Dragon Flames

Chapter 12

By: Malaca

"Come on Malaca, you can do this! I've seen you do harder things without breaking a sweat!" Rowen called as he held Malaca's arms firmly in position.

Malaca rolled her eyes in reply, "I'm a hand fighter, Rowen, not an Archer."

"You never know when you'll need this in battle, Malaca," Rowen answered patiently.

They stood in front on Mia's house practicing archery. The Ronin's themselves were supposed to be training for Talpa, but lately their "training sessions" had been dismissed by the others, with the exception of the Warlords. Instead Sage always had Ashira over, along with Korin on occasions. Her spell continued to grow in crescendo, and Malaca shuttered almost everytime she even glanced in her direction. But there was nothing she could do, for if she even looked at Ashira in the wrong way she would make her Ronin pets attack her. The spell was so well placed, Sage hadn't looked at Mia in months. Instead he went out with a demon. Malaca snarled at this thought, but quickly came to her senses as Rowen kicked her back leg.

"Come on, you know this stance Malaca. Let the arrow go on three. One, two, three! Aw, Malaca you totally missed the target!" Rowen pulled back again.

"Rowen I'm not an archer!"

Rowen sighed, "How many times do I have to tell you? You have to learn as many weapons as possible."

Ashira smirked from the sidelines before calling out, "Come on in you guys, lets go to a movie or something. Besides she couldn't hit a broad side of a semi!"

Malaca frowned, pretending to ignore the comment. Rowen smiled in Ashira's direction.

"That sounds good, but it'll have to wait until Malaca does one more shot!"

Malaca sighed at this, 'I already know something about this, but how can I concentrate with her sending off vibes like that? Oh well, I'll guess I have to show her!'

Rowen's voice sent her back, "Okay Malaca one more, this time by yourself."

And with that he ducked back to a safe place so he wouldn't get hit by the stray arrows.

Malaca placed the arrow on the wooden bow, and pulled back to make the string taunt with pressure. She closed her eyes and acted as though she was going to aim for the target in the other direction. Suddenly she opened her eyes. Turning around in one smooth fashion, Malaca released the arrow letting it fly towards Ashira. The arrow embedded itself directly above her head. Ashira jumped in surprise, that had been close.

Rowen laughed, "I guess you needed some incentive, Malaca!"

"Don't tell me when I will practice and when I will not, when you sit there yourself and waste away Ashira," Malaca said calmly.

Sage and Ryo yelled out angry, "Malaca you have been to cruel to Ashira lately. Say your sorry."

Malaca snorted, "I will not!"

"It's okay boys," Ashira said standing up to grip Sage's upper arm, "she's just upset. We'll go and have some fun, now okay?"

Ryo and Sage stood still for a second, watching Malaca as if they were going to ignore Ashira to attack her anyway. Malaca watched placidly, not worried that they would attack. They were to far into the spell to do anything that she didn't wish them to do. Rowen watched as they smiled wickedly in Malaca's direction before walking off with Ashira to find Sai and Kento.
Ashira turned backwards to catch Rowen's gaze, "Coming Rowen?"

Rowen shook his head, "I'm going to stay here if you don't mind."

Ashira frowned, and Malaca jumped in surprise. Their thoughts the same for once.

'He's not fully under the spell's control!'

Malaca resisted the urge to jump up and down. At least she had one friend that she could rely on to stay by her even through the spell. It was probably the gruesome truth that burned the ringing discovery, that the spell could be broken by the mortal will. Maybe it wasn't to late for the others to resist! She quickly pushed the thought away. They didn't know what Rowen knew, so they didn't have same opportunity.

"Fine then, we'll see you two later then!" a falsely cheery Ashira announced waving her two guard dogs over.

Rowen sighed, "Sorry about that comment about not being able to do it. That was wrong for her to say."

Malaca turned to him, her hazel eyes glinting dangerously, "You don't have to apologize to me for her, Rowen."

With a snap of her heel Malaca took off running towards the woods. Rowen took chase. Just before he caught her though, Malaca fazed out with her power of teleporting.

The dizziness of teleporting shoved its weight into Malaca's head. She stubbled as she arrived in the envisioned place of arrival. Holding her head for a brief minute, she cursed her stupidity. Rowen had only wanted to help, and she left him there alone with Ashira's power running rampant. The pain soon cleared, as Malaca lifted her head to examine her surroundings. The barn they had built together raised its hands over her. Malaca looked up into to the loft, where days earlier she had told Rowen some of the hard facts of her life. Malaca walked over to the stereo and turned on some American rock on. Narrowing her eyes, Malaca set off to work off her anger.

She fumbled with her shoelaces, and shoved them and her socks off. She stripped her jacket off in one fluid motion, as she began to stretch her tense muscles. She thought as she worked.

'Damn, I have so little choices, and not enough time to execute them. If I say one freaken word wrong, she'll have her pets on me in a second. Sage, Sai, Ryo, and Kento were all in her little trap, but for some reason Rowen, the warlords, Mia, Ulie, and the two folk of the claw are not. Now this gives some pondering. What is her exact power? Horo said she had a power over men; a demon, and a possible spell caster. If she truly did have power over men, then what kind of men? Surely not all of them, or the warlords and Rowen would follow her around too, but their not. Something is defiantly fishy here. She couldn't be a Mage of any high power or Akira would have sensed her. Demonic powers are possible, that would explain why she could only hold so many under her power at one time, especially in the mortal realm.'

Malaca shrugged, and leapt onto the beam in one fluid motion. From there, she began a routine that she had drilled into her head since she was little.

The four warlords coming back from practice in the forest stopped at the door and watched from a distance. The three male warlord's widened their eyes at the sight of Malaca in a short black sleeveless shirt, and cut off Capri jeans. Kayura glared at Dais, and smacked his jaw shut. The other warlords drooled.

'Jump, jump, split, and forward roll. There we go; stay smooth, and relax. Up on feet, and handless cartwheel. Roundoff, backhand spring, backhand spring, and back flip. Hand move this way, and follow with the other hand. Leap up, and fall to stomach.'

"Ow!" Malaca cried as she hit the beam hard and fell to the mat below.

Malaca looked up and growled in frustration. Moving gingerly to her feet she cursed out loud.

#Damn, that fucking asshole still has a hold over me after all this time. Why can't he just leave me alone! #

She didn't even bother to look at the warlords that stood in the doorway, "Who ever you are, I know you are watching. You might as well come out."

Kale scratched his head sheepishly and walked in. Sekhmet followed with a large smile plastered on his face. Kayura didn't even bother to follow Dais in. She merely sighed as she walked off towards the house and a nice warm shower.

Malaca looked up in surprise as the warlords came in. She had been expecting Rowen to come and check on her, but was sadly mistaken. She gave them a questioning glance.

"Um, what was that?" Dais asked.

Malaca pulled on her gray hooded jacket and flipped her hair out from underneath it.

"What was what?" she turned towards them.

"What you were just doing."

"I was practicing the beam, why?"

Kale rolled his eyes, "Dais thinks you did a good job at it."

Malaca pushed her riding boots on harder, "Your joking right?"

"Did it sound like I was kidding?" Kale asked naively.

"Wowa boy, slow down. You obviously have never seen a decent beam routine before, am I right?"

Kale scratched his head again, "What would be decent?"

Malaca sighed in frustration and disappeared into the backroom for a couple minutes. She appeared shortly after with a saddle and bridle strung over her shoulder.

Sekhmet frowned and entered the conversation for the first time, "What is your problem? Do you think you are the only one with a hard past? Get over it already, it most likely was not that complicated, or as bad as you think it is compared to the lives we have lived. You're nothing but an overprotective little girl that has no idea what a real battle is like."

Malaca brushed by him, ignoring his words. She paused and whistled for Quickstrike. Sekhmet followed in a fury of words.

"Are you listening to me woman? Do you hear me curse your very existence?"

Malaca continued on saddling Quickstrike, preferring not to answer his pathetic insults. Sekhmet grabbed her roughly when Malaca went to mount Quickstrike. He whipped her around in a fluid motion and pushed her into the black horse.

"What are you going to do now, girl?" he chuckled.

~How dare he touch you in such a manner, Dragon Child. Can I hurt him for you?~

~No, leave him alone for now, Quickstrike. I will deal with him~

Malaca brought a quick knee into Sekhmet's manhood, and flipped him over her shoulder. She then brought his arms behind his back, and pinned him down in the dirt beneath Quickstrike's hooves.

"What are you going to do now Sekhmet?"

He gurgled the dirt beneath his head. Sekhmet rose his head in an attempt to spit out the forming dust that had collected inside his mouth. Malaca slammed his face right back in the dirt, where she thought it belonged.

Dais chuckled in amusement. This show was turning out better than he expected. Kale rolled his eyes as he stood a step behind Dais.

"Should we separate the two of them?" he asked brushing away his blue hair from his face.

Dais shrugged, "Might as well."

The two warlords moved up to the struggling pair, no make that one that was struggling and one that was making the other struggle. Kale yanked Malaca off of Sekhmet, while Dais tugged his old friend and rival off the ground. Sekhmet made a big show of spitting out the dirt and debris that had clogged his windpipes.

Malaca snarled at the green haired warlord. Kale barely managed to hold her struggling form away from the recovering Sekhmet. Dais chuckled again, clearly amused.

"So Sekhmet, do you want to take me up on a bet? Snake-man are you listening to me?" Malaca yelled, her face red with anger.

Sekhmet turned on her, "How do you know of that girl?"

Malaca glared at him and smiled. Pushing away from Kale she stepped up to the taller warlord. Sekhmet looked down into her eyes. Eyes that were alive with reptilian fury. He gasped.

"I know many things crawler of the earth. Do not challenge what you don't know about," she snarled.

"Your a Dragon-child!" he yipped, and ran to Dais.

Malaca shrugged, "I am, what I am, crawler. Now do you wish to hear me out?"

Sekhmet nodded slightly.

She smiled, "You said I didn't know what a true battle is like, ne? Well, I propose that you and your friends come with me, and see what I do when I sneak off everynight. You must be wondering by now what I do when I'm gone for so long, ne?"

Kale raised an eyebrow, "And you would know this how?"

"A girls intuition, Kale, intuition!" she said over her shoulder.

"Sure, why not. I'll come with you and see what all the fuss is about."

"Good. You'll learn from this. Perhaps you'll discover why four of the Ronins are acting so strangely," Malaca replied as she mounted Quickstrike.

Dais grabbed Quickstrike's reins, "You know of this?"

Malaca patted his shoulder, "Dais, I know more of this than you can imagine. Are you two coming along?"

Kale shrugged, "Why not."

He shouldered his practice no-Datchi and waited for what Dais would say. The thinkers always took the most time. Dais caught Kale's look. He wanted a fight, that was for sure. Dais released the reins.

"Of course," then he too picked up his numchucks and followed Malaca.

Sekhmet sighed, 'Who would've thought a Dragon-child would have emerged after so long. Damn, I should have seen this earlier!'

He chuckled to himself as he ran to catch up with his two brother-in-arms, 'Besides, things aren't interesting until a Dragon shows themselves in a fight. They are never interesting until THEY decide that its worth the time.'

Malaca looked ahead with hard eyes, 'Well Eternal Dragon, are you happy now that I've decided to show them why they are fighting this battle? I hope so, because I'm defiantly not.'

In the distance Malaca could have sworn she heard a throaty chuckle. Glowing eyes echoed in the falling sun. THEY had decided to enter the battle, or at least let the lifeblood fight the way for them.

A voice, echoing with the power of the Earth, rolled through the hills of Japan, 'Don't worry little one, another will join you yet.'

Rowen looked up suddenly. He felt as though a thread of power called to him, beckoning him to listen. Rowen frowned in concentration. Malaca was on the move, and something was telling him she needed him. The compound bow fell to the ground with a thud. Rowen didn't hear it though, for he was already running to the end of the thread. He ran to Malaca. Something was going to happen, and he wanted to be there when it would begin.

Ashira smiled as she felt the weights shift to her favor. She looked around the small red jeep. She smiled again, surrounded by the energies of earth, water, spirit, and fire.

'Yes, things are starting to add up. The time to battle is near. My dear pets you will do fine.'

The four Ronin eyes glowed purple for a few seconds, and then they too smiled with glee. Korin looked up and cursed.

'I'm to slow to stop her. DAMN!'

Korin looked up suddenly. A black haired half-demon, and a red haired Mage were perched on his window sill. They shared a collective smile. The red haired one moved forward.

"There is still time to stop her," he offered his hand.

Korin smiled and took it, "Yes, there is still time."

Diagon frowned and looked up, "But is there enough time to erase the damage?"

The question went unanswered.

The voice smiled, 'I'm happy now my child. I'm happy now.'

Another voice long since departed and forgotten muttered underneath the shadows of the Eternal Dragon, 'Naomi, my dear, now it's your turn to finish the game. The players are set, the game is named, but can you win?'

The voice chuckled, 'Doesn't matter, but the game will be fun to watch.'

Finished, finally! I've been working on this for so long, its not even funny. I can't wait to finish this series and MOVE ON! It's really dragging, and I apologize. It'll be over soon. The other series will be better, I promise! Okay the end of this, because it's late and I'm tired without any sugar in my system. SOOOOOOOOO, JA NE!

The amazingly not HYPER!

Malaca