A nightmare

A loud and panicked scream woke me out of my dreams and I rushed toward the hut adjacent to mine.

If I had time to think rationally then I would have understood that anything that could get such a reaction out of Netra would have been something that I would not be able to deal with.

But I was not thinking rationally at the moment.

The only thing that went through my mind when I heard her scream was a large amount of worry for her well being.

I broke the door and burst inside before activating my night vision to check upon any intruders and enemies.

I found none.

What I found was a sweat covered Netra moving erratically in her bed, tearing apart the mattress and bed sheet with her elongated nails while her eyes remained closed.

And the only thing that went through my mind was how weak and venerable she looked.

And then she screamed in sorrow once again and broke me out of my stupor.

I quickly rushed up to her and captured her hand by the wrist to avoid being skewered by them by accident.

I didn't knew her exact stats but I was sure that if even an unconscious swipe from her claws could be deadly for her so I had to stop her hands before doing anything else.

Holding her hands in place took a tremendous amount of effort but after a while she stopped moving but I could still see her suffering in her nightmare and I wondered what she was seeing in her nightmare that made her scream like this.

'What kind of past did she had to get such nightmares.'

"Netra." I said softly but go reaction from her as she continued to suffer in her sleep.

"Netra." I said a bit more lightly and her eyes finally opened up and zeroed in on me and my heart skipped a beat at the intense pain and sadness in her eyes.

Then she let out a short whimper and I realized that her claws had returned back to her fingers and I let go of her hands and was quickly enveloped in a fierce hug in return.

She sobbed in my shoulders and I had to stop myself from flinching at the pain from her tight grip.

"It's alright. Shhh. Everything is fine." I whispered in her ear and gently patted her back and felt her grip tighten even more around my waist.

I grimaced at that but didn't stop assuring her that everything is fine.

In the end, she stopped sobbing and looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I… shouldn't have…" she started but I knew where that line of thought would take her so I stopped her by putting my finger on her life.

"It's alright." I said in a gentle voice as I silently took a breathe when she stopped her crushing hug.

"There's nothing wrong with crying." I said and when she didn't said anything else, I continued. "We all have our moment of weaknesses. You do not need to be embarrassed about yours."

"You helped me in my moment of weakness. Now let me help you in yours." I said and she gave a sad smile before she nodded her head.

"Good. Do you want to talk about your nightmare?" I asked and she looked contemplative for a short moment before she shook her head sadly and I didn't push her further on the subject.

"Very well. If you ever want to talk about something I'm here for you. Okay."

She nodded her head demurely and I smiled at her.

"Very well then. You should get some rest if there's nothing else. Just because we Fiends can go on for days without sleep doesn't mean that it's healthy for us."

She nodded and I tucked her under the blanket like a small girl.

Wait! This was something I never thought about before, but how old was she anyway.

I know it's disrespectful to ask a lady about her age but I would guess that she was one or two years younger than me.

At the same time, she was definitely a 2nd or even a 3rd timer. Which means she's that much older than me.

Be that as it may, it doesn't change the fact that when she faced her first apocalypse, she was just a young teenager who had to go through this nightmare all alone.

After all, not many people are blessed with an awesome and loving strong elder brother.

I can only imagine how a teenage girl must have survived under those circumstances.

A low cry brought my attention back to the said girl and I realized that I had subconsciously tightened my grip around her arms and my claws had dug into her skin by a bit.

I promptly removed my arms and retracted my claws in horror before looked at her looked at her injuries and sighed in relief when I realized that it was not very deep.

She giggled at my actions and when I looked at her in bewilderment she started giggling even harder before it turned into a full blown laughter.

I loved her laughter.

At the same time, I wondered if any mutant beast outside might hear her laughing and come to search for the source but negated the thought because if they did not hear her screaming in her dreams then they would not hear her laughing.

It seemed the noise from the river and the location of the village that was surrounded by trees creates a good enough sound barrier.

"Sorry about that." I said with an embarrassing smile to which she just shook her head with a smile and said that it's okay.

We just smiled at each other for a moment before I realized that if I kept smiling at her then I might become awkward and I definitely did not wanted our conversations to become awkward.

So I did something that I often did with my little sister after our parents died.

"Let me tell you a story. It'll help you fall asleep easily." I said and she gave me a smile which I took as an affirmation.

She fell asleep halfway through the story and as I removed my hand from her hands, I realized that I might be falling for this girl.

'I don't think that's a bad thing. What do you think Lily?'

No reply came and after sighing at the silent treatment, I kissed Netra on her forehead before I went back to sleep in my own bed.

Sleep did not came easily to me after that.