A/N – Here's the last part of this lil' fanfic.

Pegasusmon – Thanks loads for sending me that support conversations link! It's a fantastic resource, except for the obnoxious comments the author inserted! Thing is, I've read Wil's conversations all the way through and in my opinion they actually back up my characterisation of him if anything.He's shown himself to be a fairly normal happy-go-lucky guy who can be blunt at times, as I believe I've portrayed him throughout the story. I guess it's all down to interpretation at the end of the day. :-) Still, I admit that his support conversations have shown me that he's a little more interesting than I first thought him.

chel bel – Maybe it's not surprising you couldn'tvisualise Serra kissing Dorcas – it's not exactly a common occurrence in fanfics! Still, keep in mind it's a playful kiss, not a romantic one.

Karlminion – You're right. Looking back, Dorcas did talk too much. My excuse is that it was the key speech of the whole story and he had to get the theme across, but I guess I should have taken a bit more care and made it less wordy. Whoops…

The sun had only just struggled into the sky when Lyndis's troops were awoken the next morning by a strange and urgent shaking of their tents. Some of them (notably Lyn, Kent and Rath) instantly reached for their weapons, believing themselves to be under attack. Others (notably Sain, Wil and Matthew) pulled their blankets over their heads and turned over to doze, not awake enough to care about why the walls were flapping. But though they could sleep through the shuddering of their tents, there was no way they could do so through Serra's shrill wake-up call.

"Rise and shi-iiiine everyone!" she cried cheerfully in a voice like screeching chalk. "Saint Elmine has blessed us with a fine sunny day, so it's time for you all to rise and shi-iiiine!"

Groans came from all-round. Even those who had taken up arms threw them down again when they realised that they were being attacked by nothing more than Serra's cheerful nature. Unfortunately for them, determined Serra never gave up until she had her own way.

"Wake up sleepy-heads!" she called again into the tent of a certain purple-haired mage. "Hey Erk I saw you stir, I know you're awake! Damn, he's ignoring me! Shake the tent harder Dorcas!"

"As you command," the axeman murmured. He lifted the end of the tent higher and put all his remarkable strength into one good firm shake which nearly tumbled the occupants out of the tent door. Their startled cries from within proved that they were very much awake.

"Come on you two, time to rise and shi-iiiine!" Serra repeated in the same teeth-scrunchingly annoying tone.

The tent flap parted to reveal Erk's grumpy face, which was covered with loose purple hair. His eyes were sunken and tired, but the eyebrows above them were crossly-knit. "If I get up, will you stop saying that!?" he yelled at her.

"Why of course I will!" Serra chirped with a smile.

"Fine! I'm up!" His head ducked back in, then the whole of him strode out a few seconds later, hair more orderly and cape clutched irately around him to shield him from the chilly morning air. "Now would you mind telling me why you've seen fit to rouse us at this early hour?" he demanded grumpily.

Serra beamed back at him, seemingly oblivious to his foul mood. "I made breakfast!"

By now, a few more bleary-eyed forms were emerging (Dorcas having shaken a few more tents). They advanced sluggishly like a legion of zombies, but any more annoyed questions were halted by the mouth-watering aroma that hit their nostrils.

"Hey, what smells so good?" Wil asked. Everyone sniffed the air blissfully and asked the same question.

Serra stood before them, hands clasped proudly together and smiling like a cherub. "Grab your plates everyone! It's time for you to enjoy my extra-special 'sorry-for-being-so-mean' pancakes!"

And then she stepped aside to reveal what was a most wondrous sight to the hungry eyes of a luxury-starved travelling band. Set on a table consisting of a few large rocks was a towering mountain of pancakes, the sight and smell of which had their maws trickling like rain-gutters. They were delightfully golden, scrumptiously supple and totally drenched with glorious honey. It was a breakfast sent from the heavens.

"Wow!" Wil exclaimed. "Sure is nice to start the day with something more than hamster food for a change!"

"My goodness. Are they for us?" Lyn asked in disbelief.

"Yep!" Serra replied gleefully. "I made enough for everyone! Even the mean boys can have some!" She turned to the 'mean boys' in question at that remark. "Aren't you grateful, Erky-wirky-woo?"

Time seemed to stop then. Erk's whole face plunged downwards, his horrified mouth dropping open. "Wh-what…did you just call me?" he asked with dread.

Serra replied with an immaculate smile, her eyes two happy crescents. "Erky-wirky-woo! It's your new nickname! I think it suits you perfectly, don't you Erky-wirky-woo?"

Erk's mortified expression said it all. Matthew and Wil instantly burst out laughing, slapping their pal on the shoulder. Other members began to snicker behind their hands as well and even dignified Kent had to smile.

"It does suit you, you know!" Wil chuckled.

"Shut up Wil!"

"Hey, don't get so mad Erky-wirky-woo!" Matthew said, unleashing a fresh batch of hysterics on the group.

Erk grimaced and turned away from them in dismay. "Urgh," he mumbled miserably. "That Serra. Bane of my life as ever."

Serra missed that comment, for she had danced away by then to stand by the bountiful breakfast she'd prepared. "Now come on everyone, don't be shy!" she shouted, picking up a spatula. "Line up to get your portion before they get cold!"

The team were delighted to obey her, scrambling to form a queue (Matthew at the front again, how did he do it?). Serra and Dorcas began to serve them, slapping a couple of pancakes onto each eagerly outstretched plate. Lyn's face lit up radiantly as she received her portion. "Oh Serra, they look wonderful!" she breathed, gazing down at them with near-reverence. "But there was no need to go to all this trouble for us."

"Yes, there was." Serra stated with a rare touch of seriousness in her tone. "I needed to do it to apologise for all the mean things I've done over the last day and a bit." Her face brightened up again as she added, "And it was really no trouble at all, especially with the help of my willing and faithful servant, Dorcas!"

Dorcas, not looking at all comfortable in his role as assistant disher-upper, looked up at that. "No trouble she says," he murmured darkly. "What about last night when we broke into that farm to steal eggs, milk, flour and butter?"

Serra waved the comment off. "That was no big deal for seasoned adventurers like us!"

"And when you knocked an urn over and woke the farmer up?" he added.

"Well…"

"And when he chased us for a mile with a pitchfork, screaming for our blood?"

"Which was totally unreasonable of him," Serra said with a self-righteous finger his way. "After all, we left a little pile of coins by his doorstep didn't we?"

Dorcas went on, deadpan. "And the fact I had to carry you the whole way on my back because you claimed to have a stitch?"

Serra theatrically shoved fists into her hips. "Hey, my legs may be silky smooth and delightfully feminine, but they're a whole lot shorter than yours you know!" she stated haughtily. "I can't run as fast as you! That scary farmer would have caught up and put a load of holes in me with his pitchfork! And then every time I tried to drink something, it would have just poured out of them so eventually I would die of thirst and that wouldn't do at all, would it? Would it Dorcas?"

"No Ma'am," he murmured submissively.

"Good!" she said, clapping her hands happily. "Now," she continued, hopping up onto one of the 'table' rocks to use it as a podium. "Can I have everyone's attention please? I have an announcement to make!"

"I sure hope it's better news than your last announcement was," Matthew murmured between mouthfuls.

"It sure is!" she chirped. She coughed to clear her throat, tucked her hands behind her back, then spoke.

"After widespread criticism of my new healing system, I've decided to scrap it and go back to the simple old way!" she said, smiling after the statement. "All takings will be refunded and if anyone needs to have wounds looked at, please form an orderly queue in my direction. Although," she snickered. "You'll have to pester Lyn to buy me a new healing staff first!"

Her announcement was received with relieved cheers, especially from those who'd taken knocks in yesterday's fight. "It's all yours Serra," Lyn assured her over the group's grateful applause. "After all, I did promise you as much, didn't I?"

"You sure did!" Serra said as she hopped off the rock again. "And now, while we're still on the subject of healing…" Her gaze flew to a certain green-haired boy. "Nils, let me see your arm!"

"Oh! It's okay Miss Serra," he replied timidly, the memory of last night's Serra haunting him still. "It's feeling a little better now."

"Not until I look at it, it isn't! Give it here!" Serra grabbed his arm insistently and ripped his sleeve back to expose the scratch, which admittedly didn't look as angry as it had before.

"Now!" she announced with purpose. "Hopefully I'll have a little magic left over in these fingers!"

With that, she touched her fingertips to the scratch and they began to glow with white magic. Without her staff her healing powers were considerably weaker than normal but they were still more than enough to heal Nils's scratch, which disappeared in an instant. She grinned in satisfaction and planted a light kiss where the wound had been.

"There you go! All better!"

"T…thank you Miss Serra," he stammered in return.

"Great!" Serra shouted, punching the air. "I'm on a roll! Now who else do I need to apologise to? Oh yes, Florina! Florina, come over here!" She grabbed the young pegasus knight's hand and pulled her over before she could resist. "Since I was really, really horrible to you and said a whole lot of things which I didn't mean, I've decided to give you seven whole pancakes by way of apology!" She gleefully held up the plate on which they were stacked in a pile, dripping with honey with an unhealthy large slab of butter on top.

Florina gasped at her. Both the radical return of Serra's cheery nature and the mere sight of the massive portion she'd been given had caused her eyes to glaze over in shock. "Um…thank you Miss Serra," she blurted. "That's very kind of you, but I don't think I can eat that many by myself."

"They'll go straight to your hips and stay there!" Lyn chuckled.

Serra patted the younger girl encouragingly on shoulder. "Oh don't listen to her, I'm sure a growing girl like you has plenty of room for them! And if not then give them to that clumsy horsey of yours!"

"Hee!" Florina tittered quietly. "She'd never fly again if she ate all those!"

Her final apology given, Serra took her own plate and held up in her fork in salute. "Dig in people!" she called. "May my cooking delight you as much as my company always does!" She smiled at the whole group as they laughed appreciatively and obeyed her command with pleasure. Serra piled a couple of pancakes on her own plate and then danced over to sit by her mage guardian while singing a happy little song of her own creation.

"Erky-wirky, Erky-wirky-woo! Erky-wirky, Erky-wirky, Erky-wirky-woo!"

Erk groaned, as everyone else collapsed with laughter around him. "Why me?" he appealed to the heavens. "Why am I cursed with her?"

The group settled down to enjoy this special breakfast that Serra had prepared for them. Dorcas surveyed the groups as he tucked into the pancakes he had set aside for himself. The return of their happy healer had restored normalcy and brought the group's spirits back to their usual lofty levels. Amazing, how her nature could have affected their group's dynamic so much. It just went to show how important she was to them.

The scene he saw now could barely have been more typical. Lyn and Davidos were discussing something important regarding the agenda, as ever. Kent was conversing with Lucius. To one side Matthew had just told Nils a filthy joke, though judging by the thief's hearty laughter and Nils's disbelieving gape it had been funnier for the teller than the listener. Rath was off to one side, eating by himself. Ninian was today's victim of Sain's overworked charm, though she was doing her best to politely ignore him. Next to them a chuckling Wil was helping Florina out with her pancakes, skewering a couple straight off her plate. She blushed and looked away from him, but despite that she seemed grateful for the favour.

And Serra…she was Serra again. She was now kneeling in front of a disinterested-looking Erk, trying to feed him a pancake she had wrapped around her fork. She smiled and giggled as she tried to poke it into his mouth, persisting even when he angrily turned around to sit with his back to her. Dorcas grinned as she danced around to the mage's front and, in the attempt to jab it into his mouth before it closed, poked him in the eye with her fork. Yes, Serra was back again, there was no denying it.

"She may be a little stubborn, a little selfish and more than a little annoying," Dorcas mused. "But she's our Serra and we wouldn't trade her for anyone else in the world."

Suddenly that pretty pink healer was running towards him, her pigtails bouncing urgently behind her. "Help me Dorcas!" she squealed, darting behind the colossal axeman to use him as a shield. "Erk's trying to kill me!"

Erk was behind her in furious pursuit, one hand clutching his wounded eye. "You blinded me, you wench!" he snarled. "You're going to get such a hiding when I get my hands on you!"

"You'll never take me alive!" she cried back before giving Dorcas a sharp nudge in the back. "What are you waiting for? Beat him up for me, Dorky!"

The axeman just smiled silently, then apologetically sidestepped giving Erk a clear shot at her. "Yikes! You rotten traitor!" she cried, as she hitched up her dress to run again. Erk flew past him to resume the chase, his one good eye blazing murderously. Dorcas chuckled fondly to himself as he watched the pretty pink healer flee into the forest, an angry mage hot on her heels.

"Never change Serra. You're wonderful as you are."

A/N – My third fanfic done! That completes the hat-trick! :-D Kind of satisfied with how it turned out. I imagine just about everyone will be glad that it didn't become a Serra/Dorcas romance! For the record, it was never going to be – even if Dorcas wasn't married, they're just too different for each other. Besides, Serra is Erk's girl and Erk's alone! :-)

The method Dorcas used to bring Serra out of her depression in Part 5 is actually a very effective one. I know from experience, for a dear friend of mine used iton me. If you ever happen to get seriously depressed, draw a spider diagram of all your good points (get a close friend to help you if you can), including your skills, interests, goodstuff in your life and any other positive things you can think of. There're bound to be several, more than you'd think. Then keep it and refer to it when you're down. Trust me, it helps.

One freaky thing I just realised – Serra's alter-ego is called Arres, right? Well that sounds just like 'eres' which is Spanish for 'you are', which is the last two words of the story's title! Isn't that cool? :-)

Many thanks to all you great people who reviewed!