"Gourry!" Lina gasped as she woke up with a start. She looked around, and found herself still in the inn room, in the large bed. "A dream..." she said quietly. "That means, Gourry is still..."
Slowly and sadly, Lina got dressed, and went downstairs. She considered ordering a breakfast, but she discovered that she had no appetite. She simply walked outside into the now clear and sunny day, and started asking around taverns and inns.
She walked into one tavern, and asked the man behind the bar if he had seen a tall blond man walking around. "No, ma'am, I haven't, but I heard tell that a lovely lady found a man like that on the road. Word says his name's Tanil."
"Thank you anyway," Lina had said, and she had walked slowly back out into the streets.
Tanil was able to leave his bed the next day, and was shown around the general area by Raiya. Most of his attention was on the young woman at his arm, not the town around him. Once, when he was actually paying attention to the town, he thought he saw a flash of red hair turn a corner. This inspired a sudden memory. He tried to recall it, but the memory vanished as soon as it had come.
The next day, Raiya had sent him to the Market Square to sell some of their goods. It seemed that Raiya and her butler, Garedt, trusted him greatly. They sent him on errands around occasionally, and Raiya let him in on her deepest secrets.
Tanil felt wanted and needed in the town. People around the town started to get to know him, and they trusted him as well. He gave them fair prices at Market, and they liked that. He made more money at the Market than Raiya ever had. There seemed to be something about him that just inspired people to like him.
Raiya had told Tanil once that there was an innocence in his eyes. It must have been that innocence that inspired people to trust him.
For the next few days, Lina just wandered aimlessly around. The waitress at the inn grew rapidly concerned, because Lina wasn't eating anything, and was losing weight. As every day wen by, Lina's eyes grew darker, and she grew thinner. She stopped talking to anyone, and there were some people, elderlies mostly, that liked to gossip, saying that the poor girl was a ghost searching for her long lost lover.
The waitress guessed that the elderlies weren't that far off. She had a pretty good idea that it was the tall blond Lina was looking for.
Lina, meanwhile, felt very empty inside. She couldn't find Gourry. Whenever she found the will to inquire about a tall blond man, everyone started talking about a man named Tanil. After a while, Lina just stopped asking. Then she stopped talking to people. The only words she ever spoke were when she was alone in her room. And it was always the same word over and over: Gourry.
She couldn't get him off her mind. She couldn't find him. It was her fault he ran off. Something still told her that Gourry was in this town somewhere. She just had to find him.
Every night, before Lina fell asleep, she would cry into her pillow, feeling useless as each day passed without success.
The waitress would stand outside Lina's door some nights, and listen to her crying. It was after this that the waitress assured herself that it was all about the young man.
One night, after Lina had finished crying, she started thinking. She couldn't find Gourry. She knew he was here, but she couldn't seem to find him. She was useless. It was her fault Gourry had left, and she couldn't find him. She couldn't do anything. No one here cared about her. Gourry didn't even come to look for her. What was the point of living? What if Gourry didn't want her to find him? What if he wanted to be left alone, away from her forever?
For the first time in over a week, Lina said something other than Gourry's name. "Maybe I should just... die..."
Unfortunately, this was one of the nights the sweet waitress was listening outside Lina's door. She heard what Lina had said, and gasped. She decided she had to take matters into her own hands before poor Lina went too far.
R&R Minna! Hope you like it! Like I said, a romantic ficcie, ne? -Shira ^_^
