As Neige and Rene walked through the barren wasteland with the full moon shining above them, Rene broke the silence by asking "So even if we find her, are we sure she can help us find what we're looking for?" Neige narrowed her eyes and said "She has to...She just has to." Rene looked with concern towards her friend as she could almost see Neige's emotions racing towards the surface. This worried her because Neige hardly ever let her emotions show through, and when she did, it was always about the same thing...Rene grabbed Neige's hand gently to stop her. "Rene? What's wrong? We really need to keep moving." She noticed that Rene was looking down at her gloved hand. "They haven't gone away...Have they?" Neige felt Rene's soft hand brush over her own. "No...They haven't." Neige said softly. Rene began to remove her glove and as she did, Neige felt a rush of emotions well up in the pit of her stomach. As Rene looked down at her horribly scarred hand, Neige's memory of that day rushed into her head. She remembered the pain, agony and anger stronger than she would have liked to. She shook her head and snatched her glove out of Rene's hand and put it back on her own. "Let's not do that again, okay? We have more important things to worry about." Neige said frigidly. She promptly turned around and walked swiftly towards the horizon. Rene frowned and began to follow her friend again. Not a word was spoken between them.
As the two friends came to the top of a hill they both gasped at what they saw. It was a massive, beautiful pond with a circle of lush green trees growing around it. The reflection of the moon shone down onto the pond, setting everything ablaze with a silver light. "This has to be it." Rene said breathlessly. Neige shook her head as she stared wide eyed at the breath taking sight in front of them. They both carefully walked down the hill and into lush foilage, and as they weaved in and out of branches, Neige heard Rene cry out loudly in pain. Neige quickly looked back and saw her friend's curly hair had caught on a branch. Neige couldn't help but let out a small snicker as her friend struggled against the branch holding her. "You can stop staring at anytime and help me out ya know..." Rene said, annoyed. "Oh alright, I'm coming." As Neige kneeled down to untangle her friend, Rene said. "Hey, I'm really sorry about earlier. I wasn't thinking. I can't even imagine how that must have made you feel." Neige looked down at Rene, a bit surprised but said gently "It's okay. I guess it's just that everytime somebody brings it up, I let my emotions get the best of me. It's just that it's not exactly easy to talk about."
"I suppose so." Rene suddenly gasped as her hair snagged, but was suddenly relieved when she found that she was free. "Ahhhh, much better! Thanks!" Neige smiled and said "Just know that if it happens again, I won't be there to save you." Rene looked at her friend and gasped and began to yell at her comically as Neige strided away.
They felt like they had been walking for hours when in reality it had only been one. Rene sighed and asked "Can we take a break? Me feet hurt..." Neige looked back and said "Oh come now. All those years in service should have made you tough. So no complaining." Rene pouted and said "Yeah and I even complained back then...So don't tell me not to complain."
"Maybe you're right, after all, it is one of the things your best at." Neige said as she closed her eyes and smiled. Rene suddenly stood up straight and proclaimed "Yeah? You think I'm weak? Well I'll show you! I won't lose to you!" She then shot past Neige who pulled out a hankerhief to cover her nose and mouth from the dust Rene had stirred up. Neige sighed and took a moment to look up at the sky. She suddenly felt a wave of sadness wash over her as she remembered her and Rene as children and how happy they used to be. Their parents would sit out on the porch and talk about the daily going on's of the town while their children would play. Neige made a silent promise that she would bring back those days no matter what it took.
"NEIGE!" She suddenly heard her friend cry out to her. Neige began to run towards Rene's voice and as she came into view she gasped at what she saw. It was a girl with short pink hair and compleatly red eyes and Neige could smell the scent of flowers coming off her. It was Cheza.
