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And the twins weren't the only ones who had arrived on the scene. Kanis had returned with Niyana and Ulani both in tow, and Aliya and Alyse were not far behind them. Just at the same time, Rose burst out of her house, her eyes wide with panic.

Ruran growled right back at Ryu and twisted the knife, trying to get it away from the merman's grip. "Let go of me!" he ordered, his fingers tightening around the knife. "Let me go or I swear I'll stick you!"

As for the rest, it was chaos. Ecthelion ran to Rose and clung to her skirt, crying loudly, Aras and Ruque huddled with Niyana, Aliya ran to Lin and asked her if she was all right, and Alyse caught Timaeus before he could catch up to the others and threw her arms around him, holding him tightly and making sure he wasn't injured.

Ruran grunted and fought to hold onto the knife, though he could feel his grip loosening slowly. Without any thought, he leaned his head forward and bit into Ryu's wrist, of the hand that was holding his own wrist, his sharp teeth breaking the skin. He clenched his teeth harder, until he could feel the taste of blood trickling into his mouth.

Aliya was relieved to see that Lin wasn't hurt, but that didn't stop her from being worried.

"He tries to pick fights with everyone," she murmured anxiously. "You're the first to actually challenge him ... Adonijah didn't give him a chance to fight back."

And still she wasn't convinced. "He didn't do anything to you at all?" she asked again, her eyes scanning for bruises or other marks.

Just then, Timaeus came over as well to check on Lin. He had one arm wrapped around Alyse's shoulders as he looked at Lin. "I'm not sure challenging him was such a great idea after all," he murmured.

"Idiot doesn't begin to cover him," Alyse said quietly. "You know how quiet and gentle Adonijah is ... but Ruran wouldn't stop bothering him, even after Adonijah threw him in the river ... the only reason Adonijah got him to start leaving him alone was to hit him so hard he almost made him sick."

"There are no limits to what he'll do," Aliya agreed. "But don't blame Celebor ... or Niyana. They do what they can ... but the boy is impossible."

"Even Nako can't do anything with him," Alyse added, turning to watch as Ulani joined in the struggle to get the knife from Ruran.

Ulani's tactics were different from Feng and Ryu's, however. Instead of physically joining the struggle, she used her magic to make the knife too hot to touch - but still, it was not until she could smell burning flesh that Ruran finally cried out in pain and released the knife.

Ruran scowled up at Feng. "You shut up! You stupid girl!"

Still he struggled to release himself from the dragon's grasp, wriggling and writhing and looking very much as if he wanted to bite him again.

Ulani stooped down and picked up the knife, noting that it was one of the ones from her own kitchen. "Thief," she muttered darkly. "Ryu, if you wouldn't mind leaving him to me, I'll take care of him for now."

She stood directly over Ruran, ready to grab him the moment Ryu released him.

Timaeus scratched at the back of his head awkwardly. "Um .... well I would think more to see this Celebor fellow, rather than to get in a fight," he mused. "But ... I mean, you said you're related to them, right?"

"You should come in the evening, when Celebor is back," Alyse suggested to Lin. "The family is moving here, so Celebor and Ulrich are building their house. Not sure where yet, we'll see it later when there's more for us to help with."

The moment Ruran was free from Ryu's grasp, he tried to make a run for it, but before he could even gain his feet, Ulani had taken firm grasp of his braid so that he couldn't run off.

"This way," she scowled at him once he was standing again; and she yanked him towards the house by his braid, knife safely in hand. "Ryu, come along. We have to get your injury looked at."

The other children appeared to be just fine now that Ruran was being taken control of, and Ecthelion (though he was still holding Rose's skirt tightly) grinned brightly at the others. "Did you see that?" he gushed. "He was a dragon! A real dragon!"

Ruque was still clinging to Niyana, but even he was calming down quite a bit. "I hope he's okay," he said worriedly, looking up at his mother. "He was bleeding ...."

Niyana stroked Ruque's head gently. "Ulani will take good care of him," she murmured. "I know I taught you to take care of people whenever you could, but ... I think this is one time when I think it might be best if we stay away."

Her presence would only make Ruran worse again.

Timaeus nodded at Lin and reached out to put one hand on her shoulder. "I'll stick around as well," he grinned. "I don't have duty until tomorrow again anyways."

Alyse smiled at Lin. "I don't think you need to worry too much about the children," she said softly. "They were more worried about you than anything else. Ruran ... I don't think he bothers them that much anymore. At least not when he picks fights. They're just too used to it."

"Well," Alyse said thoughtfully, "the three of them ... Aras, Kanis and Ruran, had a trainer ... apparently he looked so much like Aragost that when they came here they weren't afraid of him." She giggled - though she had never been afraid of the dark man, she could understand why most people were, at least upon first meeting him.

"Ruque though stayed with Niyana," she added, "and learned about healing and the like."

Kanis unfortunately overheard Lin's rather loud remark, and she looked up indignantly. "He's not psycho!" she exclaimed. "Corrah is kind! He took very good care of us and he taught us a lot of things!"

Niyana looked at her daughter. "Kanis," she said in a warning tone.

Kanis looked up at Niyana. "Well it's true! And you always say it's not nice to say bad things about people behind their back, especially when they're not true, and it's not true! He's not psycho! And he didn't make Ruran the way he is, Ruran was always like that!"

Niyana lowered her eyes. She couldn't argue with that. It was true.