She sat with a sigh and looked around at her friends that were with her. Her mind slowly drifted to thoughts of the one friend who was absent, the one she wished was there most. As the others went to sleep under the light of the moon she sat by the fire and pulled out a book and turned it open to a blank page. Finding a piece of graphite in a hidden pocket in her cape she started to write.
His heart is stone,
Or is it just hidden?
His ways are cold,
Or is it a mask?
Is it his own,
Or to someone given?
Could he be mine to hold,
If only I'd ask?
She looked at the words she had written, her head tilt to one side, for a few minutes, until she heard someone stir. With a quick motion both book and graphite were hidden in her cape. "Hey Amelia. Why are you up now?"
Amelia yawned, "Just couldn't sleep well, thought I'd get a drink." Helpfully Lina handed her the canteen, all the better to get her back to sleep so she could go back to her little poetry hobby. "Miss Lina? How'd your hands get all smudgy?" she asked noticing the graphite smudges on Lina's fingers.
"Er, no reason," Lina smiled, hiding her hands behind her back. "I was just re-arranging the sticks in the fire a while ago!" Trying desperately to look as if nothing was out of place she smiled. Fortunately for her Amelia wasn't awake enough to notice she was acting oddly trying to keep her from finding out she liked to write poetry. Like anyone would believe it anyways, it just didn't fit her Bandit Killer image!
Amelia took a drink then went back to her bedroll and fell fast asleep. Lina pulled her book and graphite back out and dated the page and titled her work, thankful her secret wasn't found out. "If anyone found out I wrote poetry, let alone poetry about /him/, I'd just wanna die!" she whispered as she set up her bedroll and went to wake Gourry for his turn at watch. Then she wordlessly went to sleep.
Xellos phased out of the tree where he watched the group to see just what it was Lina had be writing as he noticed Jellyfish Brains had fallen right back asleep. Carefully he picked up her cape and found the pocket with the book, "Hmm..." he leafed through the pages to the most recent one. "My, my. Looks like she has something for Stone Boy," he whispered as he smiled mischievously. He rummaged in the pocket again and pulled out the graphite and scribbled something underneath it.
The next night Lina flipped through the pages in her book. As she found last night's work her jaw dropped. Underneath her work was some scribbling,
Great work, wonder what Stone Boy'll think about it. We'll just have to see.
- Xellos
"Oh no..." Lina said before she passed out with worry.