Jean stood in the large chamber on the seventh floor of the Star Dragon Tower. Ruby, now in human form once more, crouched in a corner with a frown on her face.
"How long has it been? Two hours?" the pink-haired girl angrily asked.
"Three," Jean replied in a somber tone.
"What a day so far," Jean thought to herself. "First riding on the back of a dragon... then back up the tower... and now this boredom."
Upon landing at the base of the Star Dragon's tower hours ago, Jean and the two dragons (both in human forms) entered the structure and tried to call the Star Dragon down. With no response, they had to ascend the seven floors and deal with all the guardians in the way.
Of course, with two dragons of Althena in their party, the visitors made easy progress through the tower. A series of Bolt, Flame, Protect and Anger spells from the white and red dragons brought them unscathed through the masses of Blood Lords and Xevian in the way. Jean herself occasionally joined in with a Needle Chop at a Hell Raiser or two while Dragon Frye simply toasted whatever came into reach.
The Star Dragon just entered through a side door in his tower's pinnacle (which enraged Ruby due to the fact that he never told them about an easy 'back door' in) when they reached the seventh floor. Seeing Jean, he at first thought that it was simply another request by a human to travel to the Blue Star. The others, particularly Frye, made him realize otherwise.
Jean explained the young dragon's crash landing from the previous day to the tall humanoid form of the Star Dragon.
The titan quickly whispered something to Nall. The white dragon then informed his younger 'sister' and their friend that they were going to inspect Frye for a little bit in the next room.
After one hour of waiting, Ruby unsuccessfully tried to open the door, muttering, "I'm a dragon of Althena too... I should be seeing this! Is it just cause I'm the youngest?!"
After two hours of waiting, Jean tried to take their minds off their boredom by doing a little dancing for them. It calmed down Ruby for a good half hour.
Now, Jean was worried that Ruby was about to head back down the tower simply to engage in a little combat. The dancer was almost inclined to agree when the door flew open.
"This better be good, Whitey," Ruby hissed.
Nall ignored her and watched as Frye crawled over to Jean and let her pet his scales.
He looked at the armored titan at his side. The Star Sentry nodded.
Nall began, "Yes... it's worth it, Ruby. Jean, your little friend here may be a part of something major."
Jean looked at the drake and back at the white-haired teen.
"The Star Dragon has observed two strange occurrences in the area recently. First, a visitor from the Blue Star came through here... one that metal-head here decided to let by due to 'some feeling of his'. No, it wasn't Hiro or Lucia," Nall spoke, glancing at Ruby about to open her mouth. "Second, he's detected a source of great evil... nearby. We believe that the Dark Scimitar has come to Lunar finally."
Jean quested, "The Dark Scimitar... is that the evil thing you mentioned before?"
Nall nodded.
"Yes indeedy. The reason why we think this is because of the legend of Althena's Fifth Dragon. Based on what Frye has been able to tell us (yes, his tongue is a little decipherable), he came from the Blue Star with a friend in pursuit of some mages with a black sword. The Star Dragon described his visitor to Frye and it matched the description of his fellow traveler."
He continued.
"After searching deep into his spirit... that's the reason for the delay, Pinky... we found that Frye has PART of the essence of one of Althena's dragons in him... recently awakened by the presence of the dark sword. Therefore, he could very well be the Fifth Green Dragon... of course, if we found this on a normal creature here on Lunar, it could just be a sign that he was one of us dragons' offspring...but since he's solely from the Blue Star... its kinda hard to discount the theory."
Ruby interrupted, "What do you mean by PART of a dragon?"
"The essence isn't complete... either it's simply not awakened until the Scimitar also wakes up or there's more of it out there somewhere," Nall replied. "We weren't totally able to comprehend him, so maybe his friend could shed a little light on his background." Nall turned to the Star Dragon. "I still don't know why you let that one past you... no one should've come from the Blue Star... other than Lucia or Hiro."
Jean chimed in, "I thought the Blue Star was still recovering from Zophar's attacks. Isn’t it empty of life?"
Ruby smirked. "Apparently not. Lucia may have some explaining to do if she beam-rides down here."
Nall turned to the side of the room. The 'back door' opened to reveal a slightly dreary and darkening sky.
"If that evil scimitar is here... we'll need Althena’s sword to counter it. I'm going to fetch it and pick up a few things from my digs in the Katarina Zone... oh, and Ruby, we've just received word that some baddies are hanging around your cave at Serak Palace-"
"WHAT?! If they touch any of my stuff... oooh, I'm going to barbecue them!" the pink-haired girl exclaimed.
Nall snickered slightly. "Guess you want to clean up that problem too. Jean, the Star Dragon will let you and Frye stay here tonight. We'll be back tomorrow."
With that, Ruby waved goodbye and the two of them walked to the outside balcony to transform and fly off.
Jean heard a few lines of conversation as they left the interior.
Ruby asked, "Answer me one thing... why did I have to wait OUTSIDE during your 'analysis'? I'm old enough to be a part of all the dragon-stuff."
"One reason," Nall smirked. "You'd keep interrupting us."
Ruby scowled and proceeded to lay into him as they took off.
Inside the tower, the Star Sentry clapped his hands loudly. A set of dazed Blood Lords poured into the chamber carrying a table covered with several plates of food. Another pair brought in a set of cushions and pillows that they laid out as a sort of bed.
The titan spoke, "Excuse me, hero of Althena and little cousin. Enjoy your meal and good night... I fear hard times may be approaching."
The tall man walked into the next room. Once there, he transformed into his dragon-form and stretched out for a small nap.
Before he fell asleep, the Star Dragon muttered to himself.
"I wonder if our legends will come true if all the colored dragons are united..."
Jean and Frye were famished. Neither had eaten since the morning and they tore into the meal set before them. The lighting of the room suddenly dimmed as soon as they finished.
"Guess that's our cue to turn in for the night," the dancer remarked.
She walked over to the cushions and removed her heeled-shoes, then lay down atop the surprisingly warm pillows. Frye nestled down beside her as a blanket dropped from nowhere atop them.
Frye rumbled a 'good night' to his friend and they lay in the dark for awhile, thinking about what Nall had said and the future of Lunar and the Blue Star. They eventually fell asleep.
Lemina walked out into the rapidly darkening skies with a mischievous grin on her face. The expression on Ramus' face had been one she wouldn't forget for awhile.
After arriving in Meribia, Lemina quickly made her presence known to those responsible for the meeting, particularly the High Priest of Azado and Master Lunn (who had returned to try and atone for his sins by governing the city justly). She and her guardian wizards were given a wing of a building for themselves. The meeting was scheduled for midday tomorrow.
Lemina settled in and left Thundra in her room with a little food (and explicit instructions for the mages NOT to touch her wing). The thunder raven rested comfortably as the Junior Premier left for Ramus' place.
Ramus had been as friendly (and hefty) as usual to the young woman he expected to marry someday. He explained to her all the little money making schemes he had attempted since them. In addition to regular business and trade, his little 'after-hours' tours of the Meribian Sewers had been quite a hit to the young people who frequented Meribia.
In reality, his shop had only been doing moderately well. Hopefully the influx of visitors from other towns due to the meeting would pick up business a bit.
Lemina saw through his bragging when she saw his expression when she began to tell him about the recent jump in students at Vane. The Magic Guild was indeed being revived as rapidly as Lemina could do it.
They left on friendly terms after a nice dinner... after which Ramus began to panic a bit and think up new schemes as she left.
"Heh, heh. If only I had a mega-experienced mage or two join the Guild with all the little kids... then I'd flat out win the bet," she giggled to herself as she walked back to her building.
Lemina looked around a bit as night fell, watching peoples from other towns arrive or wander the town.
She half expected to see someone familiar... perhaps Ronfar or Mauri would be representing Raculi (if they weren't busy at the time with a certain invasion at Serak) or perhaps even Leo would stop wandering and hear the news.
She spotted a pair of people who had personally presented themselves to Master Lunn earlier. One was a middle-aged man dressed in a blue tunic and a large sky-blue magician's hat. He carried a long azure-colored staff at his side. His companion was a woman of similar age and dress, only this time in grays or blacks only. She wore no hat over long flowing midnight-colored hair. In her belt were a row of small, pointed objects.
Lemina didn't know what town they were from... but something seemed vaguely familiar about them. She just couldn't quite place it...
She leaned against a barrel near the docks and watched a late ship enter the port and begin to unload. Lemina asked a nearby worker about the origin of this boat and learned it had come from Horam.
The Junior Premier remembered that 'physical' town and observed as crates full of goods to trade were unloaded... then three young people disembarked and looked about in wonderment. Two were female, a short one with black hair and a slightly taller one with red hair. The other was a young man with a brown tuft of hair.
"Wow...this city is huge!" Kara exclaimed, putting her luggage down on the stones.
The three young martial artists glanced about for a moment and watched the general bustling about of the townspeople despite the fact that it was night.
They snapped to attention and grabbed their packs. The threesome walked a few paces toward the grouping of buildings and stopped.
Ryko pulled the letter out of her bag and scanned it over.
"Uh," Talm stammered, "Any ideas where we can find this Master Lunn?"
Kara shook her head.
"Probably the biggest building... that's most likely to be his dojo," Ryko answered and replaced the letter.
"Excuse me," a female voice to their left spoke. The source was a young girl about their age with blond hair and a short black dress/robe. She cradled a wand in her left hand. "If you need some directions I'd be happy to help," she grinned.
Talm replied, "Well, if you could, it would be much appreciated."
The girl smiled. "Of course. Lunn's dojo is the mega-huge building you’ll see if you go one street up and two buildings to the right."
The ninja bowed and responded, "Thank you... miss..."
"Lemina Ausa. Junior Premier of the Vane Magic Guild... you wouldn't happen to have any elemental magic experience, would any of you?" she answered with a slight smirk.
"Well... I have a little... only use it with skills though. I'm Ryko. These are my friends Kara and Talm from Horam... hey, Vane?"
Ryko remembered that Jan's father was currently teaching weapon magics there and asked Lemina if she knew him. The Junior Premier had met him several times in the magic classes that were being held there. He had been doing fine so far with the teaching of his unique skills.
Talm interrupted with a yawn. "We had better get settled here quick... it's getting kinda late."
Kara and Ryko glared at him, but agreed. This Lemina seemed friendly enough, but they had to get some rest before tomorrow.
"Later guys... I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow."
With that, Lemina hurried off.
"She was kinda talkative, but friendly at least," Kara noted as they entered the large building.
They soon were brought to the imposing figure of the former Blue Saint of Althena, Master Lunn. Ryko gave him the letter from the Wong Dojo master and they were soon given a pair of rooms in a nearby building to sleep in. The trio was also given free reign to work out in his dojo.
Talm hit the sack in his own room. Kara wished her friend pleasant dreams and went to sleep as well.
Ryko lay in bed for awhile, thinking of Jan and wondering just what was going on all over Lunar with these monster attacks. These thoughts eventually put her to sleep.
In a nearby building, Lemina had returned to find Thundra already sleeping on her perch. The young wizardess promptly went to bed as well.
"Okay Hiro... it's ready."
Hiro jumped to his feet and checked his inventory. GlitterEdge waited in his sheath.
Lucia's outfit changed to the one she had wore back on Lunar... the one she had received back in the Carnival. She motioned for Hiro to step into the crystal with her.
The young man strapped his boomerang to his side and plunged into the shimmering shape with her. The crystal began spinning and then flashed brightly.
When it cleared, both were gone...
...and the Crystal tower was now empty except for the Guardians in the lower floors.