Personally, I've never been afraid of the dark. Then again, I didn't have the eyes of a cat either.

This person definitely had some sort of night vision.

After Haruhi decided I didn't have the sight of a pack wolf, she grabbed my wrist and lead silently through the forest. Her feet didn't break a single branch. I, on the other hand, stumbled through the forest like a drunken leopard. It didn't seem to bother Haruhi though . . . she was a God after all.

I was still having trouble believing that.

We suddenly stopped and I almost plunged straight into her. Watch where you're going!

"I forgot, where do you live?"

It took you this long to ask me?

"Just . . . keep going forward . . ." I said with a defeated look.

Before I was able to finish my sentence she started to pull me like a child's favorite doll. My wrist was beginning to hurt . . .

"You're so slow so stop complaining!"

Was her response to my grunting. Whatever . . . let's just hope she doesn't lead us off a cliff . . .

Is it me or is this forest really . . . quiet. Usually there would be bugs chirping away, maybe the rustling of a raccoon who decided to check up on who was making such racket. It was quite erie . . .

Before I could ask Haruhi why the forest was a definition of silence, she suddenly stopped again. I was prepared this time though and halted alongside her. We stood there for a few seconds before she decided to let go of my wrist. I welcomed this gratefully until I was suddenly pulled off my feet by my shirt. Before I could protest, Haruhi plunged through the forest, ignoring the graceful way she was walking before.

"What the . . ." I managed to spit out as air rushed through my lungs a bit too quickly.

"Damn . . . I should've known it wouldn't have been so easy . . ." she muttered.

So easy? Yeah well who cares how easy it was, can you just slow down a bit?

"No I can't. They'll catch up to me."

"Wait, who?"

"Stop asking questions. I need to concentrate."

I wouldn't say she was concentrating, more like breaking everything in her path. Is it too late to ask for it to become eerily quiet again?

We continued on, barley missing a tree, climbing up a small hill, rushing across a small stream . . . all the while I hovered in the air like a noose. No forget that, Haruhi was the noose and I was the unfortunate soul to meet the noose. Except I wasn't a criminal or anything, more like an innocent bystander who was accused of murder. Yeah . . . I need to breath.

Haruhi stopped and I collapsed to the ground breathing deeply. What has she been eating? I'm seriously exhausted. You would think that herding cows and stuff would take a lot of strength but . . . I was definitely put under the weather there. Or maybe it's because I always slacked off.

After my breath was caught, I stood up carefully looking over to Haruhi.

I noticed that we had somehow circled around to the river again except we were standing on the opposite side. How far did we run, or should I say, she run? Wait . . . we did cross it before?Did we turn around? I must've been so out of that I didn't notice. Well, there goes the sharp observation skills I highly praised. Not that I could have observed anything while she was running like that.

The second thing I noticed was that we weren't alone.

On the opposite side of the river stood another girl with dark robes. Haruhi seemed to glare at her like she was someone who had betrayed her. I was starting to wonder if I should just go until the girl on the opposite side began to speak.

"Nice day isn't it," the other girl said.

. . . Did I drink something? What is wrong with me. Can't anyone answer this question?

"Go away."

Haruhi's golden eyes seemed to pierce the other girl through the heart.

"I did promise . . . I just wanted to get it back."

Before I started guessing what object she was referring to, something materialized from next to Haruhi.

That basket?

. . . huh?

Did I really not see it disappear before or . . .

I'll just ignore what just happened . . .

"Here take it. It's pretty useless anyway."

It seemed important to you before. After all, you did grab it from me like a child who was letting his friend play with his favorite toy.

"Useless to you maybe but we need it."

You know . . . they are completely ignoring me here.

The basket hovering beside Haruhi disappeared again and the other girl seemed satisfied.

. . . Was that it? The girl paused and looked over towards me. What was that look? It seemed familiar. If I thought back hard enough, it looked a lot like that stare Haruhi gave the stars. Loneliness . . .?

"Get going!" Haruhi demanded. You don't need to be so forceful . . .

"I know . . . I did promise."

She keeps talking about this "promise". Good grief . . .

Shortly afterward . . .

"Guh! Why did she scare me like that?"

Haruhi began to rant as she stormed towards the direction we were heading before, minus the wrist pulling. Miraculously, life had returned to the dreary forest. Haruhi paused in the middle of her rant and glared at me.

"Well?"

"Huh?"

"Direction. Lead."

Sigh . . . fine. I walked ahead and Haruhi looked at me expectedly. I wanted to ask who that girl was but . . . I knew that she wouldn't answer my question.

"So slow!"

And her yelling at me was making this worse.

Sooner or later we got out of the forest and met the clearing. I know what you're thinking, a cow farm in the middle of a forest? It was a clearing that was at least ten miles long. Since it was still pretty early I decided to lead Haruhi along the edge of the forest, possibly away from the watchful eyes of the guards. Yeah . . . this isn't an ordinary cow farm if it could be called that at all. I looked over to Haruhi who seemed to be pouting. What is it now?

"Too normal."

"I warned you already didn't I?"

"Yeah but there is no way I would believe in a moron like you."

Well thanks a lot.

We headed towards a shack.

"What's that?" she asked pointing towards it with disgust.

"My house."

"You can't be serious! There is no way I'm going to sleep in there!"

"Who said you were staying with me?"

"I did!"

"Well go ahead and take that back if you want. I'll definitely be happy about it."

"Shut up."

During our spat, we had cleared enough ground to see the fence my sister had been sitting on earlier. She probably went inside to rest. Haruhi kicked a rock at my feet and I glared back at her.

"What was that for?"

"For being so lazy. You don't even have a proper house. I feel sorry for your little sis."

First of all, I'm not that lazy. I do admit it at times but not enough to doctrine myself as the laid back, ignorant, commoner. I have my moments. Second of all, you don't know what I've been through, even though you call yourself a know-it-all "God".

It looked like all that information I just fed her didn't pass through her ears since she dully looked back at me.

"Fine, as long as I get your bed."

. . . Good grief (again).

Slam

The door which was hanging by two hinges was forced open by the tornado named Suzumiya Haruhi. I was starting to wonder how much energy this girl had for the millionth time until my sister barged in.

"Where were you?" she asked in a worried voice, completely ignoring the fact that our door was almost split in two. Yeah . . . thanks a lot . . .

Haruhi on the other hand briskly walked through the door like it was her own house and peered into the room my sister had come from.

"Terrible!" she muttered. I could hear her mumbling other curses as well as she entered my sister's room . . .

"Disgusting!"

"What is that?"

"This is a bed!"

"Humans!"

I wondered if that was her form of shouting "God!". . .

. . . Damn, what happened to my disbelief?

My sister, who was looking at me suspiciously, headed over to me who was the dumbfounded bastard. She started complaining about whoever burst through our door until Haruhi decided to show her face again. I was hoping that she would disappear out the window in my sister's room but . . . my hopes are bit too big I guess.

"That's it, this place needs a makeover. Redo everything!"

"Why?"

Haruhi glared at me until she noticed my sister who was contemplating whether to call the guards over. Haruhi's face immediately softened and she walked over slowly. What are you doing now?

"Don't worry, I'll save you from the cruel depths of your older brother's failure to do anything with his life."

Stop being so melodramatic! As if you weren't exaggerating enough already. . .

My younger sister looked at Haruhi for a second, then started to grin in my direction. Wait a sec . . . it's not -

"Are you a friend of Kyon's?"

-like that.

That's fine too though. Haruhi looked up at me then gave me a wicked smile. I'll have to mark this down in the Expressions-That-I-Should-Avoid list. Even though I just met her, this list is climbing to dangerous levels. How much paper will be needed?

"Friend . . ."

. . . She said this like she was trying to seduce me or something. I really have to be on my toes around her don't I?

"Nope. Kyon here is going to allow me to stay here and borrow his bed."

She said this like she was going to borrow my eyes from my eye sockets so that she could finally see. She really needs to stop being so . . . energetic. It's starting to piss me off.

In the end, I showed Haruhi to my room in defeat, though her reaction to it was like her realizing that the eyes she had acquired only allowed her to see colors and not shapes. My room turned out to be worse off then my sister's, in her opinion. I was starting to wonder if she was some spoiled princess or something because of her spoiled rich kid sort of feel. Sorry it's not the palace in the sky with rainbows and unicorns.

Before she got it into her head to steal my sister's room, I brought the only table we had from the kitchen over to my room and put the ripped up futon an top so the "bugs wouldn't crawl over her in the dead of night". I wondered if she had a fear of bugs or something, though the thought was pretty hilarious. Even a Goddess thought termites and mosquitoes were a pointless addition to the food chain.

I opted to sleep outside, the cold wooden floor didn't really look welcoming. And I had wasted all the padding I had on the Goddess's luxury.

I thought over the day deeply, pondering the "what to do now" and looked up to the stars again. I had met a God. If what happened with that mystery girl was any proof at all then . . . then that basket was pretty suspicious looking. I would never believe in something like "fate" or other words related to it. All I knew was that my life was going to change and I knew in which direction it was going to change. Straight down towards the abyss of ignorance.

Was it then when the gears started shifting?

The stars kept me company until I saw a figure in the distance. The only thing I caught of this shadow before drifting into unconsciousness was of the short hair drifting around her face like snow.

Again, the opinion of the people matter so cast your review! (great now I sound like I'm asking people to vote for me or something . . .)

Happy Fourth of July everyone!