It would seem Nyao-E is in a pretty good hiding spot again, where-oh-where could she be? Finding Nyao-B was easy enough with her white, fluffy rabbit ears poking out behind the biggest boulder in the forest, but even from this height Nyao-S has a hard time finding her dear cat-astrophe of a friend! That one was quite good at this game, yes, she was always the best. There was a town wide hide-and-seek not too long ago as a matter of fact while they were passing through, can you guess who won? Why do they continue to play this game with that girl when there is no winning against her!
You're not asking why a wondrous little town would all play hide-and-seek, are you? That's just silly, why wouldn't they! In their little world, they can have all kinds of wonderful adventures! It's the best place you could ever be, they don't talk about the other world. Their real one, no no, that one is no fun. Here there are adventures to be had, land to travel, monsters to quell and reputation to be earned! They agreed to not tell one another their actual names, that might make something unwanted happen. But no doubt, no fear, loyalty is undying here. They are the heroines, they are the queens, they are the bridges it would seem. Regardless of brutality, here they'll never care about reality. Waking up is always a pity when you're feeling so itty-bitty, but fall asleep for too long and you might not wake when everything is at stake....
I might be making this too creepy? What was I talking about? ...Ah, oh well. The mission at hand is too find Nyao-E! It's been like, 3 hours! Why doesn't she just try to find us? I'm not sure how much longer I can keep looking... I'm gettin' the munchies. I think Nyao-B is too? She looks kinda out of it right now. She probably just doesn't want to deal with the height up here... but we really gotta find that cat! The darn girl has better night vision than us, if it hits nightfall we'll never find her and she's gonna come back to us in the morning all upset... like last time. Shoot!
I poked Nyao-B on her shoulder, she waited a few moments before turning her head in a daze to me. The poor thing is probably very tired by now, I don't think she likes climbing big rocks as much as I do, but she was the one to hide up here anyway.
Gathering her thoughts, Nyao-B's eyes widened and became attentive. She asked, "How long have we been looking now? I feel like we've been up here for some time...." I shrugged and tried to think of how to approach the topic of us just leaving when she wobbled a bit; I held her shoulder to straighten her up and she continued, "Wait... ugh... we're looking for Nyao-E, right?"
I blankly looked at her. "Yes? For hours now? This whole time?"
"Well, don't you have her brush? Why don't you just track her scent? You're part dog, Nyao-S." .............Oh. Yeah. The whole tracking thing, ha ha. Of course.
Reaching for my satchel, I poked my head in to find her sunset themed brush. Which I did, but it hit my eye, so now that hurts. I think I can use that against her as a guilt trip or something. A black eye would be more convincing though, I wonder if I should punch myself to make it legit? Yeahhhh. Or maybe Nyao-B can do it.
I looked over to Nyao-B with the brush now in hand, she looks like she's zoning out again, so maybe she can't muster the strength to punch me at the moment. That's okay though, I'll ask her later. Her eyes loomed to the brush and she looked relieved to see it.
"Wonderful, we can use that to find her. I hope she isn't far. I think I'm almost ready to wake up, I've used a lot of energy here." Nyao-B moved away from my grip on her shoulder and put her hand on the ribbon of her beaded choker, twirling it around her finger in contemplation.
"Aw, you think so? Well at least finding Nyao-E will go a little faster now, so try to hang on 'till we can find her." Putting Nyao-E's brush under my nose, I took a few deep breaths and inhaled her scent. It smelled kind of like... strawberry cinnamon tea and honey crackers. Yes, must be the smell of her soul or something. At least that's what I like to think when I interpret somebody's musk. A few more sniffs of the brush and I slowly put it to my side, smelling the air from the top of a mossy boulder. The amount of smells usually confuse me a bit, but the smell of a person is easier to locate rather than an object. And speaking of, a small waft of Nyao-E came diagonally from my left. I turned to Nyao-B and pointed toward the direction of the smell, she nodded in response and walked a few paces to her side attempting to find a way back down. I shook my head to her silly notions, thinking so much about safety will make things much less fun here in Kaida. I bent down to the ground, one leg stretched out behind me ready to propel me forward, and I leaped into a sprint toward the edge of the boulder. Nyao-B turned in surprise as I hurled myself off the rock and fell 20 ft downward to the leaf ridden ground. I thought I looked pretty cool jumping off into adventure like that, but it turns out that falling down 20 ft off a giant rock isn't actually a good idea. As I landed a loudly audible crack erupted into my ears and sent a shock through out my body. I collapsed onto my side and whimpered in pain as I saw Nyao-B leap from rock to rock down the path she developed, and quickly went to my side. Kneeling down beside me she inspected my oddly bent legs, confusedly waving her hands around them not sure if she should touch them or not. Why is she so adorable!
"W-why did you do that?! You could've- that would've been- don't you know how long it'll take to...?!"
"Chill, chill! Gosh... how does it look? Did I break myself? Do I look broken? I can't tell, it just hurts." I couldn't hold back any whimpers between my words, but at least I can try to calm Nyao-B down. This is maybe the 8th time I have broken both my legs here. It doesn't hurt any less, let me tell you, nor does Nyao-B freak any less either. But it's a little reassuring that when I come here next, my body will be fine again, right? I mean with something like that who wouldn't live a little more wildly!
"I can't believe you... you know that if you die, it'll take at least a week before you can come back. Don't you want have more fun here? I can't imagine it being that fun with legs like this." She briskly touched some of the newly bent bumps in my legs and shuddered, "They feel just awful. I hated it when I broke my arm that time we tried some Kaiden water sports, getting hurt as much as you would just be so stressful." I smiled widely, even though I was screaming on the inside, which she surely knew. Nyao-B shook her head and stood up, "I guess I'll leave it to you to wake up, try to stay calm enough to feel the sleep coming on. Oh, that doesn't make much sense, does it? Um, what I mean is... well, maybe just try to not think about the pain? Ah, but that'll be pretty hard, won't it? I mean, with your legs looking so bad and all- not that you look bad! You look great! Uh, not that broken legs suit you, I just mean that--"
"Wake up so I'll be fine next time, got it. Don't feel like you have to stay here with me though- go find Nyao-E! She should be over there..." I grunted and shakily pointed ahead of us to a thick brush and she looked from there back to me.
"I don't know. Leaving you like this would be... awful." She turned back to the other direction, "But, if Nyao-E doesn't know why we're taking so long she might feel bad about not knowing your condition." She turned back to me, "But a good friend wouldn't leave you here like this, even if we're just dream friends." Nyao-B looked again to the brush, "But it's getting so dark now, Nyao-E will surely be upset if we don't find her."
"Nyao-B, if you don't go now she might move!" I shouted.
"Ah, right, there's no time to lose! I'm- I'm sorry. I'm going to go get Nyao-E, okay? I'll be back soon," She turned a little wobbly and went off in the other direction, "I hope...."
I sighed in light of the silence and tried to focus on falling asleep. It's not easy to purposely feel sleepy here, not that any sleep remedy would work on the three of us anyway. ...I say that, but, I'm pretty sure I heard a thud and saw a baby blue light shimmer through the woods where Nyao-B just went off too. So, well, shoot. I think she just woke up. I have no way of getting to Nyao-E like this, so we'll just have to accept her wrath the next time we see each other. Don't take that lightly though, Nyao-E's rage is an intense thing, I tell you what!
........Sometimes I wonder if she's like that in real life, too. Sometimes I wonder if Nyao-B is really that unsure in real life. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really representing myself as I am in real life. I feel... like there's a lot of uncertainty between our friendship. But we agreed to not talk about it, so I think it's better to just not think about all that, as hard as that may be. I just don't want them to I think I don't trust them, just because we don't know each other in reality. Time and again I wonder; why us? Why do we get the chance to always come here and no one else? Maybe there are others, and they're just hush hush about it? I wouldn't get why though. There is literally nothing to be afraid of. ...Is there?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Whoa, it's already pretty dark out, isn't it? How much time has passed? I can't really tell, when I think about super deep things, I get lost on thought. My legs are pretty numb now, though the pain is still at its dulled intensity. I'm still feeling that jut in the eye from Nyao-E's brush from earlier, too. Maybe that black eye really will happen before I regenerate next time- hey, wait, what was that? Did you hear that? Oh fuck, oh shit! If a monster approaches me right now I'm done for! Say hello to a week off of Kaida, deuces Nyao-S! Or worse, what if it's the Spider Clan? God, I can only imagine how they'd love to see me like this. Oh no, it's getting closer! It sounds quiet, I think just one person, and it smells like- like- ...strawberry cinnamon tea with honey crackers?
"Whoa, holy shit. This again? I'm... almost impressed!" Scanning the person approaching me, I realized it was Nyao-E; her tabby ears twitching in an alert fashion, as usual. She looked at my legs and smirked, "So this is why. Figures." She lightly stepped toward me and peered to the night sky before sitting down next to me, putting her weight on her arms that rested behind her. "Tell me your story, I want to hear what happened this time."
My dog ears lowered and rotated in slight confusion, "You're not mad? Nyao-B and I couldn't get to you in time...."
"Well, yeah. So I won, right? I figured it was time to find you two when I saw Nyao-B's neuron light shine through the woods. She woke up, didn't she? Shame I couldn't tell her good morning." Nyao-E stretched herself out and lied down, hers arms now behind her head. "I'm feeling a little out of it myself, though. I think it's almost time. How about you, hm?"
I looked up toward the dark sky, "Kind of. Since Nyao-B woke up, we're soon to wake up too."
"What if we're not in the same region as her, and it's still night? You know how weird time is here." Whoa, did she just bring up real world talk? Huh... "I just mean to not make those judgement calls too soon. So hey, I'll stay here until you leave first, okay? I promise." Oh, never mind. Forget I thought that.
"I... well, okay. I don't mean to keep you asleep though."
"Don't worry about it too much. So, your story?"
"What? Oh, ha ha! Yeah, no... I was just... being brave as hell. Jumped off that boulder right there."
"Wait, that thing? Brave as hell, you say? Well jeez, kind of just sounds dumb. If that's what bravery is, count me out. It's a pretty big drop, Nyao-S. Nyao-B must have had a heart attack. It'd have been annoying if you died again. You've already died four times now."
"Psh. You care so much, my heart is melting." I said with a sneer. Nyao-E chuckled and gazed across the familiar star ridden sky, though the stars here were different and the night sky was always a deep purple. The stars were varied, and weren't just round balls of burning gas waiting to explode. These ones were special; and came in numerous shapes. Looking at them gave the feeling as though we were where we really belonged. Oh... at least, that's how I feel.
Nyao-E looked over to me slowly, "Hey, it's weird how their stars are, right? Compared to the real world, I mean. They're pretty cool. I wish ours were like them. Not that I don't like our sky, of course. Earth forever, right?"
"Duh. *yawwwn...* Earth for life, girl."
"Uh oh, you are sleepy. Well, fine then." She turned her head away from me and back to the sky. I began to feel light headed and aloof, slowly feeling my mind drifting away from my body as the sparks in my head begin to fire up. Before my brain was completely awake, I heard Nyao-E softly say 'good morning' as I shot out of Kaida in a blast of my awakening thoughts.
Good morning, Sylvie.