Dreams of the Tempest

[Zach Kaiser]

"Well...that's good, at least." Though he wasn't sure if Kyo was referring to the actual content of the book or the code. It wasn't as though the book had a whole lot of useful genuine history in it.

"You know, if you want books that you'll learn from, I could lend you some of my detective novels," Eld offered. "For instance, one of the series I have is about a detective who's also a doctor, so it's got a lot of medical information as well." It would probably come as no surprise that this kind of thing interested Eld.

He couldn't help but glance Akizetsumei; he knew she didn't read much, but he wondered if she'd be interested at all.

[Nayt]

"I've little interest in novels less interesting than the last text I borrowed from you," Toushikyo replied bluntly.

As established the other day at the lake (actually, established years before that), Toushikyo was not particularly fond of detective novels. They were campy and annoying to him. They might have promoted critical thinking, but that required getting past what he considered botched storytelling and cheap tricks to play up the mystery of a situation. And sometimes they could be worse than that, specifically when there was no mystery at all. Actually, that was pretty frequent. All the detective literature he'd read thus far presented puzzles that were fairly easy to solve within the first twenty pages or so. Reading for a mystery scarcely became an option.

"Wh-- what's so bad about it, huh?" Akizets asked meekly.

She kind of tried to sound bratty about it, a lot like she normally was whenever she was contending her brother on an issue, but she was too meek about it.

"Pulp-fiction is a waste," replied Toushikyo.

"W-wellIthinkit'dbecool," Akizets replied in a hasty, high-pitched whisper.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Yeah, and I suppose your wish-fulfillment fantasy books are very informative," Eld retorted. This was an argument that was repeated ad-nauseum between them. While they both loved to read, their choices in literature were too different for them to talk much about what they did read.

Wanting to bring her further into the conversation, and wanting to potentially forge some kind of link that would let him see her again after this, he asked, "A-Akizetsumei, would you like to borrow one sometime?"

[Nayt]

"U-ummm, m-- maybe," she replied meekly.

The thought of going over and borrowing a book from Eld sent a number of conflicting feelings through the girl's heart, but they were all inevitably dulled to the point of an inward sigh. It was awkward, being around him--yet that didn't mean she wanted to be away from him.

Akizetsumei soon walked slower and slower. She adopted an expression of confusion and concern, and wrinkled her brow and stared past Eld and Toushikyo when she finally stopped walking altogether.

"Wh-- where are we . . .?" Akizets asked, sounding rather confused. This was a place in the village she'd never personally been to, after all.

While they hadn't really paid much attention to where they were walking, Toushikyo wound up leading them to a back path around Old Hillcrest, around to a path that lead to a fairly tall hillside. Not many people went up this way. It was fairly steep and relatively dangerous to climb. Toushikyo had no real intentions on climbing it, though. In fact, he'd just been leading their path aimlessly.

[Zach Kaiser]

"I...we're..." Eld looked around; he knew the woods near his house fairly well, but this was entirely unfamiliar to him. "I'm not really sure." He hadn't been paying much attention to where they were going; this whole thing seemed to be Kyo's idea and he'd started walking first so he'd just followed along.

The old hill was definitely different than his; it seemed to be steeper and rather more dangerous all around. Still, it didn't look that challenging.

"I'll go take a look," he volunteered, and started making his way up the hill. It rose above most of the trees, so he figured he could get a pretty good look at the area from it.

[Nayt]

There was a flash of static within the girl's mind, prompted by a brief white light, and ending with an orange glow. With her eyes half shut, she saw something else. She saw this hill, but it was smoother. It wasn't dangerous to climb anymore. Two people already had. Eld and the young woman she kept imagining. That young woman she saw in her dream before. Herself. Herself in five years. She was taller and curvier; her hair was much longer, too, but she kept it in the same style. She even wore the same style of clothes.

She and Eld were sitting atop the hill, watching the sun go down. Basking in the orange glow, they talked for awhile, until finally she leaned in to kiss him. Eld pulled away.

Static
Eld fought to maintain eye contact, "I-I think I-I may have unintentionally given you the wrong idea..."
Static
"I...like you, in the sense that I think you're a nice person, but...I don't...like like you."
Static
"And, besides...there's someone else I already li-...no, someone else I love."
Static

The flash was gone. She cut out the static and her wild imagination and watched Eld as he started to climb the hill. Akizetsumei felt a twinge in the corners of her eyes. Her tear ducts were threatening to release. She needed to get out of here before they did. She needed to get away from this place. Above all, she needed to get away from Eld. That, however, hurt the worst. Eld was only a few steps up the hill when she reacted.

"Ummm, I--" Akizets started sheepishly, but she was frantic and wanted to get out of here; "I-- Idon'twannabehere. I'mgoinghome. I--"

Toushikyo spun around to face his sister, ready to reach his hand out to her. She took a step back, though. Tightened up, averted her eyes, and wrapped her arms around her chest to try to avert her trembling.

"Akizetsumei, wait--"

"I'mreallysorry."

And with that, Akizetsumei of Terra took one more step backwards, spun around, and raced away. As she said, she was going home, but that now left Eld and Toushikyo alone.

[Zach Kaiser]

"A-Akizetsumei?" Something was wrong, that much was certain, but he couldn't fathom what. Did it have something to do with her being haunted? Eld wasn't sure she'd tell him right now even if she knew herself.

But what he did know was that he couldn't let her go back alone in her state, especially with a sketchy idea at best of where she was. For all he knew she was going to end up running blindly through the woods.

"Hey, wait!" he yelled as she took off, changing his course and running back down the hill and after her.

[Nayt]

Toushikyo might not have been able to stop his sister from running away, but he was at least able to stop Eld from running after her. He reached his hand out, caught Eld by the arm, grasping him hard by the bicep and making sure he didn't get any further.

"Tsukimono," he said, but made the point simple enough: "Don't."

He'd brought Eld out here, but not for the purpose of making things worse. If he ran off after Akizets when she was already in a fit of hysterics, he might make her feel cornered and defensive. If anything, the girl was afraid right now; she was afraid and confused, and the last thing they needed to do was make it worse by not giving her enough space to freak out a little. In all Toushikyo's experiences with his sister, that's what she needed sometimes. Enough room to freak out until she felt a little better.

As far as Toushikyo was concerned, that's what she needed right now.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld stopped, but he turned and glared at Toushikyo. He knew why he stopped him, but in his mind going after her was the lesser of two evils. "So what, it's better to let her run through the woods alone? Wasn't she the one who just asked where we were? What if she gets lost?!"

He wasn't really angry at his friend; he was just venting his frustration. More than anything he wanted to help Akizetsumei, but he couldn't do that if she didn't let him. How was he supposed to reassure her if whenever she was upset she stopped wanting to see him?

"Go," he ordered. "Make sure she gets home alright; I'll wait here." He glanced back up the hill, as if announcing his attempt to climb it in some vain attempt to make himself feel better.

[Nayt]

Toushikyo furrowed his brow. "She has never been here before."

That he knew of. Judging by her reaction, though, it seemed as if she somehow recognized this place. Or maybe it simply reminded her of something else . . .

"If she'd started dreaming . . ." Toushikyo trailed off in thought.

Actually, now that he thought about it, this was kind of worrisome. It meant something he hadn't exactly planned for. It was one variable he should have expected when he brought her outside, because it was something that'd happened to him for the first year of his ordeal.

"She'd have been more confused than afraid."

He turned away from Eld. It might become clear to Eld that a problem just arose to Toushikyo, as he rushed off immediately following his verbal conclusion. There was no way he was going to catch up with his sister . . . he merely sought to minimize the time in which she'd be alone.

[Zach Kaiser]

Now Eld was even more worried; it sounded like Kyo had figured something out about what happened just now, and whatever it was he didn't like it. But before he could ask him what he meant by dreaming, he took off. Eld made no attempt to stop him.

With a sigh, he leaned heavily against a tree. He said he'd find a way to help, but what could he do? Nothing seemed to be working out lately; he and Etsu had failed to catch the caretaker of the graveyard (not to mention everything else that had happened), and he couldn't be any comfort to Akizetsumei. He was quickly running out of leads to follow. All he had left was the hope that Etsu would find something of use in the book Maya lent him.

He didn't much feel like climbing anymore, but he, at least, was going to get his bearings rather than charge blindly through the woods. So he ascended the relatively steep hill, thinking about how he was going to go home, get into bed, and pretend today never happened.

On a better day he would have appreciated the view more, but right now he just wanted to figure out where he was. Looks like I'm near the old part of town, he noted, seeing the dilapidated buildings in the distance. While he didn't frequent the place often (despite the fact that, supposedly, the main road had once run right through it), he'd find his way better from there than from the woods itself.

As he made his way out into the street (singular; apparently, Old Hillcrest had been pretty small), a sense of deja-vu overcame him. He'd been here before, sure, but something about the place seemed more recently familiar than he could recall being here. It wasn't until his gaze drifted up the hill he'd just climbed that he realized why.

My dream...parts of it were here. That was...odd, to say the least. Why would he be dreaming about this place? It had been a long time since he'd even thought much about it, let alone visited it. Still, he supposed there were weirder coincidences in the world. He wondered if the other places in his dreams were places he hadn't been to in a long time, too.

Though, that wouldn't explain why he was dreaming about nights and green and dark things. He was beginning to think that psychology book on dream interpretation was not perfectly accurate despite its author's credentials.

While distracted for a little bit, as he made his way home his mind drifted back to Akizetsumei. Was there really any hope left? She'd been distant the entire time, and if Kyo's reaction was any indication she'd ran off because he'd somehow freaked her out again. He made a promise to himself to ask about it soon; he needed to know if there was any real chance of her talking to him again. The pain of getting punched in the spine paled in comparison to what it felt like to see her look at him with such hurt and confusion in his eyes.

With a sigh, he shoved open the door to his house; after the nightmare from last night, he wasn't even sure if sleep would be any comfort.

[Nayt]

When Eld got back, he'd find that Etsu was sitting in the main room, specifically at the "dining room" table, and had the book she'd pilfered from Eld open and set before her. She was casually reading, something she did so often whenever she was waiting on Eld, who was usually unreasonably slow at just about everything.

She looked up when she heard him come in. "Konnichi wa, Tsukimono-kun," she said as soon as she recognized him.

Not feeling all that snarky right now, Etsu refrained from telling Eld that she'd been waiting for a solid hour for him to come home. She'd have gone out looking for him, even, but that would've done no good. Hillcrest might not have been a huge city, but it was a full sized town. It made finding someone in town fairly difficult. But regardless, she wasn't feeling especially irritable or even snarky. She didn't want to gripe on Eld or get on his case or anything to that effect . . . especially considering what she heard him say to his parents . . .

Instead of harping on him, she told him something that could help move things along quicker, if only to make up for the wait. "Ojisan is r-rooking for you."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld gave her a forlorn look, and wondered if there was any way he could pretend that he didn't hear her and simply go to his room. He wouldn't be able to fall asleep yet, probably, but that didn't mean he couldn't lay in bed and pretend if anybody tried to bother him.

He decided it was probably pointless, though; Etsu may like him now, but he wasn't certain she'd be willing to lie for him, at least not to his own parents (and her aunt and uncle).

"Alright...I suppose I'll find him," he said reluctantly. He ventured into the clinic, only to return a few minutes later, following his father into the room. "He has something he wants to talk to us about." Eld's tone was flat; he wasn't quite being sarcastic or snippy. If anything, the problem was the opposite: he should have been more incensed, but right now he was just acting apathetic.

Either not noticing or (more likely) ignoring his son's current mood, Urikuse nodded in confirmation, looking at Etsu. Given that she'd been the one to inquire about it yesterday, he figured she'd have no problem discussing it now, but he still looked for confirmation that she was still interested in hearing what he had to say.

[Nayt]

That is odd. Eld was a lot more sullen than normal. Was he still upset about what happened yesterday? There was a high chance of that. Etsu watched him go and thought long and hard about it. Maybe she should have gone after him, then. Maybe there was something she could have said or done to make him feel a little better. But then again, she was feeling pretty horrible, herself. She'd have probably just brought him down even more.

Once Eld returned, with Urikuse trailing behind, Etsu marked her page and closed the book. Chances were, she wasn't going to be getting anymore reading done for awhile. She personally didn't intend to, anyways. Supposedly she was going to have her uncle's full attention, now, and she planned to make complete use of that.

Etsu watched her uncle's face. This was the whole reason she came back to the house today, even. Her uncle said that he and Rebbecca had something they wanted to tell Eld and Etsu both, and would rather discuss it once she and Eld were in the same room together and not fuming. And now, neither of them were fuming. Conditions were perfect, and Etsu was fully expecting an explanation, at least from her uncle . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld sat down next to Etsu, glancing at her; he didn't know that she'd spoken with his father at all, so for him this was coming out of the blue. He'd figured his parents would give him at least another day before they thought he was cooled down enough to talk to.

Urikuse stood across from them, looking pensive. There was a delicate balance to be struck here; he wanted to tell them what happened and more importantly why, but doing so...well, it brought up things better left buried. "I want to apologize to you both again," he began, bowing low. "At the time, we did what we thought was best, misguided though we may have been." Eld remained impassive to this...or tried to, in any case. That was the hardest part of all this for him: he knew his parents. He knew they probably had a good, or at least reasonable excuse. They weren't the type to try and seriously meddle with his life simply to screw with him.

Sitting down across from them, Urikuse continued. "Rebbecca...has never been fond of arranged marriages." Well, didn't like the practice much either, but he knew good matches could come of it--so long as the parents cared about their kid's happiness, it wasn't a terrible idea as far as he was concerned. "She didn't want you to get the same feeling of imprisonment she felt as a child," he said, addressing his son. "So we reached a compromise: we weren't going to tell Eld what the meeting was for, and if it went well, we'd go from there."

And then he sighed. "But though it did go well, we still had concerns. We felt it was too young to promise him away. Eld-" Now he was addressing Etsu more. "-has always been a good boy. Even if he didn't want it, if it was something we pushed he would have agreed to it even if he didn't like it. So...we decided to wait a few more years before committing to anything, and when Eld was old enough we intended to tell him about the possibility and let him decide for himself."

There was another reason not to arrange a marriage with Eld so young, though out of respect for his son he didn't mention it: while in Cizok it would have been normal, in Algeroth the idea was (except between wealthier families, like Rebbecca's) a foreign one. To remain faithful to a girl you hardly saw...well, it wouldn't be an easy thing for a teenage boy, especially in a culture where it was generally expected (though not necessarily encouraged) that teenagers would be...frisky.

"...But by the time Eld was old enough, he'd started dating. Not wanting to get in the way of his relationship, we decided not to go through with it." He paused. "I'm sorry; even with all that, there's no excuse for not telling you about it, Eld."

For his part, Eld stared adamantly at his lap, deep in thought...