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Dream 003

You have got to be kidding me.

A little while after the carriages were out of sight, James teleported back to his room. When Rai attempted to drench him in onion juice, James just conjured up a magical barrier around himself and the bed, then told Rai that if he spilled that stuff, he would have to trade rooms. Then Rai let out some interesting information, or at least interesting in his opinion.

"Hey, James..." Rai said, getting his brother's attention.

"What?" James asked, glaring at his brother.

"You remember what happened last night with my magic and Arianna?" Rai asked.

"I'm not going to be forgetting it anytime soon." James said, his right eye twitching. This was a strong indicator of irritation and impending pain.

"Well... Um... That was her idea. My original plan was to have her stuck on the wall, with her skirts pulled up real high. But she suggested that other thing, because she wanted to see the look on your face." Rai said, grinning. James rolled his eyes.

"Nice try." the elder boy said.

"No, really!! Ask her yourself!!" Rai said, emotionally hurt because his brother wouldn't unconditionally believe him.

"Don't worry, I will. But letting other princes see her like that?" James inquired, growling faintly.

"Well... That was my idea, and she didn't know... That's why she slapped me." Rai muttered, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Humph." James replied.

Several hours passed, until the relative peace of the area was interrupted.

"JAMES!!!! GET DOWN HERE!!!!" the boy's mother shrieked, causing James to wince. The tone was one of the utmost urgency, so the boy did as he was old.

"Stupid old hag..." he muttered before teleporting downstairs, looking extremely annoyed. ”What the heck--" His words were cut short as he saw a pair of guards bringing in a heavily battered body. Without any further comments, James ran over and started casting potent healing spells. Several others, who were conveniently on hand, assisted with the enchantments. Slowly, the wounds on this figure began to heal.

"You will live or I will kill you." James muttered under his breath, causing the other healers to grin. One of them couldn't resist commenting.

"Very encouraging. If they die, they're dead."

"...Shut up." James replied, before redoubling his healing efforts out of sheer determination to get this being healed.

About half an hour later, the Crown Prince of the Aquarius Clan spoke up again.

"She'll live now." James finally pronounced. He then kneeled backward, unconscious.

"Hey! So he can run out of energy!!" Rai said, delighted. Maybe he wasn't so much weaker then his brother after all!! Then Rai thought better of it and decided that he was probably weaker then he thought.

And much later then that, the girl finally woke up.

"Uuhh..." the person who had been healed said, stirring. Her dress was decently made, nothing too fancy. Her hair was quite long, and a brilliant silver in color. Her eyes? Well, she hadn't opened them, so there was no way to know.

"Oh, you're awake." James said, noting the girl's stirs. He himself had woken up about an hour and a half earlier, and had quite easily tracked the girl down. He'd been curious about who she was, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered.

"W-where am I?" the girl managed to ask, her voice rather hoarse.

"The Main Housing area of the Aquarius Clan." James promptly replied. He then held down the girl as she tried to sit up, his limited knowledge of healing telling him that it was bad for those who had been just healed to exert themselves.

"Huh?" the girl asked, blinking in confusion.

"I may not be a doctor by nature, but I do know that you shouldn't sit up for a little while." James said firmly.

"Oh." the girl said, before relaxing again. She couldn't do much else, after all.

"What exactly happened to you, anyway?" James inquired, quite curious. Nothing dangerous enough to give the girl the wounds she had gotten should have been remotely close to his home. His ancestors had seen to that ages ago, not wanting their children to be plagued by monsters.

"I... Uh... W-was traveling with a group of mercenaries... T-they got drunk, and started ordering me around, and then started hitting me..." the girl muttered. "Then a few brought out knives..."

"Mmm... Mercenaries, eh?" James said, with a dark grin. He went over to the window and called over one of the sky dragons. It let out a whistling question.

"Yup. You get something to do. There should be some mercenaries not too far from here. Go have fun." James told the dragon. It whistled excitedly and flew off, very fast. This particular dragon was one of the ones that enjoyed fighting, so was perfect for the job.

"..." was the only response from the girl. She'd had no idea there were dragons here, and one suddenly appearing outside the window was sufficient to shock her.

"Well, from the wounds they gave you, they certainly deserve it." James said, noting the girl's inquiring look. He shrugged, completely believing what he said.

"Oh..." the girl said. At that moment, one of the local doctors came in and examined the girl for a bit, making sure she was completely healthy.

"Hmm... Yes, yes, you'll be running about in no time." the doctor said after jotting down a few notes. "Very good indeed."

"Really? B-but my wounds--" the girl said, confused.

"Were cured by Master James and the other healers. There's not so much as a scar left." the doctor said, before bustling away. Apparently, he was busy, and had other people to attend to.

"Master James?" the girl asked, more confused now then ever before.

"James Aquarius. I'm the next head of the Clan, so everybody but my family, friends, Fiona, and Arianna calls me "Master". But Fiona'll do "Lord" during important events, to try and keep suspicions down."

"Suspicions?" the girl asked, her confusion not really gone.

"Well... She's more of a friend then a servant. But if people think she's a servant, then they won't try and drag her off somewhere to do something they shouldn't. My Clan is very well known for punishing those who abuse its members, no matter how they're part of the Clan." James explained.

"Oh..." the girl muttered after a moment.

"Anyways, I'm guessing that you should get some more sleep. You should be fine by dinnertime. I'll get Rai to wake you, he'll like that." James said musingly before walking out of the room and carefully closing the door. The quiet girl closed her eyes and soon fell asleep, thinking.

Later, towards dinnertime, she was woken up, but not in quite the usual way...

"...WAKE UP!!!" Rai yelled in the girl's ear. She bolted upright, covering her ears as she winced.

"W-what was that for!?" she managed to get out.

"Fun. My mom says that you should get dressed and come have something to eat." Rai said, grinning. He then paused, and sniffed the girl.

"..."

"That's funny." Rai said, before leaving. He closed the door behind him politely, and then ran down the stairs impolitely.

"What is with these people?" the girl asked, before putting on one of the dresses that had been laid out for her and going downstairs. She had an easy time of it, since her room was right next to the stairs that led into the Dining Hall. As she walked in, she heard Rai and James talking.

"You have got to be kidding me." James said, glaring at his brother.

"No, really!! She smelled just like it!" Rai said. He and James both looked over as the girl walked over, and they both shut up while staring at her.

"Um... I... T-thank you for your hospitality." the girl said, bowing in the general direction James and his immediate family.

"Don't worry, dear," the boys' mother said to the girl. "Come, sit down and eat!" she indicated a chair, smiling. The girl did so, not wanting to offend anybody.

"What's your name, anyway?" James asked.

"S-selene." the girl squeaked out. James and Rai looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"W-what's so funny?" the girl asked, reasonably confused, and rather indignant. She had no idea what was going on, so this was understandable.

"Oh, n-nothing." James said, trying to stop his hearty laughs.

"Really! It's nothing!" Rai said, also trying to stop laughing. Both of them failed miserably.

"..."

"Selene, hm? That's interesting. Very interesting indeed." the two kid's mother said. Behind his back, Lord Berion gestured for one of the ferocious dragon pups to be brought in. One was let in immediately. Selene noticed it, and backed away slowly, looking nervous. The pup, however, just jumped onto her and started licking her face.

"That settles it." James said, nodding.

"Yup." Rai added, looking more amused then he had in quite awhile.

"Um... I... Uh..." the girl said, feeling slightly hurt.

"On second thought, maybe we shouldn't tell you right now." James said, looking at his family. They all silently agreed that it was best not to shock the girl any more then they already had. Too much more might kill her; it had been done before to a different person.

"Yeah... Maybe tomorrow we--" Rai said, cutting his words off as one of the dragons stuck it’s had in through one of the huge windows. It was the very one James had sent out earlier, and it emitted an urgent series of piercing whistles.

"WHAT!?!?" James yelled, bolting out of his seat and jumping onto the dragon. He was flying away in less then a second, fully intent on getting to his destination as fast as possible. He would have teleported, except for the inconvenient fact that he couldn't teleport a distance that far without knowing just where he was going to land.

A good distance away, James found the mercenaries that had attacked the girl Selene engaged in combat with a group of soldiers, who were defending a set of carriages. Arianna's carriages, to be specific.

"Stupid... Hey!! All of you, by order of the Clan, are to cease fighting!!!" James yelled down, his voice magically magnified. Everybody looked up, and saw not one, but three dragons coming down. James had called for two more just in case, and they couldn't disobey James. Not that they would have even if they'd had a choice; James had quite a bit of respect among dragons.

"Uh..." The lead mercenary said uncertainly, looking quite nervous in the face of dragons.

"Do you want to be eaten or something? Set your weapons down!!" James ordered. Everybody did so, and the dragons landed, snarling in an appropriately fierce fashion.

"You. Mercenaries." James said, looking at each of them.

"Y-yes?" they asked, almost in synchronized.

"It has come to my knowledge that you attacked a girl not so long ago, while you were drunk." James said, glaring at them with an expression on his face suggesting imminent pain.

"She wasn't bringing us the beer fast enough!!" one of them said, trying to justify his previous actions. James whistled out something, and the two extra dragons converged on the bandits. The fight didn't last very long. As soon as it was all over, however, Arianna ran out of her carriage, climbed up the first dragon's side, and hugged James fiercely.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!!!" she said thankfully at a rapid-fire pace. James smiled.

"No problem. But I have one question." the boy said.

"Anything." Arianna replied promptly.

"Was what happened with Rai's spell your idea?" James asked, looking out of the sides of his eyes at Arianna's face.

"Um... Yeah..." Arianna confessed. Her tone was apologetic, but she was also grinning.

"Humph. So that's why you didn't kill Rai..." James muttered, sighing.

"Yup." Arianna said brightly. Her parents finally walked up, a tad nervous, since there happened to be a large dragon right in front of them. And they weren't quite as used to them as James or Arianna were; not that Arianna had been around them much more then they had.

"Dear!! Are you done yet?" Arianna's mother called up.

"No! I wanna stay with James for like, another month or something!! He can give me a ride home!!" Arianna called back, hoping her mother would agree.

"...I thought you didn't want to fly." James said, blinking.

"Well, I'm going to hang on to you as hard as I can. Since I don't think that you'll fall off, I'm sure I'll be fine." Arianna said cheerfully.

"I guess that makes sense..." James said after thinking for a moment.

"You want to stay with him!?" Arianna's dad asked, tired of waiting.

"Yeah!" Arianna shouted at him.

"But you have your official duties!" he protested.

"Then can I bring him with us?" Arianna asked hopefully.

"What am I, your fiancée or your pet?" James asked, frowning.

"Pet."

"..."

"He can visit in a few weeks. Now get down from there." Arianna's dad asked.

"But--" Arianna said, half-heartedly. James hugged her, pecked her on the cheek, then whistled a few times. The dragon picked up Arianna with its tail and set her down very gently on the ground.

"Thank you, Kazeko." James said, rubbing the base of the dragon's neck fondly.

"James!! What are you doing!?!?" Arianna cried, glaring daggers at the boy.

"Your father's word, unfortunately, outweighs mine. But I'll be by Hitara Castle in a few weeks, don't worry." James said.

"Aaw..."

"See ya." James said, before he and the other two dragons lifted off and flew away. James had the dragons going at break-neck speed, and as a result they were out of sight almost faster then was possible when creatures were flying.

"Stupid boy!!!" Arianna called after James, disappointed.

Back at the dining area, James walked back in, stretching.

"What was that about? Kazeko was saying something about bandits and carriages, right?" Rai asked his brother, not being privy to the information of what had just happened.

"Nothing to worry about. I took care of it," James said, purposely not telling Rai, the intent being to annoy the younger boy. "But I did talk to Arianna, and she confirmed your little story. You're off the hook, for now."

"See?" Rai said.

"Humph."

"Um..." Selene said quietly.

"Hm?" James responded, turning to look at her.

"Uh... W-which foods are t-the best?" Selene asked. James, as a response, pointed to the fruit that he had told Arianna not to eat. Selene quickly tried it, and her eyes lit up with delight.

"This is delicious!!" she said happily. James and Rai looked at each other again, as their parents hadn't seen.

"Why am I not surprised?" Rai asked.

"Think about it, stupid." James replied, lightly whacking his brother on the head.

"Okay... I'm thinking... Still thinking... Thinking about thinking some more... More thinking... Yup, still thinking... I just thought about thinking..." Rai said at length.

"Okay, okay! Be quiet!" James said, annoyed.

"That was too easy. But I never thought something like this was gonna happen." Rai admitted.

"Me neither." James replied, shrugging. He looked at a huge family tree located in the Main Hall, and more specifically at a small burn mark.

"..." Selene was quiet now, thinking.

Finally, the next morning rolled around.

"So... Um... A-are you going to tell me now?" Selene asked James. Naturally, the boy knew exactly what she was talking about.

"I had better do it soon. Just don't freak out, 'kay?" James said.

"Okay..." Selene said, agreeing.

"After consulting with Rai, I have come to the conclusion that you are, shockingly enough--" James began.