龙巢 (Dragon's Nest)

Chapter 7

The sun rose up over Draconia once again, as another new day began. 

Another day that Nobu was here, in this strange world. 

At times he wanted to believe it was just a dream, but if it really was just a dream, then he would be disheartened to wake up in Tokyo once more, where things ran in a cycle and nothing changed. 
At least here, he could make a change. 

Nobu sat up from the comfort of the soft pillow and warm blanket of the bed, as he yawned and stretched a bit. The sun was absolutely blinding. 

"Raiden?" Nobu called. But there was no answer. Ugh, Nobu thought, great, my only source of intel is gone today. 

Nobu felt his stomach growl. He began to get impatient, as he was both hungry and in an urge to hurry and find something to do rather than sit around all day. 

Despite the pain in his lower half, he got up and grabbed an oversized kimono from Raiden's closet to put on. 

Sliding open the door, he made his way out of Raiden's room to come across the atmosphere of the palace during the day. It was what appeared to be a traditional palace. As he made his way across the long hallway, he saw an opening to the outdoors, which led to the garden he tried to hide in when he was first here. As he admired the scenery of the garden, he did not notice someone behind him. 

"Boo!" 

Nobu screamed as he fell into the rose bush, scraping his arms and knees on the rose thorns. 

"Oh... sowwy about that..." said what appeared to be a child's voice.

As Nobu looked up, he expected to see an annoying troll, but what he saw instead was a little girl. 

Great. A little girl. Nobu hated kids above most things, as back in modern Tokyo, they always pointed at his appearance and laughed. 

Kids here would be no different anyway, they were annoying to deal with, to talk to, and to see. 

"What? A little girl? Pfft..." Nobu smirked. "Why is a little girl like you in the castle?" Nobu began to look her up and down, analyzing her appearance. 

"Mister, are you the one who was making all that ruckus last night?" asked the little girl. "Mommy and Daddy said they heard someone crying and screaming last night and they couldn't sleep! They said it came from my brother's room. Luckily I couldn't hear a thing!"

"What?" Nobu sneered. "You must be joking, that's-" Nobu quickly stopped, as he realized where that crying and screaming was from. Scoffing, Nobu felt the urge to just deny everything in front of him. After all, kids were gullible. "Hah, I don't know what you are talking about. Furthermore... do you even belong here? Your stupidity and naivety amuses me." 

"I do mister!" the girl stated enthusiastically, as Nobu rolled his eyes and smirked. "My big brother's name is Raiden!" 

Nobu felt his jaw drop. This stupid little girl was Raiden's little sister. And he was trying to bully her.
She made him fall into rose thorns, after all. 
Nobu suddenly realized that he was the one with naivety, not her. What if she would tattle on him or gossip about him? He didn't want to get bullied by a child again, not after modern Tokyo and the many dumb incidents that occurred there. It was bad being taunted by underclassmen, but being taunted by a little girl who looked like she was 7? Nobu knew that this time, he could not allow this to happen. It hurt his pride thinking about it. 

"Your older brother is Raiden?" smirked Nobu, hoping that she didn't notice the sweat dripping down the side of his face and onto his chin. "No way. He never told me he had a little sister. You're probably just a little girl fangirling over him."