"Wat'cha doin'?" the silver-haired boy asked his friend, peering over his shoulder.

"Oh, hiya Luneth." said the tiny boy, looking up at his friend. "I'm just readin'."

Luneth let out a loud noise halfway between a moan and an annoyed sigh. "Arc, do you always have to read?! It's stupid! And besides, you haven't even turned the lights on!"

And it was true. It was so dark in the tiny hut that Arc had to strain to read the miniscule black print on the yellow pages bound together in leather covers.

"W-Well, Luneth, y-you see..."

"You're not supposed to have it, are you, Arc?"

"..."

Arc looked down at the floor. His stuttering in front of Luneth always gave him away. And Arc did have a tendancy to take what Topapa called the "Forbidden Books" off the high shelves and read them in secret, putting them back neatly as they had been found before their guardian had come back to check.

"T-T-Technically, I'll be allowed to read it next year, when I'm six." Arc said innocently.

"No you're not!" Luneth exclaimed. "I'm six and I'm not allowed to read any of the Forbidden Books!"

"Well maybe Topapy thinks I'm a better reader than you!" Arc had stood up and the large book fell to the floor with a muffled thud. A layer of dust from the unswept floor rose up, and the bickering buddies had a coughing fit. At that moment, the door to the hut opened, and light poured in, revealing Luneth, Arc, and the large maroon book lying on the ground.

"Arc! Luneth!" cried the man who stood at the doorway. It was Topapa, the village Elder. "What are you two doing with that book?"

"He had it, Topapy!" Luneth said innocently, yet pointing violently at Arc's red face. "I told him to put it back, but he wouldn't listen!"

Arc's gaping mouth closed and began to twitch. Soon he was sobbing uncontrollably, large, fat tears streaming down his small round face.

"Oh, Arc, don't cry!" said Topapa, walking up to him and lifting him into his arms. "There, there, it's alright. It's just one book..."

Luneth let out an exageratted cough from next to them, and looked up at Arc with a frown.

"How about we go outside to a place with...a little less dust?" Topapa suggested. Arc, who had calmed down, nodded.

Outside, the three sat on the warm grass. Luneth had brought the book with him.

"Ah, the tale of the Legendary Warriors, hmm..." Topapa muttered to himself, opening the book on his lap. "Any particular reason why you chose this book, Arc?"

Arc's face turned red again, and said very quietly, "It looked pretty..."

Topapa laughed. "Well, that's a good enough reason, right? Never judge a book by it's cover, they say! Hey, how about I read this to you two?"

"Yeah!" "That'd be cool!" the two children chorused.

As Topapa began to read from the Forbidden Book, Luneth and Arc found themselves spellbound to each word. The book told of Four Warriors of Light, and how they came to defeat an evil mage who, instead of being given immortality as his colleagues had, was given mortality, and became sought on destroying the world. Once the story was over, it took the two a few seconds to leave their trance.

"Exciting, isn't it? What I'd give to go on an adventure like that!" Topapa exclaimed with relish.

Luneth nodded. "I want to be a hero, too! Don't you, Arc?"

Arc nodded jerkily. What the Warriors of Light did sounded dangerous!

"Look, why don't you two go off and play?" Topapa suggested. "You can both be heroes another day."

Luneth and Arc stood, legs stiff from sitting so long, and ran off to play in a nearby meadow.

"You 'kay, Arc?" Luneth asked after an hour or so of playtime. "You seem...lost."

"Oh!" Arc jumped. "I had just been thinking -"

"Like always."

"- that the Four Warriors of Light were also called 'Onion Knights.' That's kind of an odd name, don't you think?"

"Nah, they just did that to keep the vampires away," Luneth replied, tossing a giant rubber ball at Arc.

Arc caught it with ease. "Really?" Arc threw it back to his friend.

"Yup," said Luneth as he caught it. And they began to play catch.

As the sun began to sink behind the trees that outlined the tiny village of Ur and the sky became pink and purple, Luneth and Arc finally began to head for home. On their way, Luneth picked up a fallen branch and swung it around, mimicing - very poorly - the actions of a swordsman.

"Ewww, it's Luneth!" cried some of the meaner kids, also heading home. "What are you try'n' to do, Luneth? Become a Warrior?"

"Yup," he said, not realizing that he was being made fun of.

"Luneth, I think you should -"

"It's okay, Arc!" Luneth reassured him. He tucked the branch in his belt and began to walk home with him. "We'll show them. We'll be heroes one day, too."

"Like the Onion Knights?"

"Yeah, but instead, hmmm..."

"What should we be called?"

"Hmm, I dunno. Maybe, yeah..." He turned to the bullies, who were still watching and sniggering. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called, "Hey, guys! You better not mess with us from now on! 'Cause starting tomorrow, we're gonna be the Onion Kids!"

Fin

In this story, Arc is five and Luneth is six. So, since they're very young, they're very naive. Hm, Luneth moreso than Arc, I wonder why.

I learned the term "Onion Kid" as the default FFIII job class, and only until FFIII came out for the DS did I realize it was actually "Onion Knight" as others had told me (and I so stubbornly did not believe). So as I played FFIII DS, I thought to myself, "Hm. In the original FFIII I could have sworn they were all boys ((as the artwork depicts)). Maybe these are different Onion Kids?" So I based this story off of that concept that I cooked up. I hope you liked it.