It had been a long day. Fallan hadn't let them take a single break.
El and Kiri had just returned to the inn and El felt like she was going to collapse. Her body ached all over and her head was filled with counting timing to their dance. Although she was exhausted, she was satisfied that they had made progress today. Even now they seemed to move as one.
'We should take a shower.' Said Kiri, interrupting her thoughts. 'Do you want to go first?'
She looked down at herself; her clothes stained with dirt and sweat, and replied 'definitely.'
They made their way over to the bathroom; it was quite large which made it quite difficult for them to touch, yet they managed.
She undressed quickly; she had no trouble with only one hand after all the practice she had got.
The water was warm and soothed her sore muscles. She slowly felt the tension seep out of her body; little had she realised how tense she had been. The intensive training they were going through would make the difference between successfully getting Kiri to the headquarters safely or ending up dead on the road; that was a scary thought.
'Kiri.' She said, 'Do you think this will really help us. I mean, we haven't got much experience fighting and we're trying to learn to fight in a way that nobody has ever fought in before. We're also up against trained assassins who have had years of experience in fighting, and even killing...' Her voice trailed off.
She had no reply.
'Sorry,' she added, flustered, 'Ignore what I said.'
She felt her hand be squeezed lightly in reassurance. 'Don't worry about it; we've already dealt with the Gazelles before and that was without any practice at all. We're still alive and with this training we will be even more formidable opponents. It will be the Gazelles who are scared of us soon!'
She felt comforted by his words; he had always been able to console her when she started to worry.
'Thanks Kiri.' She whispered.
After their showers Kiri set up the divider and they both quickly drifted into sleep.
El had been having troubled dreams ever since the destruction of the Falzen, much to the annoyance of Kiri, who ended up with even more bruises. However, tonight's dream was particularly bad.
She was paralysed, slowly fading away into nothing. In front of her was Andy, blood seeping from a horrible gash in her stomach. Spread around her was the bodies of the rest of the Falzen; with them were Fallan and Sui who were both fighting losing battles. Kiri was not by her side…
Where was Kiri?
Panic shot through her as she realised that she couldn't see him. Panic soon turned to dread as she caught sight of him on the ground being crushed to death under some sort of dark entity. She tried to scream, to reach out for him, to help him, but her arms hung limply by her sides.
She looked into his eyes as the life drained out of them, and screamed.
She awoke with a start, the hideous laughter of his murderer still ringing in her ears. She moved the barrier to the side to check and see if she had woken Kiri up. He still slept soundly, a result of her restless sleeping.
Leaning over, she said in a shaky voice 'Always stay by my side.'