"I see," said Oulan. "So those images were of your past, huh?" She clenched a fist hard enough to make the leather glove creak. "Oooh, what I'd give to get my hands on those two who set you up... and no offense, Sierra, but your mother needs a good talking-to on kind and just treatment of your children."

Sierra sighed in exasperation. "Relax, mortal - all three have been dead for so long I couldn't even raise up their corpses for you to wreck. I'm more offended by your story, frankly: you're one of the best fighters I've ever seen, mortal or not, and that corpulent idiot Gorudo cast you out. I'll lay odds he did it to lay claim to your parents' estate, too."

Oulan stopped in shock. "Damn me for a fool, I never thought of that!" she cursed, and Sierra laughed.

"Why should you feel foolish?" the vampire mistress asked. "You were what, seventeen at the time?" Oulan nodded. "Oulan," Sierra said kindly, "I've been watching you mortals do that to each other for over twenty *centuries.* I've had time to learn the signs. You hadn't even had two decades - why should you have seen his plot?"

"I should have seen *something!*" Oulan exclaimed. "I could have told Camus - he was from outside Matilda too - or Alex-neesan and Miklotov-sama!" (Note: Big sister Alex [Mik's character Alexandra] and [sir/lord] Miklotov. -Sama is also used to indicate strong affection [love or a crush, for example.])

Sierra leaned in towards Oulan. "Miklotov-*sama?* A lover?"

"I wished," Oulan huffed. "No, he was just a crush. I haven't been back to Matilda in ten years - he's probably forgotten me, and we have more pressing business, anyway," she finished. She cast a glance to the north, where the tip of Neclord's tower was just visible. The sky around it was noticably darkening. "What in the world is that bastard doing *now?*" the bodyguard asked.

Sierra squinted. "I can sense the Moon Rune... but there's another there, just as strong..."

Oulan gasped. "I really hope you aren't telling me he's gotten his hands on another True Rune.."

Just then, the top of the tower was engulfed in a column of purple energy, and exploded.

"Dear God..." Oulan breathed, then noticed one large chunk of flaming debris headed their way. "Sier, GET DOWN!" she howled, knocking the vampiress flat and covering Sierra with Oulan's own body.

A moment later, the - screaming? - debris slammed into the lake, sending a tidal wave of water in all directions and soaking the two women. After a minute to ensure nothing else was going to happen, Sierra threw Oulan off of her to land by the lakeside - twenty feet away. "And just what was *that* all about, mortal?" she asked angrily. "I can take care of myself!"

Oulan looked sheepish. "Sorry... old bodyguard reflexes. 'If magic or arrowflights are coming your way, throw yourself over your charge and keep them alive.' Old Pahn, the bodyguard to General Teo McDohl, taught me that."

Sierra looked a bit less miffed. "I appreciate the concern, Oulan, but I hardly need it. If you think about it, I'm rather more likely than you are to survive that sort of thing."

Now even more embarrased, Oulan smacked her own forehead. "Ooohhh.. BAKA!" ('Idiot!') she yelled at herself, bringing a sardonic smile to Sierra's face.

Just then, a young man in a rather singed bandanna staggered out of the lake, eyes glazed over, and murmured something inaudible before passing out. Sierra 'hmph'ed and looked away, but Oulan stared wide- eyed at the young man.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Sierra called to her new friend. "Like you said, we have pressing business to attend to!"

"Son'na bakana..." (This is impossible..) Oulan murmured. Her vampiric ears catching the words, Sierra turned around to see Oulan turning the boy over.

"*What!?*" Sierra asked, exasperated.

Oulan finished turning the boy over, revealing his face. "Of all the coincidences," she commented, "this takes the cake! Sier, this is Lord McDohl, the leader of the Liberation Army during the Gate Rune War!" She looked back at the smoking tower. "Did Neclord do THAT... just to try and kill him?! I'd heard McDohl has some powerful Rune, but..."

Sierra gave another exasperated sigh. "Oulan, I can sense other True Runes near me, like the Night Rune, and that boy has one. If that's the case, and he's one of the ones who helped this Viktor chap fight Neclord the first time, I can see why Renny would be eager to get rid of him." The vampiress peeled back the glove on McDohl's left hand, and found nothing there. "Hmp. Wrong hand," she grumped, and peeled the right glove off - and recoiled.

"Sier!? What's the matter!?" Oulan asked, rushing to her friend's side.

"That's Soul Eater, the Cursed Rune! How did the boy get that!?" Sierra exclaimed, not coming any nearer to McDohl than five feet.

Oulan sighed. "I've heard the stories about Soul Eater, the Black Rune, Sierra, but keep two things in mind here," the bodyguard soothed her friend. "First is, I've heard all the stories about the Night Rune, too: and now that I've met a former wielder of it, I don't believe most of them at all." Sierra looked up sharply, then got thoughtful. "The second is that most 'children' of a rune give similar advantages and drawbacks to their 'Parent' True Rune. You wield a Darkness Rune," Oulan stated, pointing to Sierra's hand, "devoured any souls lately?"

At this outrageous joke, Sierra finally had to laugh. Together, the two picked up the unconscious freedom fighter and carried him towards the Wind Cave.

By the time they arrived, he'd woken up, but was obviously still woozy. After all three had explained what was going on, McDohl said, "I wish I could come with you, but I still feel weak as a kitten from what my Ru- Um, I mean, from whatever Neclord did to me."

Oulan smiled at him. "We saw the rune when we hauled you away from the lakeside, Lord McDohl," she informed him. {It's only a little white lie, after all,} she justified her falsehood. "Um, Sierra thinks you overextended yourself drawing upon the Black Rune fighting Neclord." The bodyguard pointed to her pale friend, who nodded in agreement.

"I admire your courage, mor- ah, young man, but you're correct. You could barely handle hollys in your condition, and we can't wait for you to recover. Do you think you'll be all right waiting here?"

"As long as I don't have to fight much, yeah," the boy answered.

{Incredible,} Oulan thought. {He's years younger than I am, and somehow he conquered an empire, the hearts of its people, an immortal sorceress, and even his own Rune to emerge victorious, and he still has this kind of courage. Just amazing.}

Surveying the area quickly, the two women left McDohl on a ledge ten feet up the cliff, to discourage any wandering predators, then applied themselves to moving the large stone in front of the entrance. That done, Oulan stopped to pant for a moment, Sierra nearly as tired (but not breathing hard - a benefit of being undead.)

"Okay, Sierra," Oulan asked, pointing to the cave, "Which way now?"

Sierra gave her friend an annoyed look. "How should I know? I can sense that we're closer to it than before, but I've never been in this cave before!"

Oulan sighed. "In other words, we may have to explore the whole cave?"

"I believe I just said that, yes."

Oulan sighed again and started walking, scratching a small 'x' into the wall with her knife to mark where they'd been.

Some time and several levels of cave later, Oulan and Sierra were talking quietly as they approached a distant junction. "You seem a bit pensive, Oulan," Sierra noted. "What's the matter?"

Oulan shrugged. "Oh, your reference to Gorudo's motives got me thinking about my past, that's all. It's funny - after he rejected me and basically threw me out, I was devastated. I was just sitting on the great stairway in the middle of town, when this woman came out of nowhere and gave me the idea to become a bodyguard. She had hair as pale as yours - I don't suppose you were in Rockaxe ten years ago?"

Sierra shook her head. "I was deep in the Dreaming back then."

Oulan shook her head. "I've looked everywhere for that woman - I owe her everything I am, but I never found her. I guess that was the main reason I exploded at Neclord like that back in his tower. I thought you might be..."

"And why you help out all those other girls you've mentioned under the guise of getting information from them," Sierra chuckled. "You can't thank your benefactor, so you help other women instead. Admirable enough, I suppose..." Sierra's voice trailed off.

"What?" Oulan asked.

"It's been so long, I'd almost forgotten... but I don't think you're the only one with a mysterious benefactress," Sierra mused. "Your comment about the Night Rune brought it to mind, back when we found McDohl."

"Huh?"

"Back when I first became immortal, I ran myself through with the Star Dragon Sword. I-"

"You WHAT!?" Oulan screeched. Sierra winced as the noise echoed through the cavern and into her sensitive ears.

"Not so loud!"

"Oops. Sorry."

"I was so distraught over those two and their slander, and my mother disowning me, that I tried to kill myself. As it happened, I inherited the Moon Rune instead, but I didn't awaken until the next night." Sierra paused for a moment, and Oulan winced. "When I found myself in a coffin, I started to panic," Sierra recalled, "but before I could, *she* was there. Hair so red it blazed even in the moonlight, cut short around her head. She pulled me out of the coffin and told me a story of the Moon Rune that gave me the idea to go found my *own* family in the mountains. I never found her afterward, either - but obviously it couldn't have been you. That was over two thousand years ago."

Oulan looked at her new friend as they approached the intersection and skipped out in front of her, walking backward as she spoke to Sierra. "Hmm. Maybe that's why you Bonded with me - You identified me with her. Heck, she could've been a distant ancestor of mIIINNE!!"

As she finished her sentence, Oulan had stepped around a boulder into the intersection - and also into the strongest wind she'd ever experienced. Her feet instantly began to skid, and she windmilled her arms to try to regain her balance, but inevitably started to topple sideways, where she could see the lip of a downward shaft waiting to swallow her.

As she began to fall, however, a strong hand fastened onto her leg and hauled her back into the safety of the boulder. "Th-thanks, Sier," Oulan said shakily as she took a few deep breaths to calm down.

"My pleasure," the vampiress grinned back. Fishing in Oulan's pack for a moment, she pulled out a rope, which she held up. "That wind tunnel's only half as high as the roof. I'll just fly above it and attach this on the far side, then you can pull yourself across." With that, she shifted forms, and Oulan gaped at the large albino bat - standing in a pile of Sierra's dropped clothing - with the rope clenched in its teeth.

Just as Sierra took off, a fact flashed into Oulan's mind. "Sier, WAIT! Even if you get above the main flow, there'll be-"

Sierra flapped her wings powerfully and hurtled forward - for all of five feet. Then she was tossed topsy-turvy into a spiral and swirled down within reach of the main wind.

"-eddies of air up there!" Oulan finished as she dove for the rope, grabbing it and hoping her friend could keep her grip on the other end. Hand over hand, she towed the bat back into the lee of the boulder. Sierra shakily transformed back, and Oulan blinked at her friend's nudity. "Good thing we're both girls here," she commented.

Sierra laughed as she picked up her shirt. "Oh, Oulan, you should *hear* of some of the places I've been, clad only in my skin," she said, and proceeded to elaborate.

If anyone else had seen the two girls, they probably would have wondered why the half-naked one was calm, and the *clothed* one was blushing like a lantern...

"Ahem!" Oulan desperately interrupted. {I didn't even know some of that was *possible!*} she thought, then stammered, "W-we need to get that wind blocked with something, Sier," she pointed out, and Sierra regretfully left off teasing her friend.

"Why don't we use these boulders?" Sierra suggested, and Oulan willingly got to pushing.

Some time later, the girls had used the aforementioned boulders to create a safe path across the wind tunnels and ventured much deeper into the cave.

An eerie chamber loomed ahead...

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"Oulan", "Sierra" and "Neclord" are (C) Konami This chapter was posted on November 28, 1999 Sierra's writer is no longer active as Sierra