"Zel-os! Look!" The Fenia chirped brightly. "Flowers!" She somehow managed to squish the word into a single syllable. She glidded over to the abundant field and gather some. "Here!" She said, trusting a small bunch out at Zelos.

Zelos took them good naturedly. "Ah, but flowers such as these would surely look much better on a lovely lady like yourself," He said with a winning smile.

May giggled. "Put them in my hair?" She asked, now attracted to this new idea.

"Why of course," Zelos responded, skillfully placing several flowers in May's hair, every so often twirling one with a flourish. He suddenly jumped back. "Stop that!" he snapped at the sharp toothed fish that had, ironically, just snapped at his ankle.

The Barracuda looked about as huffy as fish could get, but all three fish still eyed the Chosen warily.

"Melkor! You too!" May said excitedly. She was quick to decorate all three fish with flowers. Someone the Fenia got the flowers to stay (another part of her vast magical powers, perhaps?) even after one fish tried to shake the degrading flowers off. This was quickly stopped by May. "You don't like flowers?" she asked quietly. "I want to help, is all it is…" The Fenia suddenly seemed very young, and she hung her head dejectedly, eyes growing alarmingly moist.

The offending fish looked like it was in shock, and he wasn't quite sure what to do. A second fish swam through the air and bit Fish Number One firmly on the tail. Fish One came back to life and shook his head vigorously. (And the flowers somehow still stayed on. In fact. Zelos briefly pondered creating a popular hairstyling product with the help of May's magic.) It's all right. The flowers are actually…quite…nice. This fish seemed to say, wincing at the last thoughts.

The final fish, who shall be called Kor, didn't seem to mind the flowers. He actually looked quite satisfied, and were he not swimming his movements might have been labeled as frolicking. The first two fish (Nicknamed Mel and El) were not quite as happy at this turn of events, but with May still cooing over them there wasn't much they could do. At least, not right now.

Zelos had sat down on a nearby log, both to rub his sore ankle and to watch Melkor receive his just punishment, err, reward. The stupid fishes seemed rather found of the Fenia, and they also seemed to harbor an extreme dislike for Zelos. Raine's monster friend must have known that, he realized sullenly.

Hours earlier...

"Allright Zelos, let's see who is free to be your partner," Raine said, scanning the area.

"Can May play?" asked a hopeful voice. "May is friends with Zel-os."

Raine turned to the voice to see a dreamy eyed Fenia. The girl's face(for it was hard to refer to the more humanoid creatures as monsters) was open and innocent looking.

"That should work out fine," Raine said warmly. "As long as Zelos agrees?"

Zelos bowed to May. "It would be my pleaure to be in the company of such a splendid creature."

May was giggling, but Raine was looking at the Fenia in sudden concern. Innocent, yes. Humanoid, yes. In fact, Fenias looked almost completely human. Very attractive humans. But surely there was nothing to really worry about…

Raine turned to see Nevita's usually calm face was scrutched in something that looked a bit like worry. The two girls were very close, they had both joined Emil as harpies and had stayed together since.

"You will take Melkor as well," the Aeollo said in a cold voice. "Otherwise he could feel…lonely." she suggested, although outward concern for others would certainly be unusual.

Zelos glanced at Melkor's glare and sharp teeth before making a half-hearted protest. May, on the other hand, flew aound the group in tight circles. "So fun!" She hugged each person there, and the proceeded to grab Kor's front fins and dance with him.

Zelos could only hope for the best…

It was all that crow girl's fault, he decided. Yes, indeed.

May had finished petting each fish one last time. She looked back up at Zelos. "I go ahead," she chirped. "Find best place to hide. Zel-os and Melkor keep company here, yes?" She didn't wait for a reply to the question before speedily flying off through the trees. May had what one might describe as a loose grasp on the human language and all of its complexities, but she was more than enthusiastic about every word that she spoke. Still, many monsters couldn't speak human language at all. There was the odd monster, such as Nevita, who managed to speak multiple language with perfection, but Aeollos were known for their intelligence and pride in excelling at everything they attempted.

So it took both Zelos and Melkor a moment to fully comprehend what May had said. By that point she had disappeared from sight. The two looked at each other warily. Zelos, of course, had a little more reason to be suspicious. Melkor had already shown his distain for the redheaded swordsman and all three fish had double rows of razor sharp gleaming teeth. If there had been someone there to translate for Melkor he would have argued that he was the worse off of the two. He did not like Zelos.

They did have something in common. Both began to race after May. "May! Don't leave me- er, us. It could be, uh, dangerous for you!" Zelos called as they attempted to follow the Fenia.

There was no response.

Melkor was distracted from his situation by his growing concern for May. The three fish split up, darting in multiple directions as they swam through the air as they searched for the lost Fenia. Melkor emitted a eerie clicking noise as his search became more frantic. May was not one to ignore someone's call for her.

There was a loud and angry screech from just up ahead.

Zelos was left in the dust as Melkor sped up. The swordsman was just able to catch the edge of a tail as the Barracuda disappeared into the large opening of a cave. Zelos paused and rested his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. He cursed as he saw flashing and flickering lights from within the cave. It could only be May's signature fire attacks.

He ran inside the cave to see both monsters facing a massivive golem. May had been using the flames to keep their opponent at bay and was now making a sort of harsh chirping now at the golem. She paused for a response. The golem opened his mouth, barred jagged toothlike rocks, and roared. May and Melkor looked at each other before Melkor went in for the attack.

The two worked well together. May stayed back and cast powerful magical spells while Melkor attacked up front, keeping the foe away from her. It was a decent enough strategy except for the fact that the golem was resistant to both physical attack and fire magic. There was, however, another reason behind May staying further away from the battle. The Fenia was casting magic quite impressively with one hand, because the other dangled limply at her side.

Zeros smoothly joined the fight. His skills with water magic greatly sped up the battle. It was long until the golem roared once more and slammed its giant fists into the ground, right before it crumbled into dust and rubble.

The three only had a moment to savor their victory as the dust settled around them. The rumbling that had seemed to come from the golem's demise was continuing. The battle had disturbed the delicately balance stones along the walls of the cave, and these stones were now tumbling to the ground and straight for the group.

In another part of the forest...

"Man, we haven't found anyone yet!" Lloyd said with a sigh. "And I can' believe that Colette found us first."Lloyd's monster partner, a rather stunning ruby eyes Rusulka, made a comforting crooning kind of noise. "Still time," she said simply in her smooth low voice.

"Right!" Lloyd said with new vigor. "I just hope it doesn't get boring."Ural shrugged. "Not boring. Think of…training?" she suggested. Lloyd didn't look overly enthusiastic with this idea. "Then play other game while search. Guess game or find game."

"Like I Spy, right?" Lloyd asked. "Ha! I used to so bad at this game, but now I'm super awesome at it! I'll start."The Rusulka smiled, amused by this boy's antics. She straightened as a nearby tree caught her eye. Ural turned her head, looking at the tree from as many views as possible. Something seemed suspicious. She barely heard Lloyd's "I Spy with my little eye…"

Just as Ural was approaching the tree Lloyd cocked his head to the side. "Ural! I hear something from over here!" He run in that direction, leaving Ural no choice but to after the two left, the tree Ural had been starring at began to shake and twist. Bark peeled back and branches shrunk. A Mandocello shook itself as it stepped forward, revealing a short pink haired girl.

"It seems we were almost discovered," Presea said casually. The Mandocello frowned. "I believe that Ural is unusually observant, similar events are unlikely to reoccur. There is a high chance that we will win this competition," Presea finished, with just a hint of a smile on her face.

"It is best that we relocate. Come Clove. Your adaptive camouflage is sure to be just as useful elsewhere."And the slender girl and her tree like companion swiftly disappeared into the woods.

If you've seen any of my other stories that have been recently updated, you might know that I recently discovered a flash drive that I had copied a lot of my writings to before my computer died. This chapter was there as well (although it needed to be completed) and although this isn't going to be an immediate focus, I would like to continue it. :)