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Sunstrike was, once again, sat on the edge of Vahn's bed, head in his hands as he quietly contemplated everything that had just happend.

"Gods Kas...I wish you were awake so I could talk to someone I know," He made vauge gestures around the room. "about all of this." He didn't really expect his companion to wake, but he was feeling as though this were better then just thinking black thoughts in his own bed. He was lonely, if he had to outright admit it.

"I never seriously expected that by meeting you all that time ago...that I'd end up being half a world away, surrounded by strange people that recognize you..."Oh yes, he'd made that conclusion hours ago...he also knew that Vahn had gone through a lot of changes that no normal human could handle, so it wasn't too hard to stretch his mind over the "Fire Bringer" idea.

"D'ya suppose you fought someone that looked like me before, Kas? But not with friendly intentions of just sparring...but with the intent to kill? Not that I blame you...my curiosities a bit morbid like that. I know that they aren't like me, nothing that brings flame can hurt someone like me...but those peoples, those creatures, are close enough for me to be really uncomfortable...here by myself...and looking as I do."

He sighed, taking the goggles off and looking at them with harsh eyes, knowing that he was ranting aloud. His ears perked at the sound of the old mans laughter and he couldn't help but grin in responce, the anxiety dissappearing from the elemental's face. "I wonder what they'd do, eh? If they saw me in my other shape...torches I tell you! Or at least water buckets." The joke fell short, even for Sun.

"I can see you all over this place, you know...I know you would have been good friends with Dain...that's probably why he's still alive too, right? You have a bad habit of saving people you know...save some for the rest of us, okay? It's harsh talking to a body that doesn't respond...as well as taking it's boots off...idiot...

Sunstrike looked up, startled at the entrance and comment, and drooped a bit, having the decency to look a little abashed.

"You heard all that, eh? Cold water changes me back, opposing elements, and all that, breaks down the firey salamander stuff to the human underneath. I kind of figured you knew, at least partly, especially when you gave me these," He brandished the gift goggles before slipping them on again. "Do...do they look a lot like me then, these lizardmen of yours?" His politeness finally gave way under curiosity.

"I didn't start out like this, you know. I wouldn't say I looked normal, but yeah, salamander wasn't really in the agenda until I came here. It's more magic then bloodline I'm afraid. Though, whether your grandson would ever understand past the "lizard" part is questionable." He gave the man a wry look.

"These day's I'm wondering if I can get past it. I'm changing more and more...s'only a matter of time really before I change completely..." He rubbed his shoulder where the strange sun marking wraped around the skin. "My curse...seems to be the stuff of your nightmares, Dain. And I'm afraid. Afraid of being here and changing, to adding to the nightmares..."

Sunstrike scratched the side of his nose in thought, meeting Dain's eyes.

"I have to admit that my feelings go a bit with yours. Why does anyone keep a treaty for fourty years...and then quite suddenly, with no furthur investigation or talks...go back to how it was in the past?

They must have elders the same age as yourself amongst their kind...one's that remember the tradgedy of the past as clear as any human, to keep the younger lines in check. The fact they've respected the treaty for that long shows the amount...Something must be scaring them horribly for them to want to go back to old ways. Especially if they are as intelligent as you say they used to be."

He looked down at his friend. "And now your fabled "Flame" has returned...with a fire salamander in tow...and a swor-" Sun's stomach sank to his feet. "Oh hell, I'd forgotten about that...."

"Did he?" This made Sun laugh, now THAT was ironic. "Naw, s'me with the staff, now he's got an almost ridiculously big fire sword...comical by itself or with a normal person, but gods he really knows how to fight with it. I don't think we could have carried it back...and I don't like to think what would happen to anyone who touched it other then Vahn..." He grinned at Dain in complete amusement.

"What was he like? Back then. Grumpy much? You said he went out with a bang...at least that much has remained the same." Sun was facinated all over again. Here was a real witness to a past he'd never been able to wring out of Vahn before. Granted there had never really been any time before...but he was always interested in how these people lived their lives, defineing moments, the physical and mental make-up that made one person a hero, the other, a villian...sometimes it was just difference of opinion...

Sunstrike snorted.

"It's like time stands still for him, isn't it? No...no that's not quite right." He thought about it for a second, and then held out both of his hands.

"Being...what he is. His time moves slower above everyone elses." Bandaged palm flat he moved it forward, then he held the other hand the same way, but a little underneath. "And this is the rest of the people he's surrounded by, this moves, faster then his, fast enough so that it SEEMS like his is standing still." The bottom hand shot by the slower top one.

A bark of laughter from Sun.

"Gods, he's an acolyte....he'd HATE being one if I told him what that meant to me...but regardless. His time's been slowed down. So he's got more of that specific "time" to judge about what's gonna happen next within a series of events, that's why these explosive sorts of situations seem to happen around him, specifically, and why he's numerous things to different peoples, looking different but still the same, essentially.

Unfortunately it also means that, if time works in a loop, then he's stuck in the past a lot as well, and things have a nasty way of repeating themselves in fasttime." Sunstrike bit his lip, lost in thought, he wasn't quite talking to Dain anymore, but thinking out loud to himself.

"He tries...desperately, to move in with the rest of time, but can't because of the distance he needs to maintain so he doesn't lose anyone close...because his pain lasts forever...unless, his memory is taken, which has probably happend on purpose, done by whoever guides him onwards." Sunstrike ran a hand through his hair. This was a lot to think about...

"P-Protecting? Him?" But the door was already closed before Sunstrike could answer. He tsked in annoyance and he looked down at the sleeping form in the bed.

~

The other man sat across from him as he lay panting in the sand. Everything hurt, and Sun knew that an extended battle with Kasuga would only lead to straight defeat. But to his amazement, the words from the mouth weren't asking for a yeild, but for a draw.

"Well...it seems we've both run dry..." The yellow eyes seemed to study him deeply.

Sunstrike grinned, wow, better then expected. Then he winced, it hurt to breath. He closed his eyes thoughtfully.

"Was a good fight though, wasn't it?" His eyes opened...and he blinked. He was alone in the desert arena...as if no one had been there at all.

~

A bandaged hand gently patted a warm forehead, idly brushing away a few stray hairs, stuck in the heat. Then Sun sighed, getting up and crawling into his own bed, worried about both of their futures.

Dawn broke over the sandy horizon. Some strange creature announced it's rising with a call...before being abruptly silenced by something that had been waiting for it to do so. Light streamed through the windows, dust dancing along the rivers of gold and red.

Sunstrike opend his eyes, it took him a moment to register where he was. It was a blissfuly absent minded moment that most people have when far away, something along the lines of "This isn't my room...who changed it?" sort of thought, and then everything from the past rushes in and personality takes over.

With a sigh he heaved himself up and unhooked the goggles on the bedpost, slipping them comfortably over his head. Quietly he got out of the bed, and wandered over to the large window...Not high enough up...he thought wistfully to himself, and with that, he moved silently down the hall and up the stairs to the roof. Carefully he sat on the wall facing the rising sun, legs dangling over the edge, wishing absently as he saw the silhouettes of birds that he could stretch his wings, too.

He'd had a nightmare...he knew from the vaugly uncomfortable feeling in the back of his mind...but for the life of him now he couldn't remember it now...