Growing up for a second time

"Marika please trust me and I will take care of this."

Marika nodded.

"Now wait here and I'll bring that b*tch outside for you so you can do whatever you want to her."

William opened a portal and came into the room.

He changed in to his second stage and had a murderous aura around him.

The woman saw William and 'Your too late, he is mine now!'

"Ohh is that so… I don't think so."

"Your too late because he is hers and she already left a mark on him."

William grabbed the woman by the neck and yanked her to the ground.

He then went over to the door and saw where the barrier origin came from.

He broke it and opened the door for Genus.

William told Genus that Richard was paralyzed and couldn't move, and if that woman indeed left a mark on him he has to remove it.

William grabbed the woman by the hair and dragged her away.

"I never knew William could be this fears."

"That's not William, it is his dragon Wade."

Wade looked at Richard and had an smirk on his face, "Make sure you explain it to her or else… Let's just say I'll make sure you will be separate from her for a while until you have cleaned up your act."

Wade then said to Genus, "If you don't remove the mark this wh*re left on him, then I'll leave my mark on the guardian."

Wade than opened the window door and went outside where Marika was waiting.

"Did he just threaten you by taking the little girl away from you? And leave his mark on her?"

"No he just warned me and told me that my guard was lacking."

Wade heard his words and smile.

"Marika look I brought you a present."

Wade threw the woman in front of Marika who was still crying.

Marika looked at Wade and jumped up to him and kept crying.

"Marika…Richard was paralyzed by her but Genus is taking care of him right now."

'Heart hurt.'

"Does your heart hurt?"

Marika nodded.

"Is it because that woman try to steal Richard away from you?"

Marika shook her head.

'Spell broke.'

'I put spell on husband to keep safe.'

Wade put Marika down and called for the guards.

When the guards arrived he told them to tie up the woman and send her to Moon Castle dungeon.

When they left Wade looked at Marika and saw she had collapsed and was panting.

Wade picked her up again and rushed to the door.

"Genus something is very wrong with the guardian."

Marika struggled to get out of Wade arms and tried to get away.

Richard had recovered from the paralysis and saw she was struggling he also felt a shooting pain in his heart.

Genus rushed over to Wade "What did she say?"

"She said her heart hurts and that a spell was broken.

Genus then looked at Richard who also had a hard time.

Genus walked over to Marika but she growled at him.

'I go away, me staying bad for husband.'

"What do you mean?"

'Spell broke, I go away he won't be small.'

Genus got the gist of what she meant.

But Richard didn't like what he heard and rushed over to her.

"You promised to never leave me no matter what happened."

Marika cried, 'I don't want to leave, I need you.'

'Just today I leave, so you're not small like me.'

Genus then looked at Wade, "Take her away right now."

Wade didn't hesitate and transformed and took Marika away from Richard.

Richard got furious with Genus. "What the hell!"

"Master it's only for today not forever."

"Listen to me, she put 6 spells on you to make sure your body would stay stable and you wouldn't regress too much, to be honest the very soul reason she is a baby right now is because she took the most of your regression on herself, that's why you look 18 years old. She couldn't take it completely because she would regress so far back, it could kill her.

"And the reason she said she needed to leave is because she needs you to protect her in her most vulnerable age. If you would stay close together now, the spell would completely shatter and you both would be baby's and who is going to protect her? You two would be separated and god knows how long it will take for either of you to be back to normal."

"Look, it's not that she wanted to leave you in the first place but she know damn well if she didn't, all her hard work would be for nothing."

"Now yesterday she turned in to a baby who could only growl and hiss, since this morning she already could use words, meaning she is roughly around 4 years old already. She is progressing fast, but probably took a set back because the spell got damaged."

"Damn it, why did this had to happen!?" Richard was angry.

"If your this angry to be separated from my sister for just one day, I wonder how you will hold up when she will be gone for a year." Luca walked up to Richard.

Marika didn't appear for breakfast so he went looking for her.

"I was against it the moment my sister explained what she was up to, but she told me to shut up and that I wouldn't understand it."

"So I did what she told me, I shut up and let her do it, she even knew Genus would be against it, but he also knows it was the only way to save your life."

"You once asked her why she was taking everything on herself and fight alone, and if she even trusted you."

"Well letting go of solidarity is a long and hard process, and she already have taking steps to let others help her fight, she let everybody else handle her magic retrieving plan, handle Raphael and his man, and took you with her to take down The Snake Clan."

"If it were the old Marika then she would have done it all alone."

Richard had calmed down a little, he knew Luca was right.

"But I feel so helpless when she is in pain or struggling, have I ever been of any help to her?"

Luca smiled and patted his shoulder "More than you know."

"I know it must annoy you now that you are in a body of an 18 year old, but being 18 years old doesn't mean you can't protect a small child or a baby."

"Like I told my sister when she was a 3 year old for the first time; don't try too hard and change your appearance, enjoy it and relax a bit more. You won't stay like this forever."

"I bet she was doing that the moment she woke up and noticed she was a baby again."

"The rest is just infant instincts and normal development."

"Oh and one more thing, my sister was fed up with fighting a long time ago, she wanted to have a peaceful life and spend it with the one she loves the most. But since her fate is that of The Guardian of the 3 Worlds, she will not really get what she wants in this life, but what we can do is make it bearable for her and give her what is close to her actual wish."

"Genus you take this moping kid to Lenis and see how bad the damage is on the spell, I'll tell the others, Marika had to flee in order to minimize the damage on the damaged spell."

[Lunar Lake]

William arrived with Marika at the lake and he took of his cloths and took Marika in to the water.

Marika woke up and panicked.

"It's alright, you won't drown." William soothed her.

Marika calmed down.

"Let's take a swim and recover your body."

William slowly let go of Marika, but as soon as he did she panicked again.

William held her again and Marika started to calm down.

"Hum… seems that you forgot how to swim."

Marika looked a little dejected at his words.

"I can teach you, but you seem to tense right now, so I will hold you for now."

Marika slowly started to relax and got used to the water.

After 15 minutes Marika was totally calm and enjoyed being in the water. William picked her up and held her above the water.

"Alright now walk like you would do on the ground."

Marika started to make her walking motion and William slowly put her down in the water again.

Marika kept on walking in the water.

"Shall we walk over to that three there?" As he pointed in the direction.

Marika nodded.

As she was swimming, William very carefully and slowly let go of Marika again and she was swimming on her own.

William kept a close eye on her because she easily could get tired fast.

When they reached the small island William praised her.

"Good girl, you swam all by yourself, now take a rest and we swim back after that.

William changed in to a dragon again and curled up, Marika laid down next to him and fell asleep.

William also closed his eyes and took a nap with Marika.

[Mansion]

Genus arrived with Richard at the mansion.

When Derick saw Richard he almost fainted.

"Master what happened to you?"

"It's a long story, but your daughter managed to reduce the damage and she is even worse off than him. Where is Lenis?"

"Lenis is outside with Dante at the training ground."

"Alright… let's go Master."

Richard fallowed Genus and went to the training grounds.

When they arrived they saw Dante was teaching Lenis some self-defense.

"Lenis! Do you have a moment?" Genus called out to him.

Lenis and Dante saw Genus with a young man standing, when they were closer they saw it was Richard and were shocked.

"Brother in law what happened to you?"

Richard didn't say anything but Genus said "It's a long story, but your sister made him this way."

"She did what!!!"

"Don't worry it's not forever, just like your sister it will take a month and he will be back to normal."

Genus then looked at Lenis "There should be 6 spells on him and according to her on was damaged or broken, could you please have a look on what the state of those spells are?"

"Because she said she had to be away from him for just a day so he won't regress any further."

Lenis looked at Richard and was shocked by what he saw.

"What the hell did she do…"

Lenis fell through his knees in utter shock.

Dante was worried for his brother and crouched down "Calm down and take a deep breath, knowing her, she did this to save his life."

"Now focus and look for the damage."

Lenis focused again and saw what was going one.

Lenis started to explain "You have a chaining spell on you to keep you soul from becoming unstable, she actually placed two spells to keep your massive inner energy calm, one spell to make sure if you used your magic it wouldn't go haywire, one spell to block any further regression and one to heal the spells if they got damaged."

"Now all the spells are intact but they fail safe, the healing spell that should repair the damage on the other spells cracked, and cause for pain to the both of you."

"Can it be fixed?" Richard asked him.

Lenis nodded.

"It can but… you both go through excruciating pain. Or you just have to be separated for a day that should also work."

Richard nodded and decided to just be separated from her for today, because he didn't want to cause her pain.

Richard then called William.

"Have you calmed down Master?"

"Yes I have, I just panicked because she had a hard time and was in pain."

"Where are you guys?"

"We're at Lunar Lake…"

"Hey Marika cut it out already!"

Marika ignored him and kept pouncing on William.

"What did you do before she was acting like that?"

"Well I took her into the lake so she could recover, but she panicked at first then when she was calm I let her swim on her own but she couldn't, I had to teach her, after that we took a short rest. When she woke up from her nap she has been acting like this."

Marika wasn't happy that William was busy talking and demanded his attention so she ran up to him and head butted him from behind.

"Au! That hurt! Stop it already!"

Richard chuckled a little "Do you need some help?"

"Please send over the kids."

Marika now charged from the front but this time William caught her.

Marika look it's you husband, he is very worried about you.

Marika saw Richard and let out a chirpy growl.

"I'm sorry sweetie but I can't play with you today."

Marika started to whimper a bit.

"I'll send Khai, Regina and Nova over to you so you can play with them and if Lenis say's everything is good again I'll come and pick you up."

Marika perked up a bit.

"And sweetie, stop head butting and pouncing at William, behave yourself until the other kids have arrived."

Marika sat down and nodded.

"Listen to William and I'll come pick you up before you know it."

Marika rolled over and looked all cute.

"I promise I will play with you when we are home."

Marika jumped in circles and then laid back down.

"If something bad happen you don't have to worry, because the kids are very well equipped to deal with it."

William nodded and ended the call.

An hour had passed and Khai, Regina and Nova arrived, Marika was exited and started to pounce Khai letting him know she wanted to play with him.

"Mom, in a moment, I heard you had hurt William so let me first check on him and then we play."

Marika was being inpatient and started to tuck on Khai.

'Mom just quit it for a moment, we will play with you but Khai first need to check on William and estimate the damage you caused on him.'

Regina was firm with her, but Marika didn't want to listen and started to act up.

Regina sighed.

Nova asked her what was wrong.

'I just remember I was just like mom, acting all spoiled and didn't listen to her and dad a month ago. My behavior was just as bad as mom is now, seeing it makes me feel even more sorry and I had put them both through this.'

William laughed by thinking back on it. "You really gave you father a headache that day."

'I know and I even got mom so mad that she scolded dad when I didn't changed my behavior.'

"But you did reflect on it and you have grown a lot, even though your mother could speak this morning, due to an incident she regressed back a little further, you could say she is not much older than a 2 month old baby, this morning she was close to a 4 year old because she could speak."

Khai had healed up William and said "Let's go mom were going to bring you to a fun place to play."

Marika perked up and nodded.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

[Mystic Cave]

The five of them arrived and were met with Caelum and Solis.

Richard had already informed them what had happened the day before and today.

Marika saw her eldest son and stated to pounce on him right away.

Solis caught her "Mom I heard everything from dad…"

He took a deep breath "Are you insane! No matter how you look at it, you put your life in this much danger!? Did it ever occurred to you that you could have died! Be grateful it all worked out or else…"

Solis calmed down "You are stuck with me until dad's safety measure is restored and he comes to pick you up. Until then you behave and if not…"

Marika whimpered.

"Now, now brother don't be mad at mom."

Caelum took Marika from him.

"Mom…you really need to be chained down for a while, because you seem to not care for your own life, nor care how the people will feel when you leave them behind." Caelum said in a cold voice.

Marika started to shake in fear.

Caelum put her down "No go play with Khai and the others, after that we go up the mountain and have lunch."

Marika slowly and fearfully walked away from her eldest children.

William started to chuckle a little.

After a few minutes Marika was her happy childish self again and stated to pounce on Khai again.

William thought it was odd "Why is she like that with Khai? I have seen it two times now."

"Well this is actually her third time doing this." Nova told them.

"Well that is probably for two reasons, one is if you look closely at Khai in his human form he resembles a certain person, and second is because she still has half of Khai's soul in her."

"But she hissed at the 3 of us last night."

Solis shook his head "She probably only hissed at you and Regina and sins Khai was standing next to you it looked like she was hissing at the 3 of you."

"Then why didn't she hiss at you and Caelum? I mean she even hissed at her brother Luca."

"Well did she also hissed at Alex?"

"From what I was told she hissed at almost everybody accept for dad and uncle Alex and great uncle Cillus."

"How old does dad look like now?"

"He is around 18 years old and uncle Alex showed up as a 7 year old."

"Well that because Mom met with dad for the first time when she was a baby and dad was already 18 years old, and uncle Alex 7 years old. To her it was nothing more than actually reliving the past."

"Is there a way to speed up their recovery from this regression?" William asked Solis.

"There is… they need to spend a month in the human world."

"The time factor between this world and the human world are irrelevant to spells, if a spell is set for a month it doesn't matter if it's here or there an month is a month."

"So if they stay there for a month, they have resolved it in matter of hours according to our time flow. But how does that even work unless something changes in the spell and adjusting to the time flow of the world they are at."

"That's correct the spell will adjust to time flow, and that is what uncle Luca aimed for to send mom and dad over to the human world."

"So if she had done that in the human world and came here to ride it out that means 360 years had passed according to the time flow of the human world, before she could go back."

Solis nodded.

Solis and William were looking over the others while playing with Marika.

After a few hours Marika got tired and wanted to take a nap she curled up and went to sleep.

Solis picked her up and told everybody to fallow him up the mountain.

When they arrived they went to Sophos first. Solis woke up Marika and Marika saw Sophos and jumped out of Solis arms and ran up to him, she nuzzled him.

"Our Queen is such a cute little hatch-ling, but it's not good to give the people around you a hard time."

Marika looked sad and Sophos patted her head "Now let me help you fix that little problem of you and The Moon King so you guys can go to the human world and to speed up your recovery."

"Will it hurt her or The Moon King?" William asked Sophos.

"Well since she is the caster of the spell it won't hurt her or The Moon King, but if I would do it to him than they both will feel pain."

Marika jumped on the Sophos lap and sat down.

Sophos than started to concentrated and fix the healing spell that was connecting her and Richard.

Marika didn't seem uncomfortable, more the opposite.

Marika then laid down and fell asleep again.

Sophos then looked at William "It seems that His Highness William has awakened just recently."

William looked shocked at Sophos "With all due respect clan head but I'm not of royal decent at least not that I know of."

"That's true, you escaped a dreadful prison due to you magic and the price you payed was forgetting everything before your 20th year, but your memories weren't erased they are merely being concealed by magic."

"But why didn't she tell me?"

"Well you know her; she doesn't care for titles, status and back ground. She only sees you as a person, a friend, the only thing she was looking for was how you got your memory loss and a look of what your family looked like. You never asked for any more than that, so she never told you."

"But even if she told you, you are the only blue dragon roaming this world, and you hold no power for now. And by not telling you or anybody for that matter is so she knows you'll be safe and won't be targeted."

"She only recently found out about the guard of the guardian."

"And that include you too, you are a guard of the guardian and it was your dragon who told her."

"I can help you eras the magic that is currently blocking your memories."

"I thank the clan head, but I will only do that when my friends are back to normal again and before she will go to war and free the clans who are still trapped."

"They both told me, no matter my past, I am who I am now a dear friend and I want them with me when you erase the spell that is concealing my memories."

Sophos nodded and respected his wishes.

"Come and visit me when you are ready."

"I will clan head."

Marika suddenly perked up and ran down to the door, she started scratch it.

Solis walked over to the door and opened it, the cook and the students came in and served the food on the table.

Surprisingly Marika was calm when she saw them and calmly walked with them to the table.

William chuckled a little.

When they were done setting the table Marika finally showed her excitement and started to jumped up to them.

The students started to patted her "Our Queen maybe a hatch ling, but you still show the same love for cooking as when you are an adult."

The chef cook came up to Marika and picked her up and whispered something to her.

Marika smiled with her eyes and nodded.

"Enjoy your lunch My Queen."

Marika saw of the cooks and the students and went to the table and sat down on Williams lap.

William helped her eat and was surprised she at a lot.

To Solis and Caelum it wasn't a surprise, she would always eat more when she was relaxed and didn't have to worry over things.

Marika was eating and she didn't noticed Richard was looking at her with a smile.

When they were done eating Richard knocked on the door.

Marika looked up and saw Richard standing there, he crouched down, as he smiled and opened his arms.

Marika ran up to him and pounced at him.

"Sweetie have you been a good girl?"

Marika nuzzled Richard.

Richard got back up again and bowed to Sophos "Thank you for helping us out like this."

Sophos shook his head "This is nothing compared to how you two have helped us so many times."

"Sweetie I know I promised I would play with you when we got back home, but Vincent need your help now in the human word. So instead of playing together, you're going on a hunt, what do you think?"

Marika perked up and looked happy, Richard smiled.

William let Vincent know they were ready to leave and Vincent gave them the coordinates to where they needed to go.

Marika nuzzled everybody goodbye and left through the portal.

Solis, Caelum and Sophos all knew that no matter her age or size, in order to protect those who are weak she would do everything in her power to help those in need.

Sophos then told Solis and Caelum to pack up because it wouldn't be long before they would be called up on.

"Is mom going to be in trouble?" Caelum asked worried.

"No, but she is going to need your help with two hatch lings."

Solis wasn't all that worried because he knew Sophos also had foresight, but his for sight would always regard phoenixes, no matter in which world they are at, if they were originally from this clan he could see it. 

[Human world]

They arrived at the island and where met with Vincent and Camilla.

Vincent was shocked by what he saw.

"O my god…Yumaria what happened to you?"

Marika hissed at Vincent and Camilla started to giggle a little.

"Do not underestimate her current size and mental state, if you think she is a killer when she is her normal self, the you be in for a treat, currently she is a highly intelligent predator."

Marika walked up to Camilla and nuzzled her.

'Yumaria my brother is just a little shocked and a tat worried for your safety that's all, so don't hiss at him, he takes your life and health as priority number one.'

Marika then walked over to Vincent and jumped on to him and let him know that he need to show her what she needed to do.

They all walked up close to the beach.

"Yumaria do you see those people on the beach?"

Marika nodded.

"Those people are here to protect the nature of this island, I told them to stay on the beach and not wander around in the forest. They agreed easily because they didn't want to disturb nature and they always clean up after them self's so they take this very seriously."

"Do you see that ship over there?"

Marika squinted her eyes but she couldn't see it.

Vincent caste the same spell like last time and now Marika could see what he saw.

Marika let him know she could see it.

"Those people want to destroy the island for resources."

Marika started to growled.

"Now the people of the ship will come on this island in two shifts, one is coming during the day and the other during the night."

"The day group exist out of researchers and a few armed man and the night group exist out of hunters."

"They already managed to capture some animals and creatures."

Marika looked at Richard and knew what she wanted to ask of him.

He patted her head "I'll free those who are onboard of the ship."

"You just focus on your hunt."

Vincent took them to the place the humans were interested in and saw what the cause of the problem was. There was a cave with all types of minerals some would be handy for healing others to enhance once inner energy.

But to humans they were mere means for making money.

Marika wasn't all that interested, and she smelled a scent coming from deeper in the cave and she ran off.

Richard fallowed her and when they arrived they saw two dead bodies and two eggs.

Marika ran up to them and checked them, she started to lay down and whimper.

Richard slowly walked over and checked the egg's to his surprise the babies were still alive inside the eggs but it didn't look good for them.

The body's that were on the ground were bird like but they decade in such a manner that it was hard to tell what they were.

"Sweetie they are still alive, but I think its best that we bring them over to the main house and let Lady Rory take care of them for the time being."

Marika whimpered and didn't want Richard to move them.

"I know you don't want them to be moved and let them stay in there respected habitat, but if we don't move them now they will die."

"We will hatch them and when they can be on their own we bring them back here. And when you scared the people away from this place to never return, they can all live here in peace."

Marika was still reluctant but let Richard move them.

When they both returned to the others with the eggs Richard asked Camilla to take these two to Lady Rory and Ivy and start with the incubation.

Camilla nodded and packed up the eggs and took off to The Green Dragon Clan.

Richard patted Marika "Don't worry they will hatch safely."

Richard then looked at Alex, Khai and Regina, "Just let her do her thing, but if you sense the need to intervene do so."

Richard then looked at Marika "Listen here sweetie, no hurting the people on the beach."

Marika nodded.

"Since the day party are mostly researchers just wound them, but you are allowed to kill the people who are carrying weapons. But do be careful, they could carry anesthetics."

Marika nodded again.

"As for the night group, be mindful that they could use some kind of heat detecting or night vision equipment."

"I'll infiltrate the ship and set all the captured animals and creatures free."

Marika nodded and then nuzzled Richard.

"Happy hunting sweetie, and I'll see you soon."

[2 Weeks later]

Marika was now 11 years old and Richard was now 22 years old. Richard aged roughly by 2 years a week and Marika by 5 years.

Marika's hunt progressed good, she managed to kill and injure a lot of people, but due to her hunt more people came to the island.

Richard knew that this could happen because humans can be greedy and would do anything to obtain something.

Marika knew she was told not to kill any researchers, but if she kept it up like that they would just keep coming.

'Richard it seems that the warning falls on deaf ears, I think it's time to also kill researchers.'

"Well I do agree but then…"

'Worst case scenario they will throw a bomb or something. But then they lose what they are aiming for.'

'Most greedy humans don't like to cut their losses and let it be… they are more pruned to if I can't have it, no one can.'

"Then what about the activist group?"

'They stayed at the beach, they only get to the edge of the forest when nature calls.'

'As long as they stay there nothing will happen to them. And by not hurting them, the beach is a safe place and no harm come to them, meaning the threat is in the forest.'

'But to get this to stop, we need an ambassador and we need to let the government know that they should leave this island alone.'

'Richard are there any biologist onboard of the ship?'

"There is one, he has been raising a fuss lately, because he inspected your bite marks and concluded that that a very big reptile is the cause of the killing and is growing experiential in the course of time."

"He is trying to convince the people to leave the island alone, and they are the cause of environmental disturbance."

Marika smiled, 'Well at least not all of them are lost causes.'

'I can work with that…now we need an activist or two and him to come in to the forest and show them what those greedy bastards are doing for the whole world to see, and preferably me killing a few of those armed men. Hopefully this way the world is getting a grasp on why there are so many deaths.'

"So this hunt will be over in a week?"

Marika nodded.

"That's fine let's discuss it with the others."

Marika and Richard discussed it with Vincent and told them it wouldn't be a problem.

'You go with them, because for me to attack them when your around are pretty slim.'

"Alright Yumaria."

'Oh I need white coat here as well.'

"Sweetie I doubt he would like to come."

'Too bad for him then, because I found some nasty poisons plant and herbs for him to study.'

Richard made a call to Genus.

"How is everything in the human world?"

"It's all good, I'm now 5 years away from my original age."

"I have aged by 2 and a quarter years a week."

"What?!?!"

"What about the little girl?"

Marika popped up next to Richard.

'Hey white coat, how have you been?'

Genus jaw dropped when he saw Marika.

'I'm 11 and a half years old now, I age by 5 years and 3 quarts a week.'

"You both will be back to normal in 2 more weeks."

Marika nodded.

'Hey white coat, I'm in the middle of a small little battle, but I found some interesting herb and poison during the time and I was wondering if you were interested to come over and study them? I would love to do it myself but I'm too busy killing and hurting humans so…'

"Can you guarantee my safety over there?"

'What a stupid question is that, of course I can.'

'Well got to go, there are some intruders coming, talk to you when you're here.'

Marika stood up and left in a hurry.

"How has she been?"

"Well the first week she did exceptional alright, she listened very well to everybody."

"But she only vaguely remembered the hunting game in Ignis, now that she is more aware of right and wrong she is easier to handle, but she still has her ups and downs concerning her behavior but you can release your killing intent around her, she won't attack you. So it's pretty save to be around her."

"Alright."

"Oh before you come here I need you to make a stop at the Main house with Solis and Caelum. The first day we arrived at this island we found two eggs and they are from a bird but we just don't know what species they are. We did find the bodies of the parent, and from the looks of it they were dead at least for a month or so, but the baby's inside are still alive."

"Alright… see you guys in a bit."

Richard ended the call.