Chapter 11: The Journey

A/N hey guys I know it's been a while but I've been busy since the end of the school year is coming up but soon it will be summer and I can write more. Also this takes place about a week or two after the last one ended.

It's dark... there's no light. There's no sound... nothing. Then lightning flashes and for a moment a girl is running through a street crying... then the moment is over and the darkness comes back accompanied by an encompassing boom of thunder and a faint scream in the night.

...

I wake with a start and try to hold on to the dream that has been plaguing me for weeks but like every other time it slips away into darkness.

I feel warmth and I realize it's him with his arms around me... I smile to myself and snuggle into his embrace. I hear his breathing... so gentle... I can feel it on the top of my head. I turn around careful not to rouse him. I stare at his sleeping face and feel my heart flutter. I lay my head on his chest and feel it move up and down with his breathing and I hear his heart beating softly.

I feel safe... I feel loved. I close my eyes and think of nothing... I just enjoy the warmth of him next to me. Then I feel him move and he kisses the top of my head lightly and he says "good morning Dawn."

"good morning Sly." we say no more because nothing else needs to be said and we just lie there enjoying each others company.

After a moment of staying like that my stomach growls. Sly chuckles and says "looks like someones hungry." I blush and he continues "let's go get dome breakfast I think everyone else already left."

I quickly go into the bathroom to change and when I come out Sly's already dressed and we head downstairs.

Sly

we head downstairs and into the dinning area where everyone else is already eating and I say "hey why didn't you guys wait for us?"

Lucas stopped stuffing his face for a moment swallowed and said "we've gotten tired of waking you two." he then continued to eat and Dawn and I sat down next to each other and had some delicious eggs and bacon.

After we finished Zeus said "come on let's go to the mine."

Sally said "oh not again that's the only place we ever go."

then a man further down the table says "if you're getting tired of the old forest mine why not go to the Lush woodlands?"

"where's that?"

"it's north close to the mountains here give me your map and I'll mark it for you." Zeus takes the map and hands it to the man and he marks a small x near the top and hands it back to Zeus.

Then a woman next to the man says "good luck you're going to need it. That place is pretty tough."

"oh by the way I'm Kirjonen and this is Wiglaf."

We say our good byes and head out to the Chrono. When we get there Zeus heads to the wheel and starts it up and we take off. After a little while Lucas, Sally, Dawn, and I are staring over the side of the airship watching the land pass beneath. Then Lucas turns to me and says "you know there's something I've been wanting to do for a while."

I turn to him and see he's got the end of a rope in his hand and I say "and what's that?"

he took a step back and said "this!"

With that he jumps over the side of the railing. I reach for him a second too late and he falls trailing the rope behind him. I take a quick look and see that the rope is attached to the side of the ship. As it looks like he's about to come to an abrupt stop the rope begins to stretch and he gently slows. Then the rope stops stretching and he begins to rapidly ascend. He starts to slow down near us and just before he starts to go back down we grab him and haul him back onto the ship.

After a second he says "That. Was. Awesome."

Sally conks him on the head and says "never do that again you idiot."

he grinned and said "you were worried about me weren't you?"

"on second thought jump again only this time do it with out the rope."

I sigh and Dawn and I walk away. She asks me "How long do you think it will be before something happens between those two?"

I take another look at the two and see them arguing over something and say "I give it a week."

Dawn

We walk to the other side of the ship and stand next to each other. I scoot closer to Sly and he puts his arm around me. We stay like that until Zeus calls out "Everyone hold on to something!"

Sly and I barely manage to grab the railing before the ship shakes violently. Then Saiko calls out "Zeus what's going on?"

"We're under attack! Sly, Dawn hold them off while I try to get away."

Sly and I run to the other side of the ship and see a bunch of flying monsters. Sly readies his bow and starts firing arrows. I aim my wand and shoot a fireball killing a few of them. After a minute it looks like they're starting to thin out, but then the ship shakes again. I lose my balance and fall over the edge.

Sly reaches towards me and I feel the tips of his fingers against mine. But he misses and I continue to fall... I close my eyes and cry as I fall.

Sly

My heart races as I reach for Dawn but I miss and she continues to fall. I look around the side of the ship and find what I'm looking for and jump after her. I go into a swan dive and catch up to Dawn quickly. I grab a hold of her and she opens her eyes in shock. She tries to say something but it's snatched up by the wind. I ignore it and tie the rope around both of our waists. After a second we begin to slow and unlike Lucas we don't shoot back up and just stay hanging the upside down.

Now that we aren't falling anymore she says "Sly... I... I... Why did you do it?" then she just hugs me tightly and cries into my shoulder.

I hug her just as tightly and I say "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

She looks deeply into my eyes and I look back trying to convey all my love for her and then I kiss her. It lasted only a moment but in that moment her lips are against mine and I think to myself (what a wonderful world... jk) her lips are so warm... so soft... so tender. Then I pull away slightly.

she then says "that still doesn't explain why you would jump after me I mean really there's water right below us and..."

she goes quiet as I kiss her again and I say "A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."

"i bet you don't even know what that word means."

"you got me there." she smiles and kisses me.

After a few minutes there's a tug on the rope and we're pulled back to the ship. When we reach the top Lucas says "I told you it's awesome didn't I?"

I smile and say "yeah that was pretty great." after a few minutes of checking to see if we were hurt we continued north towards the Lush Woodlands.

A/N hey guys I just want to say right now that the line about courage and strength is a quote by Lao Tzu, and the one about kisses being a nice trick is a quote by Ingrid Bergman. So yeah that's really all I've got to say so tell me what you think about the chapter and I will see... you all... next time... BYEEEEE!