The Dragon Tribe of Althena, consisting of the oldest creatures on the moon, the guardians of Lunar and supposedly the strongest beings in the world, was worried. The four sat in a small circle in the darkness of the Forest of Illusion, staring into the campfire which provided their only source of illumination. The thick overgrowth of the woods blocked any light that might have reflected from the Blue Star and the smaller and farther stars in the sky. Jia's crest had been taken, despite their best attempts to protect it. They had discussed plans of action, but no one could agree on anything and only Jia held her patience together well enough to hear any single idea through. After many false starts and broken words, things quieted as the four each drifted into their own thoughts.
Nall was confused. He had always known Ruby cared about him, but the afternoon's events left him unable to comprehend what had happened. They had been buddies, ragging on each other at every little opportunity. But what if it was something more? What if those sharp words existed only to hide the feelings beneath?
Ruby lay there next to him, staring into the fire. What was she thinking? Was she closer to him than she needed to be? Turning his head, he looked to the other members of his tribe, of his family. Jia hadn't seemed regretful of her decision for an instant. She had protested that his life was more important than her power, or as she had said, "all the power in the world". He wasn't all that sure. Twyla had called him a failure, and he hadn't done anything to disprove her. He was the leader of the Dragon Tribe, and through his leadership they had all lost their crests. What could he have done differently? Could he have done anything differently? He shook his head. Now was not the time for worries about his relationship with Ruby or any "could have beens". The past was done. He felt a new strength growing in him.
Nall stood, feeling slightly self conscious because of his missing fur, and lifted his head high above his shoulders. He cleared his throat and fluffed what he could of his wings to get the others' attention.
"Listen," he said. "We can't dwell on what has happened. Instead we must try and make the best of the situation. We do have one piece of information, and we've got to ply it for all its worth. Currently our only lead is that this Twyla has been studying magic, so we should check the magic guild in Vane for any records of her."
He looked over the others, almost expecting a retort. No one argued. Jia nodded approvingly and Ebony looked away and scratched at a spot on his left flank. Ruby had been quiet ever since the battle this afternoon, and did not even lift her head away from the flames. Nall opened his mouth to order Ruby to come with him to Vane, and slowly shut it again. He felt particularly vulnerable in his current less than completely furred state and he figured both he and Ruby could use time apart to think.
Nall curled his long neck so that he could face the black dragon. "Ebony, you and Ruby go to Vane to get the information. I'll stay here with Jia. She shouldn't be moving around when her power could be taken at any time."
Ruby suddenly glanced up at him, perhaps suspecting his motives for separating them. But she said not a word of protest and inclined her head slightly.
"All right," she said quietly. "It'll be dawn soon, and none of us are going to get any sleep anyway. We might as well get on with it."
Ebony nodded his agreement, standing and stretching in a feline manner.
"Will you be all right, Jia?" he asked quietly, turning towards her.
She met his eyes easily with a weary yet serene gaze. "Nall will be here. I'll be fine."
Ebony twined his tail with hers momentarily, then looked over to Ruby.
"You ready?"
"Yea, let's get this over with."
The two dragons contrasted sharply in the night as they launched themselves for the tree cover. One was dark enough to disappear into it, and the other a reddish pink bright enough to burn with its own light. They passed through the darkness to the sky above, and quickly were lost from the sight of the two dragons remaining on the ground.
Jia turned away from the forest ceiling and looked to Nall, who settled himself back down and had every appearance of planning on returning to brooding. She sighed, feeling the need to do something the least bit constructive. Her magic might vanish at any moment and she wanted to make the most of what was left. She had already attempted to track her crest, but can not sense a thing. It had been that way with the other dragons. Perhaps now though. Perhaps Twyla's guard would lower. The woman was strong but even she should not be able to maintain powerful magic for hours on end, especially magic powerful enough to block a searching dragon. Taking a deep breath, Jia resolved to try again. It could not hurt, and she didn't like feeling useless. Nall might be willing to wait for something to happen, but she would not.
Closing her eyes, she reached out with her senses, searching for the item that had been bound to her since birth, bound to her power, to her very essence. Her mind met with blackness. She still couldn't... Wait. She sensed something in the darkness of the astral. Was that it? Was that her crest? She gathered her will, straining, pushing, to force her way through the murky barrier. There it was, she felt her crest. She reached for it. And it was gone. The blackness was uniform once more.
Jia opened her eyes momentarily then closed them again. Twyla must have felt her and shut her out. But she had a direction. She lifted her gaze to tell Nall of her discovery when a new presence burst on the scene. Jia swiveled her head to look at the newcomer curiously, but Nall groaned quietly with a self-pitying expression as the young blond woman looked them over.
"Wow! It's like, two dragons! Either of you wanna be my sidekick? All the cool heroes have a dragon sidekick, and of course, I'm cool!"
The woman appeared to be posing.
Jia shook her head, mystified, and asked politely, "Who might you be?"
"I'm Crystal, sorceress supreme!"
Nall rolled his eyes and muttered darkly.
Ruby strode up the steps to Vane in her human form, muttering about how much easier it would have been to just land there. Whoever decided to stabilize Vane's location after Ghaleon knocked it from the sky should've set the city's entrance closer to the ground!
"But then we don't really want all the attention we'd have attracted," piped a small voice in response to her barely intelligible griping.
Ruby glared at the small black winged form on her shoulder as she reached the top of the stairs. She leaned over, grasping a wooden rail as she paused to catch her breath.
"When are you going to learn how to turn into a human, anyway?" she asked between exhaling and inhaling. "You may be small, but you're not light!"
Her companion, looking to the rest of the world as nothing more than a curious flying cat, shook his small head. "I don't want to be a human," Ebony replied casually as he looked at the city before them. "Besides, you know you get a perverse pleasure from having someone ride your shoulder after you've had to ride others for so long."
Ruby just shook her head and likewise took in the scenery. Vane looked better and better these days. Though might not have returned to the sky, the buildings were in much better shape than when Ruby had come here with Hiro. Lemina had dedicated her life to restoring the historical foundations of the Magic Guild. After the defeat of Zophar, Vane received an influx of new students, and with the students came their money. Defeating Zophar had been a better advertising ploy than anything Lemina could have ever tried. These days, Vane was almost as grand as it used to be before it was shot from the sky over one thousand years ago.
"You just going to stare all day, or are we going to the mansion?"
Ruby scowled at Ebony so fiercely the grass on the ground shuddered. "You're almost as bad as Nall," she stated, marching forward into the town.
The black dragon made an indignant sound. "Yeah, well, I'm cuter!"
The two neared the mansion at a jarring pace, attracting attention from the townspeople Ruby didn't bother to avoid. Though a few bystanders wondered about the strange woman and her winged cat, most took a single look at her menacing face and knew to avoid her. However, just at the door to the Guildhall, they were approached by a young man in a red cloak, worn in the same style as most of Vane's apprentices. He stared, mystified, at Ebony for a moment and then turned to Ruby.
"Wow!" he drawled. "Cool familiar, did you make it yourself?"
"Huh?" Ruby glanced blankly at the man as he words registered and snapped her from her sour mood. "Oh that..." She smiled mischievously and nodded. "Yep, made it with my home chemistry set."
Ebony smacked her upside the head with a paw. "Cute, can we move on now?"
Ruby grinned, leaning conspiratorially over to the student. "He always gets cranky when I forget to buy kitty treats," she said in an exaggerated whisper.
The black dragon made a good show of his teeth as he snapped his reply. "At least I wasn't voted 'Most Likely to Cause a Major Forest Fire'!"
The man shook his head in bewilderment and took two steps back from the strange pair. "Uh... I really shout be going now. I uh... have to study for a test... yea..."
The man fled.
Ebony let out a sigh. "See, now you scared him off!"
Ruby firmly planted her hands on her hips. "Well, he certainly won't get very far in wizardhood if he can't handle a single freakish talking cat."
Ebony sniggered, joining Ruby in a good laugh. He was glad to have her as a friend, though they did argue and poke fun of each other, and they didn't have any of that nasty romantic tension between them that Ruby shared with Nall. Ebony suddenly stifled that thought on the off chance that Ruby would suddenly develop telepathy... He didn't want to end up looking like Nall did now.
Miana Ausa, guildmistress of Vane, smiled at the two unlikely visitors who graced her presence. "You wanted to see me?"
They sat in her modest office in the guild mansion. Though she rested in an elaborate chair on the other side on an imposing desk that occupied most of the room, she herself appeared neither lavish nor impressive. Miana was a woman in her early twenties and she shared the deep blue hair and pale delicate face of one of her ancestors, whom Ebony remembered vividly, but Ruby was too young to recall. Miana smiled at them in a friendly manner, but her eyes were sharp and knowing.
"It's not often I get visitors demanding to see me in such a flamboyant manner," said Miana.
"Well, we kind of need some he-" Ruby began.
"Information," Ebony cut in.
Ruby glanced at him, but Ebony wagged his head "no". He muttered quietly, "We can't let it get out that the Dragon Tribe is in trouble."
Ruby eyed Miana and hissed back to him, "She doesn't know who we..."
"What information does the Dragon Tribe require?" said Miana.
The red dragon looked over at Miana, slightly surprised, but also afraid that the guildmistress had overheard. "How did you know?" she asked.
Miana smiled again. "I do know the legends well enough to know what a 'winged cat' means, and I can sense the auras of your magical powers, though I have always thought they'd feel a little bit stronger."
Ruby laughed nervously. "Well uh... we're undercover and all. We can't let everyone know that the dragons are visiting Vane. But anyway, we're looking for some information on a person who might have been a member of the guild at one time."
Miana nodded slightly. "Of course. However, our records are a bit hectic at the moment. We're in the middle of getting them transferred to another building. It might take a lot of work."
"Great," Ebony grumbled, "just what I wanted to do all day, pour over dusty old books."
The guildmistress shook her head. "Don't worry, since it's for the Dragon Tribe, I'll put one of the classes on it. It'll give them good practice at reading records and after they're done they can carry the books to the new archives we've set up in the west wing. More importantly, what information do you have to work with?"
"Well," Ruby began, looking at Ebony for confirmation of her words, "she can't be more than thirty or so, and we think her name might be 'Twyla'. This last bit might not be much help, but if anyone around here has ever been around her maybe they'll recognize this: She said she wanted to know everything so that she could put things right. We're guessing that whatever drives her is something big, and if it's been eating her long enough and she went to school here, someone probably would've noticed it."
Miana clasped her hand and nodded. She stood, walking around her large desk to the door on the wall opposite of her. Miana opened the door and turned back to the two dragons. "I'll get the research started. In the meantime, you're welcome to all the hospitality Vane has to offer."
Twyla sighed wearily and picked up the Blue Dragon's Crest. Her past failures had left weak, almost nauseous, but she felt capable enough to try again. She knew she was close the last time, so maybe this time... A large, red form appeared in the doorway behind her, watching quietly. Twyla channeled her power through the artifact in her hands, calling upon the source of the magic that it connected her to and adding its strength to her own.
She tried to focus the magic, make it into the form she wished. Raw energy surged from her as a crackling visible azure glow. It swarmed about the crest, growing with intensity until at last it burst before her in a brilliant blue flash. Barely allowing herself to hope, she lifted her head to gaze at the small sapphire egg that rested on the floor across the chamber. Twyla would have offered a prayer, if she had any deity to believe in.
Almost immediately the egg shuddered and cracked, rocking itself vigorously as its occupant sought to escape. Like a miniature explosion, a small bedraggled form punched a hole through the eggshell and tumbled to the ground. The blue winged "kitten" stood on shaky legs and began to grow. As it did, so did Twyla's hope. The "kitten" lost its resemblance to a cat, for as it grew, it matured. Small horns sprouted from its head, the muzzle grew long, and its rainbow wings dried to reveal vibrant colors. Before a minute had passed, a full grown blue dragon stood in the chamber, glancing around with a slightly confused look on her face.
The red form moved from the doorway and into the room.
"Ruby?" the new blue dragon asked, sighting the familiar shape.
"Nah," the red one said with a brusque shake of her head, "I'm Yur. You'll need a few minutes to get yourself separated from the memories of the one you were created from."
The blue dragon eyed the red with a mildly disbelieving expression. "Created?" Despite the incredulous tone of her voice, the beginnings of an understanding spread across her face.
"You are Aji," Twyla said, stepping forward and looking up at the confused blue. Though she wore a neutral countenance, her dark amber eyes held an expression of barely acknowledged desire.
"Aji..." murmured the blue dragon. She cocked her head slightly and gazed down at the smaller figure near her forelimbs. "You're... Twyla?"
Twyla smiled softly and nodded, reaching out to pat the dragon's leg affectionately. "Welcome to the family."
In the shadows of the doorway another large form, though still smaller than that of the dragons, watched without being seen--or perhaps, ignored. It turned away from the scene, the chamber's torch light momentarily highlighting its muted red fur as it shuffled around. Slowly, it began to limp away.
"Hey, look at this, Ruby."
Ruby looked up from the passage she was reading as Ebony flew over. He hovered a book in front of his nose with what remained of his magic. The two had toured Vane a little since leaving Miana Ausa's presence and decided that even though the town looked better, it was no more or less interesting than it had been a century ago. They retired to the library to look for any interesting reading, but more for want something to do while waiting. By now night had fallen and they pretty much had the entire place to themselves.
The red dragon yawned, hiding her gaping mouth behind a small hand. "What did you find?"
"It's a story," said Ebony, "about my father and a dragon fiend."
Ruby bobbed her head languidly. "The dragon who went nuts?"
Ebony looked around the book at her.
"My father ."
"Okay, okay," said Ruby, leaning back in her chair and making a visible show of trying to stay attentive. "What's it about?"
Ebony disappeared behind the book again. "Well, he and this dragon fiend meet in the afterlife and after a little while they fall in love."
Ruby smirked. "How cheesy."
"I don't know, I think its kind of sweet. Two people from opposite worlds who were never happy in life find love and happiness in each other in death."
"Yeah, whatever." The red dragon waved him off. "How can dead people fall in love anyway?"
Though mocking in both tone and expression, Ruby's voice wavered slightly. Ebony knew he had probably brought up unwelcome thoughts about Nall so he said nothing else on the matter. He landed on the table in front of her and the book he read settled down next to him of its own accord.
"What were you reading?" he asked, leaning over the tome sprawled in before her.
Though the text was upside down from his perspective, Ebony was able to catch the words: "Hiro lead the others back to the Dragonship Destiny in preparation," before Ruby closed it.
"Nothing," she muttered sullenly.
Ebony looked up at her. She could not see him with her head turned down and eyes almost closed.
"You're reading about Hiro and the gang," he said.
Ruby sighed, a wistful expression draining the pain from her face. "Yeah, sometimes I miss them."
The black dragon placed a reassuring paw on the hand that held the tome shut. "It's nothing to be ashamed about Ruby, it hasn't been that long." Ebony's wings drooped ever so slightly, then perked with the thought of fond memories. "One thousand years ago I had people I was very close to... and I still miss them."
Ruby looked up to Ebony hopefully. "Does it ever stop hurting?"
"No," he responded, "but it does hurt less, and gets easier to live with."
The conversation might have lasted longer, if a student hadn't walked up to them at that point. From the sorry condition of his cloak, this one seemed to be learning water magic.
"Excuse me? Miss Ausa has requested your presence."
Ebony and Ruby neared the Forest of Illusion, soaring high enough in the heavens that those below would not know that two dragons winged overhead. However, they weren't returning with good news. Miana had regretfully informed them that she had had the records searched back to almost three hundred years, and that there was no record of a Twyla. The wild thought had occurred to the dragons that what if Twyla was even older than that? But then wouldn't she have shown herself before now? And what human could live that long anyway?
Breaking through the upper branches of the trees, they landed in the clearing where they had left the other two dragons. Nall was standing over Jia, who seemed to be weary and resting. Ebony immediately noticed a new ornament.
"Where'd she come from?"
Ebony flicked his tail in the direction of a young human female, who was currently tied up in vines and hanging upside down from a tree branch. She looked a tad peeved, judging from the flush in her face (or was that due to the fact she was upside down?), but in any case the gag prevented her from speaking her thoughts. The woman certainly tried to speak often enough. She mumbled muffled sounds almost continuously.
"Crystal?" said Ruby incredulously.
Nall shrugged his wings, nonchalant. "Ahh, she was getting on my nerves."
Ebony realized Jia wouldn't allow something like that normally and hurried over to her with a few quick steps. He leaned his head down low near hers and asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Let's just say there's probably two blue dragons running around now," said Nall with a guttural growl.
Jia smiled tiredly up at Ebony. "I'm all right, really."
Nall came up beside Ebony, drawing the black dragon's attention away from Jia. "What did you find?" he asked.
Ebony coiled his neck over his back to nod for Ruby to join them. Then with the three of them crowded around Jia, Ebony and Ruby explained the lack of records in Vane. Miana could have searched farther back, but those record books were too ancient to be handled with any kind of speed. Nall nodded but didn't seem too upset.
"Jia got a direction on her crest, we can check that out," he said firmly.
"Is Jia well enough to fly though?" asked Ebony.
The blue dragon stood slowly, lifting her head above her shoulders to show she was well. "I'm still a little weak, but I can manage. I'll be all right, and we really shouldn't wait any longer. We don't know how long Twyla plans on staying where she is."
Ebony nodded reluctantly. "Okay."
As the other dragons talked, Ruby poked Crystal to watch her swing back and forth, eliciting a bunch of muffled exclamations. The red dragon smiled smugly.
Nall coughed. "Oh, by the way, Ruby, this is a great hiding place. No one ever comes through here, huh?"
Ruby didn't rise to Nall's bait, she just turned to look at him, her smug expression replaced by one of steel determination. "We leaving or what?" she asked.
The four dragons put out their blaze of a campfire (as Ebony explained "only you can prevent forest fires") and quickly made ready to depart. Jia took off first with Ebony following close behind like a mother hen. Ruby paused to look back at Nall before departing as well. Nall watched them go, then cut Crystal free with a quick slash of his talons (dropping her on her head in the process).
He glared meaningfully at her. "Next time, don't call me 'baldy'."
Nall took off, swiftly disappearing after the rest of the dragons. Crystal removed the gag and stood up. As she dusted herself off and watched the diminishing shapes of the dragons, she exclaimed:
"I got tied up by the Dragon Tribe! Cool!"