The Unknown Dragon Slayer 12
How was this happening? I didn't understand. My heart was pounding and it felt like Fire was coming out of my insides. I pushed Dilandau away, and looked away.
"What's wrong?" Dilandau asked.
"I just don't understand it, Why is it happening now?" I asked. I still wasn't going to let him near me, or as close as he was right now. But it was so hard. Like, something wanted me to.
"Because of Laura, because I promised," I said.
"What? Who's Laura?" He asked. I shook my head and put my hand on my temple. "What are you talking about? Who's Laura?" he asked.
"I... I don't know...." I said, and closed my eyes.
"Then how did you promise her? If you don't know her, how could you?" He asked. "I don't know!" I said again, and stood up. I was imagining things. Who in the world was Laura? And what had I promised her? And if I did what was it? I walked away from him and looked out the window.
"Tora, what are you not telling me?" he asked, and walked up to me.
"Don't step any closer, not until we can figure this out," I said. Who was Laura? And why was it that I would get that feeling whenever Dilandau and I kissed? I sighed. "I don't know what I'm saying, but I know what I'm feeling," I said, and looked back out the window.
"Fine, tell me and we can think it out," He said, and walked up to me. I turned around and passed him. He reached out and grabbed my arm.
"Tora, come on, tell me," He said, but I pulled away.
"It's just something, a promise that I made I don't remember making. A promise that ment I couldn't touch... I couldn't do anything with.... Someone... you," I said. I collapsed and Held my head. What was happening? Why was I seeing things I've never seen? And why was I thinking that I couldn't do anything with Dilandau? Why was this happening? First with the feeling and now with the promise? What was wrong with me?
Dilandau came and sat down next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and tried to pull me closer to him.
"Don't!" I yelled, and pushed myself away from him.
"Tora! Tell me what's wrong!" he said, and tried to get me again.
"I did! I can't let you touch me and I can't touch you! I told you I promised!" I yelled, jumped up and rant to the door. Had I looked back I would have seen all the blood that was poring out of my leg. I had to leave. I couldn't stay here. To see Dilandau and not be able to.... I just couldn't. Something driving into my brain and my heart.
I punched in a code that I had seen him hit in and the door opened. Before the door was totally opened I was out of the room, my shoulder hit the mettle door and it dislocated. I grunted as I was reaching up to grab it. I turned sharply and was surprised to see a railing right there. My hips banged into it and I was sent flying over it.
"WAH!" I yelled and plummeted to the river that was below the Zibach Empire. I looked up and saw Dilandau leaning dangerously far over the railing trying to get my hand. Our fingers scraped but that was it.
"Tora!" I heard him yell and I kept falling. I smashed into the water and it knocked the wind out of me. I gasped for air but water flowed into my mouth and into my lungs. I coughed and tried to get the water out but I was pushed under. I covered my mouth and hoped that my lungs could wait till I got to the surface. I thrashed my arms and tried to get to the top again, but I never made it....
* * *
I woke up feeling someone's mouth breathing air into my lungs and then pushing on my chest. I started coughing and someone rolled me onto my side as the water came spilling out of my mouth. I gasped for air and put a hand on my chest making sure I had a heart beat. Someone was rubbing my back and patting it, helping me get the water out of my lungs. I was panting and rolled onto my back, and looked around.
"Van..." I said, and coughed some more. He looked relived and smiled a half smile.
"I guess you'll be okay if you're talking already," he said.
"What happened?" I asked, sitting up, and then coughing some more. It felt like I didn't have all the water out of my body yet.
"You tell me, I just found you on the river bank, and when I saw it was you I came rushing up," He said, and looked at me. "You okay?" He asked.
"Fine and dandy," I said, feeling my heart beat. "Thanks Van, but why didn't you just leave me? After I tried to hurt you and all...." I said, and studied his face expression. He shrugged.
"I'm a good guy remember? I try to help everyone, even the enemy," He said, and stud up.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Away, they're going to be coming for you soon, I don't want to be here when they do," He said, and started to walk away.
"Wait Van!" I yelled and stumbled up. He stopped walking and turned around. "Take me with you, I can't stay there, it's too hard," I said, and walked up to him slowly, as if asking his permission. He smiled and said,
"You can tag along for a while, I might need your skill with the sword." I smiled and walked up to him faster.
WE walked for a little while before he finally asked me why I couldn't stay with Zibach.
"Why is it too hard?" he asked.
"Huh?" I asked, and looked at him.
"For you to stay with Zibach, I mean," He said, and looked at me.
"Oh, well, because of how I feel while I'm there, and it's just to hard. Something keeps telling me that I made a promise to someone who I don't even know and that it's saying I can't stay there. It's too hard to fight the feeling and the voice that I hear telling me that," I said, and looked at a stick on the ground. I picked it up and swung it around a few times before looking back a Van.
"Huh, that's kinda strange," He said, and looked at the stick. "What was the promise?"
"Just... something that made it too hard to stay there, and it's like, not matter what I'm doing I'm seeing and hearing it. It's driving me crazy," I said, and tossed the stick.
"Whom did you make the promise to?" he asked.
"A girl, who I've never met.... But I feel like I owe it to her for some reason," I said, and looked at my hands. I hated them for some reason. I hated my hands; I hated what they did. I hated how they moved. Something they did, something that made me hurt too much for me to bear. Something that would bring tears to my eyes when I remembered it.
"What's her name?" he asked, and looked at me again.
"Laura that's all I remember, but I know it's not my other friend that was Laura, a Laura from another time. Another... life?" I asked. I suddenly got shivers going up and down my spine. I listened and heard that Van wasn't walking anymore. I turned around and looked at him.
"What's wrong?" I asked. He stared at me and I asked, "Van?"
"A girl named Laura?" He asked. I nodded. "That's.... Not possible," He said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because, we just found a girl named Laura a few days ago," he said. "You what?!" I asked.
"A girl named Laura, she said she was from the Mystic Moon, just like you," he said.
"Show me!" I said, and he set off into a run, and I followed him. We ran so much faster then I've ever run. It was like someone was helping me, like something was moving my legs for my body and I was just taking a ride in the head.
The forest cleared and I saw a castle in front of us. I was panting heavily and my legs felt like they were going to collapse. I remember the gash I'd had and looked at my leg. I gasped when I saw that there was a trail of blood going down my leg. I looked back and saw there was blood in my foot prince. I looked back and saw Van was going faster then I was.
"Van!" I yelled and as soon as I did my leg buckled.
"Tora!" He yelled, and ran back to my side. "Your leg..." He said, and looked at it. "What happened?" He asked, ripping off part of his shirt.
"I was walking out of Dilandau's room when his sword came down and sliced my leg," I said, and put pressure on the gash. Van wrapped the cloth around my leg and helped me up. "Agh!" I said, as I collapsed.
"Can you walk?" he asked.
"Does it look like I can walk?" I asked.
"Grab onto my neck," He said, leaning down. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he slipped his arms under my legs and back. "Woah, you're almost as light as Merle," he said, and started walking to the castle. But I don't remember getting there. I remember looking at his face, and him looking down at me, then I blacked out.
* * *
I woke up again in a dark room. My first thought was 'Zibach!' But I looked around and saw the reason why it was so dark was because the window was covered up and the light was out.
"What?" I asked myself. "Oh yeah," I said, and covered my head. I head a really bad aching. I heard a knocking at my door. "Come in," I said, looking up. Allen walked in and the Van, and then Another Girl I hadn't seen before.
"Laura..." I said, and tossed off the covers.
"Tora...?" She asked, and looked at my leg. "You're hurt!" She said.
"You two know each other already?" Allen asked.
"No, we've never seen each other before...." I said, and looked at her like something was wrong. And there was. If you knew who someone was and they remembered you but you had never met, well, that's what I would call weird. Laura nodded.
"It's weird, like.... from another life time," She said, and I remembered how I knew about the promise.
"Another life...." I said, and looked at my hands. "What?!" I asked, bringing them up. I could have sworn that there had been something on them.... Something red... blood? I looked back at Laura and she was looking at my hands too.
"Did you see that?" She asked. I nodded.
"See what?" Van asked.
"Blood, on my hands..." I said.
"Tora, there's nothing there," Allen said.
"Not now, but there was... There was! Laura saw it!" I said. Laura nodded and we looked at each other again. Something was too weird. This was not a good thing.
"There was something there, but it's gone now...." Laura said, and looked at me again. I was starring at my hands.
"These hands...." I said, and looked harder at them. I remembered thinking how I hated them so much. Because of what they had done. But... they hadn't done anything yet. What was wrong with me? I held my head and my hands streamed down my hair. I saw out of the corner of my eye some red.
"What?!" Laura asked. I took some of my hair, and saw it was red, and then go back to it's normal color blonde.
"What's happening?" I asked, looking at my hair. "You guys did just see that right?" I asked Van and Allen.
"See what?" Van asked.
"My hair! It changed from a Blonde to a red!" I yelled. Why couldn't they see it? Why didn't they know?
"Tora, it's blonde, not red...." Allen said, and started to walk over to me.
"Laura! Help me make them see!" I pleaded.
"I saw it too!" Laura said, and grabbed Allen's sleeve. "There was blood on her hands and when she rubbed her hands on her hair it made the color turn from blonde to red, because the blood on her hands was going to her hair," She said. "Something's wrong..." Van said. "Tora, you said you made a promise to Laura, how could that be if you've never met? And how is it that it's only you guys who are seeing the blood and not us?" He asked, and walked over. He took my hand and looked at it.
"Van, don't tell me-" Allen started.
"There!" Van yelled.
"What?!" Allen asked.
"You saw it!" I yelled.
"I did," He said, and looked at me. "Why was it there?" He asked. Laura and I shook our heads. We had no idea. It was all too strange. Nothing was working. Nothing made sense.
"Another life...." Laura and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and we knew. Ever heard of such a word as reincarnation?
Okay, ever seen the Mummy? You know how the priest guy was trying to bring his dead girlfriend back to life? That's reincarnation. Only, it can happen in different forms. Some people will turn into a butterfly or a fish or a donkey. Some kind of life form. Don't ask me why.
"Another life?" Van asked breaking me from my thoughts. I nodded and looked back.
"The promise," I said, and looked back at my hands. They were turning red again. "Stop!" I yelled to them and they went back to their original color. "Promise..." Laura said. Reincarnation. That's what had happened. That's why Laura and I knew about it, and that's why we could see the blood on my hands. But why was it that Allen couldn't see it but Van had? What did he have to do with it? And what about the promise I made to Laura? Why was Dilandau involved with it? What if all of us had been reincarnated. What if that was what was going to happen again and again? Or, maybe this was a chance to correct a mistake that we had all made, in our past life. Laura, Dilandau, Van, and myself. Maybe, if we could all talk, without someone trying to kill the other that is, maybe we could figure it out. Maybe we could find out what connection we had with each other.