Chapter Eighteen: Is It Almost Over? No Not Really.

"Gah... where ARE THEY!" screamed Nightingale as she flopped on the ground. They had been back for four days, and still had not found their lost companions.

Cordula, while sitting in a tree with Faia, said, "Well, we could look for them some more in a different area or just wait for them to fall on our heads."

*Cordula has a point, everyone seems to fall on us. Why not wait?* Faia said in agreement.

"We don't have much of a choice, do we now? Akio, Ymir, Horatio and Uzzi-chan should be back soon. Then we can discuss our options."

"Hey, Miss Nightingale?" said a voice from a bush near by.

"What Nin?"

"There's a huge purple thing that's ready to tackle you. I think this would be a good time to move." Nin said in a sedated voice.

"Big P--" It was too late, She had been pounced on by a giant purple something or other. It had pinned her to the ground so she could barely breath. In fact when Nightingale tried to move something make a very nasty cracking sound. Things just kept on getting better.

Faia being Faia rushed to her bondmate's side and was quite impressed with the large purple dragon sitting on her bondmate. It took her a minute or so to realize that Nightingale was slowly being crushed to death, but she finally grabbed the attention of her bondmate's attacker with a few flaming puffs from her nostrils.

The large purple dragon squeaked, yes squeaked, in fear and shoot off of Nightingale like a bullet from a gun. It took a few more minutes to realize that a thin long haired, shadowy figure was standing not to far away from them laughing at the whole ordeal.

Oh no, Nightingale would not stand for that. With a very angry growl she made her way over to the figure and, quite simply, smacked it in the face. 

The figure groaned, cursed and said in a clear yet soft voice, "That wasn't very nice Nightingale."

Everyone blinked a few extra times.

Cordula whispered, "Aziz?"

The figure nodded and said, "That large purple dragon was my bondmate, Gabriel, and I'm very sorry she tackled you Nightingale."

"You better be! I think she broke some of my ribs...." Nightingale wouldn't let anyone, except for Faia, really know how badly she really hurt. Right now after having something the size of an elephant on her chest she was not in the mood to be laughed at.

"I'm sorry!" squeaked a voice amidst the bushes.

"We're both very sorry! I didn't mean to have her go so far, but it's very hard stopping a two ton drag--"

"Shut up and heal me," Nightingale growled through her teeth.

With that said Aziz went about healing Nightingale. When healing someone Aziz could emit magical light from his hands instead of using the typical incantations. Normally this would not look abnormal to a by stander, but the trees obscured very odd parts of either person. It made things look... strange to someone who passed by with a glance. 

It is a known law that the person with the worst possible timing is to appear at the worst possible moment in time, and in this story that person just happened to be Horatio. 

He gasped, opened his mouth to speak, shut it and gasped again. After what seemed like hours Horatio managed to walk up to the pair and growl, "What are you two doing?"

Aziz looked up in surprise, but said with confidence, "I'm healing Nightingale."

"How?" hissed the elf.

Aziz raised an eyebrow, "With magic."

Horatio's eyebrows dipped and a vein appeared in his forehead.

Aziz had finally caught on. "No! I wasn't doing that! Why would I be interested in someone as ill tempered as her!"

Nightingale had finally decided to enter the conversation. "This wouldn't be leading to me having to play peer mediator would it?"

Horatio seemed to calm down a bit, "No."

Aziz (who was happy that he was not on the ground in a pool of blood) agreed with a short little, "No."

Nyx had walked up with her necco in her arms a few minutes earlier. She wasn't very sure if she was curious or just plain frightened at way the group members were looking at one another. Then it hit her. "AZIZ!"

Nightingale snorted. Why had she not seen this one coming from a mile and a half away? Aziz on the other hand had not or did not care one way or another as Nyx hugged him. 

Trilled, he blushed and odd shade of crimson, and complemented the young girl.

*What a silly display,* Faia said as she slithered over to her bondmate. 

"No kidding..." Nightingale remembered something. "Dera! Where did Gray and Faas disappear to?"

The little necco fluttered over to her, fur slightly mussed up. "You won't like it."

"Just... tell me what I won't like."

"They left for good."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"You aren't pulling my leg?"

"No...."

Nightingale almost began to do a victory dance, but remembered who was watching. Instead she grinned, "That's wonderful! Two less people to worry about."

Faiamitsukai giggled. Her bondmate seemed to have perked up. Good! It was hard to watch Nightingale become so stressed. There was still the problem of the other missing people....

*NIGHTINGALE!* Ymir screeched through everyone's mind in his distress.

Nightingale answered with a very weak, "What?" Before falling to the ground in a heap. It hurt when someone yelled that loud when you were celebrating.

*You are not going to believe who we found! This creepy guy called Provocare, a girl named Bob, a very depressing blind man named Adrastos, and something... named Valora Tondra.* He added weakly, *Save us?*

Wait. Did he just say that they had found EVERYONE they needed to find? It meant that they could finish this stupid quest! She would be free of all of this baggage. Heck, what a gift that would be. Oh sweet victory.

*Should we save them?* Faia asked clinging from a tree limb.

"They'll be fine. Akio will clam Ymir down and we'll be off like that!"

*I really do hope so.*

***

"Be a dear and pour me another glass of whine," Ava ordered her little boy toy as she read her newspaper.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Do you know why we haven't destroyed those pesky little children?" She looked over her newspaper at her minion. He was everything a girl could want, but he was a bit two submissive.

"No, Ma'am."

She laughed a nice long chuckle. That was good. She knew perfectly well that he was just doing this to amuse her. "I know that you're much smarter than that dear."

"I honestly... don't know."

"Very well then. I guess I'll have to say it. You see we haven't defeated them because they have the power of team work. What do we have? A ragtag army of wannabe demons. We need better help." Ava licked her lips in thought. There was very little help in these times. If they wanted a job done right they would have to go out of world to find one.

Ava did not have the time nor equipment for something like that. She could always use... no that would only be a last resort. "Did you get a report on how they were doing today?"

"Um... you aren't going to like it."

"Ah, so they've found everyone." Ava bit down on her lip, hard enough to make it bleed. They would have to make a quick kill if they were going to rule the world.  "How willing are you to show your allegiance to me?"

"Madam?"

Ava could not help but giggle and her minion's expression. The poor lost and confused boy always kept her on her toes. He may have been passive but he was always cute. "I need you," she put down her newspaper to come face to face with her boy toy, "to destroy our sweet little band of heroes."

"Me?"

Ava nodded and leaned over a bit, for many reasons as you could guess.

"Um... I know I'm your b-best warrior but... but..."

"But?"

"I'll do it."

Ava squealed for joy. Maybe her minion would come back with more then just someone's head as a treat. Oh yes, this evil little plot was going to work out well. That little girl and her red dragon were not going to humiliate her.

Never.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven.
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four

Akio's Side Story
Aziz's Side story

The Haken
The Bunny Dragon
The Glenn Dragon
The Bishen Dragon
The Necco and Melcey
Aziz's Glenn Dragon

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