I am not alone!

I have discovered traffic and now know that some (ok, twenty-three) people are actually reading this! Unfortunately, none of them are reviewing, so I have no idea what they thought…

The Chapter (6-10) dedicated to Mapo (hope you don't mind), the only one who has showed any response so far!

Merci!

The Space Between Dream And Reality

Winia tossed and turned violently, entangled in her sheets and with sweat soaking the cloth around her. Her eyes were shut tightly, and small moans escaped from her every now and then, desperate cries for help. What was worse though, he thought, was when there were no pleas…when she suffered her nightmares in silence. He knew all to well that it was impossible to wake her before the nightmare was over, for he had tried many times, with the same result. It hurt him to see her like this, tormented by whatever it was inside her head that sent her these nightmares, something she had never told him. He lent towards her and placed one hand against her cheek. Her hand came up and covered his, and she seemed to calm slightly, gripping so tight that her knuckles went white. Chris lent forwards and kissed away the tears now streaming down her face, silently praying, as usual, for the break of dawn.

Superstar

Ever since the botched end of the world Pacifica and her siblings had been plagued by hordes of people begging to know more about the infamous 'scrapped princess' and how she had survived being hunted down by all of Dustvin's best assassins and bounty hunters. It was getting to the point when Pacifica had been sneaking about in disguise, simply to avoid the masses of people either wanting to court or question her. The former of these had been the biggest problem, and Winia laughed to see Leo and Shannon marching on either side of her poor, trapped best friend, fending off the waves of young men wolf whistling and blowing kisses and the increasingly agitated Pacifica. Standing at the sidelines Winia couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the attention. Her best friend could get flocks of men to fall for her, and she couldn't manage even one.

Our Own World

She was adamant. He was reproachful. She was pleading. He was refusing. She was arguing. His argument was weakening. She put her foot down. He agreed to take her up to the glass canyon once again.

She knelt, he sat cross legged. Although they talked for hours never once did they glance \at one and other, preferring to watch the steadily rising moon. He was surprised when she put her arm around him, having being preparing to do so himself, but not unduly upset.

They talked for hours, about life, about Pacifica and Forsyth, about trees, about birds (skirting embarrassedly around bees), about fate, and prophecy, and about their parents. When night had fallen for real, they returned to the inn to find Winia's uncle waiting. Thankfully they saw him before he saw them, and were able to avoid detection long enough for a goodnight kiss.

Dash

Chris staggered backwards clutching his head, and twisted quickly to avoid the second swinging of the broomstick he would have earlier avoided, had he not been otherwise occupied. The man on the other end of the broomstick was red faced with outrage, as he stumbled forwards from the weight he had given to that last blow. "Please sir, if I could only…" Chris began, but was cut short by the mans bellow of,

"Don't you 'sir' me boy! How dare you come near this place again! After…" A crowd was beginning to form around what looked to be a promising brawl, and a few people were beginning to recognise Christopher from the incident involving the scrapped princess, and others as the kidnapper from said incident. The villagers were whispering to one and other, swapping rumours, and Chris decided that now would probably be a diplomatic time to escape. He spun around, facing his attacker head on and pulled the broomstick from his hand, breaking it into before turning and dashing away, cloak billowing behind him. Winia stood frozen on the porch, her lips still burning.

10#

Winia sat with her arms wrapped around her legs, and her eyes down-cast. Occasionally she would tilt her head to the right, to get a quick glimpse of the boy sitting next to her. She repeated this action every few minutes, and each time felt a quick rush of adrenaline shoot through her. She anticipated every coming moment, trying to collect herself enough to say something, anything, before they returned to camp and the moment was lost. She didn't even really know how this had happened in the first place. Chris had just happened to be on guard in the same place as she had been sent by Fafel to collect fire wood. Now she thought about it, Fafel had looked rather suspicious. She and Pacifica had been giggling like mad as she entered the forest. She should have expected something like this – the Obstinate Arrow and her friend had been trying for weeks to get her to tell Christopher how she felt (although after a while they probably would have settled for a brief 'hello' from the chronically shy teenager).

Three, two, one. She counted down the moments until she could look again. She turned her head, and froze when she met the eyes of Christopher, caught in exactly the same position, head tilted to look at her. He froze too, and a blush spread across his face at the same time it did hers. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but she turned her head away, breaking their eye contact. Her heart was beating erratically, and she tried with all her might to focus on something else, ignoring the fact that Christopher was still looking at her. After spending three, drawn out minutes trying to appear fascinated with a small spider crawling up a blade of grass, she permitted herself another glance. One, last glance. He smiled softly, prompting her to speak.

"Uh, um, uh, d-d-d-…" her voice was shaking erratically, shyness creeping up inside her and turning her resolve into dust. She searched her head franticly for something to say, and came up with nothing other than,

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen…" Oh, he was younger than her.

"What's your favourite colour?"

"Blue…" Not surprising.

"What's your favourite food?"

"Pastry…" She's have to look up some recipes…

"What's your favourite number?"

"Ten…" Ten?

"Why ten?" He looked vaguely accosted.

"I don't know! What's wrong with ten?"

"Nothing, nothing, it's just…ten." Suddenly, Chris burst out laughing.

"Why are you laughing?!" she cried, hurt. He bowed his head, still laughing, until his mirth subsided and he raised his head again to look at her. His eyes were bright, quite a change from his usual cold detachment, and then suddenly became serious, holding her gaze like a hawk. At the same time Winia realised that she could feel his breath on her lips, and how close they had become, noses inches apart. She held his gaze for a long moment, until he pulled away from their almost-kiss.

"You ought to get back to camp." An order. Oh-well. Winia sighed and got to her feet, the merriment of the last few moments gone.

Chris was silent as she collected up the firewood and returned to camp, but couldn't resist a chuckle once she was well out of earshot. What an extra-ordinary girl…

I hope you liked it! I think this one is a definite improvement on the last one characterisation-wise…my biggest trouble is that I finished the second light novel just before starting this story, so I'm basing the characters on that more than the anime…and in the novels Chris is slightly different (although it may just be the translation).

I probably wont continue without at least one review so please, please click the little green button. Constructive criticism welcome! Flames not.

-snoetiger