Chapter 10
By LirinStar

By this time the guys and Mia had noticed that she was gone and had started to worry. It had been over an hour and it was dark outside. They decided to organize a search party for her. When they just got out the front door a thought hit Rowen. "Um, Ryo, is White Blaze outside?"

        "Yeah, why?"

        "Because Lirin doesn’t know about White Blaze and if he suddenly comes in contact with her, well, who knows what will happen."

        "Okay guys," said Rowen to the group, "that means that we gotta find her before White Blaze-" he was interrupted by a really loud scream. "…does."

        "Too late." sighed Sage.

        "It came from near the lake!" announced Sai.

        "Common! Let’s go find her before she fries my tiger!" said a very worried Ryo.

        Sage snickered. "Would it be really all that bad if she did?"

        Ryo gave him a cold glare and then took off towards the lake.

 

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        Lirin closed the diary and locked it back up. There was no way she wanted anyone to get into it. There were too many personal things she had written in it. She was just about to get up when she felt a presence very close. She looked up to see a gigantic white tiger looking down at her. "AAAHHHHH!" she screamed as loud as possible. The tiger jumped down to the ground beside her, wanting to know what the matter was. She ignited herself to get the tiger to go away. She really didn’t want to hurt it.

The tiger looked at her. She looked back into those big black eyes. ‘Okay, let’s see what your thinking. Hopefully your not thinking, hmmm, she looks like she could make a good dinner!’ Lirin thought to yourself. She reached out to the tiger’s mind and read his thoughts.

        "What’s wrong, young one? No need to be afraid of me. I’m not going to hurt you." She heard him say. She extinguished her flames.

        "What’s your name big guy?" she asked taking a step towards him.

        "White Blaze."

        "White Blaze?"

        "She can understand me?"

        "I can read thoughts." she explained.

        "You are a friend of my master, are you not? You are one of them?"

        "Who is your master?" she asked the tiger.

        "Ryo of Wildfire."

        "In that case, yes, I am a friend, and yes I am a Ronin Warrior if that’s what you meant by ‘one of them’. I am Lirin of Cosmos, but you can call me Lirin." she introduced herself, smiling. She reached up and scratched behind his ear.

        "Oooohhh, that feels goooood." he purred, nuzzling his head against her.

She laughed. "You sure are a friendly thing, aren’t you?" She scratched behind his other ear and got a louder pure from him.

        The boys came running up behind her just then and saw her pampering the tiger and White Blaze purring and just as happy and could be.

        "Your fur is so soft!" Lirin told White Blaze.

        "That’s cause I brush him everyday." said Ryo coming up behind her. He gave the tiger a pat on the head. "You had me worried, boy. I thought she was gonna fry you with that fire of hers."

        White Blaze looked up at him with a smile on his face and nuzzled him. Lirin giggled. "I almost did." she told Ryo honestly.

        "Why didn’t you?" asked Kento.

        "Because he said he wasn’t gonna hurt me." she answered. They all looked at her with shocked faces.

        "You can understand him?!" asked Rowen, incredulous.

        "I can read thoughts when I want to." Lirin explained with a shrug. "But don’t worry," she added upon seeing their faces, "I only read thoughts when I have to or when they come unbidden. I don’t like to take away the privacy of a person’s thinking."

        "Hey, cool!" cried Kento. "What am I thinking right now?" he asked.

        She giggled again. "Your wondering if I’d make you a snack when we get back to the house."

        "How’d you guess?!" Kento asked.

        "Oh, come on Kento, you’ve got food on the brain 24 – 7. Anyone knows that!" Sage admonished.

        They all started walking back towards the house. Lirin and Ryo had their hands ablaze as torches so everyone would be able to see where they were going. On their walk home, Rowen asked Lirin what she was doing out so late at night, and what the book was for.

        "Every night, I go out and greet the first star that appears in the sky. Then I sit down and write the day’s happenings in my diary." She told him holding up her diary so they could see it. "Usually I’m not out this late, but since I haven’t written in it in a while, and a lot of things have happened, I had a lot to write about."

        "You write about us in there tonight?" Sage asked her.

        "Yep."

        "What you write?" Kento asked curious.

        "None of your business." she smiled wickedly at him.

        Kento made a grab for the diary, but she was too quick. "Even if you did get your hands on it, it’s locked."

        "We can always pick it." said Sage. He wanted to know what was written in it and made a mad dash towards her, followed by the other boys.

        "Eeek!" Lirin shrieked happily and ran towards the house, the boys trailing after her. They sprinted the whole way back, Lirin always a step ahead of them. No matter how fast they ran, they just could catch up with her, and it didn’t even look like she was running full out! It looked like she was toying with them.

        When they arrived at the house, Lirin burst through the door laughing and energetic as ever. She was followed closely by 5 out of breath Ronins. She bounded up the stairs and locked herself in her room and locked the bathroom door so they couldn’t get in that way either. She then started looking for a good hiding place for the diary, as the guys tried to temp, bribe and trick her into opening the door, but she wouldn’t. Mia just looked on with surprise and mild amusement.

        Lirin opened the door and was bombarded by the guys. They surrounded her so she couldn’t get away. "So where did yah hid it?" asked Kento.

        "Oh, like I’m gonna tell you!"

        "Room search!" yelled Sage.

        "You go in there and you’ll live to regret it. Then again, maybe you won’t live." Lirin threatened.

        "Oh, I’m so scared." Sage said, slipping in to her room.

        "Saaaaaage." She warned.

        He pretended not to here her. And went to her desk. Lirin went to step into her room, but the remaining four guys blocked her. "So, how do you like living with us so far?" asked Ryo with a twinkle in his eyes. She smiled evilly and the guys wondered what she was gonna do. After only a few seconds she burst into flames and walked towards them. They quickly got out of her way, tripping over one another. Sage turned to see what the matter was and saw Lirin in fire coming towards him.

"Yipe!" he quickly ran out of her room. The boys then regrouped and huddled together like a football team. She heard whispers and was just about read their minds when their heads popped back up and turned to her.

        "We’ve decided that we don’t have to read it tonight." Sage announced.

        "that there will be many other better opportunities later." said Rowen.

        "and, you’ve probably only got first impressions about us in your diary anyway," started Sai.

        "so there’s no point in reading it now," continued Kento.

        "so we’ll just read it later." Finished Ryo, and they all headed to their rooms to get into their PJ’s.

        Lirin just watched them with a suspicious eye and her arms crossed in front of her. She’d have to keep an eye on them.