Chapter Thirty Nine: Happiness

Baron blinked, realizing what was new about his beloved, and laughed warmly. "It appears that today is a day for miracles."

"How did this happen?" Haru whispered, pulling back a sleeve in order to stare at her pale arm.

Baron looked over at his dead counterpart, and grimaced. "This is just a theory, but I'm guessing that either he, or perhaps his father, cursed you while you were in the womb to have green skin, along with having to obey him. Why, I have no idea, but I'm guessing that one of the conditions to break the spell would be for you to accept the green-eyed man's affections if you wanted to get rid of the green skin."

She shuddered, but then remembered something else. "You knew he couldn't hurt you," the pale woman whispered.

Baron nodded. "It was actually an idea I've had since you gave me the ability to change shapes. I remembered how eager my body was, to suck up all of your magic, and reasoned that since I'm not originally from this world, my body's naturally a void, so if my body was that eager for your magic, just imagine what would happen if I started absorbing my own magic."

Haru stared at him. "You were willing to throw your life away to test a theory?!"

"A very probable theory," Baron pointed out, wrapping the girl up in his arms again. "And I was telling the truth when I said that I'd rather die than leave you to the likes of him."

She pressed her cheek into his shoulder, squeezing him around his chest. Suddenly, she opened her eyes to the stone statues that still surrounded them. "Can you fix this?" she asked nervously, pointing to a grey Tsuge. Baron looked over, and nodded.

"Yes, I believe I can. But, I'm not sure how to explain my new appearance without getting attacked. I somehow feel pretty sure that if I try to explain alternate dimensions to them, it will just go over their heads."

Haru nodded, since even she was barely able to grasp the strange concepts he had introduced.

Hmm…

Those under her care may not be able to accept the entire truth, but…

ooOoo

Hiromi sharply looked up from her post at the front of the cave, shocked beyond words as not one, but two triumphant dragon calls were given at the same time. And one of the voices seemed strange to her ears.

A dragon emerged from the castle, but Hiromi knew in an instant that it wasn't her cousin. For starters, the body was slightly more masculine, the body had shining grey scales that were almost silvery, and the voice a deep tenor.

And right next to the rising grey dragon was one a dark chocolate color. Hiromi gasped, immediately recognizing that one as her darker cousin as the two dragons began to fly higher and higher, circling each other in an aerial dance as the valley filled, not with their roars, but with dragons' song. The mediocre witch didn't even knowthat dragons could sing! Let alone with such untold beauty…

Her mother came up behind her, as well as the other women, in order to stare at the two dragons. "What does this mean, honey?" Nirami whispered softly.

Hiromi sighed, picked up one of the younger children, and started walking the hidden path back to the castle. "Let's go down and find out. Haru wouldn't sing like that if she had lost the battle."

The other women and children began filing behind their temporary leader, almost running towards the castle, feeling more than anxious to know what had transpired there.

A number of the men were waiting just outside of the castle for them, their armor and weapons long shed. Joyfully, they ran towards their mothers, wives, daughters and sisters.

As Hiromi handed off a squealing child to his father, a pair of strong warm arms suddenly swept her off her feet. She yelped, more than a little surprised to see Tsuge, who was nearly glowing.

"He's gone, Hiromi! Baron showed him a thing or two!"

"Just what happened? Tell all!" she nearly commanded, too distracted to try breaking free from his embrace.

The young field-hand grinned happily. "Well, I didn't get to see, since that monster turned all the men into stone except Muta, Toto, and Baron, but apparently the green-eyed man wasn't really the green-eyed man!"

"Excuse me?!" the lighter brunette exclaimed, as she heard varying versions of the story being retold around her.

"Well, it just so happens that he's a usurper. His father cursed the real green-eyed man to look like a normal guy before sending him to a far-off land when he was a baby, so that his spelled son could take his place as king when the three thousand years were up!"

"Well, if that's true, then who was the real green-eyed man?" Hiromi asked.

Tsuge laughed merrily while setting her down. "Baron, of course! After he killed the imposter, he returned to his true form, and took away Haru's green skin. She looks normal now!"

Hiromi's eyes widened, looking up as her cousin and the other dragon began to sail gracefully back to earth, forever circling each other in an endless dance. That had to be Baron. He had always admired Haru's dragon form. It would only make sense for him to ask her for a flight. She looked away, and quietly closed the door of her heart to what could have been as she took Tsuge's arm, and held it close.

His eyes shot as open as they would go, and a blush crept onto his cheeks as she gently guided him back inside the castle.

"If Haru's ever going to declare a Random Day, it'll probably be today. Let's go see if we can start rounding up the cooks and musicians."

Tsuge nodded slowly, bashfully taking hold of her arm as she clung to him. "Whatever you say, Hiromi."

As the two entered the stone building, Baron and Haru made their landing on one of the bigger flower fields, one that was positively covered with snowdrops. Their wings wrapped around each others' bodies lovingly as the dragons slowly shrunk, and shifted into a human couple that had their arms firmly wrapped around each other.

There were still tears of joy in their eyes.

As they kissed tenderly, much to the delight of the onlookers, a ring flashed from the Mountain Witch's finger. But unlike the black one that had been tattooed onto her skin for the past year, this one seemed to twinkle like the morning star in the afternoon sunshine, almost as brightly as the newfound happiness.

ooOoo

The following years were happy ones, at least for the Mountain Witch's people, who eventually chose to call themselves 'Utopians'. The Baron chose not to claim the world that was his by right, instead choosing to focus his loving attentions on his beloved baroness and their people. His ideas, brought from the land of his youth, did indeed improve the lives of many, by providing not only easier transportation of goods and people, but also easier heating and cooling technology for everyone's homes.

After a time, more and more people began traveling to the other side of the Twin Mountains, or Utopia, in search of a better life. But even in this land of fruits and laughter, there was still sorrow.

One man that had traveled to the land after his hair had turned white and he had lost his high standing in his village, soon died from grief after seeing the beautiful and happy noble family, which was nearly overrunning the family castle with babies and laughter.

For if he had softened his heart as a young man, endless honor and power would have been his for fathering the powerful Baroness… instead of his brother's.

ooOoo

Lots of love to; Savannah Cullen, Bambi4ever, gacktxx, fringeperson, Rini's Ghost, Lunarobi Pride, Ceysna, Ms-Lady-Phoenix, Drifting One, Joanna, Mr-Lady-Phoenix(who may have been Ms-Lady-Phoenix misspelled), Anonomous-Allstar-Fan(and Bob), Archon Dragon, Nonimouse, Ghost Wulf, Lanari, LucyMint, kittydemon18, Seichou, Chantal, Elly, QuickStar, Bibishi Kuronecko787, Karmina Scarheart, LeafeKnight7, and MasquedOmbre for the many heartwarming and extremely funny reviews. I love hearing what people have to say, especially about my work. I promised you Haru's dad would get his comeuppance!

Whew! I need to write faster! Or maybe update slower… ah well. Here's the next story's summary;

One haunted house plus a lovely lonely girl equals an old-fashioned romance.

I don't really think it's fair to ask anyone to guess what I based this next story off of, because there are at least five different sources that gave me inspiration for it. But I know there are at least two people that asked me to do a story that has been at least partially used in the making of this latest one.

I hope you all enjoy it, and extra kudos to the ones who can guess ALL of the stories used.

Lots of love,

YC