An Adventure in the woods

[Tarn Isazu]

((closed between Myself and Rain Ishikura))




Tarn was sitting in a tree one afternoon on a sunny day awaiting for something interesting to happen. The sun shown just a bit through the leaves just above his head.

He liked the feeling of sitting high up in trees but did not like waiting. A warm breeze was blowing that kept Tarn cool. A ray of sunlight was shinning on his face and it

just made him feel at home. He was feeling a bit sleepy so he just layed back a let himself drift off....

"Tarn, where are you?" His little sister had called. She had woken him up and almost made Tarn fall out of the tree as he was rudely awakened.
"What do you want" Tarn said back to her. She put her hands on her hips, and glared at him.
"Mom told me to come get you. Supper is done and you have to come and eat, Fatty." She thought she was clever by the nickname she had given him.
"Don't call me that, you know i hate it." Tarn said tiredly. "I'll come home in a little while tell her not to worry."
"Well mom wants you home now anyway, it is going to be dark soon anyway. So come on, you can walk me home." She said with a smile.
"Ok fine, let's go." Tarn jumped down from the tree and almost landed on her.
"HEY!! LOOK WHERE YOU ARE LANDING!! fatty." She said the last word under her breath.

When Tarn straightened out they started for home. His hair was kinda messed up from the flight. 'Whatever' he thought. They walked the long way out of the woods

because he refused to leave it in a hurry. Tarn remembered that he found a flower that he thought that she would like.

"Hey I found this earlier, thought you might like it." He told her.
"Really, Its nice...thanks." She said.
"What's wrong?" Tarn asked.
"Mom won't let me into town without you like i'm a little kid or something."
"Why, did you want to go anytime soon?"
"Yeah, i wanted to go today but you weren't around. Can you bring me tomorrow morning?" She asked.
"Sure as long as I don't have to wake up early." Tarn laughed.
"Its a deal." She said.

When they got home, their mother was waiting patiently in her chair. Dinner was sitting on the table waiting for them to come home. Steam rose from the plates as if

she had just made it.
"Hi mom!" Tarn said eager to eat.
"Hello there Tarn I have'nt seen you all day, where have you been?" She inquired.
"Around, the usual in the trees."
"Oh that's right you like it in the woods don't you"
"Oh yeah. I'm going to take Agriad to town tomorrow morning, alright."
"That's fine. Just remember to keep an eye on her."
"Uh-huh"

Tarn and Agriad ate the supper and chatted. When they finished, they thanked their mother for the meal and started for bed. Then they went to bed so they could

wake up early to go to town. Tarn fell alseep quickly, but Agriad still had something on her mind. Agriad hadn't been upset that she couldn't go to town without Tarn.

It was something else. It was the fact that Tarn didn't know that her mother wasn't his mother also. Agriad had wanted her mother to tell him but she just didn't have

the heart to. Agriad heard Tarn snore and decided she better go to bed to. They both slept until morning.


"Tarn wake UP!" Agraid said.
"AH...What do you want Agriad?"
"You siad you promised you would take to town today. Are you going to keep you promise?"
"...Yes we'll go as soon as i'm ready okay?"
"Yeah but hurry I want to get there early."
"Yeah yeah." Tarn yawned.

Tarn got out of bed and went to the sink to wash his face. Then he put on some clothes and went out the door. Agriad was waiting outside.
"Okay, you ready now Tarn."
"Yes let's go."

When they got to town, the market was bustling. Agriad was excited by all the people. Tarn was going straight to the appraisal shop.
"I'll meet up with you later, okay." Tarn told Agriad.
"Yeah that's fine. Later."

As he went along Tarn saw a lot of unfamiliar faces and wondered if this was the traveling market. He turned the corner and entered the shop. Tarn waited for the

owner to come out front.
"Can i help you?" The old man said from behind the counter.
"Uhh yeah i found this in the forest the other day and was wondering if you could tell me what it is" Tarn told the appraiser. The old man was looking it over and then

made a face as if he had just smelled something really bad.
"What is it?" Tarn asked.
"Absolute trash, its made of glass not crystal." The appraiser said.
"Oh well I didn't expect much from it, just was wondering. Well thanks anyway." Tarn placed three gold coins on the counter and left.

When he walked out of the shop, he heard a weird noise behind him. Just then, the shop started smoking so Tarn backed away. Then the shop blew up and left Tarn

staring in amazment.
"What just happened?" Tarn asked himself. He heard some people behind him and didn't want to have any part in this so he started running. Tarn ran all the way to

the center to try and find Agriad so they could leave.
Tarn found Agriad with some of her friends and told her what happened. Agriad sighed and said "Alright we better go."
They turned for home and started walking. When they walked past the market, the people that saw Tarn running from the blast were looking at him.
"Hey that's him! Yeah let's get 'em!" They exclaimed.
"Damn, they saw me. Let's GO!" Tarn yelled. The mob started chasing and yelling at them. Tarn turned the corner and tripped over a pile of wood. As he looked up,

Tarn saw a weird looking man standing there. The weird looking man held out his hand to help Tarn up. "Thanks." Tarn said to the man. Tarn noticed that he had a

weapon so that must mean that he was a mercenary. No one else in this town carried weapons unless they were mercenaries. He had been pretty bored with things

around here so he decided to ask the mercenary if he could tag along. "Hey," Tarn said "Do you mind if uhh I come along with you. I'll pay you." Agriad turned the

corner and noticed the strange man. "Who's that" she asked.
"A friend. Just go home and tell mom I'll be back sometime later. Tell her I went on an adventure and don't know when I'll be back." Tarn explained and turned to the

mysterious man.
"I'm coming with you no matter what you say."

[Rain Ishikura]

Around the time the shop had blown up Einn was walking out of the pub, it was about a road over, so he knew pretty much what was going on. Everyone was blaming a forest dweller. Einn had never seen one of them before so he started walking towards the direction of the shop hoping he was still there. As Einn walked he head people yelling with anger, he hadn’t seen this much anger in the town since, well ever seeing how it was his first time here. Though the area was great, it was bright out and the wind had a gentle breeze to it, it was nice. Kind of hard to believe the people here were so angry over a simple shop.

Once Einn made it to the shop he could see people had dwindled away to a few people and what looked to be the shop keeper. He was yelling about something.

“Who ever catches the boy who ruined my shop, I will pay a reward!” yelled the shop keeper in anger.

Einn’s eye brow shot up with interest as he walked through the small crowd of people to the shop keeper. Einn pulled out a piece of paper rewriting what the shop keeper had just said; once he was done it looked something like this.

‘I ‘insert name here’,

The Shop keeper will here by pay a reward to whom ever who catches the person who blew up my shop.’

It always had two lines for people to sign names; Einn’s name was already down under the first line. He held out the piece of paper for the shop keeper to look over and signed.

“You may pay as much as you see fit…” Einn said as he held out something to write with as well. The shop keeper took it and signed his name. But then wrote something else down.

“You have until sundown tomorrow, or else I will not pay you.” Stated the shop keeper as Einn took the paper and walked away without saying a word.

[Tarn Isazu]

Tarn and the mysterious man tried leaving the town but were stopped by the mob of people that were chasing Tarn.
"Hey you come over here. We've got to talk to you!" said one of the mobbers.
"..." The myterious mercenary held out his hand to stop them from talking. Then turned away and signaled me to come along.
"HEY we're not done with you yet! HE--"

"GO TARN NOW!" Agriad yelled. Agriad had been trying to stall the mob so that Tarn and the mercenary could escape.

"Okay, let's go now we have an opening!" Tarn told the mysterious man. The mercenary nodded and took off with Tarn in stumbling in tow. They were running for what seemed like hours and Tarn shouted "Can we take a BREAK!" The mercenary looked at Tarns' distress and stopped.

"Thank you." Tarn panted. Seeing that Tarn was worn out and kind of fat, the mercenary decided to make camp. The mysterious man went to get some firewood and think about some things that had happened in town today. He returned with an armful of wood and laid them down. The man searched his pocket for some flint rocks by Tarn interupted him.

"Hey I can handle this." As he held out his hand. A small flicker started in his palm and grew into a tiny marble sized ball of flame. He laid it in the pile of wood and the fire kept up.

"There we go." Tarn said. The man apparently didn't know that Tarn could use any type of magic.

"What didn't know I could do that? Tarn said with amusement. The man shook his head in silence. By this time it was getting dark.

"Well I guess I'm out. Shall we leave in the morning then?" Tarn asked the man. He just nodded his head and rolled over.

"Alright. Night." Tarn added before he laid down under the stars and fell asleep.

[Rain Ishikura]

Slowly walking through the forest darkness, Einn looked around, up at trees and down at broken sticks on the ground. Coming to a halt he bent down and picked up and broken twig on the ground. Looking at it closely he concluded that he was getting close. Standing up he dropped the twig on the ground, lifting both hands up to about his mouth level pointing out his middle and index fingers up on his left and out forward on his right hand. He then twisted his hands so that his right hand was pointing left and his left hand pointing right. He closed his eyes as he felt the wind blow around him. Pulling his hands outward to point them, the right hand pointing right and the left hand pointing left, Einn opened his eyes and seemed to disappear.

As he continued to walk through the woods he could see a bright light in an up coming clearing. Looking up he jumped into a tree and slowly hopped from tree to tree since it took so much to being invisible. Once he reached the clearing he stopped, he had found them, the small boy and the mercenary that had been said to have blown up the shop in town. Einn let out a sigh and became visible again. He then jumped into a tree that had more cover to it. He was now very tired, his stealth took a lot out of him, and seeing how he hadn’t slept the night before it took more from him.

“Tomorrow… Your life’s will change… Forever…” He said to himself as he closed his eyes and fell into a light sleep, it was light enough so if he head movement or someone talking he would awaken, but he was resting.

[Tarn Isazu]

Tarn awoke in a cold sweat. He had had a dream of being chased by a guy with a gigantic axe. The camp fire was out and cold. The mysterious man was still in a sound sleep so Tarn decided to let him sleep since he had allowed them to stop for Tarn. Feeling cold, Tarn climbed the tree nearest him. He could see that the sun was shinning on the top branches of this one. When he got to the top he sat up against the trunk and started warming up. Just when he started getting comfortable, he looked over to the other trees and saw a strange man sleeping in one. Tarn quickly got out of the tree and clumzily ran over to the mercenary he was traveling with.

"Wake up, wake up!" Tarn wispered to the man. The mercenaries' face twisted as he opened his eyes and the sun shone brightly.

"We have to go NOW, there is a strange man up in that tree and I don't know if he's friendly or not so we need to go!" Tarn explained.

"Fine" the mercenary said quietly. Shocked by the man talking for the first time since they had met, Tarn shook off his suprise and gathered his belongings. He tied his cloak around him, picked up his rod, tied his dagger to the inside of his cloak, and they took off. They were running through the woods and Tarn heard his stomach rumbling. He remembered they ran off without breakfast.

"Hey, you think we're far enough from that guy?" Tarn questioned.

"No. But I know you want to stop so we''ll go for about ten more minutes and then we'll stop. I know you can keep up." The mercenary said.

"..F...ine..." panted Tarn.

Ten minutes later they stopped in a clearing.

"Th...ank...God...I'm...dying..." Tarn was so out of breath at this point the only other thing he could utter was "FOOD!"

"Stay here I'll pick up some food. You rest." The mercenary said. Tarn was too out of breath to argue and collapsed onto the ground panting like a dog, and sweating like a pig. Luckily there was a stream at the edge of the clearing. After he had regained his breath, Tarn moved over to the stream. He splashed water on his face and tensed because the water was cold. Tarn jumped in and washed himself off. He swam around for a few minutes and then dove under the water. When he opened his eyes there was a fish in his face. Tarn smiled and tried to catch him. The fish tried swimming away, but Tarn jabbed it with a stick. Tarn was proud of his catch and thought that was enough swimming for today. He got out and dried off. When he was dried and dressed, Tarn headed to the middle of the clearing and sat waiting for the mercenary. A few minutes later, the mercenary came into the clearing with a rabbit and some herbs.

"I can make a pretty good meal with these." The mercenary started.

"I caught a fish earlier so we can cook that up also." Tarn said still proud about his catch.

"Well done. I've also got some firewood so we can start a fire." The mercenary pointed to a small pile of wood that he had dropped before entering the clearing. "Want to do the honors?"

"Sure." Tarn walked over to the pile and brought it to the middle. He held his hand out and said a word that the mercenary did not understand. A small flicker of flame started in his palm, and he dropped it into the middle of the pile of wood. The fire started right up and the mercenary started preparing the stuffed rabbit. He was having trouble with the pelt.

"Do you want to borrow my dagger? It will make things go a little easier." Tarn informed the man. Denying the knife with a wave of his hand, the mercenary pulled out a pocketknife made for pelting.

"I see..." said Tarn. The mercenary finished pelting the animal and started stuffing it with the herbs. Tarn got going on his fish by scaling it. Then he stuck a stick through it and made a little rotisarie.

When everything was done cooking, they enjoyed a fine midmorning meal. Tarn liked the mans' stuffed rabbit. But he wanted to try his fish since he did catch it. Tarn took one bite into his fish and yelped "OWW MY MOUTH!"

"What's wrong?" inquired the mercenary.

"There is something in this fish." Tarn ached. "It looks like a necklace." He pulled the necklace from the fish and wondered where it had come from.

"Looks like it is made of some sort of silver, but its a weird type. I've never seen something with this design before." the mercenary said.

"Well it could be of some worth so I'm going to keep it in a safe place." Tarn said plaing it in an inside pocket in his cloak.

"Do what you will" the mercenary directed.

After they were done eating, they sat around for a few minutes to digest some of the food. Then they heard a rustling from the woods behind them...

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn had woken up like he had planed once he could hear movement coming from the camp. He never thought that they kid would see him up in the tree though. And seeing how making a big deal out of early mornings wasn’t Einn’s style of things he acted like he was still sleeping to make the kid feel a bit better about himself or something like that. Einn waited until he heard them get going before he got up and began jumping from tree to tree again, he decided not to use his stealth skill because it would make him to tired to move in a short time seeing how he had no real time to eat breakfast today.

Einn jumped from tree to tree, trying to make as little noise as possible, it took him a good ten minutes until he caught up to the two suspects. Einn jumped down onto the ground about twenty feet from them. Now Einn knew if that taller man was a mercenary like he was thinking due to what the people in town were saying, the man would have seeing or heard Einn jumping down from the tree. Einn slowly snuck up to the two in the bushes. Einn looked through the leafs seeing the two eating, but then he saw the boy looking over to the bushes, so Einn did what he would normally do. He stood up with a smile.

“So are you the two trouble makers from the town?” Questioned Einn.

[Tarn Isazu]

"Maybe, who's asking?" the mercenary said to the new mysterious man.

"That's the guy I saw in the tree. I told you I didn't know if he was friendly or not." Tarn explained himself.

"Whatever." the mercenary said to Tarn "So are you going to introduce yourself or are you just going to stand there looking badass?"

Both Tarn and the mercenary waited to see what the mysterious new guy would do.

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn slowly looked the two over, he had seen the taller man in the bars around town, he knew he was a mercenary, what Einn didn’t understand was why he was helping a seemingly dirt poor forest dweller like that kid. Einn putt an evil smile on his face and kind of tilted his head back and to the right a bit. The wind began to pick up a bit, blowing Einn’s hair into his face.

“Well the shop keeper in town wants to know…” Einn stated holding out the piece of paper.

“And this is a contract stating I am to be paid a reward of what I want upon delivery of that boy there to the shop keeper.” He then pointed to Tran as he put the paper away.

Einn cracked his neck then took in a deep breath. He put his hands on his hips then began walking forward, towards the two. As he walked he lifted his left hand away from his hip and brushed his hair away from his eyes, he had a determined look on his eyes, glaring at the mercenary.

“I have seen you are the pubs back in Scara Brae, what would a mercenary like yourself be doing with this child, he has no worth to you.” Einn said as he let out a sigh.

He then dew his Bastard Sword and held it in his left hand, it gleamed in the morning sun light. Einn then began to swing it around in a vertical circle as he stopped walking towards them and stood there about five feet from the two.

“My name is… Einn; of the Mudo family… In the south I am known as the Lockheart demon…” Einn stated with a cold tone in his voice, so cold it was bone chilling. His eyes went from gentle and kind, to horrid and murderous; he had the look of a killer in his eyes, a cold blooded killer.

[Tarn Isazu]

Tarn and the mercenary sat there as the mysterious guy stood there with a sinister smile on his face. As the wind blew the man's hair into his face he looked like a demon Tarn had never wanted to meet up with. The breeze blew both the mercenaries' and Tarns' hair back so they could get a better look at the man.

"Tell the shop keeper that we don't want any." the mercenary said to the man with a smile.

"You're not taking me anywhere." Tarn told the mysterious guy.

"That's nice. I've never seen you so you must not be that important." the mercenary waved. When the man drew his sword, Tarn jumped up, grabbing a small rock in one hand, hiding it as he held his wooden rod with both hands.
When he started swinging the sword around, Tarn started to say the magic words to start a spark in the palm of his hand where the rock was. As the mercenary started to get up he said, "Alright, Mudo was it, I don't what they called you or what you are known for." the mercenary drew his sword. "Well, if you're going to try to take him away you might as well defend YOURSELF--" and with that, the mercenary lunged at the man.

[Rain Ishikura]

‘Heh… He really doesn’t get it does he…’ Einn thought to himself as mercenary lunged at him.

Einn quickly jumped backward as he fell back into the bushes, once in the bushes, at lightening speeds he dashed around the clearing through the woods behind the mercenary and the boy who seemed to be doing something. Einn could see energy gathering around the boy.

‘So the boy has some skills…’ thought Einn as he jumped up into the trees above the boy.

Einn pointed his blade at the mercenary and began to laugh. As the sun began to rise, the blade gleamed in the up coming sunlight. Einn then took his Bastard Sword in to two hands and took a deep breath. He then jumped at the mercenary with the tip of his blade pointed outward towards the mercenary. He was falling fast towards the ground and at the mercenary at the same time. But once Einn got about ten feet from the mercenary he spun his blade around, this slowed him down to the point that he fell straight to the ground, which was only about two feet from him, once on the ground Einn dashed towards the man and ducked down, letting go of his blade with his right hand he made a fist and went to bring it up as if to upper cut the man in the chin.

[Tarn Isazu]

When the mysterious man moved back and out of the way, Tarn new he had to act fast with the rock. The mercenary went for a strike in the bushes where the man had fallen, but found nothing there. Suprised by the disappearance of the man the mercenary looked around agrily. He caught a glimse of the man in a tree right as he disappeared.
"Damn, he's fast." the mercenary said to himself. "Hey kid, get ready to defend yourself, I don't know if I can take him." the mercenary said to Tarn.

'Don't worry about me.' Tarn thought with confidence. Tarn had to concentrate on his fire spell if his plan was going to work. At that moment, the man had upper cutted to mercenary in his jaw. The mercenary fell back, caught himself, did a back flip, and landed flat on the ground. Wiping the blood from his mouth he said "You are very fast. I'll give you that." Tarn had finished his fire spell. All he had to do was apply it to the rock and send it flying. He didn't need his concentration anymore.

"HEY, ATTACK HIM AGAIN." Tarn yelled to the mercenary. The mercenary looked over at Tarn with confusion but decided to go along with it. The mercenary lunged at the man again with fierceness in his eyes. Not caring if the attack hit or not, Tarn slammed his hand with the energy of fire into the rock, wound up, and cast the rock behind where the mercenary attacked.

'Dodge that' Tarn thought to himself.

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn saw the mercenary coming at him. It was an easy dodge, something was wrong though. If this guy was really a mercenary, he should be better then this at a close quarters combat battle. Something was a miss. Just then he noticed it, behind him there was something flaming flying at him.

‘Was this the boys doing?’ He thought to himself.

But by this time the mercenary was coming fast up to him. Einn quickly blocked his attack with his Bastard Sword, this pushed him back a bit, but this is where Einn’s thinking paid off. As he went back he jumped into the air and did a back flip over the flaming rock that was heading at him. Now it was aimed right at the mercenary.

‘Ha! You still have it Einn.’ He thought to himself as he landed on the ground. Turning to the boy and walking over to him slowly with his blade in his hand.

“That was a nifty little trick you have there… I am sure you loved using it on that poor man’s shop back in town!” He yelled at he rose his blade.

[Tarn Isazu]

Tarn watched as the mysterious man dodged the mercenaries attack. 'That's it, move right into it' Tarn thought to himself. He saw that the man noticed his flaming rock. 'Hit him, hit him!' Tarn hoped.

The man blocked the mercenaries attack and did a backflip over the rock. "Damn" Tarn yelled.
"Watch out!!" He yelled to the mercenary. Tarn caught the mercenaries attention. The flaming rock hit him right between the eyes. His face burned from the heat of the rock and of the flame around the rock.
"AHH, OH MY GOD WHY!!!" the mercenary yelled.

"Sorry, the guy moved." Tarn worried. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"YOU THREW A ROCK AT MY FACE, NO I'M NOT OKAY!!" the mercenary screamed in anger. Suffering seemed to be all over his day.

The mysterious new guy was walking toward Tarn now.
"Who are you and why are you bothering us?" Tarn asked the man as he gripped his staff.

"I did no such thing in that shop. I just went in to see if the jewel I had was of any value." Tarn told the man.

Tarn was really hoping that the mercenary would recover and help him. The man's blade was too big to fend off with a dagger...

[Rain Ishikura]

Einn smiled evilly once again as he stopped short a few feet from the small boy standing in front of him. Knowing all to well the boy could throw another flaming rock at him, or stick, or something that was on fire it seemed. As he stood there he quickly took a quick look around with his eyes at the area. The clearing was about fifteen feet around in diameter; there were some small bushes and shrubs behind the child to the right or him, then a couple of tall trees to the left. Not wanting to take a look behind him due to the fact the boy could whip something else at him; Einn took his blade and lunged it into the ground. Once his Bastard Sword was sticking out from the ground he crossed his arms over his leather vest that was covering his chest.

“Well boy… My name is Mudo… And I am a mercenary you see… Now if you don’t know Mercenaries take on jobs other people don’t want to do. Like capture criminals, kill people off, or even something simple like helping them find something in the forest. And you see I was hired to bring you back alive to that shop keeper in town.” Einn’s eyes narrowed as he spoke as if he was getting angry with the boy.

He then carelessly turned around looking over at the other mercenary. Closing his eyes, but yet staying on guard; he began to sigh and shake his head. Uncrossing his arms and reaching down to his blade with his right hand. Taking hold of it then lifting it from the ground, dirt and small rock rose with the blade and fell to the ground as the blade came up from the ground. Swinging the blade in circles in his right hand on his side and quickly transferring it to swinging in front of him then moving his left hand to his right and transferring the blade to his left hand still swinging it around in circles. Once in his left hand he came to a stop with the circular spin to his blade and hit it against his bronze leg armor; making a clinking noise to show the mercenary he was still right in front of him.

“Now, if you still intend to protect this boy I will have to use some real force on you… What will you say to that?”

[Tarn Isazu]

Tarn watched as the man made the most evil face he had ever seen. It was almost inhuman. He thought to himself 'He knows almost all the tricks i have. 'What can I use against him now?'

"Well, Mr. Mudo, why were you hired to take me back to the shop? I didn't do anything." Tarn asked the man.

Mudo was swinging his blade around which kinda made Tarn feel uneasy. Tarn started chanting the magic words for the fire spell. He planned on putting the flame on his dagger this time, since this Mudo guy had seen most of Tarn's alternate arsenal. The mercenary felt filled with energy by the thought of having an actual fight instead of this sidestepping crap. He got up and picked his sword of the ground. The mercenary held his sword with the hilt up, as to slash sideways. He held it in a defensive position.

"I don't want to die and I don't want anything to happen to him." The mercenary said, gesturing to Tarn.
Tarn took a step backward to put some distance between Einn and himself.
"Woa--" Tarn tripped over a rock and started to fall. He grabbed a tree branch to hold himself up. The tree branch wiped him back up, and flung him around the to the other side of the tree. Tarn's expression was horrified when he saw what he was heading right for. Bam. Right into a giant spider's web. Tarn and the mercenary looked at each other in horror.