What May Be to Come...

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We were in the midst of some real trouble now…

We had made it through the dungeon quite well, and even though the climbs up the mountain were treacherous at times, we still had plenty of endurance to face the dungeon boss, an elder dragon.

The beast towered over us from the summit it sat on and made his presence known with such a violent roar, all of us stumbled to our knees. And the dragon wasted no time and swooped down onto the party.

One by one, our party members fell. We barely had a chance to prepare; the dragon took full advantage of our carelessness, ensuring the fallen prey stayed motionless on the ground. Eventually, only three of us remained: Cathy, Maya, and me.

Cathy attempted powerful spell after powerful spell, mixing it up amongst fire, ice, wind, and lightning. Yet, none of her spells had even the slightest effect, all seemingly reflected off the dragon. Maya's curse must have significantly enhanced the dragon's capabilities even worse than I'd ever imagined.

Maya herself didn't make much substantial progress, either. Some of her attacks connected and were in sync with Cathy's spells on occasion. However, the dragon still maneuvered quite expertly through the air even after taking many direct hits.

Even my archer skills were no match against this flying creature. All I could do was act as a distraction to allow Cathy and Maya more chances for a more coordinated onslaught.

But all our efforts were starting to prove futile, especially as we already lost four party members before the battle was truly underway.

The three of us started to wear down. Cathy cast her spells more slowly, and the dragon didn't waste even a moment to take advantage of the opportunity. It flapped its wings aggressively in Cathy's direction, sending her flying in the air.

The next moment, I barely contained my horror as the dragon grabbed Cathy with one of its claws and slammed her straight into the ground with immense force.

Maya screamed with such abandon and went on a frenzy in her next assault on the beast. The dragon started to hover and fly around the arena, Maya chasing in pursuit.

I instantly dashed to Cathy's side and tried to cradle her. I immediately knew she was going to die; the tears from my eyes and the agony in my heart couldn't be contained any longer.

"Cathy… CATHY! PLEASE! Don't die on me! Please don't die!"

"H-H-Haruuuu…" Cathy was barely able to move her lips, but she tried anyway. "T-t-t-thank you… f-f-for saving me… a-a-and giving me… a-a-a-another chance at life…"

"Don't talk like it's all over for you!" I caressed Cathy's cheek as I continued to hold her in my arms. "We'll get you out of here for sure! I promise you!!!"

"I-i-it's alright, Haruuuu… I-I-I-I'm so happy… I-I-I-I got to be with you… a-a-and with so many friends now… M-M-M-Maya sure is lucky… B-b-b-but I have to say this anyway… H-H-H-Haru, I lov…"

But the next words didn't come out, and Cathy fell limp in my arms.

"Cathy… Cathy! NOOOO!! CATHYYYY!!!"

I pulled Cathy into my chest, but I knew the act accomplished nothing. Cathy was gone, and with no priest remotely around and the dragon still in near-perfect form, there was no way we could escape and resurrect her.

Everything around me became a blur, and I continued to cry while holding onto Cathy. Suddenly, a loud shriek brought me back to the situation at hand. After I placed Cathy on the ground and looked toward Maya…

Maya stood, barely holding herself up onto her sword. She looked in my direction and smiled at me, the same smile she always gave to express her true feelings. Her lips began to move, and even though I was unable to hear her, I could tell she was trying to say, "Haru, I'll always lo…"

Before Maya finished speaking, the dragon was in the midst of swiping its front left paw deep into her. She was unable to defend herself, and when the impact hit…

Maya and her sword were sent flying into the air, headed in my direction. The sword landed first but kept bouncing back further behind me.

Maya hit the ground and bounced twice before sliding to a stop near me. I saw the slashes deep in her body, knowing she suffered fatally from the blows.

I was unable to speak, but I immediately rushed to Maya's side. I tried to examine for a pulse, but no matter where I looked, Maya showed no signs of life.

Maya never got the chance to finish her final words, but I knew exactly what they were. I had felt the same way about her, but never took the best opportunities to express how I felt about her. The exact way she felt about me…

I felt so happy to finally form a party with Maya. And now all those hopes and dreams also vanished, the vision of Maya's elegant, innocent smile fading away…

Whatever the dragon did next, it no longer mattered to me. The swordswoman who opened my eyes to the real wonders of the world… who showed me the value of fighting as a party… who showed me what it truly meant to be alive… who showed me the true meaning of being there for others over oneself… was now gone, and nothing could ever replace her.

As I raised my head to the sky before sensing the final blow from the dragon, only one word came out of my mouth. "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

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"… Haru! … Haru!"

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"… Hey, Haru! … Please wake up!"

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"Haruuu!"

When I finally awoke, Cathy was gazing straight into my eyes. She had my head on her lap and caressed my hair and cheek, trying to comfort me as I regained my senses.

It was clear Cathy had been crying for a long time, but her grief turned to joy when she lifted me up into her arms for a warm embrace.

"Oh, Haru! Thank goodness you're alright! You were crying out as if you were in so much pain, I didn't know what to do! For a moment there, I thought I'd lost you!"

"Cathy… Ughhh…" I groaned before continuing. "I'm alright. Really, I am! That definitely stung hard, but I'm lucky I don't feel much pain right now. But what about you? Are you okay?"

"Yes! Yes! You don't have to worry about me! You're the one who took that hit after all and saved me again, so thank you! I'm still the one who'll forever be in your debt!"

"I'm just glad you're not hurt, Cathy." After holding the embrace for a moment longer, we pushed back from one another, and I noticed Cathy clearly blushing.

I didn't want to know if Cathy thought I was embarrassed, too, so I quickly looked away and noticed the wyvern a fair distance away from us. There was a massive spike impaling the creature through its neck. There was no way the wyvern would ever get up from that mortal blow.

I turned to Cathy, amazement in my eyes, and asked, "Did you do that?"

"Umm… y-y-yeah…" Cathy looked very nervous and reserved as she continued, "I just got lucky. I cast a lightning spell, and maybe because of all the fear I was under, the effect of the spell was greatly amplified... I aimed it towards the ceiling, and one of those large spikes broke… And lucky for me, the spike dropped right onto the wyvern's neck."

"Wowww… I'm really proud of you. You not only saved my life, but you defeated the wyvern too." I smiled at Cathy, and she did likewise back at me.

After we got up to our feet, I approached Sho to wake him up. Fortunately, he regained consciousness after a few minutes and was in no threat of dying. Sho wasn't able to walk on his own, though, so I cradled his shoulder to help him walk.

Strangely to me, Sho didn't speak a word as we walked our way out of the dungeon. It seemed we all needed some time to gather our thoughts about what had happened, and the quiet proved fruitful to gauge the gravity of the situation we just endured.

After we walked back into the sunshine on the other side of the dungeon entrance, Sho promptly sealed off The Flying Haven and was his vocal self once again.

"I don't really know what happened, but wow! That was so thrilling! You two lovebirds sure made this trip so much fun! Makes me not care so much that I need someone to help me back!" Sho continued to laugh and praise us for the excitement of the hallowing experience we just went through.

Sho kept talking, and I felt grateful for that, as it prevented me from speaking to Cathy on the way back. Many emotions swirled up inside of me, and I was worried I would blurt out something I didn't indeed intend to say yet.

Cathy seemed to be on the same wavelength, too, as she kept turning away whenever I tried to steal a glance at her.

After a longer walk than usual, we managed to return to the guide shop. Mia grinned and greeted us from the counter. "Ah, welcome back! Looks like you all make it back in one… Wait a minute, you look like you've been through the wringer! Get to the back, and we'll have Chio patch you up in no time at all!"

As I pulled Sho alongside me to the back of the shop, Cathy following right behind, Mia shouted, "And Sho! I know this was all your fault, so you better start taking this more seriously! How else is Chio going to keep loving a hopeless fool like you?"

Mia's snickering reached us in the back. I sensed Sho's irritation when he became a little heavier before we eventually approached Chio's desk.

Chio treated Cathy first, which didn't require much effort, as Cathy was mostly unscathed and just fatigued. Chio then cast Restoration on me, alleviating the stinging pain that had been periodically bothering me above my shoulders.

Chio finally approached Sho, who was sitting down at her desk and cast a more potent healing spell on him.

Cathy and I remained where we were, but Chio turned to us and said, "It's alright, you don't have to stay and wait for Sho. This lame excuse of a growing boy will be just fine. I don't really know what to do with him sometimes, but he's my lunkhead, so let me handle everything else from here."

"Who you calling a growing boy, huh?! For your information, I showed how much of a man I actually was today in that dungeon! Is that right?!" Sho turned to me and pleaded for my approval.

Funny how he was bothered by "growing boy" but accepted himself to be a "lunkhead"…

I thought it was best to walk away at that time, so I signaled for Cathy to follow me to the front of the shop.

Mia beamed at us once she saw we were healed. "Don't mind those two back there. Once Chio patches him up, Sho will be his normal self again!"

"Well, that's a relief then!" I felt glad Sho was going to be okay, and nothing worse would happen. "If there's anything else we can do to help, let us know."

"No, no, it's fine. You helped drag the poor sap back, and that's all we could ask for. So, thank you very much!"

Mia then gave Cathy and me our dungeon certificates, signaling our successful completion of The Flying Haven. We generously offered our thanks to all of the guides and left the shop.

It was still very bright outside, most likely just past noontime. Cathy walked some distance away from the shop and looked into the horizon when she turned to me and spoke in a soft voice.

"H-h-hey, Haru… we still have a lot of time left today, so umm… I was wondering if umm… I could take you to a couple of places in town I heard would be great for… umm… a special occasion…"

My heart started to beat faster, but I didn't know what I was truly feeling. Yet, I felt utterly compelled to go along with Cathy. "Sure. I'm fine with going wherever you want to, then."

"Oh, great!" Cathy chirped, but immediately restrained herself. "I-I-I mean… you saved my life twice now, so I just wanted to express my umm… gratitude for all you've done for me."

"I'm looking forward to the rest of our day then!" As I smiled in response to her request, I saw the tender smile she returned to me.

As the sun continued to shine brightly over us, Cathy led me back into the heart of town, great anticipation gripping me for what was yet to come.