Disclaimer; I own nothing but the plot.

I'm sorry about not explaining things yet, like I said I would. ;.; I tried, but the story would have gone waaaay to fast. I'll try and do that soon.

Enjoy.~

Rin POV

I'm having a bad morning. Nothing seems to be going my way. It's only noon, and I've already been forced out of my plans with friends, because I had some errands I had to run. I grabbed my wallet and ran out the door.

Now, I thought, what was I supposed to do first?

I pulled out a list, and skimmed through it. Groceries, laundry... The list went on.

Today's going to be a long day.

After finishing my chores, I decided to take a walk. Other than the slight chill, it was a beautiful day. I took my usual route through town, passing by many abandoned stores.

What happened to them? I wondered.

As I reached the turn near my house, I looked the other way. It wouldn't hurt to take a detour this time. I walked down a long dirt road, kicking around random stones. I eventually ended up at a large open field.

"How pretty," I said, walking through a patch of orange flowers.

I laid down and relaxed. I stayed there, just staring up at the darkening sky. I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to the sound of yelling. I sat up, rubbing my eyes. The moon was beginning to show. How did I manage to sleep this long?

I saw a group of guards - about ten, I presumed- running out of the forest. They seemed scared. They didn't have any weapons, which was pretty weird. I've never seen a guard without some kind of weapon on them.

I stood up and called after them. "Hey! What happened?!" They ignored me and ran towards the castle.

"What the hell," I mumbled to myself. Whatever they were running from was probably dangerous. But, although I was scared, I was equally curious. I've always been a curious person. My father always tells me, "Curiosity killed the cat," whenever I get myself in trouble.

I ignored the scared feeling in my chest and started for the forest.

As I got closer, I could smell something. It smelled as if it was burning. A fire?

Behind some shrubbery, I saw an orange light flickering. I walked around to investigate.

I could see the small fire slowly going out. I took out a water bottle I had bought, and drenched the flames. Making sure it wasn't still burning underneath this pile of ash, I grabbed a stick and poked around.

Nothing was intact, except a small clump near the middle. I rolled it over. Looking closely, the clump took shape. It looked almost like... a hand. Sure enough, I could make out traces of where the fingernails had been.

Oh... oh god...

I backed away from the burned corpse. This was what the guards were running from, wasn't it? I looked around. Who had done this? I was starting to get sick.

I ran away. I needed to find someone that could help. But, the guards are the only people who could help, and they ran away. So, what do I do now?

In the midst of my thinking, I hadn't paid attention to where I was running. I tripped over something, but thankfully stopped myself with my hands.

"What..." I looked back to see what I had tripped on. I saw a boy about my age, lying halfway covered by bushes, and halfway not. He looked just like me, from the blonde hair, to the cerulean eyes.

I was stunned. What was he doing here?

I kneeled down and warily shook his shoulder. "Hey...get up..." I murmured.

I looked down, and gasped. His leg was bleeding, and his clothes were torn. He was probably in pain.

What do I do? I can't just leave him here.

I ended up slinging his arm over my shoulder, so I could carry him to my house. Thankfully, on my way out of the field, I saw one of my mom's friends. Luka, I think her name was.

"Luka!" I yelled, getting her attention. She looked over at me. Thank God I got her name right.

Noticing the boy I was carrying, she rushed over.

"Oh my gosh," she exclaimed, "what happened?"

"I found him bleeding in the forest. Do you think you could get your husband out here to help me bring him to my house?" I asked.

She nodded and hurried inside. A minute later, her husband, Gakupo, came out. He rushed over and picked the boy up.

"Thank you so much," I said. He nodded.

Once we got to my house, he set the boy down in my bed and wrapped up his leg with some gauze.

"His cut is deep, but he should be okay now," Gakupo said. "Just let him rest, and he'll be fine."

I thanked him again as he walked back home.

I sat down at our kitchen table, mulling things over.

Who is that boy? How did he get hurt? What do I tell my parents? What do I do when he wakes up, which I imagine is soon, since Gakupo cleaned up his wound and stopped the bleeding.

But, what I couldn't stop thinking about, was how I knew this was going to change things. Whether for the better or worse, I didn't know, but I knew this strange boy would change things around this boring town.

Hooray for quick updates!

Uploading this chapter was a pain in the butt. .-. But, I think I got the hang of this now. c:

Review, please! It gives me more motivation to write~