Disclaimer: If I owned Ronin Warriors I would be rich and would not have collection agencies calling me, so I don't. All I own is a Saturn LS-1 because 'sniff' TwoTone broke 'waaaaaaawaaaaaaa'. For those of you reading "A place to call home" expect an update sometime this week.
The Little Girl
Sage sighed, looking up at the ceiling where Rowan had gone crazy with the glow in the dark stars. The blue haired archer had insisted on creating the entire universe on the ceiling. Thankfully Mia had restricted him to two packs or else everything would be covered in the stickers.
/Speaking of Mia/ Sage thought to himself the blonde swordsman had been thinking about their caretaker a lot recently. She knew everything there was to know about him and the guys but they knew next to nothing about her. He had been getting waves of terror from her and he wasn't so sure it was because of the threat of Talpa coming back. The brunette young woman had been working almost non-stop on trying to gather as much information on the White Armor as she could. They would often find her asleep at her computer, dinner untouched beside her, and would have to carry her to bed. She rarely came down for breakfast and would often skip lunch. Even Kento was beginning to worry about her. She was pushing herself too hard and the sleep she did get would leave her shaking from nightmares.
She would never admit having them, but Sage could always feel her sheer terror when they started. He tried to help her by asking about them, but she just told him that she was fine and that he must be imagining things with everything going on. And so he was stuck with feeling helpless every time she had them.
He gave up trying to sleep; he was just too wound up. He got up and went to the computer room to see if Mia had found anything. It was close to sunrise but there would be no sun today, it was raining and it was freezing. He knocked on the door; hearing no answer he opened it thinking she must have fallen asleep. She wasn't there. /Ok/ he thought to himself/she must have finally went to bed on her own/. He walked to her bedroom and slowly opened the door to check on her. Her bed was empty. Sage quickly walked downstairs to see if she was there. No Mia. Now he was worried. Where could she be?
Mia stretched in her chair, she was so tired but she didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to dream. She knew Sage was worried about her and she felt guilty about lying to him about the nightmares, but she felt that he should only concentrate on himself and the guys and not worry about something as personal to her as this. She didn't want them to know and she didn't want their pity, they had enough to worry about.
She yawned again; she was so tired and frustrated. They needed this information, but she just couldn't concentrate. She looked outside, it was still raining. She remembered when she first came here to live. How she couldn't sleep night after night. How her grandfather tried to help her by trying to get her to talk about it, but it was just too soon. He finally made the suggestion that she start running when she felt like this, it would at least tire her out enough to sleep. Maybe even keep the nightmares away. So she did and it worked. She used to go jogging every night to wear herself down to enough to sleep without the nightmares until she didn't need to anymore. /That's what I'll do/ she thought to herself/a little rain won't bother me and I know these trails well enough that I don't need any light./. She got up and went to her room quietly and changed into her jogging pants and sweatshirt. She grabbed her walkman on the way out of her room and tiptoed out the front door and quietly shut it behind her.
She waited until she got far enough away to turn on her walkman. It was cold and she shivered as she hit the trail at an even pace. She thought about turning back since it was so cold /but/ she thought to herself /I've been a lot colder than this/ and she continued on. Soon she noticed it was easier to see the trail, but there was something wrong. Even though everything was lighter, things looked blurry. There were dark spots on the edge of her vision, like she was going through a tunnel. Her body felt so heavy and each step took more effort. Then everything went dark as she fell to the ground. And still it rained.
To say the guys were frantic would be the understatement of the year. They were beyond frantic. Sage woke them up telling them that Mia was missing. They spread out across her property to find her, White Blaze keeping a bawling Yulie company. They called her name for over an hour, Cye even went so far as to don his armor and searched the lake to see if she had fallen in. No luck. They met back at the house to discuss their next move. "I bet the dynasty kidnapped her!" shouted Kento angry at the very idea that they would even dare try to hurt his big sister. "No Kento if it were the dynasty we would've felt 'em." Rowan stated deep in thought as to where Mia might have gone. "Isn't there trails or something around here?" Rowan asked Sage since he was always going into the forest to meditate. "Yeah but I don't think she would have gone down the in this weather" Sage said. "Well we've tried everything else so let's go." Ryo said running towards the forest.
They ran, their subarmor giving them more speed. Through the mud and the rain they continued on. The weather was getting colder, soon it would snow. Sage led them on; he had been down this trail many times before and had found it to the most peaceful place he had been in a long time. Suddenly, up ahead, he saw something lying on the ground. He shot forward "MIA!" he screamed as he slid by her and picked her shoulders off the ground. The guys came to a stop by them and looked on in concern as he checked her over. "Sage is she ok? Is she alive?" were the questions they all asked him. Sage put his fingers to the side of her neck, she was so cold. He finally felt it, a weak, barely there but there pulse. "She's alive let's get her back to the house" he said picking her up and heading back down the trail.
Once inside, he gently laid her down on the couch. She was soaked to the bone so Ryo got some extra blankets and wrapped her up in them. "Is she going to be ok?" Cye asked Sage as he checked her over for injuries. "She should be. She does have hypothermia so we should keep her warm." Sage said to the others as he straitened back up. On the couch Mia stirred and opened her eyes. She went to say something but Sage just sh'dd her and put her into a healing sleep. "She's exhausted, if she doesn't sleep she will just get worse." he said as he picked her up from the couch and carried her to her room. "I will stay with her tonight." he told the guys as he walked up the stairs with her in his arms. "I'll send you some dinner up when it's ready." Cye said as he headed into the kitchen.
So….whadday think? Horrible? Crummy? Hate me because I haven't revealed her deep dark secret? I will….soon….so be patient ;-).