The forest was silent. Not a single bird dared to chirp in this tense atmosphere.

Golden eyes gazed calmly at the fearful animals. Only he dared to move.

"You've taken your time in coming to me, Rei."

The young man gave a low bow.

"Forgive me, my king," he apologized. "I had to ascertain her safety before I could leave. But she is very much alive."

A figure stepped forward from the shadows of the trees. Eyes the color of the sky gazed upon the boy.

"She is safe?" he asked.

The boy frowned and gazed back to his king.

"She is, for the time being. A Sendrick has his eye on her. She was safe, before, but it seems that he brought her into the wood, Milord. He brought the eye of the Demons onto her."

The silent atmosphere exploded into terrified chatter all around.

"We must make haste!" the king ordered. "If the Demons get to her, there will be no saving her." He turned back to the golden-eyed boy. "Rei, inform the Sendrick queen of everything that has occurred. More than one innocent life is at stake, here."


The sky was clear and beautiful. She could see through the mountains for miles. On any normal occasion, Miku would have felt terrified to be in the top branch of one of the tallest trees in the forest, let alone adding the fact that she was on someone's shoulders.

Then again, she always felt secure when she was around Len.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it?"

The little girl looked down at the boy to see him looking up at her with clear, blue eyes. Unfortunately, she also got a glimpse of the distance between her and the ground.

With a squeal, the little girl shut her eyes and held onto Len for dear life. The boy just gave a soft laugh and reached up to grab her hands.

"Careful! I can choke, you know!" he teased. "It's okay to open your eyes. You'll be safe, here, as long as I'm with you. I won't let you fall down."

"B-but looking down makes it scarier!" she objected.

He laughed once more.

"You're missing the view!"

She closed her eyes tighter.

"Don't you trust me?" he asked. "As long as I'm here, you won't fall down! I promise."

Carefully, she opened one eye, and then the other. The view was truly something wonderful.

"Y-you're right!"

At the sound of her own voice, she stopped speaking. It sounded deeper, older, somehow. She looked at herself to see that she had grown up, too.

"Len, what's going on?" she questioned.

The boy didn't speak to her.

"Len, you're scaring me!"

He turned to her with a smile of ice.

"Careful, Miku, or else you'll fall."

She shook her head.

"But you just said I wouldn't!"

"Don't you remember?" He vanished in an instant. "You didn't want to stay with me."

As Len vanished, so did anything that held her up. Even the branches disappeared as she began plummeting to the ground.

"This is the path you chos

Miku screamed as she awoke in her bedroom.

"Miku, are you alright?" Luka called as she ran into the room. The beautiful woman rushed to her niece's bedside.

"He left!" she cried. "He left because I told him I didn't want to be with him!"

Luka gave her niece a quizzical glance.

"Who left, Dear?"

Len, she answered silently. But she found that she didn't have the strength to say any more words to her aunt as she broke out into sobs. It was her fault he was gone. He had loved her, but she had pushed him away.

It was all her fault.


So, yeah. What can I say but an apology? It's been a bit of a rough year for me. But there have been some good things too. In the bad department, I went on some medication to help me with a physical problem and ended up making my emotions go haywire. Needless to say, I'd rather live without it. Then I had some friends that just went all strange and mean-spirited on me and a bunch of other people. So much for that.

On the good end, I've been doing good at my job and have gotten lots of hours (part of the reason I haven't been writing, a lot). The friends that I've kept I've grown closer to. And one of my friends had a happy, healthy, baby boy!

My biggest issue, this year, was a bad case of writers' block, though. I feel like I had an idea for this story and it just left my mind. Well, it's back, and even better than before. I won't promise weekly updates, but I'll try to post a chapter whenever I get the chance. I need to get back into the habbit of writing, again, and I've got some cool ideas for this one! Thanks to all of those who have held on with me, this long! I hope you continue to enjoy these adventures with me!

Yes, I know most of this was already posted, but I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can! Thanks again!