The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 46: The Calm Before the Storm

There was a pillow under my head and my blanket had been pulled up to my chin. I snuggled deeper, relinquishing my hold on reality. My eyelids drooped, watching lazily as a golden form curled itself at the foot of my bed. I wanted to ask the 'thing' what it was but it was peaceful enough that I decided I didn't need to know. I drifted down into my dreams of banquets and lazy afternoons in the sun with not a care in the—

"Kera!"

My arm gave a violent twitch and I felt my sleepiness falling away. Someone was disturbing my peace and so god help me, I'd send them into their own dreamtime in a second.

"Get up. We don't have time to waste!"

That voice... I groaned. Why couldn't she let me be? But the urgency in her voice had me scratching my head at what I had been doing before my nap.

"Wake up," she growled, a tenor in her voice that had me fighting to the surface of consciousness. I came round, eyes fluttering open, just as she stabbed her finger into my thigh.

I gave a yelp and jolted into the world of the living. "What was that for?" I hissed, shaking off the cobwebs and pulling my clawed finger out of my leg. Hollow bone didn't come stitch it up so I tore off the hem of my uniform and tired it around the wound. "Are you mad?"

'You're the one sleeping on the job.'

I rubbed my bleary eyes. Chiya had sat down in the shade of the building. Flies buzzed around us in the empty street. The occasional boom and blast of spiritual pressure rose on the spring breeze.

"Damn," I muttered, pulling myself to my feet. Paulo had crowed that the others were walking into a trap and now it might be too late for me to reach them before they encountered the captains and lieutenants. "Why didn't you wake me earlier?"

I just prayed that Kenpachi's bloodlust meant Orihime, Chad, Uryu and Ganju didn't have to fight – no offence to them but they probably wouldn't stand a chance in their states. I hoped they'd been broken out of their prison before that or we'd be taking two steps back instead of forwards.

'I tried. You sleep like the dead when you want to.'

"I was tired, okay," I snapped, standing and dusting myself off. I looked left and right then up to the hill before us. If I couldn't single out the spiritual powers of my friends then I'd have to head for Rukia and I had a horrible, sinking feeling of where she was. It was not a place to travel to all by my injured and weak lonesome.

'You're a right ol' hot mess,' she said with a snort.

A tick appeared on my forehead. "I guess it takes me a little longer to adjust to my new powers than I realised. I also came into this thinking I had an all-powerful entity hosting itself in my body but I guess even dragons have limits."

She grumbled but her mouth was shut. Good. I didn't need her side comments this late into the mission that we were woefully unprepared. I did enough licking of my wounds as it was. At least I beat Paulo. If I hadn't... I shuddered, dispelling that thought. Showing my face in the Squad would be out of the question and Ikkaku would laugh about it until we were old and grey.

Thinking about the fight with Paulo gave me an idea. I wasn't too crash hot at it but I could do it if I concentrated enough. That was what my teachers told me anyway.

I bowed my head and clasped my hands together before my face. In the darkness it was a little easier for me to concentrate.

'Please don't tell me you're praying or I will throw up.'

"Quiet," I growled, calming my breath and listening to the throb of my heart in my ears. "I'm trying to get us a direction."

Ever so slowly, the throb of my heart was replaced with the throbs of spiritual pressure in all directions. The stronger the Reiryoku, the deeper the throb and emanation of reiatsu so I focused on only the strongest ones. I clung to the new sensations, waiting for any colours to tell me what I wanted to hear. It took longer than I wanted to wait for the colours to bleed through.