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Review Responses:

Jelie36: No prob.

Drac-frst: Try Chronicles of the Aquarius Clan if you want Aquarius Clan and dragons…

Mizurazame: Here ya go.

Rednal29: This should be interesting... Bwahahahaha!!!

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Chapter 6-Ooh, pretty.

There was a moment of silence, then the powerfully-built man looked over to James' cell, directly at the boy. He nodded a moment later.

"...My son, James." he said calmly. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"...Duh."

"I should have seen that one coming..." James' dad said.

"L-lord Berion, what gives you the right to just come into my kingdom and--" Arianna's father began. He yelped in terror a moment later as Lord Berion's fist flashed backwards, a very sharp blade attatched to the back. If the father of James hadn't stopped the blow, he might have cleaved Arianna's father's face in half.

"I do not need your permission to come see my son." Lord Berion said calmly. "Now that he has returned to this world, the Aquarius Clan has also reappeared. You will release him, his sister, and that other girl immediately."

"Why should I!?"

"..Are you arguing with me? Do I need to remind you of who I am?" Lord Berion asked. His very aura shimmered into existence, a powerful Twilight Dragon in shape. The aura snarled, and Arianna's father nodded, terrified.

"O-okay!!" he said. "I-I understand already!!"

"Good! Then get to it before I rip those bars apart myself!" Lord Berion snapped. The cells were soon unlocked, and Lord Berion quickly swept James and Selene into a massive bear hug.

"...You're strong." Selene said quietly. "But James, how did you know he..."

"He's in one of the Locket's pictures. Had to be him." James replied. His slave quietly exited the cell she was in, looking nervous. Lord Berion nodded at her, set his kids down, and turned around.

"Come on, all of you." he said. "The Clan is waiting."

"Yeah." Selene said, looking happy. All three of the kids headed out into the main courtyard, where a number of dragons were resting, looking pleased whenever somebody screamed as they snarled. Selene walked over to a smaller one, who bent down and licked her enthusiastically. Giggling, Selene hugged it's neck. "She's so cute!" The dragon she was hugging looked faintly embarassed, but picked up Selene with her tail and set the girl on her back, so she could ride comfortably.

"Not bad... How far away is the place we're going to, anyways?" James asked.

"Not far." Lord Berion said, shrugging. "We appeared on a brand new island in the ocean, not far off the coast. Maybe... A few day's hiking, through Hitara and a chunk of Talia. Why? Did you want to walk?"

"Sort of..." James muttered. "I still don't know this world well at all, and I'll need to see the lands around whatever you call the place anyways."

"Mmm..." Lord Berion said, thinking. "Well, good enough. Just head west, you'll be able to find a boat to us in no time at all. And it gives us a decent amount of time to prepare a celebration..." He lept onto the back of the largest dragon, in one easy leap, and soon was riding off towards the out-of-sight ocean, with Selene next to him.

"Well, we'd best be going, then." James said, looking at the angelic girl. She nodded, and held up a pair of travel packs. James smiled, and soon the two were on their way. Arianna watched out of a nearby window, a strange look upon her face.

A good while later, while James and the girl were out on a road leading directly to Talia, James spoke up.

"Just so you know... We're being followed." the boy said.

"We are? How can you tell?" the angelic girl asked, confused.

"I looked back earlier and caught sight of somebody quickly hiding. I have a funny suspicion that I know exactly who it is... But regardless, they're not very good." James replied, shrugging. "I'm not worried."

"Can't be a threat, then." the girl said, smiling.

"Not anymore, I dropped a little spell-trap." James replied, grinning. There was a huge explosion from behind the two a moment later. "Not nearly enough to kill, and our follower probably wasn't even hurt, considering that he or she probably wasn't in the blast radius, but... Should be a nice, fair warning."

"Yeah." the girl said, smiling as she and James walked on.

Several days later, the two had reached a port city in Talia. They didn't know that they were still being followed by the same person, who was being much more careful now. But, shrugging, the two kids had headed down to the port and bought berths onboard a ship-for-hire that would take them to the island. Trade had already opened up, bringing quite a bit of prospering to the nation of Talia.

"Well, looks like we'll be there by noon." James said, leaning against a post. The angelic girl nodded, looking a tad nervous. "...Something wrong?"

"Um... I-it's just... What if I'm thought to be out of place?" the girl asked. "What if your family doesn't like me?"

"Can't see any reason they wouldn't." James replied, shrugging. "You're pretty quiet, you do what's asked of you, which isn't much, and you're nice. What's not to like?"

"N-nothing." the girl squeaked out.

"Hey, girlie, how's about leavin' him and comin' onboard our ship permanently? We'll treat ya real nice." a sailor said, winking at her.

"No thanks." the girl quickly replied, almost unconsciously edging closer to James.

"Dang... It was worth a shot." the sailor said, going back to his duties.

"Sailors." James said, shaking his head. "They'll never understand. Oh, well, think we should go over to our bunk?" James asked, referring to the room they'd been given, even though it was unlikely they'd sleep in it. The girl shrugged, and followed James downstairs. The boy paused in front of a door, then turned his head and looked at it. "...I know you're there. Come on out." The door creaked open, and a disgruntled face appeared. A face belonging to Arianna.

"How'd you know I was in there?" the girl asked grumpily.

"You were loud." James replied. "Now why are you stalking me?"

"Because! My dad's boring! And I wanna marry you!" the girl replied. "So I'm going with you whether you like it or not!"

"...You're a stubborn brat. You know that, right?" James asked.

"...Yeah."

"And you have no sense of what you really should be doing."

"Your point is..."

"And you probably won't fit in at all in my home, which is where I plan to stay for quite awhile."

"I don't care!" Arianna yelled. "I'm going with you and that's final! You can't stop me!"

"...Says who?" James replied. "I'm not your guard anymore, I've got no reason to feel bad about knocking you out and rolling you off the boat. Onto the ground, of course, I'm not evil."

"Yeah!? I don't think you'd do that to me!" Arianna yelled.

"Please... Stop fighting." the angelic girl whispered. James looked at her, sighed deeply, then pushed open the door to his cabin and walked in. The girl followed, looking over her shoulder at Arianna, who determinedly followed her.

"I'm not marrying you, that's my final answer." James said, facing the wall.

"Why not!?"

"Because I don't feel like it!!! I can't pick between you and the slave-- Oh, crud." James said, realizing what he had just said by accident.

"YOU DO CARE!!" Arianna yelled, tackle-glomping James. "I knew it! You do care about me! You just said it yourself!"

"...I might care. Or I might not." James replied, smirking. "But either way, I still think it's a bad idea for you to be following me. I don't want to be the one responsible if you get hurt."

"I can protect myself." Arianna replied, letting go of James so she could sit on a spare hammock. "Nobody gets to boss me around. 'Cept maybe you."

"Uh-huh." James replied, his eyes half closed. "I think I'll just take a nap. Somebody wake me when we get there." He slowly started to doze off.

"I will..." the angel said quietly, covering James with a blanket. The journey across the sea was not very long, only a few hours. The angelic girl woke James right as they docked, and the boy promptly thanked her.

"Okay, let's go!" Arianna said, loking eager. "You have to introduce me to your family!"

"...Can I introduce myself first?" James asked.

"No." Arianna replied. "Haven't you ever heard of Ladies First?"

"In that case, I should introduce her first, because you're not a Lady." James countered, pointing at his slave. He then turned to look at the girl and blinked. "Come to think of it, I still don't know your name."

"...It's Arc." the slave girl said quietly. "Well... That's what my nickname is, anyway, since my full name is really long."

"Got it." James said, nodding. "Well, you two, let's get going." Smiling, he walked out of the cabin, heading for the deck. Arc and Arianna quickly followed, and soon they were all off the boat and in front of a huge building. But even that paled in comparison to the immensity of the lands spread out beyond it. In the shadow of one of the two mountains was an area completely engulfed in shadow. A storm hovered in place far above the ground, and a lake the size of which was freakish was located a little ways off to the side. "...Wow."

"...Hey, are those hot springs?" Arianna asked, staring at a spot some distance away. "...Yeah, they are! Oh, now I'm all jealous, I want hot springs back home, they're so comfy!"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." James said, walking forward. He ignored Arianna's indignant 'Hmpf!' and instead strode up to the main doors of the first building, and looked at them curiously. "...Should I knock? ........Nah." the boy pushed them open and walked inside. He was immediately tackled by Selene, who looked a good deal better then the last time James had seen her.

"It took you long enough!" the girl said, letting James get up. Arc stifled a laugh, while Arianna just glared. "Um... Wasn't... Arianna left back in Hitara?" Selene asked, confused.

"She followed me." James replied, sighing. "Bummer, no?"

"I think it's cute that she likes you so much." Selene said, giggling. "Now come on, dad wants to talk to you." She grabbed James' hand and pulled him through a doorway, while the other 2 followed, smiling.

Inside the office of James' father, DragonLord Berion...

"Well, son, it seems that you were followed." Lord Berion said, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Yeah... Seems that way." James muttered.

"Well, Fate and Destiny must have been working together to get you to hook up with both Arianna and Arc." Lord Berion added.

"Ye-- Hey, wait, how do you know her name? I just learned it myself." James said, extremely confused. "That makes no sense."

"That's why it's interesting." Lord Berion said. "I do in fact know her, and have been looking for her for quite some time. You see, her parents were quite good friends of mine."

"...Were?"

"They're dead."

"Oh..." James muttered, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

"Well, boy, I believe it's time to show you your home." Lord Berion said, leading James outside the door. "And I'd like to be the first to say 'Welcome Back'."

And that was when a massive explosion blew one of the buildings to smithereens.

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Rednal29: Hmm... Have I outdone myself cliff-hanger wise this time?

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