The Lilac Princess
Chapter 5
Starlight...
By Lady Dante
Five Days Ago...
She woke up choking, coughing up water, her tiny body heaving with the effort. As she gasped for breath, the little girl slowly opened her eyes and blinked, trying to focus on something--anything. Her vision gradually cleared and she found herself staring up into darkness. Darkness with tiny spots of light scattered across. A word worked its way into her bewildered mind. Stars. The spots of light were stars. The darkness was the sky. She continued to stare up, trying to concentrate, clinging to that one thing as she struggled to become fully conscious.
Stars.
The little girl stayed like that for a long time, flat on her back staring at the distant stars. A slight breeze blew over her and she shivered. She was soaking wet. She was cold. Her back hurt. Her head hurt. She had no idea where she was or how she got there.
Through her confusion, the child realized she was laying on something. Pieces of something, actually, something sharp. She tried to detangle herself from a pile of debris. She also had to struggle free of her own long hair, which was wrapped around her in damp strands. The little girl sat up warily, the dull pain in her head making her dizzy and weak. As she moved she felt a rather sharp sting on her neck. Instinctively, she reached up to touch the pain. She withdrew her hand to find her fingertips stained with a little bit of something red and sticky.
The little girl sat still until the dizziness passed. Her confusion began to lift slightly as she became more accustomed to her surroundings. Looking about, she noticed big pieces of twisted metal and broken glass all around her. She turned her head to the right and saw something that made her jump.
Somebody was lying on the ground a few feet away. Her first instinct was to run, but she stopped herself and instead crawled towards the still shape to get a better look. The person was little, like she was, and wore the same type of covering, but there was something odd about this person. Her fuzzy brain told her that this person was a boy--different from her, she was a girl. The child knelt by the boy and peered down at him. His hair was long like hers but a lighter color. His dark blue eyes were open, staring up at the sky, just like she did when she woke up. She leaned forward until her face was above his so he could see her. His eyes didn't move. They looked cloudy. Maybe he was still asleep.
The little girl put her small hands on the boy's chest. He was cold. She shook him, trying to wake him up. He didn't move. She leaned over him again and put her hand on his pale little face, gently shaking his head. His face was very cold. She moved a damp strand of hair away from his cool cheek. He still didn't move. He didn't blink. He didn't do anything.
She picked up his arm and tugged, gently at first, then more impatiently. The girl saw that he was wearing a metal band on his wrist and realized she was wearing one as well. She held her wrist next to the boy's and compared the shiny bands. They were exactly alike. The same word was written on both. Noin. She understood the word. It was a number. She looked back at his unmoving face and shook him again.
Why wouldn't he wake up? Did his back and head hurt too? Is that why he wouldn't move? She sat back and shook him harder. It was then that she noticed his chest was covered with the red sticky stuff. The pain in her head got worse as the proper word for the red stuff entered her mind. Blood. He was still and cold and covered with blood. The girl looked from his bloody chest back to his pallid face.
She shook him once more, desperate to wake him up. She didn't want him to sleep. She wanted him to wake up so they could go away from this place. It was cold here. She hurt here. She wanted to go. The girl began to cry. The boy wasn't going to wake up.
The dazed girl stayed next to the boy for a long time, trying to decide what to do. She wanted to go away from this place, but she didn't want to leave the boy behind, even if he wasn't going to wake up. She didn't know who he was exactly-she didn't know who she was either-but she knew she was supposed to be with the boy. They were both 'noin.' They were supposed to stay together.
The frantic child pushed at the boy one last time, hitting him a few times, hoping irrationally that it would make him wake up. She knew he wasn't going to wake up. She didn't want to stay here anymore, but she couldn't leave him. She began to weep again. Why couldn't he just wake up? When she couldn't cry anymore, the little girl curled up next to the boy and fell asleep.
Some time later, she awoke to the sound of voices. She stirred drowsily and sat up, rubbing her eyes. The voices were loud but seemed far away. She stood and followed the sound, wrapping her arms around her cold little body. Walking through the debris on unsteady legs, the little girl tripped and fell across something soft. She pushed herself up and realized she landed on another person. A big person this time, dressed differently from her and the boy. She scrambled off the big person and looked around. There were a lot of other people lying on the ground, none of them moving. She heard the voices again and ran towards the sound. She didn't want to be around any more people who wouldn't wake up.
She tripped again in her rush to escape the still bodies and fell against a tree. She took a moment to catch her breath and listened for the voices again. They sounded much closer now. She peeked around the tree and saw several big people some distance away, shouting. Two of the big people pointed something at the others and shouted louder. They sounded angry.
Loud popping noises made the little girl jump and cry out, but the loud sounds drowned out her scream. She watched as most of the big people fell to the ground. They didn't get up. They must be sleeping now too. She rubbed her temple gingerly in response to another sharp pain in her head. Dead. That was the word. The big people who fell, the people she tripped over, the boy...they were all dead. That meant they weren't going to get up. Ever.
She heard the two angry people talking and hid behind the tree. She didn't want the big people to make her fall down too, so she ducked down and tried to be quiet. The angry people eventually left and when the little girl was sure they weren't coming back she started to run again. She didn't know where she was going and she didn't care. She just wanted to be away from that place. Far away.
The little girl stumbled along for a short time before stopping to catch her breath. The wind picked up, howling through the trees and the child shivered, as much from fear as the cold. She curled up into a ball to keep warm and huddled there, too tired to continue.
The sound of more voices startled the child and she darted behind another tree, terrified that the big people had come back to get her. She looked around, trying to find where the voices were coming from, and saw a small house through the trees in a clearing. The voices she heard belonged to several people rushing from the house with boxes and putting them in to a large truck. The people spoke anxiously to each other as they scurried about, trying to pack as much in the truck as they could. Eventually, the truck was full and they crowded into it, some sitting on top of boxes and furniture as they sped away.
Everything was quiet once again. The little girl watched the house for a short while and, when she was sure no one else was coming out, she walked towards the clearing. In their panicked rush, the people had dropped several boxes, the contents of which lay strewn over the ground. The child walked past the mess cautiously, carefully looking around the area to make sure no one else was there.
The little girl noticed one of the boxes contained clothes, so she stopped to rummage through for something dry to put on. She chose a large green shirt and peeled off her damp covering to slip on the shirt. It was warm and smelled better than what she had been wearing. More comfortable now that she was dry, the little girl decided to look inside the house. She crept up the front steps quietly and peered inside the open door. The interior of the house was in much the same state as the yard, strewn with discarded objects. She took a step inside, looking around fearfully and ready to bolt at the slightest noise.
She wandered through the house for quite a while, picking up things now and then for a closer look. She passed through the kitchen, opening cabinets in search of food but only finding cans and continued into a bedroom. The only things left in the room were the drapes, half torn from the windows, and a couple of blankets. The little girl picked up one of coarse blankets and wrapped it around herself. It was scratchy but much warmer than the shirt. Exhausted, the child lay down in the middle of the dingy gray room and slept.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The little girl had been wandering for days now, not really knowing where she was going and not caring. She just wanted to be far away from the other place. The place where she left the boy. She rubbed her eyes at the thought of the boy. It made her head hurt to think about him, so she tried not to. She looked at her bracelet. Noin. She had remembered a few things during her trek. A name. HER name, she was sure. But it wasn't 'noin.' And, although she was sure it WAS her name, it didn't feel right. Her head hurt again. She decided not to remember anymore.
So, she walked, day and night. She stopped only when she simply could not continue, almost collapsing from total exhaustion. She ate what she saw the birds and other forest creatures eating. Some of it didn't taste good and she spit it out. The brightly colored berries she came across now and then tasted good and she ate as many of them as her stomach could hold.
Halfway through her journey, her throat began to hurt. She was thirsty, but she didn't know what to do about it. She hadn't passed any water and didn't know where to look for any. Just when she though she couldn't take the burning feeling in her throat anymore, it began to rain. She stooped in her tracks and looked up as the water droplets fell down on her in a light shower. She opened her mouth and let it fill up, swallowed and filled her mouth with rain again. When the dryness was gone, she rubbed her wet face and hands. The rain was cool and felt good, especially on her bruised and scratched feet. It had gotten warmer over the past few days, warm enough that she had shucked the blanket, though she was sensible enough to keep it. She let it drag behind her as she continued her journey.
The little girl walked on for several hours after the rain stopped. She was in an open field now, having walked out of the dense wood some time ago. The field was much brighter than the dark woods and there were little bits of color all across it. Flowers. The flowers were pretty, she liked them. She ventured a little further into the field, lightly touching the flowers as she passed, until she found a soft mound of grass near some sweet-smelling purple flowers. The weary girl plopped down in the middle of the fragrant flowers, stretching out her sore legs, and slept soundly.
She woke up to a pain in her tummy. She was hungry again. There hadn't been any berries to eat since before the last time she slept. She hadn't found anything else she thought she could eat in a very long time and the pain in her tummy was getting worse. Still struggling to wake up, she wandered off to find something to eat, forgetting her blanket.
The little girl still couldn't find any berries. She searched for a very long time, walking back into the woods and out into another clearing. There was a big tree in this clearing and the tree had things hanging from the leaves. They weren't exactly like the berries, but something in her head told her the apples would taste good also. She stopped. Yes, that's what they were, apples. She remembered eating them before. And she remembered the names of the flowers in the field. Poppies, pansies, lilacs...
Her head began to hurt again as she remembered, so she decided to stop trying to figure things out and just eat.
The apples were much too high for her to reach from the ground, so she walked around the tree, looking for a way to climb up. On the far side of the tree there was a lower branch, not low enough for her to climb on, but there was a large root jutting out of the ground and a knot on the tree that she used to hoist herself up. Having made it to the lowest branch, she proceeded to the next one. There were apples on that one, dangling from the far end. She lay on her stomach across the branch and scooted out until she could reach some of the green fruit.
She feasted on one after another, letting the cores drop to the ground as she finished. Her tummy didn't hurt anymore. Before the child climbed down, it occurred to her that there might not be any more food for a long time, like last time. She thought it might be a good idea to take some of the apples with her, she could wrap them in the blanket.
The little girl began plucking the tart green apples, dropping them to the ground in a pile. She had almost picked the branch clean, but there were a few more at the very end. She scooted out further on the branch and reached out for the last of the fruit. As she reached out, she felt a sharp pain in her head and became disoriented, strange images rapidly flooding her blurred memory. Too many images. Some confusing, some terrifying. She heard people screaming and someone calling her name. The name that still didn't feel right. The memories didn't feel right either, like they belonged to someone else, not her. A wave of dizziness passed over her and she lost her balance. She fell only a short distance and landed with a thud.
The little girl shook her head, trying to clear away the last of the scary pictures in her head, and realized that she landed on something. No...someone. Whoever she landed on began to wriggle violently and knocked her backwards. She unintentionally let out grunt. The someone she landed on scrambled out from underneath her and whirled around. The little girl found herself looking at the startled face of a little boy, a bit bigger than she, dressed in white.
She watched, quite alarmed, as he stood and spoke. She couldn't understand anything he was saying and when he took a step towards her, she panicked and ran. Not fast enough, however. The boy dashed forward and caught her. She tried to wriggle free, but he held her in a tight bear-hug.
He was talking to her calmly. He didn't sound angry or scared like the other people and he smiled. He looked nice. And he was dressed sort of like she and the other boy had been dressed when she woke up. She relaxed a bit when she realized he wasn't going to hurt her and she tried to figure out what he was saying. She didn't recognize any of the words he used. He didn't talk like the angry people, she had understood most of what they said, and he didn't talk like the scared people either.
The little boy continued to chatter on, not really noticing that she probably couldn't understand anything he was saying. He began to gesture wildly and make funny noises causing the little girl to laugh in spite of herself. By the time he finished whatever he was trying to tell her, they were both laughing hysterically. When the laughter died down, she took a closer look at the boy. He reminded her of the way the sky looked after the rain stopped. His eyes were the same shade of palest blue and his hair was the color of the clouds.
The little boy started talking again and, without warning, reached forward. The little girl jumped at the sudden move, but when he pulled a flower out of her hair, she relaxed again, certain now that he didn't mean her any harm. He continued to babble as he turned on his heel and began to walk off. The little girl just watched him go, not knowing what to do. He stopped when he realized she wasn't following him and then, bowing slightly, said something. The little girl recognized a word. A number, like the word on her wrist band. Zechs. She looked at him a moment before timidly pointing to the boy and saying, "Zechs?"
Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. She hadn't spoken since she woke up five days ago. The boy looked at her a moment before saying something else. She got it right, she decided. His name WAS Zechs. She pointed at him again and said, "Zech Marquise." She was glad she could at least understand his name.
Zechs began talking again, rambling on about things the little girl couldn't understand and she frowned. He stopped and pointed to her. He was asking her name.
Her name.
The name she had remembered earlier popped into her mind again, but it still didn't feel right. She looked down at the band on her wrist, unsure what to tell the little boy. Zechs took her arm and looked at the bracelet. He grasped her hand in his and shook it slightly, saying something and smiling. He called her Noin. She smiled back and let him lead her away. She didn't know where they were going and she didn't care.
Miss Noin was just glad not to be alone anymore.
++++++++++++++++ end part five ++++++++++++++++++++++++
Poor little Noin...I got choked up writing about "the boy"...but at least she's got Zechs now!
O.K., Chapter 5 was SO long (TWICE the size of chapter 4) that I had to cut it in half. I'm working on the other part (now chapter 6) currently and will hopefully have it posted very soon. Please stay tuned...there's a lovely Italian lullaby in it that was provided by Chloe Peacecraft. So keep checking back!!
And the sap drips on...
P.S. I have become a review junkie. Send me some please?! If you don't, I'm not sure if I'll be able to concentrate on finishing Chapter 6...
Disclaimer:
O.K. If you evil lawyer types think I'm intentionally infringing on any copyrights, then your are:
1. Stupid. I'm not claiming to own anything.
2. Bloodsuckers. Heh, TRY getting any money from me!
3. Just mean. I do this because I miss GW and want
more! Especially more Zechs and Noin. I got gypped
in Endless Waltz! I don't ask for money, honest.
Chapter 5
Starlight...
By Lady Dante
Five Days Ago...
She woke up choking, coughing up water, her tiny body heaving with the effort. As she gasped for breath, the little girl slowly opened her eyes and blinked, trying to focus on something--anything. Her vision gradually cleared and she found herself staring up into darkness. Darkness with tiny spots of light scattered across. A word worked its way into her bewildered mind. Stars. The spots of light were stars. The darkness was the sky. She continued to stare up, trying to concentrate, clinging to that one thing as she struggled to become fully conscious.
Stars.
The little girl stayed like that for a long time, flat on her back staring at the distant stars. A slight breeze blew over her and she shivered. She was soaking wet. She was cold. Her back hurt. Her head hurt. She had no idea where she was or how she got there.
Through her confusion, the child realized she was laying on something. Pieces of something, actually, something sharp. She tried to detangle herself from a pile of debris. She also had to struggle free of her own long hair, which was wrapped around her in damp strands. The little girl sat up warily, the dull pain in her head making her dizzy and weak. As she moved she felt a rather sharp sting on her neck. Instinctively, she reached up to touch the pain. She withdrew her hand to find her fingertips stained with a little bit of something red and sticky.
The little girl sat still until the dizziness passed. Her confusion began to lift slightly as she became more accustomed to her surroundings. Looking about, she noticed big pieces of twisted metal and broken glass all around her. She turned her head to the right and saw something that made her jump.
Somebody was lying on the ground a few feet away. Her first instinct was to run, but she stopped herself and instead crawled towards the still shape to get a better look. The person was little, like she was, and wore the same type of covering, but there was something odd about this person. Her fuzzy brain told her that this person was a boy--different from her, she was a girl. The child knelt by the boy and peered down at him. His hair was long like hers but a lighter color. His dark blue eyes were open, staring up at the sky, just like she did when she woke up. She leaned forward until her face was above his so he could see her. His eyes didn't move. They looked cloudy. Maybe he was still asleep.
The little girl put her small hands on the boy's chest. He was cold. She shook him, trying to wake him up. He didn't move. She leaned over him again and put her hand on his pale little face, gently shaking his head. His face was very cold. She moved a damp strand of hair away from his cool cheek. He still didn't move. He didn't blink. He didn't do anything.
She picked up his arm and tugged, gently at first, then more impatiently. The girl saw that he was wearing a metal band on his wrist and realized she was wearing one as well. She held her wrist next to the boy's and compared the shiny bands. They were exactly alike. The same word was written on both. Noin. She understood the word. It was a number. She looked back at his unmoving face and shook him again.
Why wouldn't he wake up? Did his back and head hurt too? Is that why he wouldn't move? She sat back and shook him harder. It was then that she noticed his chest was covered with the red sticky stuff. The pain in her head got worse as the proper word for the red stuff entered her mind. Blood. He was still and cold and covered with blood. The girl looked from his bloody chest back to his pallid face.
She shook him once more, desperate to wake him up. She didn't want him to sleep. She wanted him to wake up so they could go away from this place. It was cold here. She hurt here. She wanted to go. The girl began to cry. The boy wasn't going to wake up.
The dazed girl stayed next to the boy for a long time, trying to decide what to do. She wanted to go away from this place, but she didn't want to leave the boy behind, even if he wasn't going to wake up. She didn't know who he was exactly-she didn't know who she was either-but she knew she was supposed to be with the boy. They were both 'noin.' They were supposed to stay together.
The frantic child pushed at the boy one last time, hitting him a few times, hoping irrationally that it would make him wake up. She knew he wasn't going to wake up. She didn't want to stay here anymore, but she couldn't leave him. She began to weep again. Why couldn't he just wake up? When she couldn't cry anymore, the little girl curled up next to the boy and fell asleep.
Some time later, she awoke to the sound of voices. She stirred drowsily and sat up, rubbing her eyes. The voices were loud but seemed far away. She stood and followed the sound, wrapping her arms around her cold little body. Walking through the debris on unsteady legs, the little girl tripped and fell across something soft. She pushed herself up and realized she landed on another person. A big person this time, dressed differently from her and the boy. She scrambled off the big person and looked around. There were a lot of other people lying on the ground, none of them moving. She heard the voices again and ran towards the sound. She didn't want to be around any more people who wouldn't wake up.
She tripped again in her rush to escape the still bodies and fell against a tree. She took a moment to catch her breath and listened for the voices again. They sounded much closer now. She peeked around the tree and saw several big people some distance away, shouting. Two of the big people pointed something at the others and shouted louder. They sounded angry.
Loud popping noises made the little girl jump and cry out, but the loud sounds drowned out her scream. She watched as most of the big people fell to the ground. They didn't get up. They must be sleeping now too. She rubbed her temple gingerly in response to another sharp pain in her head. Dead. That was the word. The big people who fell, the people she tripped over, the boy...they were all dead. That meant they weren't going to get up. Ever.
She heard the two angry people talking and hid behind the tree. She didn't want the big people to make her fall down too, so she ducked down and tried to be quiet. The angry people eventually left and when the little girl was sure they weren't coming back she started to run again. She didn't know where she was going and she didn't care. She just wanted to be away from that place. Far away.
The little girl stumbled along for a short time before stopping to catch her breath. The wind picked up, howling through the trees and the child shivered, as much from fear as the cold. She curled up into a ball to keep warm and huddled there, too tired to continue.
The sound of more voices startled the child and she darted behind another tree, terrified that the big people had come back to get her. She looked around, trying to find where the voices were coming from, and saw a small house through the trees in a clearing. The voices she heard belonged to several people rushing from the house with boxes and putting them in to a large truck. The people spoke anxiously to each other as they scurried about, trying to pack as much in the truck as they could. Eventually, the truck was full and they crowded into it, some sitting on top of boxes and furniture as they sped away.
Everything was quiet once again. The little girl watched the house for a short while and, when she was sure no one else was coming out, she walked towards the clearing. In their panicked rush, the people had dropped several boxes, the contents of which lay strewn over the ground. The child walked past the mess cautiously, carefully looking around the area to make sure no one else was there.
The little girl noticed one of the boxes contained clothes, so she stopped to rummage through for something dry to put on. She chose a large green shirt and peeled off her damp covering to slip on the shirt. It was warm and smelled better than what she had been wearing. More comfortable now that she was dry, the little girl decided to look inside the house. She crept up the front steps quietly and peered inside the open door. The interior of the house was in much the same state as the yard, strewn with discarded objects. She took a step inside, looking around fearfully and ready to bolt at the slightest noise.
She wandered through the house for quite a while, picking up things now and then for a closer look. She passed through the kitchen, opening cabinets in search of food but only finding cans and continued into a bedroom. The only things left in the room were the drapes, half torn from the windows, and a couple of blankets. The little girl picked up one of coarse blankets and wrapped it around herself. It was scratchy but much warmer than the shirt. Exhausted, the child lay down in the middle of the dingy gray room and slept.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The little girl had been wandering for days now, not really knowing where she was going and not caring. She just wanted to be far away from the other place. The place where she left the boy. She rubbed her eyes at the thought of the boy. It made her head hurt to think about him, so she tried not to. She looked at her bracelet. Noin. She had remembered a few things during her trek. A name. HER name, she was sure. But it wasn't 'noin.' And, although she was sure it WAS her name, it didn't feel right. Her head hurt again. She decided not to remember anymore.
So, she walked, day and night. She stopped only when she simply could not continue, almost collapsing from total exhaustion. She ate what she saw the birds and other forest creatures eating. Some of it didn't taste good and she spit it out. The brightly colored berries she came across now and then tasted good and she ate as many of them as her stomach could hold.
Halfway through her journey, her throat began to hurt. She was thirsty, but she didn't know what to do about it. She hadn't passed any water and didn't know where to look for any. Just when she though she couldn't take the burning feeling in her throat anymore, it began to rain. She stooped in her tracks and looked up as the water droplets fell down on her in a light shower. She opened her mouth and let it fill up, swallowed and filled her mouth with rain again. When the dryness was gone, she rubbed her wet face and hands. The rain was cool and felt good, especially on her bruised and scratched feet. It had gotten warmer over the past few days, warm enough that she had shucked the blanket, though she was sensible enough to keep it. She let it drag behind her as she continued her journey.
The little girl walked on for several hours after the rain stopped. She was in an open field now, having walked out of the dense wood some time ago. The field was much brighter than the dark woods and there were little bits of color all across it. Flowers. The flowers were pretty, she liked them. She ventured a little further into the field, lightly touching the flowers as she passed, until she found a soft mound of grass near some sweet-smelling purple flowers. The weary girl plopped down in the middle of the fragrant flowers, stretching out her sore legs, and slept soundly.
She woke up to a pain in her tummy. She was hungry again. There hadn't been any berries to eat since before the last time she slept. She hadn't found anything else she thought she could eat in a very long time and the pain in her tummy was getting worse. Still struggling to wake up, she wandered off to find something to eat, forgetting her blanket.
The little girl still couldn't find any berries. She searched for a very long time, walking back into the woods and out into another clearing. There was a big tree in this clearing and the tree had things hanging from the leaves. They weren't exactly like the berries, but something in her head told her the apples would taste good also. She stopped. Yes, that's what they were, apples. She remembered eating them before. And she remembered the names of the flowers in the field. Poppies, pansies, lilacs...
Her head began to hurt again as she remembered, so she decided to stop trying to figure things out and just eat.
The apples were much too high for her to reach from the ground, so she walked around the tree, looking for a way to climb up. On the far side of the tree there was a lower branch, not low enough for her to climb on, but there was a large root jutting out of the ground and a knot on the tree that she used to hoist herself up. Having made it to the lowest branch, she proceeded to the next one. There were apples on that one, dangling from the far end. She lay on her stomach across the branch and scooted out until she could reach some of the green fruit.
She feasted on one after another, letting the cores drop to the ground as she finished. Her tummy didn't hurt anymore. Before the child climbed down, it occurred to her that there might not be any more food for a long time, like last time. She thought it might be a good idea to take some of the apples with her, she could wrap them in the blanket.
The little girl began plucking the tart green apples, dropping them to the ground in a pile. She had almost picked the branch clean, but there were a few more at the very end. She scooted out further on the branch and reached out for the last of the fruit. As she reached out, she felt a sharp pain in her head and became disoriented, strange images rapidly flooding her blurred memory. Too many images. Some confusing, some terrifying. She heard people screaming and someone calling her name. The name that still didn't feel right. The memories didn't feel right either, like they belonged to someone else, not her. A wave of dizziness passed over her and she lost her balance. She fell only a short distance and landed with a thud.
The little girl shook her head, trying to clear away the last of the scary pictures in her head, and realized that she landed on something. No...someone. Whoever she landed on began to wriggle violently and knocked her backwards. She unintentionally let out grunt. The someone she landed on scrambled out from underneath her and whirled around. The little girl found herself looking at the startled face of a little boy, a bit bigger than she, dressed in white.
She watched, quite alarmed, as he stood and spoke. She couldn't understand anything he was saying and when he took a step towards her, she panicked and ran. Not fast enough, however. The boy dashed forward and caught her. She tried to wriggle free, but he held her in a tight bear-hug.
He was talking to her calmly. He didn't sound angry or scared like the other people and he smiled. He looked nice. And he was dressed sort of like she and the other boy had been dressed when she woke up. She relaxed a bit when she realized he wasn't going to hurt her and she tried to figure out what he was saying. She didn't recognize any of the words he used. He didn't talk like the angry people, she had understood most of what they said, and he didn't talk like the scared people either.
The little boy continued to chatter on, not really noticing that she probably couldn't understand anything he was saying. He began to gesture wildly and make funny noises causing the little girl to laugh in spite of herself. By the time he finished whatever he was trying to tell her, they were both laughing hysterically. When the laughter died down, she took a closer look at the boy. He reminded her of the way the sky looked after the rain stopped. His eyes were the same shade of palest blue and his hair was the color of the clouds.
The little boy started talking again and, without warning, reached forward. The little girl jumped at the sudden move, but when he pulled a flower out of her hair, she relaxed again, certain now that he didn't mean her any harm. He continued to babble as he turned on his heel and began to walk off. The little girl just watched him go, not knowing what to do. He stopped when he realized she wasn't following him and then, bowing slightly, said something. The little girl recognized a word. A number, like the word on her wrist band. Zechs. She looked at him a moment before timidly pointing to the boy and saying, "Zechs?"
Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. She hadn't spoken since she woke up five days ago. The boy looked at her a moment before saying something else. She got it right, she decided. His name WAS Zechs. She pointed at him again and said, "Zech Marquise." She was glad she could at least understand his name.
Zechs began talking again, rambling on about things the little girl couldn't understand and she frowned. He stopped and pointed to her. He was asking her name.
Her name.
The name she had remembered earlier popped into her mind again, but it still didn't feel right. She looked down at the band on her wrist, unsure what to tell the little boy. Zechs took her arm and looked at the bracelet. He grasped her hand in his and shook it slightly, saying something and smiling. He called her Noin. She smiled back and let him lead her away. She didn't know where they were going and she didn't care.
Miss Noin was just glad not to be alone anymore.
++++++++++++++++ end part five ++++++++++++++++++++++++
Poor little Noin...I got choked up writing about "the boy"...but at least she's got Zechs now!
O.K., Chapter 5 was SO long (TWICE the size of chapter 4) that I had to cut it in half. I'm working on the other part (now chapter 6) currently and will hopefully have it posted very soon. Please stay tuned...there's a lovely Italian lullaby in it that was provided by Chloe Peacecraft. So keep checking back!!
And the sap drips on...
P.S. I have become a review junkie. Send me some please?! If you don't, I'm not sure if I'll be able to concentrate on finishing Chapter 6...
Disclaimer:
O.K. If you evil lawyer types think I'm intentionally infringing on any copyrights, then your are:
1. Stupid. I'm not claiming to own anything.
2. Bloodsuckers. Heh, TRY getting any money from me!
3. Just mean. I do this because I miss GW and want
more! Especially more Zechs and Noin. I got gypped
in Endless Waltz! I don't ask for money, honest.