Pebblekit: Hello everybody! Thanks to all of you that have stuck with the story thus far. This chapter is almost 6000 words long thanks to you guys. Also, a special thanks to everyone who reviewed either this story, or my oneshot (hint, HINT, HINT). I would also like to tell everyone that I have not done this alone. Gasp. I have an editor that I would like to recognize. Everyone give a round of applause to Spottedtail. Without this person, I would still have as many mistakes as I did in my first story. I never notice my mistakes until AFTER I've posted the story, no matter how many times I read through it.
Pairings for this Chapter: No one. I've got to get the actual people before I can get any pairings you know. Also, on top of Nephenee and Volke, I have a new vote I want to place. Somewhere in the story, I need someone to like Mist besides Rolf. So I turned to two people that are remotely close to her age and that don't already have pairings. I want you guys to choose whether this person should be Tormod or Sothe. Whoever is chosen will change the progression of the story. Also, guys (and girls), for those of you who squint as hard as Oscar, don't pay any mind to the Mist/ Oscar references. Seriously. I was bored and wanted Gatrie to be an idiot. These references might show up again, or they might not, either way, IT IS NOT FORESHADOWING!!!!!
Disclaimer: The following is meant to be read in a very bored voice: I do not own Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. I do not own the characters. I do not own the places. I do not own the actual dialogue taken from the game. I do not own any thing that can be seen as stolen from the game, yada, yada, yada.
Now is the Start to a Whole New Chapter. Yay.
Prisoner in Reality
Chapter 4: Reassurance From Within (I've already reached chapter four? I haven't even been writing a week yet!)
"Hey Shinon!"
Boyd chased after the sniper, the bow that Oscar had found was in his hand.
"What do you want?"
"Oscar and I found this. We thought it might be yours." As Boyd handed the bow to Shinon, the sniper's eyes widened. "Is…is something wrong?"
"No. You can go away now."
Boyd suddenly noticed the big circles under Shinon's eyes. "Hey, have you been sleeping properly?"
"No." Since Boyd showed no signs of leaving, Shinon turned and walked away. He recognized the weapon in his hand. No wonder he and Rolf hadn't found it.
Shinon and Rolf had stayed up all night looking for the kid's bow. They were afraid that if Commander Greil found it, he would see that it was a light bow, meant for someone in training to be an archer. If this were the case, Commander Greil would no doubt have thought that Shinon had been teaching someone the proper technique in which to use the bow. This would have been a problem, because no one in the mercenary fort was supposed to teach someone else without permission. Shinon could have gotten in serious trouble.
Sighing in relief that Oscar and Boyd had been the ones to find the weapon, Shinon trudged back to his room. About halfway through the search last night, the voices had reawakened in Shinon's head again. The sniper really didn't want to go see Rolf right now. He would wait until later to deliver the bow. Maybe he should just leave it in the room when Rolf wasn't there. But then he ran the risk of Mist finding it before Rolf. Shinon sighed. He couldn't have someone else give it to the kid. Even Gatrie wasn't dense enough not to wonder why Rolf had a bow. It seemed that the only way to get the weapon to the owner would be to deliver it himself.
I'll do it later. MUCH later.
A few minutes after this, Shinon heard a commotion outside. Deciding to see what had happened, the sniper ran the rest of the way to his room, dropped Rolf's bow next to his bed, and picked up his own. Gatrie was sound asleep on the other bed. Then he ran to the mess hall.
About half way there, he ran straight into Rolf. Literally. "Rolf? What are you doing here?" Shinon thought about the bow in his room. Why hadn't he brought it with him? Then he could have just given it to the kid and have been done with it. Shinon glanced up at the ceiling. He vaguely wondered if he should just tell Rolf that the bow was in his room and to go get it. But that might wake up Gatrie, and Shinon didn't want the knight questioning the kid. The goddess must hate me. That's the only explanation.
"I came to find you. I thought I should warn you before you meet with him. Soren's back."
"Soren?!" Shinon lost his train of thought as his mind focused on the gloomy mage.
"Yeah. I know how much you don't like him so… I thought I'd tell you… so you could avoid him if you wanted to."
Shinon looked at Rolf in mute surprise. Up until now, Rolf had always wanted the sniper and mage to get along. Now he was helping them avoid each other. I'll never understand the way this kid's mind works.
"Um… Shinon?"
The sniper didn't answer. The voices had gone off in his head again, and he was still trying to figure out how to get Rolf's bow back to him.
"Uncle Shinon? Are you ignoring me because of what I told you earlier?"
This jolted Shinon back to reality. He looked down at the kid in front of him. He didn't want Rolf to cry. The sound would just irritate him and put his mind in an even more fragile state. How could he answer without making Rolf upset? "Uh… that's not really… it's something else…"
Rolf looked at him long and hard. "You're lying." Shinon silently cursed. Rolf must have picked up Oscar's skill at reading minds. The boy in front of him looked down. "I'm sorry. Boyd told me to start opening up to people, so I thought… Shinon, forget about what I said, okay?"
Shinon looked in surprise at Rolf. He could tell that this was costing the kid a lot of pain. "Rolf… it's not what you said, really, it's more…" Shinon dropped off. What was he supposed to say?
"No. I don't want you to be hurt anymore, so just forget I said anything, okay?"
"Rolf-"
"Please Uncle Shinon! Just forget about everything. I don't want you to be hurt… not by something I've done… especially when I could save you from that pain." Rolf ran off after this. He covered his eyes with his arm as he passed. Shinon knew that he was crying.
Then, Shinon's head all of a sudden exploded in pain.
"I think of you as a brother too."
"Don't worry about Shinon guys. He's not really mad at Rolf. He's just jealous because nobody ever worries about him when he doesn't come back."
"I don't just worry about Oscar and Boyd."
"He's just jealous,"
"I worry about you too."
"Stop it… Cut it out!!!"
"Shinon?" Someone from behind him called his name, but Shinon's head was hurting too much too focus on the voice.
"I love you just as much as them."
"I said… Shut up!"
"Shinon?!" As soon as the person's hand made contact with the sniper's shoulder, all the echoing voices stopped. Shinon looked around and saw Oscar's face. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah… I think so…." Shinon realized that he was now squatting on the floor. He didn't remember leaving his standing position, but that didn't seem very important right now.
Oscar still looked very worried. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Shinon's voice sounded a little shaky, but his mind had stopped buzzing.
Oscar's mouth curved into an encouraging smile. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not particularly."
Oscar stood up. He had got down on his knees to comfort Shinon. "Well, if you change your mind, I'll be around." With that, the lance knight walked away.
Shinon was left alone in the hallway. He tried to remember where he had been going, but his brain wasn't working very well. He got up from the floor. His body was numb. Everything felt weird. He saw blurs. He heard garbled sounds. None of his senses were working at all.
He tried to focus on the sounds emanating from the direction Oscar had gone in. He couldn't make out the words.
He tried to focus on the sight of the hallway in front of him. He couldn't make out any shapes or references.
He tried to walk. His legs wouldn't move.
Nothing was working.
He heard Rolf's words pounding in his ears, but he couldn't tell what they were saying to him. He couldn't remember either.
Everything was a blur.
Nothing made sense.
Nothing.
Scene Two
Rolf felt around the grass outside the fort again. He had to find the bow. He HAD to. If someone else got hold of it before he did, Shinon could get into really big trouble. His hands were numb, but he kept searching. He couldn't see well in the gloom, so he was relying more on touch rather than sight.
He had done this last night as well. Ever since Boyd had found him outside alone, his younger-older brother had been following him around, preventing Rolf from coming out here to search when the sun had been out. Rolf was lucky he had noticed Boyd when he did. Actually, the kid had been heading out to look when he caught a reflection of the fighter following him in one of the windows.
This meant, of course, that Rolf had to wait until his brother had left him alone, or until he went to sleep. Boyd left, only when he was asked to run to town to buy supplies. But with all the excitement of the day, what with Soren returning and all, Boyd hadn't been given this order until right before sundown. Then Rolf had to make an excuse to Mist so that he didn't get trapped in another game of hide and seek. Then Gatrie asked him to help the knight look for his helmet (which Boyd had hidden behind one of the toilets). Then Oscar asked him to deliver a note to Titania that had arrived in the mail. Then Titania told him to find Rhys and tell the Priest that she had found his heal staff and asked Rolf to deliver it. THEN Mist asked if he could help with supper (which he did because he couldn't find a good enough excuse to refuse). AND THEN, Soren had asked him to help him find his wind tome.
By the time Rolf finally got outside to look, the sun had already sunken pretty low in the sky and the scouting troop that Commander Greil had ordered had left. Rolf kept his ears out for any sign of Boyd. There was no doubt that the fighter would be done in town soon.
Rolf was also thinking about something else, however. According to Soren, Daein and Crimea had gone to war. Daein was the continent next to the top most part of Crimea. A scouting troop consisting of Shinon, Rhys, Gatrie, Soren, Titania, and Ike had been sent to see how the war was fairing. It seemed that Daein was winning, according to what Soren had seen.
Rolf kept feeling around, looking for the familiar feel of his bow. It had to be here somewhere. The grass was course on this side. This was where the sun faced at most points in the day, so the grass was almost completely dead. After two nights of feeling, the grass finally started to take it's toll on Rolf. He could no longer feel the textures of things, his hands were so numb. Twice, he thought he had found it. But both instances, it ended up being a stick about the same size as the bow. Rolf chucked it after the second time so that he didn't make the same mistake again.
After a couple of hours, Rolf stopped listening for Boyd. The fighter had probably already gone to bed. By this time, a lot of the flesh on Rolf's hands had been rubbed or torn off. However, the kid didn't notice because he couldn't feel, nor see anything. He didn't care either. I have to find it. I won't give up, for Shinon as well as me. I have to find it before someone else does.
An hour later, Rolf slumped on the ground. He needed to rest a little. He hadn't gotten to sleep the night before until around 4:00AM in our time. Then he had to wake up at 7:00. By now, it was around 2:30 or 3:00.
Rolf jumped about a foot in the air when he heard someone walk over to him. He turned around, hoping to the dear goddess that it wasn't someone besides Shinon.
The footsteps stopped, but Rolf still looked around intently, relying more on his ears than his eyes.
"My, my." Rolf jumped again. But he recognized the voice and quickly tried to come up with an excuse. "Your senses sure are homed. Did Shinon teach you that?"
Rolf was still working his mind for something, anything that he could use. He needed more time, so he chose to hold the person up. "Um, what are you doing out here, Commander Greil?"
"If anything, I believe that I should be asking you that, You should have been in bed hours ago. You stayed out late last night too, didn't you? You were with Shinon that time."
"You- you knew?"
"I'm not exactly blind or deaf. Now, what are you looking for? Perhaps I can help you."
"Uh…" Rolf couldn't exactly say, 'Oh yes! Help me find the bow that I've been using for the past few months when I'm not even supposed to be touching one!' now could he?
"Dear boy, do not be alarmed. You're looking for your bow, right? The one you tossed to the side when Boyd nearly saw you using it?"
"How- how did you-"
"I've been watching you. Shinon seems to be doing quite well in playing the role of teacher. I never expected him to agree to such a thing, even if I ordered him to. It came as a big shock when I saw him helping you for the first time."
"Does Uncle Shinon know you know?"
"Hm? Oh, no. Not unless he figured it out. By the way, why haven't you been practicing together, hm?"
"Well… we're kinda avoiding each other right now…"
"Oh. I see. And what of the task I asked of you?"
"About that… I still don't know what you expect me to do. It's not like I can just walk up to him and tell him to be my friend and to stop acting like a jerk."
"No, you can't. This will not be an easy thing to do. But still, I want you to try. I don't want to give up on Shinon's other side, the side he rarely shows. That is why, Rolf, I asked you to help him."
"But I don't think I can. It's not like we're that close. Shinon doesn't like me that much. I think that Gatrie would have a better chance."
"But Gatrie cannot read emotions as well as you can. Besides… I think Shinon might like you more than he lets on."
Rolf didn't know what to say. He just sat there, staring in the general direction that Commander Greil's voice was coming from.
The older man broke the silence a few minutes later. "Let's go inside, shall we? It will be morning in a few hours and I don't want you getting as little sleep as last night."
"But I need to find-"
"Don't worry about your bow. I believe that someone already has it in their possession. You won't find it out here."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Now, let's go get some sleep. I have to say, you looked rather tired this morning." Greil took Rolf by the arm and heaved him up to a standing position, just as he done the time before. Rolf walked back with him.
When he got to his room, the child saw that his hands were bloody from rifling around so much. But at the moment, he couldn't care less. He just dropped like a dead weight on his bed. As soon as he hit the mattress, Rolf closed his eyes and gave in to the urging of sleep on his body.
Scene Three
Shinon walked behind Ike towards the trail that led to Castle Crimea. He had been among the group that had been sent because he had lost his temper when the Commander said that Ike would lead the scouting party.
Shinon tried to keep a straight face, but his anger was really apparent. Why had Ike been chosen to lead the scouting party? He had only fought in, what, three battles before this? Even Gatrie would have been a better candidate for the leader!
After a while, the group came upon the road called Capital Way. How original. They found a lot of bodies strewn everywhere. After examining them for a while, Soren announced that most of the bodies had Daein armor. However, the Crimeans were from the imperial guard. Soren explained that this meant that a member of the royal house of Crimea had been fleeing when the party had fallen under attack.
To put it bluntly, Shinon didn't really care. He just wanted to get home and go to sleep. The effects of last night's search with Rolf were starting to take effect. Shinon found it hard to focus on something for more than a few minutes because his brain was so tired. Not only that, but the voices that had been haunting him were starting to get louder than ever. Shinon tried to ignore the words, but somehow, his mind kept straying back to them.
A knot was starting to form in Shinon's stomach. The sniper had dismissed it many times as stress and tried to get rid of it, but somehow, the feeling was very persistent. The sniper was also starting to have trouble seeing straight. This could be very bad for someone who used bows, as that is how you aim at your target.
Shinon wasn't really paying any attention to what was going on, but after awhile, a bunch of men came up in dark armor and demanded to know what the scouting party was doing. Gatrie confirmed that they were Daein soldiers. Shinon was able to regain his head just long enough to hear what was happening.
"You there! Who are you! What are you doing here?" The commander of the Daein squadron's name was Maijin, and he didn't look happy.
"We're no one you need-" Titania was trying to calm the guy down, but she was cut off.
"You're armed!" Maijin was eyeing their weapons. "Heed me! Drop your weapons and surrender! Act quickly, or else!"
Shinon decided that he would rather avoid fighting, especially with his current state of mind. "Listen to me, fool. You're making a mistake. We're not…"
"Ah, not going to cooperate, eh?" Maijin snipped across Shinon's words. He looked at his men. "Ready your weapons, men! Move in and kill them all!"
Surprisingly, Titania looked frustrated. "Tsk! Headstrong fools!"
"Getting caught up in a skirmish is not part of the plan…" Soren sure said some useless things sometimes.
"But they're obviously not going to listen to us. Greil Mercenaries! Get ready to fight!"
Shinon groaned as Ike gave the order. His eyes still weren't working well, and he REALLY did not want to fight right now. Shinon turned to Ike. "All right, Ike. Let's see how you handle the role of captain. Well? What are your orders, boy? We'll do what you want, so long as you hurry up and spit it out!"
"I know, I know! I'm thinking! Give me a moment, will you Shinon?" Ike looked just about ready to burst under pressure.
The voices in Shinon's head went off again. This made him really irritable. "Bah. Useless! We'd be better led with Mist than this soft, untested whelp."
After thinking for a minute, Ike instructed that Soren and Rhys, who had the least defense, stay behind the rest of the group. Shinon was supposed to stand on the edge and not let any enemy attack Rhys. The sniper and Soren were told to attack from afar and to be wary of how the enemies were moving. The Daein soldiers eventually headed towards them after the group hadn't moved in awhile. By the time they were attacked, the mercenaries were still getting into formation and Rhys was in danger.
A lance knight ran at the priest with his weapon raised. Shinon ran over and pushed Rhys out of the way. Then he turned and shot the man off his horse. The soldier fell dead to the ground with a single arrow in his stomach. Shinon blinked. He had been aiming for the guy's throat, not his stomach.
An enemy mage was about to attack Gatrie, which was bad seeing as though the only thing that Gatrie's armor didn't repel was magic. Thankfully, Ike ran to the knight's aid. He slashed through the mage's robes and his Regal sword bit into the guy's chest. The mage was able to shoot off a fire attack, but it was so weak that it didn't do much damage. Then he fell, dead, to the hard ground.
Titania charged at an enemy with her ax poised for attack. The fighter that she was attacking managed, miraculously, to dodge two of the blows until his leg was ripped open. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Titania might have paid pity in on him and let him flee, but the fighter threw his ax at her. The weapon skimmed her chest and left a dent in the breast plate of her armor. Titania struck him down with her lance, because she couldn't reach him with her ax.
Soren, for some reason or another, was managing to get more attacks in than his opponents, and had already brought down two soldiers. Now a third was running at him. Luckily, Soren dodged the blow and mounted two consecutive wind attacks on the guy. The soldier fell down dead, bleeding in the multiple places that the wind had cut into him.
Rhys ran forward a healed Ike, who had just gotten a heavy blow from a knight like Gatrie. When the ranger slashed out again with his sword, the enemy received no damage what so ever. Gatrie ran up and tackled the knight in black armor. Then he impaled the guy with his lance through the shoulder, where his armor wasn't as thick. Gatrie kept hitting in various places that actually did damage. Once the guy fell down dead, Gatrie was gasping through his helmet. "Ike, don't worry…about the knights…I'll take care them." Gatrie rasped out. Ike nodded and ran off to strike down an archer.
Shinon knocked an arrow, but when he tried to aim, his eyes wouldn't work. Instead of seeing the mage that he had intended to hit, the sniper saw two of them. Shinon started to sweat in mute worry. He had never had anything like this happen before. What do I do if I can't even see my target? Shinon finally just took aim at one and fired, hoping it was the real person and not his double. It was. The mage fell over with an arrow embedded in his side just as he had been about to cast a spell on Gatrie.
Shinon aimed at someone else. This time, there was no double, but when Shinon let go of his arrow, the shot missed by a good three feet. Shinon took a deep breath to calm the worry bubbling up in his chest. The knot in his stomach was still there. It tightened painfully as the sniper pulled back on his bowstring again. This time, the arrow hit, but instead of lodging itself in the fighter's stomach, it landed in his thigh. Titania ran up and finished the guy off while Shinon tried to focus his conscious thoughts on the battle and not on the sounds in his head.
As the battle went on, the sun faded in the background behind a hill. Soon, everyone was fighting in the dark. Archers and mages all had problems with the limited visibility, so it wasn't uncommon to get hit by a random stray arrow or magic attack. This happened to Gatrie twice. One arrow landed in the knight's shoulder, and a wind attack cut into his armor. Luckily, Rhys happened to be on hand and the wounds were closed up fairly quickly.
It was strange. Now that it was dark, Shinon was actually shooting better than when he had in the day. He brought down three men in a row. After awhile, the sniper had stopped trying to block the voices in his head out. It was distracting him too much from battle to ignore them. Oddly however, the words didn't make it harder. In fact, after a few minutes, Shinon started to feel as though they were encouraging him on. Once he had excepted this fact, his arrows started to make their mark a lot more frequently.
Soon, all of the enemies were strewn on the ground except for Maijin, two knights, and a mage. Gatrie made quick work of one of the knights by ramming him into a tree. Then he stabbed through the armor straight into the guy's stomach.
Soren took care of the other knight by using wind magic. The man didn't stand up to the attacks very well, and before long, he fell to the ground, no doubt dead. Shinon aimed at the mage's throat, trying to concentrate. Soon, the only person left was Maijin, who was also a knight.
Soren attacked and took a good chunk out of Maijin's health. But then, Maijin threw a javelin at Rhys, who hadn't been expecting the man to have a ranged weapon. The javelin hit the priest in the side of his stomach. Rhys fell to the ground.
"NO!" Ike ran to the fallen priest and tried to the pull the javelin out. Blood drenched the ground around the ranger. That was the last straw. Gatrie rushed at Maijin and stabbed through to the man's flesh. Titania ran forward and hit him with her ax, causing a hole on his armor around the man's chest area. Shinon saw his chance. He knocked an arrow, Rolf's words echoing in his head. The snipers fingers released the drawstring and the arrow flew straight through the hole Titania had made. Maijin fell down, dead.
Ike was covering Rhys' wound with his cape. Thankfully, the javelin hadn't lodged itself very deeply and the ranger was able to block most of the bleeding. Everyone came forward and used their vulnaries on the priest, managing to at least close the wound. Ike lifted Rhys onto Titania's horse. Now the team had to get back fast, or Rhys might not make it. They all started walking home at a very fast pace.
Shinon's mind was numb. Anyone could have been brought down just as easily as Rhys in that battle. As much as he hated to admit it, the sniper willed them on faster, wanting the priest to be saved.
Almost as soon as they got off the road however, Soren tripped on something. Everyone was really surprised when a girl stood up in front of them, her green hair a tangled pile of locks.
"…It's a woman… Let's leave her. We shouldn't get involved in matters that don't concern us." Soren face was grim as he gave this statement. The girl groaned as she literally fell on top of Ike.
Titania examined the girl. "Thank goodness… It looks like she's merely fainted."
"Right. We'd better take her with us for now and make sure she's all right. Give me a hand, will you Titania?"
"Of course." Titania and Ike worked together to get the girl on top of Titania's horse behind Rhys, who was hanging limply in the moonlight.
"… I don't like this…" Soren said as they set off for the mercenary fort at an even faster pace. Now they had two lives to run for. The road seemed to stretch forever. By the time they got back to the mercenary fort, the sun was starting to rise.
Commander Greil was surprised when he saw the girl the group had brought back with them, but he didn't seem to mind. Shinon and Gatrie carried Rhys to his room. As soon as they put him on his bed, Shinon felt tiredness threatening to take him over. He decided to go take a nap until he was needed.
When he got back to his room, however, he saw Rolf's bow sitting on the floor. Picking it up, the sniper decided to give it back to the kid before he went to sleep. He tied it to his back and left the room.
It took him awhile to track Rolf down. Everyone was busy trying to help with the night's events, therefore, everyone was moving continuously. Even if Shinon searched one room top to bottom, he would never know if Rolf would be in there later. He asked everyone he ran into if they had seen the kid and they all shook their head. The sniper had just about given up when he saw someone run past him with lime green hair.
Shinon did the only sensible thing that his mind could fathom at the moment. He ran after the midget. It took a little while to catch up, but eventually, Rolf saw Shinon and stopped, waiting for the gasping sniper to catch up with him.
"Good morning, Uncle Shinon."
"Good… Morning…"
Rolf looked at Shinon's quivering frame before speaking, "What wrong with you?"
Shinon felt anger boiling in side of him. "What's wrong with me? WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME IS THAT I PULLED TWO ALL NIGHTERS IN A ROW AND I'M TIRED AS HE-"
"Okay, okay, I get it. The scouting party was out all night, right? Sorry, I had forgotten."
"How could you forget something as important as that?!"
"Sorry."
Shinon sighed. Only then did he see the giant circles under Rolf's eyes, just as Boyd had seen his the day before. "You don't look well. Did you sleep okay?"
"No." Rolf had no hesitation, but he looked cheerful despite how tired he was.
"Why not?"
Rolf looked all around the hall, making sure no one was there before answering. "I was up really late looking for my bow."
"And why didn't you… Wait, what?"
"The bow. You know, the one I lost? We were looking for it all night two nights ago?"
Guilt seized Shinon's stomach and the knot in there got tighter. The bow had been in his room, but Rolf hadn't known that so he had gone off in search of it. "Uh… you mean this?" He pulled the bow off his back.
Rolf took one look at it and his face cracked a smile bigger than Shinon had ever seen upon it. "My bow! You found it! Where was it?"
"Boyd and Oscar found it. They thought it was mine."
"Thank goodness." Rolf reached out for the bow and Shinon saw that the kid's hands were completely mutilated.
"What in the goddess's name did you do to your hands?!"
"Oh." Rolf grabbed the bow and held it vertically at his side. "They were like that when I woke up. I think that happened because I was rubbing them on the grass so much."
The knot in Shinon's stomach got tighter.
"Why didn't you go look before sunset?"
"Boyd was stalking me all day, and then the goddess did everything in her power to keep me from looking for it."
Shinon just stared. He didn't bother asking what the heck Rolf was talking about. His brain was too tired to think about it.
"Uncle Shinon, you look terrible. Why don't you go take a nap?"
"Speak for yourself."
"At least I got three and a half hours of sleep."
"That's not enough for someone as small as you."
Rolf's eyes flashed with something that Shinon couldn't catch, but it looked a lot like anger. Then the kid's eyes softened, and when he answered, his voice was the same soft coo at it usually was. "Okay. I'll go rest. But only if you do."
Shinon was still trying to figure out what the look in Rolf's eyes could have meant. Had the sniper made him mad without meaning too? "Yeah. I'm going to sleep. You go too, okay?"
"Okay."
Then, the archer and the sniper set off in different directions to their own rooms.
Author's Note
Pebblekit: I did it! I finished chapter four! I'm so happy. This chapter, surprisingly, didn't take as long to write as I thought it would. It still took me awhile though. So, how do you think Rolf and Shinon's relationship is coming? Did everyone understand why Rolf was so angry? You should if you read my other story. So Spottedtail, are my battle scenes getting better? So… I actually got Spottedtail to snigger at one point in the story. That is awesome for my dry humor! Thanks to everyone that reviewed. It helps me greatly. So… I've decided that my character is going to show up. Sorry to those of you that didn't want it to happen. But, the story will be better this way… I think. So, I'm going to finish writing chapter seven and get started on chapter eight. School has now started, so, I'll do my best to update a lot, but I can't promise anything. If anything, I might have to slow it down to a chapter a week… Sorry.