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The cart ride wasn’t really as long as I expected it would. But, then again, Dehlia did train Serenity for speed. Or so she told me.

But other than everything else, the ride was pleasantly wonderful. Dehlia and I were having a lovely conversation about the monsters that we trained, while Serenity was making pleasant grunts here and there to Jamaru. One of the most interesting conversations we had so far was about Serenity.

"So, your father found Serenity’s disk in an abandoned shrine?"

"Well, it wasn’t really my Father who found it, but my brother, who was exploring the ruins." I looked thoughtfully at Serenity for a while.

"So, she can’t speak?" This made Dehlia a little confused.

"What do you mean? Of course she can’t speak, monsters don’t have that capability to talk yet. Of course…" She, too, looked thoughtfully at Jamaru, who was just yakking his head off. "Jamaru can. Did you teach him to talk?"

This made a little train of thought enter through my head. "Actually, I’m not his first trainer. Or so I think." I turned my attention forward upon the dirt path. "I never really knew…that monsters couldn’t talk." This caught Dehlia’s attention for sure.

"You never knew?! Didn’t your family tell you?" I decided to look down at that point, ashamed of what my answer might be. But to my surprise, she talked to me like she understood what was going on in my head. "Oh, I see. Well, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, really there isn’t! Some things you just have to learn for yourself!" my confidence kind of grew after that.

"Yeah, I guess you’re right." The two of us were in silence for the rest of the trip after that. It was about half an hour later after our conversation ended that we finally spotted the stadium from afar. And I might add that it was HUGE. I could only stare at the Coliseum, and so could Jamaru, but it seem that Dehlia nor Serenity really cared that much. She just ran right up all the way to the stadium’s gates. And boy, that was one fast trip.

The two of us climbed out of the cart and walked up to the entrance of the building. All the stones, pillars and statues were of a marvelous marble, and everything shined like…like….well, nothing like I’ve seen before. We spotted the administration desk that was right, well, almost, put to the side of the battle arena’s entrance. But the weird thing about this place…was that everyone was in the lobby. Everyone.

The Administrative woman looked worried, but smiled as we approached the desk counter. Like any administrator would do. "Hello, and welcome to the Autumn Cup competition! What can I do for you two?" Dehlia was the first to answer.

"Were here to register our monsters for the competition, ma’am." The smile was replaced with a frown.

"I’m sorry, but we cannot accept entries at the moment." A small and confused ‘what?!’ came out from all four of us. Except for Serenity, who just made sort of a sad grunt.

I softly put both of my hands on the wooden counter. "What do you mean you aren’t accepting entries? What’s wrong?"

"Someone interfered with the first battle, and started to drive everyone back here into the lobby. We don’t know who it is, or what it wants, but so far, it hasn’t left the arena." Both Dehlia and I lowered our heads in sadness. Our monsters looked forward to fighting. And after all the training. I suddenly felt a soft nudge on my hands. I looked down to see that Jamaru was responsible.

"Come on, Cleo. Let’s say we go check it out, eh?" I shook my head in silence to him. He, of course, just gave me a wink. "Just think of this as…’extra training’. Eh?" Dehlia ran in front of me, ready to head on down the entrance tunnel.

"Jamaru’s right. Let’s go check it out! Come on!" She raced Serenity into the shadows of the hallway as the association woman tried to stop her.

"No! Come back! It’s not safe to go there!" Jamaru and I ran up to her side, decided to ‘comfort’ her.

"Don’t worry, miss. They’re really good trainers. It’s just an extra challenge for them." I signaled Jamaru to go forward, as I did the same. The association woman was about to make haste as well, but just sighed and sat back down behind her desk.

"All right, I’ll let them go. But they don’t know what trouble they’re getting themselves into…"

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Rushing down those halls was…not very exciting, really. Darkness was all there seemed to be. But that didn’t stop the others from continuing on forward. It was only a little bit away that we saw a light…getting closer…closer…

We ran out to the center of the battle arena, looking around to see who had been causing the trouble. Serenity was the first to notice something. A humanoid bird was falling from the sky, and it looked pretty beat up, too. It suddenly hit the ground with a loud CRASH! against the dirt battle arena. A man came running towards the Raiden, helping it up from it’s wounds. Must’ve been his trainer I pondered to myself. Both Dehlia and I were now on the verge of figuring out this battle crime. Jamaru, unfortunately, noticed it.

"Cleo! Look up!" Dehlia and I looked up to where Serenity and Jamaru’s eyes were fixed. Over the collesium tower, there flew of what seemed to be a large lizard with various white armor and guns placed on each of its metallic hands. Green wings shown down on the arena, and its cold glass eyes, staring back at us. I didn’t know what type it was, or what its name was, but I knew for a fact that this was the monster: A Dragon.

"Serenity! Get a good position and attack!" Serenity, within seconds, responded by running towards the seats and hurteling herself across the air, forming in to a ball on the way. A direct hit in the Dragon's mouth was all it needed to roar in pain.

Jamaru was ready to strike as well as his horns charged with electricity. "So, whenever you're ready, Cleo." I didn't respond. I was too shocked in fear at the sight of the Dragon. This stung Jamaru a bit. "Cleo?" he looked back to check on me to see if I was okay...but he knew I wasn't.

I just kept staring at that Dragon, flying over head like he was going to kill. My body froze itself, not letting me move away. Yes folks, it's true: I had a fear of Dragons. Why? I cannot say right now. My mind was in darkness at that point. At that moment, I think I blacked out from that point, the dragon that I knew before, flashing through my head...

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"Cleo? Cleo, are you all right?" I slowly opened my eyes to see the clear sky shine over me. Dehlia was the one speaking to me, seeing if I was okay. She cocked her head over to a worried Jamaru. "Jamaru! She's okay!" he bounded happily over to me.

"Cleo, what happened to you?" I only grunted as I got up.

"What...what do you mean? What happened?"

"You blacked out when the Dragon left the stadium. What was that about?" I turned my head away from Dehlia's. She sighed and got up, looking around the stadium, which was now filled with people in rows of seats. "Well, what ever the reason, the battles are now back in order."

Jamaru held one of his paws up. "Thanks to us, that is!" Serenity, who looked quite beat up, smiled and nodded with a soft growl.

I got up too and looked around at the full stadium. "So, that battles are bac on schedule, eh?" Dehlia nodded happily.

"Uh-huh, and guess what? For getting rid of that troublemaker, we get to enter the battles!"

"Even though we were too late?"

"A-yup! and we're up first, Cleo!" I nodded to Jamaru, who smiled back and walked to the battle arena. I followed him as well. I looked back to see if Dehlia was going to grab a seat, but she didn't. Instead, she just stared at the sky, pondering about something.

She noticed me and waved her hand, notifying me to keep on walking and that she's fine. I nodded and continued on with Jamaru. Somehow, I knew this might be a very interesting compitition cup indeed.

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All righty then! Isn't it just creepy? I'm leaving you in so many cliffs *I think*, I think the cliff is bound to break! Well, anywho, hope you enjoyed!:D

Very nice