“How long till we get there already, I’m tired”

“Only a day and a half again, and I thought you couldn’t tire easily”

“Yeah physically, but mentally I’m exhausted,”

“Weak mind, 

I walked all the way by myself to Soterra and now I’m travelling back the same way,”

“What kind of chief leaves their people for days just to deliver some news you could’ve done easily sent someone with?”

“My people are disciplined and able to manage without me,  I went to Soterra myself out of respect for the dead, that group had potential to be some of the greatest warriors of the present, a real shame it had to be cut short,”

“I told they’re probably not dead,”

“Ughh, Shiryu, one can only believe so much things before they start disbelieving it,”

“Huh? Say that again?”

“I can believe most of the outlandish stuff you tell me to a certain extent, but if you keep going with your Gods and rainbow sky citys I’ll just start thinking your making it up”

“Alright, alright I won’t bring it up again,” Shiryu sighs 

(I guess the existence of places like Terra would be too much to comprehend for the people here)

Crack♪

A branch breaks under Shiryu’s feet

Aki looks back cautiously from the tree she’s perched, since the last altercation with the beast the woman has been extra alert choosing to stay off the ground whenever possible,

“A little way over this hill we’ll get to town Gate, we can use the warp there to get back to Soterra,” she informs to her captive turned travel companion, 

“I thought we were going to your nation?” 

“I am, but you are going back, isn’t that what you wanted?

You’ve already given me information on beasts and even gained a tiny bit of trust,

I don’t like travelling alongside others so it is best we part ways soon”

“But then you would just be lonely again chief”

“I don’t get lonely, stop trying to aggravate me.”

“Well regardless of whether that’s true, I’ve decided to go back with you,

Your now on my list of potential love interests,”

“List of what?”

“It’s a pretty short list for now, so far I have Kage and Amelia, I was thinking about adding Zinnia but she already has love, now you’re my latest addition”

“Are you actually braindead?”

Aki jumps down from a tree as she nears the end of the row, the two make their steady way over hill now on it’s topside which overlooks more greenery and rocky terrain around

“You can’t add people you barely to know to some arbitrary love list first of all,

And secondly take me off of that,”

“I can’t take off unless you find love for yourself,”

“What? That’s not how love works,

Do think I should take out a fishing rod and go the nearest river hoping to catch it?”

“Obviously not,” come and indignant reply from Shiryu,

“Do have a fishing rod on you though?”

“Yes”

“Do have every single tool a person can carry on you right now?”

“No, what are these questions?”

“I was wondering how hold all of them, the number of knives and chains you’ve pulled out, yet you jump around like you aren’t carrying anything”

“I thought my magic was obvious by now”

“Yeah, you make smoke, right?”

“Gas, I can conjure a select few types of gasses, poisonous, sleep, smoke,

And also use my magic internally to make myself and anything directly connected to me weightless,”

“I thought it would take a lot more persuading for you to tell me your magic, but I guess I was wrong, 

Maybe we are becoming closer”

(So soon already?)

“Don’t flatter yourself, I told you my what my magic is, 

Now you have to tell me, no show me your power as a dragon,”

“I can’t…”

“What do you mean you can’t, breathe fire now.

Use your strength to level this hill at least”

“That would just be negligent, and I can do those things probably…

But if I do I become more of a monster,”

“Ok, what’s the problem?

You will be strong, what does your appearance matter?”

“I can’t find looking like a beast,”

“ughh, this again?

Why are so obsessed with love?”

“I can’t solve it,

No matter how hard I think about I can’t figure it out,

It doesn’t make sense, everyone has their own rules and definitions, 

The only way I can figure it out is by experiencing it myself,”

“huhhh~

Look Shiryu, love is not real, it’s something us humans made up to justify the way we act towards each other, focusing on it will only hold you back

You are better off going after more worthwhile virtues like strength,”

“What’s the point of searching for strength, the supreme leader is the strongest that has and ever will exist”

“I don’t know this ‘supreme leader’ is but I doubt what you said about him is true”

“It is, I heard that his muscles alone can crush diamonds”

“Ok, big muscles don’t make you the strongest,

If battles were fought by judging muscle size and flashy magic I’d lose every time,

I am the strongest in Tonbo, in all of Bakufu because I know how to use myself as a weapon,

My short stature my quickness my attractiveness, they are all weapons I win with”

“You just said looks shouldn’t matter now you’re talking about attractiveness,”

“For me, I am a woman of course I would use my appearance as a tool you are already ugly so it wouldn’t matter much”

“Thanks, I really needed to hear that right now” Shiryu sarcastically responds 

He turns away from Aki gaze across the horizon, 

Aki leaves him be, she remains quite firm on her beliefs of strength over everything

A person like her holds no love in her heart for anyone or anything

(Is she right?

Love, the more I try to understand it the less sense it makes,

Maybe it is just made up…

Still, I need to know for myself)

“…..?”

Shiryu glimpses at a black blur flashing far off

(Black light? That doesn’t make sense)

“Aki, what’s that?” he points

“Hmm…..

That’s Furlheim City, where the dragon is, it’s surrounded by a black wall of flames, as we speak my people are preparing counter magic and requiems to get past it”

(That’s where the other dragon is…)

“I wonder how the dragon came to be” Shiryu gazes away

(Haven’t heard anything about it in Soterra)

“Greed” Aki replies as the two once again continue on

“As in hunger orr…”

“Human greed,

You know Shiryu I am a woman that has no shame in admit when she is wrong

For you I’ll admit it, the fact that you deny using the dragonic power I respect you a little for,

Anyone else would have been causing havoc now, 

So, kudos to you for wanting to be weak”

(I’m not weak though)

“Then that other dragon it’s also human?”

“That dragon is not human even a little,

The closest it will be to human is the greed of the man that brought forth it”

(So, it is the result of a person…)

Shiryu turns back, squinting at the blur,

The evening sun drowns the sky in dim orange and the terrain below slowly being covered by the shadows of the trees and hills below, the black blur of Furlheim blends into the shadows now

 Deep inside the heart of the monster thumps powerfully in excitement

…….

…….

“I sense another one like me….

My soulmate?”