//------------------------------// // CH2: The Lonely Bookworm // Story: Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Days Long Past // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// "Twilight!" the boy screamed, boling directly toward the older girl's house. Growing up alone and unloved, one had to become observant of one's surroundings, even in a crisis. That meant that even in his frantic running, he couldn't help but notice the townspeople, their faces, and their words. He managed to pick out a few key sentences with his keen senses.                 “Served her right......”                                                               “.....Should Not have helped that thing” “Didn't her parents die almost a year ago?”                                    “Did you use enough gasoline?”         “I hope they're both still in there, together. Burning”                 “She should have just kept her nose in those books, everyone knows that you don't help that beast!” "So that was it?" he thought Anger boiled in his chest as he came to 3 different revelations. First, he realized that she was in fact an orphan whose’ parents have died a year ago. Secondly, the adults were the ones that set the fire. Third, and most alarmingly, it seemed that the entire town was in on it. Because as he ran, he noticed that no one else had run toward the fire. He also noticed that no one looked even the least bit worried about the young girl probably burning to death. That only made him run faster, because he knew… He knew that if he slowed down, even a little, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from beating them all to death. ~~~ Thanks to the books that Twilight read to him, he knew that even with him being only half dragon, he was almost completely immune to fire. "If it were only me I'd be fine," he thought, "But they just had to drag the girl into this." He faltered for a second, wondering if it was his fault all this happened, he shook it off quickly though. "No, it's her fault. She shouldn't have helped me!" Reaching the house, he didn't think twice before jumping through the fire heated windows. Landing on the carpet like a baws, he called out to her. “Twilight!” he yelled. Rcieving no response, he scanned the room with his eyes and thought. “Maybe she got out... Maybe I'm here for nothing?” Hearing a crash, he quickly tossed that thought aside and ran to the source of the sound. He came into the room that he recognized as the room that had the bed in it. Over near the corner, he caught her crawling on the ground, desperately trying to gather as many of the books as she could. "Her entire house goes up in smoke... and she tries to save the books?! What's wrong with her?"   Taking a split second to snap back to focus he leaped over a few fires to reach her. “What are you doing?" he yelled, "The house is on fire!” Twilight turned around and looked at him with tears in her eyes.  “You came back...” she whispered. Slowly, she turned back to the bookshelf that, luckily, hadn't caught fire yet. Desperately, she continued to grab some books from the shelf, coughing all the while. She was quickly succumbing to the effects of the smoke and he knew that he had to get her out of here. He tried to grab her but she resisted, weakly shoving him back. “NO!" she cried, "The books *cough* we have to save them.” She fel over in a coughing fit. "She's going to pass out soon… or die even. Ugh, I don't have time for this!" the boy muttered. It didn't affect him, but he could tell that it was getting hotter in here by the amount of fire. He had to get her out, but she wouldn't leave the books. Growling in frustration, he acted without thinking. Running over to the nearby window he quickly pushed it open. Running back he grabbed her already built pile, and tossed it out the window. Twilight watched in tears, but before she could protest, she passed out. Acting quickly, he lifted the entire bookshelf of remaining books and tossed it out the window, safe from the roaring flames. Even with his draconian strength, the weight of a large book shelf taxed his muscles. Mustering up the last of his strength he grabbed the limp body of Twilight and jumped out himself. Huffing, puffing and out of energy, he dragged himself and Twilight to a safe distance from the burning house while making sure to not be seen by any of the townspeople for obvious reasons. Setting her down, on the grass, he looked over Twi to make sure that she was okay. There were some scrapes and some burns, but no serious injuries, her hands looked like they suffered the most damage, probably from braving flames for those stupid books. Something caught his eye however, a symbol on her forehead, if she were standing it’d be hidden by her bangs but laying down like she was currently, it was plain to see. It looked like a purple star with 6 points. “So she’s a mage then,” he thought. He knew from fighting mages that their symbol on their foreheads were the sign that they could harness magic. While most could only cast small spells like levitation, some could cast advanced spells like teleportation. The boy wondered briefly what her skill was. He noticed her eyes slowly open and glance around, they saw the burning house, then landed on his face. She broke out in a large bright toothed smile. “You came back…..see you're not a… beast,” she mumbled before peacefully falling asleep. For a few moments he could only sit and stare at her in confusion. "What's with this girl..." he wondered. He then turned back to the burning house behind them. Finally, he just sighed and decided to lie down next to her. “Whatever… nerd,” he mumbled before falling asleep himself. ~~~ Fluttering her eyes open, Twilight instantly analyzed her surroundings. She saw the sky, so she wasn't in her house. Thinking hard, she remembered fire… books burning and... “Dragon boy!” she sat up quickly and looked back and forth, desperately searching for the boy who saved her. “What?” he called out from behind her, sounding annoyed at the nick name. Quickly turning around, she stared at him in disbelief then at the smoking house behind him. Many questions ran through her head, but only one made it through her mouth. “What happened to the books? I don’t remember anything after seeing you at the door.” she confessed. “I threw them out the window,” he replied simply, still staring out at the sky. “YOU WHAT!” she screeched. Quickly sitting up, he spaced a hand over her mouth and the other held a finger to his lips. “Shut up and look,” he whispered, gesturing over to the house. “Closely." Following his arm, Twilight looked back to the now smoking house. Looking closer, she saw that people were just now gathering around the burnt place, inspecting the wreckage. Seeing only a few people but no firemen or police, Twilight, to her credit, easily put two and two together fairly quickly. “A...are they the ones who set the fire?” she turned and whispered to the boy next to her. He nodded slowly. “B..But... But why would they do that?” she stammered, tears watering her eyes. Turning, he met her violet eyes with his own emerald ones and a serious expression. “It’s because you helped me. You stood up for me when I was attacked. I'm a beast and everyone knows it! You doomed yourself the moment you helped me.” “Snrk… Ha...Hahahaha,” what started out as a small barely held snicker, turned into a laugh that had her rolling on the grass. He just sat there in stunned silence. "Why is she laughing? Does she not understand the consequences? Or did she just inhale too much smoke?" the boy struggled fiercely to comprehend what was happening. Finally calming, down she tried to wipe her eyes and begin, “Sorry, its just what you said sounded like it came from a really badly written story. You're not a monster, or a beast. You just saved me from my own burning house. You said you were going to leave town, but you came back for me. You're a good guy. You even took the time to save...my..." In that moment something seemed to click in her mind. She stood up and grabbed his shoulders. “You said you threw all of the books out the window right? So that means that they were saved from the fire right? All of them!?” Nodding dumbly, he pointed toward the part of the house closest to them, towards the pile of mostly unburnt books and bookshelf. “Yea….over-” he couldn't finish as Twilight instantly rushed off in the direction that he pointed. “Wait the adults will see you” he called out as he chased after her. Reaching her just as she dove into the pile, he hastily looked from side to side, currently they thought that they were both dead, but if they saw them hear they would probably resort to more… direct measures. Seeing that they were currently checking the front of the house it seemed that they were safe for the moment. “What are you doing?” he hissed. “Looking…” she replied numbly. Eventually, she surfaced with a book that she held in her arms so closely that he thought it might burst like a balloon. She turned to him with tears in her eyes, and before he could blink she grabbed him. His instincts kick in and he nearly flipped her over in defense. Luckily he realized that this wasn't a tackle or a push. She wrapped her arms around him and started crying into his shoulder. “It’s called a hug,” she sniffed, guessing that he never heard of that word either. She’d be right as no one had ever had the courage to hug him like this. It felt weird... but nice, and warm like the bed she had him sleep in... He liked it. He wrapped her in his own arms in return. “Okay? Hut why?” “Its another way of thanking someone… so thank you!” she said, not lifting her head. “Alright, but why are you thanking me?” “You saved this?” she said, finally letting him go and holding up what looked like an old, tattered book. “Your book? Man you really are a nerd aren't you?” he replied with a slight smirk. She puffed out her cheeks in anger and stomped her foot. “I’m not a nerd, why does everyone call me that? Anyway, this is my family journal” she said, anger subsiding. She gazed down at the book with sad eyes. “Its the only thing I have left to remember them by. All the pictures we took, all the spells they wanted me to learn, and even the songs and stories that they sang and read to me at night. They're all in this book,” she finished, rubbing the cover fondly. “Was that what you were trying to save when I came in?” he asked curiously. Looking back up she nodded. “Yes. When the fire started, I panicked and decided to try and save all of the books. Seems kind of stupid now I guess,” she said with a slight giggle. “It’s okay. If I had something like that I would risk my life for it too,” he said with a comforting smile. This seemed to shock Twilight as she stared back up at him and took a step forward. She looked up at him with a sad look, “Wait... you don't have ANY family? Anywhere?” “I guess dragons, or halflings, mature quickly, because I've been caring for myself as long as I can remember,” he said, not trying to meet her eyes head on. They stood there for a few minutes. Twilight looked like she was thinking hard about something, and the boy just wanted to get away from this location. He began to think about whether or not his backpack was where he left it. He did run off without any forethought, but then Twilight suddenly spoke up. “I’ll go with you…” she said with conviction. This shocked him into meeting her eyes, big mistake as seeing her determined eyes made it harder for him to deny her request? “No...no way! I won’t protect you the whole way, and even if i could I prefer to be alone!” Twilight just stood in place defiantly, so serious her cheeks didn't even puff out. “I can protect myself, my mom taught me defense spells, and the ones she didn't teach me are in this book,” she said, holding out her family journal for him to see. "I'm going with you and that's final." Without waiting for a response Twilight turned back to her pile of books to fish some more out. He just stood there dumbstruck at this development. “What? Why do you want to come with me? You’d be leaving everything behind, you will never be able to come back here! We may even die out there!” Twilight replied in a calm voice, not even turning around from her scavenging. Her voice was calm yes, but it also held great sadness. “Because I have the same reason as you now. I don't have any family, any friends, or even a house to stay in anymore. The entire town thinks that we’re dead so there’s no place for me here.” She looked back at him with a huge smile. “So I'll go with you as your older sister.” This one threw him for a loop as he managed to look even more dumbstruck than before. Almost forgetting himself he nearly yelled. “Since when are you my older sister?!” Still smiling she jumped out with what looked like the dragon book from before. “Since just now, and to make it official, I even decided to give you a name.” Looking near the end of the book, Twilight picked out a specific word and showed it to him. “It says here that a common dragon name is Spike, so I’ll call you that from now on." Despite himself he couldn't help but admit to himself that he rather liked that name. Spike… Yeah that sounds tough. Kinda sounds like a dogs name though. he thought. Looking back at Twilight, he could see her eyes literally shining as she leaned low and stared up at him with them. He knew at once that he was losing this fight. Eventually, after a fierce inner battle, he gave in. Older sister indeed. Bowing his head low, he simply sighed. “Fine. Do whatever you want.... Thanks for the name though.” Shrieking in glee, she jumped up and down and grabbed him into a hug once more. Panicking Spike looked around to see if anyone heard them, and of course some kid peaked around the corner and screamed for the others. “GUYS! THEY ARE ALIVE! OVER HERE!” the kid screamed at the top of his lungs. With the adults alerted, both of them heard the large amounts of footsteps in coming. Twilight released Spike and blushed in embarrassment. “Oops…” Spike only proceeded to facepalm fiercely and groan in annoyance. “Lets go, sis,” he ordered. Grabbing Twilight's arm, and taking one of her two books in his other one, they ran to the edge of town towards where Spike left his pack. They had to run into and out of various streets and alleys in order to lose the mob behind them. Eventually though, they found his pack lying on the ground at the city limits. Huffing and puffing they sat together for a few minutes to catch their breath. “So…*huff* what did you…*puff* pack?” Twilight wheezed. “Mostly stolen food. Most of the stalls were empty, guess we know why now,“ he attempted to joke. Successfully getting a giggle out of her, Spike smirked and grabbed his bag. “Some water and a tent with some blankets,” he finished, having caught his breath a bit before Twilight did. Finally catching her breath, she looked at him in relief. “Good, then that means we have some supplies until we get to the next town. Getting up and patting down her dress, Twilight grabbed her books, both the dragon book and her family journal. Spike, seeing that she seemed to be having a tough time carrying her stuff, motioned for her to hand her stuff over. She complied and he stuffed them into his bag. He took one last look at the city that he hated and turned around, “You ready?” he asked. She did the same, but her gaze lasted a bit longer. Unlike Spike, she did have some happy  memories. “Yes, I'm ready. Lets go.” And with that, they took their first few steps into the new chapter of their lives. The lonely orphan, and the outcast halfling. They began the day as strangers, but they ended it as brother and sister. The world’s a strange place like that.