LOADING...RETURN TO FURYA

DATA ENTRY: THE GREAT LECTURE

LOG 004-12/03/2514

"The Rock's ship isn't due to arrive for a few days yet, so we've got some time to kill," Aereon said as Riddick guided The Piece of Shit down through the first few layers of Coromander Five's thick, cloudy atmosphere.

Riddick gave the girl an appreciative glance as she slid into the copilot's seat next to him, and raised a brow at her attire. Instead of the all-black combat-ready outfit she'd been wearing, she was now sporting a simple white tank-top, and loose white pants tucked into knee-high black boots. A short black corset hugged her slender waist, fastened with six double-breasted white buttons. Not only that, but she'd scrubbed her snowy hair until it gleamed in the light, and if he wasn't mistaken she was actually wearing a light layer of make-up.

"You clean up nice," he leered at her.

"Mind you don't hit any trees on your way down," Aereon replied breezily.

Riddick snorted, and glanced down through the ship's plexiglass blast-shield at the planet below, overgrown with lush vegetation and wild mountain ranges rising out of the foggy earth like wolf's teeth. In the far distance, sitting nearly on the horizon, he could just see the tell-tale glitter of civilization - the glint of steel and glass beneath the twin suns. Coromander Five, along with six other (uninhabitable) planets, orbited a binary star system. The first was a red giant, known in these parts as the Ruby of the Sky, which held in it's gravitational hold a much smaller, yellow star called Golden Fire.

Coromander was positioned at just the right distance from these two stars to support an abundance of life, as well as some of the most spectacular sunsets in the entire system. It was also one of the few inhabited planets that had, thus far, been untouched by the Necromonger horde. Given how quickly they were spreading, though, Riddick doubted that peace would last for much longer.

"Why'd you wanna set down so far from the city?" Riddick asked as he brought the ship in closer, searching for a place to land. The jungle below was dense and uncooperative - but he was an excellent pilot.

Aereon pointed towards one of the mountains rising up in front of them, its peak towering over all the rest.

"That's Mt. Soren, known to the locals as the Throat of the World," she explained. "You can't see it from here, but there's an ancient temple built near the top of the peak. That's our first stop."

"And what do you want with some old temple?" Riddick cocked a brow. "Thought we were here to find some Mercs. They ain't much for prayin'...well, at least not until they've met me."

"Oh?" Aereon said, with an amused glance. "From what I've heard, you don't give them time for anything, much less a prayer."

Riddick barked out a laugh, grinning wolfishly.

"What can I say?" he said. "I work fast. But for you..." His deep baritone dropped into a low growl as he suddenly leaned down into her space, watching in satisfaction as she stiffened and the pulse in her pretty throat began to beat double-time. "I'd have you callin' for God all night."

Aereon took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and silently prayed to the Eight Divines for patience...and fortitude. To her ever-growing annoyance - not to mention increasing alarm - her body had not settled down as she'd predicted it would. Even after three straight weeks in Riddick's presence, her heart still tripped whenever he got near, her skin prickled with goosebumps, and the pulse between her legs seemed to pound like a drum. Cold showers did very little to help, but she didn't dare do anything more to relieve the pressure, not with the man right across the hall and his damnable sense of smell. If he decided to barge into her room while she was in the middle of doing...that...she wasn't sure she'd be capable of resisting him.

And resist him she must, she reminded herself doggedly, for what had to be the thousandth time.

The consequences of not doing so would be disastrous.

"Do you sit around thinking up corny lines like that, or do you just come up with them on the fly?" she sniped testily, once she was sure she'd gotten herself under control.

Riddick just grinned, and leaned back in his seat with an infuriatingly smug look stamped across his stupid face.

"So, what are we doin' here?" he asked conversationally.

"There's a matter I need some assistance with, and I believe the monks here can help me," Aereon replied primly.

"Sister, the problem you got ain't gonna go away with meditation," Riddick leered. "But anytime ya wanna pull that stick outta yer ass, I'd be more than willin' to help..."

"If my sources are correct, and they usually are, there ought to be a Dragon Master residing in the temple," she continued, as if he hadn't spoken. Acknowledging his barbs seemed to just egg him on, so she simply refused to take the bait. Riddick just smirked knowingly and shook his head as he came in for a landing in a small meadow about halfway up the mountain.

"What's a Dragon Master?" he wanted to know as he set the ship down with a soft thud, and reached up to switch off the warp engine and power couplings.

"After my ancestors left Karn, they eventually settled on a planet they called Astrea," she replied as they made to disembark, easily falling into what Riddick had dubbed as her Lecture-Mod. "My home world. This is where they first encountered the dragonkin, and from them learned how to bend the Elements to their will. A Dragon Master is someone who has learned control of all four Elements."

"Dragons? Seriously?" Riddick said, looking intrigued.

"Oh, yes," Aereon said, smiling softly at a distant memory. "Some of them actually looked like those old Terran myths, but they came in all shapes and sizes. They used to fill the skies in the old days, back when my great-grandmother was still a little girl, but my people hunted them to near extinction. It's by drinking their blood that we gain the ability to control the Elements in the first place, you see. We were trying to bring the dragons back, but..." Her smile fell away, and a saddened shadow passed through her silver-gray eyes. "Not anymore. When the Necromongers came, they killed the last of them, and burned the remaining nests. They're all gone now."

"Why?" Riddick asked, frowning at the way his heart was twisting at the sorrow in her soft, faraway gaze. It made him want to do something stupid - like pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless. The rational part of his brain reminded him he'd probably get his face scratched off if he tried it. The animal part of his brain snarled something extremely vulgar in response, and pressed against the bars of the cage he'd locked it into, desperately wanting out.

Riddick clenched his jaw, and took a slow, steadying breath of Coromander's humid mountain air. The aromatic scent of exotic fruit and flowers filled his lungs, underscored with the thick smell of rotting vegetation, and the musk of thousands of jungle-dwelling beasts.

Inwardly, he was very glad to finally get out of the ship. The sweet scent of Aereon's needy musk had pervaded the whole craft, and it had been slowly driving him crazy, until it was all he could do not to throw her up against a wall and make her scream. Repeatedly.

Unfortunately, even he had standards, and he refused to take a woman that wasn't willing. Not that he wasn't above a little coercion in that regard, but this particular woman had an infuriatingly iron will that astounded even him at times. Somehow, it was as alluring as it was frustrating, and he found that the harder she pushed him away, the more he wanted her.

"Well, with the dragons gone, there would be no more Elementals," Aereon sighed. "We caused the Necromongers too much trouble, in the end. I'm one of the last of my kind now, and most of us were scattered to the stars after Astrea was ravaged by the Horde. There are only a handful of the old Masters left, and with luck we'll find one of them here. See, with each regeneration, my people gain the ability to bend a new Element. But they don't come naturally. They have to be learned, and it's very dangerous to unlock them without guidance, especially if you don't know what you're doing."

Riddick blinked in surprise, and tilted his head towards Aereon with interest.

"So, which Element will you be able to control?" he asked.

"Everyone attains each Element in the same order," Aereon answered. "First comes Air, then Fire in the second life, Water in the third, and finally Earth in the fourth. This is why it's customary for Elementals to wear clothing that befit their current status, to let others know where they stand. All gray indicates a first-lifer who hasn't learned Air-bending yet, while all white shows their mastery of the Element. Wearing black and white, as I am, indicates that I'm on my second life, but haven't harnessed Fire yet. The addition of something red will show that I have. A gray sash will show I've reached by third life, which will be replaced by something blue once I've attained Water-bending. Finally, a green sash will show I've reached my final life, and I'll replace that with something gold once I've mastered Earth."

"What's all black mean?" Riddick asked curiously, inwardly very glad he didn't have to adhere to such a strict dress-code.

"Mourning, usually," Aereon replied casually. "But I was using it to hide."

"So, how do you...unlock each Element?"

"Air is drawn from the breath of the lungs, which feeds the Fire in the heart, which is fueled by Water in the blood, which runs through the Earth of the flesh," Aereon recited dutifully, as if reading from a text. "In order to fully master all of the Elements, one must first master their body. In order to fully master the body, one must first open the Seven Gates."

"Seven Gates?" Riddick said, a little surprised to find he was so interested in Aereon's culture, or that Aereon was so willing to share it with him. Then again, he'd always been curious, and Elementals were typically a very secretive species, their ways veiled in mysticism and superstition. Besides, the fact that Aereon would talk about it so candidly with him had to be a point in his favor.

"Have you ever heard of Chi?" Aereon asked as they picked their way along a narrow mountain trail that seemed to be wending its meandering way towards the distant summit. "It is the life energy that animates all living things. This energy is controlled through a number of chakra points located throughout the body, corresponding to the nerve centers that branch out from the spine. These are known as the Seven Gates. By opening these Gates, we can increase the amount of energy that flows through our bodies, which gives Elementals their bending abilities. Of course, it takes years of meditation and study just to learn how to open one, but the more you can access the more powerful you can become."

As they walked, Aereon began ticking each Gate off on her fingers, in full-on Lecture-Mode now. He knew she wouldn't stop unless he did or said something drastic, and wordlessly fell in step beside her, listening intently despite the look of mild disinterest on his face.

"The first is the Gate of Opening, called Muladhara, located at the base of the spine. The nerve center here is what operates the lower extremities," Aereon explained. "About two vertebrae above that is the second, the Gate of Healing, Swadisthana, which operates the reproductive system. The third is the Gate of Life, Manipura, which operates the digestive system. The Fourth is the Gate of Pain, Anahata, which operates the heart, lungs and arms. The fifth is the Gate of Limit, Vishudha, which operates the esophagus and vocal chords. The sixth is the Gate of View, Ajna, located at the base of the skull - just behind the Third Eye - and is the center through which Chi feeds the entire body. Finally, the seventh is the Gate of Wonder, Sahasrara, located at the top of the head. This is traditionally known as the Crown Chakra, the thousand-petal lotus, and it is the point through which cosmic energy enters the body and becomes Chi."

Aereon glanced sidelong at Riddick with the edge of a playful smile.

"Did you get all that?" she asked. "I do hope you were taking notes, there's going to be a test later."

Riddick stopped and cocked a brow, giving her one of those long, blank stares that always got under the skin of every Merc he'd ever met. Aereon just chuckled and shook her head in amusement.

"Sounds complicated," he finally grunted. "Just gimme a shiv any day."

"That's nothing, I haven't even gotten into the Levels of Mastery yet," Aereon laughed. "There's at least three for each Element: Attuning, Controlling, and Becoming. And you have to master at least the first two before moving on to a new Element, no matter what life you're on."

"So how many Gates have you opened so far?"

"Three," Aereon replied proudly.

"Overachiever," Riddick said bluntly.

"That's not even the half of it," Aereon smirked, not the least bit phased. "Most people start at the base of the spine, but I started at the top of the head, with the Gate of Wonder, and went in reverse order so I could become a Seer. However, I'm...having some difficulty with the fourth Gate. I'm hoping the Dragon Master can help me overcome it, as well as give me some instruction of how to control my new Element."

"The Gate of Pain," Riddick said after a moment of thought, with a curious tilt of his head.

"Oh, so you were paying attention," Aereon said happily, making his stomach flip over at the bright smile she gave him. "You get a gold star."

"So, why can't you get past that Gate?" Riddick persisted, refusing to be distracted. He wasn't sure what it was, but he could tell something wasn't quite right. "You jumped in front of an assassin's blade, so I know you ain't afraid of gettin' hurt."

Aereon's smile faded, and she gave him an inscrutable look over her shoulder, before pressing on through the underbrush without an answer.

"You said...it was connected to the heart," he continued, slowly putting the pieces together. "So...emotional pain, then. Something happened."

"My planet was burned," Aereon replied quietly, her gray eyes downcast.

"...It's more than that," Riddick shook his head, watching her closely through his goggles. "You...you lost someone. That's why you're so afraid of lettin' anybody get close."

Aereon huffed out a breath in exasperation, and rolled her eyes at him.

"Just because I don't want to sleep with you, doesn't mean I'm afraid of letting anyone in," she replied tartly, though he noticed she didn't quite meet his gaze. "I mean, did it ever occur to you that maybe you're just not my type?"

Riddick snorted.

"Maybe not," he drawled, and unexpectedly threw an arm around her slender shoulders, drawing her tightly against his side. "But you're still attracted to me," he smirked down at her.

"In your dreams," Aereon muttered with a goodnatured roll of her eyes.

But she didn't ghost away from him.

I'm back!

Lots of exposition in this chapter, sorry about that. Aereon went full school-teacher mode and I couldn't stop her. I dunno, maybe all that stuff I mostly just made up was interesting to someone. But I wanted to get all the explaining out of the way before we got to the Dragon Master, and I felt this was a good stopping point. It should pick up in the next chapter - I'm thinking Katara vs. the Water-bending teacher from Avatar.

As for all the Elemental bending stuff, I was mostly inspired by Avatar: Last Airbender, but the Gates were a slight mix of Naruto and my own research of chakra points.

Anyway, leave a review if you're enjoying this story, and lemme know what you think.