As the three people started to finally dose off, Keiko spotted something near the ground on which she was laying. She really couldn't make out what it was, it was too dark to see anything from a distance, as the moonlight was blocked by the large covering of the trees. So she got up quietly to go investigate. She picked up a stick and poked at the unidentified being until it moved. For a breif minute she got a good look at what it was.... a rat!?!?!?!
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~!" Keiko screeched as she jumped on top of the nearest elevated object, which unfortunatly happened to be poor Otaru.
"Kill it! KILL.IT~~!"
Otaru just had a rude awakening and was totally disoriented."What..?"
"Kill it kill it kill it~~!"
"Huh...? Kill what?"
"The rat!"
"Don't worry about it... It's only a rat... it won't hurt youu..." Otaru said disorientedly as he rolled over to fall back asleep, and Keiko went flying off. As soon as she hit the ground she jump up onto a rock.
"Kill It~~! Somebody anybody~!" Keiko yelled.
As soon as she noticed that Kakeru had watched the entire episoide and was pratically dying with laughter, she screeched "Kakeru KILL IT~~!"
"O honorable merchant, don't let it get away! We can eat it for breakfast!" With that Keiko got even madder, Kakeru noticed this and burst out laughing even louder. Keiko stalked over to Kakeru, and kicked him in the leg.
"THAT.WAS.NOT.FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!" Keiko stalked over to a rock, and climbed on top of it."There is no way i'm staying on the ground! It's got all icky things crawling all over the place!!"
Kakeru, if possible, just started laughing harder at this, and how pathetic she was acting.

Kakeru managed to calm himself down in enough time to point out to the princess (who was now in complete hysterics) that the horrible rat monster was gone. However, it took much more convincing to get her off of the rock she stood on, panicking.

Keiko stayed up the remainder of the night, jumping at every little noise and not moving an inch from her bedroll. The minute the sun rose up from the horizon, a blood red, the princess roughly shook her two companions awake.

Kakeru and Otaru groggily pushed off the covers of their bedrolls and, without much thought, began packing up again, putting their few possessions into packs and flinging them on their backs and their lone horse. Keiko watched them, not moving or packing as they did.

"Ready to go?" Otaru asked sleepily, eyeing the princess as he peered out through the trees. Keiko looked at him dumbly. Did they really intend for her to pack her things... HERSELF?

In the end, she did. Though it had taken some convincing, Keiko had finally packed her things and settled them on the horse, and they were ready to leave within a half-hour.

"Well, where do we go?" Keiko asked miserably as the three companions trudged out of the forest.

"Yeah... where?" Otaru and Keiko looked at each other, without a clue.

Kakeru shook his head at them, as though amazed that they didn't see the obvious. "Well, it seems to me that we have a mission here. That is to find me and Otaru's families. Keiko, however..." He gave her somewhat of a nasty look... "seems to have no real mission but to run away from an arranged marriage.

Keiko gasped and stared at him, amazed. How dare he insinuate that SHE, Princess Keiko, was afraid of her duty to her kingdom? Well, she knew how to get him back. "If I remember correctly, PRINCE Kakeru, that is exactly the reason YOU ran away." She stomped her foot for effect. Of course she knew that really wasn't true, but she had to save some dignity...

"No." Kakeru said quietly. "I ran away to fulfill my duty to my parents."

Keiko looked down, ashamed. Otaru, sensing tension, quickly stepped in and said: "Well, now that we know what we are doing, I suggest we get on with it." The other two took his not-so-subtle hint, and followed him in the direction of the nearest town.
Kakeru felt pretty bad for snapping at Keiko earlier. Sure, she really didn't have much of a reason for running away, beside the fact that she didn't want to marry him. But... he hadn't totally run away to find his parents. He had actually been AFRAID to marry Keiko.
He had seen her pictures and felt un-worthy of her bueaty. And here she was, trying to be nice. And what does he do? SNAP at her! How stupid could he be!
"...stupid Kakeru...STUPID!..." he muttered to himself.
"Whats that?" Keiko asked.
"Umm..ummm... nothing, I-I was just talking to myself....(sigh) nothing..." he said uneasily, then ending in exasperation.
"Oh. OK," she said, turning her attention back to the road in front of her.
Otaru, who was walking in front of the cute couple, (well not officially a couple YET, but Hey, they are engaged!) looked back then turning back around he smiled sadly. 'There are cute couple... It's to bad I could never have a chance with Keiko...'
"Umm... Keiko?" Kakeru asked.
"Hmmm... Yeah?" keiko answered, almost like she was slowly drifting out of a trance.
"Uuuh- Well I just wanted to say that- that I'm..." he said still not knowing why he was doing this. I mean, seriously she was jsut a girl and it was just a few harsh rules and so so what if he was suppose to marry her in a couple days and who cares if she was drop dead gorgeous... and (sigh) so what if she had the most bueatiful eyes he had ever seen- WAIT, stop there! He was going off in a little rabbit trail and Keiko was still looking at him patiently, expexting an answere. 'Probally thinks I'm a dork' he thought before finally finishing the sentence he had begon what seemed an hour ago, "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier!" he blurted out so fast that he could barely even understand himself.
Keiko looked a little shocked at the sudden appoligy, but grateful for it. "It's okay," she said, obviously not as nervouse as Kakeru was, "I guess we both kinda lost our temperments back there."
"Yeah, I guess." Kakeru said a lil' smile playing at his lips. He felt a lot better now that it was out. He didn't know why but he didn't like fighting with Keiko and he promised himself that he would never do it again (at least he would try!)
Keiko let out a relifed sigh, and they walked in silence for sometime. Kakeru was focusing all his sences on his elbow that would brush against Keiko's every now and then. He was very surprised when she gave out a sudden cry of pain and fell down onto the ground.
"Whats wrong?" Otaru asked. He had stopped walking when he heard Keiko yell and was now kneeling beside Keiko and Kakeru.
"I think I spranged my ankle." she said, tears of pain starting to streaming down her face.
"Here," Kakeru said, ripping a peice of his shirt and tying it around her ankle. "This should help a little." he said, a pretty shade of red coloring his pale face.
"Do you think you can walk?" Otaru asked softly.
"I can try." she said, putting a hand on the ground and struggling to stand up.
"No, don't you'll hurt yourself even more!' cried Kakeru rushing up to help her.
"No, really I'm okay." Keiko insisted, putting a hand on his shoulder and trying to balance herself. "Ahhh..." she cried again. Her foot collapsing beneath her.
kakeru sweapt her up, putting her in her arms like a newly wed bide, (and if I have it my way it won't be the last time he does this, hehe) and carried her ovre to the horse that they had been dragging behind them all day.
"Here, you should ride for a while."
"Mmm, thanks." she said, putting her head on the horses neck and closing her eye's. She tried desperatly to stay awake but it was very hard considering the lack of sleep she had gotten the night before.
They walked on like that for a while untill they came to an opening in the tree's. And not to far away they could see a lil' town...

Keiko blinked at the sight of the small village in the distance. "Huh? Which town is that?" she inquired, seemingly directing her question at the horse that supported her. However, Otaru answered her question.

"That little town is Baldur, named after their founder," he said knowingly, and proceeded toward it. Keiko limped after him on her sprained ankle, hugging tightly to the neck of her poor luggage-bearing horse.

"What're we going to do there?" she asked again. Kakeru answered her question this time.

"We'll be needing more than one horse, you realize," he answered matter-of-factly. "So, you're going to use your expertise and get us some, O Noble Merchant." he mock bowed to emphasize his comment. Keiko glared at him for a moment before her jaw dropped.

"You really expect ME," she said, "To get all three of us horses?"

"Well, you ARE a merchant, you know," Otaru said pointedly, scratching his wrist where he had earlier been bitten, no doubt, by a mosquito. Keiko already open jaw snapped shut, ceasing any argument that might come from her mouth. He had a point; she WAS a merchant...

She looked desperately at Kakeru. "Isn't there any other way...?"

Kakeru grinned. "Well, you COULD have disguised yourself as a bandit or a theif, then you could have simply STOLEN the horses for all three of us!" he laughed and then turned to Keiko, who looked stricken by his words. Yet another point harshly made. She limped off in front of them, not wanting to be spoken to anymore.

The tiny village had not really been as far off as it had seemed, and Keiko had had little trouble limping. Her ankle had not been hurt badly, and she was finding it easier to walk. Still, as they entered the town, Baldur by name, Kakeru shot a concerned look at her stricken ankle, and stopped her.

"Maybe we should get that looked at before we do any trading," he suggested quietly, and Otaru nodded with agreement. Keiko, however, shook her head fervently.

"No!" she shouted, paling in the face. "I don't need help! I'm just fine!" to prove her point, she let go of her horse, walked around a bit, then stamped her foot on the ground. Otaru and Kakeru exchanged nervous glances, then stopped Keiko before she could do further damage to herself.

They quickly found a place to tie their horse, taking their gold (of which Keiko had brought quite a lot) with them, and headed in to the nearest Inn.

From what Keiko had observed so far of the town, it seemed very clean and organized. She walked into the town's tiny Inn happily, expecting the outside appearance to reflect on the inside, as well.

However, her expectations sunk as she entered and narrowly missed being hit by a large pitcher full of ale. The pitcher shattered on the wall beside her, spilling its contents all over the wall and herself. She shrieked with panic and dove behind a nearby table.

Otaru did the same as her, while Kakeru looked around the Inn. It was all in shambles, and men were everywhere, brawling and cuffing eachother. Objects were randomly thrown here and there, not really searching for a specific target.

"What's going ON here?" Keiko wondered aloud, her voice raised amidst the clatter the men (and few women) were making in the Inn. Otaru shook his head grimly. He was watching prince Kakeru with furrowed brows.

"What's he doing...?"

Kakeru gave a pointed to his two companions that were under the table and said, "Get UP already! Help me out!"

Otaru and Keiko scrambled out, and while Keiko was busy ducking the randomly thrown objects and flying ale, Otaru went to talk to Kakeru.

"What are you doing? Trying to draw attention to yourself?!"

"Come on, Otaru." Kakeru gave him an exasperated look. "You haven't figured it out yet? This is perfect! These people are all drunk and don't know us from the next guy. All we have to do is act appalled at what's going on in here, threaten to arrest the whole lot of 'em, and they'll be lining up to practically GIVE us their horses, and whatever else we have a mind to have. It'll be best to save our gold for when we absolutely need to use it.

Slowly it dawned on Otaru. "But... that's cheating..."

"Not exactly. We COULD arrest them if we really wanted to."

"What will Keiko say?" Otaru looked at the Princess, who looked very un-royal as she dove under the table, holding her arms over her head.

"She wants the horses more than you are I do. Come on! Do you have a better plan? Or do you want to risk getting recognized and being chased down?"

"Well... ok..." Otaru had his doubts, but it DID seem like a good plan. They were runaways, and they had to do anything to avoid being caught. He didn't want to risk the safety of the group because of his own qualms.
*Some time later, in the town jail...*

"Whose bright idea was this, anyway?" Keiko grumbled.

Otaru was obviously biting his lip to keep from saying anything. Kakeru glared at him anyway. "How was I supposed to know that they'd assume WE started the brawl?"

"At least no one recognized us," Otaru sighed, rubbing his head where a tankard of ale had caught him when he stood up to catch the fighters' attention.

"That's because they don't expect rogue princes and princesses to have black eyes, bedraggled clothes, and ale running through their hair!" Keiko shrieked. She was promptly silenced by a hand from each boy over her mouth.

"Shhhh!" Otaru shushed.

"Don't give us away!" Kakeru hissed. Turning around, he noticed the people in the other cells staring at them. He sweatdropped. "What are you looking at?"

"No problems here, folks!" Otaru smiled, waving his hands frantically to emphasize his point. The other prisoners shrugged and assumed that the girl was insane. The two boys relaxed as they saw the heads turn back to what they had been doing previously. They didn't notice the chesnut-haired boy in the corner of the farthest cell, his amber eyes watching them intently.

Keiko fought her way out from under the pile of hands. "Itai..." she whined. "Be careful! Anyway," she said, lowering her voice, "we DO have a problem! Now we not only don't have horses, but we're stuck in here and if someone does a background check on us and finds out that we don't HAVE a background we're going to be in trouble! Plus I'm filthy and I smell like a distiiiiiiiiiiillary!" Keiko sniffled and latched onto Otaru's arm, seriously hampering his blood flow.

Kakeru only glared more fiercely. "The first thing is to STOP PANICKING. One thing, at least they won't have expected us to get arrested quite yet. This will buy us some time."

"And what are you going to do with that time, Prince... Princess?" All three jumped as they realized that the voice was coming from outside the cell. As one, they slowly turned around to face the girl standing outside the cell, dangling a set of keys from her fingers.

"Mitsui-san!" Otaru said.

"Staci-san!" Kakeru said.

"Staci! Help us out! Please!" Keiko pleaded.

"Geez, princess, you sure do get into trouble don't you? If you're gonna run away, you really shouldn't get caught by the law, or run away with the person you're trying to get away from." Staci stated matter-of-factly as she waved her index finger for an added effect.

Keiko looked defeated. "...."

Otaru winced. "Ummm... Amuro-san, could you please let go of my arm?... I have no feeling left in it....."

Keiko quickly let go of his arm and sweatdropped. "I'm sorry Otaru!"

"It's ok..." Otaru said, as he started shaking his arm to try and get the feeling back into it.

Staci cleared her throat. Keiko noticed this and said "Don't worry Staci-chan, I didn't forget about you." "Now getta me the heck out of this cell!!!"

Kakeru glared at Keiko. "And what about me n' Otaru? Are you going to leave us here to rot!?"

"Staci-chan, could you let Otaru out please?" Keiko said.

"Umm..... what about Shiranui-kun?" Otaru asked.

"Leave him there, it was probally his bright idea that got us caught in the first place." Keiko said as she rolled her eyes.

"Princess we can't do that!" Staci said.

"Why not!?" Keiko haughtly said.

"Because we can't. After all you will need all the help you can get during this journey." Staci said as she let out Otaru AND Kakeru.

Keiko just bit her lip and grumbled. She decided that she shouldn't put on a big scene with so many people within a earshot there. She would wait until later... Then something came to mind. "Staci-chan? How did you get those keys?"

Staci grinned as she pointed to the passed out security guard. "Heh, sleeping weed. I put it in the guys drink."

"Oooo, very sneaky." Keiko grinned.

As soon as the other prisoner's were out of earshot, Keiko squealed and and threw her arms around Staci. "Thank you soooo much, Staci-chan! You're the best friend a girl can have!" She shot a mean look at the two boys beside her as she said this.

"Yes, Mitsui-san, we will forever be in your debt." Otaru said this and jabbed Kakeru in the ribs. "Wha-? Oh, yes, thank you."

Kakeru cleared his throat. "Well, now since that ordeal is over...

"No thanks to YOU." Keiko grumbled.

"... I believe we should be on our way. Obviously there is no chance of us finding horses in THIS town, so we'll be better off heading west, on to the town of Helfinham. Now if you'll excuse us..." He bowed to Staci, and beckoned for Otaru and Keiko to follow him.

"Excuse you? No I will NOT." This extraordinary statement startled all of them. "I didn't rescue you for NOTHING, you know."

"Oh, really?" Kakeru blinked, and turned to Keiko. "Go see if you can find the gold we brought. Give some to Staci-san for rescuing us."

This brought on reactions from all of them.

"Who do you think you are, ordering ME around!"

"Kakeru, I think we should hear Mitsui-san out..."

"I do not WANT gold!"

They all fell silent, and looked at Staci in astonishment. "Thank you." Staci cleared her throat, and went on. "I find it amazing that none of you have thought to ask me what my buisness in this town is. Well, the truth is, I'm on a mission to the far-off town of Falcam, and I would like to travel with you."

Keiko face brightened at this. "Yes, of COURSE you can!" She ran over to her and threw her arm around her neck. "It will be SO nice to have another woman with us to talk with! You can not IMAGINE what I've been through traveling with these two..."

The two girls walked off together arm in arm, giggling about something or other. Otaru and Kakeru looked at each other and shrugged. Clearly THEY would have nothing to say in this matter.

Kakeru watched the two giggling girls in disgust, as they walked happily up the path before him. Otaru walked nonchalent beside him, gently steering their only horse along with them. Kakeru watched the ragged boy for a moment before becoming distracted by the sound of laughter. He cringed and turned to the two girls.

"You know, you're still dressed as a man," he said dryly to Keiko, folding his arms coolly behind his head. Keiko turned to him and scowled.

"Well, no one's around!" she whined, pouting. "Can't I, just for a bit, act like a woman?"

Kakeru shot a nasty glare at her, then at Staci. "You know, this is your fault," he said. Staci merely winked at him, then turned back around and continued chattering with the princess. Kakeru growled and turned back to Otaru to complain, when Otaru froze.

Kakeru stared at him, wondering what could be wrong, when the serf boy looked up at him, his eyes wide. "I hear horses," he said quietly. This caught the attention of the princess and Staci, and they turned to him.

"I don't hear anything..." Staci said, straining her ears. Otaru, not paying attention to her, was searching around them frantically.

"There are some trees over there," he said hoarsely, pointing in the direction of a small grove of trees. "If we run for it, we can hide there without being seen." He began to steer the horse into the small grove.

The remainder of the tiny group stood still, straining their ears off into the distance. Otaru looked back at them pleadingly, on the verge of panic. Finally, Kakeru moved forward, followed by Staci, then Keiko. They ran for the trees and hid themselves as well as they could, following simply instructions from Otaru.

They waited, each of them straining their ears for any bit of sound. Nothing came.

"Otaru, are you sure you--" Keiko had begun to say, when Kakeru clapped a hand firmly over her mouth. She squirmed to free herself, when she heard it. The sound of horses, men drawing near. Her face immediately drained of color, and she grew silent, attempting to force herself further into the bushes she hid by. Staci grabbed her by the shoulders, attempting to still the suddenly panicking princess.

Otaru was peering intently from his hiding place at the approaching horsemen. His jaw dropped as the man came within eyeshot, and he became pale. He mouthed something which Keiko recognized as "Obari". Her stomach lurched, and she nearly toppled over with it. What was Obari doing here?!

"...Already searched that area!" Keiko heard a snippet of the men's conversation. It was not Obari speaking, but obviously one of his soldiers. The voice was gruff, and slightly irritated. When Obari spoke, however, his voice surpassed irritance.

"Search HARDER!" Obari commanded viciously, and Keiko could almost feel the bushes quiver. She strained her ears to get every bit of the conversation the soldiers and Obari were having (who had conveniently stopped outside of their hiding place).

Obari continued. "Even though I don't know how the princess knew about our plans, she must have known, because she escaped!" his voice sounded accusing, "It was your job to kill her! However, it's very hard to kill a person when they're gone! Now, go find her, idiots!" their voices grew distant, as did the sounds of their tromping horses.

By now, Keiko's heart had nearly stopped, and her companions stared at her, wide-eyed. Staci's hand found its way to her shoulder, trying to comfort her. Kakeru ran a hand through his hair and stood, while Otaru continued to stare incredulously.

"But, why..." he mumbled, turning his wide eyes to his hands. "Why would Lord Obari want to kill you?"

"We'll just have to find out, won't we?" Kakeru said, already leaving the grove. He turned to them, and smirked. They stared at him disbelievingly before following back onto the road.

"B-b-but WHY would Lord Obari want to kill little, ole me?!" Keiko simpered into Staci's shoulder.
The Staci patted the younger girl's back reasuringly, "Don't worry Keiko! He didn't mention your name. Maybe he meant some other princess."

Kakeru personally thought it was pretty obvious that Obari was after THIS particular princess. The lord probably assumed that Otaru had told Keiko about his past and that she had helped him escape. But more importantly Lord Obari wouldn't won't word of his crimes to get out would he? He would won't to wipe out EVERYONE who knew his secret. Even princesses like Keiko or.....Kakeru shuddered.....princes like him.

But Kakeru kept these thoughts to himself. There was no need to panic the princess further.

And they were only theories after all.

He looked over his shoulder at the rest of the party.

Keiko had by this point calmed down almost completely and was able to walk without Staci's support. Sprained ankle and all. Both girls were once again talking and giggling about whatever they had been before (Lord knows what! Kakeru just couldn't understand women.) although to his relief they were doing it a lot softer, so at least Obari's soldiers wouldn't be able to hear them from a mile off. And Otaru was....

Gone!

Kakeru jerked his head around trying to find the other boy. Where was he?

In Falcam, in the main town, a house stood.

There was a place like it in many villages. A place that never seemed to go out of business, a place that flourished more when times were bad, because desperation can do things to the mind and other parts of the body.

In Falcam, in the main town, the brothel stood.

If you were looking up at it, which many people did, you might have seen a small blond girl glaring out of the window. If you were looking in from the outside.

Of course, we'll take you inside, because that's where the action is.
***
From this window, Rina could see a lot. Houses, and farms, and people. But the not person she wanted to see.

"Aika, where are you!" She murmured fiercely.

"Rina?" A voice asked, as a woman swept gracefully into the room.