FeatherWings: Sorry if you don't like it anymore o.o;; uh, if u do like it please review n.n
Hypothermia chapter 12
"You went out while you were still sick!" Go yelled.
"I'm not sick anymore!"
"Well, you're still recovering!"
"I'm fine!"
"We found you passed out on the ground after Hajime found us and told us to come with him!" Mannen didn't have a response for this and just sat on a bed with a face that looked like he was at war.
"I can't believe we left them alone..." Kei added. They were all gathered in one room. The youngest ones of the group stood by Mannen as the older ones stood facing them.
"You're such a little kid Mannen!" Go yelled at him as Mannen winced and sunk into the bed.
"I'm not a little kid!" He shot back suddenly. "You just always treat me like one!"
"No. We treat you like one 'cause you act like one!" Go said. The fight would have continued if Himino didn't step in.
"Stop fighting!" She yelled. "This will only make the situation worse!" Takako nodded from behind her. Go and Mannen looked away from each other then Go walked out of the room annoyed. Kei, Sasame and Hayate soon fallowed him and that left, Mannen, Reki, Shin, Hajime, Himino, and Takako in the room.
"I'm not a little kid..." Mannen said quietly while facing the wall. Himino looked at him with sympathy knowing what he was feeling.
"Mannen..." She spoke. "Go and the others were just worried about you. When Hajime came to us and said that something happened to you we were all so worried." Himino sat down by him and Takako took the other young ones out of the room. "We know you're not a little kid but your still not that old. We want you to stay with us, alive." Mannen turned to her with watery eyes. Her eyes softened and she took him in her arms like he were her little brother; to her, he was her little brother.
"Himino," He said as he hugged her back while crying, "I'm sorry..."
Her younger brother, she saw, was growing. She looked at the wings on his back. Such beautiful feathers she thought as she touched them. She felt Mannen relax and looked down at him. He had fallen asleep to her surprise. She smiled and laid him down on the bed where they sat.
Himino then heard something that sounded like someone singing. She ventured into one of the other rooms where she found she found Shin and Hajime leaning out the window looking at something. She went over to them and noticed the singing got louder. Takako stood next to them looking worried.
"What are you two looking at?" She asked giggling slightly. They turned to her, smiled and made room for her to look. Himino got to the window and looked out, saw nothing but the singing was now close by. Himino looked in the direction it sounded from, up and to the side slightly, to see Reki on the roof singing.
Reki noticed her. "Hello Himino." Shin and Hajime wedged themselves in the small spaces between Himino and the edge of the window on both sides. Reki walked over and jumped on the windowsill that slightly extended from the window. She was very graceful in doing so but it ended in her pushing the ones already there to the floor accidentally. "Sorry!" Reki apologized frantic by her mistake.
Himino laughed as she and the other got up. "That's ok." Just then, the others entered the room. They looked serious as if they had decided something.
"We're leaving." Go said.
"Where to?" Takako asked.
"We have gathered information about the Shadow-Creatures and we have to help the Leafanians out. So we have to go find the cause and stop it."
"We have to find the core." Everyone looked to the doorway to see Mannen leaning against the doorframe.
"The core?" Sasame repeated.
"That's what Tsumetai told me in a dream. She told me to find the core, learn purification, and that the house was were it started." Reki looked down in thought. What was that picture that she had seen? She looked up again quickly.
"At any rate, we have to search for whatever it is." Go said. They all nodded to this. They soon walked down the stairs of the inn for the last time, said good-bye to the cat-like woman and left in search for the core.
They passed through the crowded streets of the town. Mannen noted that the people seemed almost oblivious to what was going on. 'Why?' Mannen stopped while the others continued walking. 'Don't they see? They aren't afraid?' Mannen blinked as he looked around. It was bright and hard to believe something like this was happening. 'Why does everything seem distant but so close? So real but yet so fake?'
"Mannen, you ok?" Go asked as Mannen turned around to see they had all stopped to wait for him.
"Oh! Uh..um..yeah! Just thinking..." Go raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well come on. We gatta go." Mannen rushed over to the others.
After wondering the streets of the town, they found themselves on a dirt road in a forest once again. For the moment, Mannen seemed fine but never did at least one knight not stand next to him.
'There's something I can't explain, can't describe, a feeling, partly confused.'
'You are the key.'
'Huh? A voice? Is it Tsumetai?'
'Which side will you choose?'
'What...side?'
'Don't be afraid when you loose your path.'
'What are you talking about? Who are you?'
"Mannen? You ok?" Sasame asked the boy who had stopped and looked at the sky suddenly.
"Wah?" He looked around at everyone. "Sorry. Thought I heard something." They all took this answer and continued walking.
"So, what information can we use?" Hayate asked.
"Actually we got barely anything useful." Kei said.
"What!" Go yelled. "I thought we had a lot!"
"Most of it was just about the shadow creatures. But we did get one useful piece of information to where to go."
"What's that?" Himino asked.
"An oracle said 'Go north until the star lights up.'"
"What the hell does that mean?" Go asked.
"I'm not sure but at least we know a direction."
"We may find out what it means when we get to wherever it is we're going." Sasame added.
"But how will we know when we get there?" Takako asked him. Everyone looked at each other for several minutes in silence.
"Let's just go!" Hayate yelled, tired not getting anywhere.
To be continued...
