***
“Ria?”
“Hm?”
“Ria, wake up.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Hm?”
“Why won’t you wake up?”
“Because.”
A sudden splash of water caused Adaria to shriek as her eyes sprang open. The sunlight blinded her eyes, and she had to blink several times before she could stare at Nero, who was standing above her with a comical expression in his eyes.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she spat, wiping the freezing water away from her face. Where he’d gotten water from, she couldn’t tell. But she knew she would kill him for doing that.
“I went into town,” he said. “You were sleeping so peacefully that I didn’t want to disturb you.”
The last remnants of sleep now gone from her eyes, Adaria stood up and looked all around her. It was when her eyes took in the greenery and the trees all around that she f
