Nightmarish Reality
Prologue
By Lady Strata
"Arrow shockwave!"
Rowen looked around him at the Dynasty soldiers lying, unmoving, on the ground. Then he collapsed.
He had just finished punching a soldier in the face when a whole other group had attacked with a viciousness that had surprised him. The new group of soldiers had wasted no time in beating the shit out of him. They had been beating Rowen so badly and so quickly, he couldn't fight back at all.
But in the middle of the attack, there had been a brief few seconds where he could actually move and try to defend himself. Rowen had taken advantage of the few seconds he had, and had done the arrow shockwave, surprised at how powerful it had been. He didn't think one attack could destroy so many Dynasty soldiers, and ones this strong, at that.
Rowen lay on his back on the ground, breathing hard and groaning. Those damn Dynasty jerks had really done a number on him, especially to his uncovered face, which was covered with blood and bruises.
Of course, it wasn't just his face that hurt. His entire body throbbed. His armor had protected him somewhat, but it still hadn't prevented him from receiving some serious injuries. At least one of his ribs was broken, and Rowen found that he couldn't move his left arm.
He groaned again, trying to summon up enough strength to get up and find the other Ronin Warriors. Where were the other Ronins, anyway? The last time he had seen them was just before the group of Dynasty soldiers had attacked him. Rowen turned his head to the side, wincing painfully, trying to see where his friends were.
"Guys!"
Rowen grit his teeth together and clapped his right hand over the sudden pain in his chest that had come from calling out. He tried to ignore the pain, and called for his friends again.
"Guys, where are you?" He coughed. "I need help."
There was no answer. No one was around to hear him.
"Shit," Rowen muttered, trying to get up. He cried out softly when he fell back to the ground. He had no choice. He had to get up and find help on his own.
Rowen rolled over onto his stomach, then slowly pushed himself onto his hands and knees. It hurt, but he didn't care. He had to find his friends.
Rowen crawled over to a tree, and holding onto it, very slowly stood up. He got his balance, then took a cautious step forward. Fortunately, he didn't fall over. Rowen let go of the tree and moved his other foot forward. He nearly fell over this time. He reached back for the tree so he could steady himself, then tried walking again. His right ankle was definitely sprained. Or something like that.
He started walking slowly, with a heavy limp because he favored his right ankle. After walking for half an hour, he stopped and looked around him. He hadn't gotten far because of his injuries, but you'd think he would have seen someone after half an hour.
Rowen took a deep breath.
"Guys!" he yelled. "Tell me where you are!"
But no one answered. Rowen was starting to get worried. How could they have disappeared during the attack on himself? To Rowen the attack had seemed to last forever, but in reality it hadn't lasted that long. It was strange that he hadn't even found some sign of where they were. A weapon, or...
Rowen shook his head, and started walking again. It wasn't going to do any good to just stand there and think about where the hell they were. He had to keep walking and calling out. He was sure he would find something sooner or later. Wouldn't he?
One hour later, Rowen still hadn't found his friends. But what really bothered him was the fact that he hadn't found anyone at all. Someone had to be around somewhere, didn't they?
"Sage!"
Rowen called out the name of his best friend, hoping, praying that he would answer.
"Kento!"
Rowen called out the name of one of his other friends, but to no avail.
"Ryo!"
The leader of the Ronin Warriors gave no answer to Rowen's worried call.
"Cye!"
No answer.
"Dammit, where the hell are they?" Rowen asked himself. "It's been a whole fucking hour and a half, and I haven't seen anyone. This is just too weird."
But he pressed on, determined to find an answer.
Rowen staggered painfully up a hill. The two hours searching and his many injuries were beginning to take their toll on him. He considered it amazing that was still able to walk, considering how badly he was hurt.
He was ready to collapse, and he was breathing hard. He knew that he was going to be unable to do anything very soon, and he wanted to find something before that happened.
"Oh god, kill me now," Rowen moaned as he reached the top of the hill. His pain and exhaustion were almost unbearable. He slowly walked down the hill, too absorbed in his own troubles to notice anything. It wasn't until he got to the bottom of the hill did he notice the horrible scene in front of him.
"No..."
Before him was the scene of a battle. Bodies littered the ground. There was blood everywhere. Most of the bodies were of Dynasty soldiers. But it was the three bodies in front of Rowen that caught his attention.
"NO!"
Rowen hurled himself to the ground and began to cry. The bloody bodies of Ryo, Kento, and Cye lay in front of him.
"I'm too late," Rowen sobbed. "Oh shit, I'm too late. I could have helped them. But now they're gone. All three of them..."
Rowen put his face in his hands and began crying even harder. But suddenly he jerked his head up and a thought came to him. Why were there only three Ronin Warriors in front of him. Where was Sage?
"Sage...SAGE! WHERE ARE YOU?"
Rowen pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain. He had to find his best friend. He had to.
"SAGE!"
Rowen limped as fast as he could across the battlefield, calling out Sage's name. Fear held his heart in an iron grip. He felt like he was about to vomit. Tears were streaming down his face.
"DIE, RONIN!"
Rowen looked around frantically. But whoever was yelling wasn't yelling to him. They were yelling to...
"Sage!"
Rowen limped toward the battle between the Warrior of Wisdom and the Warlord of Darkness. Both were badly hurt.
"Sage, you're alive! Thank god!"
Sage looked toward Rowen, surprised to see him.
"Rowen-"
"Sage, look out!"
Sage looked just in time to see Cale swing his sword right into his stomach. Sage screamed with agony as Cale pulled the sword out, laughing evilly.
"NO!"
Rowen limped toward Cale, ready to tear him apart what he had done to Sage.
Cale laughed and knocked Rowen to the ground.
"I may be hurt, but I'm still strong enough to take care of you, you pathetic Ronin weakling!"
"You killed my best friend, you bastard!" Rowen screamed with rage. "I'll get you for this!"
"Not very likely, in your condition."
Cale raised his sword above the fallen warrior, ready to plunge it into Rowen's heart. But surprisingly, he lowered it instead.
"You know, instead of killing you, I think I'll leave you here and let you think about how you killed your friends. If you hadn't been stupid enough to let yourself get attacked, you would have been here to defend them. I didn't kill your best friend, you did!"
"No, no I didn't! I swear I didn't!"
Cale laughed and disappeared, to report to Talpa what he had done.
The Warrior of Life lay sobbing on the ground. He knew in his heart that Cale was right. It was his fault that his friends were dead. All his fault...
Nightmarish Reality
Chapter 1 - Just a Dream?
Rowen sat straight up in bed, breathing hard. He put his hand to his chest and thought that his heart would beat right through his ribcage.
"It...it was just a dream."
He found that he was sweating, and nervously ran a hand through his blue hair. The dream had seemed so real. Rowen gulped, trying to calm himself down.
The door opened and Sage walked in.
"Hey, you're up, Ro! We're all going into town, and I thought I'd see if you were awake so I could tell you-"
He broke off when he realized that Rowen wasn't listening to him.
"Rowen?" He came over and sat on the edge of Rowen's bed. "Are you all right?"
"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Could've fooled me."
Rowen debated about whether or not to tell Sage about his dream. Sage was his best friend, and he told him everything. But now he would probably take Rowen's dream too seriously, and insist that it foretold the future. Rowen wanted to forget his horrible nightmare, and decided to keep his mouth shut.
"What about going into town?" Rowen asked.
Sage sighed.
"You're going into town, right?" Rowen persisted.
"Yes, we're going into town." He gave his friend a hard look. "Rowen, I know there's something you're not telling me."
"No, there's nothing-nothing at all."
Sage got up.
"Well," he said, moving towards the door. "I'll talk to you when I get back. In the meantime, take it easy."
"Geez, Sage, I'm not sick or anything."
"Rowen, I've never seen so look so scared. Something's bothering you."
Duh, Rowen thought.
"We should be back in about an hour." Sage gave his best friend one last concerned look, then walked out, shutting the door behind him.
"Okay, Sage, we need to get milk, eggs, cheese, apples, ham, and some orange juice. The others will handle their parts of the list," Mia said, tucking a grocery list into her purse.
Sage was leaning against the cart, staring into space, saying nothing.
"Sage?" He turned to look at her, but still didn't say anything.
"I'll get the milk," he said, starting to walk away.
"Sage, wait."
He stopped.
"You haven't said one word since we came into town. Is something wrong?"
"It's-," he started to say, then stopped. He turned away. "Nothing."
"Sage, tell me, please."
"I'm worried about Rowen."
"Rowen?"
"Yeah. When I went up to see if he was awake, he was, but he looked so scared. I don't know if he knew it, but he was sweating. I tried to get him to tell me what was wrong, but he clammed up."
"What do you think it is?"
"I don't know. I can't think of anything that would scare him like that." He lowered his voice. "You-you don't think the Dynasty had anything to do with it, do you?"
"Sage, get a grip! You're usually so calm. Rowen will tell you eventually. He's your best friend. Just give him time."
"You're right, Mia. It's just that I wish I knew what was going on."
"Hey guys, come on! There's food to be eaten!"
Sage laughed. "Coming, Kento."
When Sage, Ryo, Kento, Cye, Mia, Yuli, and White Blaze had returned from town, Rowen had come out of the house smiling, giving no indication that anything was wrong. He had helped them carry the groceries into the house, and began talking to Ryo as if the dream had never happened.
After eating the delicious lunch that Cye had prepared, Sage approached Ryo.
"Ryo, Rowen didn't seem...scared when he was talking to you, did he?"
"Scared?" Ryo gave Sage an odd look. "No, why should he have been?"
"When I went to talk to him this morning, he was scared of something. I don't know what-but I've never seen him look so scared."
"Look, Sage, I'm sure he's fine. He probably just had a bad dream."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Come on, come on!" Kento leaned closer to the TV, gripping his controller tightly. He and Cye were playing Wipeout 3 on their Sony Playstation, and so far Cye was kicking his ass.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kento screamed, throwing his controller down and burying his head in his hands in exasperation.
"Yes!" Cye said, pumping a fist in the air.
Cye had just finished the race in first place, and Kento's car had exploded.
"You won Cye, you won!" Yuli cried, jumping up and down with excitement.
Cye laughed. "Yep, Yuli, I sure did."
"It was just beginner's luck!" Kento said.
Ryo laughed. "Oh, come on, Kento, don't be a sore loser."
"I'M NOT BEING A SORE LOSER!"
"Admit it, Kento," Cye said, grinning like a maniac. "I can whoop your sorry bum any day of the week."
"Yeah, well, let's just see you do that again, Brit boy!"
Soon, Kento and Cye were racing again. Yuli jumped up and down, yelling,"Go, Cye, go!"
Mia headed into the kitchen, smiling. She opened the refrigerator door, getting out a jug of milk. She opened a cupboard and got out a glass.
"Mia?"
She looked up.
"Oh, Rowen, it's you." She held up her glass of milk. "Want some?"
"No thanks." He shuffled his feet, looking uncomfortable.
"Rowen, is something-"
"Mia, I need to tell you something." Rowen turned bright red, trying to think of the right way to explain the dream he had had.
Mia looked at him, waiting patiently for him to say something.
Rowen swallowed, suddenly realizing that he didn't want to tell her about his dream.
"Are you okay?"
"Um, no. I-I changed my mind. It's nothing, really."
He walked out of the room.
Mia just stared at the space where he had stood just seconds earlier.
From the next room, there came the sounds of an explosion and Kento's cry of defeat. Cye laughed wildly.
"Just beginner's luck, eh?"
At 4 a.m., Sage woke up. He looked across the room, and saw Rowen sound asleep. Sage sat up and stared at his friend. The only sounds in the room were of Rowen's slow, even breathing.
Sage wondered what his friend was dreaming. Another nightmare? Even though Rowen hadn't said anything, Sage had come to the conclusion that he had had a nightmare. What else could it be?
Sage lay back on his pillow and stared at the ceiling. He tried not to think about Rowen, but he couldn't help it. Why had he looked so scared? Sage had asked himself the question a million times, and he was getting sick of it. But he wanted an answer. He needed an answer.
Sage rolled over onto his stomach, trying to think of something else. But it was no use. He was just too concerned about Rowen.
Finally Sage got out of bed. He opened the door to the room he shared with Rowen, and stepped out into the hall. He quietly shut the door behind him.
Sage wandered downstairs into the kitchen. He got a glass out of the cupboard, filling it with water. Sage brought the glass to his lips.
At that precise moment, Rowen's bloodcurdling scream shattered the silence.