Support Chapter: Devil of the Clouds.

Hiiro sighed. Florina sighed as well. They both took a bite of their biscuits, and sighed harder. "Looks like…"

"We're trapped."

The green cloud beneath their tree refused to move, and there was absolutely no wind. Thankfully, it was heavier than the surrounding air, and cold by now, preventing it from rising.

"So, Can I ask you a question, Florina?"

"What's that?" She had grown used to Hiiro, but she wasn't comfortable around him. It still didn't change the fact that she was drooling about him from time to time. He was DAMN sexy.

I sat on a tree well behind them, Garnet and Ariana sat with me. The whole team had to climb trees, while Sain was still passing gas. The Beanie-Weenies were unholy, pure and simple. I tried to forget the disturbing experiences of the past few days. Ariana looked over at me. "Go ahead, ask us, Kai."

I looked over at them. "You already know the questions I would ask."

Garnet shook his head as he rested on a trio of branches. "No." he physically said it, confirming my doubts about the inferno we had lived through. 'We don't. We know that something happened, and you weren't you for a while. And then you passed out, and you were.' He sighed heavily, almost a Dog-like sound. 'And we need YOU, not whoever that was. He was a crappy commander; Kent got injured pretty badly, and so did the new guy, Rath. And, Lyn took a few licks.'

I checked the Heaven Emblem, which I had started calling it after remembering something I knew would come. Indeed, it was cracked, six times. "Shit." I sighed. I looked at them, and prepared myself.

"If… I had a Secret… About you… Would you hate me?"

They looked at each other. "We don't know." It was Ariana. "You gave us something we didn't have. You gave us friendship, and hope."

"You gave each other that."

"No, we gave each other respect, and love. Brother and Sister," she smiled. "And now you give us hope for the future. Our future. But you did do something strange."

I raised my eyebrow, and looked at her. She pulled her sleeve up, and I saw a vaguely reddish patch of skin, with small grain to it, much like a dragon's scales. I smiled.

"I may have enabled that, but ask yourself. Did you love Garnet?"

She nodded. "Then I at least did well by you."

"We… We don't know who is which anymore."

"That doesn't matter. Once you become a True woman, worthy of having that dragon underneath you, you'll understand." The double meaning to the sentence wasn't meant exactly like that, but that was up to them. It was a possibility.

"We'll see." Ariana sighed as she opened her mouth, but apparently, that was Garnet's thought she was trying to give voice too. Garnet spoke up. 'Hiiro has some serious issues. He still hasn't asked his question.'

Kent and Lyn Relaxed against the tree. "Well, Sain found his new hidden ability." Lyn ran her fingers over his wounds. He groaned. "I'm so sorry… What happened to Kai?" Kent shrugged lightly beside her.

"Do you remember the second week we were with him?"

"Before the Chapel of the Mani-Katti?"

"Yeah. Right after we Rescued Ariana. He didn't seem himself then, either. It's almost like he's… different. Like he's not human."

"I know, but, the way the world is turning out, we might need a guardian angel."

Kent Nodded. He longed to confess his love for her. He couldn't help it; it was just that he loved her. No reasonable explanation for it. He just did. "Lyn, I…"

Lyn's heart fluttered. I could see the blush in her cheeks as she inhaled deeply. "Kent…"

"I… I promise to protect you, forever and always. As a Vassal to his Lord… I will Always, ALWAYS protect you, no matter the foe. Always and forever, Lyn. I WILL Protect you." The veiled proclamation of love seemed to stab me right in the face. Repeatedly. Harshly. Painfully. Like it went in my eye, came out my ear, went BACK in my nose, and then out my other eye, through my brain, out my but and into my mouth and just pulled, turning me into a little ball of stupidity. That Idiot.

Lyn's heart stopped, and I wanted to cry. He was either to blind, or stupid to see it. Lyn Looked away from him, just to hide the hurt. But she still had the grace to know he was just as hurt by what he said. "I… I thank you, Kent… As a Lord to her Vassal… I Value your efforts…" She inhaled in a series of rapid breaths. "I Value your efforts, from the bottom of my heart." She stood on the branch, and jumped up a few more, before sitting down on the opposite side of the tree, and crying. Kent simply sat there, a single tear running down his cheek.

Wil and Dorcas sat on a branch over to the west of us, chatting it up, and chowing down on their bowls of soup that they had brought up the trees with them. Rath and Matthew sat next to them, on the other side of the tree, all of the four men chatting it up.

Kadan and Rohan sat on the opposite side of our tree. I decided to talk with them. "So, Kadan, Rohan, how did you like that Acid bomb?"

"It was cool." Kadan said without thinking to hard on it. Rohan, however, smirked. "I wonder how you knew about it?"

"Who cast the spell?"

"A Shadow from the past. A Half-breed, who saved our lives. But an arrow took him through the skull, and he fell into the acid."

"So that's what happened?" I nodded. "Then he has my respect. What was his name?"

Rohan Snuck around the trees, and looked at me. "Kai." He had one long Pony tail of pitch black hair. I thought of one thing. Black knight. I smiled at him. "Go sit back down before you break the branches. And be careful around the dragon."

Ariana smirked. "He looks strong, Kai."

"He'll be a great help."

Hiiro finally spoke up. "Are you… really a dyke?"

"No." Her answer was simple and flat. "But I'm not into men, either, so figure that out." She leaned back.

Hiiro just sighed. He looked over at her. "Then I'd like to get to know you better, fly girl."

"Maybe, sword boy."

Serra and Erk were sleeping. The silence was… deep. Dark. Depressing. As quiet as hell, and as blue as the midnight sky. The whole place was quiet now. But Ariana and I continued to talk in hushed tones. "What … did you want to tell us?"

"I asked… for people like you."

She raised her eyebrow. "Oh… Right… You prayed."

"You could say that."

"So, are we what you hoped for?"

"Ten times better."

"Good to know, I guess."

"But there is something that bothers me."

"What's that?"

"You and Sain."

Ariana blushed. "He… He's not really my type. I mean, he's a Knight, and I'm just a little girl with no chance."

"Don't lie."

She snorted. "Like he would ever… especially with this… mark. I'm a freak, Kai."

"Don't lead him on, and don't break his heart."

"I... don't know if I can do that." She grabbed her legs as she rested on the wide branch. "He's just… He's so funny, so fun to be around."

"But, he's not supposed to know you exist…"

"I'm not supposed to… right?"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

She continued. "We weren't supposed to exist. A half-breed dragon, in this day and age. A Girl who befriends said fire-breathing dragon, and by all rights should have died."

I smirked. "Well, consider it skillful manipulation of consequences and coincidences."

She looked at me with cold eyes. "You're a Bastard, Kai. A total bastard. You didn't explain the consequences of what you did, and tied us together so tightly it hurts to be apart."

"No, I'm a manipulative prick with a self-righteous streak, and a forbidden fruit kink."

"What? How does tha-"

"It means I want what I can't have, and I'll manipulate people to get it, but in the end, I try to do my best with what I have for the good of us all."

Garnet cracked an eye. 'You're still a bastard.'

"This may be true, but me being a bastard is the only reason you two are alive. By the way, I didn't expect to have this conversation for quite a few years."

They both snorted. 'Yeah, right, and we're the royalty of Bern.'

"Maybe of Bern's Skies, Wyvern Princess."

Ariana raised her eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I've finally decided what to call you."

'Wouldn't her name be appropriate?'

"Well, no. Sain and Kent are Cavaliers, correct?"

'Yeah, and your point is?'

"I'm curious too, what are you getting at, Kai?"

I leaned up. "Think of it like this. Wil is an Archer. Most archers become Snipers, right? The same for Clerics, they become Valkyries, and Priests become Bishops." I shrugged a little bit. "You're a Wyvern Princess, A woman who rides a wyvern and uses spells."

She shook her head. "No way. I won't be some frilly princess. I'm me. Ariana. The bitch who can't read and can't fight."

I raised an eyebrow and garnet shoved his thoughts into the equation. 'I refuse to be known as the Wyvern part of a Wyvern Princess.'

"Oh come on. Wyvern riders don't use magic! But… on to more important matters… That mark Ariana?"

"Yes?"

"It's part of your body, becoming like a wyvern's."

"So I'm going to be turned into a wyvern… wonderful."

"Just the opposite. Garnet will become a human… Sort of."

"What?" Garnet had his face in mine with a snarl.

"Garnet, Wyverns can't breathe fire. They can't speak. Dragon's can't speak. Why can you say 'no'?"

The snarl vanished and he recoiled from me, covering his snout with his tail with a huff. 'Bastard.'

"You'll retain your ability to breathe fire, and Ariana will be able to fly. At the expense of her life, she might be able to breathe fire once. Very possibly like yours."

"What this all means, is that Ariana, in about a year, your back will split open, and wings will grow. A year after that, you two will look almost identical, save for the simple fact that you are male and female. You wont be twins, or brother and sister, just two Dragons that walk on two legs, and fly. Garnet, if the circumstances had been just a bit different, you would have been a human dragon cross breed, the same as Ariana will become. I've manipulated some small circumstances. Your mother deciding to leave her village. Living in the mountains of Bern. Caring for the Wyvern who was your father. Her being slain by the very same wyvern. You killing your father to survive. Meeting a small human girl in a burned down house. It would all have happened, except for meeting Ariana."

'And why did it happen?'

"A freak rainstorm."

Garnet nodded slowly. 'Hail storm, actually.' I shrugged.

"Either way, it would have happened. Only you wouldn't have met her, if the skies remained clear, like they should have. Ariana would have had a different mindset. Upon seeing the wyvern simply pass her up, she would have grown cold and uncaring, and become a Wyvern hunter. She would have slain thousands of your kind."

Ariana looked at me harshly. "My will is my own."

"It is. But when things happen, they always change you. In no way was there any interference with your free will, or his. He could have flown the complete other way, and nothing would have happened. But he flew near you, and I asked Elimine to make a rain storm that grounded him so that you could meet."

"So you 'skillfully' manipulated the 'consequences' of ordinary events?"

"It's something I'm somewhat skilled at. No big deal, really…"

"Screw it, do you hear something?"

Garnet and I pricked up our ears. The sound was far off, but it was definitely another of Sain's Greave-busters. "Those damn greaves have to be a wind-sock by now…."

Garnet nodded. 'Aye, and his but has got to be raw.'

I shrugged. "Well, I'm going to go to sleep."

Ariana grabbed me. "You still haven't answered my true question."

"Why me?"

She blinked. Garnet did as well, and looked at me, wondering when the hell I knew what the question was. "Because, the natural happenings of this world had both you and her existing. What better way to fold the circumstances, than to merely change how you survived?" And with that, I leaned my head back, and started snoring.

Hiiro and Florina sighed. "I…… Never mind."

Florina had started to talk. Hiiro tried to fill in the blanks. "You… Aren't as cold as you come off as?"

"Kinda…" With that, she leaned back on the branch, and yawned widely, before falling asleep.

Well, that's all for now, folks. Ciao!