Mai'ko

It was an unfortunate standoff. There I was, no more than ten feet away from Cairo � near-blank range for a faerie wand, close range for a Marian wand � and yet I didn't even move to fire. Neither did she. It was a technicality of temple code; two rules stood in the way. The first rule that intervened was "Miu's Mistake"� Do not murder. "Sacred Ground" was the second rule � we were still inside the Draconic Temple, which meant no violence could occur within the glass dome of the sanctuary.

"Now, now, Mai'ko . . . no need to be worried about anything [except everything!] [Shh!] when I'm around. I'm just as much a servant of Tahla as you are. Even more so, in fact; I'm a priestess, and you're still just a minor cantoral."

"First, you're a retired priestess; second, that's MAJOR cantoral, and you know it! I've improved since I began taking care of Reena, and . . ."

"Ah, yes. Reena . . . [Hmph! More like her 4,250 gems a year burden.] [It's a waste, not a burden . . . ] . . . so, Mai'ko, how's my baby handing herself?"

"YOUR baby?!" I leapt at her, knocking her off balance and into the circular lake in the center. The rules may have stopped me from 'spilling her blood', but that didn't mean I couldn't shove her around. "The last time I checked, you didn't have the gonads to say such stuff."

"I'd like to know what my reproductive system [or in this case, the lack thereof] has to do with all this." She frowned. Although she was immortal, it was a well known fact that she couldn't breed. It wasn't a moral code that stopped her, but simply the fact that she could not create the organs needed for reproduction; litterally, she had no ovaries.

"Quite simply, you didn't even have the gonads back when Reena was just a hatchling to admit that you were responsible for the deaths of � Hey!" She shoved me as well, but my wings kept me aloft.

"I never WAS responsible for them!" Cairo pouted. "You must understand, Mai'ko [you lying winged whelp], that I have the utmost respect for life. It's a pity that the dragons cannot say the same."

I regained my balance, preparing to cast. "Sure, you have respect for life . . . as long as it's not the life of a dragon."

She glared at me." My respect for life � any life � is without exceptions. My respect for dragons is [at the very least] debatable. Now be a good little cantoral and stay silent, you . . . you LIAR!"

"Mistress Cairo, calm yourself . . .." I heard a new, unfamiliar voice in the temple. "Pardon me, Cantoral Mai'ko, but I have pressing business with Cairo."

"How pressing is this business?" I automatically replied, not even glancing to look at the visitor. My casting arm was cocked and ready, so I needed to keep my eyes on Cairo, lest I accidently cast my spell on the visitor instead.

"Very � I've got a large puncture wound through the elbow, and I'm losing blood quickly." I jerked at that, and looked over at the young male in the floor-length skirt � mostly Marian, except that he was about Cairo's height. I noticed the blood-soaked cloth on his right elbow, his left hand clenched tightly around the wound to soak it. I relaxed and put my wand back, alighting down to the ground.

"All right." I glanced at Cairo. "I'll wait."

"I believe it would be better if I had privacy to heal this wound up . . .." She looked at the bloody mess, and frowned. "Naven, Naven . . .  you, of all people, taking a wound like this . . .." She pressed one hand on the small of Naven's back to lead him to an alcove of bushes, highlighted by a large tree.

"That won't be a problem� I needed to go tend to some blossoms on the other side of the temple anyway." I finished the conversation, and ducked behind another alcove of bushes on the other side, crouching down and out of the line of sight. Once I was certain they were no longer watching, I shifted into my small form and flew over there, careful to stay out of their notice.

Once I was well hidden in the bushes (near some yellow blossoms to disguise my outfit) I watched and listened in on the conversation.

"Naven, you know damned well as I do that you didn't have to come here to get this healed . . . there's at least five others that you could have contacted more easily, either in distance or in possibility. What's your motive? [Yeah, lover; I mean, you needn't have gone to this trouble just to visit little ol' me . . .] [Composure! Maintain, maintain!]" Cairo got a full view at the wound, poking it to see the path of the puncture.

"Quite simply, I needed to inform you that the boys are �AH!� anxious.  That wound's from one of the practice drills; I got gored by an escaped specimen. I would have gone elsewhere, but . . . too much risk of espionage. " Naven winced. "No place safer for information than a temple; that's what Father always said . . .."

"Which specimen made this wound?" 

He moaned. "One of the natives."

"Damn . . . that's a nasty wound for that type of horn. It's aggravated. [No way a Shadow Dragon could've made THAT alone . . .]" Cairo took her finger out, now beginning to heal up the wound. After a few flashes of light and some rubbing, the elbow returned to normal. "Why is it so badly injured?"

"One of the amateurs tried to heal it up himself."

"[That explains it.]" She glanced at him again. "Now, how anxious are they?"

"Ready to jump out of their clothes, Mistress."

"They'd better not� I've had those outfits fire-treated since that last fiasco with our . . . objective." She smirked. "All these years . . . and this mess will finally be over!"

Naven smiled as he moved his arm again, no longer in pain. "I hope so. The boys can't wait to get back into action all together again."

"Official ADC business! I should've known you were planning a raid!" I glared at her, ignoring the pain in my wings from being ripped out of the plant. Cairo noticed them bleeding, however, so she cleaned them with her fingers and recreated what of the gossamer wings was lost. At the same time, it was calming me down� she must have added some calming chemicals in when she healed my wings. Always an ulterior motive . . ..

"Now where did you get the idea that this was ADC business at all? Naven is an upstanding military soldier, to the best of my knowledge. For all you know, he was simply being healed for a little friendly fire from a combat drill."

"He distinctly said 'specimen'. Since when are dragon soldiers called specimens?" I glared at her. 

She thought for a moment, and then pulled her wand out from under her collar. "There's no fooling you, is there, Mai'ko? Ever since Sister Angel had you for a student all those years ago. . . should've known you'd try to hinder me, but it doesn't matter." Cairo let go of me now. "Shift back into your large form now, or else I'll do something with this wand you don't even want to think about."

I did so, and now stood at full height again� at least a foot taller than both Cairo or Naven. I broke away from both of them, dived over the row of bushes, and stood near the lake. "Neither one of you is to be trusted with even an inch of my life . . ." I checked my wand for damage, and was about to cast a few Ice Block spells to keep them at bay.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

A small series of thumps came from the door. I instinctively stood to face the sound, trim and proper, in case the door had been opened. 

Cairo walked around to look at me from the front, smiling. "My BioCrystallization spell still works perfectly. I wasn't expecting for your body to convert to blue crystal, however � whenever I tried it on dragons, they turned green. Guess there's little difference than that." She looked me in the face, revealing a cruel glimmer in her eyes. Once she knew that I couldn't move, she checked the door. "Hmm. Someone tried to open the door� Three scrolls, not all six. Can't tell who did it, however. Probably my associate dragon . . . No matter. Naven? I recommend that you go and tell the boys that things are looking up for tonight � Tell 'em to place bets, if you like. [And put me down for 250 gems in our favor, will you?]"

Naven head for the slipstream, smirking. "Already being done � You had five to three odds just before I came over here."

ShadowSpyro

"Hurry up!" I shouted at him. "We've still got one more fountain to do after this one; at this rate, we better hope that Reena finds a few more scrolls for us!"

"I'm working on it . . . almost . . . THERE!" I watched him reach the top, and then get blown off by a few jets of water. I caught him in my arms just before he would've hit the lava. "Told you so."

"Well . . . I hope the last fountain isn't as difficult . . . AIE!"

"Aie what?" He tried to look around.

I looked at the map I had picked up in that first government building. "The last fountain is across the lake."

"Big deal. Lakes are water, right?"

"Yeah . . . but I don't think you understand what 'lake' means in Fire Village." I dropped him onto the ground, and pointed out to a deep crater, slowly being filled by the volcano's lava. "THAT is the lake they're talking about. Stuff bubbles up high and nasty. and the fumes'll knock you senseless if you're not careful. It's hell and a half to fly over."

"Isn't there a way to glide over it?" He asked me.

"Are you daft? Unless you can walk on lava, you have to fly!" I told him, and then he sighed. After thinking for a few moments, I moaned from the realization. "Let me guess � You can't fly, can you?"

"Not with these wings." He spread one wing out. I compared it to mine � his had thicker bones, his wing fingers didn't have knuckles, and he had less wing leather to show for it." I've got to grow a little bit more before these wings will be able to fly without help."

"You can still glide, right?" He nodded." Well, then � You just gave me an idea. I'll fly upwards over the lake until my wings start to tire, while carrying you. Once we get high enough, we can glide to the fountain from there."

"How are we going to get back here if we can't even fly the whole distance the first time?" He questioned me.

"We won't have to. The way home's in the fountain over there! Now come on!" I grabbed him by his chains again, and began to climb into the air. I began to beat the air, using the thermals over the lake to ease my ascension. Prime was holding onto my wrists, with his legs weakly wrapped around my ankles.

"How much higher?"

"What are you worried about? Dragons aren't exactly a bunch of acrophobes . . . AH!" I felt a sting in my left socket joint. "Prime, let go!"

"Now?"

"YES!" I cringed, grabbing the wing with one arm to keep it beating until he had detached from me. As soon as he began gliding, I began to relax and focus on holding my wings open as well. The fountain was just ahead� the rest would be simple now.

I watched as Prime landed on the ledge, about five seconds in front of me. He had to hover a bit to reach the spot. I headed for the ledge, preparing to do the same.

"Hold on! Don't start the puzzle yet . . . wait for � YAH!" I screamed again when I tried to hover. I forgot that I needed both wings to hover � my left one was useless now, which meant I couldn't make it!

I grabbed desperately with both hands to an outcropping, trying to get a foothold that was somewhere above the lake of lava. I could not afford to fall in.

Prime looked over the ledge. "You hurt yourself?"

I glared at him. "Of course! Now give me your hand so I can get up there!"

"I can't. Not just one hand, anyway."

"Why not . . . oh." I bit my lip. "Give me your chains, then. Now come on! I can't hang here forever!"

He quickly threw both hands down to my reach, and I made a grab for the chains. Now that I had a footing, I could safely climb up the cliff edge. "Thank you." I gasped out. "I must have done a bit more than just exhaust my wings � I think my left one's sprained."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Sparx can look over it later once we get to somewhere with butterflies. In the meantime, can we finish up this puzzle and get the scroll? The sooner we can leave, the sooner you can get that wing checked."

"Yeah . . . that would be good." I stood up and looked at the fountain. The exit platform was in the center of it all, but in the meantime, there was a series of platforms in the way. A small metal web of pipes hung over them. I groaned. "Oh, great . . . a wing-cling puzzle. We're screwed."

"What does 'screwed' mean?"

"It's a slang term for-. What am I explaining this to you for? Your dad'll probably cover it tonight once we get the scrolls." I looked over the fountain again, wincing. The joints in my left wing were on fire, and my right wing couldn't do it alone. "This is going to hurt. I'll have to use my wings to hold onto those bars." 

"Look; Sparx is at full health. He can probably fix your wing now, but I don't know how much it'll drain him. If one of us gets hurt again, he won't be able to pull off another  miracle. Care to take that risk?" He pointed to his friend, who was still faithfully behind him.

"Sure, as if I had a choice." I sat down, as the small dragonfly worked its minor healing magic to fix my sprain. I felt as good as new now, but his Sparx had changed color to green now. No matter. "There's always a disadvantage to not working with dragonflies . . ." I mumbled to myself as I jumped and grasped the first bar with my wing thumbs, which now only ached slightly from the stress of the bars. 

I kept swinging along the bars, jumping down every now and then to activate the next platform. As soon as I reached the last one, I noticed the bars becoming slippery, so that I couldn't jump up to them again. The exit platform began to sparkle and shoot out streams of water, while the scroll unfurled, attached to the platform. I walked over to it and picked it up.

"Hey, Prime! I got it! C'mon � We've still got two more places to cover!"

He nodded, and jumped into the slipstream at the very center of the fountain, shooting up into the air and for high umbra. I shrugged, secured the scroll inside of my uniform, and jumped in as well.

"What's with your skirt?" Prime looked at me, or more notedly at the scroll which was trying to reach the doorway, as if it was a magnet. I slowly walked backwards, away  from the door, until the scroll was no longer drawn by the strange magnetism.

"I don't know . . . but whatever is going on with that door, it must be big. See if Mai'ko's inside � maybe we can hear something. I'd do it myself, but with the scroll acting the way it is . . ."

"Understood." Prime nodded to me. "You stay here. I don't know if I can hear anything, but it's worth a try." He crept over to the door, pressed his head up against the wall, fidgeted just enough to get his ear slit against the wood, and listened.