Lovestruck

"This is not how I wanted to spend my day," complained Leehalt Alcheste, "Going to town to ask about the veins of gems in the mines. What good will this do to help us restore the environment?" The twenty-six year old scientist was fanning himself with a notebook to keep the flies off. He had black hair and brown eyes, and a face that always seemed to scowl no matter what was happening.

"You think you have problems, I'm all out of makeup. And we have too much work to do on this assignment to go shopping now. My lipstick is beginning to wear off, and my eyeshadow and blush are running," Melody Vilente quipped back. At twenty, she was the only female on the Council of Seven. She was also a bit of a drama queen and had more makeup than all the people of Little Rock combined. Melody wore her purple hair mannishly short, so not to get it tangled in the equipment in the lab, and have to ravage her features, and her deep blue eyes shone with a radiant light.

Werner Maxwell, the third member of the Environmental Alteration Team, told them, "We'll get this done much faster if you would stop complaining and complete the assignment. After all, the sooner we are finished the sooner we can all go our separate ways and shop or whatever we want." He wiped the brown hair off of his forehead so he could get rid of the sweat, and closed his blue eyes.

Twenty-five year old Werner saw himself as a bit of a peacemaker. He was usually trying to keep things calm among his contemporaries, although that usually gave him more trouble when they began arguing with him instead. And today was no exception. Leehalt and Melody were perfectly happy with their fight, and didn't appreciate Werner butting in any more than he appreciated their argument.

Leehalt stared down the man he considered his rival. "Maxwell, you just shut up. I can complain if I want to. One of these days I'd like to see Duran go out and do something like this. He's always telling us how easy we've got it without having to worry about whether the machines are working or not. At least he's not spending all his time out in the baking sun, looking for the Leylines' paths."

Suddenly, the three heard a dog's whimper. When they headed to the area where the sound originated from, they saw a collie dog trying to fight off a Cursed Corpse. The animal was dodging the attacks with relative ease, but the monster was trying to back her up towards the edge of the cliff, where she would have no room to dodge, and be easily slaughtered.

"Leave that dog alone!" yelled Werner, "You're not going to live to see the end of day." He then brought up his Duel Pistols, and fired them at the monster. The bullet hit it on the chest, and it began to convulse, and soon died. The dog ran towards Werner and gave him a lick on the face, apparently noticing that the man had just saved her life. She let out howls of joy, and began to dance around.

"That was close," Melody stated. But at the same time, she was trying to apply some concealer to her face, to hide the running blush from the eyes of the people when they got to town. She muttered about being left out in the sun, and how she was such a delicate flower.

Suddenly, they heard a woman call out, "Haley, come here girl." The dog turned her attention to the direction it had come from, and began barking for joy. Then, she ran off towards her owner. Werner and the others followed to make sure she made it there without getting hurt.

The dog ran into the arms of a young woman of about twenty-three. She had long blond hair worn in a ponytail, and green eyes that radiated kindness. Her red dress was worn down to below her knees, and a pair of black dress shoes were on her feet. The woman looked at her dog's rescuers. "Thank you for saving Haley. She's always getting into something. If there's anything I can do for you, just name it. I don't have much money, so I can't pay you, but I can do anything else."

"Don't worry about that," Werner said, "We were happy to help you out, Miss. My name is Werner Maxwell, and these are my friends Leehalt Alcheste and Melody Vilente. And your name is?"

"Ekatrina, Ekatrina Roughnight. It is a pleasure to meet you. I have to go back home, but I would like to see you again to thank you properly," she replied. She turned to head back to town.

Leehalt asked her, "Wait, where do you live? It is dangerous for a young woman to be out here alone with all of the monsters. The three of us are heading to Little Rock, so why don't we go together?"

She smiled. "Why, that will be wonderful. I don't think I'll have any problems getting home, but it will be nice to have some one else to talk to." But she didn't elaborate on how she would be able to fight if necessary, there didn't appear to be any ARMS on her. If anything, she seemed like a peaceful young woman who would become sick at the first sight of blood.

The woman and the three scientists headed towards the town of Little Rock. There, Ekatrina went to the mines in order to talk to her father. Werner found himself wanting to follow her to make sure she was all right, but was unable to figure out why. After all, he'd only just met this woman.

"So, you're the one who saved my daughter's dog," Edwin Roughnight stated, "I thank you. Ekatrina really loves Haley, she's her best friend. We're in your debt, Mr. Maxwell."

"Just call me Werner. I get enough of the formalities at work, I don't need them in social situations like this," the man stated, blushing and holding his arm behind his neck.

Ekatrina then brought the trio to her house, and got them something to eat. She asked Werner a bunch of questions about where he lived and what he did for a living. Werner answered all of them, all while staring into her luscious green eyes. She paid no heed to the other two, it was as if they weren't in the room. This angered Leehalt, and he spent the entire time that they were there staring at the back of Werner's neck, rage seemingly rising. Melody was relieved that he wasn't mad at her this time.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

A piece of advice, never listen to poetry while daydreaming. Well, a few months ago, we had a poetry reading in class. One kid read a poem called "First Time". It was about a person's first time milking a cow. But there's so much innuendo in it (before the cow is mentioned), so it sounds like sex. Now, try daydreaming about Jet and Virginia while listening, it's not a pretty picture.