| Surprises are not always bad, though they are not always good either. Whichever it may be; deal with it. Rules of Life, pg. 96 Part 46 In his place was a golden dragon. It was a beautiful specimen of a swiftwing; perfect in every way, despite its rather small stature. Then I noticed how the gold was the same shade as Zidane�s hair and its horns were just slightly curled, showing that it was a young male of about three to six d-age. I also noticed how the weapons were identical to the Rune Tooth, though they were smaller and there were two. What finally convinced me was its stance, which was exactly like Zidane�s. I ran over to stand beside him, getting a good look at him to show an m-picture later to Tiovex. The gold dragon glanced at me. [What�s wrong, Kiti? You look kinda upset.] [Look at yourself!] I ordered. He did so. [Oh . . . Wow . . . Well, I guess that explains where your skin went, huh?] I�d never thought of that. Ark struck with Boomerang and I felt myself go into Trance. However, this was a new experience for me because I�d never gone into Trance while I was in my true form. I�d always been a human before. When the transformation was over I didn�t feel any different, but when I took a quick glance at myself I realized that I looked nothing like I used to. White. I was white. No dragon had ever been born that was white. Now there were very pale pinks and yellows, but never any white dragons (I know that really holds no relevance to the situation, but white is just a color dragons can�t be because it�s genetically impossible). Besides that, I had fur and the scales were concealed under it. And besides the fact that I was white (and furry), I had feathered wings. Zidane grinned a toothy dragon grin. [Heheh . . . How �bout you and me do some fancy flying?] [Deal.] We took off (don�t ask me what happened to his polearms, they just disappeared as far as I could tell) and began to slash at Ark�s defenseless flanks. Zidane drew himself up and flipped forward once, using the momentum to bring him back upright, and slashed down with his horns and pinion aegises. This did extensive damage to the side of Ark, though it didn�t kill it. I ripped a large hole in Ark�s other side and stuck my head in, tearing at whatever happened to be inside. The others took a final strike and Ark settled slowly onto the ground before disappearing. [Yeah!] There was a light snap and Zidane wailed, dropping to the floor. He landed on his feet, but began to panic still. [My wing! I can�t move it at all!] I glided down and scratched behind his ear. Still panicked, he leaned into my motherly caress. [What happened?! It hurts!] I felt along where the break was. There was nothing there, but after a bit of searching, I found the problem. [Relax, Ziaden. It�s only a pinched nerve.] [Will it hurt me?!] [No, but it�ll be a bother if you don�t let me fix it.] He settled down and I massaged the skin around the joint. He made pained faces for a while, then smiled woozily. [Mm . . . Feels good . . .] [Come on, Ziaden. We have to get back to save the others.] [Right.] He grabbed the Gulug Stone and headed out of Oeilvert at a jog. I followed slowly, wondering how to get past Zorn and Thorn. Experimentally, I tried a cover spell on myself. When I lifted my hand, I found it as it would be as if it was normal. But . . . . . . [Dragons are creatures of magic,] the queen told me. [Nothing that can supposedly stop or break magic will work on us because where we go, all our magic goes as well. That is why we have a natural resistance to Silence.] . . . Oh . . . I cast the cover spell on Zidane and watched his human form appear, though his wings did not. Good. As we got near the ship, Zidane turned and said, [Kiti, what about this situation?] [Take a good long look at yourself.] [?] He did so. [!] [See?] [How did you do that?!] [Dragons are creatures of magic. I just remembered that no magic barrier can neutralize our power. It can cut it, but not get rid of it completely. When you get on the ship, go right to the hold. When we pass through the barrier the spell will break and I�ll have to reset it.] [Okay.] The ride went smoothly, though it took forever. I had an odd feeling that this was being done for a reason. I tried to contact Vanel, but either she wasn�t listening or Kuja had his own barrier around his �palace�. When we finally landed, I didn�t wait. I rushed down to the teleporter. It did not work, however, until the others arrived and Zidane stepped on. We appeared in a new room and Kuja instructed Zidane to enter through the doors in the back of the room. The rest of you stay there. There was a brief argument--concern for Zidane�s safety--but he prevailed and went on alone. [Don�t speak as we do,] I instructed. [You may look as you did before, but that is only a cover.] [Gotcha. Keep an eye on them for me, okay?] [Of course.] [. . . You�ll . . . You�ll be there if . . . if I need you . . . right?] [Don�t ask questions you already know the answers to.] He smiled. [Okay. Thanks.] Then he turned and headed through the doors, clearing his throat and muttering, � This is such a load of shit. I�m not a retrieval service. What�s so special about this stone anyway?� <--Part 45 Part 47--> |