ran into the stables, the smell of the horses met him. He hobbled slowly through the stable lane and looked into every box, but there was no sign of cricket to be seen. "I would have been surprised too," he said, a little disappointed and was about to leave when he heard the grumbling again, this time louder than before. He turned around again, but the rear boxes were empty yet he walked down the long corridor and looked around again. His black eyes eyed the boy kindly. "Cricket", whispered the gray-haired handsome boy and stepped into the furthest box.The red-brown stallion took a step closer to him and let his ears be scratched. "You bastard, look at you", Kai complained in amusement as he brushed the dust from his fur. He looked around briefly and saw a brush. "Well, better than nothing," he muttered and began to clean the red's fur. After half an hour the stallion's coat was shiny again. "Come on boy, they definitely didn't let you out either, did they?" Asked Kai and led the stallion down the stable lane into the yard. Cricket was careful not to overtake his friend and slowly ran after him outside, breathing in the cool air and screeching out loud. "Be quiet or do you want to go straight back into the box?" Asked Kai and gave him a light pat on the nostrils. Cricket ignored this but stormed off, bucking wildly around the courtyard. The young Blader watched the stallion for a long time, then felt how he was slowly getting tired again.Slowly he limped to the main gate and crouched on the railing, making sure that he only leaned against his uninjured shoulder. Cricket strutted through the courtyard and let off steam to their heart's content. Kai noticed the steps in the entrance hall and the excited talk. "You noticed that I am no longer in bed," he thought, amused, and shortly afterwards the door was opened. "Can you tell us what you're doing out here?" Riku asked angrily. "What does it look like?" Replied Kai charmingly. "You should stay in bed with him, you're still much too weak," said Ray. Kai flashed the group angry then jumped off the area. When he landed on the injured leg, he winced briefly, but that left him cold. "Where's Black Drancer?" He asked. Involuntarily, Riku, Ray and Tyson took a step backwards. "We don't know, you didn't have the Blade with you," Lee replied firmly. "Aha" was the only thing Kai said then he went to the middle of the courtyard and looked at the sky."What is he doing now?" Asked Max and watched the injured Blader as he searched the sky with his eyes. "Cricket?", Kai looked questioningly at the horse. This stepped up to him and shook her head while grumbling reassuringly. Kai understood and looked up at the sky again. Then his mine brightened and he made a strange loud sound that was amazingly similar to the scream of a buzzard. Lee eyed the Blade Breakers captain skeptically. "Hey wait, hasn't he done this before? When the boy took the blade off him?" Emily asked. But her question was answered shortly afterwards, for a red light shot down from the sky and uttered a happy cry. It whirled wildly around Kai, letting his hair and cloth flutter wildly while the light flipped and then landed in front of the blader with a huge gust of wind. "Silly guy!" Said Kai and brought the phoenix's head into his hands. Satisfied, Drancer babbled and gently rubbed his beak against Kai's cheek.Then he jumped back a little, reared up in front of Kai and flapped his wings violently and swirled the snow around him. "Hey, stop now, I'm glad to see you too, but turn off the air conditioning, it's getting cold," said Kai, holding his hands protectively in front of his eyes. Immediately the firebird stopped and pressed its head against Kai again, licking flames around him. Kai felt the flames warm him up and the strength returning from him. Then he opened his eyes in shock, it wasn't Drancer who warmed him up, he felt the pain subsiding and the strength in his body slowly building up again. He felt how his consciousness slowly clouded over and how he lost control of his senses. > NO


Part 8



It wasn't long before the blader arrived back at the abbey, with his fire horse he had covered the distance in less than 10 minutes. "Come on boy, you get an extra ration today," said Kai as he led him into his box and poured his food into the bowl