Note: My thought about the beginning of the game. Kinda bumped. I know Trent shouldn't appear here yet, but nyah, my fingers couldn't stop typing. If anyone's interested, I'll write some more... about Jumi arc, maybe? And, um, be kind, please? It's my first fic and English is not my mother-tongue... Oh yeah, the hero I used here is the female one. Well, that's all, I think. Enjoy the fic.

Disclaimer: Legend of Mana belongs entirely to Squaresoft... or SquareEnix, whatever their name is now.

Dream

She never felt had visited the place.

But still, the place came in sight in her dream.

Everything looked in blur, swallowed by blinding white colour that's everywhere around. Her body felt afloat, like it wasn't her own. Her feet stepped on in the mid of air, but looking down, there was no Earth to be stepped on either. Everything was purely white, like ray of sunshine that's solidified and folded the entire surrounding.

She looked up and witnessed before her, rotten and dying, an ancient tree in enormous size. Its roots dangled downward miserably like old giant arms. The leaves were swayed silently by imaginary wind.

"Find me, and walk besides me."

A voice talked, and everything went glowing, forcing her eyes to wince. The ancient tree had gone, replaced by the infinite white. Then the darkness came, and all vision went pitch black...

That was the time when Rane's eyes suddenly snapped open.

- - -

Rane went downstairs a few moments later, not forgetting to greet her trusted roommate, Li'l Cactus. Like always, Li'l Cactus only replied with that blank-like look of him/her. The very same look he/she had given when Rane told him/her her desire to start adventuring... To see the world with her own eyes.

Rane had used all the ways, words to explain to her roommate that she would try to go back home everyday. To explain that whatever adventure she would get wouldn't make her to forget her home, Li'l Cactus only gave her that look. And Rane knew that her best friend would always wait for her to come home, anytime, anywhere. Even forever.

While putting sticks that hold her hair in order, Rane stepped on the stairs reaching to the center part of her home. The furnace was still incited, like usual, blessing the entire room with light and warmth. She walked pass the WC Room under the stairs, straight to the dining table in the center of the room, located across the door to the Library. Rane then sat on a nearby chair and started picking a piece of bread and greased it with one of her favorite jam, made from Apricat.

Rane had her breakfast in silence, her mind wandering around about her dream. The dream had been visiting her for a whole week now, if she had counted. She also mentioned that the ancient tree had been wandering her sleep since she talked aloud about her adventure plan. And that voice... It was always the same voice. Always repeated. Always the same words. Does it mean anything? Is the adventure she'd had has any connection to the dream? And what... or for exact, who, the hell does she have to find in the end?

Rane huffed once, preventing other unanswered questions and more thoughts from flowing into her head. Enough to start such a day with stupid headache...

But those thoughts didn't seem to leave willingly, though.

Rane decided her first destination in her big adventure to be Domina. She knew all too well that she would go crazy if she leave this entire problem carelessly, so she hoped Meimei, the Fortune-teller could give anything, whatever her fortune-telling would come up to be, as tiny it may be as a clue to know more about this dream.

Finishing her breakfast at last, Rane rose up from chair and walked to a drawer near the furnace. She opened the drawer, then took a total of 100 Lucre from the inside. The money could be said as her savings, gained from selling produces to a merchant bunny accidentally crossing her land. Rane doubted the price was proper for Trent's hard work, though, having those seeds enough Mana to pour onto... But she couldn't ask for more. 'Least all these money was more than enough to pay for Meimei's 'retirement savings'.

Rane moved forward to pick her spear. A bit shorter than other common spears, the bronze weapon had been a company to Rane's trainings for the past years, and Rane believed, without doubt, the spear would turn out to be a trusted partner for her adventures.

Carefully, she opened the weapon's case, revealed it from the cloth covering, and strapped in on her back. Then she walked across the room, wave goodbye silently to Li'l Cactus, and grab on the door's knob. At the time the sunray hit her face, Rane was ready to start the adventure days she had longed to have.