A/N – Sorry to you al for making you wait and you will have to wait for the next chappy. Unlike some of you lucky people (glares at Raven and AngelGardian) who's exams finish tomorrow, mine start tomorrow so cut me some slack with updating, please? x

DilaZirk – Excellent questions…uh he stole food and wore a cloak…there that'll do. Lol, thanks for the review x

Shadow of Neph – Just send him over to my window, I wouldn't say no ;) Thanks x

Link Luvr – more mushiness for you oh loyal reviewer thank you x

Zeroeye – Your wish is my command x

Elit…naomi – Thank you! x

Black Shadow – I know the feeling, wish I had time to update as much as I'd like to. Good luck to you and thank you x

Rayne – No Nightmare belongs to the game company and Lyra is a figment of my over stimulated imagination. Please don't kill me I'd really like to finish this story ;)

Little Jester – I GET THE PICTURE! You know I didn't plan to update tonight! I should be revising, but you pushed me to it, you PUSHED me! Not that I mind and I'm grateful and amazed that you love it this much thank you x

Wow I don't think I've ever had so many reviews for one chapter…Mioko included. Thank you all (even Rayne) and please review even if I take a while to update. Good luck to anyone doing exams like me x

Chapter 5 – The Morning After the Night Before

Sunlight streamed through the crack in the upper edifice. Lyra stirred beneath it as a beam of light cut across the cave floor in a straight line, right across her face. She blinked a couple of times and turned her face away from the harsh beams that had rudely awakened her. By turning her face she found she had nestled against Nightmare's bare chest.

She heard him chuckle and a moment later he nudged the top of her head with his face, "Good morning," he whispered. She groaned and buried her face deeper into his chest, refusing to wake properly. "Lyra," he nudged her again, determined to get her to look at him. Grudgingly she pulled her face back and looked up at him. She intended to make herself look as irritated as possible but one glance at the happiness that radiated from his face made her break a beautiful smile.

He chuckled again and kissed her forehead as she lay back down against him. "You stayed here all night," he murmured, stroking her hair with one hand, absent-mindedly. She grunted her response but a moment later realised what he had said and sat up abruptly,

"I stayed here all night," she gasped, horrified, wondering how her mother would react…or rather how she would explain her absence to her mother. Lyra scrambled to her feet knocking the flowers from the night before into the dying embers of the fire in her hurry. "I have to get back," she cried, almost apologetically, as she tried to replace her sandals as quickly as she could.

"Lyra?" Nightmare called as she hastened to leave the cave. She paused in her hurry to look at him. He was still lying on the floor where she had been with him up until a few moments ago. Now he finally rose and place two hands on her shoulders, "I had a wonderful time," he said, solemnly, "Can I see you again?"

For a moment at least Lyra's world slowed down as he moved in and placed his lips softly to hers, slowing if not stopping her hasty exit. Lyra smiled into the kiss as she returned it. He pulled back, but he wasn't smiling, he looked serious, almost desperate at the fact that she was leaving.

Comfortingly she rested a hand on the side of his cheek, brushing his hair back for him. "Of course you'll see me again. I had a wonderful night too," she assured him. "But right now, I have to go." Nightmare smiled affectionately, nodding he kissed her again and taking her hand led her out of their cave.

"And where have you been?" Lyra's mother's voice called to her, as Lyra tried to slip into the kitchen. Her mother was at the sink with her back to the door and yet she still knew her daughter had arrived.

"I…I…I was just…" Lyra broke off, realising the futility of it all, that and she hadn't had the concentration to think of an excuse for her nightly excursion.

"This is not the first time you've gone sneaking off, my girl, where is it you go?" her mother demanded, her voice curiously cold but smug as she continued with her tasks at the sink. Lyra could say nothing and she sat at the table, waiting for her mother to say something. "It's a man isn't it?"

"No," Lyra protested immediately. "It's not."

"A woman then," her mother suggested, unbeknownst to Lyra, smiling.

"No!" Lyra snapped.

"So it is a man," her mother repeated, "and before you deny it," Lyra closed her mouth that was ready to protest, "William saw him last night."

Lyra swallowed hard, "William…saw…him?"

"So there is!" her mother smiled, triumphantly, leaving the sink and sitting with her daughter. "His name? What does he do? Where does he live?" she demanded. Lyra shrugged,

"You wouldn't know him mother…he's a soldier…he's passing through town and…he's staying for a while…" Lyra stuttered. The night before Nightmare had told her of his days as a soldier so it wasn't a complete lie…the truth was simply conveniently altered in places. Her mother didn't look impressed.

"And his name?"

Lyra hesitated, she had asked her new love for his name but had been met with silence and refusal, "his friends call him Nightmare…something he picked up fighting," she added, quickly. Her mother's eyes narrowed,

"And what do you call him?"

Lyra opened her mouth, but quickly closed it, biting her tongue. She had been on the verge of replying, "Love," but that would have done little if nothing to improve her mother's clearly annoyed mood. "I call him Nightmare too," she said, confidently, while secretly wishing for something to intervene to distract her mother.

As if to answer her prayer, Lance stepped into the kitchen, "Lyra," he called, "I need a hand in the barn." Lyra was only to happy to leave her mother's company and dash to the barn. Sure enough Lance's request was genuine, there was a pile of freshly sheared wool on the floor, needing to be collected and bagged.

Lyra set to work immediately, Lance returning not so long after. "Where were you last night?" Lance asked, suspiciously after they had been working in silence for a while. Lyra pretended not to hear him as she continued to pick up the wool. Lance moved closer to her, "Your mother said you were sleeping with some passing soldier."

"I am not sleeping with him," Lyra muttered, determined to keep her eyes on the wool. Her mother and Lance were quite fixed in the idea that eventually the two would be wed, she didn't expect them to be overly happy with the idea that Lyra had found someone else.

"But you don't deny that you're seeing one then?" Lance snapped, harshly, "and you stayed out all night with him. You know considering we are supposed to be married…"

"Ha!" Lyra spat, "Nobody told me that!"

Lance grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him, "Listen to me Lyra," she squirmed in his grasp and tried to pull away,

"Lance!" she shouted. Lance refused to release her, but a moment later had no choice as his arm was pulled away from her and he was pushed, rather harshly to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Nightmare asked, moving next to Lyra and massaging the red mark where Lance had grabbed her.

"Yes, I'm fine," Lyra muttered, all thoughts of Lance or the wool forgotten, "But what are you doing here?" she asked, realising just where they were.

"I wanted to see you again," he smiled, touching her cheek gently. Lyra smiled back,

"That's so sweet…but you really shouldn't come down here."

Nightmare raised an eyebrow, "You don't want me too?" he asked. Lance scrambled to his feet and rushed out of the barn to fetch Lyra's mother.

"No!" Lyra cried, throwing her arms around his neck, "Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to see you, but my family…my mother they'll be here now, you have to go."

"Will you come to me tonight?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her. She nodded and kissed his cheek,

"I promise now go," she urged. But Nightmare refused to go, at least until he had received a goodbye kiss. Then he disappeared before Lance and Peter could arrive. Lyra continued to bag the wool as if nothing had happened, denying the presence of any man in the barn even though she was indescribably happy that he had come to her after just a few short hours separation.

That evening, Lyra didn't need an excuse to leave for Nightmare's cave. She left under the pretence of taking the wool to be spun. As the spinner was on the other side of town then she could easily have taken many hours to get there. She planned to take the wool up to Nightmare's cave, stay with him for as long as time would allow and then return claiming the spinner's had been closed for the night. She expected her mother to catch on, if not her mother then Peter certainly, he was very intelligent when he wanted to be. But neither of them did. Nor did Lance. She was sure her mother knew she was going to see her soldier friend, but she did nothing to stop her and Lyra was free to go up to the cave.

"Nightmare," Lyra called, as she neared the cave, hardly able to contain her excitement. To her surprise, he didn't appear at the cave to help her in or even to greet her. She negotiated the entrance herself and slipped inside, the wool bag dropped at the sight of the inner cave.

Blood was splattered at different points within the cave leading towards the back. Lyra rushed inside, the fire had been stamped out and there was more blood. She froze when she saw the back of the cave, the massive rock that had been previously blocking off the back of the cave had been utterly destroyed. Fragments of it lay littered across the floor of the cave, but far more fragments were strewn across the path it had concealed.

Lyra felt her blood freeze, the cave had been destroyed, there was blood everywhere and Nightmare was gone.

TBC