-CHAPTER ONE-

"DON'T LET HER ESCAPE!" Yelled the man to his soldiers. He wasn't about to let her slip away from his grip. He had worked so hard to capture the girl and he wasn't just about to let her escape. Meanwhile the girl was doing all she could to run away. She summoned all of the magic she could and blasted it at the man and his comrades. The man dodged it but some of his soldiers got blasted with it knocking them out. Her magic wasn't strong enough to kill them but it was enough to either knock them out or slow them down. She kept running down the streets of a blown up and worn down town making sharp turns here and there. She was tired, physically drained, and worse. She had little strength to work with but her adrenaline rush kept her alive. She never stopped to look back, she never thought twice about something, and she would never stop running because if she did she would lose the battle. Suddenly the man and his soldiers stopped, froze up in fear and ran away. The girl though she had won this round but a giant shadow hovered over her making her whip around and draw out her kunais in a defensive position. Suddenly a large and low growling noise filled the quiet atmosphere and then a three glowing red eyes showed up and popped out of the shadowy building. Suddenly a giant, dirty green reptile monster showed up and the girl started to attack. One moment she was there and the next she was already jumping off the second story ledge ready to plunge her kunais into the monster's head. It was like the monster was two steps ahead of her and without warning the monster knocked her out of the air with his tail. The monster bellowed and laughed saying "You really think I would let a little human girl like you kill me?" The monster laughed again. The girl slammed against a wall before falling down to the ground. She landed with a loud thunk but she was still alive and breathing. She was panting for air and clutching her side in pain. She was now scared and afraid she would die. The monster then started to moved his claws towards her like he was about to plunge it into her heart when someone or something that seemed like a black and blurry figure flew past her and scratched two out of three of the monsters eyes. The monster hissed and screamed in pain as he covered his eyes. "I still have one eye left you fool. I will kill you." The monster shouted. Then a hiss filled the room. It wasn't the monster's hiss but it was another hiss. Suddenly the same black and blurry figure came down on the monster and sliced its head off killing it on one swift motion. The girl sat there frozen in fear as she saw the monster fell to the ground. The figure landed with it's back in front of her. Suddenly she saw a tail or thought she saw one swaying around on the figures back side. Then the figure turned around and looked down on her. Suddenly the figure crouched down low enough that she could see a face. It was a boy. His blonde hair swayed around, his bright blue eyes enticing, and she quickly noticed a pair of black animal ears on his head. Suddenly everything clicked in her head. The tail, ears, the scratch marks on the monster, she realized that he was one of the cat people just like the men who were chasing her. She scooted back up against the wall as fear filled up in her face. The boy reached out his hand quickly saying "No! Wait! I'm not gonna harm you." He paused for a moment but that moment was long enough for the girl to pick up one of her kunais and point it towards the boy in a defensive yet threatening manner. The girl then said "Stay back. Don't come any closer." The boy didn't listen to her and replied "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I only want to help you." The boy inched closer slowly towards her and kept his arm outstretched in a friendly way. The girl refused to trust him and pointed the kunai closer to the boys throat. "Stay back! I'm warning you!" The girl shouted. The boy then replied "I mean no harm. Just let me help you." Suddenly he noticed blood coming out of some scratched on her legs. "You're bleeding. Let me help you before it becomes serious!" The boy then adrenaline rush started to fade away and she began to black out. Her defensive position started to crumble as she dropped her kunai along with her arm. Her head swung down as she began to black out. Suddenly the boy started to shout to her trying to get her attention shouting "HEY! GIRL! DON'T YOU PASS OUT ON ME!" The girl's eyes drooped shut and she passed out from exhaustion and blood loss. The boy worried about her grabber her weapons and hooked them on his side. Then he carefully picked up the girl and carried her to a safe place far away from danger. Once at the safe place he carried her into a bedroom and laid her down on a bed gently and started to tend to her wounds cleaning up blood and dirt that might infect it. A couple hours later the girl woke up and when she saw the boy she scrambled back in a panic and reached for side as if her weapons were there but they weren't. Suddenly she used any strength she had recovered to cast an attack spell on him but it didn't work. She was still too weak to do anything and the boy only sat there trying to talk to her. "Calm down, Please. I only took you here so you could be in a safe place. I only wanted to help you out by keeping you safe and helping you." The boy pleaded. There was some sort of sadness in his eyes but the girl ignored it and kept herself in a defensive position. She said nothing but the boy kept staring straight into her eyes. This was troubling to her because she was told many horrible stories of cat like people who attacked and killed her people which made her hate the cat people. The boy finally sighed and looked away in disappointment as he couldn't convince her to let him help her. "Fine. I'll leave you be." The boy said. Suddenly the girl looked down and sighed too. She then said "Fine." Nothing else came out of her mouth and the boy seemed happy to help her get better. The boy pulled up a chair next to her and started to talk to her as he helped heal her wounds. "By the way my name is Rafe and yes I am of the cat people." the boy started to talk to her telling her a little bit about himself. "I was told to not hate regular people or humans like you but when I saw you I couldn't hate you. Something in me stopped me from hating you." Rafe said.

The girl winced in pain as her wound was being cleaned out which made Rafe say instinctively "I'm so sorry if I hurt you but this wound here really needs to be cleaned." After talking and cleaning up Rafe finished bandaging and cleaning the girl's wounds. "There all done." Rafe happily said. Suddenly both of their stomachs started to growl which made Rafe chuckle and it made the girl grab her stomach in embarrassment. Rafe exhaled then smiled and said "How about I get us something to eat." He left the room and went to get some food. The girl was processing what she just hear. The name of that boy sounded familiar but she couldn't remember where she had heard it. It was just like she had it on the tip of her tongue. She was lost in thought when Rafe came back in with some food. He had cooked up some pizza. Rafe's voice interrupted the girl's thoughts as he said "Hey I brought you some pizza." The girl flinched in place a bit and rafe chuckled a bit as she said "Sorry if I startled you." The girl looked at Rafe for a split second and then looked away. "Here. Have some ummm…" Rafe paused then chuckled as he handed a plate of pizza to the girl then said, "I'm sorry miss but I didn't get your name." The girl took the pizza cautiously then looked at Rafe and said "Renee. My name is Renee."

"Renee. That is a pretty name for a girl like you." Rafe said. Renee, That has a nice ring to it. Rafe thought to himself. Renee looked at the pizza for a bit but then started to eat it trusting Rafe enough that it wasn't poisoned by him. "Don't worry Renee. It's not going to kill you. It's just pizza." Rafe said in a friendly way to Renee. The two continued to eat until they were both full. Rafe took care of the dishes and let Renee be for a bit. It was late in the evening when Renee got up and walked across the room to look out the window. As she walked across the room she grabbed her weapons and put them back in her holsters that were strapped to her thighs. She finally reached the window and it was opened. She placed her hands on the window ledge and looked outside. There was nothing but hills and trees for what looked liked miles. The cool summer breeze flowed through the window and it kissed Renee's face softly and cooly. She felt at peace. Rafe walked in quietly and saw Renee all content. Wow she is pretty. Rafe thought as he just stood there gawking at Renee. After a few seconds Rafe left and let Renee be. He hadn't realized how red his face had gotten until he looked in the mirror. Rafe went into the bathroom and he ran some cold water and splashed it on his face trying to get rid of the red that covered every square inch of his face. After a few minutes the red went away and his face was back to normal. As Rafe finished drying off his face he started to walk outside. He wandered around the perimeter of the house when he saw Renee sitting in the backyard of the house. He didn't know how she got outside in only a short amount of time. Renee was still troubled by Rafe. His name was familiar but she still couldn't remember where and how she had heard it. It bothered her so much that she had to find out more, but she didn't want to become to suspicious so she decided to forget about it. Rafe had walked up to Renee and sat down criss cross. "Hey Renee. I didn't expect to see you outside so soon." Rafe said. Renee responded by saying "I just wanted to feel free like there are no responsibilities I have to take care of before my summer break ends."

"Really? What kind of responsibilities do you have when it isn't summer?" Rafe asked.

"Family Responsibilities really. I get bombarded by them all the time." Renee Replied.

"Well that must stink. At least you get to have fun." Said Rafe.

"Yeah. I guess it's fun here." Renee said.

The two just then sat there in silence and did nothing for the next few minutes before it started to get dark really fast. The two called it a night and went inside. The two stayed in separate rooms and went to bed. It had been a tough, long, and tiring day for the both of them which made it easy for both of them to fall asleep.

-END OF CHAPTER-