Ok, I need two disclaimers. Simply because a song got stuck in my head while writing the first one:

Disclaimer 1 :

"Doctor Wudrow, after some horrible singing my ears started to bleed, I need a cure!"
"Ho, sunny. Looks like I'll describe you some ownership of Namco and Tales of Graces to cure you!"
"Really?"
"No you fool! you can never own Namco and Tales of Graces, you didn't create or buy the rights for either of them! Take these pills and go out of my sight"

You heard the Mandor, I don't own Namco and Tales of Graces and any of their characters or the world. The story however and out of Canon characters are mine, copyrighted and everything.

Disclaimer 2:

Doctor, doctor give me the news
I've got a bad case of loving you...I mean not owning Tales of Graces its characters, Namco & friends
No pills gonna cure my ill,
I've got a bad case of loving you...I mean not owning Tales of Graces, its characters, Namco & friends

A pretty dream don't make no pretty reality
I learned that buddy, from insanity.
You think I own stuff, you couldn't be more wrong
Momma, I only own this story...and this song-
text.

Ok, summary: I don't own Namco or anything Namco has created except a license to play Tales of Graces. The story is mine, don't copy it without my permission. That's about it.

Preventive Update: I just read over the whole thing again and while it hurts myself to say it, trying to write the dragons as genderless entitys might not have been my smartest idea. At least for me it caused headaches while I reread the part. I'll fix that in a while, meanwhile please bear with the first paragraph in this chapter and read the "its" as the gender pronoun you'd like it to be.

Chapter 5: Protection and Envy

- Lake Liberte -

Calmness surrounded Lake Liberte in the night. Only a breeze dared to move over the surface of the crystal clear water that reflected the moonlight. Underneath the surface however was a different situation. Thousands of fishes swam in swarms through the lake, evading eventual predators or eating whenever they found food. Though the lake should have been low on nutrients, life flourished in it in glorious diversity. The reason for that laid in a being with a vast deep blue silhouette of a body near the bottom of the lake. It was far deeper than most of the fish swam, but it was still surrounded by a few of them. Immense amounts of Eleth poured out of its body, speeding up and strengthening the growth of the life arround it. The fish seemed to feed on the Eleth, sating their appetites as fast as they could and then leaving, only to be replaced by another one. Gentle and kind eyes with reptile-like pupils watched the activity in the water and the unfolding of life in balance. It was beautiful.

However, this feeling of harmony the dragon had, was destroyed by the presence of another being, entering its mind. Again. What was most annoying about this presence was not that it was intimidating, big or anything like that. In fact, it had none of these qualities. What was most annoying about this presence was the very way this presence was. The being with the huge body had never before sensed an aura like that. Sometimes it was strong, sometimes it was weak, sometimes it changed its strength on the whim of a second and at other times it wasn't there at all. The feeling the aura had to it was never completely the same, always a bit different, always with different colors, but always so rich and dense that it was nearly impossible to analyze it any further. It was as if this aura was...bubbly. But however the presence seemed to change, there was one constant element: Beneath the mix of colors and feelings always was an underlying shade of blue. The disturbing thing about it was the similarity between this color and the color of the dragon's own aura: It was the exactly the same. And more often than not some of the other colors in the aura seemed familiar to the being, as if it knew them. Not even the aura of direct offspring of the dragon was identical to its own, which meant that this aura was...partially itself? That didn't make sense.

The momentary resignation in the being's mind was closest to a mental sigh. It could do nothing about this annoying thing. It couldn't locate it well enough to know where it was and satisfy its curiosity. It could only wait and hope for the presence to reveal itself.

With another mental sigh Duplemar focussed again on the harmony around it, trying its best to ignore the new presence.

- Sable Izolle -

It was sad that Hubert wouldn't come with them to visit his own home. He had left the moment they reached Sable Izolle to report to the president. It didn't seem to matter that the sun had set a long time ago. He seemed to believe the president was still awake.

Far into the night they had finally reached Sable Izolle, exhausted from the fast pace the lieutenant had set. To top it all off, it had begun to rain only a few kilometres before they reached the city. Cheria, who had been wet to the skin by the time they arrived, had wanted to go to an inn immediately. But Richard, Asbel and Sophie managed to convince her to make a visit to Pascal first, while Malik observed all of it with his quiet grin. They knew that the Amarcian woman would still be up and they also knew the way to her house. The moon shone bright enough to see the streets, despite the rain. It was only barely enough to make out the way to the Amarcian.

All of them, except Richard, had visited her a few times already, ever since the president had gifted the house to Hubert and Pascal a few months ago. It had been a reward for solving the Fodra-conflict and the ownership documents had arrived together with an order that redeployed the lieutenant from Yu Liberte to Sable Izolle. The confusion about that had been big at first: Why remove the lieutenant from the capital, an important and powerful person such as him? Not long did Hubert have to wait for Paradine to reveal his motives: The man wanted Pascal in this city of intellectuals and he wanted her there badly, as close to the research tower as possible. Knowing that the Amarcian could care less for a house in Strahta with her home in Fendel and knowing about the relationship between his lieutenant and the ingenious woman, he had done the only thing reasonable. He gave her a reason to stay at Sable Izolle. He gave her Hubert. The lieutenant had shown displeasure at first for not being involved in such a decision. But the fact that he'd be living together with the woman he had been in love with for over eight months soothed his hurt pride surprisingly fast.

It was strange that the president didn't try to pressure Pascal into working at the research tower. He had simply said that he wanted her to live in the city. And time showed why: Even if she didn't go to the tower, other researchers would come looking for her to ask for advice or possible solutions to difficult problems. The Amarcian couldn't possibly deny such requests: Solving those riddles was far too exciting for her to stop it.

Before long, she was relied on to find solutions for problems that seemed unsolvable, inspiring seemingly impossible ideas, besides other things. She had evolved into the secret weapon of Strahta's science society. The advice alone she gave had been enough to boost the research speed in Sable Izolle to levels unknown before. And surprisingly it didn't lead to the Amarcian overworking herself. Most of the scientists were too proud to run to her at every little occurring problem, but did seek her out when they were stuck, saving them months of work if Pascal managed to help them. Therefore, she had enough time to do her own research. That mostly involved deciphering and recovering data from the lost archive, which she did with permission of the president and without payment. With the money she and the others had gained from the fight against Fodra, she didn't need it anyway. And it didn't hurt that the head of the research tower felt complied to pay her a small regular income for all the help they received from her.

Not unlike the archive of wisdom, the lost archive beneath the research tower was filled with information. But the amount of information was far greater than that in the archive of wisdom, due to the age difference between both. The lost archive had been around ever since the first Amarcian's had set foot on Ephinea and had built it. That had been far before Lambda even existed. The archive of wisdom was a child in comparison. Barely one and a half millennia old, it only contained a small part of data that was taken from the lost archive and only a relatively small amount of new research data had found its way into the records. Most data had been lost together with the archive until Pascal rediscovered and began to decipher it. That way, the Amarcian had always plenty of work if she chose that she wanted to do it.

It seemed like today was one of the days she decided to stop the work at night, because it only took her a few seconds to open the door after Sophie had knocked.

"Guys?! Sophie?! What are you...Aww c'mere youuuuu, let me touch you!"

Pascal greeted them, energetic as always. Happiness glittered in her eyes at the look of her old friends when she opened the door. And the moment she saw Sophie, she dragged her into the entry hall and clung to her like an octupus. Pascal didn't care if her friend was soaked to the bone, she only got to see her so often and those times had to count! That made her being soggy as unimportant as the fact that Sophie was now just as big as her.

"Getting your regular dose of Sophie, aren't you Pascal?" smirked the Captain behind her.

"Oh, shut up Captain. You're just all bummed out that I'm not hanky-panky with you as well. Isn't that right Sophie?"

With savoring closed eyes she pressed and rubbed her cheek against Sophie's, who now looked like she wasn't so sure anymore that letting Pascal touch her had been such a good idea. The Amarcian didn't care, a smile of pure satisfaction and bliss was spread out on her face.

Against the light that seeped out of her house it was hard not to notice how Pascal had changed since she moved in with Hubert. She had traded her cotton pants to short jeans that got slightly over her knees, just like the former pants. The jeans complimented her figure - a lot - just as well, but looked more durable...and also had more pockets. Furthermore she had exchanged her pocke-covered suspenders with a new belt on her jeans, that in exchange was covered with pockets again. Gloves did not leave her usual equipment, but she didn't need them in the house. Several different pairs were hung on hooks near the entrance. Beside them were a few blue coats that seemed to belong to Hubert.

That wasn't the only noticeable change around her. Though only a little bit, she looked more groomed, her hair looked healthier and more importantly: She looked clean. Like she had taken a shower just this morning. She still didn't wear any makeup, but Pascal didn't need that. She was naturally cute without it - something that Cheria slightly envied about her - and that surfaced so much more now, that she had started to take care of herself. Had Hubert managed to make her more aware of her looks? The man seemed to make wonders happen!

But even if her looks had changed a bit, she was still exactly the same person the five had traveled with during the Fodra-conflict.

"What are you waiting for, get in!"she called, still in a tight hug with Sophie.

After the group stepped in and managed to separate the two - which only led to Pascal hugging the rest of her friends just as tightly - the Amarcian walked further into the house to get something and began talking again.

"It's totally awesome that you came here, guys! The dragon and Valkines stuff got boring, so I got a little snack. Your timing is perfect!"

Inside the entry hall, the rest of the group scanned the area, checking if anything had changed since their last visit, or, in Richard's case, looking at the apartment for the first time. The house itself wasn't big, but it was comfortable. The smaller, white-painted hall they were in, with hooks on the wall for coats and gloves, led into a big room that was divided into two halves. It was the living room, and the kitchen, separated by two different floors instead of a wall. On the right was the kitchen with a fireplace for cooking and a rectangular dining table that was big enough for three people to sit on each side of it. The floor was tiled in white color. A door near the fireplace showed the way to a bathroom. On the left was the living room with a few armchairs and a sofa placed around a small decorative table. The colorful big carpet on the floor of the living room with its complex patterns gave the room a dignified air, while big windows behind the sofa made it more comfortable and inviting during daylight. Opposite of the entrance hall, a small floor led to stairs to the second floor, which contained the bedroom with a second bathroom and a study, as far as the group knew.

While her friends were scanning the first floor of the building, Pascal had walked to the kitchen and set her prepared snack on the dining table, namely a few pieces of banana pie together with a few bananas. What else could the Amarcian possibly be eating around here? She also got a few other plates and forks in case anyone wanted to snack with her.

Putting down the few extra plates she looked at her friends in the entry hall again and finally noticed how wet they were.

"Oh! Damn. Rain again, what a bugger. Wait, let me take care of this. Observe closely captain, I created this arte just for you!"

With closed eyes she murmured a few words and pointed with her hands in the direction of the five soaked figures. Multiple small glowing dots appeared around them, radiating warmth. Moments later the air began to warm up and suck the water out of their clothes. In a mere few minutes, they were dry again. With a satisfied grin and a few pearls of sweat on her forehead, the Amarcian looked at the captain.

"How do you think about this for the tiniest flame contest? Hundreds of tiny little flames around you to heat the air. Top that captain!"

The Fendelian man chuckled as he remembered how he had started the contest back then in Velanik.

"I guess I need to remind you that my flame was so small, that you didn't even notice it. Technically, I am still the winner."

His opponent tilted her head in thought, trying to remember said contest. She shot him an evil glare the moment she did.

"No fair captain, you cheated on that one!"

"Oh? Did I?"

"Yeah, but...oh forget it." she waved the whole thing off. While she looked down she noticed that her guests were still wearing their shoes.

"Oh, don't forget to get rid of your shoes at the entrance. Hu gets all angry and stuff when people step in with their shoes still on. He says it makes the floor all dirty. I think he needs to do some more of this training he does with his guys. Makes him calmer and easier to talk to. Anyway, why are you here? Is Windor in danger or something?"

The abrupt silence after her words told her that she had hit the nail on the head. It didn't take long for them to tell her their story, after they had sat down at the table. Pascal closed her eyes while they were talking, listening intently to every word. By the time they were finished telling what had happened, she had started to murmur.

"So a dragon in Barona as well, huh? Near Gloandi...All three of them...together...around the same time... "

The group could nearly hear the gears turn in Pascals head. As well as they could nearly see the lightbulb that popped out of her head.

"That's it! That's totally it! Awesome! ...Ooooor not so awesome... Dude, that's not good."

Her mood changed from euphoric to sober quickly. A bit too eager to get some information out of her, Richard involved himself in the discussion.

"What do you mean Pascal? What do you know?"

Unease flickered in the scientist's eyes and she seemed unsure if she should answer the question.

"You know, I save and repair data from the lost archive that's kicking around in the research tower. A few protocols and other stuff I saved before talked about three guardians that Fodra's core had implanted inside the Valkines, before the Amarcian's could ship them from Fodra to Ephinea. They installed the Valkines together with the Lastalia to make the whole system work and simply wrote down that Fodra had put something in there to guard them, as soon as they noticed it wasn't blowing same system up. It...It might be possible that those dragons are those guardians...and..."

She stopped, the unease now stronger, with her finger fiddling with a banana from the plate. occasionally she glanced at Richard, unsure how to continue while Richard waited for her answer. He didn't show any signs of impatience, but neither showed he signs of relaxation. Finally, Pascal continued.

"They...might have been activated by... what you did with Lambda two years ago. You know, the eleth-absorbing-stuff..."

Her voice broke as she looked at him. Richard's smile had faded and his shoulders just felt two times heavier. For a brief moment, his face betrayed his thoughts. He blamed himself for everything. But knowing that Asbel was observing him closely, he struggled to not show any further reaction.

Still unsure about Richard, Pascal continued.

"Anyway, those guardians do what Fodra sent them to do: To insure and protect the Eleth flow and its distribution...Since there's a threat to that distribution, they're all angry and stuff and do what they can to get rid of the threat. Well...and since they recognized Richard as human, we are the threat..."

Again, Richard's face betrayed him, if only for a small moment. It showed how guilty he felt. Before anyone could interrupt her, Pascal went on.

"But there is a chance! We can ask for help! It's not something great, but there is a chance it will work. You know, we always said that there is only three types of Eleth: Water, fire and wind. Every other sort of Eleth is a combination of those three. But that doesn't mean that there can be only three Valkines, you know. Do you remember those big crystals on Fodra? Those things that spread their Eleth in the air and which we had to neutralize? Those were some sort of mini-Valkines. They did the same thing as our Valkines, just with an eleth-mixture instead of pure Eleth."

She gave them a few moments to let the information seep into their mind.

"Apparently, according to the lost archive, there are some of those mini-Valkines on Ephinea! Together with other guardians! Their position just were lost a long time ago. It seems like nobody cared about those smaller Valkines when there were the three big ones around. Or they were simply hidden from others for politics or whatever. Anyhoo, we know that there are some on Ephinea. And we also know their former position and that they haven't been activated, since there's no fourth dragon flying around. If they are programmed the same way those other guardians are, we could maybe try to convince one that it wasn't everyone's fault. Maybe we can explain to them what happened two years ago or something, so they understand how wizzy-wazzy this whole thing was and show them that they should help us. And maybe, with them as support, we can get the other Valkines dragons to stop. "

Pascal looked around after her last words and met many doubting faces.

"Look, I know we risk a lot by doing that, but it's just like it was back then with Sophie: We're running out of options here. Those dragons won't stop for anything less than destroying us and we can't defend ourselves forever. Especially not if one of them decides to visit another town."

Before anyone could say something else, Richard raised his voice.

"I agree with Pascal. It really looks like the best idea to seek their help. And I am certain that we will be able to convince them what truly happened. It will give us a chance at least"

Asbel could nearly hear his friend think.

'And it will give me the chance to stand up for my deeds and pay the just price for them'

He watched his king with eagle-eyes. Not one moment did he believe that Richard was completely honest with what he had said. The lord knew him too well to do that. But a gentle squeeze of his hand beneath the table and a calm, knowing glance from his wife were enough to not bring it up. Right now.

"I think that we still lack a crucial detail," began Malik "How should we drive one of those guardians out of its Valkines? Lambda is still sleeping and Sophie can't do it."

The concern in his words carried through the room. But Pascal was quick to dismiss it.

"I'll figure something out when we get there. Actually, that part will be the easy one, since we can do all kinds of stuff. We have to find one first though. And that will be kinda, sorta tough."

Asbel raised his eyebrow.

"Wait, didn't you say that we have their location?"

It looked like that annoyed his female friend.

"Well duh! But those were the locations of a few thousand years ago! They now can be who-knows-where doing who-knows-what or something. The locations give us a starting point where to look, but that's about it. If we consider plate tectonics I might even be able to get us somewhere near it. Anyhoo, that still won't save us the search."

The group took a moment to think about what the Amarcian had just said. This time, Asbel was the first to talk after the pause.

"We'll have to settle for this plan then. Pascal is right, we need the help. We can't count on defeating them alone. And we don't really have an alternative."

"I agree, we should find one of those other guardians." Cheria agreed.

Sophie simply nodded. As the glances went from her to Malik, who was still lost in thought. Then he nodded as well. They still needed Hubert's opinion on the matter, but his brother was sure the lieutenant would agree.

"It's a plan then. Where's the first place you would start looking Pascal?" asked Asbel the scientist.

She took a moment to think about it, then answered his question.

"I'm not totally sure if I remember it correctly, but one of them wasn't all that far from the Rockgagong-sea. We could start looking over there with a boat or whatever, it would be a start."

The general idea was good, but there was one question that was still left open, which was voiced by Richard.

"How do we find a vessel to travel over the sea?"

"What about the Turtlez?" Cheria threw in, which earned her a quizzical look from the rest of the group. Undeterred she continued.

"They lend their turtles for transportation, right? Turtles can swim and we could explore the Rockgagong-sea from their backs."

It took a few moments for the others to think about the idea, but they agreed in the end. Malik volunteered to negotiate with the Turtlez about this unscheduled trip to the Rockgagong-sea and inform them when he was finished. Asbel was sure that this would take the better part of the next day and mentally prepared for a late start to the trip.

Without another urgent topic related to the search to discuss, stopped talking. Awkward silence began to spread and made them all slightly uncomfortable. The group could feel the responsibility to stop this catastrophe on their shoulders, casting a glum shadow over the atmosphere. It was Cheria who finally managed to break the spell.

"Pascal, how are you and Hubert doing? I read the letter you wrote about you blowing up your robot again. I want to hear all about it!"

Proving that she didn't plan to leave anytime soon, she grabbed one of the plates Pascal had brought with her and a piece of banana pie for a snack while the Amarcian began to flush a bit without lowering her enthusiasm. A sheepish smile on her face and a hand bashfully scratching the back of her head she started talking.

"Well, you know, I kind of made teeny tiny miscalculation with the temperature the acclimation module could endure..."

And like that, the group was again in a bantering chat, laughing about stories of the more or less recent past, telling jokes or making fun of each other. Asbel's face became a mask of fear when he noticed Malik and Richard talk on the quiet, grinning mischievously in the lord's direction from time to time. Meanwhile, Cheria enjoyed Pascal's stories and tried to subtle - and sometimes not so subtle - extract any information possible from the Amarcian about the relationship between her and Cheria's brother-in-law. New ammunition for well-timed teasing was always welcome. Sophie listened most of the time, switching between Pascals talk and Richard's and Malik's teasing of Asbel.

Almost forgotten was the trip they had been planning and the foreboding feeling with it. The worries of the world could wait for a bit. Now was the time to enjoy some good company with friends.

Sable Izolle in daylight was a completely different view than at night. Actually, it was a completely different view from every time the Asbel had seen it before, once he got a look at it. The desert city was no longer that. It was green. Even more than this, it was flourishing. Asbel and Cheria had just taken one foot outside the inn to take a walk and immediately felt themselves gaping.

In the past it had never been possible to successfully grow anything other than Strahta cacti anywhere even remotely near the city. The city had been a few houses, built on top of the rocks protruding out of the moving sandsea beneath them, that were connected via hanging bridges. It had to be supplied from Yu Liberte and Oul Raye to keep the inhabitants alive. There had been only three reasons for the city to even exist: The research tower on several floors of Amarcian ruins, the inn for a rest on the way to the capital or the seaport and lastly, to act as a strategical key point to protect one half of Strahta if the other was overrun by enemies. If the inhabitants of Sable Izolle decided to cut even one of the bridges, nobody would be able to cross the canyons that separated both halves of the continent. At least until somebody built a new bridge, which was nearly impossible without help from the other side.

Now every single spot of rocky surface that wasn't overshadowed by other plants or used as walkway was filled with greens. There were even some trees around that shouldn't have been able to grow around here, much less in the small amount of time since Asbel had last visited the city or on this hard ground. But not only was the city now filled with plants everywhere, even the canyons had changed. Water filled them so high that the surface of it even touched some of the lower hanging bridges. A drop into the deep now didn't ensure death anymore. Instead, it invited a cooling dip into the water. If one was brave enough to jump ten to twenty meters into the depth. Several of the houses on the lower levels were flooded just as well as the deeper levels of the ruins on which the research tower was built.

The surroundings however, weren't the only thing that had changed. The activity in the town itself had increased, like in every town before. People were walking, standing, sitting and talking everywhere, avoiding the searing heat that hit them from above by placing themselves beneath the shadows of palms. Some of the activity could be explained via the numerous workers that walked around, carrying tools, wooden planks, nails or other things needed to strengthen the defenses of the city. A primary wall and other contraptions had already been built, but they needed some reinforcement. Apart from the rest of the buildings a few rectangular areas had also been marked. Rather impressive amounts of construction workers were on them, building thick stone walls, digging into the ground or installing water pipes. They had to be building new houses for the now homeless people.

Still surprised about the immense change and the bustling activity in the city, Asbel and his wife continued their walk. They tried to take in every change they noticed to rerate the current condition. So far the only thing that had happened ever since the Valkines guardians had left their place inside the crystals was death and destruction. There was enough destruction to be seen in Sable Izolle, but there was also something different. They were able to watch another side of it: Life and revival. It showed just again that there were always two sides of a coin, though that part seemed lost to many of the Sable Izolle's inhabitants. Especially the new ones.

At least every tenth person Asbel spotted showed the same signs he had seen in Gralesyde. A slightly to obvious tear in a piece of clothing, an unsure smile, a haunted look in the eye. Those things gave the people here away rather quickly. It seemed like a few villagers had come to the city in the hope of finding safety. If simply out of fear of the monsters or because their village was destroyed was nothing Asbel could tell just from looking. But he was willing to bet that not too many of the Strahtans had been willing to give up their homes due to the former reason. It gave the otherwise flourishing and vital city a glum side note. And it also remembered Asbel what the people in Gralesyde must be going through. He hoped that Duke Dalen had found a way to improve their situation and that the city was still safe.

The sight of a familiar face forced him back to the present. To his surprise, it was Hubert. It didn't take long for the couple to be discovered themselves by the young lieutenant. Recognizing Cheria, he first raised an eyebrow, then his eyes narrowed a bit as they turned towards Asbel. With his usual confident and purposeful steps he made his way over to them.

"Good to finally see you, brother" Hubert greeted, his posture stiff and a hand stretched out for a handshake.

Asbel returned it and he felt... wrong. He and Hubert had done this before, but it felt awfully formal this time.

"Good to see you too, Hubert. We missed you yesterday"

Again, Hubert's mimic betrayed for the fraction of a second signs of anger and sadness. They disappeared just as quickly as they had shown, which made Asbel ask himself if he was just imagining things.

"I know. Pascal informed me about it when I came home yesterday night, after you had all returned to your quarters. Unfortunately the president wanted a full report on the situation, so I didn't have the leisure to appear."

Asbel ignored the stinger of his brother that he could notice very well. The way he was acting surprised the lord. If he hadn't been sure when they had first met Hubert in the desert, he was sure now: The lieutenant was mad at him for some on Ephinea had he done?

"Did Pascal tell you about our plans yesterday?" he started a new topic.

"Yes she did. In fact, that's a matter I wanted to discuss with you. Or to be more precise, I wanted to ask you a question about it: What were you thinking brother?"

The way the lieutenant emphasized his last question in irritation annoyed Asbel. He grew more irritated by his brother himself, the more he talked like that.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Hubert didn't seem to care beating around the bush.

"I am talking about the idea to use the turtles to explore the Rockgagong-sea. Have you spent any time thinking about how vulnerable we will be on those beasts? Or that our enemies could be attacking us any moment while we'd be sitting on these turtles? They are dragons, Asbel! They can fly! Even some of their minions are able to do that. And you wish to take that risk while we still have the shuttle back in the seaside cavern!"

Asbel still was able to hide his sparking anger at the accusations. Was Hubert really mad because of this? Was he that angry simply because of such a small problem?

"We don't have the time Hubert, I thought you knew that. It would take us a whole week simply to sail back to Lhant and another day to get to the shuttle in the seaside cavern and fly it over. We would still have a harder time finding anything because the shuttle can't hover over a place and let us look around. Are you sure that this is really what this is about?"

His answer made Hubert narrow his eyes again.

"And you think it would help our time to pointlessly endanger ourselves? Do you have any idea what enemies await us there? Brother, you can't go on such a journey without the least amount of preparation. This is going to be far more dangerous and if we wish to outlive our enemies, we are going to need better protection than this!"

Feeling that the tension between the two siblings became a bit too much, Cheria intermediated.

"What's wrong, Hubert? I've rarely seen you this angry before."

"There's nothing wrong with me. I am angry because I deem this risk to be unnecessary, to say the least. I am angry because I can't believe that my brother is foolish enough to gamble with our lives like that, while we still have other options available. I ask again, Asbel: What were you thinking ?!"

Hubert shot back, giving her a short scowl before his eyes fixated his brother again.

"Hey! I only did what I thought was best! And I'm still convinced that it's the better way. We can't waste our time like that, not when we need to save the people from those dragons!"

Asbel's self-control crumbled at the accusations he had to listen to, coming out of the mouth of his own brother.

"So you think it would be easier to do that as corpses, I suppose?"

Hubert wasn't any better off than Asbel, but showed even less self-control. This wasn't like the usual lieutenant at all. Lhant's lord opened his mouth to give a fitting reply, but again, his wife stopped him.

"Stop it now! Both of you! We have other things to do and worry about. We all decided that we would use the turtles, Hubert, not just Asbel. And we will do just that."

Her words were determined and her voice calm, forcing Hubert to direct his eyes to her. For a moment the lieutenant looked like he wanted to say something. Instead, he simply turned around and stormed off, his cloak waving behind him.

Neither Asbel nor Cheria talked until he was out of sight. The lord was the first to ask the obvious question.

"What has gotten into him?"

"Un-believeable. He never did this before. Not even after he returned from Strahta and exiled you. Why is he so mad? It couldn't be that..."

She stopped abruptly.

"That what?" her husband probed into the subject.

"Um...Yesterday when you were talking with Malik, Richard and Sophie, Pascal and I had a small discussion about how Hubert was dealing with the situation. She mentioned that he sometimes acted overprotective of her when they talked about what they should do against the dragons. As if he couldn't stand her to be in danger. But I didn't think that his reaction would be this strong."

Asbel was absorbed in thought for a second.

'That's not like him at all. There has to be more to it than that. Hubert would never lose control like this just because he's worried.'

He shared his thoughts with his wife, who in turn took some time to think about his words. A shrug finished her trail of thought and she answered.

"He will show us what's wrong. Either him, or Pascal. Maybe we'll understand him better once we know whats going on. Either way, we can't do anything about it at the moment."

She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. Asbel scratched the back of his head with his free hand as he looked into the direction Hubert had went. His voice showed that he didn't like the way things stood between him and his brother.

"I sure hope you're right about that."

A/N: I normally would've finished this chapter three days ago. But somehow it just ended up being longer again than I anticipated and I had barely finished the discussion in Pascals house back then. Damn man. I planned for five, expected seven and got ten pages of text in the end. Ever since chapter 4, things got out of hand with writing.

Anyway, I'm proud of Pascals dialogues. It was fun writing her. It's not perfect, I admit, but I think it was good.
But what I'm really anxious to reveal in full show is Hubert. Damn I'm preparing so many motives for him to do stuff that his actions in the end will just be a big mix-up of different motives. Can't wait to show that. Must be confusing right now ^^

Though I'm still anxious about how well I'm able to deliver all of this. And of course if I get overly repetetive at some point. Again, feedback welcome, I can't improve by rereading my stuff alone.

D-Drive: Wow. I...I feel dumb. To think that I haven't been able to get something that simple back then in school...holy shiver. Thank you! The starting point for the conflict I mentioned will come in one or two chapters, though there is already a very small amount of hints in this chapter what exactly will start it.

I'd be curious how exactly you come to your conclusion who exactly will be involved. Not saying that you're correct or incorrect in any way. I'm simply interested in your ideas. And I guess I'm vain enough to like discussion about my work ^^

Update 17.04: Beta-proofread!