Rena's eyes opened slowly. She thought she heard a loud noise downstairs, but had dismissed it as part of her dream. This time though, she could have sworn that she heard something hit the wall near her bedroom. Her first reaction was that it was her imagination as well, but she was curious to see if it was or not. Not wanting to wake Ashton, she tiptoed to the stairs. It was too dark to see a thing. A faint scent of copper wafted to her nose and she crinkled it in disgust. She slipped once on something wet--she assumed must have been leaking water--where did it come from? She turned on the lights and rubbed her eyes, adjusting slowly to them. What she saw before her gave her quite a fright. She could hardly believe her eyes. Her mouth opened in shock and she rushed downstairs, one hand over her mouth and the other gripping the railing. She was more than surprised to see that the bloody mess that she could have used to call a staircase was caused by her friend.
"Ashton?" she called, taking the young man into her arms without worry about how bloody her own clothes were getting, "Ashton!? ..can you hear me? Wake up.. wake up.. please..?"
When she received no reply, she simply shut both eyes and began to channel her energy gently into him, slowly shutting the wounds on his body. He stirred and she finished up after what seemed an eternity, at least for her. He moved to look into her eyes. "Rena... you're alright." he sighed, "Thank goodness."
"What happened? Why were you.. are you alright?"
"Thanks to you I feel better. A little groggy I must admit, but better at least." Ashton's eyes suddenly widened, "But more importantly, we have to find Westa! They came for her!!"
"They?"
Ashton had already gotten up and started out of the door. Rena could do nothing more than follow. Once she was outside, she gasped. Most of the doors of her neighbors' homes were caved in and she could hear whimpering everywhere. "Ashton!" she called out, "Please see what you can find out.. I have to help the others." she waited for him to nod consent and then rushed to the little kids' house first to see if they were alright.
~~~
A few hours later, everyone who was injured was carried into one building so that Rena could care for them. Only one house was left unharmed in the attack, which was the couple's. They were sitting on a couch, hugging and crying together as their children watched unhappily. Luckily no one had passed away, they found, but Westa was missing. Ashton assumed that she had been taken and that was why he hadn't been assaulted further. He put a hand a few inches above his heart. The man had missed the vital organ thankfully but had made a wound big enough that Rena couldn't help heal the scar. He moved his hand to his neck. A scar was left there as well. He watched helplessly as the villagers tried to comfort themselves. Rena was going from person to person as quickly as she could, to heal their wounds.
"I can't forgive them," she said when he approached, "After I know that everyone is okay, I'm going after them. I have to save my mother!" she took a deep, troubled breath and continued to heal her neighbor.
"Rena, I'm going with you," Ashton said immediately. "I'm...sorry this had to happen. I have a feeling that if Gyoro and Ururun had been with me, I wouldn't have had a problem protecting you and this village as well. I wish I hadn't been so selfish as to want to get rid of them..."
"You never know," she said slowly, stepping away from the person to a new one. "It's not your fault.." she sent a small smile in his direction and then sighed. "At least you were awake and tried..unlike me."
She was finally finished with all of the people of the village. She smiled sadly at all of them, then announced, "I'm going to go for a while. Don't worry, I'll find my mother and bring her back. I'll be fine too, because Ashton will be with me," she nodded and waved farewell for a while, ignoring their pleas to have her rest. "I don't have time," she explained, "I'll be okay."
Once they were out of the village, Rena paused, turning toward her friend. "And I forgot to say..at the very least you protected me, didn't you? ..thank you.."
She watched Ashton's face tinge red, and couldn't help but feel herself grow warm as well.
"Y-you're welcome. But Rena, you should have listened to the villagers... you've used too much of your energy to go on for much longer."
"But I can't rest!" she protested, "My mother is counting on me." the young woman's ears drooped and she glanced down.
Ashton sighed. "Don't worry... we won't waste too much time if you rest." he stepped forward, squatting down a little. "Here... I'll carry you. You can rest while I walk... then we won't waste time."
"But I can't let you do that..!"
The young man shrugged, standing and walking up to her. He picked her up and held her in his arms. "Don't worry about me. You should worry more about yourself. You spent too much energy healing just now..."
Although she had been complaining, she couldn't help but feel tired after everything that happened. She snuggled up against him and slowly fell asleep. (Which undoubtedly made the young man blush...)
~~~
When she awoke, they were in the middle of a forest. Rena simply hoped Ashton knew where he was going. The young man yawned once and glanced down, feeling her move in his arms. "Awake? It's been about five hours..."
"Already that long!?" Rena exclaimed, "You must be tired!"
"I'm fine, just a little," he yawned again, "sleepy."
"Well um.. you should rest then," Rena said, "And you can put me down now."
Ashton gently returned her to her feet. "We don't have time do we? Plus I don't think you want to be carrying me now, do you?"
Rena turned red at the thought. "But.. I'm worried about you! You have to get sleep. We can afford an hour or so.."
"But that's an extra hour for them to get away. We already lost most track of them. I can sleep after we find them..."
Rena stopped in her footsteps and turned, going on her tiptoes and putting both hands on his shoulders. She pushed down against him, effectively making him go down on his knees.
"Wait, Rena, we--"
She went onto her knees slowly as well, and pulled him closer to her, putting his head down on her lap. "Sleep." she commanded. Noticing his complete hesitation, she patted his head twice. "Ashton.. please?"
The young man sighed. "Rena... we're wasting time. Remember how you didn't want to do that?"
"I don't want you to get sick because of me again," she said firmly, "Plus you've just recovered from your wounds, and you've been carrying me for the last five hours! Please. Listen to what I say.. just this once.."
Ashton let out another sigh. "If you're going to be like that, I guess I can't refuse..."
The two paused, hearing footsteps from the forest. A bunch of leaves brushed back to reveal someone neither had expected to see.
"Di-Dias!" Rena exclaimed, her face turning beet red.
"O-oh, um, this isn't what it looks like..."
"Well you see, Ashton hasn't had much sleep for a while so--"
"I didn't mean anything by it so--"
"What are you two babbling about?" the silver-haired swordsman snapped, "Did you come here to find the people who attacked Arlia?"
"How did you know about that!?" Ashton demanded.
Rena hopped up, rushing toward her friend. "Dias!" she exclaimed as the two wondered if she had heard what they had been speaking about. "I'm glad you're okay!"
Dias placed a hand on the young woman's head. "I got a hold of three of them, but two escaped me." his expression darkened, "I hadn't expected a magic user. I guess I let my guard down." a small unhumored smirk landed on his face, "Even I still need to pay more attention in battle."
Rena was busying herself by looking the man up and down. Even Dias didn't feel too comfortable with this. "Rena... what do you think you're doing?"
She frowned, taking his free hand into both of hers. "You're bleeding."
"Don't worry about it. I accidentally cut my hand on my blade today. I've been careless."
She simply pouted.
"I forgot to mention," Dias continued, his voice and face emotionless, "I've managed to find Westa. I'm sorry to tell you, Rena, but she's already dead."