A year later

"Come, Nina," Natsuki muttered under her breath. "Where are you? I want to fly."

As if hearing her complaint, a point of light flashed like a star in the heart of Windbloom's central square. An eye-blink later, the light expanded into a vertical shimmer the height of a man. Natsuki grinned in anticipation.

Natsuki and the dragon had become fast friends over the past months, hunting Slaves together or exploring the Magekind's new world. Tonight, however, Nina had promised her a flight. If the dragon would ever show up...

A huge, blue-scaled head thrust through the glowing opening, which rippled around it like water. Horns topped the massive skull, and amber eyes gleamed with intelligence from below bony brow ridges. knife-length teeth flashed as the creature spoke. "What are you waiting for?" Nina demanded in a voice so deep, Natsuki felt it in her bones. "Step on through. I have a few friends I'd like you to meet." Her head withdrew through the magical gate, which rippled and bounced in reaction.

"What friends?" Frowning, Natsuki strode over to cross through the gate herself. Magic slid across her skin with her passage, tingling and foaming, but she'd grown used to the sensation by now. "Nina, I thought we were going to fly..."

Reaching the other side, Natsuki broke off in blank astonishment. She'd been to Nina's cavernous stone home in Dragon Lands before, so she was no stranger to its curved, alien walls and strange green lighting.

But during the previous visit, she hadn't been surrounded by dragons.

Four of them filled Nina's echoing cavern with their powerful bodies and restless tails. They were massive creatures, like animated hillsides covered in shimmering scales of gold, blue, red, or white. Great wings rustled as they shifted from foot to clawed foot, and their tails flicked, long as chariot teams.

Vampire or not, Natsuki felt her mouth go dry in instinctive fear. "Jebus." She had to clear her throat as she turned to give her blue-scaled friend a tight smile. "Well met, Nina." What the hell are they doing here?

"Welcome, Natsuki!" Nina gave her a grin so full of teeth, Natsuki would have been terrified if she wasn't already used to it.

"This is the human?" a white-scaled dragon asked. Green eyes the size of dinner plates blinked and narrowed as the creature examined her. "Why, it's so small. It can't be very smart, with such a tiny head."

In this company, Natsuki had to admit she felt tiny. She was also beginning to wonder if the creature had a point about her intelligence. What was she doing here? "Nina..." she began through a fixed smile.

"Don't be deceived." Nina edge protectively closer, forcing the white dragon to step back. "Natsuki and her people may be smaller than we are, but they're just as intelligent and equally courageous. As my friend proved when she saved me from those Slaves." Lowering her huge head, she muttered, "Please, Natsuki - patience. I'm trying to overcome my people's fear of you."

What about my fear of them? Natsuki thought. She contented herself with a nod and stepped closer to her friend's towering shoulder. Nina would protect her. She'd hoped.

A golden head swooped down, huge nostrils flaring. Natsuki managed not to jump. "It smells odd," the dragon said. "Like blood. And it looks rather disgustingly soft."

"On the other hand, they have a certain quick grace," Nina told him evenly. "As for their looks, I've found you get used to that."

"You flatter me," Natsuki said dryly.

"Well, I don't like it," the red dragon announced, stepping back with what looked like revulsion curling its lips. "Nothing good can come from associating with such...creatures. The Dragon Lords won't like this at all."

"Mikoto is a Dragon Lord, and she has no problem with it."

"Mikoto is an ambassador," the red retorded. "She has to associate with the disgusting things. And at least she has the grace not to enjoy it."

Nina laughed. "I could tell you a thing or two about what Mikoto enjoys." As the others looked scandalized, she added smoothly, "She, too, realizes the humans have much to offer us, if we but put aside our fear long enough to learn from them."

"Fear?" Now offended smoke rolled from the red dragon's nostrils. "I certainly feel no fear of that revolting little beast. Nor do I believe it has anything to teach me I wish to know."

"You would be suprised, Dyne," Nina said. "I have made several visits to their city, Windbloom, and, like Mikoto, I find their ways intriguingly different from ours. For example, the humans mate for life instead of a single season, and..."

Dyne snorted, his breath ruffling Natsuki's hair. "I have flown over that city, as you call it, and I fail to see how I could even fit inside one of those tiny stone hovels."

"Hovels?" Natsuki muttered.

"To begin with," Nina said, ignoring his irritation, "you assume their form." Magic flashed in the dragon's amber eyes. Knowing what was coming, Natsuki straightened hastly away.

The next instant, the huge beast was gone, replaced by a woman her own height, dressed in a doublet and breeches. Her skin held a faint blue sheen, while her hair fell to her shoulders in a fall of indigo. Her eyes, however, were the same amber they'd been in dragon form. Nina flashed a smile. "As you can see, the transformation is not even difficult, once you learn the trick of it."

"Perversion!" Dyne hissed, his spined crest fanning in agitation. "Consorting with those creatures is bad enough, but to assume their revolting shape - you are as mad as they say!"

"Revolting?" Natsuki drawled, her sense of humor suddenly reasserting itself. "You wound me."

The dragon glared at her with hatred. "I would eat you, but I do not care to pollute my belly."

Nina went still. "Or face my rage."

Fear flickered in the dragon's eyes and turned to defiance. "This will not be allowed. They will stop you." He turned and lumbered to the front of the cavern, then flung himself out through its mouth and fell like a stone. An instant later he reappeared, wings beating furiously as he flew upward.

"That can't be good," Natsuki murmured to Nina.

The gold dragon flicked its tail. "He's off to tattle to the Dragon Lords, Nina. You'd best take your new pet and fly before he brings their outrage down on your head."

Nina glowered and returned to her true form. "Am I some new-hatched fledgling supposed to cower every time one of the Dragon Lords huffs? Not likely."

"Why must you try to change everything?" the white dragon demanded suddenly, frustration growing in its voice. "Why can't you simply let things be?"

"Because it's boring, Gal," Nina snapped back. "We're so locked in our own ways of thought, one day we'll merge with the stone of our own caves. And nobody will even notice."

Gal spread massive wings, then refolded them with a flick. " There's nothing wrong with a little boredom."

"Actually, I begin to agree with you," Natsuki murmured.

The dragons ignored her. "If nothing else, you should consider what your actions are doing to your uncle," the gold dragon told Nina. "People begin to talk. Sergey could lose his position as a Dragon Lord if they decide he's unable to control you."

"He doesn't control me." Nina's tail whipped once. "He is merely a hidebound bully who has tormented my mother since they were hatched. I hope he does lose his seat. In fact, perhaps I'll challenge him..."

"I would not advise it, niece."

Nina and Natsuki turned. A red dragon even bigger than Dyne filled the mouth of the cave, a muscular green dragon standing a bit behind it.

Without taking her eyes away from the newcomers, Nina extended a forearm to Natsuki and lowered her voice. "Climb on. I may need to get you to safety."

Natsuki did not have to be asked twice. She grabbed her friend's clawed hand and quickly scrambled up to straddle her neck. They moved toward the entrance, but the two newcomers blocked the way.

"So, Nina, you plot againts me." The red dragon's tone was chillingly pleasant. "I'd reconsider, were I you. The bones of my past challengers ring our cliffs."

Nina displayed impressive teeth. "I'm faster than they were." Around them, the others went very still.

Natsuki winced. Sitting on the back of a dragon during a duel suddenly struck her as a very bad place to be.

Uncle and niece glared at each other, spiked tails lashing with clicking sounds on the stone. Then the green dragon spoke, his voice deliberately loud.

"When Dyne told me you'd brought one of these...creatures to our lands, I did not believe him," The green dragon said, cold yellow eyes focusing on Natsuki. "Yet it seems there are no depths to which you will not sink."

"Evar, befriending humans is not a perversion." Nina growled, without taking her eyes from her uncle. "Learning new things keeps one quick of mind."

"And more importantly, it embarrasses me." The red dragon fanned his spiked crest, eyes narrowing. "Which is the whole point is it not? To create doubt in my leadership?"

"Doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way for centuries is not leadership, Sergey. It's laziness."

"You accuse me of laziness?"

"Nina..." Natsuki murmured, wishing for her sword. If the dragons began to fight, she could end up crushed between those huge bodies. And there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it.

Nina ignored her in favor of glaring at her rival. "Have we become so weak, Uncle, that any new idea can throw us into panic? Do we have so little strength - or so much cowardice?"

"Cowardice!" Evar turned to Nina's uncle. "Are you going to let that stand, Sergey?"

Sergey's eyes narrowed. "Nina, I order you to stop consorting with these disgusting apes. I-"

"You're in no position to order me to do anything." She stalked closer. "Now, my friend and I are going flying."

Nina swept past, forcing Natsuki to grab one of her spines to keep her seat. Reaching the cavern opening, the dragon flung herself out over empty air.

Natsuki's belly rose into her throat as they plummeted downward. Nina's wings grabbed the air and they leveled out, soaring. The earth flashed below, far too close, before falling away with dazzling speed. Nina's heavy wings beat hard in the climb, carrying them out over the Dragon Lands, whose peaks shone silver in the moonlight.

"What's going on, Nina?" Natsuki shouted over the wind, when she judged her friend's temper had begun to cool.

"My uncle has been a Dragon Lord too long," Nina shouted back. "And our people need to grow and learn."

"That may be, but you can't force them." Natsuki's hands tightened around the spines she held as she hunkered againts the wind. "Nina, are we really friends, or am I an excuse to fight your uncle?"

Nina snorted. "If all I wanted was to call Sergey out, I don't need an excuse. It's my right as a member of the Bloodstone clan. I believe what I told them back there, Natsuki - we need contact with your people. It's been generations since Dragonkind produced so much as a poet. All the creativity that flourishes among you is all but dead in us. We grow slow and complacent."

"Do you really think killing Sergey is going to change that?"

"No, but it's a-"

BOOM! The spell blasted out of nowhere, a raging explosion of energy that tore Natsuki from the dragon's back. Nina roared, writhing in midair, huge wings contorting in agony...

Natsuki plummeted through the night like a brick dropped into a well. As the ground sped toward her face, she wrapped her arms around her head and prayed. It took a lot to kill one of Mashiro's immortal vampires, but a fall like this just might do the job.

She hit the ground in a white-hot blast of pain. In an instant, everything went black.

-/-/-/-

The world was on fire. Natsuki managed an agonized wheeze and instinctively shifted form. Her skull elongated, hands becoming paws, silver fur racing over her twisting, changing body.

Until she was left lying in the grass, panting. At least the pain was gone. As it always did, the transformation to wolf had healed her injuries.

Whole again, she rolled to all four legs, shook herself, and growled, scanning for the enemy that had attacked her and Nina.

She landed on a grassy hilltop. There was no sign of the dragon at all, not on the ground or in the sky. There was nothing, in fact, except Windbloom in the distance, shining pale and ghostly as a dream.

Then, from the corner of one eye, she spotted the glint of moonlight on silver. With a wary growl, she trotted over to investigate.

It was a sword, lying in the high grass. That was strange. Moving closer, she lowered her wolf muzzle to investigate.

The weapon smelled of magic so strongly, her hackles rose. It was beautifully made, with a four-foot blade. A small silver dragon curled around its long hilt, spiked tail extended down the tang.

To her amazement, the dragon's tiny head lifted and looked at her with dazed amber eyes. "Natsuki?" it croaked.

Astonished, Natsuki returned to human form. "Nina?" Gingerly, she reached down and lifted the sword with both hands. Rotating it so the dragon was upright, she asked, "What happened?"

Fear twisted her friend's face as the tiny dragon clung to the hilt like a drowning man. "Natsuki, I can't change back. The egg-sucking bastard has trapped me!"

"Who? Sergey? Or that green one?" Her mind raced. Windbloom was full of witches. Surely one of them could cure the dragon. "Don't panic. The witches will be able to help you, and if they can't, your mother will."

Amber eyes blinked hard. "It's not going to work."

"What do you mean?"

"There's only one way to break this spell." The dragon curled a silver lip. "My attacker was kind enough to plant the knowledge in my mind."

She blew a breath in relief. "Then whatever it is, let's do it and get you out of there. Then we'll find..."

"No." The dragon looked her in the eyes. "The only way to break the spell is to kill you, Natsuki. And that I'll never do."

"What?" Back in his own cavern again, Sergey stared into an enchanted pool, the tip of his tail lashing. As he watched, the ape knight began to walk back toward Windbloom, carrying the sword that held Nina prisoner. "You always were a stubborn fool," he growled under his breath. "We'll see how long your pride lasts."

Actually, this might be for the best. The longer Nina refused to do the obvious, the longer she was out of the way. "You saved my life," Nina said to the ape with all her usual unshakable sanctimony. "The cowardly egg-sucker doesn't know me very well if he thinks I'll repay you with death."

"I'm relieved to hear it," the ape replied. "But who do you think did this to you?"

"I don't know." Nina frowned. "It could be any of them."

"Sergey?"

"Possibly, but I doubt it."

"He certainly hates you enough."

The small figure lifted its wings in a shrug. "But if he were caught, it would be politically ruinous. Everyone knows I was about to challenge him. It's highly dishonorable to use a spell like this on a challenger - and what's more, it's an admission weakness. Sergey would find himself swamped with Bloodstone rivals eager to topple him. No, it was more likely Evar, that big green dragon. Or perhaps one of the other Dragon Lords, since none of them is exactly happy with me at the moment."

Which was exactly what Sergey had intended her to think. With any luck, the others would believe the same.

Either way, he had avoided a duel with Nina he might not be able to win. The dragon was young, powerful, and skilled in battle, more than any of Sergey's previous challengers. And Sergey had no intentions of joining the bones at the base of the Dragon Cliffs.

Of course, he could have used a spell to kill Nina outright, but that kind of death magic was much easier to detect. The other Dragon Lords might be willing to turn a blind eye to trapping the young rebel in a sword, but killing a challenger through death magic...they'd execute Sergey for that.

Even if the Dragon Lords chose not to move againts him, Nina was right. Her clan would swampt him with challengers, and one of them might get lucky.

No, imprisoning the little egg-sucker was the best choice. Given her stubbornness, it could be years before Nina finally yielded to the inevitable and killed her ape friend. That would, of course, anger the other apes, who'd want nothing to do with Nina or the Dragonkind after that.

Even better, a long imprisonment would weaken Nina. By the time she escaped the sword, she'd be easy prey, assuming she was foolish enough to challenge Sergey at all.

It was all working out exactly as he'd hoped.

AN:

i hope your all enjoying the story so far and i hope its not too confusing if it is then just ask and i'll try and answer without giving the story away.

glowie: for the first question- its not just midori and her knights but the whole magical people and creatures, and yes they were sent there to avoid suspicion because they don't age. Q2- yes they can move from each world by magic portals. Q3- there purpose is to protect the humans from 'evil'. Q4- that is one of those questions that people ask themselves after watching the last episode of mai hime. no body really knows. and so like in mai hime i shall also leave it at that. or perhaps it is exactly that. -shifty eyes-

ALEXISSA2: shizuru shall be making an apperance next chapter

thanks to every body else who reviewed, they were very much appreciated.

woot! final exams!!!