*wipes tears from eyes* Ah well, alls well ends well!

Sword Lord - Tyrian

I sat on the bed, Valkyrie next to me. Her arm was in a sling. This was not what I was hoping for. Why couldn't Tihana understand? Valkyrie hasn't 'taken me away from her'. I almost felt as if she was just off on a motherly miff, doing the whole "That boy is too young to be in a relationship!" I'm 16. I mean, jeez. Hopefully she'd be back soon, and we could talk over this. I shifted a little, looking down at my lap, at my hands. Hands with which I've fought many, many beings. None of which I would have survived without Tihana.

"Wait here a second." I told Valkyrie quietly. She nodded, and I headed to Tihana's room. There was a cobweb in one corner, her stuff still strewn all over the place. Neatness was not one of her strong points. I went to her nightstand, expecting to see her book there. Instead, there was nothing, just the outline of it in the dust. I put my finger in the gap. I wasn't dreaming. No book. Tihana takes her book with her wherever she goes. It was then that it clicked. I sat myself down on her bed, looking at my hands. The hands that I wouldn't have if not for Tihana. I was crying, I realised, hot, salty tears running down my face, stinging the grazes on my cheeks. I'd let the best thing that had ever happened in my life, the reason I still have a life, go. And it hurt. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and it was the most easy, and yet the most painful thing in the world to turn into Valkyrie's arms, and sob.

Tihana was really gone.