Chapter 116 - Dreams

"That spider is dead."

"NO!"

Kazehaya Gin quickly scooped the copper tarantula from his head and hid it behind him. "Not my Rosey. She's actually very gentle."

"I don't care!"

The Koutaishidenka snapped as he carefully laid Ara on the futon.

"It's alright. Ara was just scared; she will come around in a while. This happens all the time when we were young," Aki commented and took this time to signal to Kazeyaha to go.

Kazehaya scurried to hand over Rosey to a waiting servant to bring it back to his room before returning to his position next to Koutaishidenka.

"She's that extremely scared of spiders?"Ryuu asked seriously, and Aki scratched his head.

"Well..."Aki hesitated but confessed what Ara made him promise not to tell anyone. "She used to have panic attacks even with pictures of spiders so yeah – she's totally scared of them."

With this both Ryuu's and Gin's faces became grim. Unbeknownst to Aki, the two were thinking about the giant arachnids which attacked Tokyo and Hakone the other night. They were thankful that they were able to kill them all fast, and that Ara was not able to see any of those things.

If not, who knew what might have happened. Some people with severe phobias usually have panic attacks which could lead to heart attacks as well. If with a small spider Ara was already like this, if she saw those huge ones, she would have had a much worse reaction.

Gin visibly shuddered at the near-miss.

"Err… What's wrong?" Aki was clueless of course.

Gin fished his phone in his pocket and called Fuji. "Get Rosey and bring her back home," he ordered his butler before ending the call.

Hearing that, Aki felt grateful.

"Let's leave her here so she can take a rest," the brother suggested, and the others nodded.

"Yes. She already slept at the hospital but I think she's still exhausted," Ryuu said as he reached out his hand to remove a strand of raven hair from Ara's sleeping face.

He watched her for several seconds before he stood up. "Let's go…"

======

In a hazy dreamlike place, she woke up. Heavy lids fluttered as they struggled to open. When they did, several unfamiliar worried gazes were on her, and she saw as they turned into surprise and then relief.

"Oh! You are finally awake!"

Huh?

"Was I sleeping?" she wanted to ask, but no voice came out of her mouth.

Huh?

She tried to speak once more, but no voice still came out, and she now realized the cold, yet, burning sensation in her throat.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

She placed a hand on her throat as she struggled to speak, and still, no sound came out.

Panicking her sliver-grey eyes flew towards one worried face as if to ask what was wrong, but the person shook her head at her and pushed her back down on the bed to rest.

"You were cursed by the mermaid in the great lake," the girl told her.

When she looked confused as she had no memory of it, the girl explained.

"Err… the princess had sneaked out and had quite an adventure. You were gone for days, your father was greatly worried which he should be. You wandered at the God Flame's territory again."

God Flame's territory?

An image of a huge stretch of red, rocky land with a plethora of geysers spewing hot spring water and lava alternately flashed in her mind. But it wasn't that sight that attracted her towards that area. It was the great lake in the forbidden forest beyond that volcanic region that she wanted to go to and she did go there.

Oh.

She had overheard some of the servants saying that if someone went to the great lake to offer something that's very important to her or him – the person would find true love.

She didn't believe that of course. That was why she went there. She was not a dreamy princess in the castle. She'd like to think she's a rational thinker – and her goal was to debunk all legends and mysteries of the world. Well, in spite of being a deity.

However, upon reaching the place – she was met by an obnoxious mermaid who had tricked her into drinking something. The last thing she knew, there was a pain in her throat and in her stomach.

"Don't fret Princess. Your father had gone to see the God of Flames to request for your voice back. You will be able to talk again," the servant said, just as the door opened, and a familiar beautiful being with longish silver hair and a pair of kind, amethyst eyes entered the room with a smile.

Everyone in the room bowed as the man crossed the room to go to her side. The beauty took her hand and held it firmly as he gave her an assuring smile.

Huh? Alistair?

But no… This man was not Alistair but her father?

She was totally confused.

Why did she think he was her father?

"My little one, don't worry. Kresnik will come to bring your voice back," the beauty said.

Kresnik?

Was that Ivan?

She was getting more and more confused. Her silver gaze took in the surroundings and realized she had no idea where she was.

She was starting to panic when a set of footsteps echoed outside in the hall, and the room was once again opened. Her eyes looked up to see the newcomer and locked with a pair of ice-blue gaze set in an unsmiling, yet very handsome face.

R-Ryuu? But no, it's not Ryuu.

Her mouth hung open as she watched the newcomer in awe as he crossed the room to stand next to the beauty.

"Kresnik, I'm glad you came," the beauty said.

"The King of Heaven summoned me. Do I have a choice?" was the other man's response which made the beauty that was not Alistair laugh.

"Well, do you have it?"

"Of course. Would I come here without the thing you're asking?" was the man who was not Ryuu's reply.

He took out a clam the size of his palm in his hand and opened it. A sphere of the color of rose sprung from within like an excited bee. It circled round and round before it finally jumped inside her gaping mouth. It traveled down her throat, in a soothing sensation, and she felt something within her click into place.

"Your daughter should be able to talk now," the man who looked like Ryuu said, his gaze boring into hers so intensely that her heart skipped and somersaulted in her chest.

W-what was this feeling? She wondered as she continued to return the man's gaze. She suddenly remembered the legend about meeting your true love when you gave an offering to the great lake, and she blushed a deep scarlet hue. Was this it?

The beauty who held her hand looked worried. "Little one? What's wrong?" he asked. When she didn't reply, he became more agitated. "Alencica? Alencica?"

Huh?

She finally whipped her gaze from the man to the person who was not Alistair. "Alencica? Who's that?" she asked, and everything became suddenly hazy again until the darkness swallowed her whole.

Suzuki Ara woke up with a start, sitting up so fast only to lie back down as her orthostatic hypotension made her vision blacked out from suddenly moving again.

"Hmmmmnnn…" she held her head until nausea left her, and she properly opened her eyes.

"What was that dream?"

It was a totally crazy one. Alistair was there and Ryuu was there – and she totally had the hots for the Ryuu in her dreams, and she even blushed now.

KYAAAAAA

Ara slapped her cheeks. Yashiro and the girls told her that your real feelings would often show in the form of dreams. "Does this mean that I like Ryuu?" she wondered out loud, and her heart did a huge flip.

KYAAAAAA