DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DUST: AN ELYSIAN TALE! IT BELONGS TO ITS ORIGINAL OWNER! I ONLY OWN RAPTURE!

They stayed in Aurora Village for a couple more days to ensure the Moonbloods would not come back. The village guards assured them as the army left that they would be fine. The small army would trek to the entrance of Archer's Pass where some bombers would pick them up and return to the capital. The trip to Archer's Pass would take a couple weeks and from there a two day flight in the bombers. General Gaius was at the front, Dust next to him. Dust and Ahrah had spoken that night after discovering General Gauis was alive. They both agreed that with the Moonbloods so hostile, trying to get to Elder Grey Eyes and speak to him would be close to impossible; even if the Moonbloods recognize him as a Sen-Mithrarin still. Ahrah wasn't even certain that going to the Moobloods would be wise at the moment, sensing that their hostility towards the Warmbloods might cloud their thinking and end up attacking Dust without realizing who he is. Another reason would be because General Gaius's soldiers were around and he didn't want to start any unnecessary fights or have them follow him to Everdawn Basin. Dust and General Gaius were chatting along the way to Archer's Pass, Dust pretending to be his friend Cassius as best he can.

"This reminds me of before you disappeared. The difference is is before we were stopping the Moonblood attacks. Now we're heading back to the capital for a little while," General Gaius said.

"Yes. It'll be nice to see Salina again," Dust responded.

"Your apprentice will be really happy to see you again, too," General Gaius told Dust.

"What do you mean 'apprentice'? I have an apprentice?" Dust questioned.

General Gaius had a dark look on his face, but it passed just as fast as it appeared. "Yes, you have an apprentice. Her name is Rapture and she has been your apprentice for six years."

Cassius had an apprentice? "What's she like?" Dust asked.

"She's a fast learner. She was ten when she became your apprentice and has learned allot since then. She's accomplished a few missions she was sent on, although they were rather easy scout missions. She's not old enough, however, to be on the battlefield so she stays behind when you go. Rapture is serious and stubborn at times, but other times she acts like a child. Her bad habit of staying up late at night sometimes to read a book has gotten her into more trouble that I can count when it came time for her training sessions. Your patience with her is outstanding. Normally you would not tolerate such behavior or have such patience, but I believe that her skills have surpassed your tolerance and had you find a little extra patience," General Gaius informed him.

"How did she even become my apprentice?"

"We were wandering through the city one day while she and her friends were playing. It was during their game that you noticed that her talents were similar to that of an assassin's. You knew her older brother was already in the army so you spoke to him about her. He even agreed with you and mentioned that she wanted to be an assassin when she was old enough to join. After speaking to her, she accepted the apprenticeship when she was a couple years older. Needless to say her parents were thrilled. After all, they, too, were soldiers just as were the rest of their lineage."

"It's easy to see where she gets her talents from. Her brother must have been happy to hear about that as well," Dust remarked.

"Indeed he was. When we thought you died a year ago, he pleaded that she not be informed until we were certain of it. He knew that she wouldn't believe it and might demand to search for you herself. Needless to say that she did exactly that when she was informed. The king refused her request, stating that he would not send her out on a useless mission after hearing the reports. She got reprimanded several times for trying to sneak out. Her training was transferred to another assassin as soon as she calmed down enough to continue."

"Will she still be my apprentice?"

"It depends. If it falls to her to make the decision of who will be her mentor, I believe she will choose you. You were her first mentor, Cassius, and thus she is just as loyal to you as she is to the king," General Gaius told him and laughed a little. "Of course, she has also been complaining about how her current mentor is boring and slow paced with the training."

"Then she'll be glad when she sees me I suppose," Dust said.

"Indeed she will be."

Two weeks later they had made it to Archer's Pass. Along the way they spotted Moonblood patrols, but they steered clear of them since they weren't causing trouble. The bomber planes were waiting at the base for them to arrive. Dust was a little uncertain, but he went aboard anyway to keep his cover. The pilots were surprised to see him and General Gaius told them what happened. Although they were relieved to see he was alright, they were worried about what supposedly happened to him. They stopped and rested at night and resumed their travel in the morning. On the second day they arrived at the capital. The palace towered over them as they landed on the castle grounds. Other soldiers gathered around to greet the returning group. They were surprised to see Dust, as they, too, mistakened him for Cassius. Dust wasn't used to any of this as he normally only had Fidget and Ahrah for company. He was grateful that at least General Gaius took over to shoo them off. It was only then that a shrill voice was heard shouting, "MASTER CASSIUS!"

Dust and General Gaius looked and saw a young grey wolf dressed in an assassin's uniform running towards them. She skidded to a stop in front of Dust, saying, "I knew it wasn't true! It just couldn't have been! I'm so happy to see you're alright, Master!"

"Um, hello," Dust said nervously. Master? Is this Rapture?

She tilted her head a little, asking, "Is everything ok, Master?

"Rapture, can I speak to you for a moment?" General Gaius said, taking her aside out of Dust's hearing range. Dust watched Rapture's face, going from a confused look to a shocked look then to an angry look. She said something back, but General Gaius shook his head and said something back.

"So that is Rapture. She is young and very energetic," Ahrah spoke up, no one else around to hear the sword speak.

"Yeah. She keeps calling me 'Master', though. I don't think I'm going to get used to that," Dust replied back.

"In order to pretend to be Cassius, it is something you'll have to get used to. I'm sure, though, that if you ask her she'll stop calling you that," Arah told him.

"I might do that," Dust said.

General Gaius and Rapture came back over, Rapture looking a little irritated. "Don't worry Master, I'll find the Moonbloods that did this and make sure they won't ever do that again."

"I told you already you will not. Disobey an order and I'm sure Cassius will have you do extra laps around the court yard again," General Gaius chided. "Now, why don't you go inform the royal physician that we'll be along shortly?"

Rapture gave a small growl in annoyance, but quickly left. General Gaius shook his head with a smile and led Dust through the castle, turning many corners before finally reaching a door. General Gaius opened the door and let Dust in first before entering and closing the door behind him. On one of the exam tables they saw Rapture sucking on a lollipop, her thick, fluffy tail twitching side to side. As she saw them walk in, she took the candy out of her mouth and said, "I already told them what you told me."

"Good, thank you. I know that you most likely ran out on your training session, so why don't you return and wait for us?" General Gaius told her.

"I'll tell the other apprentices that Master's back, too. Maybe I'll still have time to train with him," she replied, excited.

Rapture hopped off the table and darted out, still holding the candy in her hand. General Gaius sighed and shook his head. The doctor greeted them and told Dust to sit on one of the exam tables. About an hour later the doctor declared that he was in perfect health and only had amnesia. He said that with time and help it would eventually return. He even declared him well enough to resume Rapture's training, stating that the training routines may help trigger memories. With that said, General Gaius offered to show Dust where the training grounds were, Dust accepting the offer. They passed by a soldier and General Gaius whispered something to him, the soldier running off. They continued on their way until they heard the sounds of steel against steel. Stepping outside, they were greeted with the sounds of metal on metal as apprentices fought each other, testing their skills. It was easy to pick out Rapture among them. She was sparring with a young male fox roughly her age, his sword swings fluent and matching her strike for strike. She didn't seem to be struggling, instead she seemed to be studying. Dust watched as she parried a strike and closed the small gap between them, striking her foot at his chest. It was enough to wind and knock him down. Her training sword was at his throat as an older male raccoon declared the match in her favor.

"That is her current mentor, Captain Dusk. During the time you disappeared he took over her training. He's taught her some new techniques during the time you were gone, including analyzing her opponents moves," General Gaius informed Dust.

"I'm grateful he continued her teaching for me. Rapture will benefit from this later," he replied.

Captain Dusk noticed General Gaius and Dust and walked over, leaving Rapture and her opponent to take a small break. He nodded a greeting before saying, "Cassius, it's good to see you again. I'm assuming that since you're back you would like to take over Rapture's training again?"

"It's good to see you, too. And yes, please. If it's alright with her and you and his Highness approves of it." Dust said.

"I don't mind it at all and I'm certain he will. She's been excited to resume her teachings under you since you came back. I must say, it was a big surprise when she came running back here saying that you were back. We nearly didn't believe her until we heard that the others were saying the same thing," Captain Dusk said.

"It surprised us as well when we saw him. We nearly thought he was an impostor until we saw his skills in battle. His Highness's determination should be arriving soon in the meantime," General Gaius told them.

It was in that moment that a messenger arrived. The king approved of the switching of mentors from Captain Dusk back to Dust. They called Rapture over and told her the news. She jumped for joy and started bugging him when they would train and what he's going to teach her next. Dust replied that he would start the next day as their training time was nearly over. Rapture agreed to that and Captain Dusk told her to head back to training. She didn't argue and went back with General Gaius and Dust watching the sparring matches.

Later that night, General Gaius was in his office filling out paperwork. There was a knock at the and he told the person to come in. Rapture came in, shutting the door behind her.

"You asked to see me, General Gaius?" she asked.

"Yes, I did. I know you love reading books about myths and legends," he said.

"Yeah!" she confirmed.

"So I have a question. Do you happen to know what a Sen-Mithrarin is?"

"Sen-Mithrarin? I've never heard of that. Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing. I thought I heard a Moonblood say something like that. Perhaps I misheard him."

"I wouldn't doubt that they said something like that. Knowing them they having something up their sleeve. Would you like me to see what I can find about it or ask Master Cassius and see what he knows?" Rapture asked.

"No, thank you though. Go ahead and head back to bed, Rapture. You have a busy day tomorrow with training," General Gaius told her, adding as an afterthought as she started to leave, "and no reading tonight."

Rapture gave a quick alright and left, leaving General Gaius to finish up his paperwork.

AN: So I have introduced my FC Rapture. If it's weird that she's an apprentice to Cassius, well, I liked the idea ^^; After all, who knows if he had one or not? But as one can see she does have a small habit of staying up late reading various books, mostly ones about myths and legends. And it does land her in some trouble... frequently.