Legend Of Dragoon Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Dragoon II ❯ Liza Unfurls ( Chapter 35 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

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Chapter 35) Derreck Unfurled

The next morning, Liza came too. She didn't immediately sit up, because she felt the average feeling of disorientation after days of unconsciousness. First, she looked around the room she was in, which was funny, because she last remembered being out on the deck of a ship. Her gaze swept the rest of the room until her sight was on Derreck, laying in the bed next to her. Relief fell upon her at the sight, but it was soon replaced by fear. That was what made Liza bolt upright.

The Doctor jumped from the reaction of Liza's awakening. He wasn't expecting her to rouse for at least another day, after the shock of the battle, but after seeing Rashe'm healed the morning after, he wasn't too surprised. He went to her side to ensure to her that everything was fine, that he just needed to do one last checkup before he let her out of bed. As he gave her a last checkup, Liza kept glancing over at Derreck. Once the Doctor took notice of it, he said, "I hear he is your brother, correct?" Liza nodded as she stuck out her tongue and said "Ahh..." The Doctor continued, "He's had a right nasty hit to the head. Don't know what happened, but it looks like whatever you were fighting gave him a pounding." Liza became a little sullen and said, "Uh, yeah... sure." She hadn't know all what happened either, but she knew better than that Doctor.

"We were told to keep your brother under a drug induced coma for awhile. Perhaps his injuries were pretty severe to call for that." the Doctor confided to Liza. As he brought his stethoscope down from her chest, he said, "Well, I'd say you're 100% A-OK." As Liza rose from the bed, she did a half-bow to the Doctor saying, "Thank you, sir." before leaving the room. In the hallway, she saw what looked like two people leaving out the door at the end of the hall. The room next door was still open, Liza remembered that it was Al's and Rashe'm's room. She slowly ducked her head around the corner to see if anyone was still in the room.

~~~~~

Al and Rashe'm had just left for breakfast. Orrin was still getting ready in the room, after another morning of Rashe'm's running drills. Still a tad sore, he replaced his sweaty shirt for a fresh one. The ship's laundering service was quite spectacular, he noted. When Orrin finally got the shirt over his head, his heart almost jumped out of his chest. The first thing he saw was Liza's platinum hair, causing him to flashback to Derrick's malicious, snarled grin. A small gasp came from Liza as Orrin fell back onto the bed. Once the disorientation passed, Orrin sat back up to find Liza fully in the room now. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Orrin, I did not mean to startle you..." she retorted. Orrin rubbed his head "It's fine, Liza... I'm just.... wait. Did you just use a contraction?" Liza found herself as shocked as Orrin, "I... I guess I did..."

"I didn't know you were awake, Liza", Orrin said to change the subject. "Yes, I just woke up... But Derreck's still asleep...", she replied. Orrin was already aware of the situation, but felt it would be rude to point that out. Liza continued, "It seems the crew doesn't really know what happened that night.... but neither do I...." Orrin pat next to himself on the bed to let Liza know she could sit down. "Well, what we found out is that it started out with the Soanites trying to attack the ship. Whether it's a blessing or a curse, Derreck stopped them before turning on us. He got Rashe'm pretty good, but I guess he got too confident, because he didn't notice Rashe'm coming from behind.... You know.... I don't get Rashe'm... it's like that Dragoon Spirit's put a fire inside of him that won't go out. I mean, the next morning he was up AND RUNNING..." When Orrin looked over at Liza, he noticed that she now looked more sullen, and she said, "I'm sorry, Orrin. This is all my fault. It has to be...."

Orrin, trying to comfort her, said "Why do you say that? That can't be true..." Liza was not convinced, "But it is true. I should have seen it while Derreck and I were growing up. In our many years of schooling, I always performed better than him, but I refused to acknowledge it, because of our mental link. I don't know how he did it, but he hid the jealousy from me." She began crying "I wish he had just said something. Maybe none of this would have happened." Orrin carefully put his arm around her back to try to calm her, minding her back injury, "You can't say that, Liza.... what happened happened. There's no changing it, and there's no use in regretting it. The best we can do is move on." Liza stiffened and stopped crying. Slowly, she said "That's what..... Derreck used to tell me...."

Liza paused for a few moments before saying , "You really do act like Derreck used to." Orrin wasn't sure if he would have preferred to be compared to her brother, but Liza coninued "You have his vitality. You have his optimism.... Whoever Derreck is now.... he used to be a completely different person." After a few more moments passed, she said "I'd like to thank you Orrin." He tried to figure out what she was talking about, so he asked, "Why thank me?" Liza replied, "For being you. I feel like I can talk to you. I feel like I can trust you, the way I trusted my brother. I feel like you'll always be there for me."

This caught Orrin a little off guard, and he started to blush. "Sure thing," he managed to get out. "There's something I want you to know, Orrin." continued Liza, "There IS one thing I remember from that night. When I saw Derreck, I was relieved, and I ran for him. I became deaf to all sounds. I can't explain it. But I heard YOU. That's why I turned around..." After a few more moments of silence, Orrin said "Let's go get breakfast... We can surprise Al and Rashe'm." Liza slowly turned to Orrin and smiled, "That sounds great..."