| Your eyes cannot always be trusted. In such times, let the problem take care of itself or obey only what your heart says. -Rules of Life, pg. 24 Part 30 [We shall come to your aid if you should ever need it,] the grand dragon assured him. [All you must do is send for Asariem.] [All you must do,] the red dragon echoed, [is send for Cirin.] He nodded sharply. [Thank you.] Once they were gone, he returned his attention to Kitiane. She was perfectly okay except for the fact that she was a bit on the cold side even for a dragon. As he began to pick her up, her form became watery and trembled, then disappeared. He blinked, then looked around frantically. She was gone. [Ouch! Damn it all! That hurt!] He whirled. � Mother!� *~~* I glanced up. [Oh, hello Ziad---ack!] I twisted my head to look down at him. [And what precipitated this love-choking?] He pointed. � You were over there as a human and you disappeared and I thought Tiovex had taken you and then you appeared here as a dragon and I�m so glad that Tiovex didn�t take you!� [Take me? But I thought that you and Tiovex were on good terms.] I finally noticed the blood covering the left side of his face. [You mean he . . . he did that?] � I thought we were too,� he said as I turned his head this way and that to get a good look at the injury as a whole. � But he kept threatening to take you back to Swiftwing and to kill me and then we got into this fight and he broke Vanel�s wing and . . .� he let out an exasperated huff as he sat down. � I don�t know what the hell�s wrong with him! First he�s our enemy and then he�s our friend and now he�s our enemy again!� [That is rather odd.] I began to clean the blood off his face and watched as he closed his eyes and smiled. His tail waved back and forth in a pleased fashion. [May I ask what you find so pleasant about an experience that leaves your skin entirely raw?] � I don�t know. Whenever you do that it makes me think of you drying me off when I was little. I guess it�s like cats. No matter how old they are, they like the memory of their mother bathing them.� [Oh. Well that makes some sense.] � What for?� [Why I don�t like to be cared for in this manner.] He stood and cradled my head. � Oh come on, Kiti. If you�d just let somebody do it I think you�d like it. It�s really quite comforting.� He then reached under my head. I pulled away, but he followed. [What are you doing?] � You�re dribbling,� he replied. I felt a slight tug and then he held up a long strip of skin. � It looked like you were drooling,� he informed me helpfully as he dropped it and headed toward Madain Sari. Once there we were asked a lot of questions. It took a lot of convincing before Eiko believed that I was Kiti and was only temporarily human. Then I stepped away to call and find out what the problem was between Tiovex and Zidane. Tiovex appeared and . . . Tiovex appeared . . .? I looked back and forth between the two. Something was definitely not right here. Backing slowly away, I watched them look at each other and snarl hatefully. I was not planning to get involved really, since they were identical, but an unfortunate event caused me to do differently. Zidane came over and frowned as he observed their battle of brawn. � That�s a really bad joke.� � Yes, I know. I�m waiting for answers.� � What if they kill each other?� � They won�t. Even if they are evenly matched, one will be able to outsmart the other somehow. Unless they are linked mentally, of course.� One Tiovex looked over and hissed, charging Zidane. I stepped in his path and struck with lightning precision, tumbling him over. The other Tiovex took the advantage and attacked him, trying to tear through the guarding plates on the stomach. When that didn�t work, he slipped up and tore a line of bright orange on the other Tiovex�s neck. It shrieked, then died. I stared at the leftover Tiovex. [You now have the privilege of explaining this situation to me right here, right now.] He nodded tiredly. [I was asleep in my room when a human appeared---] � Kuja?!� [No, not Kuja. I know what Kuja looks like and this was most certainly not Kuja. This one was uglier, older. He did something to me--took all my hate and loathing--and formed it into a copy of me. He ordered it to find and kill Zidane no matter what it took and then disappeared.] [Why didn�t you come warn us?] [I tried. He found me and we fought. I lost and had to retreat.] He shook his head. [I�m sorry I failed. Is everyone all right?] � Everybody�s okay.� Tiovex went over to him. [Is that so? Then where did you get this from?] He traced the long gash above and down beside Zidane�s eye and all the way to his jawbone lightly with a talon. [A fight with your weapon?] As emphasis, he also traced the cut on Zidane�s bicep. � You asked if everybody was okay. You didn�t specify me. As a group, we all made it. Vanel�s wing is broken and I�ve these. That�s it. Everybody else made it through because we fought so far away.� There was a soft chuckle from Tiovex. [You sure know how to direct attention away from yourself, don�t you?] Zidane puffed out his chest slightly, as dragons (the males in particular) have been known to do when complimented. � I�m a master thief. I�m supposed to know how to do it.� From behind us, the others came running. They stopped and looked from the live Tiovex to the dead Tiovex and back again, then demanded an explanation. With a sigh, Tiovex retold the story. I accepted it. There was someone other than Kuja who was working to make everyone suffer. And when I found them, I�d kill them. <--Part 29 Part 31--> |