Can you be my mommy?

Ladon crouched on the street corner watching the rest of the world rush by her with purpose and destinations in mind, finding herself fascinated with the many expression the people wore reflecting their feeling towards their many goals. The hustle and bustle of the city was pure amusement to the young dragon and eventually she stood up and skipped down the street.

A food cart selling baked cinnamon apples appealed most to Ladon as she halted her frolicking to drool in front of the cart.

'I want one.' "Can I have one, sir?"

The cart owner gave one look over the girl with disdain, thinking her a homeless urchin. "If you can pay for it, you can have it."

"Pay?"

"Yes. With money."

At Ladon's village, no one had ever made her pay for food or for anything else, although she was aware of what money was. She'd seen it used when trading with Caravans that passed by her village. She gave the apples a heartbroken look and slumped her shoulders.

Suddenly, the city seemed a lot less amusing.

It wasn't often that you would find Larien walking through the crowded streets of a market. However, sometimes you had to do things you are strongly against. Usually it would be Arrai walking down this noisy, smelly, and horid place, smiling at passerbys and wasting money. But today was different. All because a man couldn't keep his ding dong in his pants.

"What do you mean you pissed off the mayor of the town who is also the underground boss and he put a death warrant on your head?!" Larien was upset to say the least by this news.

"It's nothing much, Lala." Arrai chuckled. "I just happened to end up in his wifes bed and he found us together." Larien was even more peeved by the fact that Arrai found this situation funny. "It's kind of cliche if you think about it." His shoulder's shook slightly from his chuckling.

"Dammit, Arrai. We need food." Larien and Arrai had gone withouht for a gew days now and the closest was one in Alondia. Larien was used to fishing and forging for food in the woods before but so far they had had a run of bad luck when it came to that. "You know I don't like crowds."

"It's no big deal, Lala. I could still go in~! I wouldn't mind haveing a brawl here or there." Larien could hear the excitement in Arrai's voice perk up. "I mean, it would be a lot easier if I just went in and killed the guy, right? Then the bounty would be gone." Larien's eye twitched. No, no. If Arrai went in, bloodshed was a given, and a whole lot more trouble at that.

"I'll go. Just don't do anything. STAY HERE."

"Why did this have to happen to me?" Larien asked aloud in a low growl. He really needed to stop talking out loud. It was a hassle. Up ahead he saw an apple stand. 'Hmmmm....apples. Would Arrai like an apple?' he wondered. There was a little girl looking longingly up at the apples before her. Seeing her street clothes and rags brought back a memory of his childhood before his eyes. For an instance he saw himself standing there, looking at the apples. Covered in dirt and dried blood. 'No. No apples.' LArien decided makeing his way past the stand. As he walked past an apple stand he picked up a part of a conversation he wasn't particularly listening too.

"Can I have one, sir?"

"If you can pay for it, you can have it."

"Pay?"

"Yes. With money."

Yes, this was a conversation he rememebred having. It resulted in him stealing an apple from the stand and then being caught. They almost cut off his hand as punishment but instead settled for beating him to a pulp. He hadn't understood money at that point. He had just escaped the clutches of those who had experimented on him. 'Just ignore, it. It's not your problem and has nothing to do with you.'

Resigned that the apples were indeed out of reach, Ladon turned away from the stand, only to meet the eyes of Larien watching her.

She smiled widely, plodding up to him then hugging his leg. "SO Pretty!" Looking up, she giggled, "You're really nice. I like you."

In Ladon's mind, she'd just found a new thing to become attached to.

What. The. Heck?

Larien stood frozen with this small creature attached to his leg. 'Did it just call me pretty?' He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise. 'To close. Too close!' Then Larien realized. He wasn't reacting as he normally would. His heart wasn't racing and his agitation had only slightly increased. His eyebrow twitched as he stared down at her with the scariest face he could muster. "Get. Off."

Ladon shook her head viciously and squeezed tighter onto his leg, "Nooooooooo~ way." She looked up and grinned.

"I'm Ladon. Who are you, pretty man?" Ladon was excited. This was the first person to appeal to her since the people from her village. She was eager to know more about people and she didn't want to be alone again just yet.

"I want you to get off of me, NOW." He picked up his leg that she was clung tightly to and shook. Larien didn't care how ridiculous he looked, he just wanted this thing off his leg. NOW.

"Kyyaaahahahaha!" Ladon squealed. What an interesting human! However, the shaking was making her a little dizzy, so she did the only thing she knew how to stop it. She nipped him.

"GYARGH!" LArien ceased his shaking immediately when she nipped his leg. 'The heck! Did she just bite me?!' Larien's eye was twitching in a very agitated state now as his chest heaved up and down in agitation. "I am not a playground." He said in a low growl. "This is not a free ride. So beat it."

Larien saw the innocence reflected in those deep big eyes. He found it hard to believe that people actually thought htese things were cute.

"Nu-uh." She held on even firmer (was that possible?) while looking up at him stubbornly. "Tell me your name!" All the while, her shirt had begun to slip from her shoulder. Whether from her carelessness or Larien's shaking, it was unknown, but Ladon continued her antics without caring. "Tell me!"

Larien's eyes became the size of saucers when she had refused him point blank. Plus there was the fact that her shirt was coming off. "Listen you." He tried kneeling down to grab her. He caught a hold of her shirt and tried prying her off that way. However that only caused her shirt to become further undone. Once he had her off of him he looked into her eyes with a scowl. Now her shirt was almost completely undone. With a heated blush he set her down and quickly fixed her shirt. "Why of all people do you have to bother me?" He cursed the heavens more than asked the child. He could feel her earnest eyes staring at him. It felt like her stare was burning marks into his skin.

"Excuse me, sir. But are you responsible for this child?"

"Huh? What?" Larien looked up at the meaty apple teller.

"You'll have to pay for those." He pointed to the floor at the childs feet. There lay 3 bright red apples.

'How the-?! When did she?!'

"Why? Hmm..." Ladon pondered seriously, missing that his statement was more on the rhetorical side. "Just because!" she answered as Larien straightened out her attire, her naive smile plastered on her face.

As the teller addressed Larien, she looked between the apples and the man. She gathered the apples and offered them up to the teller, "Oops?"

'Oops? Did she just say oops?!' He quickly snatched the apples from her hands and handed them up towards the teller.

"I'm terribly sorry. Won't happen again." He swept the girl up in his arms and quickly rushed away. The way he was holding her was awkward and as far away from his body as possible, trying to avoid all skin contact. 'This better not come to bite me in the ass.'

Ladon was not enjoying the feeling of being held like some dirty rag doll. She looked up over Larien's shoulder, then back at him, "I think you ran far enough. Pretty sir, you still haven't told me your name."

He glared back at her. "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm called Larien." He was definitely not going to tell her his embarrassing nickname. He had a feeling that she would use it for sure.

"Larien..." she nodded, as if pleased with the name. "So! Where are we going?"

"Away." He grumbled. He kept walking through the streets. Slowly, he hadn't noticed, but he had begun to wrap his arms around her in a more comfortable position. He tried not to notice any of the strange looks he was getting from the women walking by, or the men wondering why he was holding a child. Obviously Larien didn't look like a father, older brother, or mother (in extreme cases). He looked like a traveler, and traveler's didn't go around carrying children in their arms. 'When did that happen?!' He wondered as he noticed how close the two were now. Larien didn't know where he was now, but he knew he was nowhere near the market.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Larien decided to start up a conversation. "Don't you have a family, or mother , or something." Hell, even a pet dog would be something. Then he could leave her with it and be on his merry way.

Ladon looked down, following Larien's footsteps, "My egg got lost and then the village found me. But I went flying and was blown off course." she sighed, "I know my family, but I've never met them." She brightened, "Do you know your family?"

'Egg? Flown? What the heck was wrong with this girl?' She must have been crazy. Driven insane by hunger that she was now making up stories about eggs and flying. "Right...Sure, whatever you say." He released an annoyed sigh. "No. I didn't know my parents." That was the honest truth as well. He had been spirited away as an infant to be tested on, his unique blood mix of water sprite and Hawk blood was what made him an ideal specimen for the experiments conducted on him. 'Wait.' Larien paused. 'Why did I just tell this kid that?!'

"I see." Ladon thought a bit, 'What if I shared a bit. Maybe he'd be interested...' She snuggled into him as if getting ready for story time, "My family was nice. Although I don't know much about my brothers. My parents moved to Alondia because all of us go there. Mom said it was in our blood to. Alondia is a good place to raise hardy children."

She grinned, 'He'd enjoy that, right?'

"You don't smile much." she stated.

'Oh great....now she thinks it's story time.' He twitched ever so slightly as she snuggled into him. That was a bit off putting.

"I suppose Alondia is better then other places." Arrai was brought back to his childhood in Amnia. 'Wait....what did she mean blood?'

"So your family is around here?"

She shrugged, "I don't know! I haven't met them since before I was hatched. Can I walk?"

NOTE: Since you didn't change much I'll just go ahead.

"Best you stay up here where you won't get into anymore trouble."

Larien stopped as he noticed a large group of men stand before him. They were dressed as traveler's themselves and had the air of hunters about them. The intentionally blacked the way so Larien could not pass them. (NPC CHARAS....)

"There you are!" Said the obvious leader of such a gang. "We've been looking all over for you, little one!" The man addressed the small creature in Larien's arms. "Thank you so much for finding her, sir." The man now directed this to Larien. "We've been looking all over for her. Your mother must be worried sick!" The man sounded to be feigning a relationship with the child.

"You know this kid?" Larien asked the man.

"Yes. She's my little sister. She's a bit traumatized though," he motioned the crazy sign "From witnessing the war. She often wanders off and makes up silly stories. So sorry for all the trouble she's caused you. But we'll take her from here. You will of course be rewarded for helping us find her." The man withdrew a small satchel of old coins.

Larien looked down at the small creature in his arms. "Do you know this man?" He asked her knowing the obvious answer, but hoping that the man spoke truth and he could be rid of a nuisance.

Ladon shook her head, gripping even tighter to Larien, "He's lying."

She knew these men. Not by name or by having ever met them before, but the scent she recognized all too well. A smell that wreaked of greed and personal gain tinged with slight malice. A smell that put all dragons on edge.

She stuck her tongue out at the man and shouted in response, "I have 3 elder brothers and all of them would be far too proud to come to such a place in human appearance."

Surprisingly Larien wasn't surprised about her comment of human forms and unhuman forms, but what he was more concerned with was 'Great, she has three brother's, that means there's more than one of these little things to deal with.'

The human laughed, "What are you talking about little sister, stop joking around." He took a step forward. Instinctual Larien took a step backward in retreat. Noticing the man's grin widened. "Why won't you give me my sister, sir?"

'Oh, please, he can stop it with that charade.' Larien's hand rested softly on the hilt of one of his swords.

Once again the man noticed. "What's this? Don't trust me?" The man sighed. "Look, I'm sure that thing is troublesome. Why not just hand it over to us and we'll take the problem off your hands?"

Larien looked down at the child. It was true she was trouble. He really didn't want anything to do with her. But he knew what it was like to have something inside you that you were hunted for. He sighed. "Sorry, but the kid stays with me."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Said the man before lunging for an attack.

Before either man knew what exactly was happening, Ladon had transformed while leaping from Larien's arms. She swung her tail against the charging man, knocking him into a nearby wall. She focused on the rest of the hunter's crew, roaring loud while showing off her sharp teeth.

The men stepped back in a temporary bout of fear, but they were quickly trying to muster back their courage. Ladon stretched her wings and gave a few flaps, raising herself a few feet from the ground.

She decided to give a shot at throwing fire in attempts to frighten the men some more. Unfortunately, all that came out was a cloud of smoke. With that failed, she quickly reached out to grab Larien by his shoulders and gave a few more strong flaps of her wings, raising herself and Larien out of the alley.