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Arisa walked alone down the street. She looked no older than fifteen at her height. She had a bright green messenger bag slug over one shoulder that hung on the opposite hip. It was over stuffed and slowing down her speed quite a bit. She was reading a book as she walked, so going slow had actually made it easier for her to finish reading it. With a small flaping noise, she shut the book.

"Well, can't wait to buy the next book." She giggled and opened the messenger bag. Inside of it was a mess, papers were on the verge of falling out of it and she sighed. "I guess i should reorganise this. Nothing but old leads anyways." She muttered and looked around. The small village was built on both sides of the main road she was following. This was actually the first time Arisa had looked up for a good portion of the day, so this village was completely new to her.

It took only a minute or two for her to follow her nose to a small shop with a bench in front of it. She bought a batch of fresh bread with the last of her money and sat on the bench. A few people who passed her gave her strange looks as they passed, she looked way to young to travel alone. Ignoring them was easy, she had learned how to do it after traveling for about a year. Her best friend had proven to be difficult to find and the only clue Arisa had to find her, was a small scrap of paper that had only two words on it, written in her unmistakable handwritting.

"Head West."

Several minutes passed before she realized she was just staring at the note. She quickly snapped out of it and organized the papers. Only two or three of them had information she could still use, and the rest were useless now. She stuffed the useless papers back into the messenger bag, a little nicer this time, and put the good ones in a different pocket. Then she slid her book in and stood up, carrying her bread with her.

"I can use those papers for my fire tonight." she muttered between bites. She began walking again down the road, doublechecking that she was heading the right way. She let her mind wander as she walked along the road. Her thoughts went from planning her next day of travel and earning some money to buy food, to wondering where her friend was. It had been three years since she dissapeared. Was she even alive still? Was it too late to find her trail? Or did she dissapear to get away from everyone and didn't want to be found? Then why would she leave the note?

These questions had pestered her for a long time, and would probably keep pestering her until she found the answers. Her mind drifted back to the day she had found out that her best friend was gone.


_-_-_

"Arisa! Come quick!" Her mother called from downstairs. Arisa was still asleep though, and muttered something unitellegent in her grogginess. Another minute later, she was pulled out of bed and practically dragged down the stairs. "Arisa! wake up! She's gone!" Her mother yelled again in her ear this time.

"W-who...? The dog? she's probably in the neighbor's yard again..." She replied, still half asleep. A splash of cold water to her face woke her up though. "Eep! Why'd ya do that!?" She exclaimed, immediatly awake now.

"Arisa! focus! Tianna is gone!" He mother said in a hurried voice.

-_-_-

Arisa was pulled out of her memories abruptly as she bumped into something. She blinked and tried to catch her balance as she looked up. The man she ran into looked over his shoulder at her, a small hint of worry on his face. He grabbed her arm before she could fall and made sure she was okay before releasing her.

"O-oh! I'm very sorry mister!" She appologized once she got her thoughts unscrambled. He nodded and turned away, not saying a word. She was a bit stunned that he got so far so fast. He carried a large sword on his back, and carried practically nothing else on him other than a small pouch which probably had money in it.

A small smile crawled onto her face as she realized he was heading the same way as her. She ran a bit after him, hoping to at least walk with him, even if it was in silence. Traveling alone was rather lonely after so long. After a few minutes she had speed-wallked her way up to him. She now was walking beside him, nervously glancing at him.

"It would probably be better for you to not travel with me." He said in a monotone, not even looking at her. She gasped at his sudden speech, but did not slow down or change direction. She looked up at him in confusion.

"M-may i ask why?" Arisa asked him in a timid voice. He looked down a bit, surprised she actually spoke to him. He was about to answer, but was inturrupted by the sound of horses approaching at a fast speed. He looked at her again before looking to see where they were coming from.

"Great." He muttered, realizing who they were when they got closer. "come on, even if you left now, they'd go after you" he warned and grabbed her by the arm. She gasped and gave him a horrified look as he ran to their right, off of the road. He was pulling her straight towards a cliff. She backed up, trying to free herself from his strong grip. "Come on! You'll be fine! but we need to move!" He shouted and pulled her closer, then picked her up. She let out a yelp as he did so.

Unfortunately, Arisa's attempt at freeing herself from his grip had caused him to lose his chance to escape from the men on horses. They surrounded them before they could make it to the cliff edge. He cursed under his breath and glared at them as he put her down.

"I've never known you to travel with anyone, Katsu." The obvious leader of the men chuckled. His armor looked sturdier than the rest of them. Arisa looked Katsu, confused and scared. He looked angry, and something about his expression told her to keep quiet. She was surprised to hear him reply in such a normal tone, it didn't fit his expressions at all.

"let the girl go. She has nothing to do with this and will just get int the way." he pursuaded. The leader only laughed again in responce.

"Hah! Like I'll fall for that! it'll be safer to just take you both. Take less of a chance of some buddies of yours coming to save you." He laughed and motioned at his followers. Arisa could feel Katsu's hand tighten on her shoulder as some of the other men got off their horses and advanced on them.

"Don't say a word, and don't react to them, you'll be fine, I promise." He whispered in her ear and released her. She wall pulled away from him and helped onto a horse. The men go back onto their horses and the one who rode double with her chuckled to himself. She shuddered at the thought of anything they might do to her. Then they took off, heading down the road at a gallop. She only looked at Katsu, trusting him to keep his promise. He kept a determined look on his face.

After about half an hour of riding, they arrived at their destination. Arisa stared at it in awe. It was a large brick building. Many guards stood watch on the ledges, crossbows at the ready. They only glanced at the arriving group as they opened a large gate. Once inside, Arisa was escorted off of the horse by the man she was riding with. He pushed her in the direction Katsu and the leader were walking and she practically tripped. It was barely noticable, but Katsu had looked over in her direction to make sure she didn't fall.

"I have to apologize for the condition of the place. After all, you did destroy the place." The leader said in a tone of anger. Katsu only smirked at him. "Anyways... Your new cell has been made. Stronger than the last time." He explained. Arisa was now rather confused. This guy didn't make any sense. He was acting like a great host, but he obviously wasn't friendly. He lead them down a few hallways of the building and stopped at the end of one. In front of him was a small cell. "your new cell Katsu. oh, where are my manners? I have forgotten to aske your name miss." He said with a warm smile. Arisa blinked at him and glanced at Katsu. He shook his head and inturrupted the conversation.

"Marco... She is a mute. Even i do not know her name." He explained, hoping Marco would buy it. He only looked at Arisa closer for a moment, as if it would make it easier to tell if she was really mute. He sighed and shrugged, then motioned to his guards.

"fine. It's late. I'm going to bed. Talk to you in the morning." Marco muttered and walked back down the hall. As soon as he was out of sight, Arisa and Katsu were pushed into the cell and the door slammed shut. Arisa stayed silent until the guards left too. Katsu sat on the opposite side of the cell, far away from her. She wondered how long it would take for him to speak up, or if he would just be quiet.

"what is your name, girl?" Katsu finally asked her as the sun had set. The small patch of light that filtered through the hole in the ceiling had shown that much. She didn't reply immediatly and took a deep breath. "It's okay, I know these guards and they all go to sleep as the sun sets. No one will hear us." He reassured her.

It took her a bit to compose herself. "M-My name is Arisa." she replied and was amazed to see him smile and stand up. Then he helped her to her feet. "What's going on?" she asked in a louder voice. He shushed her as he walked to the cell door and began inspecting it for a way out.

"Well, I made a bad deal with these guys and they think you're a friend of mine. I need to get my sword back and get you out of here. And... if I know these guys-" He stopped and slipped his foot under the barred door, then lifted it up. The door bounced up and opened with ease. "-It's easy to get out of here." He chuckled and held out his hand to Arisa. "Come on, we shouldn't linger around." He said with a warm smile as she took his hand.

After a bit of sneaking around, Katsu found their things. He put his sword back in it's place and handed her bag. She must have been really shocked when they were captured, she didn't remember the guards taking it. She rummaged through it the moment he gave it back.

"Oh no!! They took it!" She yelped and he immediatly put a hand over her mouth. When he released her again she was rather panicked. "They took my only clue!" she complained and he motioned for her to stay quiet.

"They took your only clue to what?" He asked her finally. She was practically tearing her bag apart now, looking for something of importance. From what he could tell, it was empty. "Please, calm down. I can help you get whatever they took back Arisa." He tried to reassure her.

Arisa had to take a few breaths to control herself. "In my bag was a book, and in that book was a note from my friend, I can explain it better later, but it's the most important thing to me!" She was still rather loud and Katsu had to pull her into a small nitch in the wall when a confused guard came by to find out why a girl was yelling.