Author’s Note: I’m am a horrible person for forgetting about you guys! I have some excuses though. For at least two months, my laptop was taken from me, for an “upgrade” that went horribly wrong, and kept me from my laptop an extra 2 weeks. Then when I finally got it back to normal, it got a virus, which kept me away from it for another two months or so. Then school came. You can still punish me though. I will try to think o an updating schedule for this, cause I work better with a deadline. I hope you guys haven’t given up on me though!

Recap

The young child cried out, thrashing against the bonds that held her down as the darkness engulfed her. She could hear the Master of the darkness, her father, yelling at his minions at their failure in rage, as her mother, their Majesty, cried. Their daughter was dead. . .

. . .When she broke free of the grip death had on her, the young mistress took in her surroundings, and wished she hadn’t gotten free of the grip.

“. . . Mama?” the little white haired girl cried.

Chapter 1: Worries

Natsumi, was staring into the eyes of an Inferno Elemental, using her staff to keep the creature from permanently scarring her face. She could feel her silver locks becoming singed by the flames. Natsumi knew that if she didn’t act fast, her staff could snap in half, causing the flame engulfed beast a clear, good shot at her head, chest, and stomach.

Bitting her lip even harder, she pushed the staff forward, hoping she could get this one away from her. Just as it looked like it was working, her crimson orbs widened as the staff snapped in half just like she had predicted. There wasn’t any time to avoid the attack.

The Mage closed her eyes tightly and brought her hands in front of her face, bracing herself for the pain. But, the hand of the elemental never touched her. Opening her eyes slightly, she saw a Paladin blocking the Inferno’s blow. “Ar-Artix?” She stammered out, her cheeks turning a lighter shade of pink.

“Need some help?” the warrior asked, showing smile. Her heart skipped a beat. She nodded and quickly grabbed the upper half of her staff off the ground in one sweeping movement.

“Is this the l-last one?” Natsumi manged to spit out. He gave a reassuring nod.

Closing her eyes lightly, she built up her mana quickly, not wanting to make Artix wait any longer. She could feel the frozen power build up within her faster than ever. “Glaci crystallo.” The unnerving, chilling feeling of the pale blue energy leaving her body through her staff caused her to shiver.

Natsumi peeked her head over Atrix's shoulder to watch the Inferno disappear as the ice melted away the flames. The icy energy surrounded the beast almost too quickly. It was . . . frightening. She couldn't pull her eyes away from the sight before her. But that wasn't what caught her attention. It was the strange black discoloration of the usually pale blue energy that caught the young girl's attention.

Her eyes flicked to Artix's face in panic, hoping he didn't notice the strange black tint in the ice. But Artix sat down and started to remove the outer amour in his usual routine. He didn't seem to notice. She took a few minutes to quickly scan the face of her other comrades. Again, no one seemed to notice.

Letting a sigh escape her lips, Natsumi plopped on to the ground next to Robina. “That last bunch was tough wasn't it?” Robina said. Natsumi grabbed her arm and started to repair some of the simple wounds.

“Yeah, I thought that last one was going to get me for sure,” she mumbled with a small chuckle and continued to bandage the arm in front of her, keeping her head down. Robina cleared her throat.

“Is something wrong?” Nastumi asked curiously. She watch as Robina's hand casually pointed in the direction of a certain Paladin.

Quickly she snapped her head up, an light blush appearing on her face. “Ar-Artix!” she called out a bit too loudly. Her face felt hot.

“Yes?” Artix turned to face her and started to laugh hysterically.

“Wha-what?!”

“Your fa-face,” he spoke between breathes “it matches the color of your eyes!” he continued to laugh for a few moments and turned back to her. “So what were you going to say?”

Robina sighed, and brought her free hand to her forehead in disappointment at the two. Her friends are so immmature.

“O-oh, right,” she said. Natsumi turned away, quite embarrassed, “Thank you, for saving me back there.”

Artix grinned, “No problem,” he said, and returned to checking himself over for injuries. Natsumi returned to finishing her healing process on Robina. Fumbling she searched for some ointment to heal the burns on her arms in the leather pouch attached to her hips.

“Honestly Robina, how do you get yourself into these situations? Your arms are covered in battle wounds,” asked Natsumi, in a somewhat annoyed tone. Robina simply shrugged, and smirked as if having battle scars was nothing to be worried about. Her crystal blue eyes seemed unworried.

Valencia, who had been sitting across from the two, now butted in to the conversation with her own smirk plastered on her pretty face. Her eyes had a devilish glint to them. “You do know Robina, that even if the wounds heal and don’t leave scars, they can permanently damage your skin. It wont be smooth, you might get wrinkles, and other terrible things can happen, things even I cannot describe.” Robina had become stiff and her face was pale. Valencia continued on, her smirk growing broader, “what a shame it is. Too bad you aren’t careful. Oh well it doesn’t matter, you don’t care anyway.” The treasure hunter shook her head in a pitiful manor.

‘If that doesn’t get Robina to be careful, nothing will,’ Natsumi thought to herself with a frown.

Robina couldn’t hide her fear any longer, “Natsumi! Gimme that!” Robina wailed, grabbing the newly found ointment from Natsumi’s hands and emptied the whole bottle of ointment onto both arms, rubbing it into her skin like a mad woman.

Everyone else seemed to find this hilarious -especially Valencia- except Natsumi, who was to panicked at the action, for she knew how much that ointment cost. “Rob-Robina! Don’t waste it! That was very rare and ex-expensive!” Natsumi spoke in a very panicked tone of voice. Robina stopped and with an apologetic look on her face, scraped any of the creme that had not rubbed into her skin completely back into the bottle.

She handed the a little less than half full bottle back, and apologized, “I got a little carried away, didn’t I? Don’t worry though! I’ll buy you a new bottle, okay?” Robina said, and hugged Natsumi around the waist, finding it amusing as Natsumi stiffened up, and her face flushed a brilliant red.Though she regretted it when the feeling of the mage’s robe on her very vulnerable skin sent a flame like feeling down her arms.

Quickly she pulled away, and flung her arms around wildly through the air. Natsumi flinched, quite afraid of getting hit by Robina’s arms, though she giggled a little. Valencia was howling with laughter. She reached up, and gently pulled the right arm down, and began to wrap a bandage around it. When she was finished, she grabbed the other one and did the same.

“Robina,” Natsumi started, “you don’t have to buy me a new bottle of this stuff, if you promise me to be careful about what you do.”

“Natsumi, she shouldn’t buy you a new bottle because that was funny enough to forget about it! Actually, we should have to pay her for how hard she made us laugh!”

Robina sent daggers in her glare towards Valencia, who was wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. “That’s a great idea. wanna pay up then, since you laughed so much?” Valencia stopped smiling.

“Ha ha, you know I was just kidding, right?”

“Sure.”

She placed her hands on and Natsumi’s shoulders, looking guilty. “Natsumi, I need to do something for you! I mean, even if it isn’t buying you a bottle of that stuff, which I probably couldn’t pay for anyway. I feel bad about using it up, and your always patching me up after fight and battles, or even when I get a little clumsy. I’ll be more careful, but, I need to make it up to you,” said the girl. This was true, for Natsumi was constantly helping Robina with any wounds, even scrapes and bruises. Though, Natsumi helped everyone with that kind of stuff, it seemed most of her attention in this area was focused on Robina, and sometimes there were days when she felt absolutely drained of all her mana from it. Now that she thought of it, the cost of the ointment was too expensive any way, for Robina to buy. She couldn’t think of anything Robina could do to pay her pack, despite how determined she was to do so.

“Well, I don’t know, there’s nothing I can think of at the moment.” Natsumi replied.

Cysero, whom had been listening on the conversation with interest this whole time while working on a new weapon, decided to chime in finally. “Well, she could pay to get you staff fixed by me. I take dragon coins only though, but I’ll lower the price for you guys.” Natsumi followed Robina’s eyes to her staff that she had completely forgotten about. It was in two pieces, and could tell that part of the middle had shattered into millions of tiny shards. The glass orb, that laid on top of the staff, had cracks in it. This was her favorite staff . . . and if it made Robina feel any better about the wasted ointment . . .

“Are you sure you want to pay for it?” Natsumi asked unwillingly. Robina nodded eagerly. She sighed, and handed it over carefully. Robina squealed and smiled hugging Natsumi tightly, causing her face to paint itself a light pink. Natsumi wondered how anyone could be this excited to pay someone back. Though, Robina did give most of her money to the animals and monsters happily and willingly.

Quickly she bounded off to Cysero’s shop, beating Cysero there by a long run.

She heard someone chuckle behind her, and turned around to become face to face with the Blue Mage himself.

“She’s a strange one isn’t she?”

Natsumi’s heart leaped inside her chest the moment her eyes met his. Her face became completely red, a very dark shade of red. So red it, that made her eyes look pale. She found herself sitting uncomfortably straight, and stuttering gibberish uncontrollably. Her eyes were wide with surprise and her throat was dry. Butterflies were flying in her stomach, and Natsumi’s heart was on fire while beating at full speed and at full volume. She was even more flustered when someone hugged her. But, how was a girl supposed to act around the man she’s in love with?

She couldn’t remember how long she had been in love with Warlic, but she guessed it was a few years after she met him that her heart began to long for him. Not only had he taught her almost everything she knew about magic, but he was kind, gentle and caring. He always spoke to her softly, always made sure she was okay, protected her during battle, and never teased her much, which endeared her to him. And Warlic knew about her secret, her family, and her past, but never said anything about it. Not once. When Natsumi came to Falconreach, he didn’t question her like she expected him to. He simply held his hand out, smiled and introduced himself as the Blue Mage, Warlic. She had done the same, and went along with it.

He looked at her, as if waiting for a response. “O-Oh, I-I-I, uh-um, ye-yes!” Natsumi finally spit out. She began to laugh a little to loudly, then snorted. Quickly she covered her mouth in embarrassment, and stared at the ground trying to avoid his eyes. Natsumi could hear Valencia and Zhoom snickering behind her.

Warlic stood up, and glanced around. “It’s getting dark, we should head back to Falconreach, before other creatures show up,” Warlic said. He was right, the sky was a beautiful pink orange sunset, but that only meant there would be more monsters coming.

Natsumi, who still had her eyes facing the ground jumped a little bit when a hand came into view. She didn’t need to look up to see whose hand it was. Quietly she took Warlic’s hand, her face -which had only toned down to the usual pale color a few moments ago- was the shade of a red pepper, and felt as red as one two. He pulled her up and she -unhappily- let go of his hand.

Natsumi, Artix, Warlic, Valencia, and Zhoom began to walk home, all chatting comfortably along the way.

All except, Natsumi of course.

Natsumi’s mind had slowly began to calm down, and slowly began to wander. The image of the ice strike displayed in her mind, and she shivered. ‘What was that?’ She asked herself. A theory formed in a corner of her mind, but she quickly pushed it away. If that theory was true, a wave of trouble was coming her way, and a very big wave as a matter fact. The mere thought scared her. Natsumi bit her lip and reassured herself that is was nothing, and wouldn’t happen again. Natsumi stared at her bandaged right palm, and rubbed it worriedly. She was so focused on trying to but together a formula for what could be the reason, Natsumi didn’t notice that the man of her dreams was no longer walking next to her, but instead, her best friend Artix, whom had a concerned look on his face for his friend.

“Is something wrong Natsumi?” Artix asked in a worried tone.

She looked up at him, her cheeks a little pink. “O-oh, Artix. Um, no, nothing is wrong, I mean-“

Artix abruptly interrupted her mid sentence. “Are you sure? You look, I don’t know, worried. Are you sure-“ Artix paused, and just noticed how nervously Natsumi was rubbing her bandaged hand. “Natsumi! You should have told us you hurt your bad hand. Here, let me look at it, please,” said Artix. Natsumi began to protest but it was far too late, for he already had grabbed her hand and was starting to unwrap the bandages. She began to panic. Of all the people to end up finding out what was under that bandage, he was the last one she wanted to know.

“Ar-Artix! No!” she yelled, catching the attention of the others. Natsumi quickly yanked her hand from Artix’s caring grip. She held her hand to her chest and stopped walking. “It’s fine Artix, this hand is always hurt. That’s why it is wrapped in bandages all the time. Don’t worry about it,” she reassured in a frightened tone.

He stared at her worriedly, and they began to walk forward again. “Fine, but if your hurt, tell us, we want to know. Understand Natsumi? I want you to promise me,” asked Artix. Natsumi looked at Artix apologetically. If only she could keep that promise.

“Sure. I promise Artix.”

The rest of the way home was distracting, in a good way. She kept up with the light hearted conversation, and enjoyed herself. When the group finally returned to the town they said their farewells and good nights, then headed towards their own separate homes.

“Natsumi,” said Valencia, who lingered a moment before getting back to her own humble abode, “let’s hang tomorrow, wether it’s fighting monsters or a girl’s day out. We need to relax, you look so . . . tense!” The treasure hunter slung her arm around Natsumi, causing her to blush from the contact. Idly the young mage wondered if something else was in those red potions Valencia had been drinking like it was water.

“Tha-That sounds like fun,” she said nervously, and pulled her arm off. “Well, I think it is time to say good night.”

Valencia turned around and began to walk away.

“Good night!” Natsumi called out.

Valencia turned around, smiled, waved, and yelled, “Sleep tight!”

She let out a heavy sigh as she strode into the inn. She was doing that a lot lately. Natsumi would love to sleep tight, or even just sleep for once. Of course Valencia didn’t know that, because it was better to keep the others from knowing about her incurable insomnia (though Serenity knew). Those rare nights when she takes a sleeping potion, or just naturally falls asleep, it would be plagued with nightmares and she often woke up crying, screaming, and covered in sweat. Sometimes she lost control and would wake up to find things around the room broken.

She turned corner and took the stairs to the room that Serenity had kindly offered her for a permanent stay, free of charge, as long as she kept the ghosts away.

When she opened the door, Natsumi noticed the pile of laundry folded on her bed. She’d have to thank Serenity in the morning.

Her Pridelord was curled up in a corner sleeping. Lucky thing. Natsumi waltzed over and stroked it’s fur a couple of times, and kissed it’s forehead lightly. He purred and rolled over in his sleep.

After changing into her nightgown (an oversized t-shirt), brushing her teeth, brushing her hair, and washing her face, Natsumi flopped onto the bed, exhausted. She stared at her right hand, though drifting into her mind again of what the cause of the black in her magic could be.

‘Tomorrow,’ she thought to herself, ‘Maybe I can visit Daiku and Lady Celestia, for a few moments, at least.’

Author’s Note: Well, there is chapter one! I am terribly sorry (again), for the seriously late update! Augh! This chapter is a little rough, since I’m not going to wait for my editor so I could get it to you quicker. I want to set up and updating schedule, cause like I said above, I work better with deadlines. A lot of things changed, but don’t worry, the “Love interest” is going to still be the same. Check my profile for a look at what Natsumi looks like. Okay! So send me notes with ideas for an updating schedule, and leave a comment!

Rose

Glaci crystallo- Latin for ice crystal