We stared out of the room. Tellka was leading us to the armory and I was right behind her. Frank had taken up the rear. Somehow I felt safer knowing he was back there. I shivered. It was quite out here in the arena. Every so often I would hear a hiss but most of the darkness was filled with the quiet echoes of use walking. I kept glancing up, expected that at any moment something would come rushing out of the darkness at us. I held on tightly to the rapier Frank had lent to me to use. I didn't really realize how tightly I had been grasping it until I let my grip go a little and felt my fingers ach. I heard a hiss from somewhere around us and finally I just couldn't take the silence anymore. I turned to Frank.

"Frank... can I talk to you?" I kept my voice low and tried to hide the fear in it. I don't think I did a very good job. He looked over at me for a moment, then nodded and walked up next to me.

"What's on your mind?"

I looked up to see Tellka glancing over at us. What?

"Oh.. nothing." And she turned back to path before her.

I looked back over at Frank. "Nothing, really... I just need someone to talk to, besides Tellka."

"All right, Kate. I'm here for you. What do you feel like talking about?" He asked me quietly.

"Well... I'm wondering how you do this all the time... Is it always like this back in your home?"

"Hardly. Back in Lunarvale, there were no things as magic, or demons, until today. In fact, there was one intelligent race, unlike here."

"What? There are no Angels? No Woren?" I gave him an odd look.

"Nope. Only humans."

"I see..." I thought about that for a moment. My mind wandered back to a question I had thought about earlier. "I still want to know.. why are you helping us? You didn't even know Tellka or me until today."

He shrugged. "It's something that I felt I had to do. I wouldn't let a person who was like that kill someone for a reason like that."

I thought about that for a moment. "I never knew that there were people like you, Frank." I glanced and noticed that Tellka had looked back over at us. She didn't say anything but turned back to the path ahead of us.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Frank asked in a confused tone.

I smiled. "I mean that I didn't think that there were people who would be willing to go out on a limb for others, and not want something in return."

"I'm like that. Some of my friends tell me that I can be a little too nice for my own good." He gave a little lopsided grin.

"Well, I'm glad that you're here, Frank." I told him with a smile. We both glanced up as Tellka looked back at us.

"Why does she keep looking at us?" Frank asked.

"I really don't know..." I looked at him innocently.

"Yea, I'm sure you don't..."

What?

"Nothing..."

"Kate, can I tell you something?" Frank asked me quietly. I looked at him for a moment. I had been feeling a lot better since we had talked. "You know Kate..." Frank paused and looked at the ground for a second. "I think that you're really nice. I also think that you're cute." He said quietly.

My jaw almost dropped and I had to stop walking for a moment. Tellka turned around to look at us again, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that she had a big grin on her face. It wasn't there long before a look of horror replaced it.

"LOOK OUT!!! BEHIND YOU!!!" She yelled. I whirled around and spotted two demons that had been trying to sneak up on us. I stepped back in fear and surprise, and Frank raised his fists. Tellka tried to rush over and help us as a demon dropped from the ceiling and landed between her and us. I tried to look back to make sure she was alright until Frank suddenly charged one of the demons infront of us.

I watched as he attacked the demon, delivering a right cross and an uppercut. I took a deep breath and approached the other one. Slowly.. yea, that's it.. oh geez, Tellka, help me, I don't know what to do... I swung the rapier around wildly and hoped for the best. I managed to deliever a small cut to it before it counterattacked me. I managed to get away and ran back to Frank.

"Get behind me, Kate." He unslung his shotgun and I rushed behind him. The demons were still approaching us as Frank brought the shotgun down to hip level.

"Try it..." Frank said in a deadly tone. Then he squeezed the trigger of the shotgun. I threw my hands over my ears as a loud blast shook through the air, but even with all of that I could still hear the roar of pain from the demons. I looked up to gasped to see that both had been hit, but what really surprised me was the fact that they were still alive.

How could.... I shook my head. I watched Frank as he pumped the shotgun and heard the clicking of the spent shell skitter across the floor. Suddenly I had an idea.

"Frank, use your magic! That thing..." I tried to remember what he had called it. ".. Persona!!!"

Frank nodded and then turned to face the demons. He brought the shotgun up, and leaned it against his shoulder.

"GET 'EM!!!!" Frank yelled and instantly, a blue circle appeared under him, and I watched as Frank was surrounded by a column of blue light. A beam of light shot out of him, and enveloped into a majestic red dragon that hovered over his body. I took a step back, speechless. The dragon then reared it's head back, and shot a blast of very real flames out of it's mouth, aimed at the two demons. The creature then faided along with the cirlce and the column. I blinked in awe and took another step back, this time almost running into Tellka.

"Are both of you okay?" She asked us quickly while looking me over.

"We are, Tellka." I sighed a bit with relief.

"All right then. Let's keep going. I think we're almost there." Tellka was about to turn and continue on, but she paused a moment and gave Frank a small wink before turning back around. As we started after her, I turned to Frank again.

"I'm still not used to that..." I muttered quietly.

"Neither am I..." Frank responded. "Neither arm I." I looked at him for a while longer before turning to catch up with Tellka.

e-mail author, talonr@hotmail.com