Clare quickly finished herding the sheep and cows into there outside pen and dashed off to the beach. As she ran she noticed she was going to be late as she glanced at her watch. She had promised Popuri she'd be early to meet Kai. The name rang a slight bell in her head but Clare was hopeless at putting a name to the face.

The farmer skidded to a halt on the white sands of the beach and tried to act casual as she headed over to Popuri who was worshiping Kai. Clare kind of understood why, he wore a purple bandanna and a few curly locks of chocolate hair hung out from underneath. His eyes were quite gorgeous and were the colour of hazels. She still preferred Trent...

Popuri looked over to Clare and grinned, beckoning her over.
"Meet Kai." She nudged him and sighed as if she was in deep love with him, Clare laughed to herself before shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you." He took off his bandanna and bowed like you see in movies. He gaze was caught by a small green gleam of the locket Clare constantly wore; he stared at it for a while. Hesitantly he touched it before taking is hand away cautiously. He shook his head, "can't be..."

"Can't be what K.K?" Popuri asked, Clare came to the conclusion that this was the pet name she had given him. He shook his head.

"Nothing."

"I know you!" Clare said out loud suddenly remembering. "You came to town once on the last week of my last summer stay here I'm positive!"

It was the hottest day of the year so far, the mineral town kids were all sitting down wafting each over with large palm leaves in the shade. It was like something in a movie when the ship came sailing into Mineral Town bay. Obviously there were barely any ships that ever came apart from the ones that deported produce from the farms in the area. Karen was first to stand up and stand by the calm waves to investigate further. She was swiftly followed by Trent who was always followed by Gray; they were inseparable. Clare took Popuri and Ann by the hand and dragged them over too, not wanting to miss out on the approaching fun. And of course the over protective Rick had also followed. It took five minutes for the ship to dock in but when it did, out came a tall foreign man with what appeared to be his son who was a dashing figure of him. It turned out they were staying for just a week to try out their cooking on the townspeople. Of course it was a big hit with the adults but the kids weren't at all that bothered. They were to busy playing pirates. On Kai's last day (they had learned his name by this point.) they pretended he was to walk the plank and they pushed him onto the ship. Popuri had cried for the rest of that day screaming at everyone and blaming them for his departure.

Kai shrugged, "if you say so... Clare was it?" He smiled, but Clare could sense he was gazing at the locket so she hid it under her top. Sure he was nice but she got the vibe he was very timid, either that or he had heard about what had happened.

Calmly, she walked over to Trent who was sitting down in the sand, gazing out towards the waves, his face was grim and looked as if he was deep in thought, she sat down next to him.
"What's up?" Upon hearing her rich voice he turned his attention to her and smiled feebly, he shook his head.

"Nothing... just thinking." He looked at where her locket normally was; he put his hand down her top to retrieve it. "Looks better when you show it."

"What were you thinking about?" Clare asked, blushing, curious to find out, seeing as he never spoke a word to anyone if it wasn't health related.

"Just how... you could be dead Clare." He looked her in the eyes and gave her a frown.

"Well, I'm not am I? So be happy and turn that frown, upside down." She tutted, leaning forwards to kiss him gently on the lips.

Clare looked around as if something had just sent a shiver down her spine. Standing above her was a tall dark figure with a scar running across it's weary face. Clare stood up and realised who it was, how could she forget? He was the one who had given her the poison. She pointed and screamed at the top of her lungs. Noticed, the man started to run through the crowds, out of the beach area, quickly followed by Clare. Trent looked up, startled to see that she had run off screaming. He shrugged and laid back, thinking nothing of it.

She chased him all through town to the base if the mountain where she held back, trying to make it seem that she'd lost him. The man paused and laughed. It wasn't the first time she'd heard that laugh... she'd heard it on the train and somewhere else but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Nevertheless she started running again, her face had turned red and she was puffing as she attempted to run up the steep mountainside. Though it wasn't a large mountain it was still a struggle to climb walking, let alone running if that's what you could call it.

Upon seeing her approach the man ran into a small crack in the track and crouched down, undetected as she ran by breathing heavily. The shady figure laughed to himself under his breath as he carefully and silently climbed out of the crack.

Clare ran to the very top of that mountain, determined to confront the man. To her dismay he was nowhere to be seen, she found a rock and sat on it, yet again she was reduced to tears by this shady figure that she barely knew.