Frozen Hell

"You are welcome. Now...." Balo knelt down on one knee in respect. "What is thy will my master?"

Lana smiled and bent down to his level. "You don't need to kneel to me, Balo Fry. You may be my guardian, but that does not mean that I will treat you like a servant. For now, I just want you to stand up and be yourself."

Balo kept his position. "I am afraid I can't do that. As a servant, I must recognize the fact that you are my new master and as such I must show my respect to you. Besides, in your mind you are enjoying the fact that you are my master." Balo couldn't help it. This was just the ways things were done in a family of guardians.

"Maybe...just a little." Lana admitted. "But I don't want you to feel belittled because of it. I want to treat you as my equal...as you always were."

"Once again I am afraid I can't do that. You are my master and you are free to command me to do what you want but no matter what, I am the servant which must obey orders from the master."

Lana sighed. "Balo...do I have to take drastic measures? As in...no kisses for two weeks at least?"

Balo stood up. "If the master would have it that way, then so be it.........but...........I would prefer if you didn't do that."

"I thought so..." Lana said with a devious smile and looped her arms around her guardian's neck. "One more thing, I want you to stop calling me master and call me by my name. If you can follow that order, then I won't have to take away this either..."

Lana then went on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to Balo's neck on a certain special spot, smiling when she saw his reaction.

"As you wish....Lana." Balo felt more relaxed. It seems that calling Lana his master was proving to be more taxing on his mind than he previously assumed. "You still haven't told me what you are planning to do from here on."

"I...don't really know." Lana admitted and rested her head against Balo's chest, pondering. "With everything that has happened, it's a little hard to decide. What would you recommend?"

"If it were up to me....." Balo thought about it for a second "I would follow what my instincts say is right. Before this, I would follow the path I wanted to and not look back to regret what could have been. If you want to do something, do it with all your heart and never think twice about it."

"Besides I already know what you are thinking about doing." Balo couldn't help but smile.

"Oh, and do tell me what I'm thinking of, almighty guardian Balo Fry?" Lana asked teasingly, tangling her fingers into the silken strands of his hair.

"You want to stay here. You are thinking that if you leave, everyone will miss you and become saddened. You don't want that to happen. Especially to Rosalind." Balo didn't need to read her mind that she and Rosalind had become good friends.

"That and you like having to dress up for no reason in particular." Balo looked at Lana from head to toe.

"You never cease to amaze me, Balo. True, I feel as though everyone will become sad when I leave and I don't want it to happen. But you should know me by now. I never stay in one place more than a few days at the most. I'm feeling the need to go out and explore just like we did when I was a mercenary. I'll talk to Rosalind and explain everything to her."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "As for dressing up, I wasn't thinking anything of the sort... That came out of your own mind, didn't it?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Out of the corner of his eye, Balo kept looking at Lana up and down.

Lana chuckled and kissed him full on the mouth, pulling away with a smirk on her face. "Suuurrreee you don't. I guess I'll just leave you deprived until you remember what I'm talking about."

Walking back into the room, she looked over her shoulder, that smirk still on her face.

Balo gave a sigh. "You know eventually that is not going to work anymore. Plus, I don't like it when you do that." Balo followed after her.

"That's the point, love." Lana said with a small laugh, sitting back down on the couch, running her fingers through her long hair. "Don't see why it won't keep on working from here on out. Besides, you know I rarely ever use it..."

"Well then again, we live for a very long time." Balo began to float around the room in a sitting position.

"What? You didn't think I would be protecting you with the same powers I had before did you? Besides, I can do more than just this."

"Oh, really? Like what?" Lana questioned as she continued to play with her hair.

Balo was right up against Lana's face but upside down. "Are you sure you want to know? You might regret it later."

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me? You might regret it later..." Lana shot back playfully, poking the spot between his eyes. She kissed him briefly.

"Okay but I need to warn you, two out of four of these techniques you are really not going to like." Balo floated right side up. "First one" Balo's body was beginning to disappear. Suddenly, bats swarmed around Lana but not to hurt her. One landed on her shoulder and licked her cheek. Then Balo's voice was heard in the swarm. "Second" the bats burst into flames and fell to the ground. The flames concentrated into one blaze which moved into Lana's hand.

She smiled when the bat licked her cheek and the blaze flew into her hand. "What makes you think that I don't like these little tricks, love? I think they're cool." She said, stroking the fire as though it were a pet, running a finger down where the spine would be.

Balo's voice echoed through out the room. "Those are only the first two. There are two left. Now are you sure you want to do this? This may not be a pleasant experience for you."