"We'll continue this later" Shayne said to Dundra, standing and going over to Hanna, still fuming
"Hanna, what's wrong"
"What's wrong… what's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong, what's wrong is that a crowd of girls tore through the library looking for you, and ruined my essay, I have to do it all over again"
Shayne couldn't help but feel guilty
"I'll help you with it to make up for that"
"Oh, you'll help alright" she said huffing at him
"Your hair is a mess, but don't worry about it now, sit down with a coffee and Dundra will fill you in"
Shayne looked at Dundra; Dundra knew to leave the last bit out of her catch-up.
"Well, as I was saying before you came in" he said looking at Hanna;
'The morning after was a Saturday, so he woke up later than usual, to the smell of coffee and bacon. Shayne had slept and 'He' hadn't come, Shayne was relieved, he got up and dressed and went down stairs, Lina and her dad were sat at the table, she smiled at him as he walked in, so did her father, which made him slightly uncomfortable.
"So Shayne, sleep well?" he said with a knowing look, he didn't mind, his daughter was old enough and he approved of Shayne.
"Yes I did thank you" he said not turning from the coffee machine
Lina's father chuckled quietly, Lina walked out her face bright red, 'Ah shit, he knows then' Shayne thought to himself as he watched her head upstairs;
"Well go on, say it, I know you want to" he said sitting opposite Lina's father
He chuckled once again and said;
"Did you enjoy yourself at least?"
Shayne couldn't help but smile;
"Yes sir, I did, I hope we didn't disturb you"
"Oh, you didn't disturb me but my wife says she could hear you two quite clearly"
Shayne thanked him for the coffee and went back upstairs.
He stepped inside Lina's room and she was lounging on her bed admiring his katana,
"I never said this before but, nice sword" she said grinning cheekily
He slowly made his way over to her and took his blade from her and sheathed it.
"It just came to me that I've never seen your weapon, Lina? Why is that?"
She pouted slightly, "What, no more innuendo?" Shayne raised an eyebrow and gave her a serious look;
"Your no fun" she said pouting and making her way over to her dresser, she opened a small jewellery box and took out some rings.
She sat down next to Shayne, putting two of them on her thumb and forefinger, she handed the rest to Shayne who took a closer look; they were simple gold rings with dust crystals set into them, the crystals themselves were different on each ring with each having a twin for the other hand.
She struck the one on her forefinger with the one on her thumb and a small fireball appeared in her hand;
"The ring on my thumb has an Energy Dust crystal set into it, where the one on my forefinger is set with a Burn crystal" she explained whilst manipulating the fireball expertly.
After watching the flame for a while Shayne got up off the bed and started strapping his weapons onto his back.
"Where are you going?" she asked stepping in front of him, blocking his exit
"I promised my grandfather I would clean the house today, I don't want to burden you with doing housework that's not yours to do"
"No I'm going to help, I insist" she got dressed without worrying about Shayne watching her, 'It's liberating having a boyfriend, it's not as if he hasn't seen it before', she thought to herself remembering the previous night.
They went downstairs and she told her parents she was going to be spending the day with Shayne at his house, Shayne promised to make sure she got home safely.
The day passed swiftly, once the housework had been done, Shayne's uncle asked him to go into the market and pick up some things that they were short of. They obliged and went into town; they had almost got everything his uncle needed apart from some nails and some pork.
They decided to split-up to get the last two items faster, Shayne went to the hardware store while Lina went to the butchers; they had agreed to meet by the fountain. Shayne had been waiting for a little while when he saw Frank wander into the square. He saw Shayne and made his way over.
"Well, well, if it isn't the freak, where's your little girlfriend today, at home crying" with that Lina came out of the butchers, she had decided to bring her Dust rings just in case of emergency, she was twitching slightly, ready to hurl a fireball at the back of Frank's head.
"What do you want Frank, I thought I told you to leave me and Lina alone" Shayne said standing up to look him in the eye
Shayne looked over Frank's shoulder to her, and gave her a stern look, she knew to head back to his house and wait for him but ignored him and walked up behind Frank, who had grabbed Shayne by the jacket and was grinning like a madman.
"What I want is for you to go die in a hole for embarrassing me last night"
"After what you did last night I felt like tearing your throat out but I didn't, you know why?" Frank shook his head, "I didn't because even asshole bullies get one chance, by coming here and harassing me, you've just made me even madder"
Lina chose this point to interject;
"Shayne let it go, c'mon we had better get back, and this meat won't last long in this sun"
"Yeah, you two had better run" Frank called after them, the bravado in his voice annoyed Shayne all the more.
Shayne had taken just about all he could he shook his arm free and stormed across the town square and lifted him by his shirt.
"Listen here, the only reason I'm not going to beat you to death is that there's too many people here, so instead I'm just going give you a warning"
Shayne dropped him and he tried to run, so he grabbed the back of Frank's shirt, when Frank turned, Shayne hit him across the jaw sending him to the floor dazed; Frank was thrown into the fountain, Shayne got some rope and tied him there before leaving.
On the way back Lina wouldn't even speak to him;
"Lina, what's wrong"
"Shayne, I told you to leave it and you ignored me"
"I'm sorry but he has been harassing me for years and after what he did to you, he just got to me"
"It's ok, just promise me next time you'll be the bigger man that I know you are"
They arrived at Shayne's house to see his uncle waiting for them;
"If I already didn't know, I'd ask what took you so long"
Shayne handed his uncle what he had asked for and his uncle took him aside;
"Shayne if you want, you two can have my bed tonight, I'll sleep on the couch, I've already changed the sheets"
"Uncle, that's very nice of you, but she's going to spend the night at her house tonight, I'll see her again tomorrow, I need to meditate to calm my nerves"
At 11o'clock Lina got a message from her father asking her to come home, Shayne walked her home they shared a laugh or two and Shayne left her at her door. Four hours later Shayne was woken by a message from an unknown sender on his Scroll, it read;
'We have her, if you want her back alive, come alone and unarmed to the peak of the mountain at dawn'
He went and woke his uncle in a panic and showed him the message;
"Shayne, call Lina's parents to make sure that she is still there, as they could be lying just to get you to go" Shayne called her father and asked him to check on her, when he discovered that she wasn't there, Shayne told him to come up to the house.
When he arrived he told his uncle and Lina's father his plan;
"I'm going to do as they ask, but you two are going to be waiting in the bushes once I have Lina we'll run for cover and I'll leave her in your care, you two will have my swords just in case I need them, I'm going to take my boot knife as added insurance." The two men nodded in acceptance of his plan and set about their preparations.
Shayne's uncle went to the gun cabinet and got two hunting rifles out and handed one to Lina's father, while Shayne ensured that his weapons were sharp and clean.
It was an hour before dawn, when they left, Shayne left a couple of minutes ahead of his uncle and Lina's dad. He was waiting at the peak ten minutes before dawn, he watched the sun rise. His uncle was secreted not too far away in the undergrowth as the edge of the forest.
A van came up the trail as the sun crested the peak, Shayne a silhouette against the morning sky. It pulled to a stop and a group of people climbed out, two of them held Lina, she had clearly tried to fight back and she was bruised and her lip was bleeding. The group were all dressed in identical outfits, a white vest top with a symbol emblazoned on it in red, a Wolf head with claw marks crossing it at a 45 degree angle, the symbol of the White Fang. They were back.
The leader of the group stepped forward shielding his eyes from the sun and shouted:
"Shayne, you have one chance, join us or we kill the girl"
"Why should I join you this time over all the other times, you guys have been hounding me for months, ever since the tournament, Now, I'm going to walk over there and take Lina home, if you try to stop me then you will die" he shouted as the rage grew behind his eyes, begging for release.
He started across the distance towards Lina; she was brought next to their leader who put a gun to Lina's belly. Her father took aim.
"Hold your horses, there Shayne, if you haven't noticed we're in control here, now if you want her to get out this alive I suggest you stay there and kneel down" 'Big mistake' Shayne thought as he knelt down, he gripped his knife and waited.
"Now that wasn't so hard was it, restrain him" a pair of guards came and held Shayne down
As the restraints were put on Shayne, the leader brought Lina forward, he stood over Shayne he put the gun to his head;
"I'm going to ask once more, join us or die"
"You think I'm scared of dying? Ha, you must be mistaking me for someone else"
Shayne broke the restraints and collided with the leader, who pulled the trigger as Shayne hit him, it tore through Lina's abdomen. The knife stuck in the throat of the leader, Shayne picked up his pistol and shot every last one of the White Fang. His uncle and Lina's father came running from the tree line.
He dropped to his knees and held Lina in his arms; she held her hand up to his face as she bled out. They didn't bother calling an ambulance. They knew it would take too long to arrive to save her. Shayne just knelt there looking her in the eye and cried as she died. Shayne carried her body down the mountain back to his house where her family had gathered. Shayne laid the body on the table and left the house to go into the forest, he took his swords, before he got very far Lina's father came after him giving him her Dust rings. Shayne continued into the forest until he reached a sheer cliff that dropped onto rocks. He stood at the edge knowing he would never see her again; he was contemplating suicide when he saw a familiar shadow overhead.
Nemea landed in a nearby clearing; Shayne went and meditated there for several days before coming out of his trance. He spent the next few years becoming cold and oblivious to all but himself, he honed his skills, did odd jobs for those who needed it, never forgetting about Lina.'
Dundra stood up and moved to where Shayne was now standing, he put a hand on his shoulder;
"It's okay Shayne, were here for you now, there's no need to be so cold and alone anymore"
"You don't get it, in the years that followed her death, I was approached by the white fang several more times" the anger in his voice was clear, "They never stop once they decide they want you"
"I didn't ever have another relationship with anyone because of the fear, I could have one now that I have you guys, but it will never compare to her" he looked down at his hand, the rings Lina's father had given him were on a string, he kept them with him wherever he went. He went to the roof and stayed there all night, crying.
'Shayne had put Lina on the table and had left for the woods; her father had followed him to give him the rings. She started glowing the deepest blue any of them had ever seen, almost sapphire, like her eyes, she gasped back to consciousness, with no memory of the past few weeks. Her mother thought it best not to tell Shayne and save him the sorrow of knowing she had no idea of who he was. Shayne was never told.'