Feyd Eugene Galit considered himself a steely, indomitable man. And he
had every right to do so as well.

     He hardly flinched in the face of pain and, while his foes, the soldiers
of light weren't very good at torture, as their union was against that sort
of thing, he could probably hold out longer than anyone else.

     In fact, once he even tried his own kingdom's torture devices on himself
just to see whether he had the stuff to resist them. He *did* have the stuff,
but that little escapade bought him a short trip to the Kingdom Dark
Psychiatrist. But that's another story for another time.

     Anyway, Feyd was, in short, a resilient, tough person. He had long ago
ceased to imagine that there would be any ordeal that even *he* wouldn't be
able to escape while retaining his sanity.

     And then he met Chelsea.

     "Hey, Feyd!" a cheerful looking female type teenager smiled at him as
they strolled over to the palace gates. "Did anyone ever tell you that you
look kinda kawaii in girl's clothes?"

     Feyd groaned.

				     -*-


				   -Genie!-

Concieved On A Sugar-High by Madsman
This Part Written by Madsman
Hosted By Syrian Stories ^_^

Part Four (Hey, there's a part four! ^_^): C Is For Crossdressing!


				     -*-

     "The lamp can't be worth doing *this*..." Feyd mumbled as he followed
Chelsea's lead.

     At least, he was wearing a veil. That reduced the humiliation...

     Somewhat.

				     -*-

     Karl was leaning on a wall not far from the palace gates. He had watched
both Chelsea and Feyd enter and, when the young girl and the irate genie were
out of sight, he had decided to retreat into the relative safety of a small,
strategically-placed alley.

     Every castle with cities around them always had at least one nearby
strategically-placed alley. It was some kind of universal law.

     Karl, however, was experiencing some other universal law. Namely, the
law of guys not being able to keep their eyes to themselves in the presence
of strange, armored, and probably armed women who looked rather nasty, though
despite this, looked pretty cute too.

     "So... um... what do we do next?" Karl asked the woman beside him.

     General Lunaris raised an eyebrow at the question. She turned to Karl.
"We will have to wait here until the Commander and your friend accomplishes
the mission. Did you have anything else in mind?"

     Her voice was low and she spoke slowly, as if to a mental inferior.

     "Actually, no..." Karl admitted and returned to watching the palace. "I
was kinda wondering if *you* had any ideas. I'm really not the waiting type,
ya know."

     Karl offered the general his most winning smile.

     Lunaris would have sweatdropped, but she hadn't been around Chelsea and
Karl for as long as Feyd had, and had not yet developed the ability. She
snorted instead.

     "So I gather," Lunaris said in a toneless voice, in response to Karl's
statement. "I have no ideas. Let's just wait."

     Lunaris, given her... *affection* for her Commander, would have followed
Feyd to the ends of the cosmos (in fact, that's exactly what she had done,
but she didn't know it yet, so it really didn't count).

     But really, all this teen innocence was starting to get to her. Lunaris
had long written the girl off as a lost cause. It didn't take a genius to see
that there wasn't an evil bone in Chelsea's body. Lunaris was hoping that the
young boy would be a little different. After all, a person who stole from
someone else's hard work couldn't be *all* bad, right?

     *Wrong,* Lunaris thought to herself as she noted Karl's wide grin. *I do
hope that Fey... the Commander brings back the lamp soon. His coldness will
sustain me until we can return home into the midst of normal, evil people...*

     Lunaris turned away and faced skywards, her face a mask of thought.

     *I wonder how Commander Galit lives with this lack of evil?*

				     -*-

     The answer was... he couldn't.

     "I *swear*, Chelsea," Feyd mumbled under his breath. "If you clap your
hands and dance around me while saying 'Wai!' one more time, I will tear off
this ridiculous disguise and start shooting people!"

     Chelsea seemed unruffled and proceeded to clap her hands and dance
around Feyd while saying "Wai!", despite the threat. "I can't believe you
aren't as happy as I am, Feyd! I mean, the guards didn't give us a second
glance, right? Wai!"

     "That's where you're wrong," Feyd told her. "I think that first guard
took a good loooooooong look at you. Four times. And considering what you're
wearing, I really can't blame him..."

     Chelsea halted in her cavorting. She blinked at Feyd. "What?"

     Feyd turned away and he reddened the slightest bit. Just the slightest.
"Nothing..."

     He quickly shuffled past Chelsea and around a bend in the corridor.

     Chelsea could only put a finger on her chin. "Hm? What did he say?"

     Chelsea was really a bright girl. Really. Trust me on this one. But one
really couldn't tell from the way she kept missing certain things.

     She dismissed the comment as being unimportant and skipped off after
Feyd.

				     -*-

     Two figures emerged from a hallway. One looked like a normal Uhertian
teenager, and a rather pretty one at that. The other figure looked like a
belly-dancer, but wasn't quite pulling the role off.

     If the guards hadn't known any better, they would have thought it was a
man trying to pass himself off as a belly-dancer just to get inside the
castle.

     However, the two figures *were* in the castle, and they were currently
looking around the main hall's spacious interior. Actually, spacious was an
understatement.

     "This is almost as big as my father's Dark Throne Room back home," Feyd
mused, slightly impressed. "An entire legion could fit in here..."

     Chelsea was looking at the numerous doors that lined the bottom of the
palace's great hall.

     "Ano... Feyd," Chelsea tugged at the taller one's sleeve. "Where do we
begin looking?"

     Feyd looked down at her and found that Chelsea was still smiling. It was
a smile that said, "I'm confused and I want your help," but.. a smile was a
smile.

     Feyd glanced at the choices given him by the finicky gods who decided
their fates.

     *Which door... Hmmm...*

     As it soon turned out, those finicky gods who had decided their fates
chose *for* them. They can be aggravating that way, ne?

				     -*-

     Lunaris was still trying to figure out what the Commander had told her.
Sure, it all sounded plausible when he was explaining it to her. But now that
he wasn't there to reassure her, Lunaris was finding it particularly hard to
believe that they were in some kind of alien planet, or alternate universe,
even.

     Now, that alone would have seemed okay. Sure, why not? It *was* the
fiftieth century, wasn't it? Lots of stranger things have happened.

     But Feyd had told her that they were brought there by a lamp and a
magician.

     Now, Lunaris would have glady swallowed anything the Commander offered
her, including that story. Unfortunately, certain things were starting to
make her wonder if there was some other way to return home to their garrison.

     Apparently, here, it *wasn't* the fiftieth century. She was in some
backwards planet somewhere, with a Commander who was convinced that they were
brought here by some kind of sorcerer.

     That alone was enough to make her wonder whether there was any other way
to return without the help of the lamp and dissuade her Commander from doing
anything risky.

     "So, what was your name again? Lunaris, wasn't it? I don't think we've
been formally introduced. Hi, I'm Karl Wyvern!"

     Besides, this snotty kid was annoying her to no end.

     "Yes, Lunaris *is* my name," she replied frostily. "But a child like you
can call me *General* Lunaris."

     "Child? Who, me?" Karl blinked. He smiled. "Heck, you look younger than
*I* am, Miss General!"

     "Details, details," Lunaris sniffed and folded her arms. She ignored
Karl and turned her attention to a dark silhoutte soaring overhead.

     Karl sweatdropped.

				     -*-

     Feyd, unlike Lunaris, felt that obtaining the lamp was becoming more
imperative than ever.

     For one thing, what he was wearing was rather drafty.

     But more importantly, his legions were going uncommanded back in his
home planet. There was no telling *what* havoc the Kingdom of Light was
wreaking on his hordes.

     "Wai! You look so pretty in those clothes, Feyd!"

     And besides, a hyper kid was annoying him to no end as well.

     "Will you keep quiet for a second so that I can decide which of these
doors we're going to take?" Feyd requested of his energetic companion.

     "Oh, okay!" Chelsea smiled. "But let me ask you one question first..."

     "What is it?"

     "How old are you?"

     "I'm seventeen, if you have to know," Feyd told her. "Is that all?"

     "Wow! Just seventeen?" Chelsea's eyes widened and she looked at Feyd
intently. "Hmmm... but my guess was close."

     "..."

     "I was only off by 983 years! Wai!"

     Feyd felt like sweatdropping. He still wasn't quite getting the hang of
the habit.

     "I had no idea you were just a year older than I am, Fey-chan!"

     "F-f... *Fey-chan*???"

     This time, Feyd did sweatdrop.

				     -*-

     In corridor somewhere, a very familiar figure in mage's clothing was
walking to a door. He appeared to be having a conversation with himself.

     "Okay, you've got the roc feather, the sandpig tusk and the goblin's
earwax. I hate to admit it, but you're doing a pretty good job of collecting
those spell ingredients."

     "Yeah. No thanks to you," Wynn muttered almost inaudibly. It wouldn't do
for the palace guards to see him talking to himself. They thought he was
pretty nutty as it was without them thinking he was schizoid as well. Well,
he *was*, but that didn't mean that the guards had to know.

     What would the king think?

     "Hey!" the voice in Wynn's head said indignantly. "It wasn't *my* fault
that you were almost impaled by that sandpig! How was *I* supposed to know
that it was their mating season???"

     "Oliver," Wynn told the voice, "I swear that once we're through with
this, I'll..."

     The apprentice sorcerer never finished the statement. This was because
the next sight he saw caused his cerebral functions to pause for several
seconds.

     There were two people in the great hall. One of them looked like a
belly-dancer. Not a good one at that. Her stomach was just too well-built to
do any good twisting and swaying.

     But there was no mistaking the other person.

     "I-it's that girl!" Wynn choked. If that girl was here... then that must
have meant...

     Oliver chose that moment to state the obvious. "That belly-dancer! That
belly-dancer, you fool! It's her djinn in disguise!"

     "Ach! What do we do, Oliver!?"

     All hell broke loose before any answers could present themselves. Okay,
so it wasn't all hell. It was more like ... uhh... purgatory breaking loose.

				     -*-

     "What do you call that creature flying overhead, Karl?"

     "Oh, that's a mountain roc. They're real pests, let me tell you. They're
like oversized pigeons, only meaner."

     "What is *that* one doing flying over the palace?"

     Karl gave her a grin. "It must have followed the scent of some fool who
must have gotten it angry sometime or another. Those rocs can really hold
grudges."

     "Ah."

     The two watched the roc in its circular flight pattern over the palace.

     "HEY! THAT'S THE THIEF WHO STOLE FROM MASTER WYNN!!!"

     Karl turned to Lunaris. "Was that you?"

     Lunaris gave Karl a puzzled glance. "I thought that was you."

     Since it was neither of them, Karl and Lunaris both turned their heads
to the only other place the sound could have come from. Their eyes were
greeted with the sight of a platoon of palace guards returning from their
union coffee break.

     "I think we'd better run..."

     "No arguments here..."

     And run they did.

				     -*-

     "Hiya, evil mage type person! Wai!"

     "YOU!!!" Feyd roared at the mage who had just come from one of the doors
in the palace great hall. "You have the lamp!!!"

     "Um... uh... No, I don't!" Wynn grinned nervously at them. "What lamp?"

     The lamp chose that innopportune moment to fall out of his pocket with a
"CLUNK!" sound.

     "Ummm..."

     "Way to go, klutz," Oliver intoned. "*Now* what're you gonna do?
Convince them that that's really a hygiene tool? And I suppose they'll
believe *that* too!"

     "You just shut up," Wynn told his mental guest as he stooped to pick up
his prize. "Let *me* handle this..."

     To any onlooker, Wynn looked like he was having a discussion with
himself.

     Feyd and Chelsea gave each other confused looks.

     "Who's he talking to, Fey-chan?" Chelsea asked Feyd.

     "I don't know," Feyd deadpanned. "I thought it was some kind of cultural
thing for your people."

     Their attentions returned to Wynn, who had begun to laugh heartily.

     "Oh great," Oliver said. "Not the 'evil mage' routine again..."

     Wynn ignored him. "HAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! So, you have seen through my clever
deception! Yes, I *do* have the lamp! But it shall remain with me and there
is *nothing* you can do to stop me! HAHA!"

     This was answered by a ball of energy swooping beside Wynn's head with
a crackling "WHOOSH!" sound. The projectile impacted with the wall behind him
and exploded there, showering debris behind the stunned mage.

     To Wynn, that counted as a "Oh, damn, what have I gotten myself into?"
moment.

     "Damn, I missed!" Feyd spat and reloaded his Attack Band, a type of
wrist wear that fired off energy rounds.

     "Fey-chan! Stop that!" Chelsea told him, shocked. "We just want the lamp
back! Don't hurt the poor man!"

     "Let go of me, Chelsea!" Feyd gritted and tried his best to re-aim his
Attack Band. However, since Chelsea had taken it on herself to latch on to
his arm, the task was proving quite difficult.

     Meanwhile, that "poor man" was tiptoeing his way towards the hole Feyd's
shot had created on the wall. The hole led outside and Wynn found that going
outside was looking to be a pretty good idea around that time.

     Boy, was *he* ever wrong...

				     -*-

     "Can't you run any faster!?"

     "Well SO-REE," Lunaris panted after Karl. "Unlike you, *my* line of work
doesn't involve a lot of running. It isn't *my* fault that those guards
recognized you when they did!"

     "Hey! Don't change the subject!"

     The two rounded a corner.

     They ran right into someone exiting the castle via a new hole in the
wall. In other words, Wynn.

     *CRASH!*

     "Owww..." Karl moaned. Second time in two days he had run into someone.
"You alright, Lunaris?"

     "I've been better," the general replied. "Who the..."

     The two stared right into the face of a disgruntled Wynn.

     "YOU!!!" the three screamed at each other.

     At that moment, the guards skidded into view.

     "THERE THEY ARE!!! LET'S GET THEM!!!"

     "Hey, look! It's Master Wynn!" said one of the guards.

     At that revelation, all initiative in the guards ceased. It was like
some kind of instinct for guards to halt all independent thought in the
presence of their superiors.

     Wynn had spotted the guards as well. He leapt to his feet and scooted
over to them.

     He turned to Lunaris and Karl, put both hands on his waist and laughed.
"HAHAHA!!! Now I have my guards with me! You'll never take the lamp back!
Neener, neener, neener! HAHAHA!"

     Karl sweatdropped.

     Lunaris turned to the sweatdropping thief. "How do you do that?"

     Karl blinked at her. "Do what?"

     Lunaris started to make incomprehensible motions with her hands.
"That... *thing*... that you just did... you know... what you just did after
that mage laughed..."

     "Huh?"

     Lunaris half-lidded her eyes. "Nevermind..."

				     -*-

     "Okay, that's it, Feyd," Chelsea told him strictly and released her
genie. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you've forced me into it!..."

     "And *what* exactly are you going to do?" Feyd asked her, genuinely
curious.

     "This," Chelsea replied. "I wish that you would stop trying to hurt
anyone. There. So nyah!"

     Feyd facefaulted. "Uh... fine."

     He raced towards the hole Wynn had escaped through.

				     -*-

     "Okay, so what do we do now?"

     "What are you asking ME for!? This is *your* world!"

     "Hey, *you're* supposed to be some kind of general. YOU think of
something!"

     The conversation would have went on in this line for quite some time,
had Wynn not chosen that moment to give his guards a coherent thought pattern
to adhere to.

     "GET THEM!"

     The guards drew various shiny objects that resembled falchions and
scimitars.

     "Uh-oh..." Karl breathed. This looked bad...

     Feyd emerged from behind the thief.

     "Hey, Feyd!" Karl said. "Still looking beautiful as ever I see."

     Bad as things were, there was *always* time to poke some fun out of
Feyd.

     "I will have to hurt you for that when I'm through here," Feyd said, not
even bothering to look at Karl.

     "Lord Feyd! You're safe!"

     "Stand aside, general," Feyd told Lunaris. "Leave these amateurs to me."

     He raised his hand to the advancing guards and sent the proper stimuli
to the Attack Band for a high-intensity shot.

     A lot of nothing came out.

     Feyd stared at it incredulously. "WHAT THE-!!?"

     "Wai! My wish worked!" Chelsea giggled as she bounced her way into the
small reunion. "I thought that it wouldn't work, since I don't have the lamp,
but it looks like it worked *this* time! Wai!"

     "Maybe the battery's dead," Lunaris offered.

     Feyd could only curse.

     Karl didn't notice, as he was busy noticing the guards who were almost
upon the four of them.

     "Yup, we're doomed..."

				     -*-

     Wynn was grinning widely. For once, things were working out the way he
wanted them to!

     And then he saw the roc.

				     -*-

     The roc had *thought* that the scent he detected from the palace was
kind of familiar.

     Now he knew that the scent belonged to the one who had stolen his tail
feather. The roc could see the perpetrator now, just below him.

     If rocs could grin, this one would have. And how.

				     -*-

     "General Lunaris! Fire at that platoon!"

     "Sorry, sir," Lunaris apologized. "It looks like my batteries are out as
well..."

     "Damn... it looks like we'll have to fight then," Feyd muttered in a
very unpleasant way. He *really* didn't like the idea of fighting in a
belly-dancer outfit.

     It turned out that he didn't have to.

				     -*-

     Chelsea could be happy any time of day. However, this time of day, her
companions were feeling rather distressed and that wasn't doing very much for
her own happiness.

     She was wondering what she could do to resolve that problem when she
espied something lying in the grass.

				     -*-

     "Ano... Wynn, do you still have the lamp?"

     "Hmm?" Wynn felt around his tunic.

     Then Oliver and Wynn did a very good Homer impersonation, nevermind that
Homer isn't even an anime character.

     "DOPE!!!"

				     -*-

     Chelsea's eyes widened. "Wai! It's the lamp!"

     As Feyd was about to launch himself at the first guard, Chelsea stepped
in front of him.

     "Chelsea!? What-...?"

     Chelsea was looking at him mischievously. "Genie, I wish that for you to
summon a monster to help us!"

     Feyd facefaulted. "WHAT!? Don't be ridiculous! I can't..."

     His eyes turned towards something in the sky. "WHAT THE-...?"

				     -*-

     A massive shadow landed between the four and the advancing guards. The
thing spread its twenty meter wing span and let out a mighty cry.

     "JERKY, JERKY!!!" it screeched. "JERKY, JERKY!!!"

     "Wai!" Chelsea jumped around. "Good work, Feyd!"

     "Yeah," Karl agreed. "Good work, Feyd."

     Feyd was still staring at the monster bird whose back was to them.

     "Commander Feyd," Lunaris breathed, wide-eyed. "Did *you* summon that
thing?"

     Feyd facefaulted at her and sweatdropped.

     Lunaris blinked. "You can do that too???"

     It was Feyd's turn to blink. "Do what?"

     Lunaris gestured wildly. "That... *thing*! Ah, forget it."

				     -*-

     The guards stared up at the gigantic bird.

     The gigantic bird stared back.

     Both parties really weren't worth much in the thinking department.

     "GUARDS! GET THAT THING! AND THEN GET MY LAMP BACK!!!"

     The guards now had a short term goal at least. They proceeded to attack
the gigantic bird.

     The gigantic bird wanted to peck and scratch the daylights out of the
person who had taken its tail feather. But these other guys were getting to
be pretty annoying, the way they were hanging on to his wings like that. He
supposed that he would have to get through them first, if he ever wanted his
revenge.

     "JERKY, JERKY!!!"

				     -*-

     As the roc tossed the guards around, Chelsea was grinning from ear to
ear as she held the lamp.

     "Great! You have the lamp!" Karl said in relief. "Now, quick! Wish us
the heck out of here!"

     "Sure thing!" Chelsea chirped and turned to Feyd. "Genie, I wish for you
to give us a way out of here!"

     "Now listen," Feyd hissed and held a smiling Chelsea by the shoulders.
"For the nth time, I AM NOT YOUR-..."

     The part of the courtyard wall nearest them exploded outward in pretty
yellow lights and flying stone.

     "Wai! Thanks, Feyd!" Chelsea squealed and hopped over to the opening.

     Feyd gaped.

     "Commander! You never told me you could do that!" Lunaris complained to
her superior.

     It was hard to believe that Feyd's expression could get even more
incredulous than it was at that moment, but it did.

				     -*-

     Chelsea stopped. There was someone just outside that hole...

				     -*-

     "Hey, Oliver, what just happened to that wall?" Wynn asked of his old
friend from behind the unconscious guards.

     The explosion from the wall had incapacitated both the platoon and the
mountain roc.

     "It looked like a Fireball spell," Oliver told him. "One that's more
powerful than yours from the looks of it too."

     "Don't be ridiculous," Wynn scoffed. "I may be clumsy at times-..."

     "*That's* an understatement..."

     Wynn ignored this. "... but I know that the only other persons who can
outclass my Fireball spell is Guildmaster Kronos and..."

     "Tho, at latht, we meet again, Wynn!!!"

     Wynn turned towards the hole.

     "AGDEN KARMA!?"

     From the hole, a small boy in magician's robes grinned at him. He was
missing two front teeth and his hat looked as if it was covering his eyes.

     "In the fleth!" the boy said.

				     -*-

     Chelsea began backing up. That boy looked kinda cute, but she had a
feeling that she didn't want to be near that particular one...

				     -*-

     "WHA-WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

     "Guildmathter Kronoth told me that you've failed in your mithion, friend
Wynn," Agden informed him. "I'm here to do what YOU couldn't do!"

     "What do you mean?" a puzzled Wynn asked.

     Agden put a hand on his hip and waved a finger at Wynn with his other
hand. "Tthk, tthk, tthk... You have thamed the Evil Vithier Guild and Thchool
by not being able to athathinate the king you were therving even after four
yearth of thervice! You're giving uth a bad name, Wynn!"

     "I was working on it!" Wynn replied indignantly. "Is it MY fault that
I'm having a rash of bad luck?"

     "Yes," Wynn answered his own question.

     "Shut up," Wynn told himself.

     Agden waved. "Hey, Oliver! How'th Wynn been treating you?"

     "The same way he treats himself," Oliver said through Wynn. "And that's
not saying much, I'm afraid."

     "I thought tho." Agden nodded. He turned his head towards the surprised
faces of Feyd, Chelsea, Karl and Lunaris.

     "Tho, you couldn't thteal back a lamp from a teen girl, a thecond-rate
thief, a thrange-looking woman and a crothdrether."

     Feyd's blood pressure shot up several levels.

     "WHY YOU INSOLENT LITTLE BRAT!!! I'M GONNA-...!!!"

     As Lunaris and Karl held Feyd back, Chelsea was left to deal with the
small boy.

     Chelsea smiled nervously but kept her distance.

     "Uhh... Hi!"

     "Hello," Agden responded.

     "So... umm... you're with that man over there, huh?" Chelsea struggled.

     "Yeth. Wynn and I are colleagueth," Agden affirmed. "And *you're* the
one who rubbed the lamp and, ath a rethult, are mathter of the djinn, are you
not?"

     "Yeah."

     "Ah... I thee..." Agden nodded. "Will you *give* me the lamp?"

     "Ummm... " Chelsea's smile faltered. "I... I can't."

     Agden nodded some more. "I thee."

     He held up his right hand. "Goodbye."

     "CHELSEA!" both Karl and Feyd yelled at once and dived in her direction
at the same time. This caused them to... well... knock heads.

     It was Lunaris who ended up saving her.

     The two girls rolled on the grass and farther away from Agden.

     "We have to get of here!" Lunaris shouted at no one in particular. She
looked down at Chelsea. The young girl was still holding the lamp.

     At that point, Lunaris was ready to clutch at any and all straws.

     Agden began chanting again.

     "Quick! Chelsea!" Lunaris screamed at the dazed girl and shook her by
the shoulders. "You must do something! *You* have the lamp!"

     Chelsea's eyes had a blank expression on them. For once, she wasn't
smiling. "Hunh?"

     Lunaris became even more desperate. "Do something! If you don't you will
die! That crazy young boy will kill you?"

     Chelsea didn't seem to improve. "Huh?"

     Karlhad recovered and was now standing in front of the two women, in
case Agden might fire another shot off at them.

     *Whoo... boy,* Karl thought, sweating. *It'll take a miracle to get us
out of this one...*

     Karl caught a glimpse of Feyd standing beside him.

     Karl smiled a bit. *Good man... but who's he protecting? Chelsea? That
Lunaris woman? Or both? I'll have to ask him later...*

     Agden, who was fifty feet from them, began stepping forward as he
chanted, Wynn close behind.

     "Bright flame of Uherty, heed my commandth... damn... heed my commandTH
... Curtheth!... heed my orderth..."

     Lunaris saw that Agden's difficulty with the letter "s" was buying her
time and she redoubled her efforts.

     Lunaris bit her lip. Telling her that there was a threat to her life
didn't seemt to be working. What was* it that was motivation for all those
goody-twoshoes all the time? Not self-preservation... was it...

     "Friendship?" Lunaris whispered doubtfully. "Worth a try..."

     "Chelsea!" Lunaris shook the girl. If you don't act soon, you won't be
the only one who'll die! That boy will kill me, Karl and Commander Feyd as
well! Do you hear me!? GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!!!"

     Something shifted in Chelsea's blue eyes. "K-karl... F-fey-chan? No...
I can't let them... get..."

     Chelsea struggled to her knees. She sat on her heel a while, catching
her breath. Then she smiled at Lunaris.

     Lunaris stared at her a moment. Then she smiled back. "Welcome back,
Chelsea."

     Chelsea smiled cutely, her energy returning. "Thanks, Lunaris-san!"

     Chelsea turned to Feyd. "Feyd!"

     Feyd gave her a look. "Hm?"

     Chelsea's eyes became determined and Lunaris saw the brave girl that
lay underneath the hyperactive exterior.

     "Genie, I wish for you to get us all out of here safely."

     Feyd facefaulted slightly. "If I could, I'd very much enjoy doing so.
But as I said, I am not your..."

     Karl punched him lightly on the arm. "Oh, come off it, Feyd. We know you
can do it."

     Feyd looked at him irritatedly. "Well what do you want me to do!?" He
pointed at the approaching Agden. "Point my finger at him and make something
distract him just by snapping my fingers?"

     Feyd snapped his fingers.

     At that precise moment, the roc woke up.

				     -*-

     A man had stolen his tail feather just the other day, a few guards had
just bruised him in several places, another man had just knocked him out with
a Fireball spell, and now he had a bad headache.

     He was cranky. And then he saw something that would alleviate his anger.

     "JERKY, JERKY!!!"

				     -*-

     And Agden was finally getting it right too.

     "... my commandS..." Agden chanted. "... and conSume my enemieS in
FIREBA-... WHAT THE-...!?"

     "AAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!" Wynn offered.

     The two mages immediately dashed off, mountain roc in hot pursuit.

				     -*-

     "Nice work, Feyd," Karl said and slapped the commander in the back.

     Feyd stared at his finger.

     Chelsea looked as if she were about to fall and Lunaris assisted her in
standing. Chelsea gave her a look of gratitude before speaking.

     "Let's go home guys... I'm beat."

     Karl scratched his head. "Uhh... Chelsea... we don't *have* a home,
remember?"

     Chelsea's eyes misted a bit and then the emotion was gone. "Oh... right.
Well... let's just go..."

     And go they did.

				     -*-

     "North, up, left, right, down, Thouth... DAMN!" Agden spat as he ran.

     "JERKY, JERKY!!!"

     Wynn had conjured up a magic carpet and was hovering beside him.

     "Having trouble?"

     "THUT UP!!!"

     "Now you see why they were giving me so much trouble?"

     "I'll be thure to tell the Guildmathter that! He didn't believe an idiot
like you, but if *I* tell him what we're up againtht, he'll believe me,"
Agden said as he ran.

     "Aww... is that any way to speak tot he man who's about to save your
life?"

     Agden stared at Wynn.

     "Hey, don't look at me," Oliver said helplessly. "It's *his* body."

     "JUTHT GET ME OUT OF HERE ALREADY!!!"

     Wynn grinned and pulled Agden on board. With a quick chant, he
teleported them to relative safety.

     Wynn smiled to himself. Now he was one up on that snotty little kid,
Agden.

				     -*-

     "How is she?"

     "She's fine," Karl told Feyd. "But she'll need some rest."

     Feyd nodded. He was back in his armour. "A-and... the lamp?"

     Karl smirked. "I knew that that was what you were really worried about.
Here. She told me to make aure you get home."

     Karl put the lamp down on a rock and turned.

     "You may act like a jerk, Feyd... but you handled yourself pretty well
back there. Good man."

     At that, Karl went to see to Chelsea in the next room.

     Feyd looked at him. Lunaris looked at the lamp.

     "So... this is the famous lamp..."

     "Yes, General," Feyd said and looked at the lamp as well. "That's our
way back."

     The two shared a moment of silence.

     Lunars faced her superior. "Commander... do you suppose Chelsea's
parents are still alive?'

     "Probably," Feyd muttered. "Maybe dead. Maybe alive. Either way, it
really doesn't concern us, does it?"

     Lunaris stared at the ground. "No... I suppose not."

     Feyd looked down at the lamp. "Are you ready?"

     "Yes, commander," Lunaris answered, once more the competent soldier.

				     -*-

     Karl saw the flash of light from the door and knew that their two new
friends had just left. He returned to the sleeping Chelsea.

     "Yup... he handled himself well alright..."

     He looked down at Chelsea and smiled.

     "And so did you, Chelsea... Sleep well."

     He kissed her lightly on the forehead, stood up and then left.

     As she slept on the dilapidated cot of the abandoned house, Chelsea
smiled and dreamt.

     "Karl... Fey-chan..." she mumbled softly. "I hope that we'll be friends
forever... always..."

(TO BE CONTINUED)

				     -*-

Author's Notes:

Feh.

[goes off to read IDFRL]