[Atoli01]

This world was definitely big, but it certainly didn't seem that way to me. After all, my whole life was centered around my best friend (and famous author). It had to be, though. Without me, she was just go passing out in the most random of places! A shudder ran down my spine just at the thought of what might happen to her if it weren't for me.

"Gummyyyyyyyy~!" Ah, such an annoying nickname! I don't even know where she came up with it. Either way, it snapped me back into reality. We were in the middle of Craiss, searching for some animal--an Akail, I think it was? I brushed my white hair back into a ponytail before looking over at the girl again. Klooh, the young and sleepy author. Well, the 'sleepy' part was actually due to a medical condition, though she never liked to talk about it. "Yes?"

[Atoli01]

"I really want to find one already!" She was practically--no, she actually was--jumping up and down with excitement. "Well keep searching and maybe we can find one quickly." The shorter amount of time we had to stay in here, the better. I could only pack so much sweets and water into my bag. Maybe a day or two's worth? It still wasn't all that much. Even if I had brought enough for a week, it's not like I wanted to stay down here. It was way too stuffy.

[Atoli01]

Thankfully, Klooh did as I said and scurried around the small room-like are we were in. For some reason, she was even lifting up small rocks and looking underneath them. She really wasn't the brightest, sometimes. "I don't think that something as big as an Akail would be hiding under a tiny pebble," I said to her with a small frown. "You're just wasting your time if you keep searching like that."

[Atoli01]

"Oh, I suppose you're right, Gummy-chan! Although... you never know, right~?" I quite literally face palmed right at that moment. She really was as dense as I thought she was, wasn't she? "Whatever. Let's just keep going. I don't like this place," I replied, wiping the sweat off of my forehead. If we could find an area that went a little more underground, then it should be cooler. "And could you stop calling me Gummy? It's Raine. How did you even get Gummy out of Raine?"

[Atoli01]

At my sudden question, Klooh placed a finger over her lips and tilted her head a bit, obviously lost in her thoughts. "Well, to be honest... I'm not quite sure!" My jaw dropped. "So you just call me Gummy on a whim?" I asked her as I kept walking down the cave's narrowing corridor. "No, I don't think it's for no reason! It was probably..." And just like that, she fainted again. She was such a kid, wasn't she? Even though it was cruel, I found a bit of comedy in her situation.

[Atoli01]

I rushed over to her side--even though I knew that there wasn't much of a hurry really--and pulled a small cookie out of my messenger bag. Without even giving it a second thought, I kneeled down onto the ground and shoved the sweet into her mouth. As always, it would take several minutes to affect her, and several more for her to get her senses back after she woke up. So while I was waiting, I went ahead and sat back against the walls of the cave.

[Atoli01]

It was taking longer than usual, it seemed. I finally gave up simply waiting and crawled over to her side, shuffling through her messenger bag. Once I was able to locate her notebook, I returned to my earlier position against the wall. I'm sure some people would find my apparent lack of concern odd, but this wasn't the first time that she had taken longer than usual to wake up. Usually something like this would happen when she overdue for another fainting spell, which she had been for the past day or two.

[Atoli01]

It was one of my favorite things to do; flipping through her notebook and reading all her short stories was always entertaining. Of course, that's what I did now. I close my eyes and opened the small book to a random page. It was the middle of one of her stories, so I went and flipped back to the beginning of this section to read it. She never liked me reading them until they were released, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, right?

[Atoli01]

"Toma-kun! Toma-kun, wait for me!"

It was a scene that seemed like it would be in one of those chick-flicks. I knew better than that, though. I didn't like Toma, right? I didn't. So there was no reason to be relieved when he had heard me and turned in my direction. He was leaving for another town, and I would probably never get to see him again.

"Yuki! I... I thought that I wouldn't get to say goodbye..."

[Atoli01]

It was intriguing, yes, I had to admit at least that much. Even though it wasn't something that I took a large amount of pride in saying, romance stories weren't all that bad. In fact, I would've kept reading if it weren't for Klooh's stirring. Her consciousness was confirmed when I heard the all familiar crunch of her biting down on the cookie. Before she could really come to, I shut the notebook and shoved it back into her bag; I wouldn't hear the end of it if she knew that I had read any of her stories.

[Atoli01]

"Gummy? Gummy-chaaaaaan...~" It was terribly obvious how out if it that she was. Even though I had seen this side of her more times than I could count, it never failed to amaze me. She seemed ten times more childish than normal. "I'm here," I said with a sigh, taking a seat next to her. "Ugh, where am I?" She sat up, rubbing her head slightly.

[Atoli01]

"We're in Craiss. Remember, you wanted to find an Akail?" I replied. "I'm not quite sure, why, but..." At my words, her face lit up. It was almost like I had cast some kind of magical spell or something. I guess in a way I did, since she looked almost back to normal. "That's right! I just really want another friend to come with us, you know? It can get kind of lonely sometimes~" I chose not to take offense to that.