Terra's Special Place part 8

Zeru stretched out and placed his hands behind his head, closing his eyes. Sam hugged her knees to herself and shivered. Zeru opened an eye and gave her a confused look, "Are you ok?"

Sam feigned a smile, "Yeah, I'm just cold."

"I guess it's colder here than it is in the human world, huh?" Zeru asked. Sam nodded and shivered. Zeru sighed, "I guess it can't be helped," he took off his sweatshirt and threw it at Sam, "You should know better than to come here wearing just shorts and a t-shirt."

"I didn't really think about the possibility of it being colder here than my world," Sam replied, graciously putting the sweatshirt on, "All I was thinking about at that time was how I wanted to help Rachel."

Zeru rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his fist, "What exactly happened to her that Terra thinks she ended up here by mistake, anyway?"

Sam shrugged, "I'm not even sure what happened myself. Mark, Rachel, and I were just hanging out in my room. I turned away for a split second and when I looked back, she was just gone. Almost like she never was there. Terra showed up a few seconds later and pulled a hole out of her pocket like in a cartoon. She said that she knew how to get my friend back. I just followed. I'm not even sure why I was willing to trust this complete stranger other than that she just seemed like she really knew how to help."

Zeru said thoughtfully, "Terra has a way of sweeping people up into whatever she's doing. She usually knows what she's doing. She knows all of the rules and everything possible here. That's why she makes such a great Guardian. The problem comes when she breaks rules by doing things like bringing living beings here."

"Mark and I aren't supposed to be here?" Sam asked with surprise.

Zeru shook his head, "It's too dangerous for living beings here. I'm not even sure what she was thinking by bringing you guys here."

Sam looked down, "I see..." she shivered again.

Zeru gave her a puzzled look, "You're still cold?"

Sam laughed with embarrassment, "I guess I have none of my own body heat, it's always like this back home, too," her face turned slightly pink, "It always seems like I can't get myself warm enough unless I have something else to heat my body with. As soon as your body heat faded from your sweatshirt, I was cold again. It's nothing. I'm mostly used to this by now, so don't worry about it. Thanks for trying."

Zeru sat up slowly to make sure his head didn't hit the ceiling. He carefully moved over beside Sam, "Sorry, but I was raised to never let a lady be cold." Zeru put an arm around Sam and pulled her close.

Sam's face turned pink. It was slightly embarrassing to be held by a guy, but he was warm. She leaned against him, "I don't mind. It's better to not be cold."

Zeru smiled warmly, "That's good to hear."

Sam put her arms around him and quickly pulled away with red cheeks, "Sorry, that was probably awkward."

Zeru shook his head, "Nah, I don't mind. My little sister holds me like that to be warm, too," he chuckled, "You don't have to be so close if you're uncomfortable, but I'll hold you if you really want to be warm."

Sam looked down at the floor, "It just doesn't seem appropriate to hold you like that. Especially when we're alone..."

Zeru smiled warmly and pulled her against him, "It's not awkward unless you make it that way. The way I see it, I'm just doing for you what I would do for my sisters or anyone else that needed it. Don't worry about it."

Sam leaned against him, drifting to sleep, "Ok..."

Zeru smiled and leaned against the rock wall.

***

Terra watched the flames of the small fire as she stroked the hair of the girl resting her head on her lap. Aria glared at Terra with disapproval. Mark sat uncomfortably. The atmosphere around him was too conflicting and dark. "Why..." Aria growled, "Why does she like you so much more than me?"

Terra looked at Aria cooly, "I'm nice."

Aria narrowed her eyes, "So you're saying I'm-"

"The opposite of nice!" Terra finished with a grin, "Yes. You are mean. Very very mean. Next to evil, but not quite. You mean the best, but you're all screwed up in your head, so what comes out in you through your actions is that you're mean."

Aria glared at her, "If you're trying to make me feel guilty about joining forces with Seiren-"

Terra waved her words away, "I wasn't meaning specifically that. I know everything you did that day was to protect your brother. I just feel that it was the wrong thing to leave the other guy behind."

Aria rolled her eyes, "I told him that I had to leave. I wanted him to come, he just refused."

"You betrayed all of those people," Terra remarked calmly, "All because-"

"I was protecting my brother," Aria finished coldly.

Terra sighed, "That's just your excuse."

"Here we go again," Aria rolled her eyes with annoyance.

"You were just afraid," Terra said sympathetically, "I understand that. You just went too far."

"You've never lost someone important to you," Aria stated coldly, "You've never even had a family. You wouldn't know."

Terra sighed again, "Aria. I'm not blaming you, or accusing you. You were afraid of what happened to your parents happening to anyone else you loved."

"Shut up."

"So you cut yourself away from everyone and either betrayed them or simply left them behind."

"I told you to shut up."

"You didn't want to be alone, so you chose one person to protect."

"Shut up!"

"Now, your personality has become too cold to show love or compassion to anyone else."

Aria stood up, "Quit messing with me! You know it's not true!"

Terra looked down at the girl in her lap and continued stroking her hair, "You're reacting violently because, deep down, you know it's true."

"You don't know as much as you think you know!" Aria shouted.

Terra looked up at her and stated coldly, "I should say the same to you. You spent so many years being coddled by your parents in your perfect world that you never awoke to the reality that is the real world. When you suddenly had the world thrust upon you, you didn't know what to do. You were lost and couldn't take it. You reacted rashly and-"

"I've had enough of this!" Aria transformed into a wolf and jumped at Terra.

Terra pulled out her sword calmly and held Aria back with it, "Lower your voice. You'll wake Sophie up."

Aria growled and walked away unhappily, "You've got to be the most haughty being I've ever met."

Terra nodded and looked down at Sophie, "I know."

Mark sat uncomfortably looking from one of them to the other. The atmosphere wasn't getting any better.