an illusion of mind

Arron was in a dark place, completely surrounded by darkness, "where am I..."

it felt like eternity being in that darkness he couldn't move around as there was no ground to stand on and he felt like he was suffocating yet he was still alive.

he hated it, he didn't like it at all.

for a long time he remained like that it felt like torture, but then a light crack appeared in the darkness light peaked into the darkness showing an image and from it he saw... a woman?

he was confused, all he saw was a woman, she was beautiful, she had young skin and she was asleep, she had medium length auburn orange slightly curvy hair, she was wearing a suit with a bowtie, a top hat lay next to her head while she slept, she was on a ton of red leaves, she was surrounded by crimson blood red tree leaves.

he stared at her sleeping figure for a few more minutes before she opened her eyes and he saw amber coloured eyes that glimmered and shimmered even in the darkness.

just when her eyes opened and he caught a glimpse of them, he gasped awake his body was drenched in sweat, he was literally soaked, he touched his forehead wiping off some sweat from it and he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"woah! are you okay?!" he heard Amanda's voice comforting him while he oriented his thoughts.

"I... I had a dream...." he spoke stuttering.

"a dream? was it a nightmare...?" Amanda asked looking at him in concern.

"I-I..." he paused and his eyes widened, "I don't remember..." he tried his hardest but he couldn't remember it, he felt like he should remember but it was just out of his ability to do so.

"oh... well if you forgot about it it's probably not important." she said shrugging.

"wait... the drake!" he yelled looking around the room, he was in an infirmary, in a soft bed with Amanda sitting next to him, he tried to get up but couldn't.

"Hey! calm down... the drake is dead..." she said pushing him back down to bed.

"it's dead? who killed it?" Arron asked looking around the infirmary relaxing a little.

she looked at him as if he was an idiot, "you don't remember? you did." she said pointing at him.

"I did?!" he asked sitting up in surprise.

"yeah, well at least Adam and Regina said so, they said I was already out when it happened... haha." Amanda chuckled slightly.

he looked back at her and saw that she was in a patient gown, he remembered how the drake smacked her away into the wall knocking her out and he pursed his lips, "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything about it back then..." he said looking down when he felt a hand on his shoulder again.

"Arron... don't blame yourself for anything, the fault lies in all of us for even wandering into that dangerous area chasing Regina..." Amanda looked to the side shamefully, "it was all our faults not just you, it was Regina's fault for stealing from us, it was our fault for chasing after her, and it was my fault that I got careless and was thrown into the wall, it's not yours." she said tightening her grip on his shoulder trying to comfort him.

he looked back down and sighed, "I guess you're right..." he said.

and the door to the infirmary creaked open when Adam walked in using a cane to aid him in walking and right behind him was Regina who looked... fine?

for some reason Regina looked fine, she had a few scars here and there but over all she was fine, well she didn't get too hurt in the fight from as much as I remembered...

Arron didn't remember the fight beyond when he reached out for the white pure energy in his heart, so he didn't see when Regina got flung to the wall and fractured her left leg and shattered her right arm.

"hey there." Adam raised a hand greeting him while Regina peaked over his shoulder her chin resting on his shoulder to look at Arron.

"hey, it's our little hero!" she said chuckling to herself.

"ignore her." Adam said pushing her face back.

"Hey! don't ignore me!" she yelled and she kicked Adam's leg which was in a cast, he yelped and fell to to the floor groaning, Regina just pouted and crossed her arms looking away from him.

"hahaha!" at this Arron couldn't hold his laughter back and burst out laughing.

they both stopped and looked back at him, and Regina started laughing along with him, Amanda chuckled to herself slightly, while Adam just grumbled struggling to get up.

he finally got up with the cane's help once Regina and Arron finished laughing at him.

"haah~ so, anyways what are you guys here for?" Arron asked wiping a tear of join from his eye.

"we want to talk to you about what happened in the cavern when we fought the drake..." Adam said eying him cautiously.

"what? what happened in the cavern that needs to be discussed?" Arron asked curiously tilting his head.

"you killed the drake, stop acting are you hiding your true strength?" Adam limped forward using the cane and pointed it at Arron accusatorily.

Regina just watched from the side a amused by the situation.

"what?" Arron frowned he was genuinely confused by what Adam said.

when Amanda stood up and came in front of Arron spreading her arms apart in a protective position, "stop accusing him! so what if he was hiding his strength! if he didn't use it we would have all died!" she said glaring at Adam.

"false, you would have all died, I was fully capable of escaping." Regina quipped in from the side.

Amanda just glared at her silently, "yeah, ignore her, anyways, I'm not accusing anyone here, I just think Arron should have used that power of his sooner rather than later when everyone was down." Adam said shrugging lowering his cane, Regina pouted and huffed turning away crossing her arms.

"umm... guys?" Arron just said a little hesitant.

everyone looked at him expectantly, "I'm not hiding my power though..." Arron said shrugging.

"you're still acting?" Adam narrowed his eyes on him.

"maybe he's not acting, maybe he doesn't actually remember." Regina said from the side.

"how would he not remember?" Adam asked turning to her.

"did you forget why he's here? he's mana deprived, he used up all of his mana to kill the drake, he needs another week to get back to shape." she said pointing at him.

"and besides you might not have noticed but I did, his eyes were unfocused, it was like he wasn't acting consciously." Regina said simply.

Adam frowned and looked back at Arron, who just smiled awkwardly, Adam looked back down to the ground before he sighed, "well, who cares~ all is well that ends well." Adam said shrugging.

"also where is Suzi?" Adam said looking around.

"I'm right here." a familiar voice said from behind them and they turned back to see Suzi standing there, she was already fine, she was the only one not dressed in a patient gown.

"oh, he's awake?" Suzi said peaking over Adam's shoulder to look at Arron.

Suzi had been the one to fall down first, she was hit by a small splash of drake poison and she fell to the ground immediately, she didn't suffer any more injuries and she was an example to not touch any puddles of poison, she didn't suffer any dangerous injuries and the dose of poison she got wasn't enough to kill, so in other words....

"she got it easy." Regina said huffing and crossing her arms.

"how was it easy?! I had to survive a drake's poison! did you hear me right?! a drake!!!" she yelled at Regina annoyedly.

"so what? I had to survive many broken ribs, a shattered arm, a fractured leg, a concussion, blood loss and finally a spinal injury." Regina listed off the list of injuries she got.

Suzi looked her up and down but found nothing, "I don't believe you." she said blankly staring at her, she looked completely fine, there was nothing wrong with her body she walked normally and didn't seem to be in pain.

"I can vouch for her, I saw how the drake hit her, it was pretty bad..." Adam raised a hand up.

"that's simply impossible, how could she be the most hurt between us in the fight, yet her body doesn't have any injuries." Suzi said simply crossing her arms.

"that doesn't matter right now, anyways Arron, you've been out for a week after the incident, you missed a lot of classes, Amanda's been visiting you everyday she'll give you her notes." Adam said looking back at Arron.

"she's been visiting me?" Arron asked and slowly turned towards Amanda who was looking down hiding her face, her face was red as a tomato.

"... what's going on here?" Adam asked looking between the two.

Regina clung to Adam's back and rested her chin on his shoulder peaking over at them, "I don't know, but Arron needs to go, the teacher said to direct him to his office after he wakes up."

"wait... don't tell me you told him that I killed the drake?" Arron asked his eyes widening.

"no, I made sure of it." Amanda said turning to him with determined eyes.

"she kind of forced us to not speak about it." Suzi scratched the back of her head.

"haaa~ thanks Amanda you're a life saver." Arron thanked her and let out a long sigh of relief.

Amanda blushed slightly but her face softened and she looked down hiding her face, "n-no problem..."

Regina watched this with a strange expression, Amanda noticed it and called her out "w-what? you have something to say?" she spoke straightening up and turning serious, her tone was drastically changed when speaking to Regina.

"yeah, he still has to go to the teacher, since he was the one that lasted the longest against that drake."

"no, he does-" Amanda tried to retort.

"I'll go..." Arron put a hand on her shoulder stopping her from speaking.

"all I have to do is answer a couple of questions and that's it right?" Arron spoke looking at Regina.

"pretty much yeah." Regina answered simply a hand on her hip, "you don't really have to go though, you need more rest to recover your mana, then you can go afterwards, Amanda can just bring the missed out lessons to you."

"good, haha! because I can't move right now." he said smiling sheepishly as he lay back down in bed.

"he needs rest, go get out!" Amanda said turning to them urging them out pushing them out.

after she pushed them out she slammed the door shut behind her and looked at them, "nobody should bother him for at least the next few hours!" she spoke sternly.

"alright~ geez nobody's gonna bother your little boyfriend~" Regina said poking her side teasingly, Amanda responded by unsheathing her sword and swinging at her, Regina dodged and jumped back stunned by the swing, "hey! even if you're a princess using your rapier outside of the designated combat zones is forbidden!" she yelled but the princess was relentless she chased Regina around swinging wildly her face red from embarrassment.

Adam and Suzi watched from the side, "should we stop them?" Adam asked turning to her.

"nah~ let her suffer a little more~" Suzi said snickering to herself.

they later said the princess never stopped until it was night...