The sounds of the forest filled the air, a very common sound on the lush planet of Lunar. Birds sang high in the tree tops as animals moved about through the underbrush, looking about warily for monsters while enjoying the bounty of mushrooms, berries, and other edibles that grew in the vegetation.
Dyne walked through the forest towards his home, brooding in silence about what had happened at Alex and Luna's house.
Above Dyne, Ghaleon stalked in the shadows, a little disheartened and uneasy. He leapt easily from branch to branch, trying to remain as quiet as possible. He drew his sword as he edged closer, forcing himself to keep control over his emotions. He didn't like the idea, but knew he had no choice and getting emotional over the situation would help him little.
Dyne sighed as he thought of Ghaleon and wondered what happened to him. He hadn't seen Ghaleon in a long time; even when Alex and the others had fought Ghaleon, Dyne never saw him. The fact that Ghaleon was now out for his blood was disheartening, though very realistic given the circumstances of Ghaleon's death.
Ghaleon darted up to the top a tree, nimble and quick, and followed Dyne with his sword out.
Ghaleon's plan was simple but brilliant. He knew exactly where the two rings were; Aika had been foolish to assume that he had been telling the truth when he said he didn't, which hinted at just how inexperienced she was despite the pose and chatter.
The two rings, Hope and Faith, were gifts to Dyne and Ghaleon respectively from Althena herself; they were no doubt saturated with Althena's power. When Ghaleon had lost his faith, he had also taken care of the ring itself. Unwilling to simply destroy it in spite of everything that had happened, the ring was instead hidden away in a very safe place so that he would never have to think about it again.
As for Dyne, Ghaleon knew that the idiot would never have parted with the ring that Althena herself had given him; the last reminder of Althena herself that belonged to him and him alone. Ghaleon imagined Dyne still pined over the Goddess with it, despite the fact that the charm of Althena's infinite beauty was no doubt gone.
All Ghaleon had to do was subdue Dyne through any means possible, take his ring, fetch the other one, and destroy them both with Aika none the wiser. He imagined the fiend had some ways of tracking him, but when she realized what he intended to do, it would be too late. Ghaleon was not afraid to die or face any forms of punishment that Aika would lay out for him, nor did he have any qualms with dispatching Dyne. This was for the sake of the future; without the rings, it would only be a matter of time before Aika failed once again.
Besides, it wasn't as if he still had feelings for the former Dragonmaster.
Ghaleon stopped and crouched in a treetop, peering down at the former Dragonmaster as his expression darkened slightly.
He did not blame Althena anymore for what had happened. It was a well-known fact that her beauty was so over-powering that anyone who gazed upon her fell hopelessly in love. Ghaleon suppposed that Althena had as much desire to have countless airheaded, lovesick fools as she would to having her eyes torn out. It was not her fault that any man who looked upon her would be forever haunted by the vision, ruining all chance of a relationship as well as destroying any pre-existing ones; it was not as if she were actively trying to do so. She had to be reborn before she herself could find someone who loved her for who she was instead of what she was.
No, it was not Althena's fault.
It was that stupid Dekke-head's fault for looking at her when he had been warned repeatedly not to.
Not that Ghaleon was bitter.
Ghaleon stopped atop a limb outstretched high above Dyne, his movements quiet. He narrowed his eyes as he gripped his sword, preparing himself for he was about to do.
"This... is for the future." he thought, his expression serious.
Dyne paused as he heard rustling and glanced around slowly, his hand slipping to his sword hilt automatically. Ghaleon tensed, glowering as he held his sword at the ready. Dyne kept looking around for the source of the noise, tense and wary of an attack.
Ghaleon narrowed his eyes, then lunged at Dyne. He brought his sword about in a slicing manner, expecting to slice Dyne neatly in half. However, Dyne almost instinctively dodged the lunge. Ghaleon was more than a little surprised as he landed, hitting the ground, but ended up slipping on the leaves due to the force of his lunge and tumbled in to the water.
Dyne whirled about, drawing his sword and getting into a ready stance in one swift motion just as Ghaleon slowly stood up out of the river, dripping wet and feeling less than dignified despite his attempt to appear so.
"...-!? Ghaleon!?" Dyne stared.
Ghaleon said nothing as he pulled a fish out of his cloak and dropped it in the water, his expression forcibly neutral. Apparently his body was still getting over the whole 'dead' thing.
Dyne lowered his sword, a look of sadness with a hint of something else crossing his features. "Ghaleon..."
Ghaleon backed away, scowling. "...You won't be so lucky next time."
Dyne took a step forward and raised his hand towards Ghaleon. "Ghaleon, wait!"
Ghaleon turned on his heels and bolted before Dyne could get too close, obviously disturbed by Dyne's presence.
"Ghaleon, wait!" Dyne repeated, taking a few more steps. However, Ghaleon was already gone.
Nightstar grunted heavily as he landed in a large field, his four wings flapping about to help him balance.
"Are you okay, Nightstar?" Yuki asked once they had landed, letting go so that she could flutter in front of Nightstar's head.
Nightstar nodded, though he flinched ever so slightly before shifting into his human form.
Yuki grimaced as she noticed the flinch and shifted to human form to stand before Nightstar. As a baby her abilities were limited to minor healing, although mostly on herself, while her healing powers were stronger as a human. Despite how the change drained more of her lowered energy, she knew that she had to try to help Nightstar.
However, Nightstar seemed to sense Yuki's intention and backed away slightly. "It's nothing."
"But you flinched..." Yuki said as she started to approach the Black Dragon. "You need healing..."
Nightstar backed away again, fumbling ever so slightly as he twisted, displaying thick blood oozing down his hips. It had a rather sickening tint to it, an unnatural shade of purple mixed in with the red.
"Nightstar!" Yuki gasped, her eyes widening in horror at the sight of the blood. "You're bleeding!" She quickly tried to get closer, determined more now than ever to heal him.
"It's nothing..." Nightstar muttered, looking away as he used one hand to cover his injury. "I gave Aika something worse than she gave me... Besides, it was just a lucky blow."
"You still need healing..." Yuki said gently as she raised her hands over Nightstar's. "Here... I have enough energy left that I think I can help..."
"Don't," Nightstar grunted. "It's not important and you need your energy..."
"It is important," Yuki insisted. "You refuse to use the Althena statues, and we don't have any healing items on us. If Aika comes after us again, you'll need all your strength!"
Nightstar paused, then huffed and looked away. "...Then I'll just go insane on her like Papa." His voice didn't seem sarcastic at all, almost resigned.
Yuki looked at Nightstar for a moment then sighed softly. "...You're not insane, Nightstar... You just... got mad before..." She looked back down at the wound, still greatly troubled by the earlier incident, but she couldn't hold anything against Nightstar.
Nightstar set his jaw, then shrugged before letting out a sharp gasp as the action aggravated the wound. "...S-same thing..."
Yuki glanced at Nightstar a moment before returning her attention to the wound. Softly she started to chant under her breath as her hands began to glow over the wound and hand.
Nightstar flinched slightly, then sighed as he felt the wound heal, though not entirely. He removed his hand to look at the blood, mildly thankful the injury wasn't bleeding so profusely anymore. "...Were you afraid of me...?"
Yuki panted slightly as she wiped away beads of sweat from her forehead. She had used up the last of her magical energy in healing the black dragon as best she could. She then blinked and looked up at Nightstar, pausing for a moment at what he had said. "...No," she sighed softly. "It was just..." She looked away as she thought about it. "...I didn't expect you and Ruby to do what you did... that you'd fight family..."
Nightstar refused to look at Yuki, wiping the blood off his hands on to the grass. "...I'm not a very comforting or welcome presence, it would seem."
Yuki shook her head violently at that. "No, that's not what I mean!" she protested. "I was confused... and just wanted some time to think! Everything just happened so fast... and... this is nothing like how the stories said what happens to the heroes, so I... I just got confused...!"
"...They're just stories, Yuki," Nightstar sighed. "They're supposed to glorify things. The truth is, the people they sing about are far from it... they're like everyone else. They got mad, they got dirty, and some even got drunk."
"Oh... I see..." Yuki muttered, idly wondering what drinking something had to do with anything, but quickly dropped that thought.
Nightstar grunted and dusted himself off. "...It was a mistake to ever leave my lair... I'm just causing trouble... I wonder if that's what I originally planned to do in the first place?"
"...No it wasn't," Yuki said softly. "...If not for you... Aika would have me too..."
Nightstar didn't know how to respond to that, so he said nothing. He sat down slowly and massaged his forehead.
Yuki sat down next to Nightstar, scooting close to the black dragon. "And... if you didn't leave... I'd never have met you..." she said softly before she reached out to hug her companion.
Nightstar glanced at Yuki, then sighed and buried his face in his hands. "I don't know what to think..."
"...Neither did I after the fight..." Yuki said softly as she leaned against Nightstar. "...I still don't, really, but... I at least know now that we need each other... and that we need help..."
Nightstar closed his eyes, sighing. He supposed there was no point in denying it, as even Aika observed it; he was exactly like his father. Normally, he would have felt flattered, but there was still the matter that his father had lost his mind. Apparently, Nightstar's mind was just as gone; only, he was in denial over it.
Yuki seemed to sense Nightstar's mood and snuggled in closer to the black dragon, resting her head on her companion's shoulder. Nightstar twitched slightly, then shook his head.
"Let's just... spend the night here and go see Papa tomorrow," Nightstar muttered. He rather wanted to go see his father immediately, but he was in a lot more pain than he let Yuki realize; his muscles were screaming at him and his side ached despite being healed. It almost felt like the wound was tearing itself open again. He had a feeling that he'd faint before they arrived at the cave.
"Okay," Yuki nodded, her eyes half closed. She was exhausted, emotionally, physically, and spiritually due to the earlier events. "I'll get our camping stuff out."
Nightstar simply nodded, lowering his head as he unconsciously placed his hand over his injury again.
After a bit of fumbling around in her pocket dimension, Yuki removed the desired equipment then blinked as she belatedly noticed the action. She made a face, feeling guilty about her friend being so injured, especially when it was her fault. "Does it still hurt bad?" she asked with concern, setting the sleeping bags and such down.
"No," came Nightstar's reply, far too quickly.
The blue dragon frowned at that. "You're lying," she pointed out, trying not to pout and failing.
"This looks like a good spot to set up camp," Nightstar muttered, attempting to change the subject quickly.
Yuki huffed at the change of topic. "You need more treatment. We should find an Althena statue or at least a town right away."
"I don't need anything, thanks." Nightstar grunted.
"You do need treatment even if you say you don't." Yuki crossed her arms and gave her friend her best attempt at a stern look, despite her fatigue. "I'm not gonna just stand here and let you suffer when it's my fault."
"I'm not suffering," Nightstar grunted. "It was a lucky shot."
Yuki made a frustrated sound and tried to figure out how to counter the black dragon's stubbornness. The fact that her people skills weren't very developed coupled with her extreme fatigue didn't help matters.
"Can we just drop it?" Nightstar sighed. He didn't want to bother with his injury anymore; despite what Yuki may have thought, the black dragon knew it was his fault for chasing her off in the first place.
Yuki suddenly got a determined look on her face as she stepped closer to Nightstar. "After I do this," she said in her best commanding voice as she held her hands out over the black dragon's wound and concentrated on converting her physical energy into magical energy so she could try to heal the wound completely. It may have been a foolish action, but she was determined to make up her mistakes to her friend and repay him for helping her.
"S-Stop!" Nightstar attempted to scramble away, hissing slightly. "You need to conserve your energy!"
"Not until I've helped you," Yuki grunted, the strain of forcing her magic despite exhaustion evident in her expression. As she noticed Nightstar moving away she barely managed to lunge forward and snatch up his belt in a death grip with one hand as the remaining hand over his wound started to glow with a sparking light.
"Stop it!" Nightstar struggled to get away, grimacing as his body screamed at him. However, he felt the glow start to creep in to his body despite his strugglings. "I don't need any help! Stop before you pass out!"
"I don't care," Yuki returned through gritted teeth, beads of sweat trickling down her skin as her muscles tensed from the strain. "It's my fault so I need to fix it!"
"It's my fault, blast it all!" Nightstar thundered as he struggled to get away, even attempting to remove his belt. "It's not your fault and you don't need to fix it!"
Yuki's only response was a grunt as she switched her grip to Nightstar's pants, determined not to let go until she completely healed him or she passed out trying, whichever came first.
"H-HEY-!" Nightstar's eyes widened drastically before he instead switched tactics to grab Yuki's wrists and hold them at bay. He wasn't about to remove his pants, after all.
However, it seemed that the idea came too late as just as the black dragon took a hold of the blue haired girl's wrists, the glow faded away and she let out a shaky breath, the wound apparently completely gone.
"D-damn," Nightstar grunted. He could feel the injury disappear, thanks to Yuki's spell. However, he couldn't help but shake a dull pain and nausea that filled his very core like a seeping poison.
Yuki looked up at Nightstar, her eyes half closed with a heavy glaze to them. "You're... my best friend... Nightstar..." she said, giving her best smile despite how weak it looked.
The blue dragon then promptly passed out.
"...Yuki..." Nightstar blinked slowly, then yelped and lunged to catch the blue dragon. "YUKI!"
The black dragon grunted as he looked down at the unconscious blue dragon, then sighed. "I told you not to..."
Nightstar shook his head slowly before he laid Yuki down, then set about preparing the tent so that she could have somewhere comfortable to rest until she woke up. As he worked, the black dragon glanced at his young friend.
"I told you... not to. Not for me..."