Chapter 5

 

Dragons, Dreams, and Machines. . .Oh My!

In the morning, the boat still hadn’t returned from across the straits, so the entire team took advantage of the sunshine and went their separate ways to explore town. Sten zeroed in on the local tavern, to wet his whistle; Katt and Nina went off on a window-shopping spree, while Ryu was left to his lonesome. Currently, he was questioning the harbourmaster.

“So when is the boat supposed to be back?” He asked, though he had heard the answer twice before.

The harbourmaster sighed and consulted his clipboard. This was the fifth time today he had had to answer that particular question. The ferry had made it safely to the other continent, across the strait, but an unexpectedly severe storm had damaged the hull, and it was undergoing repairs in Capitan’s sister harbour on the far side. “After repairs are completed, the ship will return in one week. That’s our best estimate.”

Ryu rubbed the bridge of his nose with forefinger and thumb. Perfect. And all evidence indicated the female thief had gotten on the boat a few days ago, bound for who knows where. And they were stuck here. Great. “Thanks. . . thanks. . .”

He turned and began to walk through the busy streets of Capitan, passing stores, houses, and bars. He took particular notice of the design of the architecture; there appeared to be three individual types. One was a basic, normal looking house, A-framed, with shutters and the like. Very cozy.

The second was a rustic, wooden type house, sometimes set on stilts, or on a platform of stones that gave it a sort of above ground basement. Not really that appealling, but it had a sort of medieval flare to it.

Out of all of them, the third architectural design was the strangest yet; tiled grounds, marble pillars, pagodas and conical towers. Ryu had once seen a picture of a building called the Taj Mahal. That was what these buildings looked like. Apparently the designer was somewhat of a history buff, or maybe he was descended from that race.

Still, Ryu was bored.

***

Nearby, a girl with long red hair, in a very revealling bikini-like get up viewed passing men with mild distaste and disappointment. None of them were the right type for what she wanted.

“Phooey.” She pouted, kicking a clod of dirt lightly. “I’ll never find the right guy. . .”

At that moment, Ryu wandered by. He didn’t seem to notice Sanamo, but she was almost slackjawed. HE was exactly what she was looking for! She put on her most seductive look and sashayed over to him.

“Yoohoo!” Sanamo called, affecting a southern accent. “Hey you big handsome stud!”

Ryu looked around unsurely. “Are. . . you talking to me?”

“Of course I am!” Sanamo replied, showing him a winning smile. “Who else would I be talking to?”

“I dunno. . .” Ryu scratched the back of his head, and tried to look away from Sanamo’s revealling outfit and perfect tan lines. For his benefit, she turned slightly, showing a very long length of golden thigh. “I. . . Uhh. . .”

***

Across the street, Katt and Nina were coming out of a store, laughing and carrying on, when Katt spotted Ryu and stopped them. From a storefront, they listened to Ryu’s conversation with this, this, woman that he didn’t even know!

From where they hid, they could see Ryu laughing as the girl told him something, and then her laugh as he told her something. They were having a good time! That definitely made Katt and Nina’s blood boil. Both of them were thinking dark, evil thoughts about what they’d do to Ryu later when the conversation seemed to come to an end.

***

“Ryu, I need to ask you something.” Sanamo finally asked.

“Sure, what do you need?” Ryu smiled. Sanamo was sort of an intimidating woman, but then, he’d never turned down a pretty girl asking for help before. . .

“Well, I can’t tell you, but I need to borrow you for something. . .”

Ryu thought about it for a moment. Sanamo flashed him another bit of upper thigh. “Alright! Let’s go!”

***

Katt and Nina watched Ryu consider, saw the woman flash some leg, and Ryu practically fall over himself to go with her, grinning like an idiot the whole time. As the girls watched him walk arm in arm off with that woman, Sanamo, they vowed that when and if he came back, he was going to get the mother of all cold shoulders.

*****

“Okay, Ryu, you can remove the blind fold.” Sanamo told him. Ryu reached up and pulled of the handkerchief. Instead of Sanamo’s beautiful and exotic face, he found himself staring at a short, wrinkly faced old woman in a cloak standing on a small platform. He let out a yell and practically fell on his rear. The old woman frowned deeply and turned sharply to Sanamo, who was standing off to the side.

“Sana! Did you explain to this boy why he’s here?” She snarled.

Sanamo seemed ashamed, head low and hands clasped in front of her. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t. How could I tell him the truth; that we needed a guinea pig for our soul uniting experiment?”

“Whoa! Whoa!” Ryu interrupted, hands up. “Soul uniting?! What the heck’s that?”

Without answering, the old woman turned around and began fiddling with some anitquated switches and levers on the wall behind her platform. Sanamo turned on the charm again, moving in uncomfortably close to Ryu and adopting a breathless voice.

“I’m a shaman,” She told him, stepping closer to him. He stepped back, only to find himself up against a wall. Sanamo reached up and brushed a hair from his face as she explained. “We’re experimenting on transferring a shaman’s power into another person. . . You are the one I chose.”

“But. . .” Sanamo’s extremely close prescence was making Ryu nervous, and his mind was going blank.

“My powers. . . will become yours. . .” She leaned in and whispered to him, her full red lips mere millimeters away from his own. “We’ll become. . . one. . .”

“Sana!” The old woman called, breaking the tension. “I’m ready. Is he ready?”

Sanamo gave him a look. “Are you ready.” Ryu found his throat was dry, voice gone, but he managed to nod.

“Good.”

At the old woman’s direction, Ryu stepped into a Sacred Circle in the center of the room, a circle that he had thought was merely decoration, but apparently had some other use. On either side, about two meters away, was a smaller, similar circle. “What do I do?”

“Nothing.” The old woman told him. “You just stand there. Sana, step in the other circle.”

Sanamo took her place, slipping Ryu a wink. “I hope you like my powers. I think we’d be a perfect match.”

“Sana! Stop flirting!” The old woman barked, fiddling with some more devices before throwing a large, two-handed power switch. The circles began to glow beneath Ryu’s and Sanamo’s feet. “All right! Sana! Power’s on and uniting is ready! Do your thing!”

Sanamo closed her eyes and went into a sort of trance, and a pillar of light shot up from both Ryu and her circles. Above her, a fiery aura rose, before shooting off, arcing through the air and embedding and absorbing itself into Ryu. Almost instantly, Ryu dropped to one knee, feeling a pain like nothing he had ever known. It was as though his chest was filling with fire, starting from a stinging spark somewhere within him and quickly growing into a searing inferno.

Sensing something was wrong, the old woman disengaged the unitying; the fiery aura that had leapt from Sanamo to Ryu suddenly leapt back, knocking the fire shaman off her feet. But even then, the reaction was still advancing. Ryu was reacting to the shaman’s power, a larger, stronger aura blazing out from his doubled over form. The aura set off smaller fires within the house, quickly escalating the blaze.

“My god! What have I unleashed?!” The old woman thought out loud, as she and the dazed shaman ran from the now enveloped house.

***

Ryu, still enveloped in a bubble of fire energy, let out a cry of sheer anguish as the pain within him became too intense and powerful to contain any longer. The blast blew the house apart and incinerated a good portion of the forest.

***

Watching from the edge of the inferno-infested forest, the old woman and the fire shaman watched in horror as the place they called home burned to the ground. Then, Sanamo spotted something moving in the flames. She squinted to make any sense of it, and then screamed.

From out of the flames flew a Dragon. Twelve feet tall, nearly twenty feet long, the huge, red, winged lizard soared out of the flames and came to rest outside the forest, on the road back to town. There, it let out one cry of pain, and collapsed. By the time the two women got to it, the Dragon was gone, and Ryu lay in its place, totally unharmed by the flames.

For a few minutes, nothing moved; Sanamo and the old woman stood staring at the blue-haired boy who, moments ago had been a legendary monster. Finally, with a moan and a shudder, Ryu regained consciousness. Night was beginning to fall around them, but they were lit by the blaze in the forest.

“Uhh. . . what happened? . . .”He rasped, sitting up and holding his head. He caught the look of amazement and terror on the two women’s faces. “What?”

“The uniting. . . failed.” The old woman told him. “Another power intervened. A more powerful one. . .” “My power was driven off.” Sanamo admitted. “We didn’t meld completely because the power that was in you was much too powerful for even my Shaman powers.”

“MY powers?” Ryu asked, skeptically. “I don’t have any powers. What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you feel it, boy?” The old woman asked. “Don’t you feel the power flowing through your veins? Compared to the powers you just revealled, Shaman powers are barely a candle near a star. You have the power of the Dragon, Ryu! The Long-lost Dragon Clan’s powers reside in you!”

All Ryu could do was numbly stare at his hands. Dragons? He had always known he was different than others; stronger, faster, more durable. And then there was that immunity to heat and cold. That strange thing that happens when he puts on a wet shirt. But a Dragon?

“The Power of the Dragon has been missing for centuries.” Sanamo’s granny mumbled. “This is the first I’ve ever seen of it. . .”

“Well, seeya.” Ryu said, giving them a pathetic wave and beginning to walk back to Capitan. Jeez, the girls would be pissed when he got back. . . He was expecting a LOT of cold shoulder when he met up with them.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!” Sanamo called to him. “You can’t leave us!”

“And why the hell not?” He shouted back. “You used me in an experiment you didn’t know what you were doing! Why should I help you again?”

“Because we unlocked the Power of the Dragon in you.” The old woman hollered back at him. “The least you could do for us is find us a new home. You destroyed our old one!”

That alone made Ryu stop. He HAD destroyed their home, though he wasn’t exactly in control of himself. And they HAD opened him to his latent powers, though in a very unorthodox and unusual manner. He did owe them for that.

“Alright, Alright!” He exasperated, giving in. “Come on. When we get to Capitan, I’ll see what I can do.”

From the crater carved in the road by Ryu’s improvised landing, the trio began the trek back to town.

*****

When they got to town, Ryu immediately went to the Inn. He supposed that his friends had returned there after he left, but that was not the case. He didn’t know that Nina and Katt had told the others that he’d gone off with a strange woman, but it was evident that they had left a long time ago.

While he trudged around town angrily, he came upon the local Dragon Shrine; it was better kept than the one in his hometown, and looked like people still prayed to it. It was shiny and polished, and was still whole; even the original dome still covered it. No one was around, and Sanamo and the old woman had agreed to stay outside; some obscure Shaman legend forbid them from entering even the Dragon God’s shrine.

“What brings you to me, Ryu?” The Dragon Lord asked, animating the central statue of the shrine. “Where are your friends?”

“That’s what I came to you about, my lord.” Ryu genuflected before the representation of his God. “They left for the Ruined City for some reason, and left me here.”

The statue stared at him, expression unreadable. Finally it spoke. “I sense something different about you. . . Some of your latent abilities have been. . . unlocked by some means. How?”

Ryu cracked a wry smile. “An experiment in soul-uniting I was tricked into. I couldn’t control my powers, and ended up torching the forest to the north.”

“I see. Do not worry. You will learn to control your powers, and to call upon them in time of need. They will grow stronger, as you yourself will.” The statue shifted back on its perch and crossed its stone arms. “. . . Grow so very strong. . .”

“But, my lord, I’m stranded here.” Ryu pointed out. “Without my friends along side me, it isn’t as safe to return the way I came. We may have made it past the Kimonos before, but that was thanks to our combined efforts. Now I’m only a single warrior, travelling with two noncombatants. If we got ambushed, I doubt we’d survive.”

The Dragon God stopped staring off into space in deep thought, and realized what Ryu was saying. “Oh, yes. I see what you mean. Travelling alone isn’t a good idea.” It seemed to think for a moment befor continuing. “Bring the Shaman and the old woman in here. This one time, I’ll make an exception to them.”

Ryu fetched the old woman and Sanamo as he was asked, and was surprised when they didn’t flip out at the sight of the moving Dragon statue. “We’re all here now, my lord.”

“Good.” To the old woman and Sanamo he said, “It is good to see some of your kind again. It’s been so long. . .”

“It has been, your Eminence.” The old woman kowtowed in her heavy robe. Sanamo offered the god a mild curtsy; she couldn’t raise the edge of her skirt because she really didn’t have that much of a skirt to begin with.

“Now, on to the matter at hand. I assume you want to go back to the Ruined City, west of Mt. Fubi?” Ryu nodded. The statue cracked its knuckles and began to cast a spell. Soon, a doorway, or portal, or whatever opened at the base of the statue. It was as tall as a Rand was, and made up of a swirling, mixing mist. In its center appeared an image of the Ruined City, specifically the main building in its epicenter; the one where Ryu and his companions had taken up residence. “I’ve created a portal between here and your town, visable only to you three, and the others in the Ruined City. It’ll remain open until the day after the boat returns, so you can use it to come back here in a hurry. Be warned; when the boat leaves again, this door will close, and you’ll have to find your way again.”

The trio thanked the Dragon Lord, and then stepped through the doorway, crossing hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye.

*****

Bow was just walking out of the main building’s add-on when the air in front of the Dragon Statue suddenly flared to life. It was like a cloud of chaos had sprung from the mouth of the statue, but the strange fog quickly began to rearrange and swirl, creating a vortex. And out of that vortex stepped Ryu and two women.

“Ryu?” Bow asked hesitantly. When his friend’s gaze found him, and he smiled, Bow knew it was him. “Buddy! You’re back!”

“Hey, Bow. ‘Sup.” Ryu nodded to him. The old woman and the girl in the funky outfit passed by both of them without a word and vanished into the add-on.

“Uh, man? What are they doing?” Bow asked. Ryu was about to explain when the old woman came out and looked Bow in the eye.

“You did a fine job Mr. Carpenter. This is the perfect place, Ryu.”

“What are you talking about? Ryu?”

Ryu scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. “Well, y’see, I kinda torched their house.”

“Whadd’ya mean ‘Kinda’?” Bow’s voice raised in anxiousness. The granny went back inside the add-on. “. . . You’re not hittin’ on the old lady are ya?”

“What?!” Ryu was flabbergasted. “No way man! I just burnt down their home, and so I’m obligated to give them a new home.”

“But the new addition?!” Bow indicated the new wing with an agitated sweep of his arm. “That’s where our new rooms were suposed to be! I even built a room to have our parties in!”

Once again, the door to the addition opened, but this time it was Sanamo that came out. She sashayed up to Bow the same way she had to Ryu before. Ryu watched in amusement and a little jealousy as Bow turned bright red and became putty in the Shaman’s delicate hands.

“Mr. Carpenter,” Sanamo asked innocently, toying with one of Bow’s doggy ears. “I was wondering if you could do something for me?”

“Uhhh. . . W-what would that be?” He asked hesitantly.

“I --- We were wondering if you could build us a Uniting Room in the back. For us to perform our soul-uniting experiments in.”

“Well, I . . .” Bow stopped himself. “I’m not a carpenter.”

“Sure you are.” Sanamo disagreed, as the granny came out of the addition. “You’re a great carpenter. Now we need you to build us a Uniting room. You can do that,” She brushed her cheek next to his to whisper in his ear. “Right, Mr. Carpenter?”

“I, uh, I. . .” Bow stuttered, redder than ever. Then what she had said sunk in, and something in him snapped. “I’M NOT A CARPENTER!!! AUAGH!”

With that he ran into the main building in a fit of frustration. The granny stared after him, and then turned to Ryu. “What’s wrong with the carpenter?”

Ryu ignored her and raised an eyebrow at Sanamo. “You know, you’re really good at doing that.”

Sanamo gave him the most innocent looking pout she could muster. “Why, I have no idea what you are talking about, Ryu. I only asked him to build us the Uniting room.”

Ryu threw his head back with a very deep belly-laugh. “All right, all right. I’ll see what I can do. Maybe I can convince Bow and Rand to do it for you.”

“If that fails,” The old woman suggested. “You can always use the portal to go to Capitan and get us one of the carpenters there.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Ryu watched the two women go back into the addition, then took a deep breath and entered the main building.

***

Inside, the transformation was quite apparent. The ceiling and floors had been repaired, all the rubble had been cleared away, and a fresh layer of spackel and paint made the walls seem brand new. As Ryu was admiring the new digs, he spotted Niro polishing a counter near the back of the building, linked to the kitchen. Apparently Niro wanted to be near the food at all times. He called out to him.

From his polishing, Niro looked up. At first he didn’t recognize Ryu, but when he did his face brightened. “Hey kid! How’s it going? Heard you ran off with some hot chick!”

Ryu winced, hearing his worst ruminations come true. “Yeah, well, sorta. I brought them back ‘cause I toasted their hut. Do you know where Rand is? I need to talk to him.”

“Yeah, he’s somewhere upstairs.” Niro thumbed to a door at the back of the foyer. “Say Ryu, whaddya think? Of the new place? Pretty neat, huh?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” Ryu took one more look around. “Cool. Looks brand-new.”

“Yeah. That Rand is really good at work. At this rate, the whole city’ll be rebuilt in a few years, and then we can call it Niro Town.” He laughed. Ryu only shook his head and walked to the back. Yeah, right. Niro Town. As if.

***

In the back, he passed by a bookshelf filled with new novels, a table for eating and other things, and a couple of other things that made the room seem like an all-purpose area. From that room he continued upstairs and began to wander, looking in rooms to see who was in them.

The two rooms at the end of the hall were empty, but the last room was Bow’s. His friend frowned when Ryu opened the door.

“Man, why’d you go and have to give them our new rooms?” He pouted. “I just finished putting in the disco ball.”

Ryu decided he wasn’t going to ask what a disco ball was, or where Bow procured one. “Hey, I didn’t give them the rooms. They just went and took them. I couldn’t stop’em.”

Bow seemed to consider it. “Still man, those were our rooms. Three times bigger than this one. But. . . I guess you really owe them. You did blow up their house, right? Hey-- How DID you blow up their house? You don’t know any magic!”

“Not magic, Bow.” Ryu crossed his arms. “I ended up being an guinea pig for an experiment that unlocked my Dragon Clan abilities. I’m a Dragon Clanner.”

Bow was flabbergasted. “You?! A Dragon?! No Way!” He stroked his chin, thinking about their past adventures. “Actually, that probably explains a lot. Like that shirt thing and the way you don’t react to heat and cold.”

“And how I’m more durable than normal people.” At bow’s confused expression he explained what happened when he faced Joker. “. . .That hit shoulda broken my ribcage, but instead it barely knocked the wind outta me.”

“Creepy, man.” Bow breathed. “It’s like your indestructable. Even that poison didn’t do anything to you.”

Ryu shook his head. “Without Katt and Rand, I would have died from the poison. Apparently I’m not immune to poisons and toxins.”

“Still.”

“I know.” Ryu turned to leave. “No hard feelings?”

“. . . Nah, no hard feelings. See you tomorrow, dragon-buddy.” Bow flopped onto his bed.

***

Ryu bypassed the second floor and went straight to third. It was there he ran into Nina.

“Hi Nina.” He waved sheepishly. She glared at him.

“I thought you had run off with that hussy. . .” She accused him, jabbing a finger painfully into his chest. “What happened? She dump you?”

“What? No, no. Sanamo just asked for my help in something. I had to help her.”

Nina raised an eyebrow. “Had to help her? I saw you two. You were enjoying yourself.”

“I had to help her, Nina. I’m a Ranger.” He tried to explain. “It’s my obligation to help people, especially when I’m asked.”

“Well,” Nina pouted slightly. “You should have let us come with you. It wasn’t nice to leave without telling us.” by us, Ryu was sure what she mean was her and Katt. He mentally ass-kicked himself when he saw the hurt little girl look on Nina’s lovely face. It made him want to hold her. . .

As if reading his thoughts, she turned away and walked to her door. Before she went inside, she took one final look at him. After a moment of deep examination, a strange expression took hold of her. “You seem. . . different. Stronger. . .”

Ryu puffed up a little. “I recently learned I’m a Dragon Clanner.”

“That’s what the thing with that. . . woman. . . was about?”

“That’s right.” He assured her. “Nothing else. She just helped unlock my abilities.”

Nina thought about it, then smiled slyly at him. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. I think there’re others more suited to you, if you catch my drift.”

He took a breath. “I . . . think I do.”

“Good.” She slipped him a wink. “I wouldn’t go near Katt for a while though. She’s pretty steamed at you.”

As if on cue, there was a crash of something heavy against a wall, and a growl of anger. From the next room came Katt’s seriously steamed voice.

“A girl walks up to him. . . A girl he doesn’t even know!. . . She talks to him, and he leaves with her!! Arrgh!!!” There was another crash, something glass shattering. Both Ryu and Nina stared at Katt’s door for a few seconds, then at each other.

“Yee-ah. I think I will steer clear of her.” Ryu said. “Can you do me a favor, Nina? Explain to her what really happened?”

“Sure thing, fire-breather.” She winked again, then shut the door.

“Jeez!” Ryu exasperated. “Is everyone I talk to going to make a pun on my new abilities?!”

A swift check of the other rooms revealed Rand was nowhere on the third floor. Shoulda tried the second floor before. Ryu thought glumly, shuffling downstairs. Sure enough, Rand was on the second floor, doing work on repairing a bathroom.

“Ryu, you’re back!” Rand stopped and looked over from where he was kneeling next to a toilet. There were wrenches and screwdrivers lying all around him , as well as washers, piping, and an empty plate of what looked to be pizza. “Just fixing up a faulty plunger.”

“Hey, big guy.” Ryu said, a little down. “Can you do something for me?”

“When I’m done this, sure, anything.”

“Can you rebuild the addition outside so that it has a Uniting Room in the back? It’s for an old woman and a Shaman I made homeless.”

“WHAT?” Rand dropped his wrench. He looked up unbelieving at the blue-haired teen. “What the hell is a Uniting Room? I don’t know how to build something like that! I only repair, not build from scratch.”

He turned back to his work. “You’d better get a real carpenter. Or do it yourself.”

“Crap. That’s just what I figured.”

*****

That night, Ryu had the dream again.

***

All around him, he heard the screams of the injured and dying. Heard the screams of his friends and of those he had not met yet. But this time something was different. Two of the vague figures had become clear and recognizable. Nina and Sten, in rictuses of agony. Of the vague figures, only three remained.

Again, the Demon raised one shapeless foot, and with a thunderous laughter, brought it down on him, and he woke up before he was crushed flat, a scream of terror lodged in his throat.

***

He sat there, staring at the cold sweat on his hands and feeling it all over him. Why was he having these terrible, terrible dreams? He wasn’t scared of anything. . . was he? Ryu shivered and got out of bed. Clad only in shorts and a tanktop, he went downstairs to the kitchen, to make himself something to drink and to soothe his jangled nerves.

While the coffee maker Rand had picked up from Coursair was percolating, Ryu stood by the kitchen window, gazing at the dark morning sky. The half-formed images in his dream floated back to him, almost remembered, but fading with each passing moment. What do they mean? He wondered, staring into the darkness, the stars, hoping for some sign from the Universe. Ryu knew that if he told Ladon about his dream, the old Dragon god would just nod and not reveal anything. Damn him! Ryu seethed. These dreams are beginning to tear me APART! He raised one clenched fist, seeing that strange glow he now associated with his new Dragon powers surround it. A feeling of seething rage and frustration filled him, and he felt like shoving that fist through the nearest solid object.

“Ryu?” Katt’s voice asked timidly from the kitchen door. He tensed at the sound of her voice, but took a deep breath and turned slightly, coming down. He lowered his fist, the glow disappearing as he calmed down. It ached terribly, and he thought he could see the indentations of his fingers in his palm; he had no idea how tightly clenched it had been.

“. . .Yeah? What is it Katt?” He asked her in the softest tone he could manage. The adrenaline from the dream and his undirected rage a moment ago was leaving him a little rocky. “What are you doing up? It’s gotta be at least three hours before dawn. . .”

“I couldn’t sleep. . .” She mumbled, and began pouring them a mug of joe each. Ryu noticed that, even though her usual outfit was a short tunic and a belt, she actually wore nighties to bed. She handed him a cup and took the second one herself. There was a strange, slightly disturbed look in her eyes. “What about you?”

“The nightmare.” Ryu frowned into his coffee. “I had it again.”

Somehow, Katt didn’t seem shocked by this strange happening. If anything, it seemed to deepen her despair. “I know. I had it too.”

“What?!” This was news to Ryu. He practically choked on his coffee. “You had the dream?”

“Yeah. . .” Katt seemed to gaze into a place out of time, her gaze fogging with unshed tears. “I was in a dark place, filled with screams. There were others around me, people I knew. . .”

“. . .I was there.” Ryu said, stating the fact and not trying to influence her. “I was screaming too, wasn’t I?”

The barrier that prevented Katt from letting her tears out cracked a little, allowing a tear to streak down her striped face. “Yes. You were there.”

“What happened?” He asked, his voice barely a whisper. She looked up at him, and the tears welled up. Then she fell into him, sobbing.

“Y-you, . . . w-we all. . . were k-killed.” She bit out between sobs. The dream had affected her more than it had Ryu. Where he felt confusion and undirected rage, she obviously felt a fear unlike anything she had felt before. He hesitantly put his arms around her, then held her close. Soon, she stopped crying and looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes.

“It’s all right, Katt.” He told her quietly. “I had the same dream, have HAD the same dream. If it wasn’t for the fact I feel I have to be strong, I’d be crying just like you were.”

He let her go and turned back to the window, picking up the coffee cup. “I don’t know what the dream means, but each time I have it, one more person I know appears in it. And e h time I’m struck with the feeling of loss and weakness, and I want to curl up and bawl, but I can’t. It’s like some part of me won’t let me.”

Katt came up beside him. She had finished her java. With a quick embrace and a peck on the lips, she said. “Thanks for understanding Ryu, and. . . thanks for being strong enough to admit you feel weak sometimes. It means I’m not alone.” And then she went back to bed.

Ryu stayed up the rest of the night, staring to the east until the sun came up.

***

“Okay, so who’s coming to Capitan with me today?” Ryu asked at the breakfast table. Katt still seemed out of touch, but she raised her hand.

“I will.”

Nina, too, said she would. That left Sten and Rand. “So, what’s it going to be? One of you has to come along with us.”

Rand shook his large but porportionally small head. “I have some other stuff to do around here, but if you get a carpenter to come here, I’ll leave this town to them and join you.”

He puffed up his massive gray chest and stretched. “I was getting tired of being a carpenter anyway. I like using my fists.”

Ryu had to smirk. “We’ll pick you up something nice in Capitan. What about you Sten, you in?”

Sten put his hands behind his head and sighed. “I guess I am. I just wish I could lay back and relax here. I like it here.”

Katt smacked him upside the back of his head with her open hand. He cried out and glowered at her, rubbing the spot on his head. “What was that for?!”

She sniffed. “For being a lazy bones.” beside her, Nina covered her giggling with her hand.

Ryu chuckled. “All right you jokers. Knock it off. We’re going to find us a carpenter!”

*****

Ladon’s Portal was still open in the Dragon Shrine, so it only took a few seconds to travese the distance between the Ruined City and Capitan. Ryu took a deep breath of the salty air; with such close proximity to the ocean, he felt galvanized by the tang in the air. “Aahhhh. . .”

He turned to his companions. “Well, you can all probably go your own ways for now. I’ll look for the carpenters.”

“And what are WE supposed to do?” Katt asked, irritated.

“To hell if I know or care.” Ryu replied. “Goof off. Read; look for discounts on weapons. Something.”

Turning to Nina he asked. “You need some clothes, right? I mean, all you had was what you got at the Magic School, right?” She nodded, and he pulled a small sack out of his utility belt, placing it in her hand. “Here’s all the cash I have handy. There’s a note in there for the bank, should you need anymore. I figure I have about three or four paychecks saved up by now, but don’t spend it all. We need to save a little.”

“Hey! What about ME?!” Katt asked, even more irritated. Her tail swung fiercely behind her.

“Well, why don’t you go with Nina and pick up some clothes too?” Ryu suggested. “Other than what you’re wearing, and your nightclub costume, I haven’t seen you wearing anything else.”

He made no mention of the silk nightie he’d seen her in last night. For that, she was grateful, though she did blush at the memory. “You’re right. I do need some clothing. C’mon Nina; you can help me pick out something nice.”

Nina gave her a strange look, but nodded, and the two girls went off. Sten prodded Ryu’s shoulder. “Boss, what about me?”

“You wanna come searching for carpenters? Or do you wanna find some kickin’ new armours and weapons?”

Sten grinned mysteriously. “By the time we get all back together, I’ll have new gear for all of us. Even the guys back in the Ruined City. And it’ll be cheap, too; I’ll spring for it.”

Ryu smiled. “Thanks man. Just don’t risk your life for it. I’m not gonna ask where you get them, but no one better start hunting us once we get it, alright.”

Sten snapped to attention and affected a salute, the ever-present grin still there. “Yes, mon capitane! You won’t regret it. Trust me.”

The monkey-man ran off, leaving Ryu wondering exactly where Sten was going to get this new equipment. And if he really wanted to know.

***

A few hours later, Katt and Nina were still shopping. Nina had found a pair of dresses similar to the one she was wearing; one was red, with gold trim, and the other was a greenish, with gold trim. Both looked great on her. She also picked up an evening gown and, without Katt’s knowledge, a few ‘secret’ garments only Nina and, luck permitting, one other person would see. Right now, she was helping Katt choose something that wasn’t a halter top.

“What about this?” Katt asked, holding up yet another T-shirt; this one was pink and had a small archaic-looking bomb design on the front. It was short sleeved, barely long enough to cover her midriff. Nina sighed, and pretended to consider it, a finger below her chin. She shook her head.

“No. . . No I don’t think so.” She pursed her lips. Looking around, she spotted a gorgeous evening dress, black, low cut in the front and slit high up the leg. She smiled, pulled it out, and showed it to Katt with a devilish smirk. “How about this?”

Katt’s eyebrows shot up. “T-that? What would I wear that for?”

“Special occasions, important dinners, and to impress the man of your dreams. . .” She trailed off, and they both dropped into their own individual fantasies about a certain blue-haired youth. Nina shook herself free after a few seconds. “Anyway, you’re the one who’s going to be wearing it. Why don’t you try it on?”

Katt took the dress unsuredly, and walked into the changing booth. After a few moments of rustling, her belt and tunic top swung over the top of the door, as did her gauntlets, toe-less boots, and leg guards. Yet another few moments of rustling, and then Katt spoke from behind the door. “Well I know one thing for sure; this thing will have to be fitted for me.”

She opened the door and stepped out hesitantly. Nina’s breath caught in her throat. Standing there awkwardly in a pair of high heels, wearing a dress that fit her like a glove, was a different Katt. With her hands clasped in front of her, she was quickly reddening as she waited for Nina’s opinion. “Well? . . .”

Nina took a breath. “Katt. . . Buy that dress!”

“You think so?” Katt asked again, looking at herself in a mirror. “It doesn’t have a hole for my tail, though. . .”

The saleswoman could see a sale possibly souring before her, and moved fast. “We permit alterations of any kind, here. Our customers are of all kinds, so we have to adjust.”

Nina shrugged and smiled. “Every time I buy a top, I have to make slits for my wings to go through. A hole for a tail is easy.”

Katt turned, considering herself. She thought of Ryu’s expression when she’d corner him one night while wearing the dress. A slow smile crossed her face. “I’ll take it.”

***

Sten glared at the shadowy figure he’d been dealing with. They were in the rundown, dark, slumy section of Capitan, in dimly lit alleyway. Before him lay a pile of armour and weapons, gleaming brightly, in contradiction to the dirty surroundings.

When Sten had been hunting this man down, he had put aside his usually cheerful self for his military training. Silent as a ghost, he had run across rooftops and hid in the shadows until the man was alone. Then he’d cornered him. Now, the guy was demanding twice the amount he’d said.

“What are you trying to pull, old man?” Sten asked ominously, rage glinting in his eyes. “We had a deal.”

The old man in the shadows raised his hands in supplication. “Its just that I need to buy food for myself. The amount you asked for won’t even buy me a loaf of bread.”

Sten scuffed his fingernails on his tattered vest and examined them, acting uninterested. “You know, with the price on your head, I could save you the trouble of living, and earn a bundle in the process. . .”

“Alright, alright, the weapons and armour are yours. Just . . . don’t kill me.” The old man gave in, shoulders slumping. Sten picked up the gear and tossed a small sack of gold at the man’s feet.

“Your skill is most appreciated, Murasame. . .”

***

Ryu had found out where a carpenter lived, and arriving there, discovered it was a very familiar person. The door to the two-story house, whose design was similar to that found in Ryu’s hometown, opened, and Mr. Ribabu answered.

“Yes?. . .Ryu! How are you?” Ribabu invited him in. He offered tea, which Ryu accepted out of courtesy and thirst. Tea was one of his favorite drinks, and the tea he was served was a delicious vanilla flavour. They exchanged pleasantries for a few hours. Talked about Ryu’s adventures, and what happened in the well. Ribabu was shocked to learn about the face-hugging bugs. And he was amazed when Ryu revealed that he was a Dragon.

Finally, he got to the matter at hand. “So, what brings you around? I figure you wouldn’t stop by just to chat, not with all the strangeness out in the world to see.”

Ryu set his teacup down gently. “I understand you’re a carpenter. . .”

“Yes, I am.” Ribabu replied. “Owner of one of the three top carpenters in town. I’m known throughout the western world. Why?”

“Do you know of the old woman who lived in the woods to the north? The strange one?”

“Yeah?”

“I levelled her house by accident.” Ryu winced as the carpenter’s jaw dropped and he nearly lost the cup. “I offered to give her a new home in a ruined City we’ve been trying to rebuild south of the town where the guild I belong to is, but she wants to build something in the back room called a Uniting Machine, and none of us have the technical know-how to build it. I was hoping that. . .” He trailed off, embarassed.

“. . .That I would build this Uniting machine for you, along with rebuilding the town?” Ribabu gave him a curious, and dead-serious look, as he sipped his tea. Ryu felt like he should shrivel up and disappear. A tense few moments passed before Ribabu said anything. “Ryu?”

“Yeah?” He was dreading the answer.

A smile spread across the face of the carpenter. “I’d be more than happy to help you build that town. Since we finished building in this town, we haven’t had a decent job in weeks. It would be a great challenge to build an entire from scratch.”

“Really?”

“After what you did for my town, I can’t think of any other way I’d want to pay you back.”

***

Ryu met up with Katt and Nina at a cafe on the southside of town. They were enjoying a cup of java when Sten appeared, weighted down with weapons and armour. He himself was already decked out in bulbous shoulder guards, an upper chest plate, and longer gauntlets with larger Zip-Daggers.

Katt’s eyes widened when Sten dropped the gear by the table and sat down. “What the hell?! Whaddya do? Rob an armory or something?”

Sten ignored her while he ordered a drink. When the waiter went away, he turned to Ryu. “Here’s all our new gear. I have a few connections from my days in the army, so I can get good gear for next to nothing.”

“Hmm.” Ryu murmured. “Let’s see this new stuff.”

“For you Ryu, I got these.” Sten pulled up a katana similar to the one Ray carried, along with full arm gauntlets, an armoured black vest, and steel-toe boots. “The sword is called a Murasame. Very well-crafted. Can cut almost anything in two, but tends to be a bit bloodthirsty. If that sounds odd, it won’t be when you use it for the first time. The gauntlets have mythril plates in their backs, and slots for small objects to be concealled in the cuff. Mythril is a light but very durable metal, and doesn’t rust, so it’s perfect for armour. The boots are steel-toe for that extra damage from kicks.

“For Nina, I have a pair of magic gloves, straight from the best shops in Windia, made of the finest hides of Red Snipheads. I have a pair of shoulder guards and a leather chestplate for you as well. I know you probably don’t like wearing armour of any kind, but it might help save your life one day.

“And finally, Katt. . .” Sten looked at the gear he had for her, and then frowned. “You know, after the way you threatened me in the well, I probably shouldn’t give you this . . .”

Katt looked at the new stuff and immediately became apologetic. “Oh please? I really want some new stuff. Please please please? With sugar on top?”

Sten pretended to consider her apology, then finally gave in. “Alright, but now we’re even for that. . . incident in the caves, alright?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Katt dismissed it, anxious to see the new weapons and armour. “Where’s my stuff?”

“Let’s see, I have a new Ninja bodysuit for you, black, with shoulder guards. And a new battlestaff; this one is portable!” He lifted up a small cylinder, barely bigger than his hand. With the touch of a switch, it telescoped out, becoming a four foot long metal staff. For emphasis, he tapped the tip against the ground, and a spike popped out of the ends. “It’s way stronger than it looks; reinforced from the inside. The spikes can be extended, or left inside their shafts, so it’s a dual purpose weapon. I also have a pair of gauntlets for you, with extendable knuckle blades, and some new boots to replace those old open-toes of yours. . . Hey! Where’d they go?!”

He was hunting around for them, when Katt lifted one slim leg up as she pulled the boot on. She wiggled the toe around, and smiled in approval. “Perfect fit. How’d ya know my size?”

Sten’s drink came, and he took a sip. “. . . When you left your room yesterday I went in and took your measurements. The measurements for all three of you.”

“What?!” Nina and Katt turned bright red; Nina from embarassment and Katt from anger. Ryu was amazed, because he never left anything in his room that could have given Sten the neccessary figures. Sten’s eye must have been sharper than he thought, to simply eyeball someone and know their measurements. Ryu wondered what Sten had done before he came to Windia. Something requiring intense training, no doubt.

“How else was I going to get the sizes right?” Sten stammered as he defended himself from Katt’s almost-hits. She was gesturing so violently as she ranted that she nearly swept Ryu out of his chair with her tail. Nina even had shield her face with her wing.

“So you’ve been planning this whole time, eh?” Ryu spoke up, raising a cup to the monkey. “I’m impressed. I don’t know how you did it, but the timing was perfect. We really did need the new gear.”

That calmed Katt down. “But what are we going to do with the old stuff? I have an attachement to my stuff, you know?”

“Yeah, so do I.” Ryu admitted, pulling out his beaten-up broadsword. It had seen him through slimes and through demons, and now he was hesitant to let it go. Then inspiration hit. “I know! Let’s arrange for a sort of museum! We can put our old stuff in it, and not have to sell it, but still use our new stuff!”

“I like it.” Katt gave him a thumbs-up. Nina shrugged and sipped her coffee. Sten shook his head.

“Well, I sold all my old gear, so my original stuff won’t be in there. When I get new stuff, though, this stuff I have now will go in there.”

“Then it’s settled: A museum of our weapons will be built in one of the back rooms of the main building.” Ryu sheathed his sword, and then sipped his mug o’ joe. “Hey, what about Bow and Rand? They need stuff too.”

“I already sent their gear through the gateway. I’m sure they’ve already found it and divided it up.”

***

The rest of the day passed rather slowly. Towards evening, Ryu was anxious to do something. They were headed for the Dragon shrine and its portal to their town, when Ryu spotted Ray walking down the street.

“Hey Ray!” He called, waving. Ray spotted him and came over.

“Hello Ryu, where are you going?”

“Home.” He replied, pointing towards the arched doorway to the Dragon shrine.

Ray seemed puzzled. “The way to your home is . . . the Dragon shrine?”

At first Ryu didn’t understand him. After all, he could see the portal at the base of the shrine, as could his friends, but why couldn’t Ray? That’s when Katt and Sten did a simultaneous slap upside the back of his head. “Tell him about the door.” They said at the same time. Nina sighed and shook her head, index finger and thumb lightly pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Jeez! I forgot, okay?” Ryu flinched, rubbing the back of his head. To Ray; “There’s a portal open at the shrine that’s a direct link to our town. It’ll only be open for a few more days though. You wanna come? We got a ton of room in the apartment building. ”

Ray considered the offer, and gave a few skeptical glances to the shrine’s statue. To him, it was just a statue, but these four apparently believed there was a portal there. . .

“C’mon. . . I’ll show you.” Ryu walked up to the statue and. . . vanished. It was as if he’d just stepped into thin air. Which, in fact, was exactly what he did. Ray watched slack-jawed as one by one, the group stepped through the invisible portal and vanished. Then Ryu’s head appeared, severed and hovering in mid-air with a smile on its face.

“You coming or what?”

Ryu’s head vanished as he with drew it, and Ray took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stepped towards what he thought was solid stone.

*****

“See, I told you that we had plenty of room.” Ryu said, showing Ray a spare room. It was on the second floor, across the hall from Ryu’s. Ray looked around uneasily.

“So. . . You’re offering me a room, free of charge? What’s the catch?” He asked, voice thick with suspicion. “Ray, you got it all wrong.” Ryu assured him. “You’re a friend and a guest. Whenever you need a room for the night, this one is yours for keeps. Free of charge.” In a conspiritorial voice he leaned in and whispered. “In this place, and the rest of this new city, we don’t believe in rent and mortgage and crap like that. If there’s room, and you need a room, we set you up.”

“That’s very kind, but I don’t think I . . .”

“Dude.” Ryu was serious. “I insist. Besides. . .”

He gave a quick glance up and down the hall to see if there was anyone else. Then he leaned in and whispered. “Besides. . . I think one of the girls likes you.” Deep inside he was sort of jealous. Which one liked Ray, and why didn’t they like Ryu more? It almost infuriated him, but this was a friend of his, so. . .

Ray’s eyebrow went up. “Really. . . Well. . .” He scratched his chin and examined the room in a different light. “. . . Alright. I’ll use this room. But only when I’m in town. And that won’t be too often.”

Excellent!!! Ryu howled inside, but on the outside he put on a slightly saddened expression. “That’s too bad. We’ll keep this room reserved for you anyway.”

“Thanks.”

“Well, I’ll let you get settled.” Ryu said, turning and walking back down the hall. “See you later.”

***

“. . .And you know what he did next?” Katt asked excitedly, though she was simply dying to tell. She and Nina were in the kitchen making something for a late night snack. Hours had passed since they came back through the portal, and now they had the munchies.

“No. . .” Nina said slyly, pouring a bag of chips into a bowl. “What did he say next?”

“Well, he said ‘ I’m struck with the feeling of loss and weakness, and . . .” She trailed off as Ryu entered the room.

“Why not finish what I said, Katt?” Then, to Nina. “. . . and I want to curl up and bawl, but I can’t. It’s like some part of me won’t let me.”

She was impressed a little. “You? Cry? I don’t believe it.”

“I see.” Ryu crossed his arms and hmpph-ed. “Did Katt tell you the little secret she’s kept from everyone?”

The colour drained from Katt’s face, the stripes standing out on her and making her seem more like a zebra than a cat. “No! Ryu! Don’t! I didn’t mean to. . .!”

“She has this cute little pink nightie that she wears.” Ryu answered, a cruel smile on his lips. “No one else except you, me, and her now know about it. . .”

“Ryu!!!” Katt whined.

Nina was nonplussed. “So? Most girls our age wear nighties. I’m pretty sure that you yourself sleep in boxers.”

“What?! I mean, yes I do, but!. . .” It didn’t go as he planned it. Now the tables had turned, and he was outnumbered. “Nina!. . .”

His shoulders slumped and he let his head hang in defeat. Nina and Katt giggled. Then Nina composed her self and casually turned to Ryu. “Now, Ryu, if you’ll excuse us, we have some talking about you to do, and it would be easier if you weren’t around.”

“Yeah yeah, okay.”He dismissed it with a wave. “I know when I’m not wanted.”

In a stage whisper to Katt as he passed, he said. “Don’t forget to tell her about the forest. . .”

He laughed loudly and walked out of the kitchen. Leaving Katt to turn bright red as Nina raised an eyebrow in her direction.

*****

The next few days passed rather mundanely. Everyone was relaxing; Katt and Ryu would spar for a while, or Ryu and Ray would go off on long walks talking about. . . everything. Bow and Katt would go hunting, when he wasn’t helping Rand and the Ribabu crew build new houses throughout town. Then on the second last day before the boat would return, something strange happened.

Ryu was off on one of his long walks with Ray, and Nina was helping Sten learn some new fire magic. They were practising on the very edge of the town, in the semi-developed north east section. Rand was helping lift girders and beams up to the workers on the building they were making.

“. . . And if you do it right, you can summon that Flame sword I made back in Capitan.” Nina was finishing up. “Go ahead, try what I told you.”

“Well,. . . Okay. . .” Sten looked at his hands uneasily. He steepled them as if in prayer, mumbling in a foreign tongue, and an orb of fire began to form at his fingertips. At the critical moment he opened his eyes and saw the ball and smiled. “Look, I did it!”

“No Sten!” Nina tried to warn him, but it was too late. With his loss of concentration, he lost control the spell, and the orb of fire leapt out in a seemingly random direction, instead of forming a flaming sword.

The uncontrolled spell arced up through the air and came down about ten meters away. Landing right on Rand’s rear. At first, he didn’t notice, but as the flames began to burn through the rear of his tunic, he began to feel the heat.

“YEEEOWWWW!!!” He screamed, letting go of a girder to clutch at his scortched ass. The girder, obeying the law of Gravity, plummetted straight down into his elephantine foot. He let out another cry of pain, and stopped reaching for his butt and instead reached for his injured foot.

Sten snickered for a second, but turned pale as Rand spun around at the sound of his laugh. “EEP.”

“Sten. . .” Rand panted in pain, gray face purple with rage. “You a dead man.”

At that, he began to charge towards the monkey, who took off screaming. Off to one side, Nina watched in amusement as Sten led Rand in a wild goose chase around the newly built salloon, still screaming. Ryu and Ray, coming back from their walk to the fishing hole, noticed the commotion, and came up behind Nina.

“What’s going on?” Ryu asked, not really concerned, but curious. Nina put a finger under her chin and considered her answer as Sten ran by, arms high in the air shouting apologies to Rand, while Rand muttered darkly “Come back here, banana-eater. . .”

“Mmm?. . .”

“I asked, what’s going on?”

Sten ran by again, before darting for the forest beyond, Rand in hot pursuit.

“Oh,” Nina replied, matter-of-factly. “Sten’s gonna die.”

“Oh.”

“Yup.”

“I’d say so.” Ray observed, arms crossed, a wry smile on his face.

The sounds of the chase faded away into the forest. No one spoke for a while, but finally, Ryu had to ask.

“Shouldn’t we do something?”

“Why?” Nina countered mildly. “And ruin the fun?”

Ryu smirked. Nina sure had a dark sense of humour. He liked it.

*****

“Where are you, you little scrawny twerp?” Rand growled, stomping through the trees, his small head craning left and right for any sign of the monkey-man. He stopped by a big oak tree to regain his trail. Little did he know how close his target was.

About twenty feet above the ground, ten feet above Rand’s head, Sten was pressing his back as far into the trunk of the tree as his body would allow. If Rand caught him now. . . He didn’t want to think of it. It sure wouldn’t be pretty.

Rand stopped standing, and began to slowly stomp down the path, away from the tree. Seeing the armadillo-man’s broad back and heavy armour plates, and realizing there was no way Rand could touch him there, Sten took a chance and did a flying leap down onto him. He latched on firmly to the largest back plate, and the hardest one for Rand to reach around.

“What the. . .?” Rand felt Sten on his back, and reached back to grab him with those massive hands of his. “Sten, get over here and face me like a dead man!”

On the big guy’s back, Sten shifted back and forth to avoid the grasping gray hands. “C’mon Rand, it was an accident! I didn’t mean it. . .”

Having failed to capture the monkey, Rand prepared for something previously unknown to anyone else. “This is an ‘accident’ as well. . .”

And he curled up and became an armoured ball with a toga on! Sten found himself standing on the lumpy but smooth sphere that had been Rand, totally confused. How had he collapsed that huge muscle of his into such a small shape? It didn’t seem possible. Then, the ball started to roll. . .

“Who-o-oa!” Sten cried as he tried to maintain his balance, the ball accelerating beneath him. Faster and faster Sten had to move his feet to stay on top. And not just walking either; he had to walk backward to keep up with the rotation of Rand’s armoured sphere. Walk, and then run, and finally, just scrambling to stay up.

That was about when he looked ahead and saw the hole. It was four feet wide, and he could see it was a break in the earth between the surface and some subterranean cavity. And the crust seemed fragile enough to be broken by, say, a four hundred pound object. Say, like Rand’s body?

“Rand!” Sten shrieked. “Stop rolling! We’re gonna fa-AAAAHHHHH!!!. . .”

Sure enough, the ground cracked, and then totally gave way under Rand’s immense weight, sending both men tumbling into the void screaming.

***

When Sten awoke, he found he was still alive. A tremendous headache, and it felt like someone had been playing soccer with his whole body, but alive. Nearby, he could hear the stirrings of the large Armadillo man. From his vantage point of flat-out on his back, he dully realized that they had fallen, oh, about thirty feet. Sunlight seemed awful far away. . .

“Uuhh. . . Gawdamn. . .”Rand muttered, pulling up from face-first in the floor. “Whahappened?. . .”

Sten winced as he sat up, feeling a bump beginning to form on the back of his head. “We fell throught that hole in the ceiling. Where the hell are. . . huh?!”

That was when he got a good look at where they were. It wasn’t a natural cave or underground chamber; in fact, it was a machined concrete and metal room, with an open doorway on one wall. Both men were too stunned to continue their little chase. This was a much bigger mystery.

“What is this place?” Sten asked, touching the strange designs on the walls with his fingertips. They were quite unlike anything he’d ever seen. Or were they? Something about them reminded him of his home town, the Highlander Fortress, which lay far to the south. The surface was stone-like in appearance, but when he touched it, it was cold, cold metal. “I don’t recognize this material.”

Rand had gotten up and was inspecting the hole in the ceiling. “Well, I can’t get us out of here. Too high. Do you think we can find another way to the surface?”

“Maybe.” Sten replied. He began to walk to the doorway. “Damn. It’s dark out there. I wish I knew how to do that spell properly; we could use the light.”

Rand was suddenly beside him. “I think I can help with that.”

He raised one hand, index finger vertical. From the tip, a small thunderbolt erupted and sat hovering there, spilling erratic but very intense light into the surrounding subterranean landscape. “Neat, huh?”

“Where’d you learn that?”

“No where. I just didn’t cast the entire spell. To get rid of it, I just say or think the part of the spell I cast, backward. Erases the spell.”

“Cool.”

They wandered out into the darkness, and into a world that boggled the mind.

*****

Ray had gone off with Nina to discuss magic spells and the magic he’d given her. Ryu was a little nervous and feeling slightly territorial about the windian girl, so his mind was on other things when Katt cornered him on the second floor of the apartment building.

“Hey Ryu.” Katt called to him as he was walking down the hall. He’d been headed downstairs to see if Bow was up for a game of checkers when she caught him. “You doing anything?”

He shrugged. “Not much. Just looking for a checkers partner.”

“I have a better idea.” Katt told him, eyes alight with michevious energy. “Wanna have a rematch?”

“Rematch?” Ryu asked, confused. What rematch?

“For Coursair.” She replied, hands on her hips. “I wanna challenge you to a rematch. I think I can beat you now.”

Ryu smirked. “Really. Even with my Dragon Powers, you’d challenge me?”

“Yeah. I would.” Katt frowned. He sure was confident in his abilities. Just like Coursair. Didn’t he ever get doubts? “I’m learning to control the power that caused that blast in the arena. But I need to test it. And I want to test your strength as well.”

“I won’t use my Dragon Powers if we fight.” He inclined his head downward slightly, to add menace. “You understand that. . .”

“I’m not going to hold back.” Katt threatened. “The only thing that may save you is your Dragon powers. If you don’t want to use them, that’s your perogative. I’ve picked up a few new tricks that will be a huge surprise to you.”

“Fine. Then I accept your challenge.” He turned slightly and gave a dramatic stage bow. “Shall we find a suitable battlefield?”

Katt smiled and walked past him towards the stairs.

***

“. . . So, how did you come to be in St. Eva?” Nina asked Ray as they walked along. The subject of magic had long passed, and they got on to talking about how they met Ryu, and finally, their pasts. She cast an approving look up and down him. “You certainly don’t seem to be the kind of guy to be a priest.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You seem more like one of the palace knights in Windia, or a Ranger like Ryu.” Nina replied. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

“Well, let’s see. . .” Ray thought hard, trying to remember the earliest years of his life. Strange; he’d never really given it much thought. “I never knew who my parents were. The earliest memories I have are of the St. Eva church’s orphanage on Evrai. Father Habaruku took me in and taught me everything I know. I was made an adept at age ten, and a Paladin three years ago. Youngest of the Paladins. And you know the rest.”

“Oh.” Nina seemed mildly disappointed. Ray’s eyebrow went up.

“Were you expecting something?”

“No. . . Not really.” She paused for a second. “It’s just that, you and Ryu seem so similar. And he’s a Dragon, so I was wondering if you were one as well."

***

“This looks like a good spot.” Katt said when they reached a clearing deep in the surrounding forest. She gazed around at it, and nodded approvingly. It was now Tagwood beam, but it would do. “Let’s fight here.”

Ryu too, looked around, surveying the territory. Meeting his satisfaction, he took up a position some twenty feet away from Katt. He unsheathed his new Murasame and look ed over at Katt. “Let’s get it on.”

“Couldn’t have put it better myself.” Katt licked her lips in anticipation. She pulled out the collapsed battlestaff and pressed the activation switch. In either direction, two feet of metal telescoped out with lightning speed. It felt weird to be wearing heavy armour like that, but she would have to get used to it. The shoulder guards might provide better protection than her tunic and brass ringlets, but it was going to cut down on her movement. She also extended the knuckle claws in her gloves.

Across the field, Ryu was thinking similar thoughts about his own, brand-spanking new armour. Holding his lightweight sword, he realized he’d have to purchase some vials of potion or perhaps a few handleless throwing daggers to fill the slots on the inner cuff of the gauntlets he had. And the vest was somewhat bulky, but quite stylish, he had to admit. A sudden image of the Dark Knight of king Arthur legends flit through his head, and he smiled.

Cool.

Simultaneously they rushed at each other, weapons clashing, just as they had the first time in the arena. This time, however, they didn’t spring back to more suitable distance. Katt spun Ryu’s sword aside and jabbed out with the flat end of her staff. He inverted the sword and deflected it, and threw a left hook, connecting with her shoulder guard. Katt rolled back with the hit, going into a self-initiated backflip, her tail catching ryu below his chin and kncking him off his feet.

Even as he fell, she was back on her feet, and then into the air. Ryu looked up at her, and saw a fierce wavefront of electrical energy collect around her extended right leg, right before she rushed down at him with unnatural speed. He quickly rolled aside, and Katt’s surprising new move impacted into the space where he had been, throwing dirt clods and dust high into the air.

“What the hell was that?!” Ryu exclaimed, sitting up a short distance from the blast ring. His jaw was dropped with amazement. Katt was still kneeling in the hole, knee slightly buried in the ground where it had hit.

She stood up and gave him a cruel grin. “I told you I was mastering my powers. I learned from Nina how to channel that power into moves. I call that one ‘Lightning Strike’. What do you think?”

Ryu stood up. “Pretty good. I’ve been working on moves with Ray. I have a few new tricks as well. You wanna see one?”

Katt’s smile remained. “Sure. I’ll see if I can dodge them.”

Ryu drew back into a fighter’s stance. One hand was foreward in front of him, palm front, index and middle fingers vertical, the rest curled. “Check this one out. It’s called ‘Spirit Blast’.”

As soon as he said it, the air in front of his hand rippled and shot off, an almost invisible shockwave of spirit energy. It was only visible in the sense that it warped the air around it, giving it a sort of carnival mirror look to it. Katt barely had time to cross her arms in front of her as a shield and to plant her feet firmly in the ground before the blast reached her, ripping the ground up between them.

The blast knocked her back a few feet, but not off her feet, as she was already on the offense. With another flying leap and a Lightning Strike, she was upon him, knocking him off his feet and landing on his chest.

Ryu found himself staring up at the down-pointed battlestaff’s tip. Behind it, Katt sat on his chest, a grin still on her face.

“Surrender?”

“Okay, okay. . . You win. You’re better than me.” Ryu conceded. “Just. . . get that stick outta my face.”

Katt complied, putting the collapsed staff back in its hook on the back of her belt. But she didn’t get up. She just sat with that same grin on her face, staring down at him.

“Um, you can get up now. . .” Ryu pointed out. Katt shook her head.

“Not just yet.” She replied, leaning foreward until they were face to face. Her short hair hung about her face, long enough to brush Ryu’s cheek and forehead. “I showed you just one of my moves, Ryu.”

She leaned in and whispered, “I’d like to show you my other moves, though. . .”

And the world faded away once again, just like during Katt’s scarf dance in the pub. Ryu let go of his reservations and responded to her affection with his own.

***

“Man oh MAN!” Rand exclaimed, voice echoing through the massive underground chamber. They had found their way through corridors and vertical shafts of strange machinery and metals, only to emerge in an overhang above a massive. . . place. “How big is this place anyway?”

It could not correctly be called a room, as no walls were visible even in the glaring light of Rand’s miniature thunderbolt. It extended in all directions into a seemingly infinite void, but had to end someplace, because a floor was connected to it, some twenty meters down. That floor, to which both men descended via a metal ladder that linked the underhang to it, was covered in mysterious mechanical devices; mountains of machinery, bigger than the massive Rand, extended into the far reachs of the unbelievably large chamber, fading into the darkness beyond the diminuitive sphere of ambient light of the thunderbolt.

Once on the chamber’s metal and stone floor, Sten was again assailed by half remembered images of his home town. He brushed his hand across the nearest machine/mountain, as if to draw some sudden inspiration from it through his hand. What was this place? Why did it remind him of home?

“So. . . what do you think this place is?” Rand asked, stretching his long neck to see if he could make out something on the horizon. The place was so big, it actually had a horizon.

“I have no clue, big guy. . .” Sten replied, turning away from the machine and shrugging. “I say we keep going. Maybe there’s some way outta here.”

“Yeah, but we keep going down. We need to go up.” Rand was pointing out when a strange noise reached their ears. It was like a hum, or a whistle, but wasn’t really either. But it was getting closer.

As the sound began to increase in volume, both of them began to step back, away from the noise.

“Uh, Rand?”

“Sten?”

“Let’s go. . . that way.” Sten hooked a thumb directly behind them. Opposite of where the sound was reaching them. “Fast.”

“Yeah.” No sooner had Rand said that when a something floated out from behind the nearest machine mountain. A definite something.

“Wha-?” Rand could only mumble, his jaw dropping at the sight of the strange thing. It was about the size of a refrigerator, roughly spherical, but completely alien. It looked like a disembodied eyeball, it’s eyelids and body made up of seemingly sagging, wrinkled, diseased skin. A yellow-red iris gazed out dully beneath the aged lids. Beneath it hung vestigal limbs, like irregular length, disgusting, suckerless tentacles. As it drifted closer, Sten could make out tiny little servoes and mechanisms spinning and shifting within the folds of the ancient skin. This alien thing was apparently part machine and part living being.

“I-is it going to attack?” Sten asked fearfully. His voice apparently triggered it. The floating Eye-thing spun in his direction and unleashed a bolt of red light from its single orb that burnt a wide spot at his feet. “Aah! Let’s get the hell outta here!”

They turned tail and ran, the Eye following them at a safe distance; beyond their fighting distance, but not beyond its eye-beam. As they ran, Rand looked back, only to find two more orbs had joined the first one in pursuit. Apparently, the first Eye had called two more to deal with these intruders. Great. Just Great.

The two men tried splitting up, to give themselves a better chance at survival, but the new orbs went after Rand, and the first orb chased Sten. Round and round mountains of machinery, strange pillars of stone embossed with metal circuits; No shots had been fired besides that first, terrible shot, but Sten wasn’t risking it to confront the orb, and neither was Rand.

Eventually, they were both herded back together and chased down a straightaway lined by empty glass cylinders on either wall. At the very end was a very tough looking metal door, cross-hatched in an X by seams. As they ran at it, it split open and the parts retracted into the floor, ceiling and walls.

“Looks *huff* like they want *wheeze* us to go in there!” Rand hollered, both arms pumping and his proportionally smaller legs wheeling beneath him. Sten was too out of breath to say anything, only managing to nod as he chuffed and puffed, running flat out. Again, he regretted being a Highlander; they just weren’t built for running.

They both dove through the open gateway at the same moment, skidding across the metal deckplates, Rand producing sparks and leaving a mark on the metal where his armoured back had skimmed the surface. Sten was almost automatically back on his feet, staring back at the door in readiness.

Sure enough, the Eyes were there, but they didn’t continue past the door frame. Instead, they gazed in at the two defenseless men for a few seconds, and then turned and drifted back into the darkness. That’s when the door began to close.

“Hey! No!” Sten leapt for the door, but it was too late. The door came together with a metallic clang, with Sten following with his own loud clang as he hit it full throttle. He bounced off the closed door, but was back again, banging on it with his fists. No use. “Damn. I think we were forced here by those things. What now?”

“I dunno.” Rand said getting up and looking around. It was a smaller room; many times smaller than the miles wide chamber surrounding it. Near as Rand could tell, the big room outside was eiher a big square, or a semi-circle. The door which they had just jumped through was along a flat wall, so Rand couldn’t tell which. Somewhere, in his mind, he knew it was a semi-circle, and that somewhere beyond the room they were in now, on the other side of a similar door, was probably another massive semi-circle. Thinking about the shape reminded him of something he had read about once, but couldn’t remember. Something legendary. Oh, well. Maybe it would come to him later.

With nothing better to do, they began to inspect the room they were in. It was about the size of the main floor of the apartment building on the surface. And just as he’d suspected, Rand found another quad-petal door directly across the room from the one that closed on them. It too, was closed and locked down; he supposed that even his massive fists could dent that metal enough for him to pry the doors apart.

“Hey Randy-boy!” Sten called from the center of the room. He was staring at the floor, at a strange design feature. “Check this out.”

“What is it?” Rand asked, coming up beside him and kneeling to get a good look. It appeared to be a perfectly smooth panel of onyx, or black glass. He reached out and ran his hand across it. Then snatched it back as a whirring filled the air, emanating form the floor. “Crap! Is it another weapon? A defense?”

“I. . . don’t think so. . .” Sten said, as the panel began to move. It rose up to just about Sten’s eyelevel, making it waist level for a normal human, on a stylized mechanical pedastal with strange oval shaped devices on either side, flusk with the metal. Those oval things snapped out like a pair of wings, and rotated on pivots towards Sten, who was at the front of the pedastal. A panel on the point nearest to Sten on both ovals slid back to reveal a set of five notches, with small spherules in the apex of the notches. They looked like places to put one’s hands.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Rand asked, alarmed, as Sten hesitantly put his hands over the notches, and then slid his fingers into them. “What if it bites your hands off?”

Sten grimaced a bit as he shifted his simian hands around in the notches, pressing the spherules with his fingers. None of them appeared to move. “Nothing is moving. . . I think it’s broken.”

Then his right index finger slid back in the slot a bit and pressed a hidden hemisphere on the inside of the slot. Another sound filled the air; this one a slithering, clanking noise from somewhere up and in front of them. Naturally, Sten retracted his hands sharply from the holders, which snapped back against the pedastal.

“Oh great. Now you did it.” Rand grumbled, balling his fists and waiting for an attack.

“C’mon, I didn’t know.”

From the darkness above them came the impression of tentacles, or whips or something. They tensed up as it lowered itself from the ceiling and settled into a slot in the wall, its tentacles revealing themselves to be simply power cords and coolant pipes. The thing itself resembled a coffin, with power leads snaking out in all directions from the border of the clear lid and into the walls, ceiling and floor. Once it settled into the niche in the wall, everything stopped moving. The lid slid open revealling a padded interior and detailed by unusual circular indentations.

After a few minutes of lack of movement, Rand and Sten stopped waiting for an Eye assault.

“Well THAT was sort of underwhelming.”

Rand raised an eyebrow. “Let’s just concentrate on finding an exit.”

A tone sounded, and a feminine voice said, “Exit; Command confirmed.”

“Wha?”

They had backed away from the pedastal as soon as the coffin-thing had begun to move into place, and had ended up near the opposite wall. Now, below them, the floor panels seemed different; not like the others in the room. Suddenly, light flared around the edges of the panel, and the whole section shot up, with them, into a shaft that opened in the ceiling.

“Oh SHIIII---!!!” The two men cried out in fear as they accelerated upward.

***

Niro was in the den/ready room, putting some books in a bookcase when, for some reason, a tremor began. It grew fiercer and fiercer, forcing him to cling to the bookcase. There was no one else around, but he cried out in terror anyway.

“What’s going on?!!”

Along with the tremor came the sound of two men yelling, their voices gaining in volume as they apparently got closer. Suddenly, there was an explosion by the east wall that blew the floor out and knocked Niro across the room. When the smoke and dust cleared, he found himself staring at Rand and Sten, who were standing stunned on a patch of metal flooring. From the look on their faces, and the condition of their clothes and the fact that there were bits and pieces of floor on their heads, he could only assume they had come up through the floor. Rand was worse for wear; he was taller, and had taken the brunt of the impact.

“Where did you two come from?!” Niro demanded. Sten just blinked while Rand pitched foreward, flat-out cold.

***

At about the same time Sten and Rand had been herded into the small room meters below the soil, Ryu and Katt had been coming back from their ‘training session’, with Ryu’s arm around Katt’s waist as they walked. They hadn’t said anything since they left the clearing, but they both had a peaceful, content smile on their faces.

They had just about reached the new Cafe that had been built when Nina and Ray stepped out, joking and laughing, and generally having a good ole time. As soon as the two couples saw each other, the smiles on their faces became slightly strained.

Why is Nina so happy around Ray, when she’s so cool and detached around me? Ryu wondered jealously.

Why’s Ryu staring at her like that?! Katt thought, anger slowly rising. She consoled herself by looking Ray over; to make Ryu jealous. That would be just perfect.

Conversely, Nina and Ray had thoughts of their own. Nina saw Ryu’s arm hooked around Katt’s waist, and felt a pang of jealousy and hurt. Is there something between them? She thought.

Ray saw the same thing, but also noticed Katt looking at him oddly. Uh. . . why is she looking at me so hard? He quickly glanced down at himself to see if perhaps a spot of mustard from that sandwich he’d eaten had dripped on his white priestly garments. Nope. No stain. So what is she looking at? . . . Oh! Me!

No one said anything for a while. The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

Finally, Nina licked her lips and directed a question at Ryu. “So. . .Where have you two been.”

The blue-haired teen and the red-haired girl exchanged a look. “We were training. What about you two? What were you doing?”

“We just had lunch.” Ray answered matter-of-factly.

Again, a deafening silence. That silence, however, was shattered quite quickly by an explosion in the apartment building. With a collective “What the--?!” everyone rushed to see what happened.

Inside, they would find the devastation created by Rand and Sten’s ‘exit’.

*****

“. . . And that’s what happened. . .” Sten finished telling Ryu. The blue-haired teen leaned back in his chair, disbelieving. He had to admit, he’d never heard an excuse as elaborate as that. But in a way, it DID explain the rubble and the new metal floor at one end of the den. And it did explain why Rand was recuperating from a concussion in his room.

“So, let me get this straight. . .” The carpenter Ribabu said slowly, leaning foreward across the table. “There’s a machine under the town.”

“Yes.”

“A big one.”

“Yes.”

“One so big, you couldn’t even tell its size.”

“Yes.”

“And your conservative estimate based on what you saw?”

Sten took a deep breath, preparing to deliver the massive assumption. “Based on the limited things I could see, and the fact that we were somewhere around a quarter way across it, I’d have to say. . . at least two kilometers.”

A murmur swept through the room. Ribabu’s workers looked at each other nervously, and Ryu caught Nina whispering conspiritorally to Katt about something, who shrugged and shook her head. He was pretty sure what she whispered was the same thing that was going through everyone’s mind. Who built a machine that huge? Why? Where are they? What is it? Who? When?. . .

Talk had seemed to die down, so Ryu changed the topic by turning in his seat to Ribabu. “So, how’s the Unity Room coming?”

Ribabu blinked, and then realized what Ryu was asking. “Oh! The Unity Room is almost complete. You won’t believe how much scrap is just laying a few feet below the surface. We hardly need to build it; almost everything we need is already provided.”

“What about power? From what Granny told me earlier, that thing needs a pretty big source of energy.” Ryu asked.

“Well, if this machine that Sten says is below the town is legit, I think we can tap into its power supply. Either that, or install an engine or turbine or something that we remove from this Machine. Who knows?”

Ryu stood up and stretched. Sten had been talking for hours about the hour-long escapade that he and the Shell Clanner upstairs had been doing down there, and it was late now. “I don’t know about anyone else, but if there’s nothing more happening, I’m going to bed.”

As he started for the stairs, Ribabu caught his shoulder. “What about this Machine? What do we do about it?”

Ryu shrugged. “I don’t care. Ignore it. None of us understands machinery very well. Maybe when we go to the other continent in a few days, we’ll be luck enough to find someone who does.”

Then he was up the stairs and out of earshot.

*****

The next two days passed without anything major. Life went on as everyone waited for the boat to return to Capitan. Katt, Nina, and Sanamo would go on shopping trips to Capitan, and the town Ryu’s guild came from. On one such visit, Nina decided to check her mail at the Magic School, and have the address changed. In her mailbox was a letter from Mina. It read:

Dear Nina;

How is your journey going? Mother is fine, and so is Father, but they still don’t talk about you. It’s strange, but I think they are afraid. Anyhow, some interesting things have happened in the last few days. Interesting, and strange:

Do you remember that ex-soldier in the castle laybrinth’s dungeon? The one named Coleman? Well, I convinced Daddy to reinstate him, and I had him made my personal guardian. You know I lost my trusty guard when I was kidnapped by that gang, right? (By the way, send Katt and Ryu my love and thanks. I hope Ryu catches the thief that framed Bow. Tell him I say good luck.) Coleman has proven himself worthy as a knight. He protects me daily, and stands outside my door each night, pretending to be serious, but I know he’s beaming with happiness inside. He’s the best knight I’ve known. I wish we had more like him.

A St.Eva missionary Paladin named Ray stopped in the day before I (we) returned to Windia. Apparantly, he was well-recieved by the King and Queen, and I know my courtiers and handmaidens are still sighing aobut him. I hope you meet up with him. He said he was going to Capitan. He left one of his missionaries here, Father Rohmer. Very strange man. For a priest, Rohmer seems unusually cold and strict. He strikes me as a person who would do almost anything to make people believe in St. Eva. Militant, or zealous, perhaps even fanatical aobut his beliefs. Father talks with Rohmer daily, and attends prayer, but the priest doesn’t seem happy with just that. I wonder what he wants?

I found a new room in the castle today. No one knows what it is used for, but we have two soldiers there anyway. For some reason, it’s a great place to use magic. The air is practiaclly vibrating with it.

I hope you come home soon, dear sister. I miss you deeply.

Yours truly,

Mina Windia (Prncss)

 

 

Chapter Six: Heh Heh … Nympho … Heh Heh …