--Luci--

  “Um, hey…”

  I had finally returned to the vilge, and I was immediately greeted at the gate by Setsuna, who took her usual companions of Shimo and Ina away from the group of armed foxkins at the gates to greet me.

  “What the hell happened?! First you two disappear with Adrian saying you're going dragon hunting, which I have no idea how to interpret by the way, then there's that explosion that I could feel all the way back here! Now you appear out of nowhere holding a bloody and unconscious Mira! What! The hell! Happened!!”

  “Wow…” I never expected her to have this side. I guess she is the chief of the vilge… “It's… a pretty complicated story.”

  “Speak then. I have time.” She had crossed her arms and tilted her chin up as she began impatiently tapping her foot.

  “Do you…? I mean… What's all this behind you for?”

  “You! We knew you two were out that way, so I put together a search party as soon as I noticed the explosion!” She seemed smug about that for some reason.

  “I see… Well, it's not needed anymore, we're back safe now.”

  “You are back safe! What about Mira! She doesn't look very safe!” She flung her arms in the air as she was practically screaming now.

  “She's safe too, please don't worry. She'll wake up… soon.”

  “That's good then.” She breathed out a sigh of relief before realizing something. “Wait! What do you mean by that? You don't know when?!”

  “Well… I kind of forgot what he said… It was either a few hours or a few days.”

  “He?! Who?!”

  “Listen. Um… Can we continue this talk over lunch? I need to get her cleaned up, and if I'm being honest… my arms are about to give out already. I'm not even sure if I could get her back to our room at this point.”

  “...Fine. Hey Shimo, can you…?”

  “Yep! Lunch seems like it's gonna be good today~” The white-haired fox approached me and held out her arms to take over carrying Mira. I gave in quickly and passed her to the stronger women, giving my arms a well deserved break. “Alright! Come on big girl~”

  Something about that st part ended up getting on my nerves a bit. “I'm grateful for the help, but do you need to say it like that? I needn't remind you that she's my big girl.”

  “Don't worry, I won't even think about taking her from you. I’m plenty taken myself after all~” She blew a kiss to Ina as she said that, and said fox responded by sighing and shaking her head. “Seriously though, I'm not interested in Mira. Like, at all. So if I say something like that again, please don't mind it. That's just how I am with my friends~”

  “I'm relieved to hear that. Something about the way you said that kind of… irked me, is all.”

  “It's all good~ Now, you want me to carry her for you or what?”

  “Ah, yes.” I turned back to Setsuna. “So, where should we meet for lunch? And when?”

  “You and Mira ate with these two and Kino your first night here, right? Meet us back there at noon, that should still give you a couple hours. I'll tell Kino once I'm done figuring out how to tell these guys it was a false arm…”

  “That sounds good. By the way, why isn't she here?” I just noticed the absence of the girl in question.

  “Well… She's probably still asleep. The explosion might have woken her up, but if it somehow did, she would've gone back to sleep. She's kinda on her break right now, so she likely wants to get as much sleep as possible. She's a little too used to waking up really early though, so she's usually up by around eleven or so.”

  “She's on a break? From what?”

  “Don't worry about it, just get going already.”

  “Right. I'll see you in a few hours.”

  “See ya.”

  With that, Shimo and I began walking back to our room in the Rising Gear of Revenge, and in what felt like no time at all, I was alone with my sleeping beauty once again.

  While she was lying on the bed, I stripped her down and gave her a quick sponge bath to clean the blood before putting her in an outfit that wasn't stained red. With nothing else to do until the pnned lunch meeting, I climbed in bed beside her to rex for an hour or two. After all, I slept plenty st night, but this morning was exhausting with all the running. I might actually even be able to fall asleep for a short nap.

  Unfortunately, while a nap would probably be ideal right now, my mind was wandering too much to actually sleep. There were too many strange things in just the past couple hours.

  First the Shadow Dragon, and possibly even the Haze Dragon, then there was the explosion followed by meeting Anyu, who healed Mira while she was on the brink of death after fighting said Shadow Dragon. Actually, now that I think about it, the Holy Dragon Yuto was able to switch between a humanoid form as well as his true dragon form. While I can't simply find and ask him, as the legend that keeps becoming more real tells confirmation of his death, could it be possible that other dragons - like the other two from the legend - are able to do the same?

  If that was the Haze Dragon, where did it come from? Where did it go? I can ask those same questions about the Shadow Dragon, but… Those two never had names in The Legend of Arnagir, so they can be literally anyone.

  And Anyu? What about him? He admitted himself that he isn't very used to the Common Tongue, and whenever he slipped up and used the nguage of ‘his people’, it was very identical to the strange nguage the Shadow Dragon mixed into his speech. Then there's the magic he used. It was without a doubt Mind magic, but not any spell I've ever seen. Not to mention that he didn't say anything during the casting, nor how he just dissapeared after we reached the vilge. Dragons are supposed to be creatures that use pure magic, without the need for a spell or incantation. That's just like how Anyu did it…

  Could he be…? I don't want to believe it, but… I can't rule out the possibility. If Mira somehow did make an enemy of the Shadow Dragon, then Anyu would be a very powerful ally if I was right. I'll just have to see what everyone else thinks at lunch.

  Aside from that, there's still the potion-like thing he gave me. It healed Mira, and it supposedly attracts the attention of Anyu and the ‘unwanted attention’ he mentioned, which, if my suspicions about him are right, likely means the Shadow Dragon. What is it though? I looked over at the blood-red liquid I pced on the windowsill above Mira's sword. I've heard potions are thicker, more viscous liquids, but when I had set that down as I got back here, I noticed it was almost too thick to even pour out. As an experiment, I gave the bottle a little shake, and it barely shifted. I've really got no guesses about what that is. Maybe Setsuna or someone will know at lunch.

  Speaking of which, my internal clock is telling me it's close to noon, and I'm pretty hungry too, so I should probably get ready to head out.