Platinum Dream

Disclaimer: There are those who are and aren’t ours; you know who are and aren’t. Those who aren’t belong to Sony Computer Entertainment America from their video game ‘Legend of Dragoon’.
Thank you.

Maizoon I’Ren and Company

Introduction

"Shadow is all I see within thou, Wingly.”
Lloyd Toriyani opened his eyes and tried looking about. His surroundings were black and he was lying down in the midst of them. As he sat up and began to rise to his feet, he realized he was alone, save for one figure off in the shadowy distance. Her body seemed to glow, as though a beacon in the darkness. Her tiny frame was clad in the elaborate robes of a Wingly, though he knew that she was not of Wingly descent. The first clue was that her hair was the color of golden sunlight instead of the platinum or silver hair color that the Wingly race was known for. It cascaded down her back to her knees and appeared to be blowing around her in an unfelt wind. She turned her delicate head gracefully on her neck and looked directly at him, her eyes slanted and an incredibly deep shade of amethyst purple, deep pools that reflected galaxies of different colors in them instead of the normal pupil. Her upper eyelids had drawn attention to themselves by means of a pair of markings in deep violet along them from corner to corner, making it appear as though she had thick eye shadow on. Her entire body turned toward him, revealing tanned skin with a slight mahogany sheen to it. About her dainty throat was a thin gold chain from which hung a small red pendant in the shape of a Ruby Serpent. Her ears were slightly pointed near the tops, her left one having a silver stud earring at the bottom of the lobe and a silver hoop at the top, a platinum ear cuff in between the two and connected to the hoop with a nearly invisible gold chain. Her figure was hidden by the excessive amount of robes, yet he somehow knew what it was like; thin and slightly serpentine. She was a short creature, standing straight at five feet and three inches just barely. Her race was dragon, Ruby Serpent to be precise.
He seemed so stunned by her appearance that he barely heard her say as she raised her delicate hand to point to him, "I condemn thou to a life of sad remembrances. See them and remember what it is that thou really are; a murderer. The stereotypical Wingly of old."
Lloyd wanted to open his mouth to speak to her, to tell her that it was not her normal voice she spoke in-her normal voice was always accompanied with a heavy Scottish or Irish accent-but the ground or air or whatever it was that was supporting him gave way and he fell through the darkness, watching her watch him as she disappeared from sight. He closed his eyes before looking up and seeing the ground rush up at him, causing him to execute a neat flip and land on his feet. He stood up as color and sound began to fade into existence around him, his eyes of fire scanning his surroundings and trying to figure out what was going on.
It was a scene he remembered quite well, though he had taken no part in it; he was remembering the massacre of the Cormada family, easily one of the largest and most powerful families of dragons on the world of Endiness. When put together, the Cormadas totaled an immense number of five hundred and two individuals in only two generations; mother, father, and hatchlings. It was easily understood why this family was feared as much as it was and why, in the end, a rallied group of Winglies and humans pressed onwards to annihilate them.
Lloyd knew nothing would have happened had it not been for him, the middle child of six. His egocentric abusive jackass of a father had discovered that the one son he hated had fallen in love with something other than one of his own race and, to top it off, that 'something' was the favorite daughter of the head of the Cormada family, Jaqoschumae Cormada.
The monstrous height of the man and the inability to show emotion at all physically made many nervous, yet not so nervous that they had not shortened his name to something simpler and easier to pronounce; 'Jake'. He had not been present during the massacre of his family for he had been presumed dead several months before the slaughter. Jaqyleen, his mate and one of the last Ruby Serpents pure of blood, had fallen ill, causing his favored daughter, the middle and only normal seeming one, to come back to the nest and tend to her sick mother.
It was that maid Lloyd had fallen for as he rescued her from a band of thieves that had attacked her on the way back from wherever it was she had come from. While escorting the grateful young girl, he had to leave suddenly for fear that the lessons that had been beaten into his head by his father would take over and he would end up hurting the little dragon maid. That was something he did not want to do. Unfortunately, he found out later that the girl he had protected was the daughter of one of his father's most loathed rivals and Eikroe was not a very forgiving man.
As soon as he found out about his son's little love interest, he vowed that this was a beating Lloyd would never forget. And so father dragged son from the house despite his wife and other childrens' pleas to let him be and even took out the second eldest child, Kyro, when he attempted to barricade the path to the front door. It was a feat indeed to take down Kyrotsun; he might not have been the eldest, but he was the tallest and least likely to get beaten in a fight and fight he did for his younger sibling. And if Eikroe could take out Kyro, that was that; his mind was set.
As they walked into one of the nearby human capitals, Eikroe informed Lloyd of this punishment; he was going to sit and watch while his father gathered a small group and slaughtered the entire family of Cormadas before him. The horror of that would make him think twice of falling in love with something as impure as a dragon whereas he could find a nice little girl Wingly back home.
By nightfall, a troop of humans and Winglies, all with bones to pick with the Cormadas anyway, marched their way to the nest site the brood of dragons was said to reside. Through the pines and in the clearing ahead, Lloyd's eyes fell on the grand family he so desperately wanted to be a part of and, even though he knew his father would severely beat him later for it, he yelled out a warning to the inhabitants of the glade.
Two shadows dropped from the trees around them and disappeared again into the mass before the light of the torches the humans were holding or the balls of fire in the clutches of some of the Winglies could shed some identification on who or what they were. Lloyd's eyes sparkled as he heard a demented laugh and saw a few people fall behind him in the uneven shadows cast by the firelight; the shadows were the destructive twins, Raijue and Aijue Cormada. Thanks to Lloyd's warning, they had the element of surprise as an advantage and attacked the group advancing toward them with the intent to shatter their family's peaceful life. Sadly, the surprise did not last long though the twins decimated a good portion of the intruders before Eikroe led his side into battle against the rest of the inhabitants of the glade, all of which were unarmed. With the twins busy, it would be infinitely easier to kill the rest of the family, though it would be unfair for them since their last protector had fallen ill to the point that she could not move much.
Eikroe surveyed his progress, obviously surprised that the dragons were still fighting and that most were rather impressive hand-to-hand combatants before placing a heavy binding spell on his son and joining in the fighting, helping his side out considerably. Lloyd could not even talk so much as move, wishing that he could move and help out if not call out warnings to the unsuspecting family around him. It was then he caught sight of something red fluttering in the wind, the heated wind that the humans and Winglies that had been killed by the twins created as they dropped their torches and fireballs, setting the surrounding foliage on fire. The red thing shifted a bit to one side, then the other, and soon she rose from the ground, tears staining her face and mingling with gold blood as it trickled its way down her face from a small gash in her forehead over one eyebrow. She set her eyes on him and glared.
"Ye did this..." she snarled at him and he tried increasingly hard to retort, though he could not. "Ye sent 'em an' now we'll all perish 'cause o' ye!" He wanted to hit the ground in front of her and explain it all. He wanted her to not hate him for this and as his own tears began to form, she continued with words that stabbed him through as though they formed a sword; "Wha' 'ave we e'er done to ye?!"
It was Aijue, bleeding profusely from a gaping wound in her middle section and missing her twin, who crawled forward and whispered, "It was Raijue's dying wish..." and uttered the counter-spell to let the captive Wingly go before she too fell and joined Raijue in death. As he relaxed and was released from the binding spell, he saw and understood why she had done it as he noticed the gleam from the growing flames off the blade of a broadsword rising from the fiery darkness beyond the dragon maid before him. He wasted no time as he ran forward in an attempt to push her out of the way of the deathblow and he knew the blow from the sword would most definitely kill her; it was his father wielding that blade. He ignited his wings and blazed forward, colliding into her and pushing her out of harm's way, though he did not get himself far enough away as he felt the tip of the sword cut through his leather shirt to his skin beneath. The last thing he remembered was seeing her fall and land in a stream that flowed through the glade, his ears picking up the sound of the splash. He was happy that he could save at least one if not all.
The wound in his side was a minor injury and so it did not hinder his ability to fight for the dragons, making a huge attempt to save who he could. Unfortunately, his father's numbers overpowered the rest and in the end it seemed as though the girl he had saved earlier would be the only survivor. He finally had to admit defeat like the remainders of the Cormadas and his father found him near the corpse of Aijue, shedding tears for the loss of the family, for something as very innocent as ninety-nine percent of the dragons that had been murdered. Eikroe did not care what he was crying for; Lloyd was crying and in his household, that was bad. It showed weakness and though his son struggled and fought against him as he drug him from the holocaust, he was soon unresponsive from the beating he received later for his interference. The beating itself had been so incredible, it was a miracle the young Wingly recovered to his normal self later in time to watch his mother literally kill Eikroe for everything he had done. Obviously, it was the last straw with her...
The very moment he felt himself cower as his father raised his hand above his head outside the burning nest, his eyes closed and then snapped open again. He was in one of the hotel rooms in Lohan, lying on his side in the typical cowering position. His breath was heavy as though he truly expected to be struck and his arms were up as though protecting his face from some invisible assailant. When the attack never came, he relaxed and sat up cautiously. His fiery eyes scanned the room and he could easily see all four walls about him. With a deep breath, he looked over the side of the mattress and under the bed, then over the footboard, his hand constantly on the hilt of the dagger he kept with him at all times. It was probably silly to a lot of people if they did not know him and caught him in this act, but if one knew the hell he lived and the nightmares he suffered they would understand.
When he had calmed himself down and confirmed the fact that he was alone, he laid back down and stretched his body out again under the blankets of the bed. He took a deep breath to calm himself further, the fingers of one hand compulsively clutching about the pendant on the leather thong about his throat before the darkness and the hour of the night took him again and he fell asleep. His dreams again began to flit through his mind and this time they were not nightmares but of his mother, sweet adoring Izanya who helped him live the happier years of his life before her own tragic demise...

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Little did Lloyd know that the dragon he had saved that fateful night had indeed gotten away alive and well thanks to him. In fact, she was sleeping with her head against the wall directly opposite from his. Back then, she had floated down the stream which turned out to be a tributary that flowed west into a larger creek, then a river which flowed through the Wingly Village in the Evergreen Forest. Somewhere on her watery journey, she had knocked her head on something and was unconscious when the Winglies in the village fished her from the water. They were kind to her and helped return her to her normal health. Upon discovering she was of the Cormada family, they felt sympathy for her loss and invited her to stay with them, seeing as now she had no home to return to or a family that would welcome her back. Blano, the son of the ancestor at that time, adopted her as a sister of his and thus she had lived for a few hundred years after that.
Then the ancestor had passed away and Blano took the role of Wingly Ancestor and she was known as the Ancestor's Sister instead of by her name, Saiyjone. Even long after her family's mass murder, she had horrid nightmares of that night, only to awaken and find Blano nearby and ready to comfort her. More centuries passed them by and Blano began to age until the Winglies he served forgot the beginning relationship between the resident dragon maid and their ancestor and began seeing the two more of a father and daughter and Blano even acted on that many a time.
One of the most recent examples was of the Endiness Hero's Competition thirty years before the present moment. Saiyjone wanted to join it and prove her skills when she had caught wind of it whilst shopping in Furni, yet for that year and the seventeen years that followed, Blano was skeptical about it and disagreed with her proposition to join. It was the eighteenth year she asked that he caved in and told her that it was alright then as long as she was careful. He was afraid that some of the Winglies from the massacre party could still be around and remember her. From there, they would most definitely kill her on the spot.
And so she joined the Competition the eighteenth year it ran. Of course, the competitors were all human so they were defeated with barely any effort. Only the last three contenders she went against needed to be hit by a little magic before they were taken down. She walked away from Lohan that year with the title 'Strongest in the World' and an invitation to return the next year. She returned to the Winglies with news of her success and assured Blano that she would lie low to protect herself despite the invite to go back to Lohan the following year. And so went the pattern of every other year until she was certain that the remainders of the massacre party were either dead or forgot about the entire thing. So it had been for the past decade now; for ten straight years, almost eleven, she was the defending, undefeatable, invincible champion of Endiness of the sport of beating the shit out of each other. And that was why she was in Lohan now; the following day was the Hero Competition and she was going out there to have fun and defend her title.
There was another reason she was known for in the Competition; it was not only her constant success so much as it was she was a woman. She was the only woman on the planet of Endiness as far as she knew that signed up in the Competition and won. She was known throughout the world due to a couple new pieces of technology called the printing press and big clunky looking boxes they called 'cameras'. Wonders and marvels the cameras were, able to still a moment in time on a special piece of light-sensitive paper that was placed inside the boxes. They took what was called 'photographs' and when these photographs were developed, they showed a certain moment in time or a certain person's face or even a group of people...the possibilities were endless with these things. The country of Serdio had a running newsletter about the happenings in the world, printed in bulk with the printing press and passed out to the inhabitants of cities or to travelers. Because of this, people everywhere knew Saiyjone's face and knew her name and what country she originated from. If the members of the massacre party had not sought her out then, they never would.
Now, sunlight was beginning to creep across the streets of Lohan and through windows, the light pouring into Saiyjone's hotel room and falling on her bed. She did not wake until the light hit her square in the face and made her lift her naked little body from the haven of the blankets sleepily, trudging across the room after waking up a little bit more and grasping a robe of Wingly silk nearby, wrapping herself in it and tying it shut. From there, she moved sluggishly to a set of tea on a fine wood table in one corner, the set she had gotten from the front desk the previous evening.
As soon as she held the metal pot in her hands, she moved to the fireplace, threw some wood on the dying embers before looking around to make sure she was indeed alone in her room before blowing on the glowing remains of the fire from the night before. In two seconds precisely, a blazing fire had lifted from the wood and engulfed it, claiming the fuel and turning it black. She set the teapot over the blaze and waited for the pot to give its trademark whistle when the water was ready. When it did, she removed it from the heat carefully, placed a teabag in the boiling water and waited a little while longer as she took the teacup and rinsed it in a small sink nearby on the same wall as the table-Endiness had used indoor plumbing and the heated water systems for what felt like eons-before pouring the now ready tea into the clean cup. There, she sat and drank her tea, clearing her mind and getting her thoughts together. This was the quietest moment of her day; the rest would be hellish, no doubt.
When the cup had been drained at least twice of tea, she set the tea things aside and began moving toward the bathroom section of the room, setting out the simple cotton one-piece gown she was going to wear that day. That gown was famous; she used it as a bit of a challenge for herself to not dirty it or harm it while she fought. She placed her chosen outfit on the mattress of the bed and shed her robe as she turned on the water to get it warmed up. When the water was at the proper temperature, she slid into it and proceeded to clean herself. She was grateful to feel the dirt and grime from the day before wash away and she turned the water off and slid out, wrapping herself in a fine cotton towel and making her way back to the bed.
She opened a drawer in the nightstand and pulled from it a bottle of scented oil from a long-time fan of hers, twisting the stopper off the glass bottle and sniffing the contents. She gave a chuckle as she recognized the scent.
"Aye. Shadow roses..." she murmured, dabbing it in places on her body and rubbing it in. Naturally, she did not need it for that fan; he had been a Wingly and wanted to marry her, he was such a huge fan of her. Her natural scent was of shadow roses, though it was so faint that only Winglies and other dragons could really pick it up. She would use the oil for the simple purpose of letting humans get a whiff of her tell-tale scent. As she recorked the bottle, she began to giggle, realizing what a tease she was.
But than again, that was why he loved her; she was always willing to tease him lightly after a hard day of diplomatic meetings and the like. She fell silent as she remembered the feeling of his arms around her waist, his lips romantically on the skin on the back of her hand as he 'captured' her finally, and the sounds of his laugh with hers. The memories brought tears to her eyes but...but that had been such a long time ago and it surprised her that she could still cry over it.
She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath to gather herself. This was supposed to be a day of leisure, not sadness. The events that were to happen later renewed themselves in her mind and the life she left behind disappeared though not for good. The memories would resurface as she knew they always did. However, she bounded around her room, dressing herself and readying herself, singing some weird impromptu song about getting dressed and ready for the big day ahead.

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The rattling of the water pipes in the wall next to his head was what stirred Lloyd awake, pushing him from his dreams to the reality that lay ahead. He rolled over and looked out the window, sighing. What a long fucking night. He rolled back over so that now he was laying half on and half off the bed, his face buried in the pillow, and he let gravity take effect and roll him all the way out and onto the wood floor.
The landing would not have been so bad had it not been for the fact that he landed with the arch of his back on his boots, forcing him to roll over further to exceed any further hindrance from keeping him off the cold hard floor. He murmured an inaudible greeting to the wood before pushing himself up to a sitting position, weaving violently to one side for a second. It was so early in the morning and this Wingly was not a morning person. When he finally managed to sit up without swaying too much, he shook his head, his platinum locks falling messily about.
Of course, his hair would have been neater and a little bit longer if his idiot younger brother, Lycorasi, had not attempted to cut it the night before while drunk. That had been a disaster waiting to happen; a drunken Wingly with a pair of scissors. So, naturally, they got the older brother drunk as well and had at it.
He sneezed and the smell that smacked his sensitive olfactory system was that of the good hard liquor out of his eldest brother's bar, Kyro's. Kyrotsun was a monster of a Wingly, one who could rival Jaqoschumae Cormada's eight and a half foot height with his own eight feet and four inches. What a perfect barkeep and bar owner if there ever was one on the mean streets of Lohan. The sneeze had also brought on something else; a slight headache and ear ache, along with the sudden realization that he was sensitive to light now, as well. Oh boy; he had a slight hangover.
His head hung slightly. "Jolly good fun..." he murmured, imitating a rather poor British accent before the thought hit him. He pulled himself to his feet and staggered across the room to the mirror on the vanity to see the damage Lyco had done in his drunken stupor.
He was rather amazed with the new do; he had to admit that even when drunk, his younger brother was pretty decent with scissors. Guaranteed, it was uneven in some places but it was not bad enough that he had to cut it short again. He ran his fingers through his hair then, letting it fall where it willed before stumbling across the room to a chair and sitting down, wondering if he should visit Kyro again before heading back to Kazas or sit around and do nothing until about noon. As he again pulled himself to his feet, he thought that his choices made things easily decided.
After a quick clean-up and freshening, he sat down, pulled his boots on and snapped them into place before he got up and walked around for a little bit so he could walk without swaying or staggering. When he felt confident he could finally walk straight, he placed his broadsword back on his belt and his dagger in the top of his right boot and walked out. From there, he checked out of the hotel and left, heading for his older brother's bar.

Chapter I

In the time it had taken Lloyd to fully awaken and walk out the door of his room, Saiyjone was up and headed to one of her favorite bars in the Lohan area; Kyro's. The Wingly who ran it was a sweetheart and she enjoyed talking to him. She had decided to have breakfast with him that morning and was eating one of his homemade cheese, sausage, and onion omelets when the door opened and in walked Kyro's second customer of the day.
The 'tender seemed to know the newcomer for he strode around the counter and walked toward him, greeting him personally with a "Welcome back".
The other murmured a greeting back before sitting down at a table. "Hey. Kyro. Mind making me up an Oyster? It could really do me a lot of good right about now..."
Kyro gave a laugh as he returned behind the bar and pulled out the ingredients needed for the request. "Aw. Gotta hangover?" he asked, mixing everything together. "That's what happens when you drink of my alcohol selection, little brother."
The sounds of a chair scraping across the floor echoed in the emptiness of the room before the other made his way to the counter as the drink was placed in front of him. "Just...You got me drunk!" he retorted, taking the glass and downing its contents in a single gulp.
Kyro chuckled some more. "Just be happy Lyco's always good with scissors..."
"Just...shut up."
The conversation carried on, Kyro continually having his goofball expression on his face and chuckling while his brother relayed what was happening to him that he never quite got out the night before for supposedly unknown reasons. Halfway through their chat, Saiyjone had finished her omelet and hopped down from the tall barstool. Well, it was tall to her, but not for a person of normal height.
"Thanks Kyro." she called, heading for the door. "I owe ye."
The barkeep looked to her and laughed. "Naw. Don't worry about it. A champion's gotta eat, you know."
She laughed with him. "Thank ye, anyways. Ye gonna be watchin' from the stands?"
"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" he replied. "After all, I am one of your biggest fans, eh?"
With that, she waved to him and walked out the door into the busy streets of Lohan. Lloyd looked to his elder brother.
"Champion?" he asked. "Of what, may I ask?"
"You don't know?" Kyro replied in genuine disbelief, something Lloyd thought impossible for his big brother. "Why, of the Hero Competition, of course. She's the defending champion..."
"Pfft. Of that children's game? Come now, Ky. There are better things she could be doing with her time..." Lloyd retorted.
A devious grin crossed the larger Wingly's face. "I wouldn't be saying that if I were you." he told him with a chuckle to match his grin. "The girl who runs the arena, Ginger? She came by last night while you all were rolling on the ground and being all bubbly and asked around if someone wanted to join the Competition today since they were hurting for applicants and guess what, little bro?"
Lloyd's face fell into a hand. "Do not tell me, let me guess. I signed up."
"Yes."
"Oh Gods..."
"Well..." Kyro began. "I suppose technically you didn't sign up."
"That is good to hear." Lloyd told him with a sigh of relief. "It means I can just walk away and pretend I never heard about it..."
"Don't you be getting all relieved yet, now. See, you couldn't hold the pen without breaking out laughing and it was so bad you fell off the stool. So, I signed you up for it, instead."
The younger almost melted off his stool for his idiocy the previous night. "And Lyco?"
"He still had a head on his shoulders and refused, though he was gone enough not to do it politely..."
The thought of Lycorasi getting kicked out of his brother's bar for being an uncourteous jerk made Lloyd chuckle some, cheering him up a bit. At least he did not have to fight one of his own.
"You be careful out there, Lloyd. Especially if you have to go up against that girl and you will eventually." Kyro warned suddenly, his face falling. "Her technique of fighting is like dealing with the elements themselves and if you're not careful, she will kill you."
The younger Wingly shrugged. "She cannot be that bad, right? You can easily be over-exaggerating to make me feel uncomfortable..."
"Lloyd, I'm serious, you dumbass. The girl's not human, nor is she of Wingly descent. She's something else entirely. I wouldn't warn you of something unless it was important and you know it. I don't want to lose you. It's bad enough Mother's gone..."
Lloyd closed his eyes. "Asu. Do not bring her into this. She is much happier wherever she is now that Father cannot get to her."
"True, but I don't want you finding that place too early, you hear? So just be careful, alright? Don't find that place 'til later and let's make that a much later while we're at it."
The younger sighed. "Alright. I will watch myself with this girl you seem to be so worked up about."
The monstrous Wingly nodded. "All seriousness aside now, what can I do for you?" he asked, his grin returning. "You've got quite a lot of time before the Competition at noon."
Lloyd smirked. "Hand me one of your Dragon Sunsets." he demanded. "I feel like I need a drink."
Kyro laughed heartily and began mixing up the requested drink. "Good choice."

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The creature came at her from its side of the arena. It was a rare beast for Serdio; they had managed to catch themselves one of the mountain men, large hairy beasts from the snowy country of Gloriano that much resembled yetis. Ginger was sitting in the stands and watching the sparring match, smoking a cigarette.
She suddenly realized how much fun it was to watch her champion fight. Saiyjone never really killed anyone; she was much too pure for that, but she liked to draw the fight out and give the audience a bit of a show. Last year was one of the most amusing matches when a very large man was bound and determined to take her down. The way the fight played out was as though Saiyjone had choreographed it before the Competition. Every move was as if perfectly rehearsed, even when she shot herself up and bounced twice on his face, which seemed effective enough to knock him out. And the crowd had gone wild, rising from their seats the instant she touched the ground on the other side of him.
The mountain man she was fighting now was a different story from the human competitors that she fought every year. This came at her with every intent to kill her and she was equally merciless to it. The fight was quick and bloody; it looked as though the champion had not even moved but the monster gave a loud howl of pain before it fell to one side, a total of about seven or eight slashes on the front of it, the gashes pouring blood. Her stance had changed as well as the creature fell from just standing there to looking like the top of an Egyptian sarcophagus, her arms crossed in front of her so her beautiful pair of platinum-plated sickle-shaped swords rested with the fine inner edges pointed at her head.
Ginger was not the only one clapping; another one was also applauding and whistling from the top of the stairs to the stands. Saiyjone's head also turned with Ginger's upper body as the owner of the arena looked toward the newcomer. As soon as her sight caught his image, she seemed to glare.
He stood there with red-brown eyes and platinum hair that fell messily to his mid back, dressed in fine black suede leather with gold leaf designs across it. He stood about five feet and eight inches, relatively small for a man. His skin was fair and over his normal clothing he wore a black trench coat in a material that Saiyjone could not quite place. She had never seen the likes of him before but Ginger obviously knew him.
"Lycorasi, you bloody dolt! Go and see your daughter. She's wondering where you are!" she ordered of him.
Lycorasi winced slightly. "Sorry. My brother's in town and I went to see him last night. I didn't mean to drink that much, I swear..."
Ginger continued to stare him down. "Next time, you'll be sleeping on the porch! Am I understood?" she growled. "Shiva has no right to see Daddy coming home drunk."
He backed away. "Alright. I'll spend the day with Shiva. Shiva needs to know Daddy loves her." he thought for a second. "Mind if I take her out of the country for a week or two then? I have something I need to do in Fletz and I think she'd like to come along..."
Ginger crossed her arms and her face contorted as if she were contemplating his request. "Alright, but only if you'll be careful. I hear Tiberoa's got a thief problem and I don't want her or you getting hurt or worse."
Lycorasi grinned. Saiyjone remembered that grin from somewhere but from where was the question.
"Come now. Have a little faith in my race, Hun." he said with a light pout on his voice. It was obvious now that he was a Wingly, especially as he looked around cautiously before lowering the volume of his voice. As he finished the phrase, he walked forward down the stairs, his arms outstretched to embrace her. She was happy to take it. "I love 'ou..." he added, wrapping his arms around her and holding her to him.
Ginger giggled for a second before kissing his cheek. "You be good now and try to keep yourself under cover. I don't want to think what the populace would do to you or our daughter if they found out what you two are."
He gave a nod and turned around, releasing her. "No worries. As far as they all know, I'm a human being, just like they are." he chuckled. "I'll just keep most of the extremely trademark Wingly magic from surfacing, though a fireball here and there...Humans don't think twice about it."
Ginger sighed as her husband left her arena and disappeared. "Sometimes I worry about falling in love with a Wingly, but in the end it turns out alright." she turned to Saiyjone. "Wouldn't you agree?"
The champion nodded, smiling. "Aye. I know from experience that Win'lies can take care o' 'emselves." she replied with a sigh. "Trust me. I know. I think I've only met one that couldn't an' 'e's no longer 'ere."
Ginger nodded. "Of course you do, Honey. You've had so many experiences with them..." she also sighed before looking around. "Find yourself a little boy Wingly, girl. You won't regret the experience that goes on behind locked doors..." With that, she winked and sat down for but a second.
Saiyjone chuckled some before looking at a clock nearby. "Well, it's almos' time..." she said. "See ye in the waitin' room later, 'kay?"
Ginger nodded and the two of them parted ways. The arena owner went to check and see who was coming and who was not and Saiyjone went to the downstairs room from off the arena, the one behind the receptionist's desk where all the contestants went after either signing up or showing up if they had signed up before the day of the Competition. From there, the day would begin and Saiyjone would most likely prove to many of those attending that a woman could also be crowned champion in fighting for sport.
With a sigh, she sat down on a counter across the room as the first of the contestants began entering the room. A few of them spotted her and laughed a bit at her size. One of them actually vocalized his opinion that something of a gnat could not possibly be the world champion for ten straight years. Someone else spoke up and Saiyjone looked to him, remembering his face but not his name. He had made it to finals last year, an archer of incredible skill. He had been a difficult one to take down. One of his trademark attacks normally caused temporary paralysis in his enemies by having five arrows flying and hitting five different pressure points on the body. He had managed to use it on her and she could not move for ten minutes. However, that was a fight in which she realized the upside to being a woman in the Hero Competition; he refused to strike her down and that had been his downfall. Instead of leaving him injured, however, she healed him after the fight in return for not hitting her while she could not move.
Now, he was defending her title for her as well, telling the ones who laughed at her in the disbelief of her being the champion that she was indeed the one who held the title and that she held it in honor. When they turned to laugh at him and called him a liar, she made his point reality by walking up to the largest one laughing and wrapping her little fingers about his throat, kicking up against the ceiling to slam him into the floor. There was no more laughter from those doing so for the remainder of the time they waited. At least not against her. An elderly man wearing dark violet walked in not too long after the dragon's demonstration and soon he was the center of attention for a while. Shortly after him came the platinum-haired man from Kyro's. He took the wall that Saiyjone was not on and leaned against it, watching the happenings that went on around him. It was not long afterward that the same man the little champion had taken to the floor decided to stand up to the old man. A few words were exchanged between them, the large man sounding more and more hostile by the second and the older man keeping the same calm tone of voice. Eventually, the calmness of the one in purple drove the other one insane enough he attempted to charge him.
Saiyjone's eyes flickered upward to see someone in red come running through the door beyond them toward the two, but was pushed back by the force of the blow that the old man dealt to the younger. There were a few moments of silence before the larger doubled over and fell to one side. That proved it; appearances were deceiving and that lesson had been pounded into that guy's skull twice. The man who had come running through the door soon recognized the old guy in purple and the two had a short reunion before Ginger walked into the room with sheets of paper over one of her arms.
"Alright people...Gordon, get up and quit acting like a baby..." The big man that the older had punched down, obviously Gordon, got back up on his feet with a sharp nod. "Anyway, I have the match schedules right here. Come and get your copies..."
A line formed in front of her and she began handing out the pieces of paper. Saiyjone was not all that surprised to see the progression of matches so short this year, being only five match levels long; with the war between the Kingdom of Serdio and the Imperial Sandora, it was not that surprising that people had trouble getting to Lohan. In fact, Saiyjone would actually be surprised to find that Lycorasi and his daughter Shiva were actually allowed to cross into Tiberoa.
Her thoughts were disrupted by Ginger calling out, "And now. Let the games begin!" She walked out of the room, calling match one. Of course, that was Saiyjone and none other than the enormous Gordon. As they split paths, the dragon looked at him and smiled.
"Luck to ye. Ye'll be needin' it." she said to him.
He merely nodded as the light of the arena cascaded over them from the darkened corridors and the crowd went wild at the sight of their returning champion. The fight began after the contestants were announced, Saiyjone's name barely heard over the roar of the crowd. When the bell went off to signal the beginning of the round, poor Gordon did not know what had happened. First, she was on the other end of the arena, then she was right in front of him, up in the air so she was looking at him in the eye.
"Boo..." she said playfully before she placed a foot on the smoothed breastplate of his armor, tapping it with the toe of her other foot. He brought up the massive hammer he was using as a weapon, though somewhere deep inside his consciousness he knew it would not work. And it did not; the weapon was heavy and she was not. She had bounded back and used one of her sickle-shaped swords to swing around the handle of the hammer. The fine inner edge was sharpened to the point it left a deep groove all around the handle where it touched. She let go of the hilt she was holding to flip upward, coming down hard on the breastplate with her heels, cracking it and giving her a little bit more friction. She completed the flip and grasped the hilt of the sword that was still spinning around the handle before running up the crack she had made in the metal of his armor, kicking him in the lower jaw before swinging around and catching one side of his face with the inside of one foot. It knocked him out cold, his huge body following his hammer with a dull thud. She had flipped off one of his shoulders and landed several yards away from him in the center of the arena. Again, her name as the winner had barely gotten out when the crowd roared and as she waved to her most loyal fans, she spotted Kyro cheering near the top of the stands.
Then she headed back to the room and listened to Ginger's voice booming over the intercom, calling the second round. A couple more of the contestants in the room left, one of them the man with the platinum hair. She walked to the edge of the corridor to watch how this match would go. She knew it would be an intresting match; the one with the platinum hair was most definitely a Wingly, especially if he was Kyro's little brother.
The match was called, the contestants introduced, and the bell was hit. The match began and the Wingly was much too serious; the fight lasted a mere minute and a half. He was fast and Saiyjone knew she would be facing him eventually as she watched his opponent drop. He gave a slight bow as he resheathed his broadsword as he was called as the winner and began back to the waiting room. The dragon walked back and was sitting in her normal spot before he re-entered the room. She had crossed out his opponent's name and circled his as a reminder that he was the winner of his first match.
The next four matches blew by before she knew it and they were in the quarter finals. She walked out into the arena and again the crowd swelled in the chorus of applause. However, the Wingly swordsman she had been watching was nowhere in sight...until the crowd rose again in a roar of adoration. She turned around and there he was, standing with his sword out of its sheath and balanced over one shoulder. And then he grinned and Saiyjone suddenly had a quick flashback to her home burning and that grin looming out of the fiery darkness. She closed her eyes and shook her head. It was all in her imagination. And then the bell sounded. She remembered how Winglies fought; they never wasted a moment and this was no different.
He was on her in a heartbeat, fast enough she barely had time to think. She caught the blurred gleam of the light off his sword's blade as it rose and by the width of the light, the flat was coming toward her head. Another millisecond went by before she bent backward and to one side, dodging the blade, but not before it nicked her cheek. A small cut, not deep enough to draw blood, split her skin as she lost her balance and rolled to the side. So early in the fight and already her white dress was dusty from the arena floor. He seemed mildly surprised at her move and before he could skid to a stop to turn and attack her, she was up and on him, both her swords coming around at him, attempting to catch him across the face with the flats of both blades from both sides of his head. He had read her moves before she had even brought the swords up toward him, surprising her and making her lose her presence of mind as his lips met hers. The kiss was quick, just enough to fluster her and that it did, though as soon as the flustered emotion left, she was filled with disgust and anger. How dare he attempt to distract her! And how unhappy it made her, so unhappy that she went all out.
Lloyd had no idea what really hit him, only that one second he was standing and the next he was halfway across the arena on his back and wondering why he hurt so much. His entire body was covered in slashes and bruises, a good indication that she had really torn him apart and in very short time as well. With a slight wince, he pulled himself back to his feet and ignored the steadily growing headache from the roar of the crowd and the fact that she had literally thrown him across the arena on his head. He had skid about thirty feet on the top of his head before he stopped and fell on his back and rested there. The crowd suddenly fell silent as the Wingly was back on his feet, Saiyjone standing in front of him in an instant. And then something strange happened; it seemed as though the world had been put in slow motion.
He saw her blades rising to meet him, this time for something she rarely did to anything humanoid; she was readying to chop his head off his shoulders and by the Gods she had the blades to do it. And before he realized what exactly he was doing, he brought his sword up and the world sped up to its normal speed again as he saw her head snap to one side and back some, her blades slipping from her fingers. He ducked and watched the two sickles clatter harmlessly to the ground near him, a flurry of white and gold hitting the ground opposite the pair of blades with a dull thud and small cloud of dust. His eyes turned to her then, lying motionless save for breath on the arena floor. Her fall was followed by an almost unearthly silence from the crowd. It was so quiet that the individual breaths could be heard.
Even Ginger was silent over the intercom for a second before she stuttered out, "A-and the champion is down..." The way she said it had a hint of disbelief in it. Obviously, Saiyjone had never been taken down before, at least not for so long.
And Lloyd began to leave the arena with a slight limp. He was almost to the stairs when without warning the audience screamed with adoration and cheers. The voice over the com said it all; "And now she's back on her feet and looking for revenge! If I were her opponent, I'd be running like hell in the other direction!"
That was enough to tell the Wingly that he was now in deep shit. He whirled around as best he could in time to duck the aimed blow with one of the inner blades, though he was not fast enough to dodge the slice with the outer serrated edge of the first sword's twin. It caught the skin on one cheek and caused a whole lot of pain and would most likely also cause a jagged scar when it healed.
"At this moment, I can't tell who's who or who's doing what to who, but I can tell you this right now; Lloyd, you might wanna get out of there!" Ginger's voice boomed through the speakers.
He heeded her warning, formulating an idea as the dragon maid followed him. He brought his sword behind him and, as she was still in mid-stride, cracked her against one side of her head. The force of the blow lifted her from the ground and set her spinning diagonally before she fell again. She was still sort of spinning when she hit the ground, rolling a bit away from her landing point. Lloyd took a few staggered steps back and waited. Sure enough, she was picking herself up again in no time, the action accompanied by Ginger's excited, yet slightly bewildered voice that this was a girl who refused to stay down. And this time Lloyd had a plan to keep the champion down for good.
As soon as she had lifted herself completely to her feet, he aimed the bare palm of his left hand at her middle and shot a fairly good sized fireball at her. The projectile hit her on target and sent her sprawling backward. The Wingly gathered all the strength he could and dashed forward, raising his sword and bringing it down again with the flat to her head. She hit the ground and bounced once, then rolled a few yards away and this time, she did not get back up.
There was an uneasy silence that fell over the crowd before Ginger announced grimly, "And it looks like our champion has finally been defeated. Defeated by the platinum-haired swordsman from Mille Seseau, Lloyd."
That was the last he heard before he gave an unsteady bow and collapsed to the ground, the world swimming. The uneasy whispers of the audience lulled him into sleep. At least he kept his promise to Kyro and survived, understanding why his elder brother had been so worried about him fighting this girl as darkness flooded his vision and his mind was lost to the world.

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A/N: The dreaded first Author’s Note of the fic… Well, here’s a story I dug up from old fics I have written in the past (That’s right, folks! PD is a Maizoon original!!). I liked how this turned out, but that’s up to you as our supporters. Again with the lightly drawn romance (I love these things…), but hopefully you’ll like it…

Maizoon I’Ren