He knew she wouldn't be anywhere close still, yet he could not think of where she could have gone either. The negative feelings he felt for himself at that moment decelerated his logical thoughts so that he was basically unable to figure anything out.

Slowly Katt stepped up behind him and comfortingly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Ryu… I know it sounds easier said than done, but you should try to calm down first, or you'll never be able to think about what to do next, ok?"

A worried look showed on her face, Ryu's emotional breakdown had surprised her quite a lot.

Ryu got up wordlessly, hands balled into fists, and without giving her a single glance, passed Katt and left the Nina's room.

Chapter 4: Mysterious encounter

Ryu sighed.

It had been 5 weeks now, 5 weeks since she had left, 5 weeks without any sign.

Still back on that day, Ryu, Katt and the others had left their hometown, going to cities all over the continent, in groups of two, as to make their search more efficient and raise the chances of success.

Today, Ryu and Katt had reached another city, one of many, he could not even keep track of the names anymore.

It was usually the same every single time, in every town.

They arrived, went around asking people if they had possibly seen a young woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and most remarkably black wings. Yet they always got the same reactions: shaken heads and weird frowns.

It was frustrating. Often had he been near despair, yet he never gave up in the end. He just couldn't. He had to find her.

His heart was aching more the longer she was gone. Every day seemed to take forever to go by, every town they left without having found her was just another piercing shot in his chest.

He could not really identify what deeper feeling caused this pain, however, he knew it was there, he wanted it to get over.

And there was only one solitary cure: he had to find her, and try to persuade her that what she had heard, what had made her leave, had been no more than a joke.

Ryu chuckled sarcastically at himself. No more than a joke…

Why did he have to make that joke in the first place?

Wasn't that a topic too serious to joke about?

He could have smacked himself in the face right there for making this dense mistake.

However, right now was not the time for accusations punishments, but for trying to reverse the effects of this so-called "joke".

"So you haven't possibly seen her?" Katt asked an elderly man standing right next to her, continuing the friends' search.

Yet the man only shook his head in denial, once more.

The young woren shot a worried glance over at Ryu, who was sighing deeply, looking out at the crowd with misty eyes. This did encourage her though, to make her continue her search.

"Excuse me…".

Holding the small picture of their lost friend in her hands, she made her way through the crowd, to keep asking.

Ryu's eyes wandered over the huge crowd gathering in the town center, checking every single face for the perfect match.

Oh my…

And there it was, the perfect match he had been looking for.

Those deep blue eyes, the silky blonde hair, the careful but gentle expression on her face… It simply had to be her. This face, it could never belong to anybody else. And even though the greatest part of the head and lower body was being hidden in a light blue, hooded robe of a wizard, he was a hundred percent sure that it was her, Nina.

Before he even knew what he was doing, his heart took control, mobilized the nerves in his feet and made him move, pushing and shoving his way through the crowd to where he had seen her.

For a moment it seemed as if he had lost her, the blue hooded girl out of his sight, but then a light shimmer appeared in the corner of his eye and he turned around quickly.

There she was again, half-running in the opposite direction, never looking back.

As fast as he could, he ran after her, finally catching up and putting a hand on her shoulder as to make her turn around and face him.

Yet what he saw was not what he expected; there was the silky blonde hair, but the face, the eyes… it all was different.

The young wizard looked at him strangely, scanning his face, until she finally turned back around and continued on her way.

Ryu was frozen to the spot, immobilized.

Was it possible that he has mistaken this young woman for Nina?

It certainly was not impossible, at least factually, with all the distance between them when he had first glanced at her.

However, regarding his emotions it was definitely impossible. He knew for sure what he had felt when his eyes had met hers, the feelings welling up inside of him in that very instance were far too strong and familiar to him to be false and nothing but an illusion.

He knew it had been her, there was not the slightest doubt left in his mind when he gave it a second thought.

"Ryu, you okay?"

He felt a small hand touch his shoulder and tear him out of his reveries- Behind him stood Katt with a worried look on her face, slightly tilting her head to the side, waiting for him to reply.

"I saw her", was all he could bring out, all he could think of.

She frowned and shot him a questioning glance.

"You mean, you saw Nina? Where? And why isn't she with you now?"

Once more the young warrior let out a deep sigh and explained what had just happened a moment ago. And as he expected, Katt doubted the truth in his feelings.

"Are you sure? I mean you could have mistaken her for Nina. I mean, you're wanting to see her so bad that you probably simply projected her face on that of that other woman, without knowing it."

"Katt, please, trust me. I am sure of what I saw. I am more than sure. You just have to trust me. Please help me look for her. I know she is somewhere around, I can feel it."

She gave him a last questioning look before a small encouraging smile came to her lips.

"Okay, I guess it won't hurt if we keep looking her a little longer. And since you're that sure…"

She winked at him, waved Nina's picture in her hand and took off to keep looking.

Ryu was determined to find her, you could see it on his face.

Never before in the past 5 weeks had he been this optimistic, and filled with these kinds of emotions.

Soon, he knew it, soon they would find her.

And he would make up for everything.

The young woman slipped off the hood of her long wizard robe and took a deep breath.

Close, too close, she thought. He had almost caught up with her, the business of the market giving her the advantage she needed to escape the delicate situation.

She just had to flee.

The instance their glances met over the distance, a weird feeling won control over her and told her to get away from him, even if there was that other feeling, the one that had made her hesitate long enough for him to take a closer look on her and obviously realize who she was. That other feeling that made her want to be closer to him, as close as possible, and never leave again.

Yet she did not no what either of these emotions originated from, she could not tell why the order to flee had triumphed over that of getting closer.

Running her fingers along the fine lines of her face, she gazed into the mirror, looking at the unfamiliar person that stared back at her, curiously, anxiously.

If only she knew…

a/n: OMG, it's so hard to believe that it's been so long since I last updated… I'm extremely sorry for obviously taking this long all the time, but in addition for being pretty busy with college, I'm in some huge sort of writer's block and somehow can't find my way out of it-.-'

I'm sooooooo sorry… also for posting such a short chapter (yes, I will redo this story with proper chaptering once it's done).

And thank you all so much for your reviews, even if you probably don't believe it, they make me continue writing. If any of you have ideas for possible scenes (even though the plot is set) just let me know and I'll see if I can fit them in.

Especially sorry to Azuretasy and DD and all the others who had to wait a looooooooooong time for this chapter.

I know it's short, but I wanted to update now, so I just posted it like this, you won't have to wait for the next post that long (I'm already writing on it, so it won't take longer till possibly the end of this week or even less). Plus I think it gives some cues on how the story's gonna go on. So please if you read this, leave me a review to tell me if you like it. The style of writing is kinda not what I usually do and not as good either, but I can't help it, I'm in a writer's block and extremely lacking creativity. Maybe I just need to get to the good parts^^ (which will be coming soon, btw^^)

Ba ba for now^_^