Chapter 7
The light coming from the full moon outside streamed through the bedroom window to lay stripes of light across the bed of the sleeping girl against the darkness that incased the room. The occupant in the bed tossed and turned as if caught in some horrendous dream that she couldn't escape. Whiteblaze who laid at the foot of her bed opened his chocolate brown eyes as a foot kicked him in his side awakening him from his sleeping state. He yawned tiredly and laid his head back down on his large paws, not even bothering with the sleeping person Whiteblaze was used to her tossing.
Rylea tossed more, turning over onto her side and then twisting back around to lay on her left side again. Her face contorted into a mask of pain and fear as the nightmare continued to rage on in her mind unable to escape from it. Muffled words and cries for help escaped her as she continued to toss in her bed. Whiteblaze, not being able to sleep with all the noise coming from her, opened his eyes tiredly again to gaze at the struggling teen. Confusion settled across the tiger's face at her antics never had he seen her toss this badly before. Concerned for his young mistress, Whiteblaze stretched and began to get up from his spot at the bottom of the bed to go to the aid of the poor girl. Before Whiteblaze could get up, Rylea finally escaped the nightmare she had been stuck in jerking from her sleep in a startled fashion so suddenly that she scared Whiteblaze.
"No, Mommy!" Rylea shouted as she came out of her sleep, her hand automatically coming up to clutch the silver pendant hanging from her neck. Her heart was pounding so loudly that Whiteblaze was sure he could hear it over her ragged breathing. Seeing his young mistress sitting up in her bed now looking terrified, Whiteblaze picked his large head up to lick her face lovingly.
Rylea blinked rapidly to clear her vision and looked over at the white and black striped tiger somehow she felt better knowing that he was there with her and she wasn't alone. Something in her dream had been so terrifying that it had awakened her, but now what that thing was she couldn't remember. Her mind was foggy, clouded over and no matter how hard she tried to pull forth the memory of what had scared her, she couldn't it was almost as if something subconsciously was stopping her from doing so. Whatever had been in her dream, her mind didn't want her to remember it.
A chill set over Rylea even though it was hot in her room and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself in an attempt to ward off the cold feeling. Her eyes darted around her room as if searching to make sure that something or someone wasn't there. All she found, though, were the comforting remnants of her room, but still she couldn't shake the frightened, alone, feeling she had. Without really knowing why, Rylea began to shake as if she were terrified.
Whiteblaze purred and rubbed his head against the girl's arm in an attempt to settle her, but his attempts didn't seem to be helping any.
Fear gripped Rylea as an overwhelming sense of loneliness over came her. She didn't know why she felt afraid; she had no reason to be. Could whatever had been in her dream, what she couldn't seem to remember, have terrified her this much? Whiteblaze's company couldn't even seem to help her shake that feeling of fear and this puzzled her. Rylea wrapped her blanket around herself as she buried her face into the soft fur of Whiteblaze's neck trying to settle her nerves and rid herself of the terrified feeling that she had. Whiteblaze purred and rubbed his large head against the young girl as a way of reassurance that everything was ok. Not even that worked though.
Not being able to rid herself of the fear she felt, Rylea looked to the next person who she knew would be able to make all her problems go away her father. Uncoiling her arms from around the large tiger's neck she got off her bed, still wrapped in her blanket and started to make her way from her room Whiteblaze just watched her silently leave the room from his spot on her bed.
Opening the door she stumbled down the hallway to her father's room, checking first to see if he was there. Seeing that his bed was empty, Rylea turned away from the room and headed further down the hall until she came to the stairs walking carefully down them, still wrapped in her blanket, she came into the living room. She found her father downstairs, asleep on the couch and for some unknown reason, Rylea felt tears spring to her eyes at the sight of him.
"Daddy," Rylea croaked out as she got closer to her sleeping father, slipping onto the couch where he slept next to him, still wrapped in her blanket and threw her arms around him hugging him tightly while the unexplained tears rolled down her face.
Ryo groggily woke from his uneasy sleep, glancing down first at his daughter who was clinging to him before then looking up at the clock that hung over the tv entertainment center. He squinted and blinked his eyes to clear his vision so he could read what the clock said his mind tiredly took in the fact it was dark now in the house. The next thing his foggy mind registered was that Rylea was crying and that it was obviously late.
"Lea," he said once he could form a sentence and stroked her hair, "Baby what's wrong?"
Rylea didn't answer his question and instead just hugged him tighter. Ryo frowned and sat up, pulling his daughter up with him as he did so. "Lea, what's wrong? I can't help you unless you tell me, Jouchan," he gently told her, now in concerned father mode.
Rylea rubbed her tears away with the back of her hands, but wouldn't look at him. "I'm not really sure," she answered him weakly.
Ryo smiled at his daughter as he caressed the side of her head gently, trying to comfort her the best he could. "You're not sure?" he repeated with a humorous smile, "Jouchan you have to know."
"I dunno know," she replied helplessly again, "All I know is that I had a bad dream that really shook me up. I'm not even sure what the dream was about."
"Aw, my poor angel," Ryo cooed to his daughter as he pulled her into his loving embrace. "Or wait, I mean my poor little devil child."
Rylea smiled at his words as she crawled into her father's lap, gratefully allowing him to pull her into his strong arms. She felt safety and security in her father's embrace, something that she needed to feel right then. The fear and loneliness that she had felt only moments ago seemed to melt away the longer her father held her close. Her father was her protector, her comfort zone and no matter how bad she felt, he could always seem to make her feel better.
Feeling at ease and secure, Rylea yawned as sleep started to take a hold of her again her eyelids beginning to droop closed as well. Ryo looked down at her and smiled as he saw her starting to fall back asleep. "Feel better now, sweetie?" he asked her while soothingly rubbing her arm.
Rylea closed her eyes, snuggling more into her father's embrace. "Yeah, much better," she quietly replied, slowly starting to slip back into sleep.
Ryo smiled down at the sleeping girl as he pulled her blanket around her. Hugging her close he kissed the side of her face. "Oyasumi nasai, Jouchan," he said to her, gently stroking her hair until he was sure she was sound asleep again.
Ryo looked down at the sleeping girl in his arms and frowned as he hugged her tightly. She had a bad dream, but doesn't know why she was so upset, he thought to himself as he glanced down at his sleeping daughter. Why all of a sudden is she having these nightmares and why did Leinto ask about her birthday? So many questions and no answers.
Ryo sighed and stopped his rambling thoughts as he grabbed one of the couch pillows, putting it behind his head. Kissing his daughter good night one last time, he rested his head against the pillow and tried to fall back to sleep. Sleep, he needed to rest, but sleep didn't want to come for him. For the longest time, Ryo just sat there on the couch, holding his daughter as he listened to her slow, rhythmic breathing until he was finally lulled into sleep. The house went quiet again as its occupants slept soundly.
-
Rona Hashiba awoke the next morning, same as always, but this day she had an unshakable bad feeling. A kind of nagging sense of dread the same feeling she had had the day Rylea had gone into the hospital. Ignoring it, Rona stretched her arms high over her head and climbed from her bed to get around for yet another school day. After grabbing her school uniform, throwing it on, and had completed the rest of her usual morning routine, Rona then made her way into the kitchen for breakfast. Coming into the kitchen she found her Mom and Dad already up and in the kitchen her Mom busy cooking breakfast at the stove while her father read the morning paper.
Rona took a seat next to her Dad and smiled over at him. "Konnichiwa Otousan, anything new?" she asked him cheerfully.
Rowen looked at his daughter from over the top of his newspaper. "Depends on what you mean by anything new," he replied, but already figured he knew what she was inquiring about.
"Have the results on Lea's blood work come back yet?" Rona asked him. She sounded hopeful that it had and that everything was ok.
Rowen shook his head sadly at her, he had thought that had been what she had wanted to know about. "Sorry sweetie, but they haven't yet. It may be a few days yet," he told her with an apologetic smile.
Rona's shoulders slumped and her head bobbed down. Suddenly she didn't feel so happy anymore. Rowen caught his daughter's chin, smiling he lifted it so that she was eye level with him. "Hey, I'll let you know as soon as I find anything out, ok?" he asked her sweetly, knowing full well that she was worried about her cousin.
Rona smiled back at her father, reassured by his words. "Domo arigato, Dad," she replied.
Rowen waved her thank you off with a smile as he went back to his newspaper, "Don't mention it, sweetie."
Kyle, Rona's older brother, strolled into the kitchen yawning and wearing his school uniform for Han'a High. Kyle had his father's trademark hair style, but it was more of a midnight blue, two shades darker than that of his sisters. He also had his mother's blue eyes, but his fathers build. Kyle was a senior as was Hojo, Tye and Kayto. Ryu had graduated the year beforebeing ashe was at least two years older than they were.
Kyle walked over to his Mother, who was cooking, and hugged her planting a kiss on her cheek. "Mhm, that smells good," he said to her while grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter and walking over to where his sister and father were sitting.
"Why such the long face, sis? I thought you'd be happy, it's a school day ya know?" Kyle teased his sister as he took a bite out of the red apple he had taken.
Rona glared at him moodily, "Get a clue, Kyle."
Kyle smiled back at his little sister, knowing that he had annoyed her, "You see that's the problem, Rona. Kernel Mustard stole my clue."
Rowen chuckled from behind his newspaper at Kyle as Kiylee smacked her son on the back of his head. "Kyle Hashiba, leave your sister alone boy or you won't like what I do, wakatta?" Kiylee warned him with a stern point of the spatula she held.
Kyle rubbed the back of his head and sheepishly smiled at his Mom. "Hai, Okasan," he mumbled to her.
Seemingly pleased with her son's answer, Kiylee turned her back on Kyle to return to her cooking at the stove. Rowen chuckled and glanced down at the watch on his wrist frowning when he had read the time. "Shouldn't you two be going now?" he asked his children.
Rona leaned over to look at his watch, gasping when she too had read the time. "I'm going to be late!" she shrieked. Giving her Mother and Father a kiss she grabbed her book bag, slung it over her shoulder and flew out the door. Kyle laughed and grabbed his own things slowly exiting the house with a wave and a good-bye to his parents.
Rowen shook his head as Kiylee turned from the stove with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face. "They get it from your side of the family, Kiy," Rowen replied to the look she gave him.
Kiylee blinked as if she had been taken off guard by his comment. "Oh, no. They get this from your side of the family, Rowen Hashiba," she replied to him with a point of her index finger.
Rowen smiled to his wife as he got up from his seat at the table. He crossed the distance between them to hug her. "Ok, Kiy. If you want to believe that then go ahead, but we both know where they get it from. Just look at your brother's kids and then tell me again that they didn't get it from your side of the family," he told her with a playful smirk.
Kiylee only glared at him as he stole a bite of the food she was making and kissed her cheek before grabbing his keys leaving as the other two had.
-
The sun peeked through the curtains on the big glass windows in the front room as Rylea awoke and rubbed her eyes to try to rid them of the sleep. Yawning she glanced up at her father who was sound asleep smirking she then looked over at the clock on the wall to see what time it was. Noting the time, Rylea decided to get up and get around for school thinking that she had enough time to get around and still get there in a reasonable amount of time.
Careful as to not wake her father, she climbed from his lap replacing the blanket over him and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. Ryo in turn groggily rubbed at his cheek with his hand and rolled over, falling back into a sound slumber. Rylea bit her lip to smother the giggle she felt coming and on silent feet turned from the couch where he slept to make her way back to her room.
Opening the door to her room, Rylea found Whiteblaze still laying on her bed where she had left him. Whiteblaze yawned and stretched at the entrance of the owner of the room he slept in. Getting up from his spot on her bed, he trotted out and down the hall to find his master. Rylea watched him leave before shaking her head and closing the door to her room. Glancing at the digital clock on her nightstand, Rylea panicked and got to finding her school uniform as fast as she could in the mess of clothes that lined her floor.
"Now where did I put that thing?" she pondered out loud to herself while searching through her closet. Finally finding the uniform, Rylea quickly threw the thing on and then exited her room to head to the bathroom to complete her morning routine.
A few moments past before Rylea came back into her bedroom. Heading to her dresser, she picked up the flame necklace Leinto had given her. Slipping it over her head it came to rest against her chest; coming to life as if it were a real burning flame as soon as the metal touched her skin. Rylea reeled back in surprise at the heat that was admitting from the necklace. Gently taking it into her hands, she examined the crackling flame as it glowed red for a few seconds before flickering out and returning to its crackling state. Shrugging her shoulders, Rylea let go of the necklace and it dropped to rest against her chest as she exited her bedroom shutting the door firmly behind her.
Ryo was awake now, rubbing his eyes tiredly with one hand as he held his steaming cup of coffee in the other. Whiteblaze laid at his feet, lazily watching his master. The stairs creaked and Whiteblaze's head came up to look over at them, as did Ryo's. Ryo blinked, thinking he must still be asleep or seeing things. He couldn't believe that the girl coming down the stairs, dressed and ready to go to school, could actually be his. He glanced over at the clock to check on what time it was and after seeing that it would be her usual time for departure, he considered the possibility that the girl was his daughter.
"Rylea?" he asked conscientiously, almost sounding baffled a bit.
Rylea's head jerked over in the direction her name had been said, surprise coming over her features at the sight of her father being up. "Hai," she replied and then added, "Gomen nasai Otousan, did I wake you?"
Ryo shook his head as he replaced the brown coffee cup back on the coffee table in front of him, a smile spread across his face. "No, Lea, you didn't," he answered her. "I'm just wondering where it is you think you're going."
Rylea laughed at him, seemingly thinking that his words were funny. "Are you sure you're ok, Dad?" she asked him with a smile as she went to grab her shoes from the door.
Ryo smirked at her question as he watched her disappear behind the wall that divided the front room from the front door hallway. "I'm fine, but I would like to know where it is you seem to think you are going," he replied, his tone now more demanding than it had been at first.
Rylea hopped back into the front room while putting on her right shoe, struggling to tie it and keep her balance at the same time. Whiteblaze watched her try and tie her shoe while she still held it up with light humor. She lost her balance while trying to finish the loop she had started with the laces and ended up hopping over onto Whiteblaze's tail. The large feline gave a howl of outrage as he sprung up from his spot on the floor by Ryo's feet. Angrily, Whiteblaze looked down at his hurt tail and then back up at Rylea who was trying to hold back a laugh before padding out of the room without a glance back at either of the two.
"Whiteblaze," Rylea called after him with a grin on her face, "I didn't mean it boy."
"Rylea," Ryo said sternly to gain her attention again. "I asked you a question."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she replied sardonically while turning around to face her father's stern glare. "I'm going to school, alright? I thought it was pretty obvious by the fact that I'm wearing this dumb uniform and I'm up before noon."
"Oh," Ryo said with a shocked face as he sat back against the couch and placed his arms behind his head. "Are you now?"
"Hai," Rylea replied back, not liking how her father was acting. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Oh, I don't know," Ryo retorted as he kept a cool almost mocking manner about him. "Maybe because I'm telling you that you're not going."
"Dad!" Rylea yelled at him in a half angry, half whining voice.
Ryo winced against the sting of pain her shout had made in his head. Already a slight pounding, almost throbbing sensation had begun in his temples. "Lea, don't yell at me," he muttered to her in an almost pleading manner.
"Why can't I go?" she asked him, her voice was much lower but still held that outraged ring to it.
Ryo groaned silently as he massaged his temples, trying to rid himself of the throbbing pain that was there. "Because I don't want you to go back yet. I don't think you're ready," he replied softly. Ryo didn't feel like arguing with his daughter at the moment, he was just too mentally drained to and hoped she'd just listen to him for once.
"You don't want me to?" she repeated his words in exasperation. "What about what I want? Maybe I think I'm ready to go back. Does that even matter to you?" Rylea could feel something starting to pace in her that something was more than happy that she was getting upset too.
Ryo sighed in nothing short of annoyance at his daughter. How silly of me to think that she would actually just listen to me and mind. "Rylea, to be honest with you, I could really care less about what you want or think," he told her flat out, anger now creeping into his voice.
Rylea growled, already feeling her temper close to boiling over. Not only that but she had this presence, or voice in the back of her mind urging her on urging her to let go of her temper and go off on her father. Before knowing what she was doing, Rylea had the portable phone in her hand and was throwing it at her father, the phone barely missing his head.
"Call Uncle Rowen and ask him if he thinks I'm well enough to go to school!" she ordered him, her eyes now set into a flaming glare at her father.
Ryo gawked at his daughter as he held the phone that she had thrown at him in his hand, head slightly tilted to the side to keep from missing being hit by it. He couldn't believe that she had actually just physically almost hurt him, "Rylea-"
"Do it!" Rylea shouted, cutting her father off. Her temper was flaring its ugly head, but for some odd reason, Rylea felt as if another presence was causing her rampage.
Ryo frowned, not understanding why his daughter was so adamant on going to school he'd thought she would've been happy to stay home. Instead of calling his brother-in-law, Ryo put the phone down and took a deep breath. "No, I don't need to," he told her calmly. "Go ahead and go to school, Lea."
Rylea blinked several times as if coming out of a daydream, the sudden anger she'd just felt disappeared almost instantly. The anger she had just felt, quickly turned into guilt when she felt her father's confusion and concern. Thoughts that were going through his mind drifted in and out of her own as she stared at him. Guilt filled her as her eyes slowly drifted down to look at the floor unable to look him in the eyes anymore.
Ryo raised an eyebrow at Rylea's sudden mood swing. She'd gone from yelling at him to now looking guilty and having remorse for it. Not to mention she had looked baffled, almost like she didn't know what was going on, for a split second. Her sudden quietness concerned Ryo greatly. He didn't understand why she was now staring at the floor with her arms wrapped around herself. Without speaking a word, Ryo rose from his spot on the couch and crossed the distance between them to stand in front of her.
"Lea," he started quietly, his voice now softer than it had been before. "Are you ok and I want you to give me a straight answer."
She nodded mutely, still refusing to meet his questioning gaze. Ryo caught her chin gently with his hand and made her look at him. "Are you really, Lea?" he asked her again, his eyes searched hers for any indication that she was lying.
Rylea just stared back at her father, not being able to respond to his question. She wanted to tell him about the nightmares she had been having and the strange, unexplainable feelings, but couldn't find the words to tell him. How could she? She herself didn't even understand or fully comprehend what had been going, let alone try and explain it to her father. Finally breaking the gaze she stepped back from him and looked away.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I gotta go or I'm going to be late, Dad," she replied quickly before he could ask her anything else and headed in the direction of the door.
Sighing to himself for his daughter's persistent stubbornness, Ryo walked after her. "Lea, wait," he called after her.
Rylea groaned and whirled around to meet her Dad already prepared to blow off her father's questioning if needed to. Confusion hit her when he instead hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek. "I love you, Lea," he told her sweetly with a warm smile.
Quickly coming out of her stupor, Rylea managed to hug him back. "I love you too, Dad," she replied before pushing herself from his embrace. "But if you don't let me go I'm going to be late and then you can listen to Principle Tenkyua when he calls."
Ryo chuckled and reluctantly released her from his hold. "Alright, alright, I can take a hint," he replied with fake sadness, as if he had been mortally hurt.
Rylea snagged her book bag from its resting place by the front door and shouldered it while rolling her eyes to the sky at her father. "Ja ne, Dad," she said to him, placing a light kiss on his cheek and with a shake of her head at his antics, then strolled out the door.
Ryo stared after her fleeing form until he could no longer see her, before sighing and closing the front door to walk back into the front room. Ryu was now making his way down the stairs as Ryo came walking back into the front room. "Was that, Lea I heard leaving?" he asked him with a point of his thumb in the direction of the door.
Ryo sighed, feeling his headache starting to intensify, "Hai, did our little argument wake you?"
Ryu frowned, concern for his father shown in his brown eyes. "Yeah, I heard the whole thing," he replied. "Are you ok, Dad?"
Ryo chuckled lightly, "You know, you're the second person to ask me that."
"Second?" Ryu repeated with bewilderment.
"Yeah, Lea asked me the same thing. That was, right before she threw the phone at me anyway," he answered, smiling as if it were all one big joke to him.
Ryu's eyes grew considerably larger and his jaw almost hit the floor at what his father had said. "She threw the phone at you?" he asked in nothing short of amazement.
Ryo nodded his head, "Yep, I guess that's her way of saying good morning."
Ryu began to laugh, he couldn't believe that his sister would have thrown the phone at his Dad it just didn't seem possible to him. This all had to be one big joke. "Real funny Dad. Good one, I almost believed it too," he said, still chuckling some to his self as he entered into the kitchen.
Ryo shook his head at his son. "What did I do with them when they were little that would have caused this much brain damage?" he pondered out loud to himself.
"I heard that!" Ryu shouted from the kitchen.
Ryo merely laughed to himself and continued his way up the stairs. A nice hot shower should loosen these tense muscles, he thought to himself while making his way to the bathroom.
-
A/N: Ok, sorry to all my readers that it took me so long to get this chap done and up, but I was undecided on whether I wanted to continue it or not. I've made up my mind though and I will be continuing this story. Not only that but I might go back to do some renovating on other chaps, just to make them sound better. Also I thought I might add that this story is the sequel to, The Calling of Destiny. That's why this story is called, The Calling of Destiny: New Beginnings. If anything in this story doesn't make sense to you, than I suggest you read that story first. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story, it means a lot to me.