Sorry for the wait. I have had the whole weekend and two days that I was off because of the weather and I just now started and finished it lol

Chapter 4 The act

As Raguna leaves Rosetta's store he sees a little boy wailing by his mother. He is screaming something he can't quite hear so he walks a little closer in their direction which is by the little river next to the stairs.

The little boy looks to be around eight and has on a white tee-shirt and tan shorts, that looks to be dirty. The mother is wearing a pretty blue dress with black heeled shoes. They both have dark hair. Raguna gets a better look and sees that he has freckles.

"Mommy I don't want to take a bath! Please don't make me!" He has tears streaming down his face and his nose is running. The mother bends down to try to fix his face but he bats her hand away and rubs his arm on his shirt.

"Ryan please quit crying, you're going to make yourself sick." She looks around to see if anyone is watching them. She takes something out of her ratty looking purse and kneels down.

"This is ten dollars Ryan, I want you to get yourself washed up and come home. Do you understand? And I will know if you buy yourself candy instead so don't even try it buster." She says to her son in the calmest voice she can muster.

Upon this the little boy cries even harder. "Your not even going in with me!?" He says a little scared.

She laughs and regrets it when he wails. "Why would I honey? You're a big boy now, you can do it." He rushes to her legs and holds on tight. "No! Please mommy come with me?"

'I don't understand this little guy, why won't he go in by himself?' Raguna thinks to himself. He leans against the wall behind him watching intently.

"No Ryan now come on, stop being like this and let me go." She sighs and rubs her sons head.

Raguna convinced he's had enough goes over to them. The mom sees him coming and tries to pull her son off of her. "He's just having a bad day sorry about all the commotion."

" It's quite alright, no harm done. Hey little guy what's the problem?"

"I'm scared to get a bath."

He pulls his face out of between his moms legs, and wipes his nose. She takes out a napkin from her purse and hands it to him, which he takes.

"Why?" Raguna is very confused by this.

"Because the lady in there is a witch! I'm scared she is going to cast a spell on me!" He says very seriously with wide eyes.

Raguna laughs hard and grabs his stomach.

"Its not funny! She really is one! I saw her turn the water a different color!" He turns completely away from his mom and to Raguna. The mother takes her hand to her mouth to cover her giggle.

"Little guy-"

"My name is Ryan!" Ryan interrupts Raguna just to say that.

"Well Ryan, I can tell you that Melody is not a witch and she owns the bathhouse. You must of seen her put bath salts in the water. Bath salts are for making the water smell nice."

Ryan thinks this over for a second and then stomps his foot.

"I don't believe you mister! Your just trying to get me to take a bath at the witches so she can eat me, like in that story!" The mother takes her child's shoulders and whispers in her child's ear, obliviously telling him to calm down.

"The name is Raguna, Ryan. If you don't believe me I'll take you in there myself." He offers to him sincerely.

The boy ponders this over and taps his chin with his index finger, swaying back and forth. Then he nods his head. "Mom can Raguna take me? Since HE doesn't believe me, he will just have to get eaten with me."

The mom laughs and shakes her head. "Sure go ahead honey, only if this is truly okay with Raguna." She smiles at him.

"Yes mam' its okay. I don't want him to be afraid of my friend."

She smiles gratefully and pats him on his shoulder and goes her own way, leaving Raguna with her son.

The boy smiles up at him with a huge grin. "The witch is your friend?"

Raguna nods and looks at him with narrow eyes. "Yep."

Then he walks past Ryan and starts on his way to Melody's bath house. He looks back to see Ryan shake his head in disgust and run to catch up with him. Raguna laughs at the boy.

"What?" Ryan said.

"Nothing you're just funny that's all."

Marco and Candy are playing tag together by Melody's and run up to them. When they reach them Candy stares at Ryan.

"Hey Raguna! Want to play?.." They both say in unison and touch him and run. Ryan looks at them sadly especially Candy and hangs his head down, which Raguna sees.

"Maybe a little later guys!." He shouts to them as they run farther and farther.

"What's wrong Ryan? Don't you like them?"

"No…its more like they don't like me." They stop right in front of Melody's.

Raguna looks at him then looks at the bath house. 'Ugh this boy has some major self-esteem problems.' He bends down to look him straight in the eye.

"What do you mean Ryan? Do they pick on you?"

"No…well…Yes. Marco does."

Raguna sucks on his bottom lip trying to get to the bottom of it. 'I can believe that. Marco would be mean to anyone who even looks at Candy.' He then silently laughs.

"Well what happened that made him do that?"

"When I moved here, which was two weeks ago I saw them and asked to play…"

Two Weeks Ago

Ryan and his mother are unpacking their things from the wagon. His mother takes two boxes and goes into the house.

Ryan hears laughter and looks to see Marco and Candy playing near him. He goes over to them and they welcome him by asking questions.

"HEY! I'm Marco, are you new here?"

"Hi, I'm Candy. Its nice to have more kids around here, where are you from?"

He blushes at the questions and answers, " I'm Ryan and I just moved from Kardia. Are you two the only kids here?"

Marco answers first, "Yep. But me and Candy are the best of friends."

Candy blushes and wants to shrug her shoulder but doesn't. "We can all be the best of friends Ryan." Marco looks at Candy and says, "The three musketeers!"

Ryan laughs at Marco and punches him in the shoulder. "Your it!" He runs from them both and they follow him with Marco hitting him first. Ryan runs to catch up to Marco who runs faster than him and gives up. He turns around to see Candy behind the lamp post and runs towards her.

She runs away down the steps in Town and heads towards Raguna's farm. Marco who didn't notice them going the other direction wound up near the singing rocks. He gets upset and runs down to try to find them.

"ha-ha! I got you Candy!" She smiles at him out of breath.

"Where do you think Marco is?" Ryan asks her. She shakes her head unsure.

They sit down by the trees right where Raguna's monster barn is.

"I think he's still in town, I don't think he saw us turn around. He's probably by the singing rock, that's where he was headed." She laughs for lost Marco.

Ryan winces and laughs. "He shouldn't of ran so fast, I couldn't catch up to him."

Candy looks around to see Marco anywhere. "I hope he finds us soon. I don't want him to get upset and think we ditched him."

Ryan nods. "Okay just let me catch my breath."

Candy crosses her legs, watching him. "I'm sure glad you moved here. I mean it was nice with just Marco but its going to be so much more fun with you here!"

"Me too." Ryan blushes and throws grass on her. Candy laughs and retaliates. Ryan finds a dandelion and picks it and holds it out to her. "For the start of a good friendship." Candy blushes and takes it.

"thanks." She gives him a hug.

Marco who was just turning the corner sees them hugging and gets jealous.

"So you guys leave me to hug?" He says to them from at the bottom of the hill.

Candy and Ryan separate and look confused. "I'm sorry Marco we lost track of time. We were just catching our breaths from running so hard." Candy tells him. She gets up to go over to Marco who looks angry.

Ryan gets up after her and follows. "I'm sorry Marco."

Marco who was about to forgive them sees the flower in Candy's hands and gets more upset.

"You know what Ryan I take it back. Your not allowed to be our friend." Candy looks at him confused.

"What? What did I do? I said I was sorry. I didn't mean to leave you-"

"I don't want to here it, first you ditch me and then try to get candy to forget about me. Your not a good friend. Go back home, we don't want you here." Candy looks at Marco upset.

"Marco don't-"

Marco interrupts Candy by stepping in front of her and staring at Ryan.

"Go home."

Ryan gets very upset and has a strange feeling of wanting to hit him. He never had gotten that feeling and gets scared. He stares at Candy who looks the same and turns around and runs home.

Present

After Ryan finishes his story, Raguna gets upset with Marco who should of handled his feelings better.

"So you just went home? Did you tell you're mother what happened?"

"No I didn't want her to get upset and we just moved here. I didn't want to fight with his mother." Raguna thinks, 'No she doesn't want to fight with Gansha.'

"Well don't worry Ryan, I'll talk with Marco later. I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding with him."

"Thanks Raguna."

Raguna gets up and ushers him into the Bath house. "Come on Ryan, we wasted enough time talking let's get your bath." Ryan laughs and goes through the door Raguna was holding for him.

They walk inside and the door shuts alerting Melody, who looks up from her book startled.

"Oh hello Raguna! What can I do for you?" She looks at her watch. "It's a little early for you to take a bath is anything wrong?"

Raguna has Ryan take a step forward who gulps. "It's not for me Melody, its for my friend here."

Melody looks down from her podium and sees Ryan whose face has drained all color.

"Oh my, its that kid who screamed at me and ran." She smiled down at him kindly.

Raguna couldn't help himself from laughing and Ryan looked at him mad. Raguna stops and pulls himself together and looks back at melody. "I'm sorry about that Mel, but my friend here thinks you're a witch."

Melody's eyes shoot from her sockets and she beams down at him admiringly. "He does? How sweet! That's the nicest thing anyone's ever thought about me!" Ryan's eyes get huge and almost faints.

Raguna shakes his head and slaps his forehead, and then looks down and back at Melody. He mouths to her, not in a good way.

Melody raises her eyebrows and feels terrible for scaring the little boy. She gets off her stool and goes over to Ryan who backs into Raguna. "I'm sorry I was just joking. I'm not a witch don't worry."

Ryan squints his eyes, "Your not going to eat me?"

Melody laughs, "I'm not going to eat you."

Ryan gets mentally and physically relieved that she isn't and feels silly that he ever thought that. But he reminds himself that she does wear the outfit of one. He then retrieves the ten dollars and hands it to her.

"Well now that, that's all sorted out, I need a bath." He tells her.

Melody takes his money and smiles at him and Raguna. She laughs to herself and gets behind the cash register and cashes his money. "Alright go to the right, and don't EVER go to your left. If you do big consequences."

Ryan blushes and heads to the right, forgetting about thanking Raguna for taking him. He strips down to his boxers and heads into the bath.

Raguna walks over to where Melody is standing. "Thanks for that."

She smiles and wipes her cheek. "Where did he get the assumption that I was going to eat him Raguna?" She giggles.

Raguna cocks his head to the right. "I think from that movie 'Hansel and Gretel'."

"Never seen it." She says surprised.

"It's a child's movie, but its kind of funny." He says to her noticing how pretty she looks with her hat.

"If it's a child's movie Raguna, why have you watched it?" She laughs at him

He smiles brightly at her. "'cause I'm a child at heart."

They both laugh and hear in the guys bathing room someone singing, "Rub a dub dub, sitting in the tub." They both shake their heads laughing at Ryan's innocence.

"By the way, Melody," Raguna says to her leaning in closer so that no once else can hear.

"I have been thinking some things about you but they weren't necessarily nice, if you know what I mean."

Melody's face suddenly turns a deep shade of red and she smiles coyly. She lightly punches him in the shoulder. And he continues on.

"And if I remember correctly you were doing some pretty questionable things to me not to long ago, well-" She cuts him off by putting her hand over his mouth.

"Raguna!," She says very quietly. "I thought I told you not to bring that up again!" She says rather harsh.

She still has her hand over his mouth and stares at him. He licks her middle finger to get her to move her hand. "But Mel,"

"Just don't bring that up again we were just messing around," She says still blushing and slightly aroused.

"Okay whatever you want," He moves closer to her and raises her chin. He stares deeply at her.

"Just don't pretend that you didn't like it." He kisses her quickly on the mouth before she could protest and so no one saw.

"Oh Raguna," She shakes her head. "What am I going to do with you?"

He sighs deeply and walks to the door.

"What ever you want."