"Elias!" She shivered as she felt a cold, clammy sensation as arms shot out of nowhere and wrapped themselves tightly around her chest, dragging her out of his comforting embrace and across the damp grass.

"Chise!" He reached out his hand in a futile attempt to catch hers. His jaw hung open as he helplessly watched her slip away from him, deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless hole sucking her in.

"No... ELIAAAAS!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice quickly fading out as her chest tightened to the point where the pain alone caused her eyes to water.

She bolted up in her bed, panting heavily with sweat glistening on her forehead as if she had just run an entire marathon in her sleep. "Elias..." she mumbled into her hands covering her face. No matter how hard she tried, the tears wouldn't stop pouring down her cheeks.

The man in question suddenly burst into her room, thorned vines dancing at his sides as if he was readying himself for a battle. He looked around in confusion, unable to identify any cause for concern in the room.

Ruth yawned loudly as he sleepily sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Relax. She just had a nightmare."

"Elias..." she continued mumbling over and over into her hands, although her cheeks were burning with embarrassment at how much she had troubled him by simply having a bad dream.

Elias gradually seemed to relax, the thorned vines vanishing as he strode over to Chise's side and wrapped his arms around her, affectionately rubbing his head against her tear-stained cheek. "You're safe now, Chise."

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't be bothering you with this in the middle of the night..." she began, hanging her head in shame.

"No need for that. I'm just glad that you're alright."

She cracked a smile, reaching a hand up to stroke his head in return. "Yeah... It was just a dream." She shifted to look into the two glowing red orbs on his head where most other beings would have had eyes and gently placed a hand on either side of his head. "Could you promise me something?"

"Depends on what it is."

"Promise me that you will never leave my side."

"You know that I cannot guarantee such a thing, as proven by past experiences."

She blushed, well aware of that most of those situations had been caused by her simply running off without telling him first. "Then... promise to do your best to do so."

"I promise, Chise."

"Thank you." She closed her eyes, resting them for a moment as they grew heavy once more. "And, Elias?"

"Hm? What is it?" he patiently prompted.

"...Could I sleep by your side, please?"

He seemed mildly surprised by her sudden request but showed no signs of any objection to it. "Of course."

"Thank... you..." she sleepily mumbled, her arms dropping down as she almost fell off the bed, with Elias quickly steadying her.

"Careful now. You could injure yourself that way," he warned, gathering her up in his arms and heading out of the room with her.

She was already sound asleep by the time he carefully placed her down on one side of his double bed. He could not deny the fact that watching her fall asleep in his arms made him feel so... warm, like sitting in front of a lit hearth. It never ceased to amaze him when he saw how much faith she unwaveringly placed in him, despite his rather unusual appearance, and he wished that he could do nothing else but hold her in his arms and breathe in her sweet scent for all of eternity.

Emotions certainly were a peculiar thing.

The next morning, Chise awoke to find herself alone in his room, with yet another note on the small bedside table. With a sigh, she rolled over to it and held the note up in front of herself so that she could read it properly.

Something has come up. Do not try to find me.

"Elias...!" she growled, clenching the note in her fist. He was randomly disappearing too often these days, and she still hated it when he did things behind her back. Why had he not yet learned to communicate with her about such matters? They had known each other for so long, yet he would not stop being so secretive.

She got up from the bed and shuffled out of the door. "Ruth!" she called out, but the only response she received was the eerie silence. She suppressed a nervous shiver. "Silver!" Still no response, so she decided to continue searching the house.

Even after double-checking all the rooms, nobody was to be found. She was becoming more and more uneasy by the minute and decided to go out to see if Silver Lady had gone outside with the others, seeing as she usually was inside the house when nobody else was around.

It had only just occurred to her how splendid the weather was outside, with a deep blue sky and the occasional fluffy white cloud along with a warm summer breeze. She glanced around, the only thing appearing to be out of the ordinary was that she was completely and utterly on her own.

The icy tendrils of fear began to take hold of her. Had they all left her behind, like her original family did? No... they can't have, she desperately thought. Elias had just promised the other night that he would do his best to stay by her side.

She ran back into the house and shut the door behind her, rushing to her room to change her clothes and grab her wolf werebeast pelt. It was not appropiate to wear pyjamas outside, no matter how nice the weather was. Once she was ready, she left the house again, threw the werebeast pelt over herself and sprinted down the small path that connected the house to the main path through the surrounding fields. "Elias! Ruth! Silver!" she continued calling, with the only other sound being the wind rushing past her as she ran as fast as she could.