Prince Squall threw his shirt on and slipped his pants on. He threw his cloak on his shoulders and slipped out the window. He had to make it back into his room before dawn or his mother would kill him for sneaking out again. He rode his horse griever into the stables and slowly crept into his room. He got to his door and slowly pushed them open.

"Safe" He said sliding to the floor his back pressed against the door.

"Safe from what exactly?" His mother said from the couch in his room. Queen Raine looked tired, and extremely aggravated to see her son walking into his room at such a late hour.

He groaned and made his way over to sit beside her.

"Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your whore."

"Mother..."

She held her hand up in silence. I have discussed marriage with your father and he agreed it was time for you to stop squandering yourself away, and settle down."

Squalls mouth dropped "Marriage?"

"Yes, I have found you a suitable bride from a neighboring kingdom, she shall be here in a few months to meet you."

"I don't want to be married."

She took his hand in hers. "You are the heir to the throne my son. It is your duty." She got up and walked to the door."Your father would like to speak to you this afternoon. There seems to be a problem with the trade routes again." She said with a sigh.

"Bandits?"

"Allow him to explain. He seemed very upset over the matter." She said as she quietly walked out of the room.

Squall's hand went to his forehead. He sighed and shrugged out of his cloak, slipped off his boots and threw himself on the bed. He would speak to his father in the afternoon, for now he needed rest.

Squall entered the kings meeting hall. His father was sitting at the table with his cousin Seifer, and his best friend Zell.

"Laguna" Squall gave a slight bow.

"Sit" Laguna motioned to a chair beside his own. "We have much to discuss."

"I hope this forced marriage is first on the list." He said taking the seat.

"Yes, that...Your mother thinks it's time you settled."

"Some girl I've never met?"

"Got caught sneaking out again, huh Puberty Boy?" Seifer said with a smirk

Squall promptly ignored him, and looked to his father for an answer.

"I'll make a deal with you. If you can find a suitable girl for yourself by the time it's your arranged wedding day I will call it off, if not you will go through with the marriage, you will however still court the chosen girl for now."

"Done."

"Now, the real order of business." Laguna placed his elbows on the table. "Groups of bandits have been raiding our trade caravans. One of the merchants informed me that a rogue has been fending off the bandits."

"I'm not seeing the issue here. Free protection over our caravans." Zell asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We cannot just have some vigilante roaming the lands without our consent, besides he also takes little from us."

"So what exactly are you asking us to do?" Seifer said leaning back on the chair with his feet on the table.

"Bring me this person, alive."

"So you summoned us all here to catch some vigilante?" Squall asked with his hand on his forehead.

"Precisely. I want to know how much he is taking from our caravans, and not have him just running rampant in our woods unchecked."

"Just kill 'em then" Zell said apathetically.

"Don't insult me. I won't kill without good reason." Laguna said with a shake of his head.

"So we just go out and bring the rogue back?" Seifer asked.

"Yes."

"Good. This should be simple" Squall said getting up from his seat. "We'll be back before nightfall then."

"Squall...be careful please."

"Whatever" Squall said walking out of the room. The last thing he wanted to do today was hunt some rogue.'

"Seifer..." Laguna said looking at his nephew.

"No need to say the words uncle...I'll watch him" Seifer said with a bow before following after his cousin. Zell gave Laguna a winning smile before running out after his two friends.

Squall knew Laguna was a fair and just king. He was more of a peacemaker more than a fighter, but when it came down to business of his kingdom he was dead serious. He was not a king you could cross and get away with. He had taken his mother's maiden name of Leonhart instead of Loire. He didn't want people to think mighty of him just because he held the same last name as the king. He wanted to build his own respect.

The three men rode along with the next trade caravan heading towards a nearby town. Laguna helped many of the surrounding villages by selling cheap goods to them. Higher quality goods could only be found near the capital. He also sent them military aid whenever they needed it.

Squall, Zell, and Seifer accompanied the caravan as it was traveling through the woods. So far there were no disturbances. When they noticed it had become a little too quiet, Squall had signaled the other two men to be ready for anything.

After a few moments of complete silence, an arrow hit the caravan cart, just missing the driver. A group of ten bandits came running out of the woods.

"PROTECT THE CARAVAN!" Squall shouted at his two friends and quickly led Griever closer to the caravan. He was dealing with five of the bandits on his side, while the other five were battling Seifer and Zell.

He kicked one of the bandits in the face. He drew his sword, and knocked two other men to the ground. Somehow one had gotten on top of the caravan and tackled Squall off of his horse. He quickly got up and noticed he was surrounded by five of the bandits. He quickly parried a blow from one bandit and punched him down.

An eleventh bandit showed up and ordered his men to raid the caravan and he wanted to deal with Squall himself. The leader bandit made his way over to Squall as his lackeys went to follow his orders.

CLANG CLANG CLANG. Their swords met each other with incredible force. A punch followed one of the swings of the bandits sword, hitting Squall square in the face. Squall quickly recovered and blocked another blow. He knew he could win this battle, as his foot work was far better than his opponent's. He used his speed to his advantage and quickly sent his sword flying at the bandit again and again, until he saw an opening and knocked the sword out of the bandit's hands. He swung his leg out and knocked the bandit over. Squall pointed his sword at the leader's throat.

The bandit smiled a toothless grin at him, and Squall heard an arrow soar past him. He looked behind him to see who it had hit. It hit the man behind him who had his sword over Squall's head ready to strike. He looked towards the back, into the forest and saw a hooded figure standing in a nearby tree with a bow drawn, with another arrow ready to be let loose. He heard another arrow soar past him, and hit another bandit in front of him. The hooded figure was then charged by another bandit who he quickly dodged and drew a dagger from his thigh. The bandit licked his lips again as he charged, but the cloaked vigilante was too fast and planted his dagger in the man's belly.

The bandit leader used this as a distraction and threw a dagger from his boot at Squall's shoulder. He kicked out Squall's legs, and Squall fell to the floor. Squall gasped in pain and the bandit leader rose to his feet, with another dagger ready to strike. He smiled his toothless grin again as he raised his arm to finish Squall off. Seifer who was still locked in combat with one of the bandits, turned and his eyes went wide at what he was witnessing.

The dagger was coming down on Squall, and he thought he was done for. Within a flash, a large wolf charged out from the forest and tackled the bandit leader. It growled it's large teeth in his face.

"It's...IT'S THE DIRE WOLF! GET WHAT YOU CAN AND RUN!" He said as one of his lackeys tackled the dire wolf off of him. The bandit leader quickly got up and ran into the woods. One other bandit who had stolen a bag of coins from the caravan was sprinting off into the woods. Squall quickly mounted Griever and followed after him. The man had made good distance, but Squall was gaining on him. An arrow flew past him and hit the man in the back. He looked to see the rogue to the left riding on the dire wolf's back. The rogue made it over to where the dead bandit lay, snatched up the coin bag and kept running.

*Oh no you don't* Squall thought. "YA!" He kicked Griever forward. He caught up to the side of the rogue riding on the dire wolf. His big black horse was the fastest in the kingdom. He would be damned if he couldn't catch up to this dire wolf. He quickly jumped from his horse on to the rogue tackling him to the ground. They hit the forest floor hard, and this rogue was much smaller than he would have thought. He opened his eyes to a pair of beautiful light green and brown ones, that knocked the wind out of him. Time seemed to freeze as his eyes searched her own. The vigilante was a girl who had her mouth covered with a mask. Before he knew what was happening the dire wolf tackled him off of the girl and he now lay flat on his back with an a large angry beast pinning him down. Griever nay in fear as his master was being held down.

"Fen! STOP!" The girl called out. She had ran over to the big wolf and held its face.

The wolf whimpered and got off of Squall. She patted the wolf on the head and it licked her hand.

Squall sat up and got a good look at the girl standing before him. She was a very petite girl, approximately a head shorter than him. Her hood had fallen off to reveal long chocolate brown hair, which was parted, some of it was tied and the rest was let loose. Her mask had fallen to reveal plush pink lips and tanned skin.

She turned to him and offered him a hand to help him up. He ignored it and got up without her help. "I don't accept help from thieves."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself." She turned to continue on her way when he grabbed her wrist. She turn around to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"I'm taking you-" Squall all of a sudden started to feel very dizzy. His vision was blurring.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked him, with a furrowed brow. He had his hand on his forehead.

"I'm taking you in" He said tugged on her hand.

"You don't look so good. Your paling let me-"

The last thing he saw was her concerned eyes, before he felt himself falling forward. His vision went black.