Long paused to smile at his audience, then he resumed eating. He finished his drink, ate the rest of his chicken, and took the rest of the cake in less than thirty seconds. When he was done, everyone in the room gasped. . . because he had ordered another of each.

That was when a big, burly, bear of a man came over to Long. He stood so close, that if Long looked up, he would have seen the man's nose hairs. The man was easily twice Long's size, and he didn't look none to happy.

"Hey, buddy" said the man. "You're hogging all the sevice. We want you to stop eating so that we can be served." When he said that, he pointed to a table. Seated there were three others, they were all about the same size of the other guy.

"Why should I?" asked Long, never looking up. "I have every right to eat that you do. Besides, you look like you could go a few meals without eating."

"What!?" screamed the man. "No one says that to Joku Blom, leader of the Sullbangers. Don't you know who I am?"

Long continued eating as if nothing happened. Joku stood there amazed that Long was still ignoring him. Finally, Joku had enough and he slammed his fist down on the table.

People in the room gathered around the two men. Joku's gang broke through the crowd, and stood beside their leader. Long got up, and looked at Joku in the eye (he had to strain his neck to do it).

"That was not very smart" said Long. "I don't care who you are, but no one, and I mean NO ONE, disturbs me while I'm eating. Back off, or be prepared to hit my fist with your face."

Joku laughed. "I'm the leader of the Skullbangers, the baddest, meanest, and most feared gang around. And I"M not someone who most people would mess with. So, little man, I suggest you leave before I break something. Namely you."

Long snickered. Joku turned red with rage.He raside his fist and pulled it back. Then he swung with all of his might. . . and Long-Long caught it effortlessly. Joku's face twisted as he tried to put more force behind the punch, but Long just stood there, unfazed.

"H. . . H. . . How?" Joku asked, dumbfounded. "N. . . N. . . Never has anyone done that. You're either really strong, or really dumb and lucky." He pulled his fist back, and swore in pain, while rubbing it.

The rest of Joku's gang moved in front of him and formed a wall. They stood over Long and smiled. They laughed at him, and one of them spit in his face. Long rubbed the spit off, and snickered again.

"Now, I'll warn you one more time" Long said. "Either you back off and leave me alone, or I beat all of you up, and go back to my eating." Joku's men pondered over the threat, then they all raised their fists in unision.

"I wouldn't do that" came a voice from near the door. "You really don't want to mess with him. He's all braun and no brains, so if he beat you up, he'd have nothing else to do, so he'd probably just beat you up again. Then after that, he'll forget completely why he came here and he'd leave. Then he'll get completely lost, and he'll come back here to simply beat you up again, 'cause that's all he knows how to do."

The man behind the voice moved through the crowd and entered the "circle". He was tall, and had blond hair and blue eyes. He was smiling at Long. By now, Juko's men were getting annoyed and had dropped their fists. They were still angry and were on the brink of throwing punches.

Long, on the other hand, looked extremely depressed now. He had one of his hands covering his face, and the other was rubbing his left temple. He looked up at the man and smiled.

"Gods" He sighed."It's been too long, Drake. Life's been getting boring without you around."

Drake Farloking laughed. "I know, and that's why I've come to find you" he turned to Joku and his gang. "You men can leave now" he tossed them a few coins. "That should make up for your time wasted, and then some."

They smiled and turned around. The crowd parted to let them pass. They walked out the door without so much as a second glance. While Drake was watching them, Long started to sneak away. But, Drake noticed him, and grabbed his shoulder.

"Not so fast LCC" he said.

"Alright" Long sighed. "What do you want?"

Drake smiled, a giant, mischievous smiled.

"Well, whatever do you mean?" he asked sarcastically. "Okay, I'll cut to the chase. I have a proposition for you."

Long sighed his largest sigh so far. "Great, just what I need. Okay, go ahead . . ."

Long sat and listened to Drake talk of this proposition. He was slightly grateful that Drake had broken up his skirmish with Juko and the Skullbangers, but he didn't like how he had done it. Drake had completely embarrassed him in front of everybody. If, Drake wasn't one of Wakaba's old friends, he would've beaten him up in a second.

"So, I heard this from some informants. I hear there's gold at the peak of Rondrak mountain, north of Rockaxe. It's supposed to be guarded by a giant lizard. I need another person to go with me, for mutual protection. I would've asked Wakaba, but I can't seem to find her. So, I came to you" Drake said.

"Good choice" Long replied.

"Yes, well, I'm sorry about before. I just love to make an entrance. But, remember, I trust you enough to ask you to come. So will you do it?" Drake asked.

Long thought for a moment. He scratched his head and stared off into the distance. He thought of reasons not to go, but couldn't find any. He thought, and thought, and thought, then finally he sighed.

"Sure, why not?" he said. "It could be fun. But just one thing, how much of a cut do I get?"

Drake laughed. "We split it fifty-fifty. I get the share because I found out about the place, and you get your cut, because your the main protection for us. Your much stronger than me, I'll admit it. . ."

"Well, duh" said Long, interrupting Drake.

"But, I can still hold my own in a fight" Drake continued, while glaring at Long. "Now to the transportation matter: We'll walk to Kuskus, take a boat to Coronet, walk to Muse, we'll stop there for a while, then we'll walk to the Muse-Matilda border. From there we'll walk to Rockaxe, and finally to Rondrak."

Long just stared right at him as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I know it sounds like alot, but we could make it" Drake said, trying to convince Long.

Long thought yet again if he should go through with it. That sounded like alot of walking, even with their rests. Plus, knowing Drake, they'd probably get side-tracked, anyway. But, he really needed the money. He could imagine it now, he'd be sitting down eating, and when the waiter gave him his bill, he'd actually be able to pay for it! Also, it'd be good for his journey to get out and fight some decent battles. It was getting harder and harder lately to find some good opponents. Maybe this giant lizard would be worth it. He smiled and turned to Drake.

"I'll still do it" he said. "I really need the money, and besides I need some adventure."

"That's the spirit" Drake said, laughing. "We might as well leave now. We could probably make it to Kuskus, and book passage on a boat before nightfall. Then tomorrow, we could make it to Coronet."

Drake got up and walked over to the counter. He payed for his and Long's tab, then he turned to face Long-Long.

"Well, LCC, let's go" he said.

Long walked up beside him, and they left.

They had been walking for quite a while now, and Drake looked tired. Long on the other hand was fine. He enjoyed the outdoors, for they enhaced his peace of mind. He took a long, deep breath and smile. This was the life.

"Hold on a minute" Drake said stopping. "I'm kinda' tired, so could we take a break?"

Long nodded, and pointed that he'd go scout ahead. Drake nodded back at him, so Long left without a moment's hesitation. He walked on for few miles until he came about a small, baby wolf. He reached down to pet it, but it moved back.

"Don't be afraid little one" Long said soothingly.

He reached down again to pet it, but this time it bit him! He pulled his ahnd back, and the baby wolf howled in the air. Then Long heard another howling, much deeper from about a hundred meters away. He looked up and saw the wolf's mother standing there.

The mother wolf charged at him and he stood his ground. It overcame the distance in five seconds. It leaped at him, but at the last second, Long rolled out of the way and came up with his foot. He connected solidly.

The wolf was unfazed by this and it charged again. This time Long wasn't completely ready, and the wolf scratched his ribs. Long put a hand there and when he drew it back, he saw it was bloody. But, he didn't have time to worry about it, because the wolf was charging again.

By now, Long was really mad. So he stood up and looked the wolf in the eye.

"Lightning Star Kick!" he shouted.

His right foot lashed out and connected with the wolf's head numerous times. Then he pulled back, and the lightening blasted the wolf into oblivion. The weird thing was that it didn't explode blodily like most ennemies, but it exploded. There was a blast.

"It's a robot?" said Long. "I've got to tell this to Drake."

He walked back to where Drake had stopped to rest. The only problem was that Drake was gone. Long searched around the area, then he called out Drake's name a few times. He kept searching until finally, he came upon a note. He picked it up and read it's contents.

Dear Long,

By now you have realized that I'm not here. I'll explain why. I'm a con artist. I help people get money from others by con- ning them. I was hired by a restaurant owner in Radat to col- lect from you. I made up the story about the gold. It was quite easy to trick you. I hope you can get by, you'll find that I stole evrything of value from you. Have fun. Oh! You could try to find me, but I doubt you will. You see, I had a friend named Juko book passage for me to Toran, so you won't be very succesful. Maybe we'll meet up later on better terms. Or, maybe not. I do hope you don't hold a grudge. Besides, you wouldn't beat me anyway. You're too stupid, as this little con proved.

Your friend,
Drake Farloking

P.S.: I set up the thing with the wolves. Also, there is no such place as Rondrak mountain! Sucker!

Long crumpled the letter up and threw it on the ground. He should have known Drake would have tried something like that. Now he was broke and had nowhere to go.

Oh well, at least he'd finally get to beat up Juko ...

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"Long Chan-Chan" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami This chapter was posted on April 24, 2000