CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.6 'THE DREAM'

Ra sat quiet, cross-legged and partially cross-armed. His hand, the one that had been affected by whatever it was that Andrei had done, still burned, and the scales had not filled back in as they should have. His other arm was wrapped around his torso in disapproval, as though the other arm was somehow weaker now. With a low rumbling sound, he closed his eyes and lowered his head, only to hear the footsteps of a familiar foe entering his domain.

His malevolent red hide stood on end, as though his scales were hairs, and he looked up out of sheer instinct. Andrei stood before him, and his eyes narrowed. It was too soon, and he hadn't called the boy here to taunt him again... so how had he entered this domain? The demon's lips were downturned, and his nostrils twitched. "Boy..."

Andrei was immediately apprehensive, and he took a half-step back before grimacing. He didn't want to be here, not after such a great upturn in luck... then again, perhaps the world had a way of balancing things out. His whole nose twitched, as did his fingers. It was clear that between the two, Andrei was the more unnerved. Cautiously brushing his hair from his face, he felt that nerve in him begin to ease. Ra was never one to take him by surprise. His assault was normally very frontal, open for all to see. Something about this visit was different. "Bastard. What do you want from me this time?"

The demon narrowed his eyes to slits, but yellow light still poured out from beneath their heavy, scaled lids. His hairless brow furrowed, and the leathery strips atop his head, hair-like wings, shifted in a sudden breeze. Something felt stand-offish about this meeting, as though the two were on more equal footing than before. "I did not call you here. Honestly, I could do without seeing your pitiful face a moon longer, runt." He shook his head, then crossed his arms, balling up his mysteriously afflicted hand into an angry fist. "Wake, so that I may not bear witness to you in my domain any longer... or give yourself to me, so that I may wake for myself."

As always, the offer fell on deaf ears. If something had changed, that meant that Ra was no all-encompassing deity in Andrei's own mind. Loosening up, he stood opposed to the draconic demon now, his fists clenched just as well. They stood in silence, then Andrei took a step forward. "I don't think waking up is my choice either way... and you, I can't listen to you." He spoke with a certain conviction to him... something that Ra hadn't seen here before, only heard faint in his domain, when Andrei had unleashed his primordial flaming magic.

The footstep on the ground was an acute sound, angled and specific. It reached Ra and almost unnerved him. The boy now approached him, and he was forced to uncross his arms. Andrei stopped his encroaching on Ra's territory, and the previously expanding domain narrowed back down to a simple alleyway. Neither would move now, simply staring across the rusted, decaying way. Ra's hair-like leather blew behind him, and the chains at his wrists, the shackles at his ankles, and the single steel length in his chest, they shook rhythmically with the wind. Andrei felt his chest now, and he too was sporting a chain... it had become a part of him as well. Blinking, he felt it around his neck.

Then Andrei woke up.

He was on the rooftop of Ban's residence, sitting high overlooking the entirety of the Guild settlement, save for what was behind the neighboring Guild Hall. Andrei had been facing the rising sun as it reflected pinkish-red on the waking blue sky. The wind brushed his hair, and the creaking of metal behind him caused him to turn after taking in the scene, crows in the distance not relenting in their strangely peaceful song, at least to Andrei.

Saionji and Shimoda stood at the top of the ladder, both looking over at the boy as though he were some sort of alien. Of course, to them he was. Looking down, Andrei broke their impromptu staring competition, and returned to looking at the rising sun.

Hesitantly, both of the teenaged kids approached, Saionji sitting down beside Andrei while Shimoda hung back, standing reluctantly behind them, his hip turned to them in case he needed to return back down the ladder for some reason known only to the future. Andrei didn't meet their eyes... Even though they were no longer staring, he still felt as though he was some sort of freak to them. Their hesitancy was burned into his mind, but it was cut in half when Saionji spoke up, staring off into the sun as well. "You're up early, for someone as ragged as what Ban described." She murmured, trying to keep her tone light even if she had just woken herself up