So afraid...

Rise could see him losing. She watched the battle as he took hesitant steps towards her. He was losing, and she was going to die.. she would never know love, or know what it felt like to kiss someone who actually cared about her. To know what it felt like to hold someone's hand who liked her the same way she liked him. She would never know what it felt like to have a job, to live on her own, to move into her own apartment, to buy her own things in Diagon Alley, or be the one to help children who were like her, and needed somewhere to stay. It was all going down the drain because she had trusted a vampire. A part of her mind, the part heavily tranquilized under the wolfsbane potion, was struggling weakly to be angry at him, to want to fight him, to run away, hide, and wait until he calmed down.

Suddenly though, he stopped, and dropped to his knees in front of her. Rise sniffed in his direction, testing the sudden change in smells from his body, going from threatening, to friendly in a sudden moment. She lifted her head slightly off of her paws, and her tongue came out to help cool her off, panting softly as she watched him and his eyes turned normal. When he said he wouldn't hurt her, and she realized it was him in control, not the vampire. She sprung to her feet, and not even caring, she put her giant paws next to his legs and licked his face happily. "Thank you! Oh Thank you Ryo! I'm so happy! I'm so so so happy! I'll never forget your kindness!" She lapped his face excitedly and then moved away from him, spinning in a circle, half chasing her own tail and grinning wolfishly at Ryo. "What do you wanna do? We can run around the forest, or.. or... sneak onto the grounds and swim! Or.. or... we can sit here and talk or something." She said panting and wagging her tail excitedly.

After stuggling to gain control of his body again for a while, the vampire finally quit. He couldn't withstand the feelings the boy had for Rise. They were pure feelings, no hatred could be detected in them, and the vampire hated that. He hated that Ryo liked the wolf, that he wanted to be close to her. Now with Ryo in full control, all the vampire could do was watch helplessly as Ryo smiled at the wolf before him. Ryo sighed and before he could actually telll what was going on, he felt Rise lick his face. His first impulse was to push her away like he did with anything that tried to lick his face. But soon after he figured out it was Rise, he stopped trying to push her away and began to laugh.

When she moved away from him and spun in a circle he couldn't help the grin that formed on his face, and he laughed happily. It had been a while since he laughed the way he just did, and he felt weird. The laugh was whole heartedly, and iit confused Ryo for a moment, before he remembered that it was him who let it out. The laugh sounded weird to him, but he liked it. He sat up, pulled one of his legs up closer to him and rested one of his arms on his leg. He thought about what they could do for a while. "It doesn't matter to me. We can do whatever you want to do." he said finally, and smiled at her. He closed his eyes and moved his head up, like he was looking at the sky again. He hadn't noticed it before but he was tired from the fight with the vampire, and when he tried to get up he realized he was weaker from the fight as well, and he fell back down onto the ground. It amazed him how he could get so weak from a fight with an opponent in his head, but it had happened and he thought it would take him a few minutes, if not hours, to get back on his feet.

Rise stared at him when he laughed, and she couldn't help but pant a bit harder. "I've never seen you laugh like that before." She said looking up at him, and spinning in a circle again. When he said they could do what they wanted to, she spun in another circle, catching site of her tail and chasing it for a moment before she had to sit down and wait for her dizziness to stop. She panted and looked up at him and barked, quite literally a dog bark, and she couldn't help her tail from wagging so much. "You could jump on my back and let me run! I can take your weight! Or we could.. we could... Ryo?" Rise was suddenly aware of how weak he looked.

"Ryo? Are you okay? What's.. what's wrong? Oh no! I hurt you? Did I hurt you?" She gasped and pranced around him, licking his arm, her tail between her legs, looking thoroughly upset now, even with her wolfish features. "You need to get back up to the school! You shouldn't have to deal with this.. no no no... Ryo.. please." She whispered and licked his arm, looking up into his eyes with her golden ones. "Are you okay? Can I help? Please.. let me help." She whispered, laying her head on his lap and looking up at him, her doggie expressions showing her emotions perfectly as she wagged her tail limply and turned her head to the side, trying to look up into his face and let him know she was here for him.

Ryo saw Rise staring at him and couldn't help but laugh at what she said. "That's because I've never been truely happy until the now." he smiled at her. "Kinda ironic. I'm happy when I have my natural enemy transformed in front of me." he added softly, talking mostly to himself. He stared at her as she spun in circles and he just smiled, knowing she would have to stop soon because she would get dizzy. Soon enough she did this and he let out another whole hearted laugh. "You know, you remind me of a dog I once had." he laughed. Strangely enough his old pet was the same color and gender as Rise, but obviously not the size. Rise was almost twice the size of his dog. He laughed again, and shook his head.

Ryo soon felt dizzy too, and he let himself fall flat on the ground. He really needed to rest, but he didn't want to go back to the castle and leave Rise alone. "I'm fine... Rise. You... didn't hurt... me." he said, propping himself on one elbow to look up at her. He let her lick his arm and he sighed when she said he needed to get to the castle. He immediately shook his head and tried to get up again, which only resulted him falling wven harder onto the ground. "I'm not leaving. I won't leave you alone Rise." he said, trying to get up again. This time he managed to stay on his feet, by grabbing onto the nearest tree. "I'm fine Rise. Trust me." he said, and he smiled at her again. He could tell that Rise was worried, if showed in her face and he kneeled down a little to meet her eyes. "I'm fine... alright?" he asked her, staring into her golden eyes.

Rise started to panic at his sudden inability to stand. "No.. no you're not alright Ryo! You're not!" Rise said, her voice high pitched, as her whole body trembled and she tried to stand next to him and lean against him for his support, keeping him upright, when he knelt down to be near her face, she stared at him and whined softly. "You aren't alright... You gotta go up to the Hospital Wing.. or go to the Hufflepuff Common Room... I could get you there, I'm sure I could... I can carry you, on my back, and drop you off outside the Common Room.. I can do it Ryo.. don't feel like you need to be here the whole night.. you need to sleep too ya know! And.. and.. I've transformed before, it means the world to me that you were here and didn't run away while I transformed.. I don't want you hurt because of it though." She whimpered, her tail wagging as she leaned forward to lick his face again.

"I'll take you up there okay? Get on my back." she suddenly turned her back to him and her tail fell limply to the ground, she turned her head around to stare at him with her large golden eyes, showing him that she wasn't afraid to have a Vampire on her back. Better yet, in the position he would be in if he did let her take him back, he had the upper hand, he had complete access to her throat and neck, and he could kill her in an instant, "Please.." She whispered and wagged her tail once, before staring at him pointedly, wanting him to get on her back so she could help him.

Ryo shook his head and sighed. "No Rise... I don't need sleep, I'm most active at night, remember?" he told her softly, still staring into her eyes, trying to convince her he was fine and that he wasn't going to leave. "Rise, I don't feel obligated to stay anymore... I completed my promise of being here while you transformed, I know I could have left as soon as the transformation was over. But I didn't... I don't want to leave." he told her. "And even if I went to the Hospital Wing, there's nothing there that can help me. Nothing that can make him shut up..." he added pointing to his head, referring to the vampire. He felt her tongue on his face again, and he closed his eyes, trying to keep the vampire slient longer. He didn't want to go though the fight again, because if they fought again... this time the boy would lose... and the vampire would kill Rise. He opened his eyes again, after a long moment of silence from him, and he sighed. "I don't want to go back inside the castle..." he whispered.

Staring at the ground, he could feel himself regaining a little bit of energy... because of the vampire. "I don't want your help..." "You need it, or else I would take over your body easily and I could hurt your little girlfriend." "She's not my girlfriend... and isn't that what you want? To kill her?" "After all the trouble you went through to keep her safe, I don't feel like it anymore... It's too much work..." Ryo looked up at Rise and smiled, the conversation still going in his mind. He got up completely, like nothing happened... but when he took a step forward, he almost collapsed from the weakness in his legs, but he managed to keep his balance... just barely. He turned back to Rise, and vaguely considered letting her take him back to the common room, but he thought that in the position he would be in, the vampire might tak e advantage of his weakness and attack her. He finally just ended up shaking his head. "I'm fine RIse, and I don't want to leave." he said, planting his feet as firmly as he could on the ground.

Rise whimpered when he said he wouldn't leave, but this time it was out of thanks. "Thank you Ryo.. thank you, thank you! You want to go somewhere anyway? I could take us somewhere, and I can keep you safe, I won't let anything hurt you." She said spinning in circles as he stood up, and she immediately stood where if he fell she could catch him on her back. "You're so weak Ryo.. what happened?" She asked looking up at him, and wagging her tail a couple of times. "Was it the Vampire? Was he being mean?" She asked, turning around and sniffing his leg lightly, not really paying attention to what she was sniffing, and she looked up at him, wagging her tail again. "Just tell him to be nice.." She sneezed and then looked up at him sheepishly, her eyebrows raised before she went over to the lake again, her body shining in the moonlight, it was obvious that she was her most beautiful when under the soft cold light.

"So what you wanna do?" She asked softly, turning and looking at him, her eyes glowing in the light before she grinned and lapped up some water, before spinning again and running towards him, circling around his legs and wagging her tail so that it thumped him in the legs, purposely. "Thanks Ryo... so much." She said and nudged his leg with her nose, licking the material before she looked up at him again, and panted slightly, blinking, her eyebrows raised in a rather comical expression.

Ryo looked deeper into the forest, tempted to go further in, just to see what was in there. "I wonder what's in there." he said softly. He looked at Rise and sighed. "I don't care anywhere you want." he told her, smiling as he did so. He looked down at her and sighed heavily. "Yes... it was the vampire. I... I was fighting... to keep you safe from him." he said honestly. "I didn't want him to get near you... I didn't want him to hurt you..." he told her softly, barely audiable. He looked up at the sky and laughed. "I wish it were that easy... If I tell him one thing, he does the exact opposite of what I say. That's why I usually don't fight him." he said softly. As she went over to the lake, Ryo stared after her, watching her shine in the moonlight. He looked back toward the entrance of the forest, feeling as though someone was there, watching them. There was obviously no one there, but he just felt that way.

He put his hand on his cheek, and thought intently for a moment. "I don't know... why don't we just run through the forest?" he suggested quietly. "I think it's the best thing we can do right now." he added. He smiled and watched her circle around him, letting out a small laugh as her tail thumped him in the legs. "You don't have to thank me." he said. He looked down at her after she nudged his leg with her nose and he smiled gently at her.

Rise wagged her tail and looked at the forest, sniffing the air and suddenly staring into the woods, her hackles raising and she moved to stand in front of Ryo. "Ryo... go back.. "She whispered teeth bared, hackles risen, eyes pointed at the forest Ryo had been looking at. He seemed to be feeling better anyway, and she knew that something was there, she didn't know what, but she knew there was something there. "Ryo.... go back now... please." She whined, her voice coming out like a soft yip, her eyes glued on the forest. "There is something... there." She whispered, and backed up, hitting her back end against him and she backed up slower, so she was standing beside him, her eyes glued on the forest, her teeth bared still, her hackles raised, her claws out.

"Ryo... get on my back.. please... we'll get out of here.... You saved me.. now we need to run." She said softly, and started to push against his legs very slightly with her back legs, her eyes still glued when suddenly something came out of the forest, something much larger than Rise. Another werewolf, obviously not under the potion, teeth bared, saliva dripping from his teeth. "Oh Merlin." Rise whispered and stared at the much larger Werewolf. "Don't... don't... please go away." She growled at the werewolf, and backed into Ryo again and very carefully turned to look at him. "We gotta go.. back away.. slowly.." She whispered and looked back at the werewolf and whimpered slightly, her tail between her legs, trying to make herself look not as intimidating.

Something was telling Ryo that he should do what Rise said, but something else was telling him not to do so. Obviously the vampire was telling him not to listen to the werewolf, and even though he wanted to listen to her and run out of the forest, the vampire was trying to prevent it, he knew it was something that he would want to fight, and he wasn't going to let Ryo be a coward and listen to the girl. His legs refusing to move, Ryo couldn't move anywhere, until Rise backed into him and he was forced to move back along with her. She was saying something about someone, or something, being inside the forest, and all Ryo could say was, "I know." he wasn't really listening to what she was saying anymore, he was watching the forest, his fangs showing, and his eyes changing color again. "I know there's something there..." he said softly.

The vampire shook his head, not wanting to get on her back and leave, but the boy was saying yes, and eventually he began to climb onto her back. When he finally saw what was lurking in the forest, his vampire side began to take over, his fangs showing, eyes a dark shade of red, and he growled at the werewolf. Seeing that this one was not under wolfsbane and that it was larger than RIse, the vampire felt obligated to protect Rise, no matter how much he hated it. The boy convinced the vampire to do so, and he agreed so Ryo let the vampire take over his body to protect her. He jumped off of Rise's back and stepped in front of her, clearly challenging the other wolf. He didn't know what to expect from the other werewolf, and all both the vampire and boy wished was that, they lived and that Rise lived. He hissed at the wolf... telling it he wasn't afraid of it, and that he wouldn't back down because of its size.