and Sky. And most of the times, she was only arguing with Sky. Asoret learned at an early age that those two didn't like each other. Those two had some sort of hate/hate relationship, yet they somehow managed to live with each other without killing the other.

Asoret looked back at Kari, whom was panting on the ground. Her chest rose and fell quite fast, her lips were slightly parted, and sweat was rolling down her body, but she was still smiling. He seemed to notice things about her that he wouldn't have noticed had they been with everyone else. Like how her face flushed when she was exhausted, or how the sweat smoothly ran across her flawless skin. How her eyes sparkled when she was happy, or how enticing she looked to him.

He mentally shook such thoughts away. He wasn't supposed to think like that about a teammate. Was he?? With a sigh, he raked his hand through his hair, which had fallen in front of his eyes and had started to annoy him.

"Asoret!!" Kari suddenly shouted, and he looked up, a little confused.

Kari had stood up, and was waving up at him with a piece of paper in her hand.

"Look what Kari find!!!" Kari shouted, a smile gracing her young face.

She was obviously proud of herself. Asoret got down, and instantly got the piece of paper pushed in his face. Reluctantly, he took the paper, and read the first sentence, before looking at Kari.

"Where'd you get this??" he asked.

"There," Kari said, pointing ahead under a few bushes.

"What say??" she asked, walking around behind him and slung her arms around his neck so she could look over his shoulder at the piece of paper. Asoret was 1'5 feet taller than she was after all.

Asoret found this position a little odd, and he looked back at her, feeling his cheeks burn lightly, but Kari only had eyes for the piece of paper he was still holding. He decided that he should too, and he tried to ignore that her chest was pushed rather harshly against his shoulder blades. Part of the paper was burnt up, and the paper was yellow of old age.

[……… and so, I conclude, that FATE, which stands for Fabricate Alternate Talismanic Epoch ©, is a big mistake. Time must not be controlled, especially by us humans. The Dragonians have already turned their back on those who continue to serve the record. They can sense the evil within the record, and keep their distance of it. They are very wise, I see that now.

Tomorrow morning, I shall leave this fortress and head home, back to my family. It's been 5 years since I've seen them, and it's about time I returned. The record may be our future, but I shall never use it. The future is mine to change. Every decision I make may cause a choice to be made. For whenever you make a decision, you start wondering what would've happened if you never did this or that.

Also, at some points in life, you think things like 'if only I did that', or 'I wish I hadn't done that', which makes painful memories surface again. Memories best left forgotten. Such as what had almost happened in the year 2300, with Gua………]

That's where it stopped. Asoret blinked.

"What the…?"

He checked his watch, which could also give the date. It was the 8th of June, 2280.

"Shit! This place is from the future!!" Asoret mumbled.

"Future?? What that mean?" Kari asked.

Asoret thought for a second, because it was rather hard to explain the term 'future' to someone with a rather small dictionary stomped in her head.

"Uh… the future means… everything past today and tomorrow."

"Uh… Kari no get," Kari said, and Asoret realized she still had her arms around his neck, and she didn't seem to notice.

Or she just liked it there.

"How to explain? Well, we separate Time in three things; Past, Present and Future. The Past is what has already happened. The Present is the time you live at the moment. And the Future is everything beyond that point. Because, five minutes ago could be considered as the past as well."

Kari nodded, finally understanding what he meant. However, she didn't let go of him.

After awhile of just standing there, Asoret finally asked: "Could you let go now, Kari?"

Kari then seemed to notice what she'd been doing, and she let go, though not as hastily as Asoret had thought she would.

Asoret once again looked around the giant green room.

"How can this be? How did this structure get here from so far in the future???"

Kari shrugged her shoulders.

"Kari no know. Maybe Dragons know."

Asoret looked at her in confusion.

"Maybe. It's worth a try, you never know."

He didn't want to tell her though, that whenever he had tried to ask his aunt about the Sea Of Eden, she just said it was none of his business and stomped away. His father avoided talking about it, and his mother didn't know anything about the Sea Of Eden. The rest of the Dragons wouldn't talk with him. He kept on wondering what would've happened if his aunt were the one to raise him. What would've become of him?

Asoret suddenly looked at the piece of paper he still held and read it over. 'If only I did that', or 'I wish I hadn't done that'. Did his father think like that when his mother had died? He probably wouldn't know unless he asked. However, he also wondered what the last sentence had said.

"Gua… Gua…" he kept repeating it for a few times, until suddenly, he said the word he hadn't expected from himself. "Guardia……… Huh!!!! Guardia?!!?"

Kari looked at him in confusion.

"What be Guardia??" she asked.

"Guardia is a Kingdom to the west of El Nido. It's where Porre's from, but they turned their backs on it and nearly destroyed everything."

Kari blanched.

"That be horrible!! Why Porre do!?"

"No one knows. Some say they wanted to begin their own life, but I checked that. Porre had signed a treaty with Guardia when they built the castle. If I'm not mistaking, that's about the only thing left of the Kingdom."

Silence reigned for some time, and neither of them realized that someone was watching them.

The figure watched them, a cold and merciless mask over its face. Its previous blood-shot eyes were squinted down into slits; its mouth was curled down to create a face of disgust, making lines appear on its face. It still held the double-sided dagger, still stained with the black blood of the boy she had killed at Divine Dragon Falls. It had come there, searching something, something it had wanted.

Problem was, that something hadn't been there. It had been about to leave, when he stood there. It had no choice. It killed him. What choice did it have? None other. Those humans, they kept getting closer and closer to the center. It hated them! All of them!! And those Dragonians were even worse! The only thing it wanted was to have them all dead!!

'And those seven Dragon Gods will be the first to go!!'

As the second spirit drifted into the entry-hall, the structure seemed to have shifted again. The Fairy now had one dagger stuck between her teeth, while her free hand was now held into a position that seemed to fit something. The question was however, what??

Spirit no. 2! Well, just a few more chapters and Laze is healed!

Reviews:

Kitten: Aha! Garai! Yeah I know, first time I tried, damn! He's tough! Alright, here's a strategy! Garai uses a lot of White Techs, and I suggest you use Weaken, LoRes, and MagNegate on him. WeakMinded would also help. If Harle's in your party, use MoonShine to protect your party. For the rest, you should just use your strongest Black Elements and use healing Elements when you're low on HP. Just a question though, how many characters do you have? Because there's a total of 45.

Ciria: Well, people are also allowed to get two Dragons together, like uh… Sky and Same for all I care! Or from the Dragon Riders, such as uh… Norak and Rez or Elvor and Laze or something!

Bulma BriefsYue Lover: Oh, in chapter 39, you'll get a small hint of what Kari and Asoret did while they stayed behind. [smirks]

Dragon battle schedule:

1. Earth Dragon Isle - Terra, the Earth Dragon

2. Water Dragon Isle - Douse, the Water Dragon

3. Mt. Pyre - Pyro, the Fire Dragon

4. Gaea's Navel - Flora, the Green Dragon

5. Marbule - Mura, Eldest Black Dragon

6. Marbule - Same, Youngest Black Dragon

7. Sky Dragon Isle - Sky, the Sky Dragon

8. Sea Of Eden - Chronopolis - Z-Vor, the Eighth Dragon

I already told this, but if people desire for me to write a side-story about all couples [lemon style] please tell and I'll see what I can do. I'm not that good at lemons, but that's my own opinion. Also, if you know another couple you'd like to read a lemon about from this story, do tell. [Dragons are allowed as well.]