| Friends may be found in a previous enemy. When away from the battlefield, anything could become true. -Rules of Life, pg. 21 Part 29 They came together and struck, then separated momentarily before coming back to strike again. The motion was repeated and there seemed to be no end to it until Vanel leapt over the rail and flew out toward them. She stopped at a safe distance--flying without previous instruction--and put her head as far back as it would go, her mouth open. [Heavenly Light!] The very stars seemed to fall from the sky as short, tiny beams and coalesce within her jaws. When the light had completed itself she threw her whole body forward, releasing the energy as she finished the roll. It shot between Tiovex and Zidane and exploded. The shockwaves threw both combatants farther apart. [Stop it!] she screamed, flying directly between them. [Stop it! Don�t you see?! Kuja is winning! You two are going to kill each other and then Kuja will have won this war!] Zidane stopped, but Tiovex did not. Seeing her only as an obstacle, he snapped blindly at Vanel, breaking her left wing. When he was within reach, Zidane cut Tiovex�s neck open. It was not fatal, but it would give the dragon king something to think about. Carrying a pain-wracked and passed out Vanel, Zidane quickly returned to Madain Sari. However, the Trance faded two-thirds of the way there, dropping him into the ocean. Grabbing Vanel�s tiny horns in his teeth, Zidane swam on, holding her head out of the water. His face stung from the salt, but his worry was Vanel. If her wing wasn�t reset soon it would mend on its own, and crookedly at that, leaving her flightless and grounded, a dragon�s worst nightmare. He hauled himself up onto the dock and searched Vanel�s wing, finding the break quickly. Luckily, it was only one. It was on the outer pinion, near the joint. Difficult to fix, but not impossible. He reset it and grabbed an old bandanna laying nearby, wrapping it around Vanel�s wing and tying it around her other side. There was no way to wrap only the bone, but it would be worse if her wing was allowed to move. Picking her up, he stumbled up the stairs and to Eiko�s house. He handed Vanel off to Vivi and pulled away from Eiko and Dagger as they tried to make him sit down. He wouldn�t�ve refused normally, but something . . . � Mother!� Dagger caught his arm. � Zidane! You can�t go anywhere like that!� � It�s okay,� he assured her. � Most of it�s just blood.� � I know! It�s still flowing! Sit down!� Growling, he jerked his arm free and cast his senses out. They intensified as he did so and he managed to open his left eye so he could see the world better. So this is what dragons see, he mused as he looked around. It was late at night, but to him it was early afternoon. So many details that even his enhanced human eyes missed did not go unnoticed now. A slight breeze stirred up, one he never would�ve noticed normally, and he turned that way, sniffing for the familiar scent of a dragon. It wasn�t there, but that didn�t mean that that direction was useless. A few mice scuttled across the path farther up. He heard them clearly, though the others obviously didn�t. He began to walk in that direction, surprised by how loud his footsteps were. Were they loud because he was hurt and tired or because his hearing was that sharp? A second breeze, much stronger than the first, appeared from the same direction as the first. He turned that way again. This time, the scent of three dragons attacked him. But they were not swiftwing dragons. Grand . . . Serpion . . . Red . . . What were they doing together? Certainly not just to talk. Ground dragons rarely passed up the chance to fight with another dragon, no matter what it may be. But they weren�t fighting. What could possibly . . .? He took off running. Even if it wasn�t Kiti, it had to be something important if it kept ground dragons from fighting. When he reached the area, the dragons were laying on their sides, badly injured. Upon seeing him they tried to stand, but all were so hurt they could hardly move. The serpion, being the smallest, was already dead. � What happened here?� he asked, looking between the two left over for an answer. The grand dragon snorted, obviously not willing to talk to what it believed was a human. The red dragon, however, was closer and realized that he was, despite his human appearance, indeed at least partially a dragon. [A human, we found. Almost drowned, she was. We were going to eat her. From nowhere . . . a swiftwing. Fought us, he did. Serpion he killed first. Neither had the strength to beat him, grand and myself. No magic, he used. Only pure strength.] And brain, which ground dragons don�t have, he almost added. Instead, he inquired in dragon, so they could understand him better, [This . . . human you were going to eat. Where is she?] The red dragon nodded at the cliff. [There. On a ledge, she is.] Zidane looked over the cliff and saw Kitiane out of arm�s reach. She was very pale. He was wondering how he would get her up when the grand dragon�s massive head lowered down to her and gently lifted her from the ledge. He was about to attack it for trying to eat her when it set her down beside him. [Thank you.] It nodded once. [You are the first one to speak our tongue even though you are not us.] [Just because I don�t look like a dragon doesn�t mean I�m not one.] He reached up and placed his hand on the end of its nose. [Will you be all right? I can help if you need it, I think.] Despite their protests, he spread a dragonic healing salve that Kitiane had given him a long time ago over their wounds. He stayed with them until they were well enough to travel, which wasn�t long, and then watched them go. They paused suddenly and looked back. <--Part 28 Part 30--> |