Disclaimer of Doom – Fire Emblem is not mine. It belongs to the video game nerds who created it. Karleniia IS mine... so HA!
---------------------------
The next day Karleniia was up before any one else.
She woke to find that she was already in her bed with her feet tightly bandaged. She guessed that Jafar must have carried her back and bandaged up her feet. But she couldn't imagine that.
She had also found Marisa next to her asleep, like she was never missing. Karleniia decided that it would be best if she didn't ask her about where she was. If she had wanted everyone to know, she would have told them.
Karleniia woke up early enough to watch the sunrise. It began with a faint pink off in the distance. As it grew brighter, a bright orange, a burning sphere of red trailing not far behind, joined it. The warm, magnificent colors bled throughout the whole port, washing away any sign of darkness. Beautiful… She had to watch the sunrise from the entrance to her tent but whether she watching it from the shore or from her tent it was still beautiful. Nino woke not long after and joined her, bombarding her with a zillion questions about what happened the night before.Karleniia rubbed her head, trying to shut out the persistent little voice. So different from Jafar's she thought. His was deep and sometimes couldn't even be heard.
Wait! Why am I thinking about Jafar? Ugh! Whatever…Nino knew Karleniia wasn't listening so she had stuffed herself up in Karleniia's face. When Karleniia finally returned to reality, she saw Nino's face centimeters from hers. She screamed and fell backwards, a priceless look on her face.
"Ha ha ha! I knew you weren't listening… so I thought… I might get your attention… that way." She had to stop every once in a while because she was laughing so hard.
Karleniia rolled her eyes and sat back up.
"Do you want to know what happened or are you going to keep laughing all day like an idiot?" Karleniia couldn't help but smile now. Nino was laughing so much it was funny. She was leaning against the tent holding her stomach, her breaths coming in short little puffs.
Then Karleniia realized something. Nino was going to knock the tent right down on Marisa!
"Ack! Nino get off the tent its going to-"
Nino had started to sink into the side and the sticks holding it up were starting to bend to an unsafe degree. Before she realized what she was doing Nino collapsed along with the rest of the tent.
"Yagh! Get it off me!"
Marisa had woken up, only to find that she was being smothered under the mess of what was their tent. The sheets started kicking and screaming, pieces of stick flying everywhere.
Nino eyes were wide and she was still lying on the ground on the green heap. Stuck in a state of shock.
Karleniia screamed and flailed her arms,
"Nino get up! Get up! We got get her out!"
She ran over to Nino but tripped on a stick still stuck in the ground. She flew over Nino and went splat on Marisa.
"Help me! There something on me!"
"Ow ow ow! Marisa stop kicking me!" Karleniia pulled herself off of Marisa and tried to untangle the tent-mess.
After much struggling, Nino and Karleniia finally released Marisa from her lineny state.
She wormed her way out of the tangle and started asking random questions like,
"What the hell is going on?"
"Who are you?" (aimed at Nino)
"Is it even morning yet!"
"Why did you-"
Ugh. This is too much.
Karleniia held her head in her hands and tried to calm the obviously very flustered Marisa,
"Its all right. Nino was laughing and fell back on the tent… STOP SCREAMING!"
The other two jumped a little and looked at her, a look of surprise on their faces. Eyes wide, they decided it best to stay quiet.
Karleniia sighed and let her gaze fall from one face to the other. Marisa was halfway under the tent and Nino was by her side, hands ready to shake the sense out of her.
"Umm… I think we should fix the tent…"
All three sets of their eyes were on the wreck of a tent before them. How would they fix it? The fabric was torn and all the supporting sticks were broken. Only Karleniia knew how to sew but she hated to and she couldn't even help get sticks. She couldn't walk on her feet in their present condition.
Nino stood up and pointed to Karleniia's feet,
"What you do?"
"When we were searching or Marisa I tore up my feet running on the rocks. But they're better now. No worries." She titled her head and smiled sweetly.
Marisa pulled herself out and walked over to her. She put her hand on Karleniia's head and ruffled her hair.
"Hey!" She tried to grab Marissa hand but failed to do so.
Marisa smiled,
"Yep that's our little Karlii! So cute and innocent!"
"Hey who are you callin' short? I got four inches on you! Okay not you but I do on Nino! HA! Who's little now?" She crossed her arms and waited for a reply.
"You!" Marisa sneered.
Nino walked next to her and leaned over.
"Yeah, I might be 2 inches-"
"Double that and you got it, Shrimp" Karleniia smirked. Nino was 4'11" and Karleniia was 5' 3", which gave her a distinct height advantage.
Nino frowned and tried to stand a little taller.
"I'm not that short," she grumbled.
"Hey. Are we gonna fix this tent or what?" It was Marisa.
The two others nodded and got to work.
Marisa went to look for new sticks to hold the tent up with while Nino went for some thread and a needle. Karleniia stayed behind and tried to create an organized pile out of the mess. But only succeeded in making more of a mess.
She sighed and finally just shoved it all aside, keeping the fabric so she could sew it up.
She was sitting on the old pile of fabric, fiddling with the broken half of a stick when Jafar walked up behind her.
Before he knew that she knew he was there she said,
"Why do you always come from behind?"
He paused and replied,
"Because that's how the video game creators portray me."
Ackward silence
Karleniia stopped for a minute and wrinkled her brow.
"Video game creators?" She looked at him questioningly.
Jafar nodded. He walked a few feet away and sat down on a rock.
His eyes fell upon the "tent".
"What happened –"
"Nino."
"Ah… Nino."
They shared a short glance and returned to outer space.
Karleniia stared up into the sky, eyes on the birds but not really seeing them.
Jafar stood in the shadow of a nearby tree and stared ahead, mind blank, eyes blank.
After a long while of staring at non-existent birds and thinking no thoughts, Nino returned with the needle and thread.
She looked for Karleniia and found her sitting under a tree with Jafar standing under another not far away.
She cautiously inched her way back to the tent thinking that some kind of fight had taken place.
When no words were coming from either of the girls something was weird.
"Stop creeping around like a mouse." Jafar emerged from the shadows and took it onto himself to speak first.
Nino jumped and whirled around, facing Jafar, eyes darting between him and Karleniia. She readied herself for suppressed feelings to wriggle their way out and explode. But to her relief nothing worth typing happened.
Karleniia was by her side now peering over her shoulder, frowning.
Nino turned around and handed her the contents of the little satchel she carried. There was a small silver needle and two spools of royal blue thread.
"All right you have your stuff now get to work! I'm going to help Marisa."
And with that she was off. Running down towards the sea and then north parallel with the water, the direction that Marisa had set off in.
Karleniia watched her go; secretly wishing she could go to. Out to the inviting, warm waters, away from the needle and much-needed-to-be-fixed tent remains.
She turned back towards the tent when Nino was out of sight and-
"Ahhh!"
-came face to face with Jafar.
He looked down at her and stared into her eyes.
His eyed were red and gave her a strange feeling.
Like when I first talked to him…His eyes were locked with hers and they stayed that way until she looked away.
Karleniia was staring at the ground, not knowing what to do. He finally broke the silence and asked,
"Do you want any help?"
"Oh… um I mean yes!" She hoped a fake smile would work but really knew that he saw right through it.
"What do you want-"
A voice came from behind and cut him off.
"Why don't you start setting up this tent?"
Marisa had appeared beside the tent and was holding a pile of sticks in her arms. She walked over to the two of them, handed Jafar the sticks, and pushed him towards the pile of rubbish they dared call a tent.
Once he was at the tent he started sorting through the numerous sticks, picking out the straightest, strongest ones, throwing out the ones he deemed unworthy.
Marisa pulled Karleniia under a far off tree and glanced back to make sure Jaffar couldn't hear.
"What was the hell was that!"
Karleniia cocked her head.
"What was what?"
Marisa threw hers arms up in the air.
"THAT! Jafar! You! Close! Staring! There was closeness and eye staring! What do you mean "What?"" You looked like you were gonna… gonna," Marisa was furiously blushing and could barely finish," er… kiss!"
"What? You! Agh!" She smacked Marisa upside the head and walked back towards the tent.
Conveniently enough Nino decided to pop up when she did, hearing all Karleniia said.
"What! Marisa wants to kiss Jafar? Ahhhh! What has the world come to?" She began running around in circles, screaming about the end of the world.
"Ack! Nino! No! AHHHH!" Karleniia to was now running around in circles, but for a different reason. She was trying to stop Nino.
Jafar had choked when he heard about Marisa and was watching the three of them running around like idiots.
Karleniia and Marisa finally had Nino pinned down against the ground, dodging kicks and punches aimed their way. Jafar was still sitting by the tent, which was halfway up, sagging badly to one side, threatening to fall over again.
Marisa leaned over Nino and explained the events that just took place, telling her not to "act like such a damned fool ever again."
Deciding it was no longer worth wasting his time on, Jafar returned to the tent and quickly set it back up. He tied the torn pieces together to create a crude cover. Karleniia hadn't sewn it back together so he settled for that instead.
The day was slowly turning to dusk and Karleniia wanted to go on the beach and watch the sunset. She walked down towards the ocean and when she arrived looked back at the small camp. Nino was sulking by her tent with Marisa next to her making sure she didn't go anywhere near Jafar. But when she looked for him he was no where to be seen. She turned towards the sea and watched the sun dip down behind the ocean, leaving a trail of purple and red. The colors were brilliant and hurt her eyes.
Karleniia heard someone approaching from the camp. She stood perfectly still, waiting for the visitor to address themself first.
"I didn't expect to see you out here. I thought you'd be over with Jafar."
Joshua had spoken first and was looking at her, like he was waiting for some kind of reaction.
Dropping her icy exterior she turned to face him.
"Nope!" She said this with a smile.
Joshua turned towards the ocean.
"I was thinking about what happened six months ago. When we battled Eliwood. You handled that… well. I didn't think you could do it! I doubted you as a fighter and I apologize. Forgive me?"
He looked over at her, a hopeful look on his face.
Karleniia laughed.
"It's been six months! Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"
He shrugged.
"Don't know."
Joshua paused for a moment, thinking, then turned back towards the camp and sauntered off.
Karleniia watched as he went, wondering why he hadn't said anything sooner.
Sixth months! What's wrong with him!
She stayed motionless for a while longer and then shook her head and started to walk back.
Karleniia absent-mindedly glanced over at the trees by the dunes. She didn't see but Lloyd was standing behind them, waiting for a certain someone.
----------------------
End-fully-ness. Wowza that one was long. For me at least. Later, peeps.