It was pretty much impossible to tell how much time had passed in the dark cave. It might have been morning, noon, or still night. But Jing slowly started to move in her sleep then wake, yawning a little and rubbing her eyes. When she was still surrounded by darkness she sighed, remembering where she was still trapped.

There was a scratching noise coming from where the cave-in was, dirt being removed and piled up behind whoever was digging.

Jing’s ears twitched at the noise and she stood, walking towards it confused. “Leria…? Is that you?”

The scratching stopped, and someone moved. “Oh… you’re awake.”

Jing blinked confused as the noise stopped “Um… Ya. What’s with the noise?”

“Digging our way out of course.” Came the reply, as the digging resumed. “We should be out soon.”

“Um… Do you want help?” Jing asked, walking towards where the entrance once had been.

“No… It’s okay.” Came Leria’s voice.

“You sure…?” Jing asked, turning around the caves corner and would be in sight of the entrance if there was actual light.

The cave was still dark though, and she could not make out much in the darkness where Leria was digging. Finally she stopped, pulling back, and then sighed. “Shirak.” She said, as the orb of light appeared, illuminating the now dirt-covered rakune, who smiled at Jing. “Sleep well?”

Jing winced at the light, tightly closing her eyes and covering them with her hands. She nodded a little though. “Yes I did…”

“Good.” I’ve almost broken through, so we can get out.” She said, turning to scrape at the last bit of dirt and light streaked in from outside.

“How were you able to do all that? It was a lot of rock!” Jing said as her eyes slowly got use to the light.

Leria chuckled, “You should be asking me why I had to do it manually, instead… considering I was able to produce food for you last night with magic.” She said, turning and wriggling out of the cave.

Jing bit her lip a little “Well ya that’s true. But magic is different mattering on the person. Just because you can make that light and food doesn’t mean you automatically have a physical magic that can be used to move rock.” She explained, waiting for Leria to get out before crawling out of the hole herself.

Leria giggled as she dusted herself off, a soft “Dumak” ridding them of the now unnecessary light. “Very true.” She said, looking around and blinking slightly in the sudden full daylight.

Jing winced a little at all the light, closing her eyes again. “So… What are you going to do now?”

“Dunno… I have no idea how long I’ve been in that prison, so for now I think I’ll just follow you around.”

Jing blinked confused “Wait what?”

Leria grinned, “So, where are we going?”

Jing bit her lip a little “I’m leaving. I don’t want you to come with me.”

Leria blinked, “Why not?” She tilted her head.

“Because I don’t” Jing said with a nod, turning and walking off. Others only caused problems… and she didn’t want anyone finding out about her lack of being able to die. One of the last times that happened… she ended up in a lab.

Leria grinned, she admitted she was curious about this curious power of Jing’s and wanted to see it put to the test. But not now… and probably not by her. Instead she just fell in step behind Jing.

Jing bit her lip as Leria followed her, hands in fists. “Leave me alone.”

“I’m not doing anything!” Leria said.

“Your following me. Stop it.” Jing said angrily, not even looking back.

“Why should I?” Leria replied nonchalantly.

“Because it is annoying.” Jing said with a nod, heading towards the nearest town.

The rakune’s ears flicked, tail lashing in amusement, but she kept walking behind Jing. “Why are you so annoyed by company?”

“Because I am.” Jing said angrily, stopping and turning to face Leria. “So GO AWAY.”

Leria frowned, ears laid back and a hurt look on her face. “Why suddenly so angry with me? Didn’t I feed you and help you out of that cave?”

“You did. And I’m thankful for that. But I travel alone. So go away.” Jing said before turning and walking off quickly.

Leria sighed in irritation, but just set off to catch up with Jing. “I have no idea where and when we are, until then, I’ll stay with you.” Not to mention she’d be less conspicuous if she were with the girl, and she was still curious as to how she knew draconian.

“You are west of Meridel. I’m heading towards the mountains to head to Shenkuu. North of us is Central City and to the south is Haunted Woods and Lost Desert. There you go. Happy?”

“Nope.” She said, falling in step beside Jin. “I think I’ll head to Shenkuu then.”

Jing twitched as she heard that. Fine then. She would head to Altador. Lose this annoying pain hopefully in town or at the mountains.

“Or maybe I’ll go to Altador…. do you know how to get there from here?” Leria said humming as if she were thinking.

Jing blinked in surprise as she heard that, stopping and looking back at Leria. “What did you say?”

Leria turned to Jing calmly. “Well, Altador is pretty interesting isn’t it?”

Jing looked at Leria in silence, turning and starting to walk again. She suddenly really, really didn’t trust this Rakune.

Leria idly followed Jing again with a small smile on her lips. “Hungry?” She asked.

Jing was hungry, but she just shook her head. “I’m fine.” She answered continuing to walk.

“No use going hungry.” She said, following along. She produced a sandwich, “How about this? Might be easier to walk and eat then?”

“I’m not hungry.” Jing answered. Something just didn’t feel right for her, at all. Leria ad fed her and got her out of there… did she want something from her?

Leria giggled, “You sure?” The smell of a mouth watering cooked meal wafted by Jing’s nose.

Jing bit her mouth a little, she was really hungry. But she just shook her head. No, she wasn’t going to take it.

Leria chuckled, such resolve! “Why don’t you want to eat?”

“I don’t want food from you. It doesn’t feel right.” Jing answered.

“You distrust me even after all I’ve done is help you?” She asked, “Why?”

“Because there is something big you are hiding and I feel like I can’t trust me.” Jing said, turning to face Leria and glaring. “You have given me food, offering more now and you got me out of that cave. So what do you want from me?!”

Leria blinked in slight surprise. “Company… and a guide.” She said. “Is that too much to ask?”

“When I’m met to be the company and guide? Yes.” Jing said before turning and quickly walking off.

“Why are you so against having someone with you?” Leria persisted, walking along with Jing again. “Wouldn’t it be safer to have someone along?”

Jing rolled her eyes “Because I don’t trust you. Or anyone for that matter. It only causes problems.” And me getting killed. Jing added in her head. “Besides. You’re a kid. How much safer would it be?”

Leria laughed, “And you are?” She asked.

“I’m not a kid!” Jing pointed out quickly, glaring at Leria. She was almost sixteen! At home you were considered an adult at sixteen.

“I’m not a kid either.” Leria replied with a laugh.

“What ever. Just leave me alone. NOW!” Jing said continuing to walk as the town came into view.

Leria didn’t disappear or leave Jing alone though, even when they reached the city.

Jing just headed on through the town, looking around before heading into a store, starting to wander around and look at all the food.

Leria tagged along, looking around and gathering information silently.

Jing hated the fact Leria was following her but continued to wander around, finally pocketing a couple bars and a bag of dried fruit in her pocket while the clerk and other customers were busy.

Leria frowned as she noticed this, but said nothing, just going along.

Jing walked around the store for a couple more minutes before walking out of the store.

Leria followed her, the frown plastered on her face.

Jing walked around the corner before pulling out the bag of fruit and sitting down in the alley, starting to eat in silence.

Leria stopped in front of her, looking down at the girl. “Why did you steal!?”

Jing looked up at Leria, sighing. “Don’t say that so loud…” She said before having another bite of the food.

“But why? I offered you food, why did you have to steal it?” She insisted.

“Because I don’t want the food you offer me. The only reason I accepted it was because all I had left was one soaked granola bar.” Jing answered. “You still give off the feeling that you are not trustable. And I need food to survive.”

Leria sighed, “What can I do to make you trust me then?” She asked.

“Just leave me alone.” Jing said with a sigh. “I don’t trust anyone… And that’s not about to change.”

Leria sat in front of Jing. “Why?”

“Because…” Jing muttered, not looking at Leria. Maybe if she just ignored the rakune she would go away… She didn’t want to trust anyone. There was no point in it.

“Don’t you get lonely?” Leria asked.

“Nope.” Jing lied, not looking at Leria. She just was scared to get hurt again, but refused to admit it.

“Why do you lie about it? What if I promised not to hurt you?” She asked.

“Why do you think I’m lying?” Jing asked quietly.

“I can tell.” Leria replied simply. “You have a lot of fear and distrust inside you.”

“Well so what? Everyone in this world does.” Jing muttered angrily.

Leria sighed, “I….” She looked at the girl sadly, “Please let me help you?”

“No… I don’t want help.” Jing muttered quietly. Besides, it’s not like any help would ever do any good for her. “HEY!” Came a loud, booming voice. Jing jumped a little, turning to look at a large tonu who glared at her and grabbed her by the arm, looking at the half eaten bag. “I knew it, you think you can get away with stealing?!”

Leria blinked in surprise at the tonu, jumping to her feet. “Hey w…wait!”

Jing whimpered in fear as the tonu kept a painful grip on her arm. He looked at Leria, glaring at her. “Stay out of this girl.” He said before dragging Jing away with him. “I don’t care if you are a kid girl, you will pay for stealing.”

Leria quickly moved in front of the tonu. “I stole that! And gave it to her.” She said, producing the rest of the stuff Jing had stolen. “See?”

Jing blinked in surprise as she saw the food. Wait… When had she… “Nice try.” The tonu said, lifting Jing up off the ground. “I saw her taking them.”

“No you didn’t.” She said, as a soft haze filled the area around the tonu. “I just made it seem that way!”

The tonu looked around confused. “What the hell is going on here? You are aiding a criminal!”

“She’s just trying to feed herself.” Leria said, though her tail twitched at the accusation. The gas made the tonu’s movements slow down considerably, and Leria used this to dash forward to snatch Jing from his grasp.

The tonu’s grip was still surprisingly tight on Jing’s arm, refusing to let go of her. “I…If you help this girl… you… are committing a crime. Even if… she is trying to feed herself… she still stole.” Jing whimpered a little, trying to pull away from the tonu and looking at Leria.

Leria stopped short, looking at Jing as she hesitated, rather distressed as conflicting thoughts flashed through her mind.

Jing watched Leria for a moment before looking away. The tonu glared at Leria “Let me go from whatever magic you used and let me do my job!”

Leria frowned. “What are you going to do to her?” She asked.

“Hand her into the authorities of course. They will deal with the thief.” The tonu answered.

Leria hesitated. “What if I paid for the items?”

“That won’t make up for it girl. Who knows how many other times she has stolen?” The tonu said angrily. “She has to pay for her crime.”

“And what’s the price of stealing? How do you know if she’s stolen before?” Leria persisted.

“It is none of your business girl. And she still stole today. Repaying what was taken doesn’t change that. Be glad she doesn’t lose her hand for stealing.” The tonu said with a glare.

Leria flinched at this. Finally she seemed to come to a decision, and moved to once more grab Jing’s hand. She looked to the Tonu and smiled, “I think I’ll punish her myself.” She said, and the two disappeared.

The tonu’s eyes widened in shock as the two disappeared. What just happened?!

Jing and Leria reappeared in the forest outside the city, Leria’s hand still gripping Jing’s tightly. “I thought it would be bad if you stole…” She sighed.

Jing looked at Leria in shock, trying to move back. “What’s going on?! What did you just do?!”

“I decided to save you from that tonu, looked too dangerous.” Leria said, though her grip on Jing was as strong as the tonu’s had been, keeping her in place. “But stealing IS wrong.”

Jing bit her lip a little watching Leria. “I have to steal! It’s the only way I can survive! Its how I have for years.”

“Well do something to change!” She said with a frown. “You know, most people get a job and pay for their food.”

“I can’t have a job! I…I can never have a normal life! You wouldn’t understand! Let go of me!” Jing yelled, trying to pull away.

“Try me.” Leria said, not letting go of Jing.

Jing’s body was trembling and she was fighting back tears in her eyes. “No.”

“Then I’ll take you back to the tonu.” She replied flatly.

“Go ahead!” Jing yelled at Leria. “Just… Go ahead…”

“Just because you do not die if you are killed?” She asked finally.

Jing blinked in horror, looking at Leria and her face went pale. “H…How…”

“Listen, as much as I’m curious as to this power of yours I will not test it… you feel the pain right?” She said.

Jing bit her lip a little, looking away. “E…Every time… and I remember the pain… even after… How did you know…?” She asked quietly.

“I can read surface thoughts… and you are quite vocal in your fear of dying.” Leria said finally, “I’m sorry I did not tell you before, but I wasn’t sure how much I could trust you.”

Jing was silent for a moment, confused and scared a lot now. “What are you…?”

“Can I trust you?” She asked, forcing Jing to look at her.

Jing looked at Leria, seeming very unsure. Was she really going to tell the truth? Or just lie again…? Well… She did know her secret, and didn’t seem to want to kill her… or try to. Finally she nodded a little. “Y…Yes.”

Leria sighed faintly, letting go of Jing’s hand finally. She closed her eyes and her form shifted before Jing, growing massive, and dull golden red in color. As the form became solid again, a large bronze dragon stood in front of Jing, looking down at the now tiny girl.

Jing looked up in shock and horror, stumbling back a little before falling to the ground. No way… a dragon… a real dragon?!

Leria knew the aura of fear her kind had, which caused mortals to cower away from even the good dragons. It still disturbed her to see it though. She sighed, and turned back into a rakune, watching Jing.

Jing just say there, watching Leria. Leria could tell there wasn’t a huge amount of fear running through the girls mind just… shock. The scariest thing about Leria was her size; after all she was really tiny.

Leria sighed, “Now you know why I didn’t tell you?”

Jing nodded a little “So… You are a real dragon?”

Leria laughed slightly, nodding. “A bronze dragon…. draconic is the language of the dragons… that is why I am so interested in you.”

Jing blinked confused “Draconic? That’s what you called the common language right? That’s what you said its true name was?”

Leria nodded, “We have to keep moving…” She said, “We can talk while we walk.” She was worried the villagers might have seen her… or someone else.

Jing blinked confused at the sudden want to move but nodded, standing. “Um… Sure.”

Leria smiled, glad that at least she was not asking to be left alone anymore. “Your language… that common one you speak of, is draconic, used by the dragon people.” She said. “But our numbers were dwindling even before I was sealed away… I do not know if any remain now, I don’t even know how long it’s been…”

“I see… But I don’t understand. Why would my people, who live on a small island in the middle of the ocean that no one else seems to know about… know that language? I mean we don’t know what its true name is… it was lost in history ages ago!”

Leria winced at this. “My…. best guess is that whenever ages ago your people came to live on the island…. there was a dragon there who taught them, and they used it since then, even after the dragon had left… or died.”

“But our records hold no mention of dragons. Everything is all this stupid… religious stuff…” Jing muttered.

Leria grinned, “What if your god… or gods… were the dragons?” She said.

“If that’s true then said dragons cursed me.” Jing said, anger held in her voice.

Leria looked surprised now. “Your not being able to die?” She asked.

Jing nodded “It’s a curse… supposedly by the gods as punishment.”

The dragon-girl frowned, “Why?”

“The elders of the royal family said it was because of my disrespect towards our ways of life. I don’t believe in gods, so I never worshiped them, I contradicted our teachings, and I was told I brought the greatest dishonor to my family. Because of that the gods who I didn’t believe were there decided to punish me.” Jing explained sadly.

Leria puckered her lips, looking at Jing. “Tell me more of your people and that which you did against your teachings.”

Jing sighed a little “We are a clan of pets who live on a large island… isolated from the rest of the world. No one ever leaves unless banished.”

“I see… what about the teachings? Why did you not follow them? What were they?” She persisted, wanting to know more.

“Just that… the gods protect all the people. That they chose a long time ago the royal family. And that everyone would follow the family since they are closest to the gods. The gods then protect everyone else as well.” Jing explained. She actually didn’t remember a lot of it, parts of her memory had slowly faded away the longer she was away from home. She didn’t even remember where the island was anymore.

“I see…” Leria sighed, regretting how little the girl knew. “It is possible some selfish dragon decided to play with your people and become a ‘god’, and even now uses his magic to toy with them to make sure they remain loyal…” She glanced at Jin again, then away. “I… might be able to help you break that curse.”

Jing sighed a little “I’ve… gotten use to it Leria… the curse… it can’t be broken. I’ve accepted that… it’s been five years since I was banished.”

“Of course no mortal can break it.” She laughed, “Dragon magic is way too strong for normal magicians. But you can’t honestly say you don’t want to stop being killed?”

“I do want it to stop… but at the same time… after going through being killed so many times… I’m scared of death. I mean real death… I’m scared about what happens after someone dies.” Jing admitted.

“Ah…” She nodded, “I can see what you mean. And yet you will get tired of living, at some point, once you are old.”

Jing shook her head “The curse… stops a person’s aging… after three years. Why do you think I look like such a kid? It’s also why I don’t get close to anyone. After a while they would realize something was wrong…”

“Ah…. I see.” She grinned, “And here I thought you were just a midget!” She poked Jing’s cheek playfully.

Jing tried to smile a little but it was hard to after talking about all of this. “So… Have you ever heard of a curse like this before?”

“To be honest… no.” She said with a sigh. “But I….” She stopped short as an arrow hit her back with enough force to throw her forward. She snarled, struggling to stand as a second arrow hit her, making her fall again. “RUN!” She cried to Jing.

Jing’s eyes widened in horror at the arrows, stumbling away before starting to run, at the same time looking back at where the arrows had come from.

Leria tried to stand, but felt too weak to do much more than roll over towards her attacker, a large electric krawk grinning as he closed in on his catch. The rakune girl struggled to shift to her original form, or do magic, but was unable to, moaning softly as she fell unconscious.

Jing quickly hid behind some trees, waiting for Leria… why wasn’t she coming. She then turned around the tree, looking towards the krawk in shock. Oh no… What was going on?!

The krawk smirked, kneeling by the unconscious rakune-dragon and laughed, “Looks like that mix still works on dragons.” He said, pulling out a length of rope as he began tying Leria’s hands behind her back.

Jing bit her lip as she heard the krawk, looking around and grabbing a big strong stick. She then started to try and sneak around to get behind the krawk, using the trees for cover.

The krawk looked up as he tightened Leria’s wrists together. He smirked, “Still here, little girl?” He asked.

Jing froze as she heard the krawk, heart pounding in her chest. She gripped the stick tightly though, and turned, running out from behind the tree and towards the krawk. “Get away from her!” She yelled, swinging the stick.

He smirked at her charge, and moved out of the way at the last second, then grabbed her wrist as he did, flipping her over and onto her back, straddling her belly. “You should have run like she told you to.” He said.

Jing cried out as she hit the ground, wind knocked out of her lungs and the girl let out a weak whimper.

He smirked, “You could have saved your life at least.” He said, putting a hand to her throat and letting out a sudden strong discharge of electricity.

Jing watched him in horror before letting out a loud, shrill scream as the shock ran through her.

He grinned as the shock continued, coursing up and down her body painfully.

Jing’s scream continued for a minute before the girl’s cries faced and her body went still.

The krawk smirked and got off her, moving back to Leria, finishing the roping and grabbing her by the tail, dragged her off through the woods.