The Adventures of Rin and Aya

Rin cursed underneath her breath as she went left around the large tree in front of her, and Aya went right. They had tried to stay together as best as they could but it apparently hadn‘t worked out. Like Aya, Rin felt as if her lungs and leg muscles were on fire, and she was afraid that she would soon trip and fall due to exhaustion. She would surely get killed if that happened.

She quickly dodged a few arrows that were launched into the tree trunk and then a few throwing knives. Rin mentally thanked herself for her quick reflexes. All of a sudden an arrow passed right in front of her and she noticed that tied to the end of it was a long piece of rope. Unfortunately for her she was running too fast to have any time to slow down, and with wide eyes her feet got caught against it.

Tripping over the rope she went flying through the air before landing on her stomach and sliding a few feet on the hard ground. “Augh,” She groaned. Before she had any time to react further, Rin was quickly grabbed by the back of her shirt and lifted off the ground roughly. Someone grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her back before taking a thin piece of rope and tying her wrists together. When they were finished they spun Rin around and forced her to take a seat on the ground next to the tree, and she finally got a look at who she was dealing with.

The first person she saw was the one standing just to her right and she figured this to be the person that tied her hands together. It was a man with dark red hair falling to his shoulders and in his hands he held a bow while the arrows where in a hard, cylinder casing that rested on his back. Her eyes then wandered to the two figures walking towards them. The one leading had unusually long, but well-kept, blonde hair that fell to his waist and the man behind him had blue hair, much like Rin’s, only slightly brighter in color.

Rin couldn’t see any weapons on the blonde man but she noticed that the man with blue hair had a sword attached to his belt and it made her slightly uneasy. What they all had in common though, was their attire. They all seemed to be wearing leather boots, dark colored pants, and a loose-fitting, light colored shirt. The blonde man was wearing a leather jacket unlike the two others however.

“Where are the others?” Blondie asked Bow Man.

“They went after the other one,” He replied. Just after he finished talking a group of four people emerged from behind the other side of the giant tree. The first person that Rin saw was Aya, who also had her hands tied behind her back, and a man with long chestnut hair was dragging her along behind him. One of the men that were trailing them had shoulder length black hair and his clothing was unusually dark compared to the others. Just after him Rin saw a man with dark brown, spiky hair but he was quiet a bit shorter than the other men. She figured that he would only be a few inches taller than herself, and unlike everyone else’s serious attitude, he wore a joyful smile on his face as he skipped happily after the others.

Aya’s face lit up when she saw Rin. She had thought that her friend had been killed when she realized that Rin wasn’t behind her, but relief rushed through her when she saw that Rin was okay. The man that was leading her towards the other group roughly threw her towards the blue haired girl. With an ‘oof’ Aya sat down next to her best friend and cautiously looked at the men surrounding them.

“Aya,” Rin whispered. Aya tore her gaze away from the men and looked at Rin. “What’s happening?!”

“I don’t know,” Aya said in an equally hushed whisper as she shook her head lightly. Rin turned her head slightly and looked at each of the men out of the corner of her eyes before looking back at Aya with a frightened expression.

“They’re not going to rape us are they?!”

“Hey! Stop talking,” The one with chestnut hair snapped. Blondie, who had been talking to a couple of the others walked over and kneeled down in front of the two girls.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” He asked. His voice was stern and demanding but it held no harshness or cruelty. Aya quickly looked at Rin, silently telling her friend that she would do all the talking.

“I’m Barbie and this is Skipper,” She said in a strong, fearless voice.

“I thought you were Aya and I was Rin,” Voiced the blue haired girl beside her with a confused look on her face. Aya turned her head around slowly and glared at her friend, and she swore that if she wasn’t tied up at the current moment she would have strangled her.

“So, Aya and Rin, what brings you to these parts?”

“We were camping in the woods behind our house and we somehow ended up here,” Aya said hesitantly.

“Just give it up already. We know your spies.” The man with chestnut hair glared at them with a heated gaze and placed his hands on his hips. “So who sent you? Akos? Shyamal?”

“Who?” Rin questioned.

Just before the man opened his mouth to start yelling at them in anger, Blondie held up his hand to silence him. “Enough. We’ll take them to Amaranta. She’ll know who they are and who they work for if they are indeed spies.” With that he nodded to two of the men, the one with black hair and the one with red, and they walked over to the two girls and lifted them off the ground. Rin and Aya were forced to follow along as the group of men set out into the forest.

---

“Holy frick!” Aya said as the group finally stepped out of the forest three hours after they first started walking. “How big is that thing?” She asked, clearly talking about the forest. Rin, who was standing next to her, sighed and shook her head.

“Too big! I’m so tired and all we did was walk!” The group was now standing just outside of the forest, which had just magically stopped without the trees or brush thinning even just a little bit, and they were now facing a large city. The ground beneath their feet was a soft, lush grass unlike the tall, wild grass that was in the forest. The city streets were simply dirt roads with tan, dust like dirt and the buildings were aligned in perfect rows, though there were far too many to count.

“Stop complaining,” The guy with black hair said coldly. Before either of the girls could snap a rude reply back at him, a scream caused all of their heads to turn. Only a few seconds after, a blonde woman wearing a knee length white dress came sprinting out from behind a row of buildings and a small boy with dusty brown hair bounced wildly in her arms. At the sight of the large group huddled just at the edge of the forest a look of recognition washed over her face.

The woman continued with her labored running before slowing down when she came up to the group. “Micah!” She stopped in front of the man with chestnut hair. “Take Cade,” She said as she handed the child to him. Without hesitation or fuss he took the boy from her and Cade wrapped his arms around Micah’s neck.

“What did you do now?” Micah asked.

The woman grinned widely. “I don’t know what your talking about,” She said sounding as innocent as she possibly could. A shout reached everyone’s ears and they saw someone run out from behind the buildings the woman had just come from. It was a larger man in his late thirties and he was wearing a blood stained apron over his dirty clothing. A large butcher’s knife was held in his right hand and he held it above his head as he ran towards them.

“Gotta go!” The woman said before screaming again just to be dramatic and running off. The butcher lumbered towards the group with surprising speed considering he was a heavier man, especially in the mid-section, but he stopped next to the group and his breath came out in short, wheezy gasps.

“I swear that one day I’m going to catch that girl of yours Micah. Ra’ Shari is as good as dead if I ever see her within spitting distance of my shop you hear?”

“I will be sure and tell her that Sam,” Micah said with a nod. With a final huff Sam the butcher turned and walked back into the city, still wheezing and trying to regain his breath.

“Well this is an interesting place,” Aya whispered to Rin.

“With some very interesting people,” Rin replied.

The man with red hair turned towards Micah. “Hey Cade,” He said to get the young boys attention. “What did your mom do this time?” A smile formed on the young boy’s face as he relived the scenes from just ten minutes ago in his head.

“Mommy let all of the chickens out,” Was his answer. Micah rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

“I’m going to take Cade home,” He said to the blonde man before heading off into the city when Blondie nodded in understanding.

“Raf, Sin, we’re going to take these two to Amaranta,” Blondie said as he gestured towards Rin and Aya who were simply standing there, too confused to say or do anything. “Soren, Luka, go fine Ra’ Shari and make sure she gets home okay.” Soren, the man with blue hair, nodded.

“Aye aye Captain Chase!” Luka, the short and unusually happy one, said enthusiastically as he saluted the blonde haired man before following Soren in the direction that the woman had run off to.

“Come on,” Chase said as he started walking into the town. The man with black hair known as Sin grabbed onto Rin’s arm while Raf grabbed Aya’s and they followed after their leader.