Home Sweet Home

XIV.

I felt her soft body stay pressed against mine for the rest of the day. Her warm breath tickled the back of my neck. It had taken her awhile to fall asleep for some reason, but when she finally did, it was good to feel her body relax.

I had been pondering whether I should actually allow myself to sleep also. Instead of forcing it on myself, I waited until I naturally dozed off. That would take awhile.

Trying not to think about Sherry's words from earlier, it couldn't be helped that they swam through my head uninvitingly. It was slightly surprising to hear her talk about how much she hated her own kind. The things she talked of them doing were not the same reasons I hated humans. I simply did not like their weakness and their emotions.

Which is kind of strange, because Sherry has to be one of the most emotional humans at times. On certain occasions, she hid her feelings well and didn't say anything to release what she was thinking.

I felt her nod her head in her sleep, her forehead on my neck being replaced by her lips. I cursed myself when the fine hairs beneath my hairline stood on end. Why did I even lay down on her bed in the first place? As I have noticed, as of recently, Sherry and I have been doing things around each other spontaneously and slightly out of our character. Were we somehow changing each other?

When we were this close to each other, I found myself thinking about upcoming battles and whether it would be our last. And with our battle with Zatch just a day away, the thought was heavier than usual. It usually took Sherry a few days to recover from a battle, and even I was slightly worn out.

If we lost tomorrow, I would blame it on my inability to tell Zatch we wouldn't be fully ready in one day. The kid probably would have extended it for a month. I imagined he thought that a battle as soon as possible would suit to my liking.

Sherry moaned softly and pressed herself closer to me. I moved my legs forward when I felt her feet touch mine. Insistently, she moved her legs forward as well until she was able to maneuver her foot in between my own.

I sighed and mumbled, "Are you even asleep?"

"Mm…" was her only response. I translated that as a sort of. I promised myself that if she did anything else, I would remove myself from her bed.

Her arm fell over my waist. I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to get up. My body felt like it weighed a ton, however, and I could not bring myself to let her sleep alone. I simply lifted her hand and gave it back to her. She seemed to take the hint and rested her hands flat against my back.

I felt myself begin to drift into meditation. I suddenly remembered her words: "I don't want to stay here any longer…"

Did she expect me to…no, impossible. She knew there was nothing I could do to help that, so why tell it to me?

Unless…

I gripped the bed sheets and clenched my eyes shut tighter before popping them open. How pitiful! Because I was thinking about the things Sherry's told me and how she was pressed against me, I could not bring myself to clear my mind and meditate properly. This has never happened before.

She murmured my name and brought her other foot forward to make our legs intertwine. What was she trying to prove?

I closed my eyes again and tried to relax. Maybe if I didn't even worry about what she's doing, I'll be able to get some rest.

To my surprise, it began to work. My mind was shutting down for actual sleep, as I started to become unaware of my surroundings. My last tangible thought was how good it felt to feel Sherry's lips moving very tenderly across my neck.

I awoke with a jolt, my body going on the alert as soon as it came back to life. It's not too often I sleep, and there's good reason for that. As I told Sherry when I began teaching her how to meditate, it takes longer to become responsive after sleep. When I did it, it was an immediate reaction to try to wake myself up instantly. Of course, it never worked that well. I always ended up making myself slightly dizzy and lightheaded.

As the fuzz began to clear, I felt Sherry's warm body still pressed against me. There was something slightly different, however, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Groaning lowly, I blinked my eyes open and turned my head to the right. Her blonde curls came into focus.

Wasn't I supposed to be facing away from her?

My eyes widened when I realized I had somehow moved to my back. Her one arm was wrapped across my torso, my left arm draped across hers while my right was spread out above her head. I could still feel our legs tangled up together with her knee a little too far up.

Again, I stress my point of how badly things take people by surprise after they awaken.

I meant to simply roll over and throw my feet to the floor. I didn't know I was so close to the edge, however, and ended up rolling right onto the floor. When my feet flew over, I took the blankets with me, so they covered me. I ended up going down face first, my arms catching myself before I slammed face first into the carpet.

"Brago?" Sherry grumbled from up above, sleep making her voice raspy.

I pulled the blankets down from over my head and glanced up at her. She was looking over the edge, her hair a big puffy mess all over her head. She was trying to rub the sleep from her eyes, stifling a small yawn. When she came back to reality, she quickly hid her mouth with her hand, but I could clearly see the pure amusement in her eyes.

Without a single word, I stood up, throwing the pile of blankets on top of her so she was hidden from my sight. I finally experienced what it felt like to be humiliated.

She laughed before pulling the blankets down, "I used to roll out of bed all the time."

"Good for you," I said, going over to her window seat to grab my black cloak. My boots were left downstairs in the doorway.

She yawned again and sat up, the right sleeve of her nightgown sliding off her shoulder. I couldn't help but stare at her from the corner of my eye. With her nightgown all ruffled and half way up her thighs, the scene was almost tantalizing. Of course, the sun shining directly on her and her body perfectly in the middle of the messed up bed that we slept in didn't help any.

"So I take it you slept good, also?" Sherry asked, a small smile lingering on her lips.

I simply shrugged as she pointed to the clock, "You should have. It's almost eleven in the afternoon. We slept for almost sixteen hours."

"What a waste of time…" I grumbled, angry at myself for not waking up sooner.

"Not really," she contradicted, pushing herself to the side of the bed, "You feel better, don't you?"

"I feel like I always do."

"Oh…" she looked down as though my comment had insulted her. She quickly raised her head with a smile, "Well, it made me feel better."

I began to walk toward the door, "Good, you'll be able to fight better, too."

"I almost forgot about that…" I heard her comment just as I was about to exit the room. "Brago?" She called me before I was able to leave.

With my hand on the doorknob, I turned my head to the side to silently tell her to say what she wanted to say.

"I, umm…" she paused, a red tint brightening her cheeks, "I just wanted to say thank you."

I'm sure she was waiting for me to ask what she was thanking me for. But I knew perfectly well what she was going to say. It would simply be "for everything." To save both of us the trouble, I nodded my head once to say that it was no problem on my behalf. She smiled again before I left her to get ready.

"He said he would be around here somewhere," I said. Sherry and I had entered the woods in which I ran into Zatch. I picked the exact location of where we had met, but neither him nor Kiyo were seen anywhere.

"Are we here on time?" Sherry asked, holding my book tightly in her hand.

I nodded, "Actually, we're a little late." I gave her a look that said it was her fault for moving so slowly. She ignored me, so my try of making her feel guilty was no good.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon," she said with confidence, watching as I leaned against a tree impatiently.

"I hate waiting."

And wait, we did. We had to have waited there for at least three hours. Every now and then, Sherry would accuse me of having been dreaming or hallucinating when I saw them the day before. When I told her I was positive I saw them, she went on to blame me for forgetting the time they told me to be here. I blamed that mistake on Zatch.

Finally, we heard rustling in the bushes before Zatch and Kiyo appeared.

"There you are!" Zatch pointed at us.

"What do you mean, here we are? Where the hell were you?" I demanded, showing my teeth to stress how annoyed I was.

"Huh? Hm…" Zatch looked up at his bookkeeper, looking honestly confused, "Kiyo, where the hell were we?"

Kiyo gave him a strange look, "We were everywhere trying to figure out where we met up with you." He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Sorry about that. These woods are a little less familiar to us and everything looked the same."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever. Let's just get started."

"That's the spirit!" Zatch yelled, pumping his fist into the air, "Where the hell should we start?"

"Zatch, why do you keep saying 'hell'?" Kiyo asked, rubbing his fist into the Lightening Mamodo's head.

The mamodo laughed and pushed himself away, "It sounded right when Brago said it."

"It sounds out of place when you say it."

I gritted my teeth, my fists clenching tightly. Before I could step forward to end their useless conversation, Sherry beat me to it.

"We're here to battle, not discuss the ways in which people say 'hell'. If you two continue this nonsense, we're going to attack you with no warning. We'll have a big head start," she finished, flipping open the book right away.

Zatch and Kiyo blinked at her before quickly getting into their battle positions. We stared at each other for a good two minutes, trying to find each others weak or open spots. It was amazing how Sherry and Kiyo called out an attack at exactly the same time.

The showdown had begun.

The battle dragged on longer and rougher than the battle between Koko and Zophise did. Because of Sherry and my stubbornness, we wouldn't be beaten so easily. There was a difference between the battle from yesterday and today's battle, however. Whereas Zophise and I were almost equally matched, it was clear almost from the beginning that Zatch was in a league all of his own.

The kid just wouldn't stay down. Every time I thought we should have injured him, he only hopped back up with a laugh.

Luck was on our side yesterday, but now Sherry and I needed a miracle.

Though it was very unlike me, I felt myself becoming worried. When I was able to catch a glimpse at Sherry, I saw she felt the same way.

How can they be so strong! Sherry and I trained for months…day after day. They couldn't have possibly trained any more than we did. If I didn't know better, I would say they were on super-powered drugs.

"Had enough yet?" Zatch asked.

By this time, all the trees in the area were smashed into the ground from my gravity attacks, and the earth was scorched to a crisp by his lightening attacks. We both firmly held our ground, bruises and scratches covering our whole bodies.

"Not even close," I growled, raising my arm in preparation for Sherry to call out another attack. My eyes widened in surprise when I realized how much energy it took me just to raise my arm. That was definitely not a good sign.

I backed up until I was closer to Sherry. She sensed that I was going to tell her something and leaned closer.

"I'm going to aim the next spell at his book at the last second. It might be enough to catch him off guard," I breathed heavier, talking causing me to release too much precious energy.

"Right," she nodded, stepping back as I stepped forward. Zatch had been waiting patiently for me to resume my fighting position.

He smiled, though it was slightly mocking, "Did you want a break? Because I'd understand if you--."

"No!" I yelled a little louder than I expected, "I'm fine. Let's continue."

Zatch laughed in joy, "I like your will power. You have a hell of a lot of it!"

"Zatch!"

"Sorry…"

"Now, Sherry!"

"Reis!" She screamed. I had been aiming my hand at Zatch, and it was amazing to see how quickly he reacted. However, I even caught him by surprise when I had quickly moved my hand to the left. It was a straight shot at Kiyo.

"Rashield!" Zatch stepped in front of Kiyo quickly and a large shield went up, deflecting it back at us.

"Gravi-Ionshield!" My own protection went around us, sending the attack away once again.

"Gigano-Reis!" Sherry yelled as soon as my shield went down. My original attack was heading toward them also, a little higher up than my second,

"Kiyo, throw it up and call out a spell!" Zatch yelled to my shock. I understood that he wanted his book to get out of harms way at the two attacks coming toward them, but how were they so sure I wouldn't attack it from the air?

"Bao Zakeruga!" Before I knew it, Zatch had summoned a gigantic lightening shaped dragon straight at us. It was so huge, it looked almost impossible to avoid.

Not having too much time to come up with a plan, I grabbed the book from Sherry and threw it up in the air also. The two books slowly came toward each other in the air.

"Call out two spells!" I yelled, my voice barely audible over the loudness of Zatch's attack.

She understood. I was glad to see she was able to call out spells without my book in hand also.

"Gigano-Reis!" She called again. I pointed it upward, right at Zatch's book in the air. I hoped against hope that I wouldn't be like Zophise and accidentally burn my own book. "Gravi-Ionshield!" She was right on cue. Perfect. I released all the energy I had left to put up the force field around us.

She called again. I pointed it upward, right at Zatch's book in the air. I hoped against hope that I wouldn't be like Zophise and accidentally burn my own book. She was right on cue. Perfect. I released all the energy I had left to put up the force field around us.

Zatch's attack was one of the most powerful I've ever seen. It curved into my shield, causing us to go to the ground so we wouldn't get stuck outside the shield.

"Zacare!" I heard Kiyo yell. I squinted my eyes open to see that they had also pointed it in the air. With the dust and all the attacks still being shot everywhere, it was almost impossible to see where the books were. I was positive they were aiming where they believed might be best.

I let down my shield when Zatch's spell blasted away, hearing Sherry cough at all the dirt getting in her throat. I ran forward, anxious to see what happened to the books.

"Over there!" I heard Zatch yell.

I looked to my right just in time to see the two books fall in unison behind a couple of bushes. The attacks must have pushed them to and fro so much, they actually went far enough away where life still existed in the woods.

There was one little detail that caught my eye and had me sweating.

As the books went down, I was able to see a blue flame.

One of our books was on fire.

One more chapter left, everyone! Who do you think is gonna win? Zatch or Brago? Could be either one of 'em…

Enula