Chapter Two: Unseen
The journey began when Vincent departed with Flora from the inn that day. They had trekked for almost six days, never stopping to rest for the night. Since the journey to the northern lands was very far away, they continued onwards regardless. Flora took the lead while Vincent followed her, but without any nourishments or rest for six days, she was becoming fatigued. He knew that she needed to relieve her body of its stress.
Vincent did not mention it; he cared not if Flora was tired. As long as they remained on the path to the north, there was no reason to halt. But with every step forward, they seemed to take one step back. He only wished to press forward faster, but in fact, their progress had slowed significantly. Relieving his thoughts, he was just in time to see his guide was falling forward.
Ever since Flora began traveling with her newfound companion, she had yet to show any weakness emitting from her; she was trying to prove to Vincent that she was capable of handling herself. But her ego had gotten the better of her – she wanted to have Vincent see her as a combatable female warrior. The thought of him saving her from death and nearly bestowing a kiss upon her, and her mind deceived her with intimate thoughts, displaced off from her body by weariness.
Her body hence tried to push forward – yet her mind did not respondand then she found herself tumbling. Vincent dashed in front of her and caught her fall.
Flora finally came to and found herself in the protective care of her savior once again. Looking up with her silver eyes to the same man that followed four feet behind her since day one, only now she saw something in depth of his amber eyes.
"Are you alright?" Vincent asked the female warrior in his arms.
"Yes, I was in thought. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Flora replied, pulling herself out of his arms.
"You need to rest for now, Flora. Unlike me, you do not have the stamina to continue forward until your body is return to health."
"But I'm…" Flora tried to talk back, but Vincent silenced her.
"You were in thought because your mind is trying to keep you going, but your body is growing weaker with every time you move forward."
"But I'm fine, Vincent." Flora tried to convince him by standing on her own, only to see herself fall back into his embrace.
She groaned in exhaustion; only now she began to feel her weakened state. She did not have the strength to go on ahead.
Flora opened her eyes to see Vincent picking her up.
"Night is nearly upon us. I will carry you until we reached a clearing. And then, we will spend the night there. Until then, rest while you can." Vincent told her as he held her in his arms,
"But…" Flora attempted to protest.
"If you're going to be stubborn I will leave you here and search for a new guide then, or you will sleep and I will carry you, what will your choice be?" Vincent boldly asked her, not willing to argue about this. Flora was left speechless. She would've stood up to him, but after few silent moments she quieted down and held onto him. Taking a guess that she had made her choice to rest, he continued on. "Now rest."
Flora never encountered someone who would care for someone like her so. She had long forgotten the warmth of someone else. Tugging closer to Vincent, she felt protected once again, in the arms of this red caped warrior. She entrusted him to care of her as long she rested, and she rested for a very long time.
Vincent looked down at the woman as he walked through the pass, feeling extremely uncomfortable as she gripped onto him. Without a thought, he slowed himself to a halt, allowing him to rekindle the past for a moment. Strangely he noticed that Flora's radiance was almost like hers. Longed has he loved the woman in his past, but he also felt something similar in this one as well.
"The past and present are two different points in life," Vincent said to himself.
He began to walk again, but ever since meeting Flora, his mind had become a constant battle between present and past.
The sunset fell below the horizon, but it was a few more hours before Vincent finally found a small clearing to stay for the night. Missing out on the settling of the sun, he cared nothing for the sun, for it was nothing more than a bright light that faded away… only to return again eventually.
He kneeled gently not to wake the sleeping woman, who had been slumbering for some hours. Her body needed the rest, and he needed her rejuvenate her body to continue as his guide. Her figure was laid on the soft grass; he examined her attire, and noticed that she did not need to sleep with her sword and her metal gears. He began with unsheathing her sword and carefully removed her armor. Deliberately he only wanted her to sleep more comfortable.
Flora's simple, single attire was not enough to protect her from night's chill, but Vincent saw that her body remained warm regardless of the cool air. Nonetheless, it would be best to have a fire going; he drifted his eyes to Flora's sword.
"Guns are useless in cutting wood either way. Perhaps she wouldn't mind." Vincent only talked to himself.
Picking up her sword, he felt the sword was heavier than the sword that belonged to his friend Cloud. Then again, the sword his friend used was actually specially designed. Despite the heaviness of the swords he relinquish the though, he could handle them.
He pinpointed some trees near by. Approaching the trees that were of unimpressive height, he swung, and one of them toppled. Remembering the sleeping woman, he quickly moved around to catch the fall of the tree. He slowly guided it to touch the ground lightly, only satisfied once he felt a low thump on the ground. With several swift strokes of the blade, he broke down the tree into firewood of appropriate size. He piled the wood to a sufficient amount to use for the entire night.
The fire was all set to be started; he took out of his cloak a crystal orb call materia. Materia are a crystal orbs processing a certain variety of abilities and magical properties. They are categorized by the color of the orbs: green, yellow, red, blue and purple. To use it, Vincent would need to fuse the orb into a weapon or equipment (in other words materia becomes a part of it). And the user who would wield the weapon would be able to cast its potential power.
Vincent positioned the orb close to the claymore and it slowly submerged into the sword giving a nice reddish glow. Aiming the sword at the firewood he had collected, a burst of fire shot out of the sword and into the fireplace igniting it instantly.
Vincent sat next to the fire with her on the other side of the burning flame. Staring into the fire, he realized that the events of the past revolved around flames: four years ago the destruction of Midgar, the final battle with Sephiroth, and the Meteor that nearly destroyed his world; two years ago the battle with the summoning of Bahamut; and the onslaught of the DeepGround Soldiers campaign last year.
Reaching under his cape, he pulled out his three main weapons. The long caliber three barrel pistol "Cerberus"; the long caliber barreled rifle equipped with a sniper scope: the "Hydra"; and a miniature sub-machine gun, "Griffon". He also had several materia of all sorts; he was well armed and fully prepared for any type of battles he would face during the time he was on this world.
But, the only pitfall was: would he be able to defeat Bahamut Zero by himself? Cloud achieved that feat two years ago, but that was when the rest had weakened Bahamut Tremor enough for Cloud to give the final blow.
The Bahamut, a summoning dragon to serve the will of whomever controlling its materia, one of the powerful summons. But there are five different Bahamut ranking them by their powerful attack. Bahamut Tremor was the second most powerful of the five, and Bahamut ZERO the third strongest.
He began to wonder and speculate the meaning of this. "What does this lead up to? A different species capable of traveling to other planets or perhaps was assisted in doing so." Looking to the side where he laid down Flora. Their ways of lives seems so fitted for a normal world, and he knew something was strange about this. Nothing was leading up yet. The mission he took up was to maintain the natural order of both worlds. "Summons are naturally created by the Planet's Lifestream, why go the lengths of stealing a materia that can be created by this Planet…"
Dawn was only a few hours away, Vincent predicted, and he figured Flora would need something to eat. Throwing in the remainder of the wood into the fire, he picked up his Cerberus checking his weapon, and then entered the darkened forest.
*****
Flora's eyes fluttered open at the dawn's sunrise. Rising from her resting place, she saw her equipment removed and had been put aside to her patch of grass. Across the small fire were two weapons that most likely belonged to Vincent.
"He must've gone somewhere…" Flora theorized. Suddenly, she finally felt the massive presence of yoki energy. Jolting to her equipments, she equipped herself quickly and immediately ran towards the flow of yoki.
"How did this just appear out of no where!?" Flora thought out loudly. The presence of a massive yoki, she can assume it was an Awakened Being.
Sprinting from left to right, she could hear the sounds of a battle raging as she came closer to the source. Blood was splattered everywhere, red and purple blood alike. She steadily kept a firm grasp on the hilt of her sword.
"Vincent!" Flora called out (worriedly), but received no response as the clashing continued.
Heading towards the battle, Flora called out his name one last time before entering the scene.
One step into the clear, Flora only looked so shocked at the battle. The damage to the forest was extensive and the amount of blood smeared was massive. One of combatant was an Awakened Being but the other was also a horrid monster. But, she had never seen such a thing and immediately presumed that it could have closely resembled a deadly monster that she had heard of.
A lion-humanoid creature, it was unlike anything she had already seen before. The skin was grayish-purple, a toned upper body shape, but its limbs were lean. It had legs like the back-legs for wolves and dogs, and large fearsome claws like a yoma. The head resemble that of a lion with white hair streaming down its back.
"It couldn't be…" Flora believed it was the former first generation of male warriors, Number 2, Rigaldo. What got Flora's attention was not the figure of this creature or the fact she could not sense yoki in it, but the fact was that the clothing it wore around its waist, looked identical to that of Vincent's red cape.
"H-he couldn't have…" Flora stuttered her words, leaving herself physically exposed to attack. The Awakened Being spotted the Claymore, threw the lion beast aside and charged at Flora changing its choice of target. Its tentacles sprouted from its body and shot forward at Flora.
She drew her Windcutter technique managed to cut through its attack, but the Awakened Being's chance of killing her was very high. Still, most awakened being battles requires a party of four warriors; she was just a single digit warrior. Doing what she could, she attacked it and defended herself continuously using her special technique. The fight was fierce, but the battle with the creature did considerable damage to Awakened Being, giving Flora the chance to kill it if possible. But it was still not enough.
"Oh no…" Flora whispered to herself as she didn't see the unforeseen rear attack. Three tentacles pierced Flora's body. Crying in agony, Flora tried to resist the pain and cut off the tentacles. Falling onto her knees, these tentacles were wide in diameter creating large gaps in her abdomen and one in her shoulder. The Awakened Being was quite amused to see her clutching her wounds while blood poured through.
"Now to end your pathetic life!" The monster laughed as it lashed out its arm, stretching it to its farthest end. Its massive clawed hands were more than enough to rip her head off.
Though she was at the edge of death once again, there was no Vincent in sight to protect her. The claws were only a few feet before reaching its target until a flurry of fireballs ripped away the extended arm. The host cried in pain as its appendage was severed. Regardless of the countermeasure, the hand continued to glide through the air towards Flora for the kill.
She had glimpsed death face-to-face once again, but now in a blink of an eye, her eyes looked upon an ebony, muscular back and length white hair, and the Awakened Being's hand punctured through its chest instead, red gore splattering across her face. The creature growled in pain and fury, removing the hand stuck within it, with astonishing speed appeared in front of injured Awakened Being.
The Awakened Being had not saw it coming but the beast gripped its remaining arm, crushing it, while the other hand placed upon its stomach… if it had one. A deathly glow emitted from its hand and a fireball smashed into the Awakened Being exploding on impact and tore its back. The Awakened Being was twice its size, but size did not matter in this case the creature bested it. But it was not dead yet.
"Now, Flora… kill it now," the creature spoke to Flora, holding a firm grip on the Awakened Being so it could not escape.
Unaware that it had called her name, Flora sprinted to give the final blow to the Awakened Being.
"Wait!" As the Awakened Being cried out its last word, Flora used her Windcutter technique again and successfully destroyed the head of the being. As its body fell limp, the surviving monster allowed the body to drop to the ground.
It had called her by her name. She observed this monster that was yet to look at her. It began to turn around, and with defensive instinct Flora readied herself to use the Windcutter technique once more.
The beast came into full view… looking at Flora and seeing her ruined clothes in shambles. Her wounds were terrible, but they were not fatal enough. The bloodstains of her wounds dampened her skin, yet she still stood her ground. But to Flora's confusion, the beast chuckled.
"Once again, I've saved you from the abyss of death…" the beast said to her.
"Huh? It couldn't be…" mumbled Flora. "Vincent?"
"Indeed it is me," he replied, his voice slowly returning to normal. A shinning bright light engulfed the beast's form. She closed her eyes to avoid the brightness to her eyes. She opened them once that glowed no longer pierced beneath her eyelids. She peeped out to see where Vincent was standing. He had returned to his original human form, his clothes normal, but in his hand was a similar weapon back at camp.
Flora looked in amazement at Vincent. He placed away his weapon and walked towards her. He reached for her hand and placed something in it.
She was speechless. "How?" was the only word she could think of?
"I got you your breakfast." It was all that Vincent said. Handing her an enormous fruit, Flora looked down, closing her eyes and smiling.
"Thank you Vincent," she said.
Without warning or signs, Vincent coughed out blood, his gore splattering onto the fruit. A horrified Flora stared at him even as began falling forward.
"Vincent!" Flora caught and held onto his body, but due to her lack of food, she barely had the strength to hold him up. She tumbled to the ground with him. "Vincent! Vincent, are you alright!" Flora got up and tried to wipe the blood away from his face and spotted his injury on his left rib cage. It was a direct puncture wound, larger than a size of a fist, breaking the rib cage and possibly even scratched his left lung. He was bleeding badly and possibly internally as well.
"That monster got me good… my healing capabilities are not so strong after the battle." He admitted. "I was healing the other wounds, but, this took a toll on my body," he winced in pain as a surge of unquestionable suffering his body was in. And a pint of blood gushed out from the injury, the chances of him not surviving was becoming more of a reality.
"Vincent, hold on. I'm going to treat it right away," Flora quickly assured, ripping a large piece of her cape and trying to use it to suck up the blood as she put pressure on it. She saw the wound was recovering, similar to how her body would heal as well, but at a much slower rate and it continued to slow down.
"Flora… my belt… there's a bottle of green liquid. Hand that to me," he weakly requested of her.
Flora nodded and looked on his belt and saw a small bottle of what he described on the right side on his belt.
"I have it, Vincent, now what?"
"Help me up, I need to drink some of it," he said, gritting his teeth while clutching his wound. But this action has cause to only worsen his current state.
She did what he told her; she helped him up, unscrewed the bottle cap and guided the bottle into his mouth.
After a few moments he gulped down the liquid until he signaled it was enough. Vincent then closed his eyes as his body went numb. When Vincent did not open his eyes are even drew a breath, Flora began to believe that Vincent had taken a dosage of deathly water, a gift of eternal rest. "Vincent? Vincent? Vincent Wake up!" She shook him but he did not budge, she slapped him but he didn't stir.
She cradled Vincent in her arms, thinking he took his own life. Tears welled in her eyes, droplets of falling upon his face and mixing the blood with salt. But then, she abruptly felt him regain his body composure, the bloody wound he once had had disappeared. It was amazing, that a wound like that would take only several minutes to heal.
Vincent regained consciousness, opening his eyes and staring up at her face.
"Vincent, I'm so glad!" Flora cried hugging him.
Regaining his senses, the wound no longer ached. It was fully healed; the bones were mending, the flesh was sealed and new skin had weaved itself over leaving no scars behind. But that wasn't what concerned Vincent; right now he was focused on something that he sensed.
"Why do you care? And how come it's affecting me?" Vincent's mind voiced many questions at hand. But looking up and seeing the expression on Flora's face, he asked himself: "Does my life have meaning to yours?"
Pulling his body up from her lap, Flora quickly wiped her tears away and apologized. "I'm sorry Vincent, I didn't mean to –," she tried to explain.
"Your apology is not required; though do note in the future that the green liquid was a healing potion. So, you do not have to worry yourself."
Both of them got up and Vincent wiped the blood away from his face. "Sorry, about your breakfast," he lowly spoke.
Flora looked at him, puzzled, and then stared down. Her fruit was squashed and drenched in his blood.
She could only giggle at his excuse for humor, but yet, Vincent's monotone voice hinted that he was actually serious. As for him, seeing her giggle was quite calming, as giving him a time to enjoy himself even after a bloodbath.
"I'm sorry, Vincent," she said excusing herself for laughing when he given her glare as she straighten herself out.
"… Luckily the tree where I got this from isn't far. We can go and retrieve another one for you."
Flora nodded and Vincent led the way to the fruit's origin. Walking away from the bloody battlefield, they reentered into the forest to get another big fruit.
*****
Night soon came, with Flora leading Vincent on the path they had previously traversed. She had eaten the fruit in the morning but strangely; she stopped moving and turned to face Vincent.
Uncertain of her intentions for stopping he asked, "What's wrong?"
"Vincent, can we rest for the night?" Flora asked.
"Are you not at full strength though?" Vincent questioned.
"Yes… but… please?" Flora pleaded.
"If that is your wish, then so be it. You are the guide after all." That was all he said.
Smiling to herself, Flora actually wanted to spend more quiet time with him. She had been saved from death twice, nearly given her first kiss, and he scared her with his near death experience. Yet they had not spent much quality time since they first began their journey together. Yes, Flora had endured the walking with him, but it was not like anything like sitting down with the man to try to know him. She was curious.
Finding a spot near the path was a small opening with a stream flowing through it. Here they made camp for the night. They grabbed the battered wood that was already on the ground to save time to cut and chop the tree down. The wood they found sufficed for the night, as Flora began to start the fire. She was about to ignite the firewood with a flint and stone until Vincent stopped her.
"Wait," Vincent told her, Flora paused and looked up at him.
"Vincent? I need to start the fire to get it going," Flora said as she resumed what she was doing before. Vincent placed his hand on her arm, halting her from doing such a job.
"I know. That's why I'm stopping you. Take out your sword." Vincent replied, lifting her from the ground.
Flora dropped the necessities and pulled out her sword. Moving to face her from behind, Vincent was about to show Flora an easier way to start the fire. Flora blushed slightly, never being close to a man such as him. His body warmed hers, his hands gliding down her arms and reaching towards her hands.
"Here… point your sword at the fireplace," Vincent commanded her. She did as she was told. "Now feel your sword… picture your sword with an essence of the element of fire. That small flame waiting to burst."
Flora was focused on her teacher, feeling the sword with her body with a complete unique connection.
"Now… with that flame, set ablaze the wood, release it," Vincent told her firmly, gripping his hands on top of hers.
Feeling a jolt of energy blasting from the sword, Flora opened her eyes to see her sword glowing red.
"My goodness." Flora was speechless.
"Keep your sword pointing, you haven't fully release it, send forth all of it."
And with her mental abilities… the sword flared out a burst of a small fireball into the wood, igniting it instantly.
"How did I…" she sputtered, looking at her sword. It no longer glowed… it was in flames.
The sword gave off an essence that Flora couldn't describe. She looked at Vincent for an answer, and he replied. "I forgot to mention that I enabled your sword to wield the essence of fire. In my world, we have something called materia. Materia are used to equip weapons or equipments in battle or for common use. It a connection between wielder and the materia but you are also…" Vincent began to trail off, "It's quite complicated to explain, and I prefer not to bore you with such explanation. Plus you seen to know how to wield it now so I do not think it is really necessary."
Flora beamed at him for trying to explain to her this new form of power he had given her. She never really felt magic truly existed, but giving her the privilege to wield its power in a tiny fraction. Although she was uncertain that she would be able to master it, Vincent said otherwise. She proceeded to remove her armor gear while Vincent sat and leaned back over a tumbled log.
"Your sword remains the same but it obtained a new advantage; the flame your sword produces is for you to choice how to use it; whether you want to start a fire, or you to burn your enemies to the ground."
She smiled to herself, as part of her plan was underway and conversation began between the two. Flora wished to know more of Vincent and the many traits that he had yet to show. She sat by the fire, a few feet from him, thinking of different topics. Then, she remembered the morning, when Vincent was not human during the fight with the Awakened Being.
"This morning, when you encountered the Awakened Being," Flora began looking at him for the answers she hoped he would answer.
"Yes?" Vincent said, knowing what she wished to ask.
"You took the form of a beast that was known in these lands. Ar– are you the Silver Eye Lion King?"
He looked at her strangely, how can she connect him to that name? His eyes were amber when human, but gold in his beast form.
"No. Perhaps we shared similar features but I do not have silver eyes. When you saw me in this morning was an ability I have. This ability is called limit break, it is like a special technique or countermeasure if you will, for damage being done to me. Certain individuals are able to use this ability and have their own limit break. My limit breaks is the transformation of myself, what you saw me was a form which I call Galian Beast. I have a level for each of the four forms I have, but I would prefer the Galian Beast for reasons."
"Oh, I see. Is it by your own will that you turn into such a thing?"
"Yes, there was a time where my current strength seems futile, and I required more power. These Awakened Beings… what are they? Where do they originate?"
Flora only wished that he wouldn't ask that question. "Do you really want to know?" she asked.
Vincent looked in her eyes and saw the significance of the topic. If they were to survive together, they might as well give information of anything useful.
"Awakened Beings are the final form of warriors such as I when we used too much of our yoki energy and cannot control the powers we have released. To us, we would only use up to a certain amount of yoki. In desperate measures we would exceed a certain amount to end a battle, but chances of becoming an Awakened Being are likely to happen no matter what. The yoki energy within us was from Yoma flesh intergraded into us to enable us to combat Yoma and Awakened Beings alike."
"In other words you have the potential of turning into an Awakened Being, then," he theorized calmly.
Flora closing her eyes, knowing that the truth hurt, as much as she wished it to be false. It was true.
"Yes…" Flora confirmed. Expecting a shocked Vincent, she was surprised when he walked over and kneeled before her instead.
"How much of your energy do you have to use in a worse case scenario?" he asked her.
"The highest we can possibly go is forty percent, but each individual can exceed a higher amount depending how it can be controlled. Why?" Flora asked.
With his metal claw, he forced his hand into himself. But this was no physical attempt, a black mist-like was surrounded his hand as it entered his body.
"Vincent!" was her only reaction at his action.
Vincent grunted in pain, his hand searching for something within him until he grasped it. He wrenched a crystal orb out of him. He stumbled backwards and at on the soft ground, panting at the task and sweat gathering on his face. To Flora, she could only see extreme pain in his body.
Flora was still puzzled, as she just saw him reaching into his own body. Yet no blood came out.
"Here," Vincent spoke to her showing her a bluish orb.
"What is it?"
"It is a special materia, one of the rarest of them all. I am giving you control of your powers, this is called the protomateria. It controls the powers within you from going berserk, in your case turning yourself into a monster."
"But why do you have it?"
"In order to keep the demon within me controlled… Chaos, but because of the events of my past I am able to control Chaos. The protomateria is only a safety measure for me. But you… there is something inside me telling me that it is better for you to contain yourself than I." Vincent explained, offering this precious gift.
"He's willing to give me this for my sake?" Flora thought. "But Vincent, I rarely use my powers, so please put it back within you. I guarantee you I will not use more than twenty-five percent of my power in any case."
"…If that is your wish…" Vincent replied, placing the orb into his body once again.
Once again Flora stared in amazement at his world's culture. This was the leisure time she wanted to spend with him. They were sharing their time together, but that was until she felt his presence; her plan was wrecked by that man. Holding back her frustration, she forced herself to meet with her superior.
"Vincent I'm going to meet my watcher, it would be best if you remain here." Flora replied with distaste in her gentle voice.
"Watcher?" Vincent asked, unfamiliar with the word.
"They are the ones that give me orders. I need to meet with him… alone."
Vincent nodded in silence and remained where he was. Flora walked away from her location into the deepness of the forest. After walking for almost thirty minutes, a voice called out.
"Picking up strangers along the journey is a very bad thing."
Stopping in her tracks, she turned to the voice.
"What orders have you come to give me?"
"Ah straight to the point I see. Very well then, we sent a team to the north to hunt down an Awakened Being. Somehow our intelligence was extremely inaccurate."
Looking concern for the matter, Flora listened…
*****
Flora developed a second opinion of her purpose as a warrior. They were supposedly to destroy those who harm humans. They were tools at most to protect those with lives, but yet she had a life as well. Not as a normal human, but a life that she chose to live.
As she thought upon that matter, she began to feel tired, and the walk back to the camp was increasing her tiredness. Flora couldn't explain why she was feeling tired though. When she reached back to the campsite, she gazed upon an unexpected sight. She looked at the fire with a faint smile; Vincent was asleep. Shallow breaths rose and expelled from his lungs, in the same position he was in when she left.
It was a peaceful moment of the night. Striding towards the sleeping individual, she made herself comfortable near him. It was the closest she could get to him, as she rest her body closely to him, placing her head upon his left shoulders.
She found to be at ease when she's around him, but she felt comforted when she's near him. She'd rather become closer to him than any other person she known.
Thoughts of her watcher's words soon became an erased memory; all that was left was the remainder of this peaceful night. A devious idea came to her in using his unconscious body for her, Flora began to fluster. This was the only time she'd ever have. Believed she wasn't going to get another chance.
Her left hand fell onto his face. Strands of black and few of her static golden hair attached itself to his face. Brushing away the hair, her hand stroked at his skin. Never had any men possessed such beauty. There were no scars or what so ever on any of it.
Slowly moving downwards, she unfastened the crimson cloak, exposing his attire and placing her hand over his heart. It vibrated with every heartbeat, not skipping a beat. It was music to her ears. Feeling guilty for her need to feel this man, she prayed that he would never notice, but…
Trying to moving to a safe distance, unexpectedly Vincent pulled Flora with his clawed hand and moved her closer to him than she had ever gone. Surprised at the turn of the events, believing Vincent had caught her, looking up… to only see the same sleeping face.
She was unsure what had happened; was his unconscious mind able to capture her into his clutches? Either way, she could not escape, bringing his cloak around to cover her surprised body to protect her from night's chill. Hugging her petite figure with one arm, his body felt rigid, as if Vincent did not wanted her to leave.
As helpless as the situation was… it was something that she longed for. With no other choice, she rested her head on his chest, bringing her arms around him and wrapped him into her embrace as well. Vincent once again threw his other arms and placed it on Flora's back.
This is what she wanted since he saved her life; this is what she needed to bring proof to herself. This was her truth… she had fallen for the deadliest warrior she had encountered so far. This day was in favor to her, and she was glad how the day ended as well. Regardless of what news she had recently received, nothing mattered to her now; no past and no future, only the bliss of the present moment.
It was a lovely night. Drawing into a slumber, Flora closed her eyes as she snuggled closer to Vincent. Unnoticed, Vincent smiled in his sleep as well. The unforeseen truth was that Flora and Vincent secretly longed for each other's warmth of embrace.