"Well, young Miss Shera, I surely doubt good Lady Maki would call me friend.  Not yet, perhaps."  He glanced to her with another warm smile, not meaning to offend before looking down at the Dragon Princess, "I think perhaps it will take a bit more time to earn her friendship, though I promise to try."  He nodded understandingly at Shera's hints as to the cause of Maki's icy mask, and then he offered the young girl another soft smile, "Great evils beset the world, and no answer can be found 'till I meet these challenges.  I shall face each test, and should my mettle prove enough, overcome them."<br/><br/>He was confident he would succeed; he couldn't allow himself to fail.  Failure could well mean the deaths of everyone throughout the world, as the ice spread further south and eventually starved the land.  If, of course, he was on the correct path.