Chapter 5
By LirinStar

When Mia and the guys had left she armored down into her dark green nightshirt that went down to a few inches above her knees and her silver boxer shorts that where underneath. She was just about to climb into bed, but when she grabbed the sheets to get into the bed, a sharp pain coursed through her. She gasped, clutching her right hand. In the confusion, she had completely forgotten about it. She looked at it now to see a huge bloody gash where Ryo’s sword had sliced through the skin. It looked pretty deep, and was very painful. "I really should clean this wound up and bandage it. I’m sure Mia’s got a first-aid kit around here somewhere." She walked out of her room and shut the door quietly. She headed downstairs to find the first-aid kit. It was very dark, however, and when she got to the bottom of the stairs and started wondering around, she hit her knee on the corner of a table. With a soft cry she dropped to the floor with a thud clutching her knee. "Ouch! Stupid table!" she hissed. When she got back up she called upon her starlight fire again to form a small ‘torch’ of sorts, with the fire ablaze around her injured hand. She wasn’t gonna take any more changes of bumping into things in the dark. She found herself entering the kitchen, so she started to look under the sink and in the cabinets for the first-aid kit.

        Unlike the rest of the group, Rowen had decided not to go to sleep, but to finish a book he had been reading. He was turning the page when he heard a small cry and a thud come from downstairs. He set his book down, snuck quietly past his roomy Sage so as not to wake him, and headed downstairs to see what the matter was.

        When he got downstairs he heard someone rummaging through the kitchen. He assumed it was Kento getting a late night snack and was just about to head back upstairs when he heard a soft feminine voice.

        "Oh, common, where is it?" Lirin was bending under some cabinets, holding her ‘torch’ so she could see in them.

        "Lirin?" Rowen questioned.

        Lirin’s head shot up, hitting the top of the cabinet. "Youch! God, this is just not my night is it?!" she complained, holding her head with her left hand. "Who’s there?" She held out her right hand that had the starlight fire burning around it and willed it to glow brighter so she could see who was there.   "Rowen. You startled me."

        "What are you doing?" Rowen asked.

        "Don’t suppose you could lead me to where the first-aid kit is, huh?" she asked with a sheepish smile.

        "What’s wrong? You hurt?" he asked worriedly.

        "No, I just like to wander around in the middle of the night looking for first-aid kits. It’s a hobby of mine." She smiled sideways at him.

        He smiled back. ‘Well, at least she’s got a sense of humor.’ he thought. "Follow me. Mia keeps one out in the open by the living room. It’s on a shelf in the front hallway. By the way, neat little trick you got there with the white fire. If you could just spread it’s light in front of me so I can see where I’m going…"

        "It’s my Starlight Fire. Really quite a useful, handy little talent." She smiled and spread the starlight in front of him.

        He led her over to where the first-aid kit was, picked it up and set it down on the coffee table in front of the couch in the living room. He motioned for her to sit down on the couch. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked. She transferred the starlight fire to her left hand so Rowen could see her right one. His eyes widened when he saw the deep gash, all red and bloody. "What happened?!" he asked her, concern written all over his face.

        She sighed. "After Talpa had absorbed you and the others, I came into the picture. I found Ryo just about to be absorbed by Talpa and stopped Talpa before he did. As you know, Ryo was in pretty bad shape, and his armor had begun to heal him. Well, I tried to keep Talpa occupied while Ryo healed and tried to think of a way to get you guys free from Talpa. In the process Talpa used Kento’s special attack and I dodged it by jumping off the end of the roof. I grabbed the edge of it so I wouldn’t fall to my doom, but Ryo didn’t know that. He tried to get up and take Talpa on by himself, to avenge me. Talpa ended up knocking Ryo off the roof. I went to try and grab his hand, but he had already fallen to far for me to do so, so I grabbed his sword, which was within reach, instead. It was either the cut, or let Ryo die and have his armor be absorbed, and I couldn’t let that happen."

        Rowen looked at her with admiration. Surely she could be counted on in a time of need. "Let’s head back towards the kitchen. I need to wash off the wound before I put some antiseptic on it and bandage it."

        "Oh, you don’t have to bother. I can do it if you wanted to go back to bed. It’s pretty late, and I’ve already caused enough trouble."

        "Nonsense. You’re no trouble at all." He grabbed the first-aid kit in one hand and took her wrist in his other hand and led her to the kitchen.

        When he touched her wrist, however, Lirin got a feeling. What she was feeling when Rowen touched her was that she knew that this was the person whom she would want to be with for the rest of her life. She blushed and let him lead her to the kitchen, grateful that he was facing away from her so he couldn’t see her blushing.

        He flipped on the lights to the kitchen, set the first-aid kit on the kitchen table and brought her to the sink. "Wash it with soap and some warm water." he told her. She did as he told her to. She winced a bit when the soap hit her cut, but she didn’t cry out. He got the paper towels so she could dry her hands. Next he went over to the first-aid kit and took out the antiseptic. "This stuff is the strongest antiseptic there is; Mia always keeps the strong stuff because we’ve usually got some pretty dirty wounds. Anyway, it’s really gonna sting, so be prepared." He walked back over to the sink. "Hold your hand out over the sink." he ordered. He took her wrist again and held it tight so she couldn’t jerk it away before he had finished putting enough of the antiseptic on it.

        "Jeeze Rowen, no need to cut off my circulation, my hand isn’t going to go anywhere."

        "We’ll see." he quipped, and started to pour the antiseptic onto her wounded hand.

        "YEOW-" she quickly covered her mouth so not to wake everyone up and tried to pull her hand away, but Rowen’s grip held fast.

        "I told you it stung."

        She just gave him a nasty look. He was just about to pour more of the stuff on it, so she tried to pull back her hand again. Again, he gripped it tight and held it over the sink, but Lirin still continued to struggle. "Once was enough, thank you."

        "This wound is really deep, I want to make sure that it doesn’t get infected."

        She ‘humphed’ but held her hand still. Again, he poured the antiseptic on the wound and it was all she could to do to not holler in pain again and withdraw her hand, but she kept it still until he had finished pouring.

        "Bet you wished you had let Ryo fall now, huh?" he smiled, teasing her. In return he got another nasty look.

        Rowen chuckled and led her over to the kitchen table so he could bandage her hand. He gently wrapped the bandages tightly about her bleeding hand, and she winced all the way through it. ‘It must really hurt her’ he thought. He looked into her beautiful silver-green eyes and saw the pain there. He wished he had Sage’s armor’s healing powers so he could heal her without her feeling any pain. As he looked into her eyes further he saw a peculiar depth to them. He easily became lost in those big starlit eyes of hers and felt a weird, warm feeling come over him, then snapped out of it. ‘She’d never be interested in a shy bookworm like me. She’d probably fall for Sage just like every other girl.’ he thought to himself. Then he said aloud, "You’ll need to clean it again with some more of that stuff tomorrow when you change the bandage.

        "Ha! Forget it. I’m using my herbs next time! They do a much better job than any store bought item and they don’t sting a bit if you know what you’re doing."

        "Bit of an herbalist are we?" he asked.

        "One of my hobbies. Mom taught me everything I know." Her silver-green eyes took on a sad demeanor as she thought of her just recently deceased parents.

        Rowen noticed the pain and grief in her lovely eyes, "Lirin, what’s wrong?"

        "Oh, uh nothing." She said quickly, fibbing.

        He decided not to push her, but as an afterthought he did say, "You know Lirin, your one of us now. Anyone of us will always be here for you if you need to talk about anything."

        She smiled at him. "Thank you, Rowen." After a short pause she said, "Well, we should probably go back to bed now. I’m still pretty exhausted from using so much energy facing Talpa. That attack I used really drains me and I’m lucky I’m still standing." They turned off the lights and put the first-aid kit back where it went and headed to their rooms, which were conveniently across from each other at the end of the hallway. "’Night, Rowen."

        "’Night, Lirin. See yah tomorrow."

        Lirin hopped into bed and was fast asleep