Quick note before the chapter begins: the cover art for this story was drawn by me. You can find a larger image of it on my deviantART profile.

Run!

By the time the morning was reaching its later hours, a crowd had gathered around a sparring Corbin and Dust in the town square. The duels between the two were always a form of entertainment in themselves — despite his young age, Dust was already proving to be a competent fighter and Corbin himself was no slouch — he'd taught the young Warmblood well and although he still had an edge over the teenager with his age and experience, the two were nonetheless close in skill.

"Come on, Dust!" Corbin shouted encouragingly as he parried another blow from his pupil. "Keep at it!" Dust smirked and feinted a few times as his teacher made a few jabs of his own.

"Here I come!" Dust yelled back as he landed a few blows with his wooden training sword before cartwheeling around Corbin to land a strike in the back. Corbin stumbled, earning a few gasps of suspense from the crowd as they watched the spectacle. The pair continued back and forth for a few more minutes until finally Corbin disarmed Dust and floored him, keeping him trapped on the ground under his foot.

"How'd I do that time?" Dust panted, a small smile creeping onto his face. Corbin smirked proudly back and lifted his foot, holding a hand out.

"Ten minutes — new record," the guard said, helping Dust back to his feet. "You're getting better by the day, Dust."

"What can I say? I've got a good teacher," Dust pointed out. Corbin laughed as the crowd dispersed and they went to take a drink of water by the statue of Sen-Mithrarin.

"Well, I've got a role model to live up to," Corbin shrugged, indicating the statue. Dust glanced up at it again as he opened his flask. Corbin had said that Sen-Mithrarin had helped him out as a boy before — since then, Corbin had strived to become as strong and fearless as his hero. Dust could see how dedicated his teacher was to achieving this.

"Doesn't everybody want to follow his example?" he noted.

"Probably," Corbin admitted. "Though I've yet to hit the one thousand hit combo that he was able to do."

"A one thousand hit combo?" Dust spluttered in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Told you he was good," Corbin chuckled. He paused for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the young boy recovering his energy next to him. "Who knows? Maybe someday you'll be as good as him," he smiled, almost with a nostalgic tone to his voice.

"You think I could be that strong?" Dust said.

"Anything's possible provided you put your mind to it," Corbin replied, patting the boy's head affectionately. "Alright, that's enough for today," he decided. "Pick things up this weekend?" he suggested.

"Sure, no problem, Corbin," Dust grinned, dusting himself off and packing his stuff up. "I'll see you then."

Waving a last goodbye to his teacher for the day, Dust headed back home — announcing his presence again as he walked through the door, he noticed the absence of a certain Moonblood.

"Elder Grey-Eyes already left for Old Bram's?" he asked as Ginger came in from the garden with a basket of herbs under her arm.

"He left not long after you headed out," she explained. "How was training?"

"Managed to last ten minutes in a duel with Corbin this time," Dust grinned proudly. "He reckons one day I might be as good as Sen-Mithrarin." The briefest of pauses and the sound of Ginger dropping the basket onto the table did not go unnoticed.

"Did he, now?" Ginger said, her voice cheery without being forced. "You must be getting pretty good then, if that's the case." Dust shrugged off the basket-drop as a reaction of surprise to the comment.

"Did he really manage to get a one-thousand hit combo?" he asked. Ginger laughed.

"Oh, heavens if I know," she replied. "Knowing how good he was, I wouldn't have put it past him." Dust lay his gear down in its usual spot by the front door and walked over to the table, leaning on his elbows as he watched his mother beginning to prepare herbs for her next medicinal brew.

"So…whatcha need doing this afternoon?" he asked, remembering that he had chores to do before he got lunch and preferably he wanted to get those done as quickly as possible — he had a picnic to prepare after all.

"Upstairs needs cleaning and the laundry needs doing," his mother responded without hesitation. "Also, the feverfew needs trimming and the sage needs watering." Dust nodded and went to grab the brush from under the stairs. "Mop, Scamp!"

Dust refrained from cussing out loud.

Dust had admittedly tried to get his chores done in record time but given that his prank had given his mother a bigger heart attack than usual, she'd been particularly fussy about the quality of his work and had refused to let him out of the house until not a speck of dust remained in the upstairs rooms and the feverfew had been trimmed back to the point where each stem was the same length. As such, he'd pretty much rushed a Louta Nut and a handful of Feeble Fruits before packing a picnic (with Ginger's help). No doubt practically everyone else in the village bar Kalyn would have had a proper lunch…

Ignoring his growling stomach, louder than normal due to the smell of food coming from the basket tucked under his arm, Dust made his way to Mordecai's shop as fast as he could without dropping anything. Much to his embarrassment, Kalyn was already standing outside waiting.

"What took you so long?" she asked playfully.

"Mom was being picky," Dust excused. "I hope you're hungry." There came a loud rumble which caused Dust to wince.

"Well, I can tell someone definitely is," Kalyn snickered. "Come on, let's get going before you pass out." Dust smirked.

"Okay, if you're so worried about my physical wellbeing, why don't you take the basket the rest of the way?" he snickered.

His quip earned him nothing more than a sharp slap to the shoulder and Kalyn making a joke about he had no idea on how to act like a gentleman.

Not long after, the two friends were sitting at their favourite spot at the top of the cliff overlooking Aurora, as well as the rest of the valley. The spot provided a beautiful view of nearly all of Falana, ending at the Blackmoor Mountain range and the Everdawn Volcanoes all the way to the north. As the two teens tucked into the kim-baps and cupcakes Ginger had helped Dust prepare, they also sat in silence for a while, simply taking in the view as they always did.

"You know, I'm never going to get tired of this view," Dust said after finishing a kim-bap. Kalyn smiled next to him after taking a sip of water from her flask.

"I'm with you there, Dust," she agreed. "It's never the same twice up here… It's beautiful."

"Makes you wonder what all these places look like up close," Dust said thoughtfully. "I've really got to get round to asking Mom if we can go visit other places around Falana at some point."

"You've never been outside Aurora?" Kalyn blinked in surprise.

"Well, there was that one time Gianni sent me to Ivydale Glen to do his laundry," Dust winced. "Mom had a few words with him after that."

"Don't blame her — the guy's a jerk," Kalyn remarked dryly. So don't get short with me when I plan to prank him! "But aside from that?"

"Mom's taken me to Abadis Forest a couple of times," Dust admitted. "But never been to Denham — Mom's been there a few times on deliveries but I've always been left taking care of things back home while Tristan does all the medicine stuff."

"We've been to Denham a couple of times, just to see how things are doing," Kalyn explained. "Mom doesn't like going back too often, though. Bad memories and all." Dust nodded sympathetically. It was well known throughout Aurora that Sarahi came from Denham, which was destroyed by an insane Moonblood fifteen years ago. Sarahi had been the only survivor of the massacre, which made her relate to Ginger on a personal level as Ginger was the sole survivor of the destruction of her own home village the year before Denham was destroyed.

"How is it holding up, anyhow?" Dust asked.

"They're doing well there, actually," Kalyn replied. "The Moonbloods there have really helped to get it back on its feet."

"Yep," Dust nodded decisively. "Need to get Mom to take me there at some point." Kalyn smiled and took a bite of a cupcake before a thoughtful glaze crossed her face.

"Say, Dust…" she began. Dust hummed in response before swallowing his food. "Do…do you ever wonder where you came from?"

"Where'd that come from?" Dust frowned.

"It's just that…" Kalyn winced. "…I was just wondering if you ever thought about it."

"What? Just because I'm adopted?" Dust asked.

"I don't mean it in that way, Dust!" Kalyn protested. "I'm just curious, that's all." Dust sighed and thought for a moment.

"To be honest — no," he replied. "No, I don't think about it." Kalyn asked why. "Why would I? It's not like it bothers me that Ginger's not my real mom. No one knows where I came from anyway. Mom found me in the Glade as a baby, remember?"

"But if you had the chance to find out where you came from, would you take it?" Kalyn asked.

"I don't know," Dust shrugged. "Like I said. It's never bothered me. Besides…" he paused with a happy grin spreading across his face. "…I couldn't ask for a better mom.' Kalyn smiled.

"Yeah…you're right," she nodded. "And Ginger sees you as her son regardless. You really are lucky." She took a bite of the bun she was holding, squeaking in surprise when curry spurted out, narrowly avoiding her dress. "Eek! Especially when she makes curry buns like these," she giggled.

"She did not tell me about those!" Dust cried excitedly, digging the other curry bun out of the basket and tucking in gleefully. Kalyn's giggle turned into full out laughter at her best friend's glee — every child loves his mother's cooking, but she had yet to see a light in someone's eyes that matched Dust's whenever Ginger made her trademark curry.

"You might as well take the rest of the day off," Kalyn laughed, struggling to breath through her smile. "Your day's been made."

"You bet it has!" Dust grinned, wiping curry sauce from his nose (he knew Ginger would scold him for the stains on his arm wraps but he could replace those easily and use his current ones for scrap). "She's the best…" A comfortable silence fell between the two friends once more as they looked towards Aurora. Kalyn's smile softened as she spotted the glint of the midday sun off the Sen-Mithrarin statue.

"I guess all of Sen-Mithrarin's work really paid off," she remarked.

"You're full of weird thoughts today, Kalyn," Dust noted sarcastically. "You want Mom to check that up for you?" That earned him another smack.

"I'm just saying, this peace…it's all thanks to him," Kalyn pointed out. "Without him, Mom and Dad may never have gotten together after what happened to Denham."

"Yeah, and the Moonbloods might as well be extinct," Dust agreed with a sad sigh. "Can't imagine what it must have been like to know him."

"Dad's always singing his praises," Kalyn giggled. "Still has his autograph."

"Moska got Sen-Mithrarin's autograph?" Dust spluttered. Kalyn nodded in confirmation, explaining that he received it after they found Sarahi in the Hidden Cove east of Abadis Forest. "Man…that guy really was popular."

"Can you blame people for liking him?" Kalyn giggled. "He only went and saved an entire race of people and the whole kingdom while he was at it." Dust laughed and shrugged — true. That would put someone in a lot of people's good books for sure. Though something niggled him slightly.

"Can't imagine he would have been popular with the people on the other side in the war," he muttered. "That General Gaius guy…he couldn't have been fond of him."

"Can't imagine that he was," Kalyn agreed. "The grownups and the Moonbloods never speak about him."

"Don't blame them," Dust said, taking another bite of his curry bun and finishing it off with a few quick mouthfuls. "If Gaius was the one who gave them so much grief, why would they talk about him?"

"You're right," Kalyn smiled. After all, she knew how much her mother hated talking about what happened to Denham and the insane Moonblood behind the attack. If people didn't want to bring up bad memories that were the cause of some other person's actions, she wouldn't force them to talk about it. "Come on — finish up. We should be heading back."

"You got another shift in the shop?" Dust asked, brushing the crumbs off his lap.

"Just a short one," Kalyn replied. "I've got to help Mom look after Ivan and Mindy." When asked what her other brother, Dexter, was doing, Kalyn responded with: "Helping out at Geehan's farm. At least, he's supposed to be. He's probably loafing off again, knowing him." Dust nodded in understanding — no doubt his mother would want him to do a few more chores while she worked on something with Tristan. A bugle call broke through the tranquility of the afternoon, scattering the birdsong and almost putting a halt to the sound of the wind in the trees.

"What was that?" Dust frowned.

"That sounded like a military signal," Kalyn gasped, her eyes widening fearfully. Squinting down the cliffside, Dust's brow furrowed as he spotted something moving. Squinting further, he could see the colours that everyone in the kingdom of Falana recognised as the colours of the Royal Guard.

"What's the army doing all the way out here?" he wondered aloud when he relayed this to Kalyn. "Come on — let's hurry back."

With the picnic now packed up and the basket tucked under arm, the pair quickly scaled the cliff down to the valley floor and began running through the forest back towards Aurora Village. All the way, Dust couldn't help but feel an ever increasing sense of dread, like he was running straight into danger. This wasn't helped when cries of shock were heard through the trees. Running past the long abandoned and overgrown shack that lay west of the village, Dust and Kalyn skid to a stop just before the trees parted when they spotted Geehan's farm just outside the forest.

"Those are definitely Royal Soldiers there," Dust muttered.

"What do they want with the farm?" Kalyn murmured as the farm owners and their workers were led back towards the village. Dust noticed that the Moonblood farmhands were nowhere to be seen. Kalyn made to go after them but Dust held her back, waiting until all of the soldiers were out of sight before moving forward.

"Let's get a closer look," he whispered.

The pair reached the farm and ducked behind the wall just by the village entrance. The place was packed to the brim of soldiers from Royal Guard, and the fact that many were carrying spears and a myriad of other weapons told Dust that these guys weren't just passing through.

"What're these guys doing here?" he muttered.

"I don't see any of the Moonbloods," Kalyn noticed. Dust saw what she meant — none of the reptilian Moonbloods were around. "Surely they can't be…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Dust contradicted. "The war ended fifteen years ago." Why would the Royal Guard be hunting down Moonbloods now? The campaigns against them were long over and it was pretty much established, at least south of the Blackmoor Mountains and Everdawn Basin, that Moonbloods and Warmbloods now lived together peacefully.

The guards moved towards the centre of town, bringing the villagers with them. Dust and Kalyn shared a glance and nodded, moving forward after them and making sure to stay out of sight. They'd left the picnic basket at the entrance of town — they could easily pick it up later and for now it was just hindering their movements.

The situation was identical in the centre of town — the villagers were all outside their houses, with no Moonbloods in sight, being interrogated about things that Dust and Kalyn couldn't quite hear.

"Kalyn, go hide," Dust hissed. "I'll get a closer look."

"But, Dust…!" Kalyn whispered but Dust still insisted she got a better hiding place so she complied whilst her friend hid behind the nearest pile of crates he could see to get a better look as well as eavesdrop on some of the things the Royal Guard were saying. What he heard confused and horrified him.

"Answer me truthfully! Are there Moonbloods living in this village or not?!"

"The war ended! Why are you…?"

"Answer the question!"

So they were looking for Moonbloods. What did that mean for the Moonblood guards of the village? Where were they? It was taking all of Dust's self restraint to not cry out in defiance and reveal his hiding spot…

…but his breath hitched when he saw his mother being led out of her house.

Ginger's face was calm and stony, a stoic expression plastered unflinching on her face. She ignored all attempts from the soldiers to roughly handle her and instead walked calmly up to a soldier with a blue and golden plume in his helmet — the Captain of the Guard.

"Might I ask what all of this is about, Captain?" she asked calmly. The Captain seemed taken aback at her collected nature but nonetheless retained his air of authority.

"We've had reports of Moonblood sightings in this area," he replied. "We're merely here to confirm those reports."

"By treating the villagers in such a manner?" Ginger pointed out sternly. "With all due respect, Captain, I would appreciate it if you and your men didn't add to my already busy workload."

"You're this village's physician?" the Captain deduced, which Ginger confirmed. "My apologies, Ma'am. I've only ordered my men to gather information."

"Well, I hope you've found it," Ginger said. "Have you seen any Moonbloods in your travels through this area?" she asked calmly. "I assume this is your last stop. There's nothing west of this village."

"Our scouts reported that this village has Moonbloods as part of its guard," the Captain replied firmly, his voice growing darker. Dust bit his tongue to stop himself from crying out but he could see the fear flash through his mother's eyes.

"Don't, Mom…" he pleaded under his breath. He knew that his mother was, always had been and always will be a Moonblood sympathiser, as was practically the entire village at this point. It was kind of hard to not be one when you lived alongside them twenty-four-seven. But he knew how much her views, in this kind of situation, would put her in danger. "Don't try to act the hero…"

"And what of it?" Ginger asked boldly. Dust didn't know whether to cuss or to give into the pride swelling through his chest — his mother truly was an admirable woman in the way she stood up for her beliefs. But she'd lost everyone she loved thanks to those same beliefs… "The campaigns against the Moonbloods ended fifteen years ago. Or has the news not reached the capital yet?"

"Mind how you speak, Ma'am!" the Captain growled. It was becoming harder for Dust to hold his tongue and he carefully poked his head out from behind the crates. In doing so, he made eye contact with his mother — fear flashed through her eyes again but she did her best to hide it. "I am acting under the orders of my King and you, and the rest of this village, will answer us truthfully. Are there Moonbloods residing here?"

"So King Julius has failed to see the peace we now enjoy?" Ginger spat. "What have the Moonbloods ever done to incur his wrath?!"

There came a few cries of agreement but it resulted in multiple blows from the soldiers and grunts of pain which made Dust's heart wrench. Ginger was also visibly becoming increasingly distressed, losing her calm and collected nature quickly as the Captain towered over her.

"It matters not to you!" he bellowed, striking her across the face and sending her flying. There came cries of outrage from the villagers which masked Dust's own angered shout. "I suggest you watch your words and tell us what we're after."

"Can you see any Moonbloods here?" Ginger hissed from the ground, her sternness fizzling but her defiance nonetheless strong.

"We saw the guards for ourselves, Ma'am," the Captain snarled, towering over Ginger's fallen form. "So I know that this village is hiding something…more than just the enemies of the King." Ginger's breath hitched. "We have sources…reporting sightings of a creature that shouldn't even exist."

"What creature…?" Ginger growled back before grunting as the Captain lifted her back up by her scarf, her feet dangling a few inches above the ground. Dust felt his anger and fear rise even further.

"A Warmblood…a white fox," the Captain murmured, barely loud enough for Dust to hear. Dust froze — that matched his description. As far as he…and anyone else…knew, he was the only white fox Warmblood in Falana. What did the Captain mean by him being a 'creature that shouldn't exist'?

"A white…fox…?" Ginger repeated in a weak attempt to delay the inevitable. The Captain shook her as cries of protest from the other villagers went unheard.

"Answer me, or watch your village burn…!" he began until Dust could no longer contain himself.

"MOM!" he yelled Everyone's gazes turned in the direction of the crates that the blue-white fox-Warmblood was hiding behind and his eyes instantly went wide. Dust knew he was now seriously stuffed.

"DUST! RUN!" Ginger screeched.

Dust didn't need telling twice.

And now's the time where the Slime starts to hit the Dust Storm.

I'm going to be describing Dust as a white or blue-white fox throughout this story, mostly because that's the closest description I can get for his colour palette from official art – to me, it looks closer to white than simple pale blue. That is my reasoning for this description, and I know that it is up for interpretation, but for this story I will be describing Dust as white or blue-white. Also, slight addition to the updating schedule for this thing: Reborn from Ashes will now be updating on both Sundays and Wednesdays. As I mentioned in my profile, I have the story completely written (as if my modus operandi for publishing my stories on this site for the most part) so I should be able to keep a regular uploading schedule.

Feel free to leave a review on this story – I love hearing your opinions (no flames please, they really don't help) – and I'll see you guys on Sunday with the next update!