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 Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:31 pm
...It was hot. Very, very hot. Why was Celia so warm? Surely there was some reason for the heat...She wanted to reach for water, hoping there was some nearby. Instead, she heard liquid hitting the floor. What was that about? She opened her eyes to investigate, suddenly having to come to a very peculiar realization: She was sitting in her bathtub. In all her clothes. With her shoes on.
The Dragon Knight shook her head slightly, blinking as if not really sure she was awake...That was when she spotted something glowing from just beyond her shoes...There, by the drain, was her Fire Crystal, glowing brightly and heating the water much more than the pipes had ever even hoped to. She sat up a bit more, leaning forward to pick it up, or more importantly turn it off, getting slightly dizzy as she did so.
Celia looked down at her hands, which were quite red from being submerged in the hot water, placing one of them on her head and the other on the edge of the bath to steady herself...How long had she been there? Odd...She only remembered sitting outside the kitchen waiting for Baran...She picked up the bright crystal, turning it off at once to save magic, and then making to get out of the bath.
The moment she set her soaked shoe down on the stone floor however she slipped, tripping straight out of the water and onto the floor. Fortuantely, she put her arms down in time to protect her head. Celia got back to her feet, slightly sore, but really not too concerned about that...She had too many questions at the moment...Namely, how in the heck she had gotten there, and where in the world Kahaku was.
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:10 pm
Baran decided spontaneously on his way out of the castle that he should go check Celia's rooms quickly to make sure that she was not in them. Not that he knew what he would do either way... Still, it was bugging him and he could not help but want to know what had happened to her.
He blinked; the new source of magic had turned itself off. It was strange, now that he thought about it, that he had been able to pick it out so easily from all the rest. Usually they just all blended together into one irritating buzz. Maybe the training with Illusia was actually starting to pay off.
"Celia?" Baran asked, knocking on her door. "Are you there?"
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:56 pm
Something poked his leg. There, on the floor next to him outside her room, was Kahaku. The little dragon was sitting there, holding a sign now, that read 'She's not going to answer...' He looked a little dejected. He had been trying to get into the room for a while now, but hadn't been able to for one reason or another...Frankly he didn't like thinking about it, but somehow he just couldn't get in.
What the...Baran? What was he doing here? She didn't even know how long she'd been there...Or for that matter, how long she had been gone from the kitchens. "Um...Ju..Just a minute!"she called from the floor of the bathroom, hurrying back to her feet, but slipping a little in the puddle she and her sopping clothes had created. This time, however, she caught herself and scurried through the door back into her main room.
The knight did her best to avoid dripping water on any of her many, many books littering the floor as she grabbed a large towel out of the nearby closet. She slid her undershirt off, keeping the over part on, knowing she couldn't change the entire outfit quickly enough. Therefore, she would do her best to hide the fact she was wearing soaked clothes...Looking like she just got out of the shower was still better than letting him think she was nuts.
Tightly wrapping the towel around her body, her steps squeaked slightly as she walked toward the door, cracking it open just a little. "Hi Baran..."said Celia, really rather timidly. She was completely unsettled at the moment, and it showed a bit in the way her voice had returned to the quiet tones she had constantly sported when they first met.
A sign popped up, just before the little dragon scurried through the slightly opened door, 'Okay, I was wrong.' Once safely inside the room, Kahaku stopped, and looked up at his Knight. 'Celia,' He asked, 'Why are you wearing soaking wet boots?'.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 9:18 pm
"Celia! What happened?" Baran ignored the dragon's sign, stepping past him into the room and letting the door close behind him. "I didn't think I was that long, but you just disappeared..." His train of thought trailed off, momentarily derailed by the realization that he was in her room and that, hey, she was still dripping from the shower.
"U-um," he turned slightly red and looked away. "Is this a bad time?"
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 9:33 pm
She was surprised, honestly, to find that it was still the same day. It felt like it had been ages ago...But in the same moment, it felt like almost no time had passed at all. "I um...I just...I didn't...."she wasn't sure how to explain. What was she supposed to say to that?
"...I didn't feel well...So I thought I'd run a bath and see if that helped..."Her voice was almost nonexistent at that point. Wait a minute, was she lying? How could she lie to Baran...? Celia paused. She didn't actually know if she was lying...If she were uncertain what the truth really was, did that make it a lie? Or was it a truth that no one knew about? This was just confusing. She also pointedly ignored Kahaku's question.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 9:43 pm
Baran nodded, still not able to bring himself to look at her properly. "Oh, okay... Are you feeling better now, then? Do you want me to get you anything?" His voice was genuinely concerned and he forced himself to get over his embarrassment and look her in the face even though she was not meeting his eyes.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:17 pm
"Y...Yes, much better..."Her voice shook a bit with the words. Of course, she realized he was embarrassed, and Celia knew that her current cover-up of confusion was the reason for it...The Knight could hardly help but fell guilty, but oddly not especially flustered herself...After all, she knew she was wearing clothes. The only thing that really did disconcert her was the fact that she had no idea how she had ended up as she was.
'Celia, what's going on?'Kahaku was going to prod her until she answered his questions. She was fumbling, and it worried him. More so, he believed she'd been in the bath...But with her shoes on? What sense did that make? More and more about what was happening troubled him...
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 11:00 pm
"...Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Baran asked again, more worried now. She was behaving strangely... and were those boots on her feet?! He blinked, startled and confused. "Celia? What's going on?"
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 11:04 pm
"Yes. I think it was just a passing thing..."She said, hoping it was true. Celia apparently hadn't noticed that he had spotted her boots, or she probably would have blurted the truth right then and there...Or, as much of the truth as she knew...Which wasn't much. Of course, her foot was fidgeting slightly, pivoting on the spot, causing her wet shoes to squeak a bit; She didn't notice that, either.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 11:19 pm
Baran shook his head slowly. Something strange was going on. He looked more carefully at Celia, her long blue hair clinging wetly to her, water still dripping from it down her skin and towel and to the floor. Her face was slightly flushed and she was acting as she had when they had first met, as if the time in between had never passed.
"Celia... I'm not sure," he began, speaking almost to himself. "I'm not sure what's going on here. You said you were fine," he looked at her harder, not meaning to accuse her, but merely to find out the truth. "I'm not so sure." He laid the warm back of his hand against one side of her face, then the other, then her forehead, reddening a little himself at the gentle touch.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:39 am
She could feel herself starting to blush as he placed his hand on her skin, still quite warm from the bath. The Knight had honestly figured she wouldn't be able to cover it up for even as long as she had, but she wasn't about to stop trying...The last thing she wanted to do was worry Baran.
"I told you, I'm fine...I just...Slipped, that's all,"Celia assumed that would be enough to explain her behavior, and in case he had noticed, it would also explain her shoes. She figured that between the choices of telling him she slipped, and letting him know she had blacked out, explaining that she had fallen was definitely the lesser of two evils.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:28 pm
Nadil "My... parents." The younger dragon finally got out a line that, hopefully, made at least some sense. Eyes wide, Micoi stared over Jett's shoulder as tears began to rise in her eyes... again. "...Mommy..." she managed to get out and then a half choked "daddy" before she had to bite her lip and pressed her eyelids shut and her face into his shoulder. This was getting old... The monarch had no idea what had happened to her parents, but he had assumed they were deceased since she was in Kanak's care. He was still confused as to what reminded her of them. But that wasn't really important. She clearly needed comforting at the moment, and Jett tried his best. He held her close, letting her cry into his cloak and stroking her hair until she calmed down a little. He also made the mental note to ask Kanak about the horrific event, if he ever reappeared again.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:00 pm
It took a while, quite a while, but the young queen-to-be had finally clamed down again more or less completely, her body more relaxed. "'m fine now," she mumbled half to herself before slowly pushing herself up into a straight, sitting position in his lap. Blinking once, it seemed like she finally registered completely that they were back at the castle. "This is... the castle?"
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:37 pm
"Yes, we're in the castle gardens." Jett assured her. He reached out to push some of her hair out of her face. She seemed so young, much more a child then a Dragon Queen. And he got to marry her in a few months. Jett closed his eyes for a moment, thinking.Oh, Shin, wherever you are, please help me.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:53 pm
She didn't seem to notice the light touch as she looked around a bit, almost as if she was lost. "Strange... I could have sworn I was at my parents' mansion..." Her voice seemed almost half-awake, as though she'd just or recently awoken from a dream.
If she had grown up in her parents' care, would she have been more mature now instead? Or was this just how she was? Young, perhaps too young?, at heart.
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