| You can never trust an enemy to keep their word. But when your hands are tied, do what they want. It�s still possible they might be fair. -Rules of Life, pg. 93 Part 45 I broke off as they boarded the airship and made a brief search of the area. �Vanel, it�s Kitiane. Where are you?� �We�re by the quicksand pit you all disappeared into. Are you okay?� �Everyone�s fine, from what I gather. Can you come in here and help the others? Zidane was forced to agree to run an errand for Kuja in exchange for their safety. I don�t trust the backstabber�s word.� �Sure thing, Kitiane.� �Thank you.� I chased after the Hilda Garde 1 as it flew over the seas toward the Forgotten Continent. I took a moment to thank the August Dragon for keeping the Vanish spell that hid Zidane�s wings in place while I was temporarily insane. Of which would dissolve when we reached the Forgotten Continent . . . �Ziaden.� �Yeah?� �As I�m sure you know, it is important that Zorn, Thorn, and the black mages do not see your wings. They will tell Kuja at the next possible chance and he will do everything in his power to get rid of them. When we reach the Forgotten Continent, you�re going to have to keep them hidden at least until we start out on our journey.� �Okay. I�ll cook something up.� With that taken care of, I headed out to make a brief survey of our destination (Thorn and Zorn wouldn�t let me on the ship). It didn�t look too dangerous, even considering what was there. When they landed, I settled nearby and waited to see what Zidane had come up with. � Yeah, thanks for nothing,� I heard him say as he came down the gangplank. I could hardly contain my admiration, surprise, and laughter. Admiration for his genius, surprise that he�d convinced the grumbling rat to go along with it, and laughter because all I could see of him was his head and sometimes his boots. He was practically being swallowed up by Freya's red coat! I managed to contain myself until we were out of sight of the airship and then I rolled over, laughing hysterically. Zidane snorted and removed Freya�s coat, picking out three loose feathers before giving it back to its owner. His wings were actually wrapped around his body to keep them from sticking up and giving him away. Freya held the coat away from her and made a face. � If I get lice or mites, I will kill you in the most unpleasant way.� He made a face back at her. � Oh, come on. I haven�t had them long enough to get mites and even if I did, I certainly wouldn�t have them.� � What makes you say that?� � Well, let�s see. I bathe frequently and regularly and I don�t hang around with anybody who has mites.� I stopped laughing and got to my feet, shaking the dust off myself. � What about her?� � Dragons don�t get mites. They secrete some poison that kills any type of parasite that gets near them. That�s why they live so long. Sometimes I wish I could do that,� he confessed, swatting at a mosquito stupid enough to get that close to the group. Finally, he squashed it between his hands and handed it off to me. I ate it. Freya made a face. � Ew.� � Protein,� I told her. � It was just a bloodsucker, after all. Don�t lament its loss too much; there�re plenty left over to replace it.� We continued on to Oeilvert (after several arguments and recheck flights) and headed inside without waiting. The first thing to greet us was an epitaph. It automatically performed some spell called �Mirror�. From inside leapt a dragon, which snarled and roared angrily, its tail thrashing threateningly. And as if that weren�t enough to keep us busy, the next thing it �Mirror�ed was Zidane. � I�m Zidane!� the mirror declared firmly. It leapt at the real Zidane, who ducked out of the way at the last second. The rest of us beat up on the mirror of Tiovex, who kept snapping at us whenever we went in to attack. Amarant dealt the final blow as the Mirror Zidane tried to attack again. � I�m the real Zidane!� the mirror insisted, striking at the true Zidane. The blade knicked his throat before I could jump in, but when I did I knocked the Mirror Zidane down and grabbed his throat, shaking my head back and forth madly until I heard the satisfying snap of a broken neck. Returning to Zidane, I put my wing out a bit so he could use it to climb onto my back. Freya knelt beside my shoulder. � Move your hand.� He obeyed immediately, but smacked her hand away when she attempted to poke at the laceration. � Don�t you dare touch it!� � Why?� Just then, a drop of his red-orange blood dripped onto the back of her clawed hand. She jerked it toward her reflexively, hissing. � Ouch!� � See now?� Her eyes widened at the spot burned in her fur. � W-W-What?!� Zidane smiled weakly. � Just be glad that was diluted. If I�d been a real dragon, you probably wouldn�t have a hand any more.� � Zidane!� I twisted my head around and gave the wound one good swipe, clearing the blood out of it and allowing him to bandage it as he explained, � I get a lot of cool things from being part dragon. One of them happens to be slightly acidic blood.� � Slightly acidic?! It burned a hole in my fur!� � Luckily for you, that was all it did. If I�d been a true dragon, you wouldn�t be worrying about your fur. You�d be worrying about your whole hand, which would look like it was being eaten by tiny little bugs. It would get all oozy and---� [All right, Zidane. I think you got your point across.] He snickered cruelly. We continued on, watching holograms about airships (though they didn�t look like any I�d ever seen) and some city that fell for some reason (again, nothing that I�d ever seen). Finally, we entered a room where the Gulug Stone rested in a protective case of some sort. However, something stopped us before we could take it. The thing looked like a giant airship built for killing. It was tough, being a flying thing (which meant Earth attacks didn�t work on it), but we held out. There was a flash as Zidane went into Trance. But when I looked over at him, he was gone. <--Part 44 Part 46--> |