The Girl of the Wild {DC Comics/Part 1 The Wildflower Series}

Ch. 21 Difficult Relations

I opened my eyes slowly and sat up from my bed and sighed. It was another sleepless night. The dreams had been going on for weeks now and I could barely focus on my studies. Sir Justin began to notice and every day he would ask me if I was okay and every day I would tell him the same thing. I was fine. I just wasn't sleeping well. But the truth was that I wasn't fine. The nightmares were getting worse, each one different, and each one harder to wake up from. I had no one to confide in. Nightwing had been gone for weeks and whenever I asked someone why he was gone they would just shake their head at me. Nightwing was the only one who knew about my nightmares and I was too embarrassed to tell anyone else. They wouldn't understand. They would try to get me help, but I didn't want help. I wanted someone to understand.

The room was quiet, but all I could hear were the cries of my family, asking why I hadn't been there to save them. I had no reply. In this vision I had returned to find all of Zimbabwe destroyed. Everything was burned to the ground, leaving a scorch mark across Africa and all I cared for destroyed.

The bed creaked as I got up and walked toward the bathroom. All I wanted to do was stay in bed, but that wasn't possible, because if I stayed in bed that meant the nightmares had won, and they hadn't. I was fine.

The striking white light of the bathroom turned on, and my eyes squinted at the mirror. I looked like a ghost of my old self. My once sun kissed skin was now a sickly pale and my golden hair had almost lost its glow. I looked different from the person I was when I first appeared at the Watch Tower. My blue-green eyes had lost their spark and were blood shot. The lack of sleep was changing me and I needed to get help soon... What was I saying?  I washed my face, changed my clothes and headed out. I didn't need help.
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I shuffled down the hallway to my lesson with Sir Justin when Cassie ran up to me. "Nightwing's back," she said. "He'd like to see..." The girl of wonder stopped when she saw the state I was in. "What happened to you?" She asked but I ignored her and asked her where Nightwing was. When she said he was in the training room I ran off, ignoring her calls for me. Now that Nightwing was back, maybe things could be better. A smile appeared on my face as I ran down that hallway towards him. But once I saw him, that smile disappeared.

He looked different. His back was toward me, but his shoulders were rigid and tense, making the muscles underneath his thin shirt even more pronounced. I stopped in my tracks behind him but somehow Nightwing heard me and turned around. His face was forlorn and my heart dropped when I saw the sad state he was in. But as quick as I saw his lost appearance, it had vanished, hidden behind the black mask that he wore. I stumbled for words to console him, to question him on where he had gone and why he seemed so lost, but he stopped me before I could. Nightwing threw a wooden bo staff at me and, with a bit of difficulty, I was able to catch it. Without a pause or explanation, Nightwing ran at me with another staff. I stumbled to bring my staff up in-front and block his shot and when he charged again, I back-flipped to create distance between us. "Nightwing..." I gasped but couldn't say anymore before I had to duck. I lifted my staff in front of my face and a large 'crack!' came from our sticks as they connected.

I grunted and pushed the dark haired man a few feet away from me. "What are you doing?" I shouted. Nightwing ran at me again with his bo staff out and we battled for a few more seconds, but I was struggling to keep up. When we had spared before it hadn't been that easy to keep up with him, but with the unhealthy state I was in, it was even harder. Nightwing twisted his wooden staff in his hand and knocked mine out from my grasp, sending it clattering to the floor. He stabbed the wooden stick at me and as I stumbled backward, he tripped me and I landed hard on the floor.  There was no mat below me, so the hard fall knocked the breath out of me.

Nightwing stood above me and shouted for me to get up but I couldn't. The task was too arduous for my weakened state. My whole body ached and along with the burning feeling in my lungs, there was a pain in my heart that I couldn't understand. "Get up I said!" He shouted, with his face contorted in anger and frustration. "I can't!" I shouted back at him as I rolled over to my side and tried to catch my breath. Nightwing's anger slipped away for a moment to a blank stare before returning back to anger when I looked back at him.