A new year means new inspiration and a renewed drive to bring my imagination forward for you all to see. This little two-shot is going to follow my Elsword Extended project - which will be posted on my profile soon - for you all to check out. I hope you enjoy this!

Screams rang through the trees before fading away into silence, only for more to take their place. He was running – sprinting even – as he weaved past tree trunks and steel weapons alike. He was trying to reach a particular person only a short distance away as the sounds of a slaughter resounded under the blood-red tinted night sky.

His mind was still his, though he had no control over what his desperate body did. "This again…" he sighed to himself. He had seen so many times already that he had stopped counting. It was that one night where everything he held dear was brought down in blood and fire. He knew how it played out. It was always the same: He'd run past his comrades as they bled out on the forest floor, trying to reach her.

But no matter how hard he tried, he could not get there before she was cut down by one of the many faceless soldiers that were carrying out this extermination. Only then would he finally reach her and cradle her in his arms as she slowly died, with her staring into his eyes apologetically before attempting one last word and then succumbing. And then he would stroke her slack face and cups his hand around her pointed ear t-

Wait. This wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to have pointed ears; they were supposed to be regular, round ears. The only person he knew that had ears like this was…

He shakily gazed on the woman's face and realized that is was no longer her. It was his friend, the one who reminded him so much of her.

It was Rena.

His breath quickened as a cry threatened to escape his throat. "Rena…? Why are you…? You shouldn't be here. You can't be here!" He shook her limp body in a futile attempt to wake her. "Re-!"

His breath was hitched again, this time because it was no longer Rena he was looking at.

It was her, again.

"Wha-?" he started before the face changed again. Now he was staring at Rena's slackened face.

"Ah…" His golden eyes widened in terror as he watched the dead woman in his arms shift from one to the other. The intervals between the changes soon quickened until he could no longer tell the difference between the elf and her.

"Ah…" This was not the nightmare he remembered. It was far more terrifying than watching her die again. His body shivered at the grotesque figure in his arms when suddenly the head snapped up to stare at him with blank, white eyes. A deathly moan eked from its mouth before it shakily moved its lips to speak. And it spoke only one word…

"Raven…"

Only his name, but that was enough. Terror overtook him and he fell quiet for only a moment more.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" His voice finally gaining strength, he screamed as everything suddenly went black.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" With that scream, Raven sprang up from his pillow, his eyes snapping open. He was in his room, or at least the room he picked out of the many vacant ones in the ruined inn the gang decided to make their temporary home in Velder.

His mind still in tatters from the nightmare, his eyes flicked here and there for any sign of his friend. Calm down, Raven. It was just a dream. Only a dream… he told himself, though it had little effect at the moment. Even if it wasn't real, to see his companion die in his arms was terrifying to say the least. Dark Continent, he probably would've been pretty shaken had it been any of his current friends.

But she was… a special case.

There were many reasons for that, but he did not want to think on that for now. At the moment, he was trying to at least get his breath under control. He reminded himself again and again that what he saw was not real in his mind and, like some form of self-hypnosis, he began to finally calm down.

Of course Rena was fine. There's no way she'd let herself get cut down helplessly. She'd put up a fierce fight that'd leave her opponent's regretting they dared cross her path, if not outright kick their ass; literally, in some cases. Combine her skills with her sharp elven senses, it would even be nearly impossible to get the drop on her as she sle-

As he was about to finish that thought, he realized something: He had screamed while waking from that nightmare. Loudly.

"Son of a phoru…" he quietly cursed to himself. Looking right, he stared at the wall that divided his room from the one the elf in question chose. He gazed at it long and hard, focusing his ears on any sound he could make out.

Nothing. No sounds of footsteps or the creaking of bed springs. Only the chirping of the crickets outside broke the silence of the night.

Did she not hear him?

Finally tearing his eyes away from the wall, he let himself fall back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling. Hopefully she didn't hear him, but that was a desperate wish more than anything.

He knew her. If she heard him scream, which she probably did, she would ask him about it at some point. If not tonight, it would be in the morning. And even if by some miracle she didn't hear him, she would notice if he was shaken from this nightmare.

That's how she was; always poking her nose in other's business like a naggy mother. He could still remember how long it took him to finally convince her to stop asking him why he was so uncomfortable around her after they first met. Almost six months.

"Guess we'll find out when the sun rises…" he mumbled to himself, allowing his eyes to flutter shut. As he fell under again, he prayed to the El Lady that he would not have another nightmare…

To his fortune, he had a completely dreamless night after that nightmare. Unfortunately, nightmares are always easy to remember and hard to forget.

Not that he wasn't trying to forget it, but even as he practiced his fencing he couldn't push it out of his mind. Each step he took, every crunch of gravel or grass beneath his feet reminded him of how he ran. Every practiced attack, slash, stab, smash, reminded him of how she and his comrades were cut down. And then every moment of pause was filled with Rena's slackened face.

He needed to focus harder on his training. He had to move faster. He had to strike harder.

Faster. Harder.

Faster. Harder.

FASTER. HARDER.

"Raven…?" A gentle voice shattered his concentration and his blade came to a dead stop, the steel still quietly singing. Inhaling deeply, the Blade Master composed himself for the oncoming question. Out of courtesy, he turned to face the owner of the voice.

Sure enough it was the Grand Archer, and her worried eyes betrayed her next words. "Are you okay?" she asked. He saw it coming from a mile away.

So he used his usual response. "I'm fine, Rena. Why do you ask?" The question was important to his conscious. If she said his fencing looked like something was bothering him that was one thing. But…

"Well…" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Last night…" That was all she needed to say.

She heard him scream.

Great, now he had to deal with knowing that his friend probably lost sleep over him; just what he needed to weigh on his conscious.

"Just a bad dream, that's all." He now chose to turn away from her, a silent request to end the conversation. Most of the time it worked, and she would leave him and then he'd be over it by the day's end.

However… "Raven, people, most of all you, don't scream because of just a bad dream. You of all people are not one to be scared of anything." He turned back to her to shoot her an annoyed look. She seemed even more worried than usual, and she flinched slightly at his gaze.

"Rena… please… It's fine. It will pass, just like it always does," he reassured her. He really did not want to talk about that it was the sight of her corpse in his arms that made him cry in fear. He honestly felt like he would start to break down if he did.

But she was relentless this time around. "Raven, I can count the number of times I've heard you scream like that on only one hand. And that's for the nearly two years I've known you." She was really worried.

And it annoyed him. He didn't need this. He didn't need her to know that how vulnerable he felt.

So he did something rather unlike him. "I'm surprised you kept track. Two years is nothing to an elf, isn't it?" It wasn't really an acceptance of her observation. But it was definitely a passive insult meant to shoo her away.

Her eyes widened in shock, her ears twitched upwards, and a small gasp flew from her lips. It offended her.

But she quickly composed herself before taking a couple steps towards him. "Please, Raven. I know something is wrong. Let me help you." She held a clenched hand to her chest in a small plea.

Why wouldn't she just leave him alone!? He just wanted to be left by himself so he could sort his thoughts out, not lay them to bear for her to see.

Besides, what did she know? That something was wrong? Doesn't take a genius to figure that out if they heard someone they knew scream.

She knew nothing…

NOTHING!

His face must have betrayed his angry thoughts, because she gasped again and turned her head away in shame. "I'm sorry, Raven. Forget I said anything…" She finally gave up.

"It's… fine…" he muttered just loud enough for her to hear. He didn't want her to feel bad for pestering him, but he was still annoyed. She wasn't usually this persistent, but she meant well.

Or at least that what he would normally think. But for some reason, he was not thinking that now. Right now, his thoughts consisted of plans to get away from her. He did not want to see her right now.

Every time he stole a glance at her face, he was reminded of that terrible dream of seeing Rena and her die in his arms at the same time. Losing her was hard enough. To lose Rena as well would… break him.

She was the source of his fear. And he wanted her to go away so he didn't have to feel scared anymore. It wasn't her fault by any means, but a mind traumatized will conjure any reason beyond it to justify itself.

Right now… he hated her.

"Anyways…" Almost like a ball on a string, she rebounded back to her usual optimistic self. "I heard that the refugees were putting on a small festival here in the suburbs. Let's go together," was what came out of her mouth.

Come with me so I can probe you more on your problems, was what went into Raven's ear. Even though the thought of spending the day with the archer got his blood simmering, he couldn't downright refuse her. Turning his back to the elf he answered, "I'll think about it."

It would have to do for now. He could only hope that she would take this passive evasion as a refusal. As he returned to his practice, he heard a small "Okay," before the sound of her footsteps faded away. He was now alone again, with only his fears to accompany him…

"Guess it's a good thing that eggs don't count as meat…" Elsword muttered as he set his utensils down on his empty plate.

Aisha nodded in agreement. "Yeah, at least it's protein…"

"Do you have a complaint about breakfast, Elsword, Aisha?" The Grand Archer turned to them with a dark smile that sent icy shivers up the two young adventurer's spines.

"Nope! Nothing at all!" they said in perfect unison.

"Wonderful, now please take care of the dishes." Rena beamed as she placed her clean plate into the sink and started to walk out of the room.

"Uh… What? Wait, where are you going, Rena?" Aisha asked, curious because the elf was usually the one in charge of cleaning the table.

Turning to the mage, Rena gave small, mischievous smile. "I am going out to the festival with Raven. I want to enjoy as much as I can before tomorrow." Tomorrow was the day the group would join forces with the remnants of the Velder garrison to take back the city. But that was not what was going through the two younger adventurers' minds.

Rena and Raven… Alone together…? Could it be a…? Elsword thought, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Going out together…? Is this a…? The mage's face was becoming unusually hot.

A DATE!? They finished their thoughts together, the grin finally splitting the Lord Knight's face and the Elemental Master's flaring like a torch.

Eve watched silently as her own thoughts ran through her head. Interesting… Raven is not one to accompany anyone anywhere unless it is a mission…

As the two members in question turned their backs to the three to converse, all three stared at them with the same look in their eyes.

I gotta see this!

I'm not going to stalk them! I'm just going to follow them and make sure nothing weird happens!

I must observe this event.

However, the scrutinized duo were none the wiser, because the Grand Archer was too busy beaming innocently at the Blade Master and he was glaring daggers back at her.

He never said that he wanted to go with her. He said he was going to think about it. Since when did think about it become yes I will come? This annoyed him greatly because, to him, she gave his answer for him so he couldn't refuse.

That really upset and angered him. What gave her the right to speak for him? How dare she!? He just wanted to be alone! But it was as if she insisted on being this nagging, presumptuous bitch just to satisfy her need to feel good about herself.

That was how she got off on all this. She felt the need to help others so she would feel better about herself. That's it. It was a selfish desire to feel needed. He could see right through her.

But, he still couldn't refuse in front of the others, so with simmering anger, he said, "Fine. Give me a couple minutes," he grumbled. She must have realized he wasn't happy with the outcome, because her smile turned somber. As she left for the front of the inn, he barely made out a quiet "I'm sorry…" from her lips.

Whatever. I'll tag along for an hour or two and then excuse myself, he thought to himself as he stepped into the washroom to splash a little water on his face to get rid of the persistent flecks of food stuck to it. Maybe if he at least entertained her for a bit, she would leave him alone. He would just have to put up with her for a little while, and that should serve to satisfy her enough. At least that was his hope.

Once he finished, he checked his outfit for any dirty spots or the like. As he finished, he thought Why am I even bothering to look my best? I just want to get away from her as soon as possible once we're out there… It was a bit baffling, to be honest. Where was the point in his appearance being acceptable when he did not care much for the outing in the first place? Shaking his head to clear his confusion, he stepped out to a patiently waiting elf sitting on the fence.

"Ready?" she asked as she hopped off her perch, her face beaming. He gave a silent nod and a slight grunt. Her face fell slightly, perhaps reading that he really did not want to go, but she gave a small nod regardless. "Alright, let's go then."

She turned and lead the way into the streets with a begrudging Raven in tow…

The second half is nearly finished, so you should be seeing that up within the week. This is a new update technique I am following now: I will only post updates to my stories when I am almost done with the next update. Yes it means the time between the first new update to any of my stories will take longer, but it also means that once that first update hits the rest will roll out quicker than usual. As always, constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Please Read and Review, and I hope for your support as I continue down this path of the pen. Until next time!