Authors Note: Chapter 12

So I apparently did that romance scene right 0_0. Thanks for all the reviews guys, even my family liked it lol.

Fox

Assembled

The cleanup crew at Deningrad was surprisingly fast. When Darian woke up the next morning there was no trace of any battle in the halls of the Crystal Palace. Darian walked down the steps of the inner palace, staring at the steps, looking for any remote trace of blood.

"They clean up good." Darian said.

The rest of the group had met up at the bottom of the stairs, everyone still looked tired, the battle had taken its toll on everybody. Darian snuck his way into the makeshift meeting, standing close behind Tara who greeted him with a smile. Dart resumed talking, having waited for Darian to start paying attention.

"Ok as I was saying, within the next few days could be our last battle together. Some of us might live, some of us might be injured, and some of us might die. Whether you live or die is up to you. We are heading for the Forest of the Winglies, to get information on where our enemy's hideout is, and after that, we're taking them out." Dart said.

"So follow me." Meru perked up, "I can lead the way to the forest." She said, leading the way out of the castle and out of Deningrad.

The journey through the Evergreen Forest took much longer when walking through then when they sprinted like madmen too get to Deningrad.

"So what do you thinks going to happen?" Connor asked the group.

"We're going to bust in, kick some ass, and go home." Shane said bluntly.

"How can you be so confident?" Tristan asked suddenly.

After Tristan's remark everything was quiet for a few minutes, nobody knew what to say. Shane finally spoke up again, anger showing on his face.

"Would you rather I say we're all going to die?" Shane asked Tristan curiously.

Tristan didn't know what to say, even if it was Shane who was usually pretty cold to everybody or didn't even do much of the speaking he did prefer the positive thinking.

"We'll win." Darian said calmly.

Everyone looked at him, stunned by how calm he was.

"We have to win. Think about our friends and family back home, we have to get back and see them. And all of us are close now as well after all we've been through together. We've got each others backs; we're not going to die with our kind of backup." Darian said, a smile appearing on his face.

"He's right." Tara whispered.

"Yeah! We got each other." Connor remarked.

"There's no way we can lose." Tristan said happily.

Shane only smirked, preferring not to say anything. Meru had told them they were almost to the forest of the Winglies when suddenly she turned off the trail, as if she was being pulled.

"Meru, where are you going?" Dart asked, following her.

"I don't know, it's the Dragoon Spirit I think?" Meru said, pulling out the clear blue dragoon spirit which was shining brightly.

It was pulling Meru off into the forest, seemingly dragging her to its destination.

"I think I'll go out hunting today."

Farther into the forest there was a small clearing with a bright fire burning in its midst. A long, thin wooden staff lied beside the fire; both ends of the staff were capped with shiny steel. Beside the fire a girl sat cross legged, warming her hands in the flame.

"Well if I'm planning on hunting for dinner I guess I should go now." The girl said, standing up, picking up the steel ended staff.

"Ugh, Mai get a hold of your self." She said, cursing as she began to talk to herself.

After being in this forest for who knows how long Mai had fended for herself ever since she was brought here. Her martial arts training mixed with the staff that had been brought with her from her world she had managed to live off of the many animals in the forest. She sighed, moving her long black hair out of her eyes. She heard movement from behind her, quickly turning around about to swing her staff but her throat was met with the point of a dagger.

"Damn." She cursed.

"Look what we have here! A tiny girl out in the forest all alone." The leader of two other men said.

Mai was hungry and not in the mood for any low lives at the moment.

"What do you want?" she sneered.

"Just a little fun." The leader laughed, "Get her boys."

As the two other men approached her Mai quickly attacked. She lifted up her staff and swung for the first bandit's head. The steel on the end aided in the quick dispatch of the first one. She spun around, avoiding the tip of the dagger that was swung at her. Spinning her staff around she hit the second bandit multiple times before striking him on the head and she also tripped the last one.

He fell to the ground, quickly trying to stumble to his feet but was stopped by the metal tips of the staff stopping at a region that he really wouldn't like to be hit. Mai laughed silently, spitting at the Bandit.

"Scurry away like the coward you are." She muttered.

The Bandit quickly scuttled back and ran off, running through the forest as if he was just attacked by a monster. Mai turned back to her fire and doused it. She sighed.

"I guess I'll have more bandits after me if I don't leave the area, shouldn't have let him go." She sighed.

She felt something tap her head.

"Oh?" she said surprised.

The small liquid blue orb that had tapped her head slowly fell into her hands. She looked at it curiously; it emanated a light blue aura. She quickly turned her head to a voice she heard behind her, but she was surprised that the voice she heard was with many faces that she knew.

"Looks like we've found the new Blue Sea Dragoon." Dart said.

Mai examined Dart before everyone else. He looked strong and not someone that she should mess with, but what did he mean by Dragoon. She then snapped her head to the others, all of her friends from class.

"Darian! Tara! Connor! Shane! Tristan! You're all here too!" she said excitedly, this was the first time she has not felt alone since she got here.

Darian waved slightly, Tara and Connor were pulled into quick hugs, even Shane and Tristan who Mai didn't know very well received happy smiles from her. She glanced at Meru and Dart; she figured they were the ones to go too for answers.

She lifted up the liquid blue orb.

"So what's this about a 'Blue Sea Dragoon'?" Mai asked curiously.

A half hour later and they were back on the trail and heading for the Forest of the Winglies. Mai was now accompanying them, fully understanding the dangers she accepted the task. She even realized that she may have just joined during their most difficult battle yet.

Meru walked them all the way to the end of the forest, the small dense cluster of trees they were now in was very dark and it seemed like they had come to a dead end.

"Meru mind telling us how exactly we are going to get through here?" Tristan asked calmly.

Everyone else looked curious except for Dart who had been to the forest before and Shane. Shane could feel the magic coming from behind whatever hidden shield was right in front of them.

"Hold on a second guys, just stand back." Meru said calmly.

She quickly began to chant a quiet incantation. Magic formed in between her hands as she charged the spell that opened the gateway. Her luminescent wings appeared on her back and she slightly began to hover. Shortly after she released the spell and the results shocked everybody who had never been there before.

A bright gateway seemed to appear out of thin air. Opening up the entrance to the Forest of the Winglies. She turned around, putting her hands on her hips and smiling.

"Well can we go in already?" She asked as she spun around and entered the portal, followed by Dart and Shane.

"Should we really go in too some mysterious portal?" Mai asked curiously.

"A mysterious portal is the least of your worries." Connor said as he walked through the portal.

He was followed by Darian and Tara who entered quickly, not wanting to lose the rest of the group. Before he entered, Tristan turned around and held out his hand for Mai to grab, he had a friendly smile on his face.

"Take my hand, we'll go together." He said calmly.

Mai smiled slightly, she didn't remember Tristan being this nice. Of course she didn't really talk to him that often at school. She let her smile widen before taking his hand and nodding.

"Okay." She said quietly as she stood beside him, still holding his hand tightly.

Tristan took a step forward, followed by Mai through the portal. In only a few seconds they were in an entirely different area. Their were houses and other Winglies just living their everyday lives. The others were standing just in front of the portal, waiting for Tristan and Mai. Darian was the first to notice that they had their hands together.

"Hey Tristan, nice catch." He mentioned, eyeing Tristan and Mai's hands.

Mai realized what he was talking about first and quickly removed her hand from Tristan's, blushing slightly. Tristan walked over to Darian, quickly smacking him over the back of the head.

"Shut up Darian." Tristan said, grinning as he walked past, following Dart who had already left with Meru.

Mai almost immediately after walked up and stomped on Darian's toe before following Dart. The others all laughed at Darian's predicament before leaving to follow Dart. Tara came up behind Darian, giggling herself before kissing him on the cheek.

"Nice moves Darian, next time you should just straight up try to play matchmaker." Tara laughed as she too walked away.

Darian stood up and grinned.

"Yeah then what will they do to me? Chop off my arm and stomp on my head?" he said between laughs.

At the top of the first platform Darian and Tara had caught up quick enough before Meru activated the teleporter to the next section of the forest.

"Come on guys! We've got to see Ancestor Blano!" Meru said before she activated the portal and their world faded to green.

So I am an ass….sorry for not updating in a while guys. I have been lost in thought over how to continue the chapter and I finally came up with this and I hope it doesn't seem rushed or anything. The water dragoon is finally revealed Wewt, no more dragoons to reveal. So really I hope you guys don't think it's ending soon cause I can say one thing…in a few chapters something indeed is ending but not the story…just disk 1 *wink*

And too the guy who told me to use the original cast..I have sort of. I've implemented my own and the originals. If you don't like it then stay the hell away from my fic, it's as easy as that. Good day!

Fox