Forlorn

Ares~
Ares looked up at the sky as his powers are being called upon from another force. His nostrils flared as he felt his powers being amalgamated into that of Blink’s. However, before his annoyance could flame into full anger, a fact suddenly hit him square in his face. Blink and J. ... Blink is J.’s dragon. J.’s attitude... J. was in love with.... The gold dragon’s stared went a rather odd blank looking glaze. He then looked at the young girl concentrating quizzically before looking down to make his decision. His allegiance is still with his master. Is not like Ares has an animosity towards Lexibelle and he felt kind of guilty for doing this to her. After all, he didn’t mind the days spent with the girl, but his true master is the one he knows he must obey.

Lexibelle~
Something strange was happening, that’s the best Lexi could explain it. It was an eerie alien feel, as if her lights are being refracted and reflected not according to the laws of physics, as if something pseudo-physical is covering the forest like a thin blanket of fog. Some of the badges that she had originally searched for with her lights had dissolved to dust before the next oscillation hits them. “Let’s go Ares, Something is not quite right.”

Seeing the dragon jerk at her words, Lexi looked at him closer. She had never seen Ares being so aloof. Granted that he doesn’t speak much to her anyways, but he always had a focus and directed gaze. Now to her, the proud beast seemed rather lethargic. The young girl was sure that she hadn’t use that much of the dragon’s powers. It is, after all, just some minute element bending. However, Lexibelle doesn’t have the time to ponder on such small principles, she needs to move fast if she want to move to the next round.

Locating the abominable creatures had been the easy task; she just has to figure out how to get the badges away from them. Fighting them one by one, would have been a good idea if she had more time. However, she doesn’t have such luxury. Instead, with only thirty minutes left, Lexibelle need a fast working plan to get what she needs before it’s too late. Foraging through the landscape before her, Lexi pinpointed the four with still stable badges. Her lights dug and felt through the trees like her extended hands. Then an idea hits her. A small smile crept on to her face as she thought, Why fight when I can just take what I need?...

“Ares, you feel the two trolls to the north?” When Ares nodded, Lexi continued, “Lure them over to the east, be careful they’ll make illusions to trick you. When they do, refract the lights and shadows forward to the east and watch my little magic trick happen.” As her words feel, Ares lift off towards the north, while she, herself, walked towards the south.

Not too far to the south, she noticed the two trolls that she had felt with her lights. The two had yet to notice her. Using the dense vegetation as a shield, she hid behind the massive trunk of an ancient tree. Taking a deep breath in to prepare herself, the young princess picked up two stones from the forest floor and stepped out from her hiding stop into the clearing where the two ugly boars like creatures roam.

”Hey ugly!” she yelled at them while throwing the two stones at them. One of the stone bounced off one of their heads, while the other wasn’t as accurate and had landed right beside the second troll. “Why do trolls cross the road?” She yelled at them and paused for effect, “because they’re pa-trolling the grounds for shiny glass!” She laughed and pointed. “Ohoh try this one! Why did the farmer shovel trolls into his field? ... because it was so ugly and stinky that the farmer mistook it for a pile of manure!” Once again she laughed obnoxiously. This time she realised, the two fuming trolls had closed in on her dangerously. Image around her switched from the calm forest to a threatening dark canyon with hissing lava below her feet. She realized, this is the time to run.

Knowing her eyes would only put her at a disadvantage; she closed them and let her lights be her guide. Daringly ignoring the blaring warning her mind is screaming, Lexi took a step into the canyon. Half expecting a grand fall resulting in agonizing death, the young girl was relieved when her foot hit solid ground. She dashed with the trolls right at her heels. It was unfortunate that she was moving too fast to sort out the details her lights sent her, as branches and leaves tore at her clothing and whipped her body. Lexi knew though, she rather have the wooden whips beat her to scratches and bruises than to trip and have the two trolls at her. She can’t even imagine the horrid death she would go through with the spiked clubs the trolls held.

Heart thumping, knee popping, muscle cramping, brain ringing, lungs squeezing...and star seeing? Lexi knew she doesn’t have long before her knees would buckle beneath her and she would be served to the two fuming trolls steps behind her. Then her lights felt the shape of the dragon. Never in her life had she been so glad to see Ares. Her footfalls quickened and her eyes flashed open. With a blinding moment, she saw the clearing border, where the blanket of trees end and the carpet of grass start. As she approached the edge, she gathered her strength to her calves and with a deep plié, she launched herself into the air. Her legs kicked from fifth to second position and with an assemblé she returned to fifth position this time with her back leg forward, executing a perfect blisé. Her ballet madam would have been proud. However, he rush of accomplishment soon fell to horror as her body began to drop, where is Ares? Suddenly a knock took the air out of her lungs; the pain was met with relief as the hardness that hit her stomach was the claws of the golden dragon. She watched as the four trolls ran into the clearing and fall through the deep grass into the actual cliff their own illusions had covered.

Smilingly brightly, Lexibelle was glad to feel the wind running through her hair. She let Ares to swoop down to the edge, on the top of the escapement. She climbed down to the ground and watch the trolls groaned and moaned below. Ares, glided down to pick out the badges as Lexi cheered. Then suddenly something caught her eyes, one of the trolls seemed to have dissipated a little and snap back to its original form. The young lumieré rubbed her eyes, thinking it might have been her eyes messing with her, then remembered with horror that the trolls are masters at illusion. However, before she could open her mouth to let out a cry for the dragon, the back of her head was met full on with the accelerated hardness of a club. Everything went blank.

Race and Valoo were nearly to the finishing point by now, with all badges in tow. Race was satisfied with their performance in this stage, but he was even happier that they wouldn't have to deal with anymore trolls. Laughing at himself slightly, he knew that he'd walk away from this game with a new hatred for trolls that he'd harbor for the rest of his life. He leaned back on the spine that he used as a chair and looked up at the sky, enjoying the calm while he could.

Race felt a sudden nag in the back of his head, and he sat up in attention as he patted Valoo's side, telling him to stop. But Valoo just shook his hand off, and with a start Race realized that the dragon had already stopped. Valoo sniffed at the air, turning his head from side to side, and after a moment he said "That Lexi girl, you put tabs on her, didn't you? She just blinked out." Race's breath hitched, glad not for the first time that Valoo's ability to sense his surroundings was better than his own. Farseeing worked by picking up the signals that everything gave off, sort of like echolocation. Race had memorized Lexi's signal so that he could find her easily, a trick that Valoo and him and dubbed 'Tabbing'.

Apparently, Lexi was in danger; if her signal got muted, it meant that she was either knocked out or hidden by magic. Neither of those seemed like a very good state to be in given the circumstances, so Race's danger alarm was flaring. "Yeah, I tabbed her. She's in trouble, we have to help her." Valoo nodded and turned around, charging through the forest in the direction where her signal last flared.

It was true, they had to help her, it had become their mission. They may not have gotten the message yet, but as soon the prince got her acceptance, Race knew he'd send orders right away for him to guard her with his life. She may not have known it, but the second she had accepted the prince's proposal, she had made her life more important than Race's in the Earth Kingdom's eyes. That was a depressing thought...but Race didn't mind too much. The prince and him had a streak of bad blood that stretched quite a ways back, so this wasn't anything new. Besides, Lexi seemed like a nice enough girl, so hopefully it wouldn't be that bad watching after her.

Valoo halted in the spot just below where Lexi had been attacked, and the dragon and rider noticed the corpses of several trolls around the place. Race whistled as he looked around, and said "Well, at least she didn't go down without a fight." Valoo just snorted as he sniffed around, trying to find a trail without much luck. Race patted Valoo on the neck and told him to fly up so they could get a better view, and the dragon did so, flying around a little bit above the tree level. Race scanned the ground, picking out several trails leading from the spot of that attack, and knowing that the troll (Race had guessed that a troll had taken Lexi) could have taken any one of them.

Race didn't know if the troll would actually hurt her or if it would just hold her until the end of the round, but because he didn't know, he couldn't afford to waste time checking each of the paths. He had Valoo fly higher so he could see where each of the paths lead to. Most of them just branched off into the forest, but one of them led into a cave set against the cliff face that looked promising. Race motioned for Valoo to check it out, and the dragon dived down and into the cave. It was quite a large cave, big enough for a dragon to curl up in. And that was exactly what was happening: Lexi's dragon was curled up around the girl protectively, both of them chained to the ground with thick chains like they use in dungeons. Lexi had her feet and hands bound together while the dragon was held by a chain collar that was fixed to a spike in the ground. They were both asleep and breathing normally, looking for all manner and purposes as though they had fallen asleep naturally.

Because the cavern was already filled with Ares, Valoo had to wait outside the cave while Race went in and tried to rouse the girl and her dragon. The troll was nowhere to be seen, but that didn't mean he was far away; they needed to get Lexi out of there now, while they had a chance. Coming up to the sleeping dragon, Race tried shake the sleeping Lexi awake, taking hold of her shoulders and shaking her softly at first, then rather roughly when she didn't respond. He patted her cheek, and when she still didn't come to, he pulled her eyelids up to reveal milky eyes. The troll must have put her to sleep magically, which meant that he likely did the same to the dragon.

Race then tried to remove the chains bonding them, but that didn't seem to work either. The cuffs on Lexi didn't have any joints or hinges to exploit, the whole thing one flawless piece of continuous metal. No matter how much he tugged, and he could tug pretty hard, the spike keeping the dragon tied down wouldn't budge from its spot. Valoo was watching Race intently, so he wasn't prepared when someone ran into his side with enough force to knock him down. It didn't matter if he had been ready for it or not, since he couldn't see what it was that ran into him anyway, but Valoo knew what it was without seeing it. Turning back to the cave, he shouted "Race, the Troll is back! Watch yourself, I'm coming."

Thanks to Valoo's warning, Race was able to turn around block the strike from the invisible troll just in time. He spun around and held his arms above his chest in an 'X', and the troll's punch struck right in the center of the cross. The force of the punch nearly threw Race off-balance, but he stood his ground as the troll materialized in front of him. This one wasn't the same kind of troll from before, it was far taller and bigger, and looked quite a bit stronger.

Shaking the beast's fist off, Race leaned back and kicked the troll straight in his chest; it did get thrown back, but because it was so big and heavy, Race felt as if he'd just kicked the cave wall. As the troll stepped outside, shaking off the momentum of the kick, he came into the Valoo's range. The dragon wasted no time in pouncing onto the troll, throwing him to the ground and embeding his claws into the troll's thick skin. The creature howled and shoved the dragon off, then stood up shakily as Valoo prowled around a little ways from him like a predatory cat.

The troll raised both arms above his head, getting ready to crush the dragon with a sledgehammer punch. Sadly, the troll was not nearly as fast as it was strong, so Valoo pounded the ground with his foot, causing a pillar of rock to extend from the ground and pierce into the troll's chest. Both wounded and stopped from attacking, the troll just stood there stunned as Race ran out of the cave, scimitar drawn. The monk ran straight for the pillar and didn't break speed when he hit it, running straight up the face of the rock. He halted when he got to the top, swinging his sword around and then struck down, stabbing it straight through the troll's neck. He pulled the blade back out of its throat and jumped off of the rock, spinning once in the air and landing back on his feet near Valoo.

Once again choosing to burry an enemy, Valoo thumped on the ground again, turning the ground beneath the troll into quicksand that hardened back up when the thing was completely submerged. Race didn't stay to watch the show, already running back into the cavern to see if there were any changes in Lexi's prison now that the troll was dead. Everything looked the same for a moment, but then everything flickered out: Lexi, Dragon, and chains. He was staring at an empty spot, and he would have just walked away angrily if he hadn't looked up and seen Lexi hanging from the roof of the cavern.

Race grinned when he saw how high she was, and backed out of the cavern to give himself some running room. Once he had enough, he sprinted forward, again not stopping when he reached the cave wall. He kept running straight up the wall, trusting his momentum to keep him straight, and after a few seconds of running, reached Lexi. Her feet were chained to the ceiling making her hang upside down, so as he passed, Race cut the chain with his scimitar, shattering the weak links of the chain with his blade. He pushed off from the ceiling so he fell with her, and he caught her in mid-air. Landing safely on the ground with the girl in his arms, he let out a happy sigh; that was more fun than fighting the troll.

Carrying Lexi bridal-style, Race stepped outside of the cave and walked up to Valoo. The dragon used his power to raise the platform of land Race was on to create an elevator up to his seat, which the monk used to climb into his seat while his hands were full. Once he was in his seat, he lifted the girl's torso up so he could get a better look at her head. She'd been struck by something, and there was a bit of matted blood where the bump was. He reached back into the pack strapped to Valoo's side and pulled out his waterskin, and used the water to clean the blood from the wound. That done, he took the sash from his robe that he currently wasn't using and used it as a bandage to tie around her head.

Satisfied with the amount of first-aid he could do given the circumstances, Race motioned for Valoo to fly towards the finish of the round. Lexi's dragon hadn't been anywhere in sight, perhaps he had gone to the finish to get help for his rider. If so, they'd find him there, but if not...Race's job was only to protect Lexi, not her dragon. Either way, Valoo took off towards the finish, and this time he took off flying rather than charging, knowing that a bumpy ride through the forest wouldn't be ideal for a princess with a head injury. Especially if said princess was in the hands of a monk who didn't know the meaning of the word "delicate".

People weren't arriving as quickly as Rogarsh thought they would. This was going better than he thought, far better than he hoped. He wanted to prolong the fun for as long as possible killing off one or two riders each stage, but now it seemed he was going to completely wipe half of the competition in one blow. Vici would be proud, oh so very proud. That reminded him of the scroll he was given, he took it out again. It was normal parchment with black taboo ink design making it seem that much more magical. But the biggest attraction of the whole thing was the seal, it was made of a strangely of a slow burning blue flame that seemed to give off no heat, but it had died a little since he last saw it. And he wondered what it could be, he really thought it out. He sat down on the ground and began to mumble to himself while using a stick to make strange patterns in the ground. If you put a beard on him and gave him a marker and cardboard you'd have a man who can't get a job to save his life.

After a while of this he moved, to itch his back then got back to the task at hand. "Uh sir, you okay? said Jerg.
"No use Jerg he won't budge once he starts. The boss hit him a few times a while ago to no avail."
"right, were being ordered around by a man with the opposite of an attention deficit, I don't know what to think now."
"Well all we know is that in a hour or so he'll jump up, scream ureka for a while and then go all serious and do a bit of ordering around."
"Right, lets get ready to muffle him." And if fact after about and hour or so Rogarsh made no attempt to jump up and run around like a girl. he continued to sit there. A little boring eh?

People weren't arriving as quickly as Rogarsh thought they would. This was going better than he thought, far better than he hoped. He wanted to prolong the fun for as long as possible killing off one or two riders each stage, but now it seemed he was going to completely wipe half of the competition in one blow. Vici would be proud, oh so very proud. That reminded him of the scroll he was given, he took it out again. It was normal parchment with black taboo ink design making it seem that much more magical. But the biggest attraction of the whole thing was the seal, it was made of a strangely of a slow burning blue flame that seemed to give off no heat, but it had died a little since he last saw it. And he wondered what it could be, he really thought it out. He sat down on the ground and began to mumble to himself while using a stick to make strange patterns in the ground. If you put a beard on him and gave him a marker and cardboard you'd have a man who can't get a job to save his life.

After a while of this he moved, to itch his back then got back to the task at hand. "Uh sir, you okay? said Jerg.
"No use Jerg he won't budge once he starts. The boss hit him a few times a while ago to no avail."
"right, were being ordered around by a man with the opposite of an attention deficit, I don't know what to think now."
"Well all we know is that in a hour or so he'll jump up, scream ureka for a while and then go all serious and do a bit of ordering around."
"Right, lets get ready to muffle him." And if fact after about and hour or so Rogarsh made no attempt to jump up and run around like a girl. he continued to sit there. A little boring eh?

As Altrom was close enough to the waterfall, he began decending. Slowly and most of all, with a grace.
He was more than certain that he'd have to explain something about this to the judges. That'd be interesting indeed.

As the circled down, he took out one of the badges to examine it a little closer... Liquid. A liquid was dissolving the thing slowly. That could work to his advantage.
As he landed, judges and officials came running to make sure he didn't need any medical assistance whatsoever.
"Trickery and cheating!" Altrom bellowed as they drew closer. "Someone's been modifying these! They're dissolving in my bare hands!"
The officials nearly all stopped at that, looking at the young man in disbellief. "What did he just say?" one of them muttered.

"I doubt they're supposed to do this!" Altrom yelled, as he threw the remains of a pair of white badges on the ground.
A single official gasped, but the rest became very quiet. Cheating was very serious, at this competition.
"We must investigate this imediatly!" one of the elder officials said, taking charge of the group. He was a little taller of the others and had an aura of authority.

"No need to investigate! It was done with liquids, and certainly swapped with the real ones in the darkness of night. Obviously it was done by sneaky Dark Nation riders, and masterfully crafted by a water nation rider! Then you're down to five people!" Altrom said, putting the group on a false trail.
"But there is 3 Dark Nation riders and YOU are one of the two water nation riders!" One of them called.
"Indeed, but I was more than immobile yesterday, as I was hit by the searing lights of a Light Nation rider! I was of course taken away together with Rogarsh and J. which might seem suspicious. But as the saying goes; Innocent untill the opposite is proven." Altrom said, trying to head of the disastrous accusition.

"I say that you ought to investigate right away!"