I awoke the next morning in what felt like a pool of sweat. I snapped my head in Rhyme's direction. He was still snoozing. I rubbed my eyes as I lifted myself from the stiff bed. I could now tell that Rhyme was shivering under his heavy comforter and my eyebrows pulled together. What was I missing? It couldn't be that cold..
"Oh my," I choked out as I pushed the curtains aside to see outside of our small window. A large sheet of snow covered the entire desert. I stumbled back a few feet and sat on the edge of my bed before I could fall over on my back. I grasped for the sheets on the bed and I felt the heat building in my body. My breathing became heavy and my heart began to palpitate. Before I knew what was going on, I had collapsed on my bed and everything became blurry until I had finally blacked out.
--
"Whew,"My exhaustion escaped through my lips as I fell onto the bed. My best friend beside me nodded in agreement. "You're telling me," he sighed. Both of us lay still for a few short minutes, but that didn't last long. I rose from my bed. Genis raised a slender eyebrow at me.
"What's up all of the sudden, Lloyd?" He asked me with a dull curiosity.
I grinned at him. "You know we can't rest long. We have to find Colette." And then my brows pulled together and my smile disappeared without a trace. We weren't trying to find Colette and help her. We were seeking her help. I felt rather pathetic.
Genis reluctantly rose from his spot and grabbed his travel bag from the corner. "Sure, sure," he answered , "We wasted a lot of money paying for these rooms just now. But, we can ask around town. I want to find my sister, too."
As I grabbed my swords, I nodded in agreement. I was glad that I wasn't bothering him too much. I strapped my twin blades on either side of my waist and headed out the door. It was even more hot and sticky in the halls of the inn than in the room. I sighed and walked rather sluggishly down the narrow steps with Genis following close behind. We were both pretty wiped out when we reached the bottom of the stairway and we slumped over as we padded toward the exit.
"Leaving so soon, boys?" I heard a chipper voice call from the counter. They were always so chipper. Maybe it was part of the job. I shrugged off the thought and turned my head toward her. I nodded slowly, "Yeah, we have some things we have to take care of.." And then I turned back around and sallied to the exit, eager to escape the stare of the young woman at the counter.
If I were eggs I would scramble in less than five seconds. The heat hit me like a crashing wave (okay, I wish it was like a crashing wave. I mean the impact more than the water versus fire thing). I found myself staring absently into the sky. The sun was slowly blinding me, but it didn't matter much at the time.
"Lloyd."
I heard something that sounded a little like my name, but I couldn't bring myself to respond.
"Lloyd."
"Hey Lloyd, you there?"
"L.."
--
"Lavern!" Genis was shouting now. Wait, this didn't make any sense. That was the voice of my beloved Rhyme, not Genis. "Lavern, please wake up.." I heard his voice break and felt something wet hit my cheek. Tears? With a sudden urgency, my eyes fluttered open and I stared blankly at Rhyme for a second. He was wiping his eyes with his sleeve.
"Rhyme?"I asked, not sure if I was back or not.
He nodded. "Lavern.. What happened to you?"
I found myself asking the same question. Just what had happened to cause such a thing? I remembered now the dream that I had while I was unconscious. I was present in the mind of my father. It must've been a while back. Eighteen years or so. He was with his half-elven friend, Genis Sage, in the desert oasis, Triet. And, by the looks of it, and also by what I felt, it was terribly hot there. Nothing like the desert was now. It was hot like how I've been feeling lately.
"Well?" I heard Rhyme asking me now. I could tell he was growing impatient with me.
I scratched my head, trying to sum things up, clipping away most of the unimportant information. With my cover story completed, I stood and found myself dizzy. Maybe sitting would be better.
"I guess I just passed out.. because, after I, um, woke up, I was still really tired. You see, I haven't gotten much sleep in the past week.." I was as transparent as glass. Thankfully, Rhyme trusted me. He knew I was lying, but he also knew I would tell him anything if it was important enough.
"Then, let's be on our way, okay? It's too cold here," Rhyme said to me, wrapping his arms around himself. I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sure."
With that being said, the two of us grabbed our things and headed for the exit. Luckily, I learned a lesson from my father and avoided the lady at the counter. The last thing I would have wanted to do at that moment was talk with her. When we reached the threshold and exited the inn, I found my eyes wandering toward the sky in the same place my father once stared. All at once, the heat drained from my body and a cold breeze had me chattering my teeth in synchronization with Rhyme.