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(Inspired by The Artist Formerly Known As DarkDragonGirl (Quarry) and placed after Seasons of Family.  Also, I've been marathoning Glee at work so forgive if this is a bit ... off.)

**

Sir Rieka, Knight of the Wild, was a bit surprised to find herself standing in one of NeoTopia's rolling plains.  Usually said plains were covered in green grass, the wind blowing just enough for it to be picturesque and perfect.  Now, however, they were covered in an utterly stunning layer of snow, the wind causing gentle flurries here and there in an image of utopian perfection.  The Kanid, her cream coat and dark armor smudged with all kinds of mud and soot, felt entirely out of place.

The Knight of Lacroa had spent the last six months wandering the magical land of her birth and doing her best to help where it was needed, as befitted a Knight of the Realm.  The last month had been spent in the back of a blacksmith forge, actually learning the ways of metal and how to coax it into doing what she wanted it to do, instead of the brute-force method she applied through her magical affinity.  Glancing down at herself, she was chagrined to find that she wore neither her ax nor her baton, the two weapons with which she was the most versed.  If this really is NeoTopia, she reasoned, I shouldn't need them.  I just hope they don't get stolen, or worse, melted down.

A shriek from behind flattened her sensitive ears and she was only part way through turning when the explosion hit her side.  Thrown off her feet, the Knight tumbled into the snow, wrestling with the slim body which had attacked her, the sound of-- wait.  Those were giggles filling the air!  Familiar giggles!

They arrived at the bottom of the hill with a thud, Rieka soundly on the bottom of the two-person pile.  Momentarily dizzied, the wolf-gundam laid there, looking up at the Dragon-Musha which had 'attacked' her, recognition causing more bewilderment instead of relieving it.  "C-Crystal?"

"I got you!" The little blue dragon crowed, her blonde hair in wild disarray around her dark, sweeping horns.  "You should see the look on your face!"

"I don't understand," Rieka confessed, easing up onto her elbows.  Spotting two equally blonde forms making their way down the hill toward the small pile of bodies had the wolf-gundam's ears flattened in an even more perplexed expression: the Princess Heir of Lacroa, Spring Katrele du Lacroa was striding easily alongside an officer of the Super Dimensional Guard, Natalie.  Though the woman was Shute's younger sister, she looked almost nothing like him, having short blond hair and clear blue eyes.  Another figure momentarily appeared at the top of the hill but was gone before Rieka could catch more than a glimpse of golden eyes and bronze armor.

"You're lucky you weren't flattened, Crys," Natalie said, her strong arms bare despite the weather.  She was wearing the vest of a SDG uniform over slightly baggy gray pants tucked into blue snow-boots.  A matching scarf was wrapped loosely around her neck, making her eyes shining sapphires in her evenly-tanned face.  The woman was fiercely independent despite her officer's rank in the only military operation the utopian society of NeoTopia owned and it showed in her dress and hair.  Right now her locks were spiked up and frosted with black tips, a style Rieka found she rather liked, to her surprise.  "Rieka looks like she was in some kinda fight."

"No," Rieka said, ears flattening in embarrassment when she realized Spring was obviously amused at the sight of her smudged armor.  "N-no, I wasn't fighting.  I was blacksmithing.  I don't understand how I got here."

"I called you," Spring said, her voice ever so slightly arched.  "We decided, the three of us, that we would like to have a-- what did you call it, Natalie?"

"Girl's night out," Natalie supplied, grinning.  "Crys was the one who suggested we bring you along.  We girls've gotta stick together, what with the boys always going off on their adventures."

"Of course!"  The Musha-Dragon chirped, winding her arm in around Rieka's and giving her a big grin.  "C'mon, Rieka, it'll be fun."

"I think," Rieka said, looking no less perplexed for the explanation, "I'd rather go on the adventure."

"Don't be like that," Natalie scolded, crossing her arms over her chest.  "It's not like we're gonna be painting each other's nails and gushing over guys."

"Even," Crystal said, tapping her lower lip with a claw, "if Claw and Winter'd have some real dozies of stories to share--"

"Winter is on patrol of the northern mountains with Zero," Spring put in primly, threading her arm in through Rieka's free one.  "I'm sure they're having all kinds of adventures which they will tell us about when they return.  Until that time, we will be going to the NeoTopia marketplace you told us of, Natalie."

"What Princess wants," Natalie agreed, smirking, "Princess gets.  We'll clean you off on the way, Rieka.  Let's go!"

**

It wasn't so bad, Rieka decided, walking along with the three other girls and sipping the warm drink she had gotten for herself.  All of them were sporting at least one new piece of clothing: Rieka was wearing a cranberry red scarf which Princess Spring had insisted she absolutely needed, Natalie had consented to the motorcycle-style jacket Rieka had silently presented her with half way through the day, Crystal had on a new pair of gloves (the ends punched out for her claws, of course) and Princess Spring had bundled her hair up under a fleece cap with, oddly in Rieka's mind, cat ears sewn on it.

"So," Natalie said, scruffing a hand through the cream fur on the top of Rieka's helm, "when'd you become so shy, anyway?"

Brown eyes rose to meet shining blue, the expression in them puzzled.  "I'm shy?"  The wolf-gundam questioned.

"You haven't said more than a handful of things," the human replied, burying her hands in the pockets of her new coat.  "Thanks for the jacket, by the way.  Très chic."

"You're welcome," Rikea replied, finding a smile edging its way onto her face.  She let it come, realizing that the expression wasn't out of place.  "I don't think I'm shy, exactly.  I've just been on my own for six months, traveling Lacroa.  I didn't have company a lot of the time, so I got used to the quiet."

"You get kicked out of the Palace or something?"  Natalie wanted to know, grinning.

"She most certainly did not," Spring said from behind them, scowling.  "Rieka is my Knight of the Wild!  She went on a perfectly legitimate quest to discover the--"

"Joking, joking," Natalie interrupted, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders.  "Take it easy, Princess.  Just trying to get our-- hey, where's Crystal gone?"

Taking a slightly deeper breath, Rieka sorted through the myriad of scents until she found the unique water-smell of the Dragon-Musha.  "This way," she said, trotting off through the crowd and trusting the two humans would be able to follow.

They found their small blue-and-yellow friend standing in front of a shop window, her clear blue eyes wide.  Silver claws gripped the slight lip the window offered and though she wasn't pressing her face to the glass, it was a very near thing.  Tilting her head slightly, Rieka shifted her gaze from the little dragon to the items within and found herself staring at--

"Shoes," Princess Spring sighed, stepping to Crystal's side.

"I want them," Crystal said, her voice soft and awed.  "I want all of them.  Aren't they beautiful?  Like jewels!  Please, Princess, let's buy all the shoes!"

Seeing that Natalie was content to simply watch the scene unfold and that Princess Spring was as much under the spell of the footwear that Crystal seemed to be, Rieka took it upon herself to state the obvious, as gently as she could.

"Crystal?"  The Knight said, her ears beginning to droop at the thought of spoiling the Musha-Dragon's enraptured expression, "your feet ... have huge claws.  I'm sorry.  You can't wear shoes."  Finally drawing her eyes from the spectacle, Crystal gave Rieka such a heart-broken and crestfallen look  that the wolf-gundam felt like the most horrible being in existence.  "I'm sorry," she said again, "maybe-- maybe we can find some ... some sandals for you?  Would that work?"

"I think it would," Natalie said, her voice completely calm.  "Don't think we're gonna find any around here, though, this time of year.  Sorry, Crys.  Also, stop looking like Rieka killed your kitten, please, I think you're upsetting our wolf."

"But they're so pretty!"  Crystal protested, turning back to stare at the shoes again.  Natalie shook her head and began steering her three companions inside the shop.

"We'll get Princess Spring a pair of those boots," she said, "the lacy white ones, there.  Maybe the pink ones, too.  Then we'll find something for you."

Instantly the expression on the small dragon's face instantly brightened, sending a wash of relief through Rieka.  "Those eyes," she found herself saying aside to Natalie, "no wonder Bakunetsumaru pretty much lives for her!  They're weapons!"

"I won't tell him you said that," Natalie muttered back, "if you help pay for the shoes."

"I have my Knight's stipend," Rieka told her, "I have more than enough."

**

They ended up spending just about all of their money, getting gifts for not only each other but almost everyone they could think of as well.  Rieka surprised herself by having a wonderful time, glad to be back in the presence of her Princess and friends whom expected nothing from her except that she be herself.  It was a far cry from spending the snowy afternoon in a forge breathing noxious fumes (though some of the perfumes they sampled came close) and the evening alone.

"We'll have to find some way to transport this all back to Lacroa," Princess Spring was saying after they had returned to Natalie's home, chilled to the bone and happily exhausted.  "I don't know how we're going to carry it all."

"Perhaps we should ask for help?" Rieka suggested, much more comfortable in the company of others than she had been at the start of the day.  "I'm sure Natalie and Crystal would be more than willing--"

"I'd be gettin' some big strong lads t'help," a familiar voice purred over Rieka's shoulder, a clawed gauntlet coming to rest on the other one.  "hello, niece.  Were they knowin' you meant t'be gone so long, I don't think they'd've allowed you t'go, your family."

"Hello Claw," Princess Spring said, smiling.  Sorting through the bags, the girl brought out a fist-sized globe which gave off a muted luster in the bright lights.  She offered it to the cat-gundam, whom took the object with a curious expression in her golden eyes.  "It's for you," Spring added, unnecessarily.

"Aye," Claw agreed, studying the globe.  "What be it?"

"I think," Rieka said quickly, not quite interrupting her princess, "you should figure it out on your own.  Thank you, by the way, Aunt Claw."

"Hm?"  The cat-gundam asked, putting her best innocent face on.  "For what?"

"There are only two people who can move people across distances," Rieka told her, the wolf-gundam's ears relaxed.  "Queen Rele and you."

"You've been gone nigh six months," Claw pointed out.  "Could be Princess learned."

"She didn't smell of mana," Rieka returned, smiling slightly.  "It was you, Aunt Claw."

"Ah, stop embarrassin' yourself," Claw told her, a smirk in her golden eyes.  She flipped the golden globe into the air and caught it, just before disappearing in plain sight.

Rieka and Spring rolled their eyes at each other, smiling at the cat-gundam's antics.  "I should thank you, too," Rieka murmured.  "For bringing me home.  I need to go back, to get my things, but I think my journey is over."

"I'd hoped so," the Princess said, smiling.

"Hey!"  Crystal chirped, popping her head out from the pile of presents, "let's get the guys their presents!"

"We will," Rieka chuckled, smiling.  "We will!"