Note: All righty, here's part 4! Short, like part 2, more like a sort of cushion for when everything comes together in part 5.

Short notes today, too. Because I have a habit at posting at 2 in the morning, so me tired.

Enjoy!

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Anywhere But Nowhere

Part IV

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It was raining.

It had been raining for the past three days now. Nonstop, relentless rain.

There was no sign of him. She had been from one town to the other and there was no sign of him. Nobody in town even knew who she was talking about.

"Orphen? Don't know anybody by that name…"

"Now why the hell would I be looking for a rogue sorcerer?"

"Dark hair and wears a red headband you say? Sounds dangerous."

"I'm busy, child. Go talk to someone else."

"Sorry, hun, but if we saw him, we'd take him in. We don't tolerate gangsters in this town."

There was nobody to help her. And she had checked all the towns that surrounded the region in which they had last seen Licorice, just nine to eleven months previous. Cleao remembered staying for a few days in one of them before the trio actually departed for home, but she couldn't remember which one it was.

"Where are you? Where are you?" she muttered to herself over and over again until the words were coming out in a powerful scream of fury. "WHERE ARE YOU? YOU IDIOT! YOU STUPID TWO-BIT SORCERER IDIOT! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!"

Not caring for the rain, she slumped down against a tree, slipping to the muddy ground. Her bottom was soaked straight to the skin in water and grime and she didn't care as she hugged her knees close to her chest. Maybe Majic and Hartia were right. Maybe looking for him was a stupid thing to do.

Orphen wasn't anywhere. She had been here for weeks and couldn't find a single sign of him. Was Majic wrong? Perhaps Orphen had been here earlier and then left again. But where was he going?

"Is this why you treated Cleao as you did when she finally told you how you felt?"

Was that true? Had Orphen simply been acting when he said those awful things to her? Inflicting pain to protect her from something even worse? But what the hell could possibly be worse? What could be worse than him not being here? Returning her love?

"God, Orphen, you are such an idiot!"

He always had been.

"So, you're going to hit me?" The words barely came out even as a whisper. Something flickered in his eyes as her voice cut through him just the same. His hand was raised, quivering in midair, aching to swing forward and finish the blow.

She knew he was hurt. And he probably had every right to hit her. But, dammit, how could he be so caught up in his own emotions that he became completely unaware of the feelings of others around him? Especially hers? Had she not gone out of her way to show him that she did indeed care about him?

"Why don't you just do it then?"

If he were to strike her, she'd welcome the weight of his hand on her face, the sheer intensity knocking her to the floor. Then maybe he'd see just how far his obsession was going.

"Go ahead, Orphen," she taunted in spite of the tears rolling uncontrollably down her face. "Go on. Hit me. Go on!"

His hand moved. Lowered. Slowly for about an inch. Then dropped heavy and useless by his side. His eyes became unfocused as he stared at her. The anger was gone. Only the hurt remained.

She couldn't take it anymore. "You idiot, Orphen!" she screamed. "Why didn't you just do it?" She ran off then, sobbing openly, not caring where she was going or if she was followed.

Aside from what happened almost ten months ago, that memory had been the most horrible she had ever experienced with him. Because it was right before then that she had finally admitted to herself that she was in love with that idiot good-for-nothing sorcerer. And she had dove into that freezing pond to fish for that red clam at the risk of drowning and sickness in order to prove it.

Leki whined softly, rubbing his head against her ankle by means of comfort. His mistress was slowly killing herself inside, both from being beside herself with worry and pushing herself with all this fast-paced traveling. She didn't eat as much as she used to, even skipped breakfast altogether in order to put the extra time into her search. Her dreams were disturbed with dreams of him and they weren't exactly the happiest of subconscious illusions both real memories and wishful daydreams. More often than not, she would awaken to tears.

The ears of the Deep Dragon cub perked when he heard the light footsteps slapping gently against the mud as someone was approaching them. Leki growled a soft warning, though he could plainly see that the stranger meant no harm to his mistress.

The stranger turned out to be a young woman, probably Cleao's age if not roughly a year younger. She was shorter than Cleao, small and delicate, but with dark brown eyes that indicated a stronger person within. Holding onto a large umbrella, she leaned toward Cleao, her mahogany hair spilling over her shoulders. "M'am? M'am? You okay?"

Cleao didn't answer. Didn't even look up to see who was addressing her. She had heard the footsteps, and their light falls gave away the size and general weight of the person they belonged to. The voice was obviously female. She hugged her knees tighter. Go away. Go away.

The girl bit her lower lip, uncertain of what to do. A part of her wanted to grab this woman by her collar and drag her into the house before she froze to death. At the same time, she had a feeling she would be asking for a fight if she made such a move. This woman was obviously upset about something.

She'll go get him, then. He was at home, taking care of the baby while she went out to tend to her errands. She had just left the house when she noticed the strange woman sitting on the side of the road as though the world had collapsed all around her. Looks like groceries were going to have to wait as the girl jumped to her feet and made a beeline for home.

Cleao felt relieved that the girl had gone. There was something about her presence that made Cleao feel incredibly uncomfortable even though she had not spoken or even looked up at her. Still, the girl's approach had pulled Cleao back into the realm of reality. It was pouring outside and the tree she was under hardly provided a decent shelter. The rest of her was now as waterlogged as her mud-soaked bottom and it was freezing out here in spite of it being the middle of summer.

With him, it always seemed to be summer.

"What the hell's a Seiun?"

"It's a town at Mount Raibo's base."

"Ain't that a volcano?"

"So what? It shouldn't be a surprise as Seiun is a large hot spring resort."

"What? Hot spring--"

"Yeah, dummy! Hot springs. You know. Pools upon masses of pools filled to capacity with steamy hot water and bath salts and perfumes to make your bath even more pleasurable."

"Cleao--"

"Not to mention the gorgeous hotels and the hundreds of shops to visit. Orphen, you couldn't ask for a better place to relax."

"Cleao, what's today's date?"

"Um…June 9th, I think. Why? Is it your birthday?"

"No! It's June. That means, it's the middle of summer! Why the hell am I going to go searching for a frickin' hot spring…in ninety-frickin'-degree weather?"

"Oh, I'm sure they have cold springs, too."

"Cleao, it's a volcano. All their underground water is going to be hot."

"I'm sure you'll manage. After all, you're the one who said you wanted a place to relax."

"Relax that does not include dragging me around town and buying you every damn thing you see."

"Okay, then it's a deal. I'll go shopping by myself and you can stay and rest in the hotel."

"Oh, no! I see what you're trying to pull and it's not going to work, babe. You're not traipsing around town and spending a penny without my supervision!"

"Well, then, let's go."

"No! Shopping is not on my list of 'how to relax'."

"What's so bad about shopping? I think it should be high on your relax list."

"Not when I'm buying you everything!"

"You know you like it."

"Do not!"

"So, you don't like seeing me happy?"

"Er…"

"It's because you want to keep all the money to yourself! You don't care about my happiness!"

"Now wait a minute, Cleao--"

"Me, me, me! I wanna relax! I wanna sleep! You don't want to spend time with me at all! Didn't you ever stop and think about that maybe I want to spend time with you? That shopping is just an excuse to be alone with you--"

"Fine, we'll go!"

"What?"

"I said we'll go, okay?"

"Really? Oh, Orphen, thank you!"

"Don't thank me too much. I'm only going so you'll shut up."

Footsteps interrupted the memory and Leki began to growl again, blue fur standing on end. The footfalls were heavier now, much more so than the girl's had been. Then Leki began to bark, dancing in circles and tugging at Cleao's pants leg with his teeth. Cleao ignored him. If she was in danger, then fine. Leki didn't need her permission to blast someone to the moon if he found such an action necessary.

And if he couldn't do anything, then she believed she deserved whatever what was coming to her.

The footsteps came to a stop somewhere next to her, and suddenly the rain stopped falling upon her shivering body. When nothing else happened, Cleao slowly lifted her head, realizing that the rain quit hitting her because someone was holding an umbrella over her head.

Her eyes lifted to the tall, handsome stranger squatted before her, arm resting over his knees while his other gloved hand held the umbrella. His brown hair was instantly slick with rain water and his chestnut eyes stared down at her with both surprise and concern.

But not an ounce of disbelief.

He just wondered why she didn't come sooner.

"Hi," Orphen greeted softly.

In spite of her intense searching, unyielding journey through both the continent and her own painful memories, she couldn't move. And when she spoke, her voice was almost too quiet to hear:

"Hi…"

-End of Part IV-

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Oooh! Teh suspense! Hee...

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