Destiny Defied

[05.01.01] » by Aaron D. Roberts

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The boat rocked painfully as Ryu leaped out of it and onto the surface of the SimaFort dock. Flanked by two froggy guards, he signaled to his friend, who was finally approaching.

"Jean, you gotta help us!" Ryu screamed.

Jean, being quite a mellow person, was a bit disconcerted by his friends' obviously agitated states.

"What is the problem, mes amis---what are you doing?"

Katt, in an impressive feat of strength, had hefted a huge boulder that had been sitting peacefully on the front entrance to SimaFort and was now, with an audible grunt, hurling it directly into the center of the boat which had ferried her and Ryu across the azure lake. The rock fell directly through the boat, and naturally, water began flooding out of the hole left by its passage, causing the small rowboat to sink to the bottom of lake SimaFort.

"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the frog.

"That's one I learned from your sister," said Katt, throwing a wink in Jean's direction.

"How far is it from here to the shore, Jean?" Ryu asked.

"I do not know, my friend," Jean admitted. "Swimming a distance is much different than walking it, non?"

"I'd say about a mile, mile and a half," Katt estimated.

"Good," said Ryu. "She shouldn't be able to fly that far."

"I still do not know what is going on!" Jean wailed.

"That's all right, Jean," said Katt, putting a comforting arm around her friend's shoulder, "let's go in and have a couple of beers and we'll tell you all about it."

"Wait a second," interjected Ryu, "The ale's not made out of worms or something nasty like that, is it? You know what happened last time---"

"Of course not, mon ami. You cannot use worms to make beer."

Ryu let out a sigh full of relief.

"The worms are just for flavor, of course."

"D'oh!"

***

"You know," said Katt, "this stuff's not too bad, considering the ingredients."

Ryu looked into his mug. "I don't know. If there weren't the worms at the bottom, I might be more inclined to drink it."

"What's the big deal? There's worms in tequila too, you know." She took a huge gulp. "Alcohol kills everything."

"What's tequila?" asked Ryu.

Katt groaned. Then in an act of pure spontaneity, she put her hand into the big blue-haired man's tankard, drawing out a handful of worms. Wordlessly, she threw the offending annelids against the stone wall, shocking the amphibious innkeeper somewhat.

"Better?" she asked.

Ryu grinned.

Jean was getting quite impatient. "Well, Monsieur, Madamoiselle, will you now tell me what has brought you so urgently to my door? Or should I retire to my room and complete the ballad which I was so earnestly working upon when I heard of your arrival?"

"Sorry, Jean," Ryu apologized. "It's pretty long and complicated." He took a sip of the worm ale. "It's not terrible," he admitted.

"The story will never be finished unless you begin, mon ami."

"Right," he agreed. "You remember how I was called 'the destined child' by all of the Dragons?"

"Oui."

"Well, I never really put that much stock in destiny, but as it turned out, there was a bit more to my own 'fate' than just defeating Deathevn." Ryu drank some more. "You and Spar left together a couple of weeks after Father landed and sealed up Gate with the TownShip, remember?"

"Of course." Jean said, curious as to where this was going.

"You returned here and I guess Spar went back to the Sea of Trees. Sten set out for Highfort a few days after that. Bleu wanted to go clean out her cave back at Wisdon, and she left too, though I think Bow was a little disappointed with that. Everyone else decided to stay.

"Unfortunately, the only way we could get in or out of the TownShip was by magic. It's over five hundred feet off of the ground, so we couldn't really jump off or anything---although Katt wanted to try."

"That's not what I said!" she protested.

"Anyway," Ryu continued, "Rand, Bow, and I decided we should find a more mundane way of traveling to or from the TownShip…"

***

Ryu peered over the edge. The Town of Gate, directly at the foot of the artificial cliff, appeared as though it was a group of children's playthings from this height, and the Yggdrasil tree five miles away was but a tiny shrub in the distance.

"Long drop," Rand observed laconically.

"Are you sure this stairway idea's gonna work?" asked Bow.

"We don't really have any other choice, buddy," Ryu said. "A ladder won't be safe enough, and we can't just ask Nina to take everyone who wants to leave down at any hour of the day."

"Yeah," Bow admitted, "but I'm not sure this is gonna be safe enough, either."

"Don't worry," Rand assured him, "I've got it all figured out. It's 519 feet to the ground. If we want to go at it with a regular forty-five degree angle for the staircase, then the first step has to be approximately 519 feet away from the base of the TownShip. That way, all distances will be equal---we don't want the stairs to be too steep."

"Huh?" asked Bow, scratching his head.

"I've got diagrams up in my room if you want to see them later, but for now, just take my word for it."

"Okay, if you're sure..." Bow said.

"Won't the stairway have to be built directly over the church in Gate that way?" inquired Ryu.

Rand shrugged. "Yeah, but does it really matter?"

The church had been his home as a child, but that part of his life was now over. Ryu recalled how he and his friends had killed Habaruku, the leader of the Church of St. Eva who was posing as the priest of Gate Village. Even if that had not been the case, the elimination of Deathevn had also rendered the Church obsolete---which, if you asked Ryu, was the best possible situation.

"I guess not."

"I still think this is a goofy plan," reiterated Bow.

"Goofy or not, it's the best choice we've got," said Rand, slightly offended.

"Besides," interjected Ryu, "we'll have Nina reinforce the stairway with a weave of spells once the initial contruction's done. It'll be stronger than stone, and a tenth the weight." Ryu looked upward. "A magical stairway, reaching up to a city in the sky. You could almost call it...a 'stairway to heaven!'" Ryu raised an eyebrow in jest.

The deafening silence was only broken by the chirping of a bird.

"No," Rand asserted, "I don't think you could. This is just a human settlement on an artificially transplanted landmass that happens to be very tall. Not heaven at all, really."

"What the hell are you talking about?" demanded Bow.

"Never mind," groaned Ryu, crushed.

***

"Stairway to heaven?!" Katt gasped between spouts of giggling. "That's hiliarious!" The sound of her raucous laughter echoed off of the damp stone walls.

"So you were building a large set of stairs from the ground to the TownShip, non? How did this result in your fleeing to my kingdom for asylum?" Jean rested his slipper-covered feet onto the wooden table, leaning back in his chair. Due to the wet, slimy nature of the stone floor, however, the chair upon which the prince of SimaFort was resting himself unexpectedly slid out from under him, the result of which was Jean landing on the ground with cry of "Oof!"

Katt leapt up from her seat to help him back up as Ryu, doubled over with laughter, attempted not to spit out the large mouthful of worm ale had just taken.

"How impolite to laugh at the expense of one's host!" Jean admonished.

"Sorry, Jean," Ryu apologized, composing himself. "Anyway, it took us some time to get started, but once we did, we had all of the carpenters in both the TownShip and Gate helping us. The work went much more swiftly after that. Unfortunately, some other people who were less mechanically inclined---" Ryu shot a pointed look at Katt, which she did not notice, "---insisted on helping us as well."

"Yeah," Katt agreed. "Some of those guys just didn't have a clue. Not like me." She threw a couple of punches in the air. "I know all about carpentry! Right, Ryu?"

"Sure, kid," he said affectionately. "Whatever you say."

"And what was the problem?" Jean prompted.

"Well," Ryu started, "the problems began happening when we were about 300 or so feet up on the construction. We all tethered ourselves to the stairway with ropes and safety harnesses. Just as extra insurance, we had Nina come with us as well..."

***

Ryu tested his safety line, tugging the rope sharply to see if there was any give in it. Satisfied that there was none, he began climbing down the frame that they were building the stairs on.

"Are you all right down there, Ryu?" Nina said, standing on the third or fourth step below the top.

"Doin' fine, Nina," he answered, making his way diagonally upwards with his hands and feet to where the new steps needed to be built.

"Let me know if you need me," she added. The winged princess wore no harness, because if she fell, which was unlikely, she could not only float gently down under her own power, but she also had numerous magicks at her disposal which could let her fly, levitate, jump, or simply teleport to safety.

"Katt!" yelled Ryu. "Let's get the next step up here!" While the more experienced carpenters among the assembly group, along with Rand and Bow, journeymen carpenters in their own right, were working on the frame, Ryu and the less-experienced builders who were volunteering their time to the project were performing the simple task of placing each step onto the stairway, one at a time. While Ryu was no professional, he had enough experience that he could solidly attach a wood plank to four supports and not have the thing come apart.

Katt, however, was another matter altogether. Having had previously experienced her "skills", Ryu had personally inspected every one of the steps she had worked on, though these inspections generally resulted in his prying the board up with very little effort and redoing the entire thing.

Therefore, Ryu had come up with a solution---making the job sound very important, he had appointed Katt as his "official assistant", a job which the Woren had ecstatically accepted. Though he had worded it so it sounded very complicated, Katt's actual job consisted of simply holding the wooden plank down while Ryu fastened it to the supports.

"Ryu!" she called. "I've got it! Ryu, where are you!?"

"Right here," he said, his head popping up from behind the last stair.

"Eeeek!" Katt pounded her fist down on his head in reflex.

"Ow!! Hey, watch it!" Ryu took a hand off of the frame and rubbed his head, trying to massage out the pain.

"Oh, poor baby," she moaned in mock sympathy, knowing he had taken harder blows and never flinched. "Let me kiss it and make it better."

Ryu made a wry face. "Okay," he said, raising one eyebrow.

She puckered her lips up and bent down, closing her eyes. Ryu grinned in anticipation.

"Hey, Ryu!" The big dragon groaned, the moment interrupted.

"Yes, Nina?" he uttered, slapping his hand over his forehead. Katt made an immediate show of placing the step down very carefully, measuring each angle precisely.

"Everything alright?" she said, leaning down and looking piercingly at him.

"You bet."

"Just checking." She walked back down a few steps, looking around. "Let me know if you need anything. That's what I'm here for."

"I will." Ryu took held his hand out. "Katt, hammer." She handed it to him. "Nails." She gave those to him, as well. Lining up the nail, he began rhythmically pounding the nail into the wood, solidly affixing the corner of the board.

Ryu picked up another, and placed it on the opposite corner, so as to firmly keep the board in place. As he raised his hammer, his attention was diverted by a startled scream. Reacting as quickly as possible, he turned around, searching for its source.

Bow was dangling twelve yards under the incomplete frame, arms and legs flailing. "Bow!" Ryu shouted. "You okay?"

"I think so," he yelled back up at Ryu. "Can you help me back up?"

"Sure thing, buddy. Be down in a minute." Ryu emptied his hands, leaving the hammer and nails laying on the unfinished step.

"Better hurry," Katt said, "looks like his safety rope is fraying loose."

"That's not funny, Katt!" Bow sounded nervous.

"I'm not joking! It's really coming apart!"

Ryu looked, and saw that the woven hemp was truly fraying. Right in the middle of Bow's safety line, split ends of the twine were unraveling swiftly. He considered his options. Climbing down the frame would probably take too much time. He braced himself, then pushed off of his hand- and footholds, plummeting down to the end of his own rope. Then, he swung himself back and forth, reaching his friend just as Bow's line came apart. He flung his arms around the Plainsrunner, supporting his entire weight.

Though Ryu was a strong man, he knew that he could not keep hold of his childhood friend's somewhat massive bulk indefinitely. He also knew that his own rope would likely snap even before his strength gave out. It also did not help his concentration that Bow was screaming like a little girl. Turning his head upward, he called, "Nina, a little help!"

The dragon heard Nina's voice rhythmically intoning magical words, and then he felt his weight and Bow's abruptly become supported by her force. He let go of the archer, which he immediately realized was a mistake as Bow's incoherent wails grew even more panicked and frequent. Constant reassurings on Ryu's part that they were all right did nothing to Bow's frame of mind. The rope, now slack, followed the pair as they ascended back to safety.

Ryu felt the weave of spells leave him as he and Bow landed upon the stairway. Bow instantly collapsed, still in the fit of his ravings. Ryu was knocked backwards, nearly bowled over by Nina's crushing hug.

"Oh, I was so worried!" she said, squeezing tighter.

"Hey, Nina." Ryu tried to pry her arms loose. "Hey, I'm fine. Check on Bow. I think he needs help." Despite this, Nina refused to release him. "C'mon, Nina. Seriously. You can let go now." Still, she clung to him.

Katt's eyes were narrowing. Seeing little use in a confrontation of this sort in this particular situation, Ryu took steps to bypass it. "Katt, check on Bow. He's hysterical."

The Woren knelt next to the screaming Bow, who was still thrashing around on the steps. "Snap out of it, dummy!" she ordered, with no results. "All right, you asked for it," she threatened, raising her hand and slapping him sharply across the face.

The Plainsrunner shook his head. "Uhhh...sorry, I guess." He tried to stand up, but one look at the ground, three hundred feet below, and he instantly sat back down. "I think I need to get off this thing. Now."

Ryu, still trying to shake Nina free, said, "Nina! Take Bow back home. He's probably still shaken from the fall." He twisted around in her grasp. "Nina! Let go of me!"

"No," she said firmly. "I'll never let you go, Ryu."

***

"I see," Jean muttered as he took a sip of worm ale. "So the problem was that someone was sabotaging the construction of the stairway, non? That is why the rope was cut, oui?"

"No, that wasn't it," Katt corrected.

"It turned out that the rope just wasn't enough to support Bow's weight," Ryu explained. "It took us two weeks to get him to set foot on the construction site again, and even then, we had to give him three separate safety ropes. After that incident, though, the rest of the job went off without a hitch.

"We finished after another month, and while it may not have been the most pretty thing in the world, the stairway was certainly functional." Ryu put his empty mug down.

Katt signaled to the bartender to give them three more.

"As we had decided before, we asked Nina to reinforce the construction with her magic." Ryu paused as the amphibian waitress sat down three more mugs of worm ale. Katt once again took out the undesirable contents of Ryu's drink after a pleading look from the big dragon. This time, however, she merely placed them on the tabletop rather than hurling them across the room. "We had a sort of ceremony as she did it. To all of our surprise, the magic weave did more than we had expected."

"She changed the whole thing," Katt interrupted.

"Right," Ryu continued. "Rand and I had figured that the weave of spells would simply reinforce what we had already built. It did much more than that. After Nina was finished, what remained wasn't the same stairway we had spent months working on. It was something completely new, made out of marble, with reliefs of people and places on the sides."

"We're on it too, fighting Deathevn," Katt stated proudly. "I checked."

"This...inspires me," Jean said dreamily. "I shall write a song about it. Let's see...

Oh, you beautiful stairway,

reaching for the stars

I can see history on the side of you

Perhaps I could climb you someday

All of the patrons of the bar, clasping their hands over their ears due to the prince's "wonderful" singing, relaxed as Ryu stopped the song with his comment.

"That's really, er, nice, Jean, but can we finish the story before we start composing?"

"Sorry, mon ami. The pure beauty of the stairway you described touched my soul."

"Understood." Ryu threw a wild look at Katt, causing the Woren to giggle silently. "So, we were all just standing there with stupefied looks on our faces. Then, the wooden frame collapsed. Katt jumped about three feet in the air when that happened."

"That was you," she reminded him. "I had to catch you to make sure you didn't fall over the edge."

Ryu blushed. "Right. Needless to say, that shocked all of us quite a bit. Moving on, I, for one, thought that the entire thing was gonna come down at that point, but for some reason---magic, I guess---it didn't."

"Those ninnies were too afraid to even set foot on the steps, but I wasn't," boasted Katt. "I even jumped up and down on it a couple of times, to make sure it was stable."

"And that was a very wise thing to do," Ryu teased her. "Seriously, though, it was completely rooted in. It was solid as stone, since that's what it was, but it was only connected to the ground in Gate and on the TownShip.

"Then, the problems started happening again..."

***

The door was thrust loudly open. Nero, pouring himself a beverage behind the bar, stared in shock at the large, heaving, incredibly sweaty body behind it.

"No more stairs," Bow gasped. "No...more!"

"Sit down, buddy," Ryu admonished his friend. "Have a drink with us."

"I'd...like to...but...I might...pass...out," said the Plainsrunner, still trying to catch his breath.

"Don't be such a wuss," Katt scolded him.

"Yeah, come on, be a man," Rand added.

"O......kay." Ryu grinned. He knew his childhood pal wouldn't need that much persuading.

Tongue hanging out of his mouth, Bow sat down next to his friends, and shakingly poured himself a glass of dragonwater. "Where's......Nina?"

"Dunno," answered Rand. "She doesn't drink much, anyway."

"Yeah, not like us," agreed Katt.

"Bottoms.....up," said Bow, still winded, and tipped his glass upward as he took a huge mouthful of the potent liquor. "Ahhhhhh," he sighed, and breathing heavily, he slumped down in his chair.

"Why did you need to go down to Gate, anyway, buddy?" asked Ryu as he poured his friend another drink.

"To get...some...groceries."

"You just needed groceries?" said Rand incredulously.

"Why didn't you just use the lift-thingy?" Katt inquired.

"Actually, buddy, that IS what we built it for," explained Ryu. "For little things like that, so we don't have to go all the way down. It's too small for people, but we send a list down every other day for the grocer."

Nero was laughing out loud as Bow got up, screamed in fury, and stomped on the ground, hurting his already-sore legs. "A lift?!" he demanded. "A LIFT?!!!! I can't believe this!" Bow began pounding on the walls in frustration.

"Settle down there, sonny," Nero ordered him from behind the bar.

"I just walked up over a thousand steps when I could have used the LIFT!" Bow seemed disinclined towards settling down.

"Bow!" Ryu yelled. "Sit down!" Calming down, the Plainsrunner obeyed his friend's command. "Now you know about the lift. Next time you won't have to climb the stairs. Besides," he said with a pointed look, "it was good exercise for you, anyway."

The Ranger slammed his head down on the table.

Hours passed, and by nightfall Ryu was stumbling up the second floor stairway, arms around his childhood companion. Singing a drinking song they had learned in Highfort, the two shuffled aimlessly toward their rooms. "G'night, buddy," Bow said as he accidentally slammed his face into the doorframe.

"Yeah," Ryu agreed. "Good, uh---what you said." He finally turned the doorknob after a couple of tries, and staggered into his room, remembering to take his shirt off before flopping into bed.

Hours later, he awoke with a strangely uncomfortable feeling in his gut. Jumping out of bed and rushing over to the window, he made sure the panes were open before emptying the contents of his stomach out into the night air. The taste of bile mixed with dragonwater and beer filled his mouth and permeated his sense of smell. Wiping the remnants off of the corner of his mouth, he headed back for the bed, satisfied.

Just as he was nodding off, he was brought back to wakefulness by a light rapping at his door. Slowly rising once again, he walked over to the door, trying not to trip over his own feet.

"Yeah?" he prompted as he opened the door.

It was Nina. As he attempted to focus his eyes, he slurred, "Oh, uh, hi Nina. What're you...where've you been?"

"Sorry to wake you up, Ryu," she apologized.

"You didn't, not...not exactly."

She took her hands from behind her back, holding a long, flat object. "I made this for you. That's where I was all day."

"Oh," he said, accepting the object from her. He put it carelessly aside in his quarters, where it slid to the floor. "Uh, thanks."

"Aren't you going to look at it?"

"Woops! Sorry." He picked it up and looked at it. It was a painting of some sort, with reds and blues which seemed to blur together in his eyesight. "It's...beautiful."

"Oh!" She clutched her hands in front of her chest. "I'm so glad you like it! It's my gift of love to you."

Something didn't click right in Ryu's alcohol-fogged mind. "Uh...what?" He blinked.

"Let me come in. I'm going to stay with you tonight."

Now, normally, when an attractive woman offers to spend a night with one, one would most likely be a fool to turn the woman down. However, at this particular point Ryu was lucid enough to realize that not only was Nina's behavior somewhat abnormal, but that he was in no shape to entertain any guests of the female persuasion at this time due to the amount of liquor he had consumed.

"I don't think that's, uh, too good of an idea, Nina."

"What?!" She stomped her foot on the wooden floor. "Don't you love me!?"

"Nina, you're really weirding me out right now..." He belched.

"Don't you love me!!?"

"Just leave me alone!" he screamed. "I want to go to sleep!"

"I'm sorry," she moaned. She knelt down, drawing her body together in the fetal position. "I just want you to love me, that's all."

"Oh, God," he muttered, forgetting that God was now sealed up and unreachable. Had he not been so inebriated, he might have known what to do in such a situation, but now, he had neither the knowledge nor the patience to deal with it. "Nina, just go upstairs and go to sleep. Things'll be...better tomorrow." He shut the door and went back to bed.

Her muffled sobs floated through the door and into Ryu's ears. He smashed the pillow over his head, trying to silence them. Finally, he drifted into an unrefreshing slumber, oblivious to the small cries outside his door.

***

"The princess of Wyndia did this?" Jean questioned disbelievingly. "This cannot be true."

"My memory may be a bit fuzzy, due to the well, you know..." Ryu trailed off.

"Due to the fact that he was drunker than a Evan preacher before Sunday service," Katt finished.

"Watch it," warned the dragon mirthfully. "You're talking about my dad there."

"Uh-oh," said the Woren in mock dread.

"Why are you joking about this?" Jean leaned forward. "This is something truly serious, non?"

"Indeed," affirmed Ryu. "The next morning, I woke up with the mother of all hangovers..."

***

Ryu awoke. He wasn't feeling that bad. He just needed to go downstairs, make himself a cup of coffee, get some breakfast, and he'd be fine. He turned over in bed and instantly wished he hadn't. Trying to go back to sleep, eager for the cool blanket of unconsciousness, he felt an uncomfortable sensation and leapt up and ran to the window, trying to miss the windowsill as his stomach rejected more of the previous night's libations.

Feeling much better, he head back for the bed once again, trying to ignore the wash of pain that went through his skull. He lied down and sank back into sleep.

He awoke again with a bright sunbeam shining on his eyes. Turning his head out of the beam's range, he noticed that the splitting pain in his head had reduced to a mild twinge. Flipping over, he saw an image that shattered his resolve to continue sleeping.

The painting.

He had convinced himself in his waking moments that the last night's events had been an odd alcohol-induced dream, and that what he'd remembered could not possibly have really happened. Nina's painting, however, erased all likelihood of that. "Nina?" he asked weakly.

He sat up, holding his face with his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. Steeling himself, he raised his head and peered at the picture. It was either done very badly or done very well in a style he was unfamiliar with. It appeared to Ryu as if a child had painted it. A blue-and-red blur, most likely a representation of him, had its disproportionate arms around another blue blur with wings, leaving no doubt as to what it was supposed to be.

"Oh, God," he blasphemed.

With no idea how to deal with the current unusual situation, he left his quarters and headed for the kitchen, in search of coffee, which he still was in need of. As Ryu passed through the door, Nero, sitting behind the bar and holding his head, offered him a cup.

"I used the big pot," said the hermit, rubbing his face. "I figured we'd need it---I know I did." He took a huge gulp from his own mug. "Must be gettin' old."

The dragon mumbled a word of thanks as the old man filled his cup. "Anyone else up yet?"

"Yet? It's past noon. Everyone else's already been by here, 'cept for Bow, but he usually don't get up this early, anyway."

Ryu smiled as he tilted back his cup, then grimaced as the scalding liquid burned his tongue. "Still hot," he declared.

"I left the pot on the stove," Nero explained. "Cold coffee don't taste any good."

"Yeah," Ryu agreed. "Seen Nina?" he asked nonchalantly.

"A few hours ago," confessed the old man. "Don't know what she's up to, though."

"Hm," Ryu muttered. He had hoped that he would not be forced to revisit the last night's incident with her, but unfortunately, trying to avoid the winged girl would be difficult if he did not know where not to go. Certainly, he was likely to encounter her if he remained where he was.

Before he could finish that thought, the front door opened. Ryu's whole body was a tight coil of tension as he waited endlessly to see who the newcomer was.

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Destiny Defied

Part Two

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"Morning, Ryu!" It was Katt. Ryu moved from nervous tension to anxiety of a different sort. Showing no sign that the last night's activities had affected her adversely in any way, she strode boldly into the room, placed her hands on his shoulders, and massaged them roughly, saying, "Were you a bad boy last night?"

Ryu's mind jumped around, trying to glean the actual meaning of that phrase from the possibilities available. From the playful tone of her voice, he assumed that she referred to his drinking overly, and replied, "Mmm-hmm," craning his neck so she could knead all of his muscles.

"Well, I hope this big, bad dragon didn't forget that he promised to help me train today," she said, running her fingers under his hair.

"Mmmmm-hmm---D'oh!!"

"You mean you DID forget?" Her hands stopped moving.

"No, Katt," he stammered. "I didn't forget, exactly, it's just that I'm not...feeling my best right now."

"Then drink some water," Katt ordered without sympathy, removing her hands completely. "Nothing shakes off a hangover like some good exercise."

Clutching her hexad staff in one hand, she strutted outside. Chuckling, Nero handed the dragon a quart of water, which he drank greedily.

The air of the small forest enclave echoed with wooden clacks as Ryu and Katt exchanged blows. The dragon swung his wooden practice sword upward, blocking Katt's attack. She twisted her hexad staff around, using Ryu's sword as a lever, and swept the dragon's legs out from under him. Ryu tumbled to the ground.

"You're off your game today," she remarked.

"Must still be hung over," he offered as an excuse. "You'd think with a dragon's constitution, I would have gotten over it by now." He slowly got up, trying to ignore the still-present headache.

"But you're only half dragon, remember?" She swung another strike at his midsection.

"I guess you're right," he said as he blocked her thrust. "But you seem to be okay."

"Maybe your dragon-half's weighing you down," she suggested, throwing a blow at his head. He halted it in mid-swipe with his wooden sword. "Dragons are probably notoriously bad drinkers."

"It's possible," he admitted, unprepared as she launched a full-scale attack on him. He winced as she smacked him on the right leg, then fell down again after she thrust her staff into his abdomen.

She leapt on top of his subdued form, straddling him. "I win."

"Ow," he agreed.

"Oh no, did I hurt you again?" She leaned down to his face. "Seems like I still owe you a kiss from last time."

Suddenly Katt's mouth was mashed against his, kissing him with the same fierce fury she had shown in battle time and again. Ryu found himself reacting, leaning forward and sliding his arms around her back. Taking it, wisely or not, to the next level, he slipped his right hand underneath Katt's halter top, eliciting an eager moan from her.

Things might have gone further if not for the complications which regrettably ensued.

"GET OFF OF HIM!!"

Ryu, currently in the throes of a strange mixture of passion and nervousness, snapped his hands from Katt and placed them on the ground, clutching at the grass and hoping that if he lied still enough, he would disappear.

Sadly, he didn't.

"What are you doing, Ryu!?" Nina demanded, still out of the dragon's line of sight.

"Could you come back later?" Katt bristled. "We're busy."

"You tramp!" Nina shouted. "Trying to steal what's mine! Shiza!" Katt was knocked off of Ryu's torso by a blade of wind energy.

Ryu flipped over and stood upright. "What are you thinking?" he demanded of the Wyndian. "Katt's your friend, and mine. She's saved your life more than once, as well as Mina's---"

"She's a thief!" Nina shot back. "She's trying to steal you from me!"

"I'm not yours!" Ryu yelled in anger. "I'm not hers, either!" He breathed out slowly, trying to relax. "I'm my own man, Nina. Why are you doing this? It's crazy!"

Nina did not her the dragon's question, as she was chanting and charging up another magical spell. "Stop!" Ryu shouted and rushed her, tackling Nina and trying to break her concentration.

Trying to pry her hands apart, Ryu kept shouting in an attempt to disturb Nina's incantations. Unfortunately, his efforts merely shifted the target of the attack. He felt the dry shock of lightning as it hit him and Nina, then Ryu blacked out.

***

"That really hurt," Ryu elaborated.

"I took Ryu and Nina inside and had Bow see what he could do with them," Katt said, picking up the narrative. "He said they'd be fine, but I stayed with Ryu for six hours just to make sure."

Jean put down his beer. "Ahhh, a romantic rivalry is so...romantic, non?" He rested his feet on the table, then thought better of it and put them back on the ground. "But the princess, she has made it more serious, more violent. But pourquoi?"

"Alright," began Ryu, "I didn't understand that one. What did he say?"

"Don't ask me," Katt said. "I never understand anything he says."

"Oh, my friends," lamented the frog. "I simply wanted to know why the princess did such things."

"Ah." Ryu shifted around, trying to get more comfortable. "When I came to, it was already dark, and I was more than a little sore. I had to get away from Nina. Katt offered to come with me, and so we left together, in the middle of the night."

***

"Got everything?" asked the Woren.

"Just about," Ryu answered, picking up his sheathed longsword. "Don't wanna go traveling without my special friend." He drew the sword out and held the hilt up to his face, kissing it. "Isn't that right, baby? You're a good sword, aren't you?" The sword failed to respond.

"Cut that out," Katt commanded. "It's weird."

"Right," he said, strapping the blade to his back. "Let's go. We'll take the lift---it'll be faster."

"Ain't it dangerous?"

"I have some insurance if we need it."

Silently, the two crept down the stairs and out of the house, Ryu remembering to shut the front door slowly, as it had a habit of creaking. They walked to the edge of the cliff, where the TownShip's land abruptly ended, and Katt began pulling up the lift. Ryu, however, began heading in the opposite direction.

"Aren't you coming?"

"There's something I have to do first." He made his way to the well, where he knew his father still stood watch over Gate. As Ryu climbed down the ladder, he felt a sense of serenity come over him, as it always did when he entered the chamber. He thought it was odd that he felt serene when in the presence of a machine designed to run off of a human life-force. It must have been his father's influence, benevolently protecting his family and friends.

He approached his father, who appeared frozen in place inside of the life chamber. Ganer's eyes were closed, and his breathing was remarkably slow, but Ryu knew that he was still conscious and able to hear his words.

"Father, I'm going to be gone for a while. I wanted to say good-bye to you before I left."

Where are you going, Ryu? The priest's voice echoed around the chamber, and though Ryu knew no one outside of the room could hear it, he still felt uneasy.

"Things have become...unstable around here. Katt and I are taking our leave of TownShip."

Oh, my son! Ganer's voice reverberated loudly. Running off with a young woman? You make your old man proud.

Ryu stifled a laugh. "It's not that simple, Dad. Nina's changed somehow, and she won't leave me alone. I don't know what else to do."

You do have a way with the ladies, don't you? If only your mother were alive to see this!.. Ryu knew that if his father were able to move, there would be a large grin on Ganer's weathered face at that moment.

Still, that Katt is quite a vixen, his father added. I'm not too surprised you chose her. But, if you'd played your cards right, you could have had them both.

"What?"

Isn't that every young man's dream? Two attractive young ladies at the same time? If I was in your place...let's just say that the word "simultaneous" would describe what would happen.

Evidently, the ten years Ganer had spent locked in the basement of Evrai had given the old priest plenty of time to cook up certain fantasies for himself. "Dad...I'm leaving now. I'm sure Patty---Yua will come see you soon."

"Let's all get together...," Ganer sang, apparently not hearing his son's farewell. "You know that we're gonna beee, you two, and mee..."

Ryu headed back up the ladder, attempting unsuccessfully to keep the look of disgust off of his face. As he approached Katt, he saw that she had hauled the empty lift up to the top of the cliff face.

"What were you doing?" the Woren asked.

"Just saying good-bye to Dad," he replied. "He seemed to have been pretty occupied guarding the Gate, though." He started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

Ryu got on the small wooden platform, remembering to hold on to the rope which attached it to the pulley. Katt clambered on beside him, accepting the dragon's outstretched hand. With one arm around her, Ryu let go of the rope, and the lift lowered slowly down. About one-quarter of the way down the cliff, the lift ceased moving altogether.

"What's going on?" Katt asked.

"Probably the counterweight is too heavy for us to get the rest of the way down," explained Ryu.

Katt began jumping up and down. "Move, dammit!"

"Whoa! Hey!" Ryu held on to the rope for dear life, hoping that Katt's rash action wouldn't cause the lift to capsize. "I told you I had it covered, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. What're you gonna do?"

"Climb onto my back." As Katt complied, Ryu steeled his emotions, preparing to leap off of the wooden platform. The Woren let out a cry of shock as he did so. Concentrating, Ryu pulled his energies inward and changed form.

Trying to subdue the cry of triumph he would normally bellow as he felt the newfound sense of freedom, the dragon soared over the town of Gate, heading for the road that led to the beach. Knowing that he would not long be able to maintain his dragon body, Ryu swooped down quickly. Feeling his energies leaving him, he landed as fast as possible, his clawed feet touching the dirt road just as he lost the ability to control his transformation. Ryu, back in his human form, staggered as Katt pushed off of his back.

"That was close," the dragon remarked.

***

"Un moment, my friend," interjected Jean. "If you could fly down from such a height, why did you not simply do so to save Bow as you dangled from the so-unstable rope?"

"What?" said Ryu, confused.

"That's a good question," Katt agreed. "Why didn't you just change into a dragon then?"

"I guess I just didn't think of it," he explained. "It takes a lot of concentration for me to change form, since I'm only half-dragon, and when Katt and I went down, I had been preparing for it. When Bow fell off of the stairway, I suppose in the heat of the moment, I wasn't able to summon up my will."

"I see," Jean said.

***

Ryu held up the Whale Bell as he and Katt stood together upon the beach. Ryu heard a disturbance in the ocean, signaling Grandpa Whale's response. The water surged away in large waves as the gigantic sea mammal surfaced.

"WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU, FRIENDS?" Grandpa's voice powerfully broke the natural atmosphere of the ocean.

"Please take us to Wisdon, Grandpa," Ryu requested.

"CERTAINLY. CLIMB ABOARD." The whale lowered himself, allowing the two to clamber on top of him. When they were securely on, he swam southwest, heading for the ancient home of the immortal Bleu.

The journey was swift, as Ryu had come to expect from several voyages atop the huge whale. Ryu felt the arid air of the desert mix in with the salty sea breeze, and he knew they were nearing the desert of Wisdon, which was south of the Highfort. The sun was just peeking over the horizon as the whale pulled into the beach on the southern side of the desert.

"Thank you," Katt told the whale as the two jumped off his great backside.

"NO PROBLEM. CALL IF YOU NEED ME AGAIN." With that, the whale submerged himself and swam off, likely to get some well-deserved rest.

Ryu tried to stretch out his legs as he and Katt traversed the desert. The problem with finding Bleu's cave was that it was not visible to the eye. The only way they had found it before was when Jean had fallen in while wandering off away from the others. Following the confused prince's voice, Ryu and his companions had discovered the ancient sorceress's concealed home.

"Heads up!" Katt shouted as two lizardmen, denizens of the desert, approached. Ryu drew his trusty sword from its sheath on his back and readied himself for their attack.

Katt dodged around the one on the right, smacking his face with her hexad staff. Ryu parried the second's blow, then swiftly ran him through. Katt finished the job by beating her foe senseless.

"Short work," he commented.

"Yup," she agreed.

They moved on, Ryu straining his eyes to spot some sort of difference in the terrain that would indicate the entrance. He noticed a small rock which didn't seem to fit in.

"Katt," he said. "See that boulder? Walk to the other side for me."

Katt did as he asked, and after the Woren reach a certain point, she disappeared. Ryu shouted in triumph. Success!

"This is it, Katt," he called as he moved toward the rock. "Follow me in from this side."

As Ryu penetrated the illusion, he felt a strange sensation. He knew that Bleu did not guard her sanctum with magical wards, so he pressed on, unperturbed. As the unnatural darkness disappeared, he saw the outer cave of Bleu's home, hosted by the three strange spirits which he come to know.

The interior of the cave was much tidier than it had been the last time he had visited. The centuries-old trash that had littered it was now gone, making it a much more pleasant environment. One of the spirits approached him.

"Master Ryu, may I help you?" He realized that he couldn't tell the spirits apart, and had no idea which one addressed him.

"Is Bleu in, uh---which one are you?"

"I am Liquid Spirit, sir. I shall summon the mistress at once."

The ghost vanished, leaving Ryu alone in the room. At that instant, Katt tumbled in, eyes closed, flailing wildly around with her staff and arms.

"Ryu? Are you there? I can't see!"

"Open your eyes, Katt." Ryu grabbed her arm, reassuring her of his presence.

"Oh! I forgot." She took in the surroundings, noting the difference just as Ryu had. "Cleaner, huh?"

"Wonderful, isn't it?" Bleu's voice inquired from the door in the back of the room. "Ryu, did you miss me?" The Indigo's voice had a self-satisfied quality to it as she confiedently gyrated through the opening.

"Don't even start that," Katt warned.

"But he's my favorite dragon in the whole world," Bleu protested as she slithered closer to Ryu. Ryu gently wriggled free of her extraordinarily friendly hug before Katt decided to take matters into her own hands.

Bleu took a step back. "So, what brings the cutest dragon this side of Parma," she noticed Katt "---oh, and you, to my semi-clean homestead?"

"Actually, Bleu---" Ryu began before Katt could respond.

"Oh, mistress?" called one of the spirits. Ryu stomped his foot down, angry at the interruption.

"Yes, Gaseous?" Ryu had no idea how Bleu could differentiate her servants.

"You weren't going to throw away these five-thousand-year-old spellbooks, were you?" Gaseous Spirit's voice had a scolding tone to it.

"So what if I was?" Bleu replied curtly. "They're mine to do with as I please."

"Oh, mistress," the spirit admonished. "You could at least donate them to a library, or sell them, but don't just throw them out."

"Fine," Bleu said irritably. "Do whatever you want with them." She motioned for Katt and Ryu to follow her into the back. "Now that that's over with," she began, bringing out three cups and serving her guests coffee, as good hostesses do, "what can I do for you?"

"It's pretty complicated, actually..."

***

Ryu halted his narration. "Meanwhile, something else that Katt and I were unaware of had happened the morning after we left the TownShip..."

***

Patty hefted herself out of the well, very confused. Hoping that one of Ryu's friends would know what was going on, she walked up the stairs to the large house in the center of the TownShip.

"Patty!" A shrill voice stopped her progress.

"What is it, Nina?"

The winged princess looked at her cockeyed. "Have you seen Ryu?"

"Nope, but I wanted t' ask you about somethin'..." Seeing that Nina's attention had wandered after she'd said the word "nope," Patty stopped speaking.

Nina soared up above the house, looking down and around the TownShip. "Ryu!" she called accusingly. "Where are you?!"

"Hey, Nina!"

"What?!" she answered without actually looking down or stopping her search.

"I think something's wrong with Dad. Could you come take a look at him?"

Nina paused. "Your father....I'll bet he knows where Ryu is! Let's go!" Nina swiftly angled down towards the well. Running to catch up, Patty climbed down the ladder just after the princess had flown in.

Ganer was, just as Patty had heard before, singing a strange chant. Nina screamed over the not-quite-in-tune song, "Ganer! Have you seen Ryu?!" Unfazed, the old priest continued singing the unusual song, his lips not actually moving.

You! And me! And her----simultaneous

You! And me! And her----simultaneous

You! And me! And her----simultaneous lovin'...

"Ganer!!" Nina screamed angrily. "Listen to me!"

"What's he singin', anyway?" asked Patty.

Nina listened to the repeating words. "Simultaneous!?!" She narrowed her eyes. "Ryu's at Wisdon!"

Patty scratched her head. "How d'ya figure that?"

It was too late for Patty to receive an explanation, however, because Nina had already exited the chamber. Patty raced to the ladder, hoping to find out what exactly was happening.

As her head cleared the lip of the well, she saw that Nina had already summoned the Great Bird, actually her sister Mina locked in the form of the ancient Wyndians. Mina squawked and took off, soaring at speeds most humans, including members of the Wing Clan, could only dream of.

Patty, however, was not in that majority. Curious, she spread her own bat-like wings and jumped into the air. Maybe whatever Nina had been babbling about actually related to her father's unusual condition.

***

"...and then we rode Grandpa Whale all the way here," Ryu finished.

"Interesting," Bleu began, pouring her guest another cup. "but not surprising."

"Whaddaya mean?" Katt demanded.

"Nina's obsession with you, Ryu, is a malignant manifestation of her destiny," Bleu explained. "Certain parameters defined by the traditional sequence of the destined cycle have not been achieved."

"Huh?"

Bleu sighed. "Okay, look at it this way---you know that there have been several other Ryus besides yourself, right?"

Ryu shook his head. "Actually, no, I didn't know that."

"Oh, Ladon. This is the way it works: at several points throughout history and pre-history, threats to our planetary welfare have come up. Each time this happens, a certain force which protects our world---we call it 'destiny' as a convenience---distributes itself into specific individuals. These people each have a bit of this power in them, to a greater or lesser degree. The one individual with the greatest amount of this power inside, what I like to term as the 'cycle focus,' is Ryu.

"That word is more than just a man's name---it is a definition. You could also call it an adjective of sorts." Bleu stopped to take a drink of coffee.

Ryu's eyes widened as he began to grasp the concept. "So when I say, 'I'm Ryu...'"

"You're not just telling someone your name," Bleu finished. "You're also explaining what you are. In a sense, when you say, 'I am ryu,' you are describing the ultimate level of your being. Naturally, most people would not understand this idea, and they take the statement at face value."

"Naturally," Katt mimicked, peeved at the sorceress's superior tone.

"Which brings me to the next point," Bleu said, with a hint of irritability, flicking Katt's leg with her tail in what seemed to be a totally innocent accident. "In each of these cycles, there is not only a Ryu, but a Nina as well."

"What does that mean?" asked Ryu.

"The word 'nina' means 'to accompany' in the language of the gods." Ryu chose to let Bleu continue her explanation, rather than to ask how she knew the language the gods spoke. "The basic breakdown of the typical cycle is this: A threat to the world is ascertained, the 'destined force' selects those it will inhabit to combat it, and creates ryu as well."

"Creates Ryu? What are you talking about?" Katt inquired.

"I told you that this natural force infuses itself into people, and that is true. With ryu this process is slightly different. Destiny not only selects who will be ryu, but also changes the individual's vital makeup. Therefore, not only will the cycle focus be ryu, but he will also be Ryu. Do you understand?"

"Not a bit," Ryu affirmed.

"What I mean is, the focus will be ryu, the word, and he will also be Ryu, the man. You may not look or be the same person now as you were when you grew inside your mother."

"Okay..." Ryu said dubiously.

"It may seem farfetched, but it's the truth. To continue, the ryu will locate the other focuses....foci..." Bleu stopped. "Which one is it?"

"I don't care," Katt stated.

"Anyway, Ryu will find these other foc---people through random occurrences which seem to be pure chance, but, of course, they are not. Together, these people will abate the threat. Along the way, Ryu usually hooks up with Nina, and they get married, or before the concept of marriage, they 'shacked up' or whatever you like to call it."

Ryu perked up. "You said 'usually.' So Nina and Ryu don't always end up together?"

"No," Bleu answered. "If Nina dies throughout the course of the cycle, then obviously Ryu will be more...open to other options. I've scored a couple Ryus myself." With this, she seductively winked at the dragon.

"But Nina isn't dead," said Ryu. "Why am I not more attracted to her?"

"I couldn't tell you that," Bleu admitted. "Perhaps it's because you have other suitable choices available?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"She means us, you dummy!" Katt exclaimed as she struck the back of his head with her palm. "Her and me."

"Oh, yeah."

"No, that can't be it," Bleu said, answering her own question. "I've been around for a lot of the cycles. Ryu's never shown more interest in me than in Nina before---not while she was alive, anyway."

"Maybe it's 'cause he's only half dragon!" Katt suggested.

"That could be it," Bleu allowed. "If your DNA isn't completely draconian, the 'destined force' could have had difficulty properly aligning your psychological predispositions."

"What?" Ryu was glad that Katt had said it before he could.

"It's technical stuff. Let's just say that your half-dragon body structure probably had a hand in your not liking winged girls as much as your predecessors."

One of Bleu's misty servants popped into view. "Mistress Bleu?"

"What is it, Solid? It's not about those damned books again, is it?"

Solid Spirit looked slightly shamefaced. "No, Mistress. The Princess of Wyndia is currently making quite a ruckus outside. You might want to investigate this personally."

Ryu leapt to his feet. "How did she know we were here?"

"God works in mysterious ways," Katt said angrily.

"Not God," Bleu corrected. "Rather, you might say that she feels differently about your destiny than you, Ryu."

"This ends now," Ryu muttered, his eyes narrowing.

"Great Ladon! You're not going to kill her, are you? That would be extremely bad form, not to mention very messy." Bleu's words went without reply as Ryu purposefully strode outside, stopping to pick up a handy rope out of a pile of trash that had not yet been cleared out. Katt hurriedly followed the dragon, and Bleu slithered as quickly as she could behind them.

"Nina!" Ryu called into the arid air. "Let's finish this!"

Nina dismounted the great bird, taking a second to dust the sand of the desert off of her skirt. "What are you doing here, Ryu?"

"Whatever I want to!" he expostulated. "It's none of your business!"

"You're mine!" she screamed, rushing him. Ryu, prepared for this tactic, dodged to the side and looped his rope around her. Binding the princess's arms to her sides, he tied the end in a fierce knot and pushed her to the ground. She thrashed around, trying to get free, to no avail.

"What's goin' on here?" Patty questioned, lowering herself to the ground. "GOD DAMN! Brother, what is this?"

"Nina's just going a little crazy on us," Katt answered for him.

"How did she know how to find us, though?" Ryu wondered.

"I dunno," Patty said. "She heard Dad goin' on about some simultaneous somethin' or other."

"Simultaneous?" Katt asked.

"Don't try to deny it, you slut!" Nina shouted. "You know that you and Bleu were going to take my precious Ryu and do weird, perverted sex acts with him!"

"What?" Katt uttered in complete confusion. "I'd never even thought about that...hmm..."

"Some interesting possibilities just occurred to me," Bleu stated thoughtfully. "I'm up for it if you are."

"Well I'm NOT!" Ryu said. "I was raised in a church, you know! My father, well, never mind. Actually, it's strangely disturbing how Nina and my father seem to think along the same lines."

"Oh, gross!" Patty exclaimed. "That's what Dad was singing about!"

Ryu stuck up for his old man. "He did spend ten years stuck in the basement of a church hooked up to a machine which ran off his life energy with no human contact, you know."

Patty looked at him. "Yeah, and Mom died, well, not really died, but, you know, when we were pretty young, too."

"You know, Nina, I'll bet Ryu's dad'd be a great match for you!" Katt smirked.

"Ryu's mine! You leave him alone!" Nina tried to shift herself to face the dragon. "Ryu, if you love me you'll untie me now."

"Nina, not to hurt your feelings or anything, but I don't love you and I'm not yours." Ryu leaned down as close as he wanted to get to her face. "Get over it!"

Nina began to sniffle. "I'm not falling for that one," the dragon warned. "Let's get out of here, Katt."

"Where are you going?" asked Patty.

"I'm not telling," Ryu replied. "That way she won't be able to follow us. Bleu, would you watch her for a while?"

"Sure thing, stud." Bleu winked. "If you're ever ready to go for that 'simultaneous' thing, I'll be more than happy to oblige."

At a loss for words, Ryu could think of nothing else to say but, "Whatever." He hopped on Mina's back, lifting Katt up after he got himself settled. He signaled the great bird to take off after his companion was ready. Mina spread her wings and flew, taking the two farther away until Bleu could no longer see them.

"Maybe you and I could take on Bow..." Bleu suggested to Patty.

***

"Is that all, mes amis?"

"Pretty much," Ryu said. "We flew around for a couple of days, trying to throw Nina off our trail, just in case she escaped Bleu's clutches."

"Cannot the princess use her magic to find you?"

"We thought about that," Katt answered. "For some reason, she never seemed to be able to warp right here. She always went to the other side of the lake."

Jean nodded, knowing that to be true.

"It's getting kind of late, Jean," said Ryu. "Could we stay in the guest room---you know, the one by the general store?"

Jean stood up. "It has been made ready for you, my friend. I ordered it so the moment you came."

"Thanks, pal." Ryu and Katt both got up and walked out of the room, Ryu giving the Woren a sharp slap on the posterior as she exited the door. Jean wondered how much sleeping would actually be going on in the guest room. Sighing, he resumed his seat alone at the table. As he drained the last contents of his mug, he heard a huge crash, followed by angry screams from several people outside the inn.

Jean smiled. He had such interesting friends.