AN; I am very, very sorry about not updating recently, and I most certainly don't feel like explaining myself. I will add new characters as we go along through this, possibly and OC or two, but nothing more.

Town of Redwood

Population: 12

Sylvar Fox - cocoa brown hair, misty-blue eyes, female (Fighter)

Zanaver Fox - black hair, gray eyes, male (Fighter)

Fruian Fox - dark brown hair, gray eyes, male

Magora Kittouch - blonde hair, baby-blue eyes, female (Half-Elf, Druid)

Davros Woodsheart - blonde hair, blue eyes, male (Gnome, Wizard)

Alulove Magesblood - auburn hair, green eyes, female (Elf, Ranger)

Caistine Magesblood - ginger hair, green eyes, female (Elf, Ranger)

Eldak Droverson - black hair, green eyes, male (Human, Cleric)

Krisora Droverson - dark brown hair, gray eyes, female (Human, Bard)

Jamben Droverson - dark brown hair, green eyes, male (Human, Druid)

Leokas Duskwalker - black hair, gray eyes, male (Human, Fighter)

Gratumal Dawntracker - blonde hair, blue eyes, male (Elf, Fighter)

Chapter One

The wind blew hard that day. It blew through the trees, knocked over small children carrying buckets from the well, and tangled itself through everybody's hair. The rain had come the day before, sent by the gods to seemingly drown out the people of the town, and the lightning had struck Magora Kittouch's house, sending it to dust in a burst of flames and ash.

Fruian was lying in his bed, as usual, coughing away, probably. Zanaver was off doing whatever he did when he wasn't back at home, ordering around his siblings. That only left Sylvar to do all of the work around the house. Magora would have helped if she hadn't had building a new house already to worry about. So Sylvar watched as Jamben Droverson and Gratumal Dawntracker were pushed around by the wind when there came a knock at the door.

It was dusk, the sun setting slowly in the mid-summer sky, yet it wasn't very warm this past week. Travelers were always looking for places to sleep, since their tents were too cold inside of them for this weather. Sylvar had seen quite a few pass through Redwood, but none had stopped to try her house. Most-likely from the loud sound of coughing coming from Fruian's room, and the coughing was still coming from there, even louder, now, than before.

Sylvar left her comfortable spot by the window and pulled open the door. "Oh, hi, Leo."

Leokas Duskwalker just stood there, on her doorstep, waiting to be let inside. Sylvar let out a sigh and obliged, opening the door more to let him in. He soon made himself at home, settling down in a comfy chair beside the fire. The pot of stew was sitting over the fire, bubbling. The smell made Sylvar's stomach growl, but she must remember the rules about the inn. In fact, she could just see Krisora standing over them now, waving her annoying little finger as she always did. "You only eat once everyone else has eaten, half-pint."

Sylvar sat down on a wooden seat beside Leokas, her nose twitching, her stomach's needs almost unbearable now. "So, I was out in the woods today, and met a couple of goblins," Leo said proudly. "Raiding a carriage, they were, and a royal carriage from Maple-Bridge, no doubt. Carrying the princess Nutmeg, actually. In fact, she's here right now. Anyways, I decapitated those goblins so fast, and the princess was all on her own in the carriage, driving it herself. So, she gave me this." Leo reached into his pocket at that and pulled out a leather bag, which he then handed to Sylvar Fox. "500 gold pieces. So I told her about Redwood, about you and Fruian, and she wants to have a word with you both. How's that?" Leokas gave a cheeky grin as Sylvar stared at him with wide eyes. Was he really this stupid?

She put her face in her hands. "Leo," Sylvar muttered. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Leokas Duskwalker looked utterly confused. "Uh, sorry, I don't think you heard me right," he said. "I said, the princess Nutmeg of Maple-Bridge wants to talk to you and Fruian because of me. And, the 500 gold? I'm giving it to you guys. You need it. After you parents, you know, disappeared."

Another loud knock at the door made Sylvar jump. It most certainly wasn't Krisora. She, after all, did not knock on the door of her own inn. Slowly, Sylvar got up and cracked open the door. There before her stood a very rugged girl with tangled brown hair, and green eyes. "Erm, is Leokas here?" she asked. "I'm Nutmeg, from Maple-Bridge, and he said to come here when I got here, so, here I am."

Sylvar raised her eyebrow. "Maple-Bridge, huh? Sorry, we don't trust people from outside our town, and I'm afraid that either way, I can't let you in. This isn't my Inn, it's someone else's."

With that, she closed the door in the girl's face.

"What!" Leo exclaimed. "Sylvar, you are such a moron!"

"Hey! I prefer the term mentally challenged."

"Whatever. I'm leaving. I guess this is what I get when the only thing I've ever done is try to help!" Leokas stood up from his chair and walked out the door, where he gradually began to walk away from the Inn with that Nutmeg girl.

Sylvar watched them walk away, and felt a pang of sadness in her stomach. It wasn't her fault. She just didn't like strange girls coming around, asking for Leo. He was, after all, her best and only friend, unless you counted your younger brother as a friend.

Coughing from the hallway made Sylvar turn around. There was Fruian, standing there with his blanket. "I thought Leo was here," the little boy managed to say between his coughing. "And a girl name Nutmeg. I heard his story. Sylvar, one day, I'm going to go on adventures, just like Leokas does. But everyday, I'm going to come home so I can visit with the girl I like. Even though I don't like anyone. Why aren't there more girls here, Sylvar? All the kids my age are boys, and none of them want to play with me."

"Leokas doesn't really adventure," Sylvar explained. "He just wanders around in the woods he knows, looking for trouble. Real adventurers never come home to visit the people they love."

"Leo does," Fruian argued. "Zanaver visits us, too."

Sylvar laughed. "Zanaver doesn't love us, Leo, he comes back to get money that we need to pay Miss Krisora. And please, Leokas doesn't love anybody. His parents didn't think much to love him, either."

Fruian stuck out his lower lip, about to argue, then thought better of it. He turned around and stomped up the stairs, hollering back, "Leo does to! He told me so!"

Then there was the slam of a door, and Sylvar flopped down in her chair. She let her brown hair fall gently across her face, and tried to remember a time when life wasn't so hard. In fact, it was easy. Their parents had been Fighters, both of them. They had taught Zanaver and Sylvar how to be good Fighters, so they could hunt for food and protect Redwood. When a letter had come in, ordering all of-age Fighters and Rangers to Maple-Bridge to fight for the army against goblins. Their parents had never returned, though they had left Maple-Bridge once the fighting was over.

"Why am I such an idiot?" Sylvar grumbled into her hands as the door flew open once more to reveal Krisora Droverson. She looked quite annoyed as she shuffled her little son, Jamben Droverson, into the Inn. "What was he doing outside all alone?" the woman demanded.

Sylvar rolled her eyes, still hidden behind her fingers. "He's thirteen, he can look after himself," she growled.

Krisora gasped. "He's still very small, Sylvar Fox, or hadn't you remember you've got your own brother who can go fetch water as well?"

"He is not in any condition to be stepping outside," Sylvar snapped back. "I will be back whenever I please, and don't worry, when I come back, I'm not staying."

With that, she grabbed the bag of gold Leo had brought her and stormed out the door.

Krisora was right, it was very windy, but nothing a thirteen-year-old couldn't handle. Sylvar herself was nineteen, as was Leo. Fruian was eleven, and their older brother Zanaver was twenty-four.

Sylvar raised her fist and knocked on Leo's door. He answered, still looking quite upset. "I'm not taking it back," he growled, motion toward the gold.

"Well, I wasn't going to offer it back," Sylvar told him lightly. "Actually, I was here about Fruian and I. I left the Inn, and if I leave Fruian there too long, Krisora is sure to take advantage of him soon. So, I'm asking for you to take care of him. Because I'm leaving."

Leo just stared at her wide-eyed. "Sylvar, I can't, because I'm leaving, too," he whispered. "I'm going off farther in the woods to adventure."

They just stared at each other for a moment, Leo's gaze locked with Sylvar's, until a gentle cough came from behind Leokas. "I can watch your brother."

Great, it was Nutmeg, the girl from before. But now she looked a lot calmer, and as Sylvar observed her, the girl looked very boney.

"No thanks," Sylvar replied angrily. "Actually, I've got a better idea. Let's just leave him with Davros. I mean, he's got money, and he has never turned down a request to help Fruian before. Leo? What do you think?"

Leokas tilted his head to the side for a moment, as thought pondering over the idea slowly in his mind. Finally, he turned back to Sylvar and replied, "I guess it would work. Come on, stay here tonight, and we'll set out tomorrow morning." Sylvar obliged, closing the wooden door behind her and sitting down on a bench at one of the tables. Leo owned a tavern, the Sleepy Dragon, and it wasn't even closed to being full tonight. Actually, it was a lot smaller than usual, the amount of people there. Sylvar watched Nutmeg go down the stairs to the sleeping quarters of the guests, and Leokas helped Sylvar up stairs to where he resided. He showed her to a small room, where Sylvar flopped down onto the bed.

It was a cold night for summer, and Sylvar found herself huddling deep down in the covers, her face buried in the comforter. She remembered Fruian, all alone in Krisora's Inn, where he had probably been thrown out into the living room, where the fire would have gone out by now...

When Sylvar finally woke up, it was to the sound and shouting from downstairs. She dragged herself out of bed, pulled her clothes back on, and walked silently down the steps. Nutmeg was pulling herself to a standing position from where she had apparently fallen, slipping on a bit of water. Probably off some traveler's shoe. Leokas never soaked up dirty floors, or cleaned floors in general. There wasn't much of a point, Sylvar Fox supposed, seeing as it just got even dirtier straight after cleaning.

Leo himself was eating an apple, and he tossed Sylvar one. She caught it and ate in within minutes. "So, we're leaving?" she asked after a moment, throwing the apple core into the bin. The travelers were now just getting up from downstairs where they had spent the night, and some glanced curiously at Leokas and Sylvar as they conversed. Leo merely shrugged. "I suppose so," he grumbled. "Nutmeg isn't coming with us. Actually, she's going home right now."

That night, they still hadn't left, because Leokas had had to close up his tavern. Sylvar lay awake in bed, and just as she was drifting off to sleep, she heard a cry from the town square. She bolted out of bed, down the stairs, and outside where somebody was stumbling through the mud. The rain was beating down hard on the ground, and Sylvar could make out a second figure standing beside the stumbling one, not helping whatsoever.

Sighing, she welcomed them both inside the tavern, where Leo got the two people food and drinks.

Both figure turned out to be female. The first was a small girl, about fourteen, with rich red-velvety hair, tipped with silver, and green eyes. She had a softly-set face and wore a deep red cloak lined with gold. Fake gold, of course, merely a color, and two hand-knives lay untouched, in their sheaths at her sides, one on each hip. The second was taller, with bright ginger hair and green eyes. She was wearing jeans and a white top, which was now stained with mud from her struggles. There was also a staff she had, redwood no doubt, curled at the end and engraved with a fancy leaf-pattern.

"I'm Soulie Luna, by the way," the taller girl managed to say through a mouthful of soup. "This is my friend, Katherine Walker. I happen to be a cleric."

The smaller girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say," she grumbled. "We're on our way to find adventure. Thought we'd just stop by here. I'm an assassin, work for her."

Sylvar raised an eyebrow. "Do you guys get money for adventuring?" she asked.

Katherine snorted. "Do we get money, she says, of course we get money! Why else would we do this, for the experience?"

"Do you mind if I come with you?"

Soulie Luna shrugged. Leo looked nervously at Sylvar, who stood up, stretched, and pushed her chair in. "Sylvar Fox, fighter," she said, shaking both the other girls' hands. "Glad to be traveling with you."