Embarrassment with a capital E...
When Li awoke, it was dark. She was covered with a tannish/ivory
blanket and there was a fire nearby. She could feel the warmth, even though the
haziness in her eyes prevented her from seeing anything. When she finally
regained her vision she felt something she hadn't noticed before. HER SHIRT WAS
GONE!!! She sat up quickly and clutched the blanket around her chest. At least
her bra was still there, giving a little privacy. She frantically felt around
her neck, then gave a sigh of relief. Her pendant was present as well. A voice
from a little ways away startled her.
"Finally awake?"
Li turned quickly and found Lina sitting on a rock nearby. The others
were all there too. Still clutching the cape to her chest, she turned to face
her. "Uh...not really." she clutched the blanket more. "Where's my shirt?" she
answered meekly. Lina lifted up a ripped piece of cloth and Li just guessed it
was part of her shirt. She sighed slightly and laid back down, pulling the
blanket up to her chin. She then noticed something. The blanket had two
strings.
Upon futher examination, Li realized that this wasn't a blanket at all!
It was a cape! It was ivory colored and the only cape she remembered being that
color, was Zelgadis's. She looked in his direction and noticed that he wasn't
wearing his, so it confirmed her suspiscions. "Um, Lina?"
"Yeah?" Lina looked up from the fish she was packing away in her mouth
for only a moment.
"Do...do you have a shirt or something I can borrow?"
"No..."
Li stood up quickly. "You mean, I have to walk around without a
shirt!?!?!" she clutched the cape around her tighter. "You've got to be kidding
me!"
Zel cleared his throat. "You borrow that for now." he motioned to the
cape. And she just clutched it some more.
"Well, I ain't giving it back until I get a shirt!" she tried to sound
serious, but in truth she ended up sounding as frightened as she felt. Then,
Amelia spoke up.
"I think I have an extra one." she was searching through a pack next to
her. After a moment, she pulled out a rather small, grey shirt. "It might not
fit very well though."
"That will do...thank you." Li replied, taking the shirt and walking
behind some large trees. A minute or so later, after some somewhat loud cursing
from that direction. Li walked out with the shirt on. And Amelia was telling
the truth. It was small for her. The sleeves, which would normally come down a
little ways above Amelia's arms, were tight and way near her shoulders. The hem
on the bottom came up to just above her navel; and the slit in the front, that
is normally tied shut, hung halfway open, loosely tied. As she walked out she
tried in vain to tie them shut, to no avail. She tossed the cape back to
Zelgadis, who was turned away a little ways and Li could see he was blushing
slightly. She merely tugged on the hem to make it cover her a little better and
sat next to her backpack, frowning slightly.
This is so embarrassing. she thought heatedly. Looking around,
she found the others making themselves comfortable for the night. Having rested
most of the afternoon, Li wasn't the least bit tired. Digging through her
backpack, she pulled out her Discman and put in her Escaflowne soundtrack CD.
Putting on the earphones, she closed her eyes and was soon humming along to the
lyrics. When she opened her eyes Lina was sitting crosslegged in front of her.
Li started slightly. "Wha...what are you doing?" she yelped.
"Just watching," she replied, "What's that?" Li followed Lina's pointed
finger to the portable CD player laying on her lap.
"That? That's just my Discman." Li resonded, pressing stop and taking
off the earphones.
Lina just cocked her head to the side. "What's a Disk-man?" Li just
sighed.
Pressing the button to open it, she pulled out the CD and held it in
front of Lina. Lina just stared wide-eyed at it. "What's it for?"
Li put the CD back into the Discman and shut the compartment. Putting
the headset on Lina, she pressed play. Lina jumped slightly as the music
started to play. She then smiled as she got used to the sound coming to her
ears. "This is great...." she muttered in awe.
"Not really." Li sighed, leaning back against a tree. "It's just my
Escaflowne CD." Lina couldn't hear her because she was too enraptured with her
CD to notice anything. Soon enough, Lina's fascination had attracted the
attention of the others. Each were given a turn to listen while Li just stared
at the stars. Her attention was brought back to them though when she heard
Amelia complain about the music turning off.
Li took the player back and checked the display. The battery button
flashed for a moment and then everything went blank. She sighed and opened the
front part of her backpack. Rummaging through, she pulled out her extra twenty-
four pack of batteries. "Glad I keep some with me..." she muttered to herself.
She then opened the battery compartment, plucked out the old batteries, flung
them into her pack, ripped open the new batteries, and placed some inside. As
she did this she couldn't help but notice that everyone was staring with
genuine interest.
**Note: From here on out....more of the story will be from Li's point of view.
Every now and then there might be other character's views....but mostly when
the group is in separate places. This is so you can know what's going on
everywhere (almost everywhere at least) without me having to backtrack all the
time...**
Glancing at her Discman, Li sighed and placed it in her backpack. This
got a few voiced complaints. "Chill...I don't want to waste the batteries I
have...You might be able to listen more tomorrow or something." This seemed to
satisfy them and they all returned to their respectful places.
Laying down on some soft grasses, Li placed her arms behind her head
and stared at the stars. Soon enough, the others were asleep and she could feel
herself dosing off. There was a strange peacefullness and she couldn't help but
feel safe.
Then, from deep down in her gut, she felt a sense of immediate dread.
She was about to sit up when a pair of strange hands grabbed her from behind.
She tried to scream but she was being stifled to tightly to get any sound out.
While the other's slept peacefully, she was dragged into the darkness.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
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