~YAMI~
He grabbed frantically for her hand, cursing himself for letting her slip away from him. Stumbling around in the darkness he reached out for her. He began to run blindly, somehow forgetting he had a voice to call out to her. His fingers grew cold without her hand in his. The clicks of the bats finally died down, replaced by the pounding of his heart. Where was she? How could he lose her?
With a crack he collided face-first into a cave wall. He felt blood drip down from his nose and pain radiated around his face. The sudden pain seemed to shock him and at the same time trigger his emotions to explode. He slid to his knees, lost and alone.
"Charlotte?" He feebly called out. It was more of a plea than a shout. Eventually the cold from the cave seeped into his pants, and he stood back up. He wandered in the darkness, only to once again come across the clicking of the bats.
Damn creatures. I'll kill every single last one of em! He pulled out his sword and swiped at the air a few times, achieving nothing. His feet moved forward without direction. Up until this point the cave had been relatively simple, tunnels without deformations or other terrain. Yet now his hand brushed against a stony column that tapered off into a point, a stalagmite.
As he touched it, something magical happened, it began to glow. A faint purple light radiated from each spot he touched, and he realized that this was an Hikari stone. These stones were only found deep in cave systems that had a certain threshold for mana. They absorbed the mana from whatever touched them, and transformed it into light energy. It was said that every person's mana had a signature color, no two were alike.
Running his hand over the stone, the cavern lit up and he could see at last. He found himself in a small room, with a pool of what looked like water in one corner. Walking over to the pool he looked down at his reflection, and a young Yami stared back at him.
The salty scent of a sea breeze rushed his senses and he closed his eyes in nostalgia. When he opened them, he was sitting on a grassy slope that over looked the ocean. Waves crashed at his feet, spraying water on his ankles. His pants were rolled up, his bare feet perched on some outcropping of stone.
He felt a tug in his hand and discovered he was holding a fishing rod. He reeled it in masterly, adding the fish to a small pile at his side. His hands secured the hook onto the line again from muscle memory. With a light flick of the wrist, he cast the line out again and let his mind wander.
Yes, this was how his life used to be. Simple and uncomplicated. At first he thought he was living the dream; he could eat whatever he wanted, sleep whenever he wanted, and wander wherever he wanted. After only a month or so of doing this however, he felt that he was missing something. He began to play with the animals and beasts of the forest, studying them from a distance before trying to approach.
It only took him a few tries to learn that beasts acted no differently than humans around him. They were either there to eat him, or ran away out of fear. Even the beasts that could have tackled him to the ground ran away, and he assumes that they, too, like so many of the humans he had met, were taken aback by the extensive volume of mana he possessed.
When he did finally manage to make some forest friends, the only affection they showed him was a bite to the hand that fed them. It was better than nothing. After all, how was that any different than how he acted himself? Anyone that tried to get close to him, he eventually growled and barked at until they backed off.
He found himself habitually looking behind him on his daytime adventures, hoping that someday he'd see more than one set of footprints behind him. Being free was one thing, but being free from loneliness was another. He sighed as he reeled in another fish.
"Yami?" A female voice called from behind him. He turned around, fish in hand, but saw no one. Surprised, he looked down at the fish and gave it a hard look.
"Yami, wake up," the voice called again. It was oddly familiar for some reason. He blinked and the ocean was gone, he was in a cave. Reality came flooding back to him and he turned his head away from the pool to see Charlotte kneeling beside him.
"You're here," was all he could manage to say.
"Yes, of course I am," she responded, a smile dancing on both their faces.
A/n: Now do we understand better why Yami loves her?