Chapter 6 - "You're Unbelievable!"

Chapter 6

“You're Unbelievable!”



-“...Oh shoot...”



There was a sloppy line of blood leading over to the side of the tunnel, to where Nel was pinned down to the ground by a dragon's huge claws. Albel's eyes instantly darted to Nel's wounds and winced. He picked up speed slightly. `This doesn't look good...'



He saw the dragon lift one of its clawed paws while the other one continued to hold Nel down to the ground. Albel easily pinpointed the monster's weak spot on it's lower neck from years of experience around dragons, and jumped into the air, kicking the dragon hard in the neck and sending it tumbling back down the tunnel and out of view.



Albel hastily kneeled down, dropped his katana, and put an arm around Nel's back and hoisted her up, looking at her wounds. Nel just stared up at him with readable thankfulness and pain all over her face.



-“Quickly, heal yourself before it comes back.” Albel mumbled and glanced in the direction he had sent the dragon flying.



Nel shakily placed her hands on her chest and closed her eyes, concentrating. A pale light traced her cut flesh as she drew her hands away and the light stitched her skin back together with invisible thread. Albel watched her heal the huge cuts on her side in silence. He never got tiered of seeing her do that, seeing as he couldn't do it himself.



Nel looked up at him when she was done healing her wounds and muttered a “Thanks” quietly.



Albel felt the urge to retort or put her down for not being able to take out the dragon by herself, but couldn't find the words to use, so he simply nodded and took his arm from around her back and shoved his torch into one of her hands.



-“Hold this, I've got a bone to pick with that dragon.” he muttered. Nel looked puzzled for a second before her eyes went wide.



-“Albel!” she exclaimed and hastily went for her dagger that was laying beside her. Albel's eyes widened slightly and he spun around, putting up his clawed hand in defense just in time to clash with the claws of a miffed dragon.



With one swift movement, Nel lunged at the dragon and drove her dagger into its eye, earning a yelp of extreme pain from her scaly friend. It backed up a few steps and opened it's mouth, getting ready to scorch Albel and Nel. But Albel was too fast for the dragon and grabbed his katana. He leaped to the dragon's side and swiftly delivered the final blow, chopping the dragon's head off in one fell swoop.



Silence fell over the scene until Albel sheathed his sword and Nel fell backwards to lean against the cave wall. She looked up as Albel walked over to her.



-“Thanks for helping me.” she said before having second thoughts. Albel just handed her back her dagger and said nothing. Nel stood and replaced her dagger in its pouch, looking distastefully at the dragon carcass. “You hungry for dragon?” she asked Albel, trying to sound funny, but only succeeding in sounding grossed out.



Albel snorted. “No. But it's all we've got to work with. The least we could do is cook it...” he motioned for the torch and started looking around on the ground once he had it in his clawed hand.



Nel waited for him to come back and eyed the dragon's head, having weird suspicions that it would spring back to life any second and flame torch her to death. Nel shook her head. `It's the lack of sleep. It's making me think weird thoughts.'



Albel came back moments later with a pile of sticks and leaves in his normal arm. Nel noticed a very uncomfortable look on his face and that his `good' arm was shaking slightly. Albel sloppily dropped the twigs to the ground and kneeled over them, setting fire to the pile by adding the torch to it. When he kneeled over, that's when Nel saw it.



-“Albel! You're wounded!” she exclaimed and bent down beside his good arm to look over the damage. It looked like the dragon must of caught Albel off guard briefly when he was going in for the final blow. There was a huge slash that ran from Albel's shoulder down to his elbow, and it looked pretty bad.



Albel jerked his arm out of Nel's reach and snarled at her. “Don't touch me maggot! Just mind your own business!” he spat out at her and got up. He then drew his katana with his wounded arm and walked over to the dead dragon and proceeded to hack some decent sized pieces of meat off it, all the while wincing and biting his lip.



Nel frowned and got up as well. `He's like a little kid sometimes, scared of letting anyone look at his booboo...' But Nel knew that this could easily be more then just a booboo is she didn't heal it soon. `It's not that I care about him or anything, it's just that he's stuck in here with me and I'd rather not be left alone in this cave...' Nel quickly told herself as she started walking around the dead thing so she could get behind Albel.



Halfway around the dragon, Nel put her right hand behind her back and started up a healing spell. She peaked around the side of the carcass and saw Albel hacking away at the dragon's stomach with his sword. `He hasn't noticed me yet...' Nel stealthily snuck around so she was standing right behind Albel and swiftly slapped her glowing right hand on Albel's arm, the spell instantly spreading over the gash and healing it. A wave of nausea washed over Nel's consciousness briefly, arguing with her for using so much of her energy in one shot.



Albel gasped in surprise and spun around with a start, in the motion of cutting Nel through the middle with his katana. Nel yelped in surprise and moved out of the way, just missing the sword that was out to get her.



Albel, just now realizing that it was Nel who had touched him, sheathed his sword and glared at her.



-“Worm, I told you not to touch me!” he growled and flexed his claws.



Nel, still shook up about the assault, frowned and put her hands on her hips. “I was just trying to help! Doesn't your arm feel better now that it's healed?!” she protested. Albel glanced at his arm as Nel continued her ranting. “You're unbelievable! I thought for sure you'd jump at the idea of me using up my energy to heal you! But nooooooo, instead you decide to go all solo and try to hack me in two!” Nel clenched her fists and looked up at Albel. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”



Albel looked away from her, hoping that he wouldn't have to say anything and that she's just calm down by herself.

No such luck.



Nel waited for him to say something, still ticked. “So what? Now you're not going to say anything? Or are you just too high and mighty to speak to scum like me?!”



Albel turned his head to look at her, anger present on his features. “Would you just shut up?! I'm sick of your ranting! I didn't know you were the one who was behind me, if I had, I wouldn't of attacked you. I just don't need some Aquarian worm healing me. I'm not some kid who needs to be taken care of all the time!”



Nel took all this in and looked at him with disbelief. “I don't believe it...” she muttered. “You're not even the slightest bit grateful.” She shook her head and sighed. “No, actually I do believe it. You've always been like this, ever since I met you. You're always inconsiderate and cold. I guess you could say I never really understood you, you're so much different then anyone else I've ever known...”



Nel slowly turned around and walked over to the fire that looked like it wanted to go out and sat down in a heap with her back against the cave wall.



Albel sighed and looked down at his healed arm again before picking up two sticks he had saved and stabbing a piece of dragon meat onto each one before walking over to where Nel was sitting.



-“Here.” he said quietly and put a stick of meat out for her to take. Nel eyed Albel tiredly for a moment before taking the stick and leaning forward, holding the meat to the fire in hopes of cooking it somewhat.



Albel went and sat across from Nel on the other side of the fire and tried to cook his food as well. Every once and awhile he would look over to where Nel sat, but she would just stare at the fire, the flames reflecting off her violet eyes.



Albel couldn't take the silence. When it's quiet, ones mind has time to think, and for Albel, thinking could be very painful at times...and annoying.



There was this little voice in his head that kept telling him that he should apologize to Nel. Albel refused to listen to reason. `It's the lack of sleep, it's making me get voices in my head.' he thought. The little voice was very persistent, Albel would give it that much, but he still didn't understand why it wanted him to apologize so badly.



`She should be thanking me! I usually kill anybody who touches me in an instant!'



-`Yeah, and you would of killed her if she hadn't moved!'- said the little voice in his head that seemed to be getting bigger with every passing second.



`You just shut up! I don't need your nagging right now.'



-`You're just upset because you know I'm right. She went to the trouble of healing you and you thank her by attempting murder! She's right, you are unbelievable!'-



`I wouldn't of attacked her if I had known it was her and not some bad @$$ monster! Jeez, you're making me sound like the bad guy here!'



-`That's because you are, dimwit!'-

`Why you little-'



-“Um, ...Albel?”



Albel blinked a few times, just now realizing that Nel was sitting across from him and that he had been fighting with himself the whole time. `I really need to get some rest...'



-“Yeah, whaddaya want?” he muttered. Nel just pointed.



-“Your meat is on fire.” she said calmly and Albel looked down at his dinner.



The chunk of meat had now turned into a fire ball, the little stick slowly turning black. Apparently during the heated conversation with his other half, Albel had been paying close to no attention to his dinner.



-“Woah!!” he exclaimed and jumped to his feet, still holding his homemade fire ball. Nel watched him as he frantically shook the stick of meat, trying to kill the flame. “Put it out!” he suddenly shouted and Nel, making her jump to her feet as well.



-“What? How?!”



-“Use your runo-whatcamacallit! Just put it out!”



-“But I'm running low on energy and-”



-“I said PUT IT OUT!” Albel yelled angrily as he juggled the burning hot stick, trying not to drop it.



Nel cursed in a very unladylike manner and quickly got a water spell going in her head. She let it loose, only she overdid it...majorly. The equivalent of a bucket of water poured itself over Albel's head, putting out the flaming meat wad, but soaking him in the process. Nel suppressed giggles as Albel looked at her from behind his dripping bangs of black and blonde hair.



-“Sorry.” Nel chocked out and covered her mouth with one hand to stop herself from laughing.



Albel growled low but kept his anger in check. There wasn't really any use in getting mad at her, she'd just try to drown him again.



-`What goes around comes around.'- the voice in his head chanted, annoying Albel even further.



-“I should hurt you, but I'm not going to.” Albel muttered and sat down close to the fire.



Nel looked down at him and noticed that he was shivering. Running a hand over her bare arm, Nel discovered that she had goosebumps as well. It had gotten a lot colder in the last hour and their only source of heat now was the little dying fire.



Gazing down at Albel as he eyed his hunk of blackened meat unhappily, Nel wondered how cold he really was. `I'm cold, but I'm dry. I can only imagine how cold he must be...' Nel hesitantly walked over and sat down beside him. `I can't believe I'm doing this...'



She put her stick of perfectly cooked meat out in front of Albel. He stared at it for a moment before shifting his gaze to Nel, then back to the meat.

-“What do you expect me to do with that?” he asked blankly. Nel sighed.



-“Yours is burnt, mine isn't. I'm going to share mine with you.” she said and handed it to him. Albel took it and looked at it like it was a rare and dangerous disease waiting to happen.



-“You expect me to share this with you?” he mocked and Nel rolled her eyes.



-“Well if you're going to be so touchy about it then just cut the meat in half so you'll have your own piece.



-“Good idea Zelpher. I see you're not a complete idiot, as I had thought.” Albel sneered and drew his katana. Nel frowned at his insult and watched him cut the meat straight down the middle and hand her back the piece with the stick.



-“Thanks.” Nel muttered and bit down on the wad. Surprisingly, it didn't taste too bad. Albel paused for a moment before eating some of his own.



They both finished off the last of their dinners and sat in silence. It was awkward, sitting so close to each other, alone, in a cave. Nel thought maybe it would be easier if she struck up a conversation with her ex-enemy.



She turned her head and looked at him, opened her mouth to talk, and every thing went pitch black.



-“Whoa!” she exclaimed when Albel disappeared into darkness as the fire burned out. Nel's reflexes took action before her brain could process what had happened and she reached out, grabbing hold of Albel's hand. His hand didn't react as her small fingers wrapped themselves around his.



Albel, who's eyes quickly adjusted to the dark so he could see again, looked over at Nel and saw the shocked look on her face.



-“What's wrong Zelpher, afraid of the dark?” he taunted. Nel looked up at him and swiftly let go of his hand, not being able to see the disappointment that flashed over his face, gone as fast as it had come.



-“No, it just caught me off guard, that's all.” she protested. Albel smirked.



-“Whatever you say.” He picked up his burnt stick that the meat used to be on (he had thrown it away) and poked the dead fire a few times. “So much for a heat supply.” he muttered.



-“What if I light it again?” Nel offered, even though she was in no condition to be using her runology.



-“It wouldn't last. All the wood's burned down to nothing.” Albel muttered and put his stick down and leaned back against the cave wall. Nel followed suit and leaned back as well.



It was going to be a long night...

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