(During Issue 7, Taranee calls Hay Lin and Irma)
"Flames! This is getting into nerves!"
Few days go by as winter comes to Heatherfield, Nigel says to himself as he walks towards to Taranee's home entry porch. It was few days ago, when he invited her on a date unexpectedly when the supposed receiver actually received the message. The probability of a rejection is too high and too great, but his one percent chance triumphs over odds.
Nigel breathes heavily and knocks unto the door. Then a few moments later a dark complexioned, good-looking sixteen-year old with braided hair tied into a ponytail and a red pointed beard, greets him to the door. "You're Nigel aren't you? Waiting for Taranee?" winks and bumps his elbow on Nigel.
"Y-yes." Nigel nervously fumbles his beanie hat.
"Come in! Taranee will be here in a moment!" he invites. "I'm Peter Cook by the way, Taranee's older brother."
"Thanks! But Please, I'll just wait out here." Nigel denies politely.
"You sure? It's kinda getting cold out there." Peter says as he notices Nigel shivers.
"I'm just a bit nervous." Nigel replies as he rubs his arms.
"Don't let it stress on you, my sister's a cool but shy girl. Just be yourself and have fun." Peter explains. "You sure you don't wanna come in?"
"To be honest, I don't think Mrs. Cook, would be happy to see me." He whispers to Peter.
"Then I guess, I'll keep you company then." Peter says as he closes the door behind him and leans on the entry porch wall. "I heard you defended my sister from Uriah the other day, and I appreciated it, but don't you think it affected your relationship with your friends?"
"After the museum incident, I decided to leave them for sure." Nigel explains. "The reason why I end up in Uriah's gang was because I need to pay back when he protected me from my abusive big brother. Don't get me wrong but Uriah also has good sides too, such as being a true friend to his gang, but being toxic with everyone is not."
"Well you don't have to worry, now." Peter says as he invites his fist at Nigel. "Consider me as a friend now."
"Thanks." Nigel shyly bumps his fist to Peter's.
Then comes a long and awkward silence between them as they wait Taranee to arrive as they watch the winter scape of the horizon as the snow falls to the ground.
"You know what it's a weird sharing this to you," Peter says. "But the other night I had some kind of dream."
"A dream?"
"I don't know if I dreamt of it because it was too real for me and surprisingly you are actually in it too." Peter says as he rubs his nape.
"What's it about?"
"I was in the middle of a crater of a large volcano you see, and I was somehow afloat on the magma beneath me. Though I feel the extreme heat from the bottom of my feet, I couldn't feel any pain. When I turned around, I saw you also as you float yourself in a punk dark outfit of some kind. Then you just stare at me with a dead face as you point to the sky. I looked up and saw a Chinese kind of dragon looping around the bright sun." Peter then becomes silent.
"And then?" Nigel asks interestingly when Peter stopped.
"Suddenly, there was some kind of earthquake and the magma rises from my feet to my body, I panicked and hurriedly try to pull away from the rising magma but too late, the eruption occurred as the blast swallowed my body. And then I wake up."
"W-What a dream, huh." Nigel stutters as he encountered a specific scene in his dream before; a dragon looping around the sun.
"It wasn't just a dream, man. It's a nightmare." Peter says as he rubs his shoulders. "And not only that, but it seem real too! When I woke up not only was I sweating so badly but my feet was burning hot!"
"Oh—umm…I see…" Nigel says as he combs his hair back as he remembers when he was a child when he had the same dream he had as Peter's but for Nigel, instead of magma and in a crater, he was in a barren wasteland and on front of him was a powerful nuclear mushroom cloud. Above is the dragon and the sun.
"Are you sure you want to wait out here? Because I don't know long a moment will take my sister!" Peter whispers.
'What's the meaning of this? Up until to this day, I never knew what that dream meant to me! And now he had same dream as I do!" Nigel says to himself.
Then out of Nigel's inconclusive thoughts, "Here I am! Hello Nigel!" Taranee greets as she dresses her violet and purple coat up.
"H-Hello!" Nigel greets back with a shy gesture as he pinches his beanie hat. "Flames! She looks amazing! Hold it to yourself! Just be you!'
Taranee moves closely beside Nigel as they walk out of the house. "Have you picked out a movie yet?"
"No, I want you to choose!" Nigel replies and as they open themselves to the sky he opens his foldable umbrella. "Wait! Snow's pouring in too hard."
"You think I'm too scared for this much snow?" She replies as she bends to the ground and digs snow from the ground and throws it at him. "I think you are!" she laughs
"Huh—Off!" Nigel woes as the snowball hits his hair, yet laughs at her mischievous prank.
"Gotcha! A point for me!" she says as she runs away.
Nigel in return quickly scoops his own snowball from the ground and chases Taranee. "You know what you're gonna get, right?"
"Well, I'll get it only if you catch me!" Taranee yells back as she enthusiastically runs away.
"Oh I will!" Nigel continues the playful pursuit.
(During Issue 7, Elyon investigates Meridian)
"Oh, I won't! Not this time again!" Meanwhile, Ray denies, as he and Eric gazes down from the Meridian heights. Ray, now recovered, joined Eric. "The last time we did this we were already wanted men!" Ray yells discretely.
"So you won't help me then?" Eric asks. Earlier during a certain weekend, they decided to inform and answer Caleb's favor as they go out once more into Meridian's labyrinth, but their eyes catch on to the burning house which was set up a ablaze by Phobos' men, thirty meters away from them.
"If we're caught on this again, and we met Zagan—" Ray warns him.
"No! Stop!" cries a woman galhot who charges in but is blocked by her fellow Merdianites. "My child is in there! Please stop! Save my child, I beg of you!"
"You think your child's worth saving than ours?" Phobos' men laugh loudly.
Ray and Eric look at each other with disgust and anger at the foul event. Eric fixes his hood and quickly slides down the hill.
"On second thought," Ray sternly says as his bow appears on front of his hand and aims at one of the laughing men. "Aye aye captain." The electrifying arrow shoots into the air and lands at soldier's leg.
Eric as he lands on the ground charges toward Phobos' men. In surprise he kicks the first soldier "Urgghh!", he flips his body and pulls out sword behind his back and during his turnabout, he knocks out two more. "What—Argh!" Eric then quickly breaks in the blazing house. Though the fire scorns his eyes and his brown robe, his ears are sharp as he hears cries a floors above him.
'An infant's cry! And these men have no concern!' he founds a staircase that leads him to the next floors. He covers his brown robe as he too his caught by the flames, He follows where the noise comes from and follows it to a series of rooms. He kicks through doors and leaps across holes.
'Man! I couldn't take this much longer!' Eric coughs for air. The cry gets louder and louder, until he founds a cradle. He looks inside and sees a baby galhot inside. "Don't cry now!—I'm here now!" he coughs. He quickly removes his brown robe for disguise and wraps the baby with it and carries it in his arms. He turns around to the staircase but the floor leading to it extinguishes!
'Oh no! I'm trapped!-' Eric coughs as he sees a window at the other side of the room, with a large rocky side outside. He moves back a few steps and at the right distance, he runs toward the window and smashes through it with shards of glass broken through the air as he safely covers his arms and head to protect the baby. Through a fifteen meter height jump momentum he pulls out his sword toward the rocky side of a mountain and thrusts to it as he dangles his body in the air. 'Great how am I supposed to get down from here!'
"Hey!" Ray says as he runs from the heights "Let go! I'll catch you!" as he extends his arms below Eric.
'Man! This is so lame!' Eric says and without a choice in mind he removes his sword back and falls with his back first to land. In the mere fast seconds Ray catches him, but Eric's gravity was too great that his back completely lands to the ground. "Arrghh! My back!". While Ray's arms too follows too as well smashes it to the ground,
"My arms!" Ray cries as they both lie down half-conscious and half not on the ground.
"Thanks a lot!" Eric yells as he rubs his back in pain. He checks on the baby and he still hears it cry.
"D-don't mention it!" Ray replies hardly as he whips his arms in pain. "Didn't think you were too heavy!"
"My baby!" cries the mother galhot as he approaches them from the crowd. As Eric gives her baby to the desperate mother she caresses and embraces it. "Thank you! Thank you!" She takes his hand in gratitude.
"You're welcome—" Eric then feels an elbow bump from Ray as he gestures on his hoodie; Eric's face is open to the crowd and thus quickly puts it back.
"You're from the Vanguard!" a galhot suddenly from the crowd exclaims as he points out to Eric's exposed uniform. "From General Oswyn's! Long live Oswyn-!"
"Oh please don't!" Eric stops him. "I appreciate your praise but, please don't tell anyone we're here. It's a secret mission."
The crowd looks to each other in confusion and murmurs but then turns to the legionates with a bright and hopeful smile. "We will."
"Thank you." Eric replies. "But cheers to the rebellion!" he says as he smites his hand to the air as they hide themselves in the shadows once again as the crowd cheers behind "Long live the rebellion!" "Long live the rebellion!" "Long live the rebellion!"
(During Issue 7, Phobos questions Cedric)
As they find their way back to the path of the rebellion in the Meridian labyrinth and the unwinding maze where the squatters and the poor people of Meridian live, they cautiously walk back along the shadows and the less dense and hidden and unknown ways of the city.
"Do you ever wonder how we survive that fall? Even my spine survived that fall. I could've been dead." Eric asks as he rubs his back from the pain. "Next time we will never do that again."
"Hey, I said I was sorry." Ray apologizes. "I didn't know your weight would counter my broken arms.
"From this skinny stature?" Eric asks rhetorically. "If Nigel were here with us instead of his stupid date, I bet the damages would be minimized."
"Oh young love." Ray sarcastically and jokingly dramatizes.
"Don't encourage him." Eric says as he bumps his elbow to him. "How's your broken arms then?"
"Surprisingly, they're not actually broken, but the pain is still here." Ray replies. "Strangely though, you have a solid concrete back to survive a deadly fall. So what's your secret to train your back?"
"Oh shut it." Eric replies. "I didn't know how much damage did my back take, unless I have it x-rayed."
"Speaking of x-rays, we better get you a disguise. If Endarno were here with us, he would be so mad about your exposed face in public." Ray says to Eric who earlier gave his robe for the baby and also exposed his face to large crowd which is a serious offense according to the Legionate's Code. "We need to go through that populated street over there without being noticed." He points to a populated street fifty feet on the intersection beyond them.
"Well we tried looking for a something to cover something with didn't we?" Eric asks. "Why don't I just blend in with the crowd, just like you did back then?"
"I've caused too much of a disturbance when I was in my uniform only." Ray relates. "Good thing I wasn't caught by the soldiers when I stagger to walk these streets. I actually seemed like a beggar that time—" Ray then cuts as he points to his chest. 'Someone's following us." His gesture warns to Eric. "—But you could also parkour through the houses that way you won't be noticed."
Eric nods from Ray's warning and without turning back, he replies. "That seems a good idea, I can actually start to climb from here." He says as they go to a small dead end near them.
True enough, behind them is also a hooded figure just like them, who discretely followed them through the shadows. As they enter the dead end, the being hid behind its walls and peeps out to the dead end but realized they were gone out of sight! 'Impossible! Where did they go?' The hooded figure walks quickly into the dark and foggy descending dead end; but there was no sign of them.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the figure was seized from the shadows; its arm was grabbed and mouth covered with as it muffles its voice for a cry for help. 'What the-Help!' As it struggles to break free from the clutches.
"Quiet now or you'll be—Hey now!" Eric demands as he tries to stop the unknown figure's resistance of breaking free. He grips harder to its arms and presses his other hand to silence it. 'Funny, it's not a galhot, but an escanor!" Eric says as he touches human skin and lips from the figure.
"I have a strong presence from our visitor right here, a spy of Phobos perhaps?" Ray asks as he walks from the shadows from the adjacent wall.
"Maybe, unless we check who this guy is." Eric forcefully flips the figure around to face him and grabs on its shoulders.
"No don't-!" a familiar female voice negates as Eric opens the hood from the figure. Unexpectedly, he instead sees a beautiful blondie girl with her signature twin braids on her sides.
"—girl, Eric not a guy." Ray wrongs him as he was surprised to be familiar with the girl on front of them.
"E-Elyon?" Eric shockingly asks.
