Mentokka woke up in an area she had no knowledge of. Her first instincts were to call out to Tosh, but she realized that she wasn't in her bedroom, and her big brother wasn't watching over her.

"It's time, Little Sister." a voice called out to her from behind. Mentokka turned to face her older self. Even though she knew what the older Mentokka looked like, she still looked at the older women with amazement. It was almost hard to believe that this women was going to be her in another ten years or so. Just the overall thickness of her body made the younger Mentokka glad she wasn't a man looking upon her. And the dress she was wearing brought all this out.

"Little Sister?" Mentokka said, tilting her head slightly.

"What's wrong with it? I'm an older version of you. I think the term kinda fits, when you think about it. I'm the closest thing to a sister you have next to Merc."

"From your point of view, maybe." she snapped. "Besides, I'm already a 'Kid Sister' to someone already."

"Tosh," The older Mentokka said grimly. "How wrong I was about him."

"What do you mean?"

"For the longest, I only felt his raw emotions. I figured if I just looked into his mind, I'd know all that I needed to know about him. But I was so wrong about him." the older Mentokka said shaking her head.

"Mentokka?" she asked feeling strange calling the older women that. "What are you trying to say?"

She looked at her younger self and smiled. "What I'm saying is, looking into the mind only gives you half the picture. Without also looking into his heart, I never truly understood what he really felt or what he was going though." She paused and smiled once again at her younger self.

"It seems that Uncle Rand was right once again." The younger Mentokka said.

"What do you mean?"

"It's all about Head and Heart." The two girls laughed, for they knew that there Uncle will always be a part of there lives in one form or another.

After several moments of laughter. The two looked at each other, there smiles disappearing off there faces. For they both knew what would come next.

"Are you ready, Mentokka?" The younger girl nodded, for no words were needed. "Very well, prepare yourself, Mentokka-Tor!"

The younger Mentokka rose her right hand over her head, and muttered words under her breath. Suddenly her hand began to glow. She drew her hand into a fist and in a flash of light, Mentokka's clothing turned into a white fighting robe, a pair of Grey, short pants, and leather wrappings on her wrists and ankles.

The older Mentokka kicked off the sandals she was wearing and walked over to where the younger version of herself was standing. "When ever your ready, sis."

Instead of speaking, the younger Mentokka remembered the words Uncle Rand told her before an important fight. "Take a few moments to stretch out your muscles out. A few phantoms punches helps get some of the tension out of you, Little Girl."

After a few moments of stretching, the younger girl starting throwing several punches. Most were them were thrown slowly, then she picked up the pace and threw them with greater speed. After awhile she stopped, breathing hard. She kept her eyes closed, letting the chi flow though out her body. Moments later she opened her eyes and spoke. "I'm Ready."

"The rules are simple. Win." The younger girl nodded, only because she was too tense to speak. "The prize is the full control of the magic." The two fell into similar fighting stances.

Neither move for several moments. The two looking at each other with expressionless stares. And as if someone gave the word that only the two of them could hear. The two came together in a wave of punches and kicks.

* * *

The night passed in a fog of love and plenty of good sex: Sitting, standing, reclining and kneeling. Rand woke, exhausted. He turned his bleary eyes at the still sleeping Merc.
"Gods!" he thought. "Where did she get such energy?"

It was true. Even though Merc was a virgin, Rand was gentle the first time. He couldn't remember the last time he had to use his magic to help him in love making. He was sure he used less effort in magical battles that nearly killed him several times in the past. "I hope this doesn't mean, I'm getting too old for this?"

Merc woke with something that sounded like a sighing-grunting sound. He looked over to see Merc, with her disheveled red-hair. He had to admit, it gave her a kind of 'wild girl' look. So different from usual well-kept look. He liked it.

"You know, Master," Merc said moving close to him. "I was told doing it for the first time, would be painful." Rand slipped an arm around her as she snuggled closer to him.

"And?"

"And it wasn't that bad. I'm sure you had something to do with it."

"I clearly heard you cry out, Merc."

"I remember hearing you cry out, Master." Rand rolled his eyes.

"Only because you were biting me." The two laughed.

Merc slipped a hand onto his penis, and to his alarm, it was responding again.

"What the...." Rand thought to himself. "I always though the 'Little Bastard' had a mind of it's own. This confirms it!"

"Ready for the next round?"

"I do believe this is going to kill me."

Bite your tongue!" Merc said, throwing a leg over him and settled down, guiding him in. "I don't want to go down in history, as the women who killed Rand-Tor."

Rand made a gratified noise.

In the haze of sexual pleasure, the two of them had things on there minds.

"Please, Master Rand," Merc thought. "Prove, my mother wrong about men. Don't hurt me like they hurt her."

"I'm not going to see the morning," Rand thought. "This is going to kill me...... But, I can think of worse ways of leaving this world."


* * *

Under a hazy sun, Gunner walked though the lush forest that lead to the small sleepy fishing Village called Stillman Rivers. No doubt named after the person who founded it.
The ground was flat and more or less even, not too many rocks to get in his way either. Any other times this would of been an enjoyable trek for the Tracker. But Gunner was grumbling. The words Mentokka was more or less stuck in his head.
{ 'Your going to be All alone....Don't do nothing I would do, pretty boy.'}

"That Mentokka!" Gunner shouted. "I don't think, I can ever recall any women I dealt with, that leaves me in emotional knots as that girl does."

Any other time, he would just pocket his pride and move on. But not this girl. Mentokka-Tor was like a addiction.

But what was it about her? Her looks? Yes! She was beautiful. But plenty of girls he dealt with were that. Was it because she could fight. And beat him more times then he dared to admit. "Skip that!" He muttered

Was it the fact he never been alone with her. Her brother Tosh watching over her like a hawk. Is it her natural up-beat nature? She's damn near always the center of attention.

He was jarred out of his funk when he heard something in the under brush a little ways behind him. "Was someone following me? Gunner thought out loud. "Was so lost in thought about Mentokka......I better keep my wits about me." Gunner removed 'Viki' from it's holster behind him and quickly loaded it.

He decided to pick up the pace a little, taking longer steps, like he saw Master Rand done on several occasions. If someone....Or something was following him, he wanted some room if action, or running was needed. Suddenly he heard a multitude of feet pounding closer towards him. He turned his head to see men in half armor, wearing the colors of Fatoria, leaping from there mounts to surround him. What were they doing out here? He was no where near Fatoria, or the areas they patrol.
An overeager spear-man held his weapon at his throat.

"Drop it, varlet! the soldier ordered.

Training under Master Rand, Gunner could see this soldier was a raw recruit. His stance and grip of his weapon was all wrong. Totally off balance.

He dropped his weapon. But before the weapon hit the ground, Gunner side stepped the spear point, and rushed towards the soldier, grabbing the shaft of the spear and pulling it out of his hands. The off balanced soldier feel to the ground. A well placed stomp to the chest and quick flip of the spear point, and gunner had the spear on him instead.

"Varlet?" Gunner said, grinning. "Your kidding, right?"

Before the other soldiers could react. Another inhuman voice interrupted. This one was a roar, projecting itself at ground level though the under growth.

Gunner's blood went cold, for he clearly recognized that sound from before. "No! It.... can't be!" Gunner muttered as he dropped the spear and reached for his rifle. Coming out from the under growth, he saw it. The glossy, metallic black color, The folded wings. The eerie hissing sound that sounded like a fire being doused with water. It was the dragon from before. But it seem to got a tad bit bigger. And it was looking at Gunner with fire in his eyes.

Suddenly the soldiers scrambled into action. most of the men got back up on there mounts, drawing there weapons. Gunner was frozen with fear. How did that dragon survive the fight with the soldiers. Not like he stuck around to find out the out come.

The soldiers were about to make there move, when the dragon learn a new trick since the last time Gunner saw him. Flame jetted from a red cavern of a mouth, the glow of fire reflecting, resonating, though meters of the surrounding fog. A soldier atop of his steed, ten or fifteen feet from the dragon, exploded like a firework, his armor curling like paper in the blast. Gunner felt the heat from where he was standing.

"Fire?" Gunner muttered. "It's breathing fire?"

Without pausing, the dragon changed the direction of it's charge. It snorted, making an odd sound, like metal bells. Once more it breathed fire from nose and upper mouth. This time the target, another man on beast back, somehow dodged the full effect. The riding beast screamed at the light brush of fire, and veered the wrong way. One forelimb caught it by one leg, and sent it and it's rider twirling though the air to break there bones against a tree.

All around Gunner, men were screaming. He saw the soldiers and there riding beast in full, desperate retreat.

The dragon changed his direction once again. Now it was coming straight for Gunner.

Gunner ran. Ran like he never ran before, not even thinking about looking back.

A hideous, creature bellowing filled the air behind him. It sounded like the grand father of all dragons, and the noise it made was followed by human screams. He wasn't planning to turn back and risked his neck to save the soldiers that drew weapons on him earlier. Gunner deliberately stepped into thigh-deep water to put more distance between him, the soldiers and that dragon. With the up roar fading in the distance, Gunner was starting to believe that he was going to escape. But another roar more or less threw that idea out the window. He glazed upward, and literally could not move. He thought no one has ever seen the like of the thing descending on him now. "A Flying Dragon,....Oh....my....God!"

Gunner brought up his weapon, praying the Goddess of Luck 'really' pull his butt of of the fire this time. Only at the last moment, when it was too late to do anything else. "A shot in the eye," Gunner thought. as he took aim "Hit the eye and it will fly away."

He got the shot off, but was more or less drowned out with the violence of which it grabbed and lifted him banged his head against it's scaly breast., a blow hard enough to daze him.

Gunner knew, before he slid into unconsciousness, that his feet had been pulled out of the water, that nothing was in contact with his body now but air and dragon scales. He felt rhythm of great wings working, and then he knew nothing more, as the blackness claimed him.