Watashi wa Samui Desu

(I am cold)

A young boy walked through the city of Carmina Gadelicia. His thin avatar slowly put his feet in front of the other, walking ever so slowly. 'I wonder what Mia is doing right now…'

Elk, as he was called, turned his head up to look at the virtual night sky. It was glittered with shining dots that were supposed to represent stars. They glistened and twinkled as he stood there, gazing up at the sky.

The young boy continued down the town. He thought about Mia again, and a feeling of depression swept through his mind. Truthfully, he hadn't seen Mia in quite a while. After she was once resurrected in the 15 floor dungeon, he had spent a few days with her, but then she stopped showing up…

Crimson eyes tearing up both in reality and game world, Elk cried to himself. Mia was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He couldn't go a day without her without being depressed.

Looking up, he noticed he was standing in front of the Weapon Shop. A staff for a wavemaster was for sale, and it was one of the most powerful ones on the Lambda server.

But he couldn't afford it. The youth looked at his money, only 500 GP. Elk never made much money in 'The World', but he always managed to find enough health drinks and healingpotions to make it through one or two dungeons.

'Maybe Mia could help me get some more money later on… if she ever gets on.'

He had once been told that if you walk into a room with skeletons, pots, or eggs scattered everywhere you were supposed to break them. And if you do, you would sometimes be rewarded with a nice health drink or potion. Then after you cleared the room of its breakables, you were supposed to exit the room and walk back in, and all the items would be restored.You could repeat the process over and over again.

It was supposed to be a good way to collect more recovery items. Elk tried it once, and it worked. He even stocked up on a bunch of sports drinks in a dungeon, and managed to collect enough to trade with one of the players in the town that wanted them.

A sigh escaped the wavemaster's lips. There were so many things you could do in 'The World', but nothing was enjoyable for him without Mia.

He hadn't seen the feline in over three weeks. She used to be on all the time. After all, she did live within the game, and nothing could make her not play, right?

Quick chills ran through the boy's spine. He couldn't bear to imagine the thought of Mia never playing the game again. She just had to play the game! That's what she was supposed to do! There could never be a true world without Mia!

If she was gone, there would be no world that contained the purple feline that loved aromatic grass so much. There would be no world that contained her soft, calm voice. There would be no world without a purple feline named Mia!

Tears began to flood his eyes again. Elk didn't want to think about these sad thoughts now, all he wanted was to see the charming, purple face of his best friend. Oh, her golden eyes, her sweet smile, her caring heart…

The boy stared down at the cybernetic ground. His feet, dressed in dusty brown boots, slowly made their way through the stone walkway of the town.

As he continued watching his feet, he headed towards the chaos gate—a blue, swirling disk that could teleport players to other towns or fields, or even let them log out.

Elk made his way through the long pathway he was on. He didn't seem to notice where he was going. And then…

THUMP!

Elk then suddenly walked head first into a player. He staggered a few steps backwards. "Oh, I'm so terribly sorry. I should have been watching where I was going, I..." his voice soon trailed off as he stared up at whom he walked head first into. "…M-Mia?"

Crimson eyes met golden, and the wavemaster was becoming speechless. His mouth was slightly ajar, and soon a smile crept onto his lips.

"Hi, Elk." greeted the purple feline. She gave a smile. "What's up?"

Wordless as he was, the light blue haired boy just stared up at the girl. He put his hands together. "Mia! You're back! Where have you been?"

Elk's POV

I'm so happy Mia is back. I watch her laugh and smile as she tells me why she hadn't been on in a while. I don't really get what she's saying, but now I really don't care why she was gone. She's here, and that's all that matters. I really care for Mia. I wonder if she feels the same way. I hope so…

She's looking over at me, smiling. It makes me happy when she smiles. It always makes me happy when she's happy. We're all happy now.

Mia's POV

Elk seems really glad that I'm back. I don't really think he understood much of what I was saying when I was answering his question. But I don't care. He's happy that I'm back, and I'm happy too.

My tail starts to flick about. Normally my tail flicks whenever I'm really happy, and I haven't been this happy in a really long time. How long has it been since I've been this happy? Probably the last time I saw Elk which was about three weeks ago.

Regular POV

The wavemaster looked over at the feline blademaster. "I'm just glad you're back, Mia." said Elk. He smiled. "I was really lonely when you were gone."

A silence fell upon the two. They were beginning to lack conversation topics. But they just stood there, smiling at each other.

"So what have you been up to lately?" Mia finally asked, her head tilting to the side.

The young boy shrugged his shoulders. "Not very much has happened. I had a history test the other day, but I didn't do so well on it…" his voice trailed off, eyes being focused on other things.

"History?" Mia looked down at the boy next to her. "What's history like for you?"

Elk's ruby orbs returned back to his friend. "Oh, well, um… we've just been learning about this other country lately in History… and—"

"Country? Is that like a server?"

"A server?" How funny that was. Of course, he should have known better. Mia had no idea what it was like for him in the real world. She existed inside a mere game, what would she know about countries? "Well… sorta… but you can't just warp to them like you can here. You have to use ways of transportation, things that can take you there. And it normally costs money to go there."

"What!" the feline's voice squeaked. "You mean to tell me you have to pay money in order to go to these countries? What kind of rule is that!"

"That's just how it is." Elk looked up at the girl. "In order to use the ways of transportation, you have to pay for it. That is, unless you own a vehicle, but the fuel for itcosts money, too."

The humanoid gave a "humph" and crossed her arms. She mumbled something. Then the two returned to their previous quiet state.

After about thirty more seconds, Elk thought of an idea. "Mia, would you like to go on an aromatic grass hunt? You and I used to collect that item a lot."

Miashrugged. "Sure, why not? You've shown me what they are, and now I want to collect even more! Let's go!" She smiled, and turned to her blue haired friend.

The two walked up to the chaos gate. Elk punched in a keyword, and the two were soon swirling through pure data.

They landed with a thump as they hit cold, hard ground. Elk surveyed the area; a surprised look was on his face.

"I thought it would be a grass field."

The entire area was covered in a thick, white snow. Ice pillars stuck out from the ground, while some random things were also seen. A few yards away, groups of frozen fish were posed like they were jumping out of water. In the distance, a few white cherries were also seen.

Mia's fur then stood on end, and she gave a shiver. The feline rubbed her hands against her arms, trying to warm them up.

The wavemaster then turned his attention to his friend. "Are you cold, Mia?"

"It's j-just a small sh-shiver. That's a-all."

She gave a smile to her friend. Elk nodded, but watched her from the corner of his eye. When she shivered again, he turned his head back to her. "Are you alright? Do we need to go to a different field?"

"I'm f-fine."

"Okay…"

Then, Mia's ear twitched. She raised her head, and turned around to look behind her. "I think I just found a way to get me warmed up a bit." She began to run.

"Hey…!" The young boy turned around to see his friend take off with her own quick pace. "Wait up, Mia!"

Elk took off after her. His avatar was never very fast, and he could barely keep up with his friends. But he got used to it, though didn't really enjoy it when they took off running like that. Anda while backhe had somehowmanaged to jump in front of Kite before that data drain hit him during the last battle.

The boy gave another pleading request to slow down to his friend. He saw her stop in the distance, and then soon caught up with her.

The feline turned her head to face Elk. "Let's w-warm up with a n-nice battle!"

"Huh!"

Butit was too late. Before Elk could prepare himself for the battle that was to begin, it had already started.

A magic portal that was in front of the two suddenly activated. It revealed a few monsters, one of which had magic tolerance, and another water tolerance.

The feline rushed up, strait into the head of the monsters. She jumped up on a monster which was floating in mid air. As she landed on its back, the monster tried to knock her off. She held on with a tight grip, and then jabbed her sword into its back.

It gave a groan of pain, and fell over. Mia smirked at how weak it was. She then turned her attention to the other monsters that were in the field. "Elk, look out!" she called, spotting a monster sneaking up behind the boy.

The wavemaster turned around, and then gave a startled cry as the monster with water tolerance tried to kick the youth. It hit him, and thenhe fell over backwards.

Elk landed with a thud onto his rear end, and then looked up to see Mia run over to where he was. She handed him a bottlethat contained astrange liquid, and then jumped up and began attacking the monster.

The wavemaster looked down, and saw that Mia had given him a health drink. He gulped it down quickly, and then stood back up. "Thank you, Mia! I feel like I can do more now!"

Mia smiled, and then jumped out of the way in time to avoid an attack from the monster. "No problem!" She slashed her sword against the monster's flesh, and took away more of its HP.

The monster dived down at the girl, but missed. She was about to attack it, when a fireball came from out of nowhere, and landed on the monster's head, sending it crashing to the ground.

The feline turned her head to see Elk holding his staff up. He smiled. "I did it!" he cried happily.

Mia gave him a thumbs up, unaware of the monster that was now behind her. Elk noticed, and tried to warn his friend.

"Watch out!"

Too late.

Mia turned around and gave a yelp as the last monster crashed its arm into Mia's stomach. She was sent flying a few feet, and hit the face of a pillar, hard. The girl fell limp to the ground.

"Mia!" Elk cried. He ran over to where the girl was, and looked down. She was knocked out.

Turning around, he looked over to where the last monster stood. How was he going to beat this one without Mia? The last monster had magic tolerance! And Elk couldn't perform physical attacks! He didn't stand a chance.

Mia lay motionless as her HP where being drained away from her body. Elk had to do something, and fast.

The boy cast a healing spell on the girl, and her HP boosted up to the top of her meter. But she didn't wake up.

'Think Elk, think!' the wavemaster began to try and strategize what he could do to defeat the monster. He could only use magic and therefore no physical attacks, which was the monster's weakness.

He looked around. The only things that were near him were a pillar, a small rock, and a white cherry.

Elk stared aimlessly at the white cherry. Then, an idea popped into his head. He walked up to the creature, which was staring into space. As he walked up to it, the small grunty food noticed his presence. It started to bounce up and down, calling out its name.

"White Cherry!" it chirped. "White Cherry!"

The boy picked up the small food as it continued to squeak. He turned around, and gave a gasp at what he saw.

The monster was floating around Mia, probably deciding if she was alive or dead.Elk gave a frown, and stomped over a few feet.

"Get away from Mia!"

But the monster didn't pay any heed to what the boy said. It just continued to float around the feline's body.

He frowned. Elk then took all the strength he had, and thrusted the white cherry in his hand at the monster. The small food gave its last squeak.

"WHIIIIIIIIIIIIITE CHEEEEEEEEEEERRYYYY!"

It flung threw the air, the twin heads of the cherry were squealing all the way, and then the food came in contact with the monster. A popping sound was heard, and the white cherry vanished in a shower of glittering light.

This got the monster's attention. It looked over to where Elk stood, and turned its big, bulky body in his direction. It began to slowly make its way toward Elk.

'Now what do I do?' thought Elk frantically. 'I can't do anything more, and white cherries certainly can't hurt a monster.'

Then another idea popped into his mind. Elk pulled out a scroll titled 'The Moon'. He used it on the monster, and it then suddenly froze.

The wavemaster then pulled out another scroll, one that was used to take away magic tolerance. He cast the scroll on the monster, but it didn't work.

Elk gave an irritated sigh, and then used another. But that didn't work either. He tried another, and it worked.

He gave a happy cry at his small accomplishment. Now to get rid of the monster. The wavemaster raised his staff high into the air. "Vulcan Pha!"

Suddenly, a monster showed up above Elk's head. It turned its head around and spotted the asleep monster. It charged forward, and ended up being destroyed. But it took the monster along with it.

Elk jumped up happily. He then realized Mia was still unconscious, so he turned around and ran over to where the feline was.

"Ugh… what happened?" Mia woke up with her hand pressed against her head. She looked up, and saw Elk running towards her. "Elk? What happened to the last monster?"

The boy gave a happy grin. "Mia! I defeated it! And it hadmagic tolerance, and Ibeat the monster! Can you believe it!"

He sat down next to the girl, smiling. She smiled back.Elk was happy. He just defeated a monster with magic tolerance, and Mia was alright.

"That's great, Elk!"

The wavemaster smiled. He told her about how he used a white cherry to distract the monster when it was about to attack her during her unconscious state, and how he used a scroll to take away its magic tolerance. Mia listened carefully at Elk's words. She gave him a pat on the back afterwards.

The two laughed about how throwing the white cherry worked. Then theysatin silencefor a while, just staring out into nowhere. Then Elk noticed something.

Arms wrapped around her legs, tail curled up, Mia was curled close together. She was shivering again.

"Mia," started Elk. "You're shivering again."

Mia gave a pitiful laugh. "Y-yeah," she agreed. "I g-guess I am." The feline spoke through chattering teeth.

Elk's red eyes then locked with Mia's golden ones. They gazed into each other's eyes for a minute, thinking about one another. Elk could feel that he was getting hot. Mia turned her head away as a blush crept up upon her lavender face.

The caring wavemaster looked at his friend. She, who lived in the game, could feel anything. While he, who did not live in the game, couldn't feel a thing.

He then crawled over to where Mia sat, and embraced the girl. He held her tight, not wanting to let go.

Mia was surprised at Elk's actions. She could feel herself growing a little warmer from Elk's avatar heat. She returned the hug.

As the two embraced, all the thoughts and memories Elk had with Mia returned racing back into his mind. The first time they met, when Mia showed him what aromatic grass was, when they first met Kite and went to allthe dungeons with him. When Mia became Macha and started to attack he and his friends…

The wavemaster shuddered at the nightmarish thought. That was the worst day of his life. He thought he had lost Mia forever, and was sure of it too. That was until he received the email from Aura saying another life was about to be born, and he just knew thatit was Mia. It had taken awhile to get to the bottom of the 15 floor dungeon full of data bugs, but with the help of Kite, he was able to reach Mia once again.

But on that same day, when Mia was resurrected, she had lost all her memories. And strangely enough, the only thing she could remember was him. She had forgotten about all the things that had happened during Pluto Again.

The two ended the hug, and looked up into each other's eyes. They were both happy that they still had each other.

"Thank you, Elk." The feline smiled down at the crimson eyed boy. "I'm not cold anymore."

The two stood up, and their smiles grew. Both knew that there was somebody special out there for them. For Mia, it was Elk. And for Elk, it was Mia.

"Come on Mia, let's go look for the aromatic grass."

"Okay, Elk."

Taking each other's hand, they headed for the dungeon, hoping to find the grass they enjoyed to collect so much within the depths of the field's labyrinth.

Even if they were separated from each other by two worlds, one a virtual reality and the other a real one, they would forever have each other.