A/N: Yay, I'm back.

Setting Forth

~Kohza's House~

"Vivi, wake up." Vivi groaned as she heard a male voice trying to awaken her and felt a hand on her shoulder.

"C'mon, Vivi. We have to get ready." She heard him call again but was too tired to care, so she simply grabbed the hand and rolled over in sleep again.

K~*~V

Kohza let out a grunt as he fell forwards; having his hand being pulled by Vivi unexpectedly had taken him by surprise. Sighing, he took this advantage to put his other arm around her.

"Vivi..!" Groaned Kohza as he began to shake her again, trying to get the lovely blue-haired princess to awaken.

"C'mon! We gotta head out before Pell get's here!" He told her as he put his hand over her mouth and started to pat it slightly, in attempts to get Vivi to open her eyes.

"I don't wanna…mmrmm…." Kohza could hear her mumble; he rolled his eyes at her as she began to mouth his hand. Laying Vivi back down on the bed, Kohza released his hand from the princess' mouth and wiped the saliva off onto his pants. Sighing, He didn't want to have to do this but he gripped Vivi's shoulders once more and shook her extremely hard and yelled, "Vivi, wake up!"

K~~~~~~~~V

Vivi's eyes fluttered open to see Kohza there looking down at her. She smiled at him but he only frowned back.

"Get up. We gotta get ready." He commanded and let her fall back to the bed then turned to leave.

"Good morning to you too…." Vivi grumbled as she sat up and folded her arms.

~Front Yard~

Shalana heard the angry calls of the two stallions that Kohza was trying to ready for the journey, since all of Yuba's camels where needed to help with the city's restoration.

"Morning!" She heard Vivi's voice coming from the doorway behind her. Shalana quickly turned around to see the princess standing there fixing her clothes. She was wearing her Miss Wednesday outfit; a long-sleeved dress shirt, a halter-top with stripes going diagonally down it, white short-shorts and tall white boots with a heel.

"Morning, Vivi. Are you all packed?" Shalana asked as she petted Dragrin's head, which he was laying on her knee. Vivi nodded and picked up the small backpack next to her.

"Yep. I got some clothes for us to share and some snacks for Dragrin and Carue." She told Shalana as she began to tie her long hair into a ponytail.

"Are you girls ready yet?" Kohza asked as he walked up to them, guiding the now calmed stallions over with Carue following behind him. Vivi looked over at him and showed him her bag.

"All set." She told him then turned to Shalana, "Shalana, have you ever ridden a horse before?" The girl simply gave a nervous laugh and shook her head, "No… There were no horses where we come from, I've only seen pictures…"

"Ok, then…" Vivi started, then tapped a finger to her chin, "Ahh! I know. You can ride on Carue and I'll take the horse. But wait, what're we gonna do about Dragrin?" The three looked at each other then at Dragrin.

"Well, he could keep up with the mounts for a little bit but he's wounded so that couldn't last long." Vivi offered.

"Well, Dragrin is pretty small for a dingo and has surprisingly good balance. He could probably ride on one of the horses for a while." Kohza shrugged and Vivi nodded to Shalana's idea.

"Well, it sounds like you kids are ready to set out, uh." They all turned to see Toto coming out of the house with a bag in his hands.

"Here, enough food for a week if you conserve it." He told them as he dropped it into Kohza's arms and whispered something into his ear that made Kohza's face go red, and then handed a map to Shalana.

"Shalana-chan, you should probably look over this map of Arabasta to see where you'll be heading." Shalana nodded as Toto turned to leave. She then laid the map on the sand as leaned over to see with Kohza soon following after putting the bag on his horse.

"Ok…. Let's see. Mama said that to get to the Flower's Domain we have to pick up a few items and a map of the exact location of the place." She started as she rubbed a finger along over to a place just west of Rainbase, "Ahh, over here! This little town right here is where she said the things we need are." At the mention of that particular town, Vivi shot a worried glance up at Kohza who clenched his teeth and sneered at its name.

"Wha-What's wrong, guys…?" Shalana stuttered, making Kohza sigh as he straighten his back scratched his head.

"You see… That happens to be one of the towns around Arabasta, problem is that they pay no heed to the laws of Vivi's father. This can make it extremely hard to walk through these towns, without running into some kind of trouble." He began to explain as he grabbed his sword from its place on his horse's saddle and started to tie the rope that held it to his chest, "We can head out there. But, only if we're careful who we talk to. That town hasn't been friendly for a long span of time. So long, that the King's army doesn't like to head to these little towns." Kohza finished and began to check if they had all the supplies they needed and fixed the scarf around his neck while the girls closed up the map then got their robes on to block out the sun's effects.

"Ok, then. Since we have no choice ,we'll have to be extra careful once there and on the way." Vivi told them and then suddenly let out a little squeak as Kohza picked her up and walked over to her horse.

"Sounds good to me." He responded as he sat Vivi on the horse's saddle and then Dragrin behind her. Kohza had set Dragrin on that horse because Vivi was lighter than himself and those two together wouldn't stress out the horse. Shalana nodded as she walked over and got onto Carue, who was sitting and waiting for her to sit down. Kohza put up a hand to tell them he would be right back as he walked to his front door and went inside.

~Living Room~

Kohza walked across the room to his Father, careful not to hit anything with his long coat and sword.

"Dad, we're heading out now. Will you take care of things with Pell when he comes?" He asked Toto as he put on his sunglasses with the purple lens. His father looked up at him from where he was reading a book, with a smile on his face.

"Of course, son." Toto reassured him, but quickly caught Kohza's arm as he turned to leave and grasped it tightly, making his son look back.

"Kohza… Please be careful. Don't come back full of holes and on the verge of death like you did after the Great Rebellion." He begged his son, a look a worry on his face. But Kohza simply smiled in reply and started to leave again, making Toto sigh as he watched his only son go.

~Front Yard~

While Kohza was in the house, the girls were getting comfortable on their mounts and talking.

"So, Vivi. I have a question for you." Shalana told her new friend as she checked Carue's water supply and the princess made a little noise telling her to go on,

"Well, I noticed last night when you were fighting with Kohza that you didn't call him by his name but Leader. Why is that?" Vivi smiled at the question, good memories flowing through her mind,

"Well, Shalana. It started when we kids, when he and his family still lived in Alubarna. One day Kohza came running into the palace and started demanding things of my father for the people. My father told him he was doing the best he could, but that wasn't good enough for Kohza. Then Toto came running in and tried to calm down Kohza, but Leader was too upset and ran from the room crying. I was standing in the passageway as he ran past. I called out to him and called him a cry baby. He became angry and we began to argue." Vivi started as she fixed her saddle,

"But that didn't fix anything so he took me to his Suna Suna clan, a group of kids he had put together, and told them that he and I were gonna battle it out. In the end, I lost, but Leader was so impressed because I almost beat him that he let me join the clan. It was great because the other boys of the group didn't mind me being there. So from then on, I've been calling him Leader." The princess smiled as she finished her story and all Shalana could do was gawk in slight shock of it all until the heard Kohza close the front door. "Alright, everyone ready?" He asked as he got onto his horse. The girls nodded in reply and a tiny group took off to the outskirts of town.

~~~~~A/N: Hhmmm, odd. This one was longer than the last... Hop you like it so far.