A World Like That

Chapter XIII

-Ariel-

After spending the day with his friends and reassuring them he was okay, he finally sank down into a cloud. He fell asleep quickly, but his sleep was plagued with nightmares of the barren Earth and the howling wind. He tossed and turned, waking up with a start when he thought he felt the ground shaking.

As he laid back down, he wished Dante were here. They hadn't had much time at all to talk before his friends came to find him. He didn't know how Dante was feeling after going through their ordeal, but either way he figured Dante was the only one who would understand his nightmares.

The next morning, he was looking forward to seeing Dante and impatiently waited until his friends were distracted before slipping off to find him. He flew to their usual tropical forest, but Dante wasn't there. He picked some fruit while he waited, but after a while his friends began to call for him and Dante still hadn't come. Disappointed, he flew back to them.

"Ariel, don't run off again!" Jael scolded. "You're going to give us all a heart attack. Between being attacked by a demon and getting stuck on Earth overnight, we don't need any more reasons to worry about you."

"Sorry," he said, giving Jael a sheepish smile. "I was craving mangoes and wanted to get a few from a different forest."

"But there are plenty of mangoes here," Jael pointed out, looking at him like he was crazy. "Why are you being weird?"

"I'm not being weird."

"You did seem a little on edge this morning," Charmeine said. "Is everything okay?"

Sighing, he sat down. He wanted to see Dante and he was worried that he hadn't come to their usual spot. He felt frustrated that he couldn't tell his friends what was really going on.

"I feel a little cooped up, I guess. I just want to go fly around for a while."

"You do like to explore," Jael said. "Look, why don't I go with you? I could use the exercise."

He smiled at Jael. "Sure, that sounds great." He knew he wouldn't be able to talk to Dante if they saw him, but he wanted to know where the demon was. This was a compromise he could accept.

He and Jael flew over all the forests until Jael got tired. He still didn't see Dante anywhere. The next day, he convinced Jael to do it again, and he grew increasingly worried when he couldn't find Dante for the second day in a row, or the third. What if something bad had happened to him? Images flashed through his mind of Dante being stuck on Earth alone overnight, without anyone else to help protect him or keep him warm.

-

On the morning of the fourth day, he tugged on Jael's arm. "Let's get going."

"Ariel, really? Do we have to fly everywhere again today? You're killing me after three days of this."

"You don't have to come," he huffed, letting his anxiety about Dante get to him. "I'm more than capable of being on my own, but you all are insisting that I not be left alone."

"Ariel!" Raguel warned, his eyes narrowing. "What's gotten into you? We care about you and we're trying to protect you after everything that's happened. Jael doesn't deserve your hostility."

He closed his eyes, trying to get a handle on his emotions. "Sorry. I like my independence. It's not that I don't appreciate you all."

"What's really going on?" Charmeine asked softly. "You didn't seem to have a problem sticking with us before, but it seems like that changed after you were attacked."

He stared at the ground. He couldn't tell them about Dante. No one would understand. The best he could do was to get as close to the truth without telling the truth.