Fan Fiction ❯ The More Things Change... (An Endless Story) ❯ "She's got wings!" ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

In this chapter a certain summoner stumbles across a certain Wyndian princess. Who knows what could happen for the first impression?

Disclaimer: The usual.

Here's how I think Nina would react to someone sneaking up on her, even if it's unintentional.

Pairings (for the SIXTH TIME!):
Ryu-Ursula (hope you've memorized this)
Nina-OC (yes, THAT OC)
Any others? Maybe... maybe not. Who knows what twisted images lie in my imagination...? Certainly not me! (at least until they jump out and attack me)

Locations again, NPR:

Ryu, Ursula, Ershin, Deis, and Kaerlos: Heading north, looking for Ryu's old allies.
Nina and Scias: On a collision course with the above.
Cray: Hasn't moved yet. Probably won't for a while.

Key time!

*--------*: POV switch
[___]: Writing
*___*: Thoughts
"___": Speech (of course)
(___): Author's notes andor explanations
Italics : Dragon's Eye visions (detailed)
//////: Time warp

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Chapter 6
"She's got wings!"

Kaerlos and his new friends had been searching for the others for several weeks- certainly enough time for him to learn a bit of magic. He was starting to get a bit tired of traveling with "that tin can" because of its deference to a being that possessed it. "'Scuse me for a while- I need some time alone," he told the others one night after they set up camp.

"Okay, try not to get in trouble, bro," Ryu acknowledged.

"I will... won't... whatever," Kaerlos said, trying to figure out how to agree without disagreeing at the same time. "See ya later," he called as he left the firelight. He walked a good ways away from their camp, all the while grumbling about "stupid tin cans that shouldn't even move." This was the state he was in when he stumbled into another encampment, this one a LOT fancier. "Well, look at that," he said, louder than he intended. "Somehow found someone ELSE'S camp." He glanced around. *Hope they don't mind if I crash here- I forgot the way back... damn memory loss thing!* he complained silently. He walked up to a random tent, which turned out to be the biggest and fanciest one out of all six tents in the area, and called in, "Hey, anyone in there?" His answer was a female shriek, followed by a huge gust of wind that blew him back several feet. "Ummm... was it something I did?" he mumbled as a young woman came out of the tent he had called into, and soldiers exited the others. "eep..." he said in a tiny voice as he sized them all up. The soldiers alone would probably give him trouble, but the woman could trounce him!

"Capture him! He must be an enemy sent to capture me!" the woman ordered the soldiers.

"Ummm... can't we talk this out?" Kaerlos asked nervously. As the soldiers started pulling out various weapons, he said, "Guess not," and drew the Imperial Sword. He held it in front of him with one hand in something resembling a guard position as he held his left hand behind him, gathering arcane energies in it. His eyes started glowing as the power gathered. The woman pulled a small staff out of thin air- *What's with the disappearing acts?!* Kaerlos wondered privately- and the soldiers started to surround him. As he watched, the woman released her staff, which began glowing and circling her, as she turned away from him and crossed her arms. *I know spellcasting when I see it, and she's getting ready to cast something!*

Kaerlos could have outrun his opponents, but he didn't want to be seen as an aggressor. "I'll go easy on you for now... SEVER!" the woman called out, and he was enveloped in a small tornado.

Kaerlos managed to keep his feet, and countered by casting his own spell on one of the soldiers. "FLARE!" The small burst of fire didn't seem to bother the soldier much, though. *Aw, man, I told Ryu I WOULDN'T get in trouble!* he thought in disgust. The soldier he had thrown his spell at swung his sword at him, but Kaerlos managed to dodge. For some reason the others just watched, though. *I know I'm in a bad situation... I don't know if I can afford to lose!* He glanced at the woman.

"Give up now, or else..." the woman commanded.

"I know I can't beat you alone, whoever you are. Thing is... who said I had to be alone?" Kaerlos said.

"I doubt you can get an ally here fast enough to save you!" the woman countered.

*Hmmm, maybe I can do something like her staff does for intimidation while...* Suiting thought to action, he held his sword in front of him, point down and a few inches off the ground. As the soldiers watched curiously, he released it, and it became a blur of swords surrounding him. Nodding, he crossed his arms in front of his face, hands slightly open, and began concentrating. His summoning circle appeared on the ground under his feet, upsized several times, to his foes' surprise. "Let's see what I get this time," he said with what little concentration he had to spare.

"Let's just watch for now, and see what he's up to," the woman commanded. The soldiers nodded, and entered defensive positions as the woman spun her mini-staff in between herself and Kaerlos.

Kaerlos didn't comment on the others' defensive stances; instead, while the sword-blurs lifted to point outwards, he gave a yell similar to Ryu's transformation shout as the symbol beneath his feet radiated a blinding pillar of light. When the light cleared, he was still apparently standing alone and gritting his teeth in concentration. *Man! If my guess was right, I musta been more desperate than I thought to get something like this!*

"Ha! He's bluffing!" one soldier shouted.

"No..." Kaerlos grated out in reply. "There's something here..." He glanced around, right, left, then behind, but saw nothing. Then he sensed a mind connected to his and looked up...

...And saw something he never thought he'd be summoning.

Looking back at the woman, Kaerlos said, "Ummm... You might want to call your men off... unless you wanna piss off my friend up there." He pointed upwards to indicate where his ally was. Everyone heard a roaring sound, followed by energy being gathered, until he looked up again and shouted, "No, not till I tell you!" This was followed by a sound that sounded like nothing more than a snake with a hairball (how do YOU think a choking dragon would sound?).

These sounds drew his opponents' attention upward, to the creature Kaerlos had summoned. Those who had seen Ryu fully transform into his Aura state recognized the general appearance, but they could easily tell that the coloring was off. "A-a DRAGON?!" the woman shouted.

"Looks like the Aura Dragon Ryu turns into," one soldier commented.

"I believe this one's called... Astral," Kaerlos informed them in a slightly distracted voice. "Now, then... if you don't attack me anymore and listen to my explanation I'll send it away. Deal?"

"Okay," the woman said in a slightly fearful voice. Shortly after, the dragon vanished into thin air. "Now then, what's your explanation?"

Kaerlos sighed. "I left my friends for some time alone, but I got lost. I was hoping you'd let me spend the night here," he stated.

"So you yell into my tent?" the woman demanded. "Not very good manners."

"Hey, it's better than just barging in- for all I knew you coulda been changing!" Kaerlos countered.

As they were getting ready for a second round in their verbal war, they heard Ryu's voice call out, "Kaerlos, what was all that noise about?"

This was followed by Ershin's voice saying, "Deis suggests searching for him."

"RYU?!" the woman shouted out.

"Nina? That you?" Ryu called back. A thrashing noise started approaching them.

"Sorry about the bad impression," Kaerlos said to the woman, who was apparently named Nina. As he spoke, he put his sword, almost forgotten since he summoned the dragon, back in its sheath and bowed his head in apology. Then he turned and called out, "Looks like I get in trouble whether I want to or not, Bro."

"What kind of tr- oh," Ryu said as he came into sight. "Sorry about that, Nina."

"Why'd he call you 'bro?'" Nina demanded.

"He sorta... inherited it from Fou-lu, if you get my drift," Kaerlos told her.

"Inherited what?" Nina demanded.

"Fou-lu was my brother. Just so you know, I'm not as bad as he was, though," Kaerlos hurriedly explained. "Back before he was summoned here, Fou-lu and I tended to fight a lot about whether shapeshifting or summoning was better," he added.

"Relax, guys, he's not bad," Ryu told the soldiers, who seemed to be tensing for a mass charge. "Fou-lu always jumped to conclusions, but Kaerlos here always reserves judgment until he knows as much as possible."

"Hey, Ryu, does Nina know about your powers?" Kaerlos asked suddenly. When Ryu and Nina nodded, he smirked and continued, "Then does she know you still have them?"

"WHAT?!" Nina shouted. She turned to Ryu and asked, "Is that true?" Ryu simply nodded.

"Why don't you address Her Highness as Princess Nina?" one soldier demanded.

Kaerlos turned to the soldier in shock. "She's a princess?!" he exclaimed loudly. When the soldiers nodded, he said, "I don't know about Ryu, but I didn't know about that." He considered a bit, then carefully said, "And all factors considered, I'd say I outrank her, since I'm... a god, or whatever." As he finished, he shrugged, not knowing their term for immortals like himself.

"Endless," Ryu corrected him.

"Endless, right. I'm still new to the ways of this world," Kaerlos said, nodding to Ryu.

"If you're Endless, how long ago were you summoned?" Nina asked.

Kaerlos looked at Ryu and said, "Ask him. I was summoned at night and I found him on my first morning here."

Everyone looked at Ryu. Considering carefully, he slowly said, "I'd say he's been here about two months now."

"Wow... short months," Kaerlos commented. When the non-Endless started looking at him strangely he said, "What? Our months are about ten times as long as yours, and we have about 120 months."

"Yeah, and it was kinda hard to name them all," Ryu commented when they looked to him for confirmation.

"How many years would you guys have lived if you had stayed wherever you came from?" Nina asked curiously. Unnoticed by almost everyone, Ershin and Ursula had come into the camp and Kaerlos had wandered off, though not too far to hear the others easily this time.

"Our time, about 83 years average. Hundred times that your time," Ryu answered.

"Where'd Kaerlos go? I thought I heard him over here," Ursula demanded.

That got everyone looking around. Ryu growled slightly as he said, "He's wandered off again."

After a short time of everyone else arguing over who would look for him, Kaerlos slipped back into the camp. He heard some soldiers shouting "No, YOU look for him!" back and forth and walked over to them.

"Look for who?" he asked after a lull eventually settled over the soldiers.

"Look for..." one soldier started before looking at the speaker. "Oh. Nevermind." Then he turned and called out, "He came back!"

"Looks like I'm good at sneaking off when I'm not trying," Kaerlos commented. "Counting pre-summoning incidents, this makes about ten times."

Ershin glided up to Kaerlos on some sort of roller-jet device. "'Don't sneak off like that again!' says Deis." Kaerlos glared at it before kicking it in the face. "Don't kick me!" it complained.

"Why not? You bug me." Kaerlos then went into his best imitation of Ershin's voice. "Deis says this, Deis asks that..." he said before dropping the imitation and shouting, "YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT ANNOYS ME?!" After seething for a few seconds he snarled, "Leave me alone for at least a week unless it's a real emergency or I'll see how tough that armor REALLY is." Then he stomped to the edge of the clearing and put his back to a tree.

After gawking for a few seconds, Nina turned to Ryu and asked, "Is he always this grumpy?"

"Only after prolonged exposure to something he finds exceedingly annoying," Ryu answered. "And even then, only when he encounters whatever it is, and usually only towards it. If you want to talk to him you'll have to get away from Ershin unless you want to hear him complain."

"Could you get it out of sight? I'd like to talk to him for a while."

Ryu nodded. "Sure. I think I might ask it a few questions... or maybe Deis." He walked to Ershin, said something to it in a quiet tone, then led it away.

As soon as Ershin was out of his sight Kaerlos calmed down, and Nina walked up to him. "Excuse me, Kaerlos, was it...?"

Kaerlos nodded. "Yeah?" he encouraged her. *Hey, I just noticed something... she's got wings!*

"Can I ask you a few questions?"

"Besides the ones you just asked? Sure."

"Smart alec, huh?" Nina asked wryly. "Oh, and that doesn't count."

Kaerlos looked around, then said, "Just so you know, you don't have to be all prim and proper around me- I care about what's in here-" he pointed at Nina's chest, about where her heart was "-not what you say."

Nina nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. But since there are others around..." Kaerlos nodded, knowing what she was getting at.

As a joke, Kaerlos added, "Looks don't hurt either, if it's romance."

Nina blinked, then suspiciously asked, "Are you hinting at something?"

Kaerlos shook his head emphatically. "No, I was just saying-"

Nina cut him off. "Okay, I understand."

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...And since I can't think of anything else for those two to talk about at their first meeting, I'll cut it there.

I think I'll take a break from this story for a while- don't wanna burn myself out. (kinda like a 10-watt light bulb in a 20-watt socket...) ANYONE WHO COMPLAINS ABOUT THIS WILL BE SUPERNOVA'ED INTO OBLIVION AND BACK TWICE!

Anyway, next chapter, whenever I get around to it, will probably be called something like "Wanna doggy treat?"