Chapter Twenty six

The group journeyed into the desert no longer with their first intentions but now to find Karla. Ryoko had kept the aura of darkness around her preventing the others from going closer to her, they agreed to have never seen her in such a state but seeing as Karla was her closest person to her and her best friend to say the least.

The deeper they went into the desert the colder they got which was a shock to them, the desert was quite different from all other deserts. The cold however was piercing, the group resulted to not speaking the whole way as it burned their throats, they decided to speak only when they had to

"how exactly are we planning to find her" Elena asked covering her mouth with her scarf which only did as much as it could to protect her throat

"follow her chi I guess" Viper said not holding her irritated tone anymore as she was a worried as anyone else about Karla

"her chi? And what if we loose it, like when we stop to rest" Tatsuya asked

"then we don't stop, we continue till we find her" Ryoko said in a low voice

"through the desert? Have you gone crazy?" Haru asked calmly careful not to stir up an awaiting storm

"maybe I have so what? Huh?"

"nothing" Haru sighed seeing as she would get nowhere with her, she was no longer cheerful and full of energy, her chi had darkened but not in a way that tainted her clean soul.

Ryoko was one of the few people in the world who had never killed an innocent or let her chi take over, she had not mastered any of the elements, techniques or even her own powers as dragon royalty, but she could still put out the fire of hell and set an ocean on fire. Ryoko had a chi powerful enough to manipulate demons, dragons, and other super naturals.

The sun was still up in the air by the evening time. The group was at lose of ideas including what to do when night falls, Ryoko was keen on continuing the journey until they found Karla and she wasn't taking no for an answer. The piercing cold had calmed down by sunset and they could breathe without wincing.

"Ryoko it's almost night fall, we should stop and rest" Tatsuya said, Ryoko stopped walking and turned to them, they all moved to back away but kept their stance, she stared at them with an intensity worse than gravity itself.

"are you tired?" she asked in a low tone

"w- well yes we're getting tired and may have to stop" Haru said

"wait here" she turned and continued on the path while the others no matter how they resented didn't dare follow, Ryoko was not in the mood to spare anybody at the moment. The watched her disappear and didn't do anything. They waited for a while not seeing any signs of her and it had already gotten dark

"I can't stand here while she may be dead out there I'm going after her" Tatsuya said picking up his bag to follow after her

"Tatsuya don't do something stupid, Ryoko is not in the mood for anything, her main aim now is to find Karla and nothing else, don't make a wrong move and regret it later" Haru said

"she's right hold of for a while, her chi is still around so she's fine" Viper said not holding onto an attitude at the moment, she was also at loss for words at seeing Ryokos attitude,

"look!" Elena shouted pointing to the sky

"what is it gonna rain?" Viper asked rolling her eyes but then some water dropped on her and she looked up expecting to see rain but was met with a different sight

"'mizu no seirei'"

"get on"

Ryoko had returned with her spirit animal, a silvery blue lion, big enough to carry the group and their things. The journey resumed unsurprisingly to the rest, they were caught of guard as Ryoko had not told them she could alone summon her spirit animal.

'the only other time her spirit animal revealed itself was when she had fallen into the river, how did she summon it without training' Tatsuya thought

'with an aura like that, she could attract a lot of unwanted attention, but I can't even tell her to her face, when I look in her eyes, it's like watching hells flames consume me, that's some power for a kid' Viper thought

Everybody was thinking of something at the moment including Ryoko, her thoughts were quite open but even Haru who was the most skilled could not fathom what was on her mind at the time.

"so Ryoko how do you intend finding Karla and what do we do when we find her" Elena asked

"her chi is getting stronger, can't you feel it?, whoever took her is smart enough to realise that someone is at his tail" she answered while lying on her back watching the starless sky

"what about the last question" Elena asked

"yeah what do we do when we find her finally?" Viper asked

"don't you know? I'll bury whoever took her at the centre of this desert, whoever it is is now an enemy and enemies shouldn't be left to roam the earth freely" the others looked at her with wide eyes

"how does someone with a plan like that have a heart still so pure" Viper asked Haru in a low toon

"she's right, the person is an enemy and a danger, kidnapping a dragon isn't something still common, how did they know it was a dragon" Haru said

"they must have been observing us" Tatsuya said joining th e conversation

"could it be?" Viper asked

"no it couldn't be" Ryoko sat up quickly with wide eyes

"why didn't I realise it sooner, I was so concentrated on other things I didn't realise" the others calmed down noticing that her chi and softened

"realised what?" Elena asked

"at the bar we were being observed, but it wasn't the two in the bar, it's so smart no one would think a kid would realise it"

"wait someone else was observing us?" Tatsuya asked

"outside the bar when we entered a small group of people had been staring at us, they kept their observation secret hiding their chi and presence in a whole bar and trading spot, they must have followed her immediately she left the bar" Ryoko said shocking the others

'this kid is too much' Elena thought looking at her mistress in shock and admiration

'I must learn more from my mistress, she will become my teacher as well' she thought

"how could we let that kind of thing slip just like that" Viper asked pulling her hair a little

"it was a trafficking site everything would be suspicious, we noticed the most obvious ones" Ryoko said a smile returning to her face, this smile was not malicious or dangerous as her chi had been, instead it was a smile of guilt for having not noticed what was happening around and loosing someone to it.

"Ryoko we'll find her don't worry" Haru said finally being able to touch her

"what? I'm not worried we're close and we're gonna find her I just know it" she said leaning over the side looking for something like a kind of sign

'her dark just completely disappeared? What is this?' Haru thought maintaining a small smile

'did her entire aura just change? This kid' Viper thought

"how close are we" Elena asked looking over but quickly moving back as the lion was flying at high speed and she was scared she would fall

"really close" Ryoko got up and stood at the head of 'Mizu no seirei'

"I'm coming Karla!!" she shouted

"shut up idiot, are you trying to announce you presence any more than your out of control aura already has!?"Viper shouted pulling her back to sit down

A couple of miles forward moving at high speed was a dragon of the earth, particularly a sand dragon, it had just descended now running in the sand at an almost equal speed.

"how far to the main city?"

"not to long now, I can already smell the gold"

"smell it? I can taste it"

"are you sure we're gonna be rich after this? This was a dangerous idea you know, and what's more Levi doesn't know we kidnapped someone in his domain"

"oh please he's a brat is all, and yes we will be getting rich after this trade, a dragon after about a thousand years, they'll come running to see what we've got"

"I'm so ready for this yeah!"

"she still struggling?"

"no, gave up at night fall, still believes her "friends" will come get her"

"let her keep believing if it keeps her alive till we get to the big city"

"the aura has changed it's bright, are we headed the right way?"

"yes it's them"

The group got closer to Karla but her presence also got further away making it a continuous change.

"I'm getting tired of this" Viper groaned

"flying?" Elena asked

"what? No I love flying but being carried day and night is annoying, I feel inactive"

"you aren't alone there" Tatsuya added looking at the distance with a bored expression

"then why not fly on your own" Haru said

"on their own?" Elena asked

"great idea, wow for the first I agree with you" Viper said getting up and jumping

"woohoo!" Tatsuya shouted jumping after

"woah" Ryoko rushed to the edge to see them but didn't see anybody

"are they dead?" she asked

"I know you wish that" they looked up to see Viper, her wings were red and black, leathery and wide, Tatsuyas were a bit different, the red was brighter than Vipers but there wasn't any other colour and his wings were wider than Vipers

"woah so cool!" Ryoko exclaimed watching them zoom around the sky before joininng at the spirits side

"this is much better, I havn't spread my wings in years trying to fit in with those boring elves" Viper said stretching her wings a little

"wow that must be so cool" Ryoko said

"why do you think so" Tatsuya asked

"Viper is smiling" Viper growled a little at that before returning to her smile

"hey do you guys feel that?" Elena asked

"since when did you feel something you can't see" Viper asked her

"no not like chi or whatever I mean theres a sudden disturbance, aren't you noticing that the sand has been rising?" everybody looked over the spirit to see a movement in the sand that sent sand in the air

"what is that?" Haru asked

"dragons" two desert dragons rose to the sky beside the spirit

"what do they want?" the dragons moved to the front of the spirit before lunging at it

"I think we're about to find out"

The night before

The desert dragon had been moving for about two days and decided to stop for the night

"how's she doing back there?"

"she has kept quiet, looking more confident though"

"confident? What's that about"

"I- what the hell?"

"what, what are you looking at"

"someone, actually a whole group is headed this way" the two men kept looking at the sky for a while

"it's those other ones huh"

"well then- Otaku start moving!" the first man shouted and the dragon continued again

"do you think we should go in the air?"

"no, the group that's after us is highly sensitive to techniques we use, so even if we hide our chi's they'll know someone is there, and that one isn't even hiding hers"

"she's only thirteen and never learned how to from what I've learned so far"

"more of a reason to stay on sand"

The two men monitored the approaching group till day time, seeing they weren't relenting they decided to slow thwm down

"they aren't stopping are they"

"no they've been at it all night and day"

"time to slow them down maybe even for good, Otaku are your sisters close by?"

"yes actually they've been following us for a while"

"tell them I need a favour, you know what I mean"

"of course" they all laughed maniacally as the dragons left

Present

They group was now zooming through the sky avoiding one of the dragons meanwhile, Tatsuya and Viper were fighting of one of the dragons in the sky.

"where did they come from and why are they chasing us?" Elena asked ducking just in time

"I think the right question is how do we survive this" Viper shouted landing a punch sending the dragon to the ground

"we're lucky they don't breathe fire or we'll be dead" Haru said

"follow me!" Ryoko tapped her spirit animal and it dove Viper and Tatsuya followed behind not thinking of where they were going, the spirit kept diving till it got to the sandy ground before disappearing inside, Viper and Tatsuya tried to stop but went through and was shocked at the scene, it was a tunnel in the sand, and it was stable, the dragons didn't follow in but stayed and monitored them from the outside

"how did you know this was here?" Haru asked as the spirit animal continued forward on foot

"I figured if the dragons came through here then they would have a passage way, also we've gotta move quick, I assume, they don't have orders to kill us but if they really wanted to kill us they'll just bury us in the sand" Ryoko said

"orders?" Viper asked

"from what I know, dragons haven't and don't attack on their own, especially after the war" she said

"yeah she's right" viper said

"come out, come out, just because we were told to keep you alive doesn't mean we can't bury you"

"oh wow" Viper said as they giggled

"maybe buried they won't sense that idiot girls chi anymore" one of the dragons said in a low voice

"uh-oh Ryoko?, Ryoko, can you hear me?" Tatsuya said reaching to her but she flew right through the tunnel back to the surface

"oh look who has come to p-" the dragons backed away from her

"where's my sister"

"sister?"

"want me to refresh your memory?" after a while of silence Ryoko began to advance

"follow us"