Nathan Devlin/ the birth of flame

chapter 2 "happy birthday"

Nathan and Catherine started hanging out with each other more. Before they knew it they were inseparable. Wherever he went she went they were best friends. A few years went by and it was Nathan's 17th birthday. Catherine had a gift for him so she went to his house as soon as she could. It was still early when she managed to get to his house. His father Mr. Devlin was in the yard doing some work. "Good morning Mr. Devlin" she said

"ahh good morning Catherine, Nathan is inside reading I think"

"He always is," she said with a smile.

Catherine walked in the house to find Nathan sitting at the table reading. "Happy birthday" Catherine whispered while showing him the gift.

"What is it" he asked

"Well I guess you will have to open it to find out" she explained while rolling her eyes. Nathan opened the small box and pulled out a silver necklace that had a sun hanging from the chain.

Mr. Devlin walked in and said "wow look at that Nathan is't that pretty"

Nathan smiled and said "its beautiful" while he was looking at it

Catherine walked over to Nathan and said "yeah I figured now you have something to always brighten up your day" after that Nathan put the necklace on and smiled.

"Thank you Catherine," he stated. she nodded and sat back down at her chair

"oh I was wondering Catherine there is this dance at the museum I was wondering if you would like to go with me" Nathan asked very nervously

"I would love to go but I don't know if I have anything nice to wear" she explained

Martha Devlin (Nathan's mother) came around the corner with a beautiful blue dress that had yellow flowers around the hip. She looked at Catherine and said "well you can wear this. In fact you can go ahead and keep it. It's way too small for me anyway"

"Wow that is beautiful Mrs. Devlin are you sure" Catherine said in shock

"Oh yeah the thing has just been sitting in a crate collecting dust anyway" she explained

Mr. Devlin walked over to her and whispered "isn't that the dress you were wearing when we met".

Mrs. Devlin smiled and sat the dress down on the table softly and walked away. Catherine was inspecting the dress and she saw even more details in the dress all around the shoulders were tiny blue flower petals. It was a beautiful dress. Mrs. devlin walked back in and said "well the dance is going to start soon if you like you can use my room to get changed".

"Yes of course thank you" Catherine said and then grabbed the dress and ran to go get changed

"Now you hurry up and get changed yourself young man" Mr. Devlin ordered Nathan.

Catherine walked out of the room her hair was pushed back and braided. She was waiting on Nathan. It only took a few moments for Nathan to walk out of his room. He was wearing a black suit and had his hair nicely combed. Nathan looked at Catherine in amazement "wow you look amazing" he said while looking at her still.

Catherine looked down and smiled and softly said "thank you"

"Well you guys better get going, the dance will start soon" Mr. Devlin said. Nathan and Catherine hurried down the road and to the museum . Once they got to the door they could hear music playing. The music was more upbeat. Nathan smiled and opened the door; they both walked in holding hands without even realizing that they were holding hands. The museum had different colored lights hitting the walls. There had to be hundreds of people there. Nathan and Catherine slowly walked to the dance floor. By the time they reached the dance floor slow music started playing. Nathan looked at Catherine and smiled then said "care to dance with me" and then he held out his hand.

Catherine smiled and said "I would love to" Catherine put her hand in Nathans and then rested her head on his shoulder.

"Are you ok" Nathan asked

"Yeah I am great. This is nice" she said as they slowly danced

"Yeah it is nice" Nathan repeated while smiling "hey do you remember that time when we were about 16 and I fell in the water" he asked

"You mean the time you almost drowned" she asked

"Yeah" Nathan said with an unsettling sound in his voice

"How could I forget" Catherine explained

"Well do you remember how I said I swam to shore" Nathan asked.

Catherine looked up at him and said "yeah, why"

"Well the truth is I did not swim to shore. I don't know how I got there I figured the current pushed me to it" he explained

"So why are you telling me this now"

"Because there is something else about that day that is bugging me"

"What is it"

"In the water I swear I saw another man he was looking right at me. it felt like he was trying to tell me something"

"Nathan you nearly died your eyes were playing tricks on you ok" Catherine said as she brushed her hand through his hair. Nathan nodded. "Hey let's go see some of the stuff that the museum has" Catherine said while grabbing Nathan's hand and leading him to another room. the music was faint and you could no longer  hear the sounds coming from the dance floor. "It's so much more peaceful in here" she said. 

"Probably because there is no one else here" Nathan said while laughing

Catherine was walking slowly while looking at all the artifacts and paintings in the room. she then stopped and started staring at a blade that had a dragon's handle and the blade itself had some kind of red line down the middle of it. The blade looked sharp and she looked down at the information card and read that the blade was from 1513. She looked at the blade in wonder and then said "wow it's still in such good condition". Nathan walked up behind her with a smile and then said

"It's not real"

"How do you know"

"I read about it. The blade is called Doragonsureiyā. It means dragon slayer. The blade is believed to be the only thing to kill a dragon"

"Really"?

"Yeah my dad kept a bunch of these old books around and in one of his books it talks about the blade its last location is unknown the owner of it wrote down that he hid the blade from some kind of evil force or something but he never mentioned where he had hid it"

"So this one is a fake"?

"Yep this one is a fake. We are not even sure if that is what it looks like"

"We what do you mean by we"?

"Oh I mean we as in the public"

"Oh I see"

Catherine turned around and realized how close Nathan was standing her hand was on his chest and she was staring into his dark blue eyes. His eyes were like crystals; she was almost able to see her reflection in his eyes. She was amazed at his eyes.

"Catherine you're doing that staring thing again" Nathan explained

"crap sorry" she said as she stepped aside and pushed her hair behind her ear. She could not help but feel a sense of comfort when Nathan was that close to her. Nathan caught her smiling.

"What are you smiling about" he asked

"Nothing"

Nathan stood there for a second and then said "Whatever dork"

"Can we head back its getting kind of late" Catherine asked.

"Yeah I am getting hungry anyways. Want to have dinner at my place"

"Sounds lovely"she said while smiling