True Nightmares, True Love
Discovery
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I do not own Breath of
Fire 2 or its characters.
My apologies for
taking so long to put the next chapter up. I had other things going on. And my
thanks to those who patiently waited for this.
Chapter 2
Nina
stirred in her sleep, trying to find a spot on her pillow which didn’t cause
her head excruciating pain. Eventually it caused her to fully awaken, and
suddenly the pain tripled in level. The tiny bit of light that shone on her
face wasn’t helping much, as it was shining right into her open eyes and her
head felt like it was going to explode.
After what
felt like hours, but in truth was only two minutes, Nina finally was able to
sit up. After another five minutes, she was able to stand and stagger to the
door. In the process of opening it, she was somehow able to hit her head with
the door.
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Nice
one, Nina she thought. Not only do
you manage to get incredibly sick, now you just gave yourself a bruise right in
the middle of your forehead. He is probably going to laugh at you again. She
wasn’t sure if it was because she was sick or the thought of him, but she could
feel her cheeks growing hot. All this time, and she still hadn’t told him…
Nina shook
the thoughts away as she reached the stairs; Not because she wanted to, but
because she was trying to remember when the stairs twisted and turned like the
way they were now.
“No way!”
shouted Katt. “How wasted did he think I was?!” She was addressing this
question to Bow who was seated across from her. Unfortunately this was a
mistake. And Bow wasn’t going to let this chance slip by.
“That
depends,” he started. “How many kegs
did you drink by yourself?”
“I
DIDN’T!!” Katt practically screeched. “Why Do you keep…?!”
“Uh,
actually Katt,” called
“You had more than I did, and I have to use those kegs as a cup.” Bow broke out
into a hearty laugh as Katt started blushing and sputtering on the spot. But
before she could throw out a comeback, Nina staggered into the room and over to
the table, muttering “Please don’t shout.”
Even Bow
stopped laughing when he saw his winged teammate. Her eyes were hooded, and for
some reason she was covered in bruises. They all looked small, except the one
in the middle of her forehead. And for some reason, it looked like she was
having trouble staying awake. Catching their stunned faces, Nina said, “I do
not feel well. I think I am sick.”
“Actually,
Nina,” said
room. “You, uh, kinda had too much to drink. Ryu had to carry you back to your
room.” He shook his head when she gave him a horrified look. “No, nothing
happened to you. You… just passed out after your second cup.” He decided not to
tell her about the men in the bar and the way they had been looking at her
unconscious form. They hadn’t been able to do anything to her though; Ryu had
made sure of that.
the fact that he had finally been able to get the men’s’ bleeding to stop could
also be considered good news. He guessed. He set down a bowl of porridge in front
of her.
Katt
decided to change the subject. “So how did you get those bruises?” she asked.
Nina just shook her head.
“I just hit
my head with the door.” She replied. She lowered her face and stared at the
bowl in front of her. “And then I… well… fell down the stairs. She closed her
eyes and started counting. One…two…three…
Sure
enough, the other three burst into laughter. After they had calmed down (well,
except Bow who was still chuckling) Nina said “The porridge seems… strange.”
“Strange?”
asked
eyes. “How?”
“It looks
like it is moving”
Silence
fell on the room. Bow shook his head. “Okay. That’s just too weird for my
taste. But anyways, where’s Ryu?”
“Probably
still asleep,” replied Katt. “Maybe catching up on lost time.
He didn’t sleep all that much when we were traveling, remember? Most of the
time he just…” She was interrupted as a loud
crack sounded. Three heads turned towards Nina, who had slammed her spoon
so hard into the bottom of the bowl, the whole thing had split in two.
Nina
lifted her gaze to the others and said in a dreamy voice, “It has stopped
moving. I have killed it”
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Stupid, stupid, stupid! Nina scolded
herself a couple hours later. She was starting
to feel better, and was walking towards Ryu’s room.
She was also berating herself harshly. Since Ryu hadn’t gotten up yet, she had
taken it upon herself to go get him. As she reached his door, she paused a
moment to catch her breath.
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>You are just waking him up. You are not
doing anything else. She thought to herself. style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Just calm. Down. But even though she tried, her heart started to race and she
suddenly found herself picturing his blue hair, his small but kind smile. His
broad chest and shoulders…
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Stop it! Just do what you need to do! Feeling
her cheeks burning, she opened the door. “Ryu it is
time to get up…” She stopped dead in her tracks. She took in the open window,
the curtains fluttering lazily in the breeze, The bed,
with the sheets thrown down to the end of the bed. It had obviously been slept class=GramE>In, but it’s occupant was not there.
Ryu was
gone.