Chapter One

"Well, another wonderful day at school, and another boring-ass day to boot." She sighed as she walked home from her bus stop. It was a mild fall day and the sun shone brightly through the foliage overhead cutting weaving patterns across her face as she strolled leisurely to her home three blocks away. The breeze blew softly through her fine, but thick mane of hair parted to one side and it wafted a few rebel strands into her face. Usually her hair in her face would have bothered her but she couldn't put it back because of a recent haircut to shoulder-length and today she didn't seem to mind.

"Lemme see now…I have Geometry page 247 numbers 9-21, Western Civ chapter 11 section 4 to read, and a Lit essay to write. On top of that I have to go to art, but I love art so really that doesn't count." It was the same thing she did every day in her average life, walk home from her bus stop, reviewing the homework from the day and plotting out her daily activities. It may have been trivial, but her mind was always cluttered and if she didn't keep all of her thoughts in order, everything would go straight to hell. Even the littlest things mattered.

Now remembering all that she was required to do, she continued her walk home staring off into the baby-blue sky above and marveling in its beauty. She loved the feel of any breeze, warm or cold, flow through her hair and kiss her on her rosy cheeks. Hiking was one of her favorite pastimes, coming in second only to painting and cooking. As she continued musing over petty things floating through her subconscious…a tremendous, earth-rocking explosion was heard from no more than 100 feet in front of her. She shrieked, thinking that her life would be cut short, and fell right onto her posterior. When she recovered from the shock, she dusted herself off and jogged ahead to see what could have possibly caused such a noise in her insignificant town.

Houses, trees, fences, all flew pass her in a blur as she continued towards the direction of the sound. Even if she hadn't heard the sound, which she would have had to have been deaf not to hear even though she did have her moments of sluggishness, the crowd gathered around what looked like a crater certainly would have drawn her attention.

Mumbles of "Who are they?" and "I wonder how they got here." Were heard through the thick wall of human bodies. The girl slowly squeezed her way through the mass, being careful to remember her manners saying "Excuse me, pardon me." When she got to the center, four teenage boys, clothes completely tattered and looking just as equally ragged themselves were sprawled out on their posteriors staring at the crowd of people all gaping at them.

"Get out of here! There's nothing to see, so what are you people doing just gawking at these poor boys! And you people didn't even bother to help them! Jeeze, where were YOU when they were passing out manners? For crying out loud!" she screamed as she began shooing away the crowd, some indignant and others shamed. She helped the four boys up, meanwhile dusting them off and studying them with her brilliant forest-green eyes.

"So, it seems that you three have gotten yourselves into quite a bit of trouble, no?" she asked with a stern visage splayed across her face.

One of the group, tall and handsome looking man with short white hair just scowled at the girl for even daring to reprimand him.

Two of the four, one with tawny hair, the other with auburn hair, blushed in embarrassment at being chastised by a female, especially a HUMAN female. Their cherubic faces, flushing as they were with a rose pink, made the girl's heart melt right out of her chest, and she blushed in return for seeming so forceful and severe.

The last teen, ostensibly the one in charge although also the quietest, did not show any emotion at her comment. He replied, "Yes, well obviously. But if you'll excuse us please, we need to find out where we are and how the hell to get back to where we belong." After so concisely stating his mind, he turned around and started walking away from her and the trio fell behind him, with the two angelic ones looking back longingly, pleading her to explain to them what was going on and to get them out of their unruly predicament.

As she watched them recede into the distance, she lost control of herself. Usually when she had just got done showing kindness to strangers, she at least had received thank you's and sometimes even rewards.

"WAIT ONE DAMN MOMENT SIR! Just who the hell do you think you are? I helped you, and now you think that you MAY be able to get back to where you were just by walking? I DON'T THINK SO! You're all going to need some help with this, so stop being such a stubborn ass and " she blushed again at her sudden outburst as he turned to look at her. The other three, perplexed by her forwardness, stood staring wide-eyed at her. She then said quietly and daintily, "And of course, you're all probably hungry, and tired and you need some new clothes. Please come to my house with me. You shouldn't be TOO much trouble."

One of the boys with a cherubic face and a huge collar reading 'H' pranced over to her and smiled while batting his long eyelashes and saying, "Oh c'mon Kiba, we can't deny room and board from a pretty young lady like herself. Plus, I'm hungry…" And just as to prove his point, his stomach growled loudly.

"Well, you're always hungry, but I won't deny help from you miss, even if you are a bit…loud…at times. And you can stop calling me 'Sir,' my name's Kiba and that is what I would prefer to be called. The tall, surly-looking one is Tsume, the youngest is Toboe, and the one with the collar is Hige."

"Well, then let's get moving! My house is only about a block away. I'm a good chef and I love to cook, especially for new people. And you can all take a shower when you get there because, no offense or anything, you all smell like something my cats dragged in…" but she was cut off before she could finish.

"CATS! You have cats!" Hige screamed. The others all had looks of worry plastered on their faces.

"Well yes, of course, if you're allergic I can…"

"No, no," a sly grin rolling across his face, "Cats are FINE."

'I definitely don't like that look on his face, but I guess it's just nothing.' She thought.

"Oh! And my manners! Where have they all flown off to? My name is Sumi. Hajimemashite."

Sumi led the way with Hige and Toboe trailing her every step, asking questions, getting answers, some that they didn't like, but getting their answers nonetheless. Tsume and Kiba stayed behind a little ways confident that if they were separated, they could easily find their way back together again.

"Do you think we can trust her?" Tsume asked with somewhat of a skeptical tone, his face mirroring his tone of voice.

"I'm not sure, she seems ditzy and polite, this is nice but it is odd. We can't stay with her for long; we have to get back to our home. Although I feel that it is easier said than done." Kiba replied.

"I was afraid of that."

"Well here we are." Sumi piped up from the front of the group. "It sure isn't much but it's enough for me." The house was a small typical Japanese-style two story home with sliding paper and wood doors. A long snakelike walkway led up from the street and was presently coated with a thin layer of dead leaves that crisped under their feet as they walked. Many flowers and other forms of growth surrounded the porch area and continued down the side of the house acting as a gate into an unknown land.

The four teenagers gazed at the house as if they had never seen such a thing before in their entire lives.

"What, haven't you guys ever seen a house before?" Sumi asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm, and adding a bit of a giggle at the end.

"Not like this we haven't. This is way ancient to us." Replied Hige.

"So you really aren't from around here are you? Are you from a big city?"

"Nope, this is just new."

"Well, it's chilly out here. Let's go inside, then we can get you all cleaned up, fed, and then maybe we can do something to get to know each other."

'Oh for the love of the moon, not games, please, anything but games!' Tsume thought. He had never been the one to be fiddling with such foolishness and on top of that, he wasn't what you would call "a people person."

Sumi turned her brass key in her door and entered followed by Hige, Toboe, Kiba and finally Tsume. They all gasped at the interior of the house, except for Sumi of course who just looked at them knowingly. Almost everyone had this reaction when they entered the anteroom of her home.