~*~ Alright, ‘nother post for Raine. This’ll be the last one so she can be at the festival X3 ~*~
In this post: Raine, Aberius, Tanner, Nyarth, Roselyn, Xio
Time: Night before festival (after coming back from shopping) and day of festival
Raine
Even though I said I would become strong, I didn’t really know where to begin… I sighed and my head hung as I walked through the trees back towards the mansion. I stopped in a small clearing and looked around. I lifted my arm and tried to use Healing Wave again. A small green glow emerged, but no sooner than it had formed another shot of pain went up my arm. I gasped and knelt forward, holding it with my other hand. I breathed heavily for a moment, then closed my mouth, stood up and placed my arm in front of me again. This time, I tried to push less energy out, and while it felt like I was being stabbed by 1000 needles, I maintained the flow of energy for at least 5 seconds. I fell forward again onto my right arm, breathing heavily again. Is this really all I can do…?
I decided to leave it at that for the time being and head inside. I went to my room and took a small shower to get the dirt off from before. I rubbed some antiseptic onto my arm as best I could, since I’d gotten scratched when I fell. It was awkward trying to put it on with a broken arm, since my movement was limited and it hurt to move. I looked to the bags I’d set down and realized I still needed to take Aberius’ things to him. My face flushed as I remembered what happened earlier… Thinking on it, when Aberius went through the curse, the same thing happened, but it wasn’t him doing that… Maybe it was because I knew he was different that I hadn’t thought on it too much, but there was no mistaking that Aberius was back to normal, now. So why…? He said… he was trying to help me because there was medicine… still left in his mouth… My face turned even redder.
I shook my head and stood up, grabbed the bags and rushed out the door. I wasn’t going to think about it. Aberius went through the trouble of giving me money for these items, so I should make sure I deliver them properly.
It didn’t take me long to reach his room and I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. I heard movement from inside then the door opened.
“Yes?!” Aberius said with such force that he scared me. I jumped and felt like I was going to cry. “Oh…” he said when he saw me.
“U-Um… I b-bought the materials you asked for…” I said, stumbling over my words, but trying to keep calm, “A-also I th-thought I would buy you some other things… l-like material for making a kimono f-for the festival… P-Please use the time to make that instead…” Aberius was just looking at me again. I started to feel self-conscious again and quickly set the bags down. “W-well then… goodbye.” I turned around to leave, but felt Aberius’ hand on my wrist.
“Wait!” he said. I turned around, still trying to hold back tears. “U-Uh…” he began. He looked like he was having trouble finding the words. “A… About earlier… I’m sorry… I should’ve asked you first, but I thought you could use some medicine and, well… I drank it all and I’m sorry…”
“Oh…” I said, feeling less tense as my shoulders eased.
“And you don’t have to worry,” he continued. ??? Worry about what…? “it didn’t mean anything,” all of a sudden I felt my heart drop into my stomach, “I was only trying to heal you… Since I well, hurt you like… huh…?”
I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore… It didn’t mean anything… I yanked myself away from Aberius and ran in the opposite direction down the hallway. I couldn’t exactly place why I felt so torn apart… All I knew was that I felt like I was only being a nuisance, even though I wanted to help. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I tripped over something in the middle of the hallway.
“Uhf!” I said. Not graceful at all… I winced from the pain in my left elbow, as I fell on it. I looked behind me and saw I’d tripped over… hair…?
“Is someone out there?” someone said from inside the room that the hair was coming from. I stood up quickly, wincing again and looked inside the door. I rubbed my forehead, as I also hit it on the way to the floor.
“Sorry,” said the gijinka inside. It was a male Tangrowth. I thought I ran in the opposite direction of the boys’ dorms… “I can’t control my hair sometimes and it’s just long as it is…” he continued. I was grasping my pants in my fists loosely. I took a deep breath to steady myself and replied.
“N-No, it’s my f-fault,” I said and found myself staring at his hair. The parts that had been undone were shining and sparkling in the moonlight. “I should’ve been l-looking in front of me,” I finished and he simply smiled.
“No, it’s okay,” I said. “I was just brushing out my hair anyways… Anyways, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Tanner. And you are?” he asked as he put his brush down and looked at me through his bangs.
“I-I’m Raine. U-Um… Are you a Tangrowth?” I asked, pushing the door open slightly. I could have sworn I saw part of his hair twitch. I felt a bead of sweat run down my neck.
“Yes. We have longer hair than Tangelas. You’re a Ralts, right?” he asked and I nodded quickly. This time for sure, part of his hair lifted itself off the floor and onto the bed. Oh my god! It… it moves…!
“U-Um…” I felt lightheaded and the blood rushed from my face.
“I think you need to sit, Raine. You look like you’re about to pass out,” he said and I nodded and sat quickly, not paying attention that I was right near some of the hair. For a moment I felt Ill, but Tanner looked like he was having difficulty untangling all of his hair.
“U-Um… Tanner-kun?” I asked, not knowing why I used the honorific ‘kun’ at that time… “Do you need help b-brushing your hair?”
“Sure,” he said with a smile and grabbed another brush off a nightstand, handing it to me. I simply sat there untangling the bits of hair as carefully as I could and brushed them out. Soon, another gijinka tripped over Tanner’s hair outside the room. A Roselia gijinka stepped inside, embarrassed at what just happened. After talking to Tanner for a moment, she joined us in helping to brush out Tanner’s hair.
It took us quite some time, but we managed to finish untangling all of it. The whole time, I kept replaying that scene with Aberius over in my head. I said goodnight quickly, as I was very tired and could barely keep my eyes open. The Roselia also said goodnight and we both left Tanner’s room and headed back tour own.
“Umm Excuse me?” came the voice from behind me. “Forgive the late introduction…like I said before, my name is Roselyn, nice to meet you,” she said, smiling. I slowly returned a smile, though tiredly.
“I’m Raine… nice to meet you too…..” I said, trying to suppress the urge to yawn.
I was right in front of my room so we both bowed to each other and went our separate ways. I was about to settle in for bed, when I heard some strange sounds from outside. They sounded like small explosions. I ran from my room and went outside to where the sounds were coming from. There I saw Nyarth in the middle of the lake. What is he doing out there at this time of night? He could catch a cold… Just then, I saw a blast of lightning go straight for Nyarth as he turned around. He ducked underwater to avoid it at the last second. He resurfaced and coughed.
“What are you doing-nya?!” he sputtered and another bolt came at him and he dodged again. I looked in the direction the bolts were coming from and saw the Luxray from before that saved me from Aberius. Xio looked like he was enjoying himself as he launched the thunderbolts at Nyarth.
“You gotta be quick on your feet, you lazy excuse for a feline! Move!!” he yelled, throwing another bolt at Nyarth, who reflected it back at Xio. Xio managed to dodge it, “Hm! Good work. Your mind’s faster than I thought.”
I couldn’t take watching this anymore… “S-stop trying to hurt him!! Xio-s-sama!” I yelled.
“Xio-sama’s only training me-nya! Daijobu-nya!” Nyarth said as he splashed toward the shore. He stopped and looked over to Xio, who growled something I didn’t quite catch… Something about a disgrace… Nyarth turned back and yelled even louder, “I-if you’re not going to the festival with anyone yet-nya… let me take you, Raine-san!!”
I was surprised by the invitation. And he’d asked so enthusiastically, how could I say no? I smiled at his determination, “I’d b-be honored, Nyarth-kun.” Nyarth jumped up and down in the water in excitement and another bolt came at him, causing him to backflip into the water to dodge. I laughed a little as Nyarth continued dodging. I decided to leave the two of them to their training and head to bed myself. It had been a long day…
~~~****** The Next Day ******~~~
I woke up, feeling slightly sore from falling over several times yesterday. I took a hot shower and washed my hair and tail with Strawberry Magnolia shampoo. I spent most of the day preparing myself to go to the festival. I decided to pull my hair up between the two horns and clip it in a bundle. I looked at myself in the kimono and smiled slightly. Despite having my arm in a cast, everything looked good.
I walked out of my room and to the front entrance of the mansion waiting for Nyarth. I took care to keep my tail held upright so it wouldn’t drag on the ground and get dirty. I heard a small exhale behind me and turned around to see Nyarth standing there with pink cheeks. I smiled at him and held out a hand.
“Shall we go, then, Nyarth-kun?” I said. Nyarth simply looked up without saying anything, but nodded and took my hand.
We walked for a while and got to the festival site. It was very eventful already, despite us being there before the sun set. There were food stands, game stands, a few rides (including a Ferris wheel), and a large stage on which some festival workers were still setting things up.
“So Nyarth-kun,” I said, looking down at him, “what should we do first?”
~*~Alrighty X3 That’s it for Raine’s posts in this world. If you’d like to follow up Eneko-chan go right ahead =D I would like to see Nyarth’s reactions. But it is almost the deadline… Well, Nyarth’s at the festival. Now, so he’s covered =3 If there’s anything that needs correcting, don’t hesitate to tell me =3 ~*~
