Here's the next chapter! I've been working on it for awhile but got really bus with midterms and essays for school. Well, Please Read, Enjoy, and Review~!

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Vesperia but I do own the OCs :3

Bright lights illuminated the stairwell as I ran down. I couldn't remember how long I had ran but my legs felt like they would start melting. My feet throbbed in time with the pounding of my heard. Every time I felt like I could stop running and catch my breath, I would hear the voice or catch a glimpse of them. The voice was always interrupted at different times it but it always said the same thing: "Come on now -… It's not like I'm going to hurt you." The tone said otherwise. I only knew what it was saying because it seemed to worm itself into my head as it spoke. Every word echoed through me with every step. Only the fourth word didn't stay with me.

I was never able to fully see my follower but the occasions tips of blood-soaked wings was all I needed to see before terror sent me propelling down another few flights of stairs. I can't say exactly why my fear rose to such levels but something about the endless staircase, the lights that didn't even bother to blink, and the mysterious thing chasing me made adrenaline rush through my veins. As I started down another flight yet again, my legs, finally worn out, gave away.

'Kazane!'

I jolted awake, smacking my head on something. With one hand rubbing my now sore head, I looked around. For a second, I thought the many lights flickering about through the library were the ones from my dream making up for not flickering when I had been in mortal danger but as my mind cleared, I could tell that they were just the lamps that had been there before. Throughout the library, mages sat reading their books or copying down some things from them.

'It's almost time to go,' A voice told me.

I froze for a second then realized that it was just Krystal. "Don't scare me like that," I whispered with a sigh.

'Did you have a nightmare?' She asked, a slight tone in her voice portraying worry.

'Perhaps,' I replied, remembering to answer in my mind instead of out loud... Should that be our mind? I don't know.

'Either way, you should get going,' she said. 'The blacksmith girl's probably waiting.'

'It's Althea,' I pointed out as I gathered together my things, figuring that she had simply forgotten her name.

'I know,' she answered before going quiet.

I sighed and finished getting everything ready. The ladder was slightly wobbly but I was able to make it down with my bag safely. After all, they couldn't exactly afford to something too dangerous with cutting edge research going on.

A few minutes later, after navigating though the crowds, I met Althea at the main gate. She was adjusting her gauntlets and smiled as she looked up and saw me.

"Are you all ready to go?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yep, All good."

Althea returned the nod and led the way out of Aspio's cave. Just before we left, I turned to look up at the roof of the cave, suddenly remembering the fate of this town. I felt an urge to run out and warn someone but suppressed it. If I simply told them now, they would think I was crazy.

'You can't save everyone,' I told myself as I forced my body to turn away. As I did so, I noticed Althea looking at me questioningly.

"Just making sure I didn't forget anything," I lied after a moment. It wasn't very rare for me to put something down somewhere and forget about it a few minutes later after all. Then again, not many people knew my tendencies here. 'Only Tsubasa knows me here,' I thought, suddenly glad that I had left her behind. She would have been able to tell when I was lying after all and if I was to achieve my objective, I couldn't take the risk of letting her in on my plan. Then again, it wasn't like I had much of a plan to begin with.

"Did you?" Althea asked. I looked at her, confused from my previous train of thought. "Did you forget something, Kazane?" She asked again.

"Oh, right," I said, smiling sheepishly as I shook my head. "No, I didn't forget anything."

"Okay, that's good," Althea said, smiling back.

We headed out along the dirt path that led to Halure then branched off towards Deidon Hold. It took a little more that half the day to reach Deidon Hold where we stopped to get something to eat; both of our stomachs had started to complain just as we came into view of the hold. I hadn't paid much attention to eating while I had been on my own, only eating when I was hungry enough to make something out of the ingredients that I had picked up. Now, I choked down a simple sandwich; I had always been picky about food and trying new foods wasn't my idea of fun.

Althea made herself a sandwich as well and smiled at the look I knew was on my face. I couldn't tell if she was trying not to laugh or... something else. People: I can usually read them so well until they go and confuse me.

After gulping down some fresh water from the well, we continued on. As soon as we were out of town, a rumbling stirred the ground. The guards behind us started yelling at each other and others ran about through the hold. Some manned the gates while others called people through to safety.

"The Lord of the Plains," I said, mostly to myself. There was nothing else in the area that would cause that sort of reaction.

"You know about it?" Althea asked. She was standing next to me, adjusting her gauntlets as the possibility of a fight arose. Too late, I realized that as far as she knew, I had never been to this area.

"I-I've heard stories but that's all," I managed after a moment. The Lord of the Plains had to have been there for quite some time and therefore many people throughout the world would know about him.

"Look out!" One of the guards shouted. I turned my attention away from Althea and focused on the Hold again. One of the guards that had been manning the gate lay dazed on the ground and the mechanism he had been using was broken.

"What's going on?" I asked no one in particular as I started heading back towards the Hold, going faster the closer I got. Something was wrong and I knew it; I could feel the panic creeping into my voice.

Some of the guards started pulling people away from the gate and as they cleared, I spotted one of the boar-like monsters pawing the ground. It had somehow managed to get through the gate and attack the closest person, the guard that had been lowering the gate, and managed to destroy the device lowering the gate in the process. I stopped for a moment, watching it. The guards moved to fight the beast and I noticed that the gate was still shaking from a barrage on the other side. It couldn't be long before the Lord of the Plains himself charged the gate. With the large gap of open air at the bottom, he would be able to open it if he got his horns in that gap.

'This'll be interesting,' I told myself, stepping forward. One of the guards spotted me and held out their arm to stop me.

"Civilians need to stay back!" The guard, a man a few inches taller than me, said.

"I can handle my self in a fight," I retaliated. From what I could see of his expression, he wasn't convinced. I clenched my teeth in annoyance and pointed at the gate. "Someone needs to stop the rest of the herd from getting through!"

As if to prove my statement, the gate rattled again as a pair of horns appeared under it. The guard looked at the gate in dread as his companions fought the one monster that- no, there were two more boar monsters now, charging the line of guards.

'Bet they wish that they had put in a Barrier Blastia now,' I thought dryly.

"Let's go," Althea said, suddenly by my side. I didn't have time to be shocked, though, as she pulled me forward past the distracted guard. He didn't have time to protest before the monsters attacked him. Though I felt bad for him, I focused on the task which was much easier without some guard trying to stop us. Right now, we could either get the Lord of the Plains to withdraw from the gates from this side, go on the other side and drive them off, or we could run away. The last wasn't something I was willing to do and it would be best to do this without getting hurt so that left the first option.

Althea pummeled the horns with multiple blows while I summoned up a quick succession of fireballs. The large monster practically roared, our attacks only annoying him. Meeting my companion's eyes, I signaled that we would have to do it from the other side of the gate if we wanted to have any chance. The gate was, after all, blocking most of our attacks. She nodded in agreement and slipped under the gate

I snatched up a bow and some arrows that lay abandoned on the ground where some unlucky guard had left them and slipped under the gate after Althea. The Lord of the Plains bellowed with effort as he pushed against the gate. It couldn't be long until he pushed upwards and destroyed the gate in the process.

"Hey big guy!" I called, making sure I stood far enough away that he couldn't knock me aside with his tail. That would be embarrassing. He turned to me and I saw for the first time just how freaking big he was. It was absolutely understandable why his other name was Brutal with his wicked horns that curved down from the top of his head until they looked like tusks that had just grown out of the wrong spot and made their way back down to their rightful position. Brutal was at least three times my height if not more and with the herd surrounding us, I felt like a mouse in a field with spooked horses.

"Kazane!" Althea yelled from the other side of Brutal. She was still there, luckily; I wouldn't have to fight alone.

'Why did I even think that I could fight him...?' I asked myself.

'Because that is how you are,' came the response.

'Krystal! You're talking to me again.'

'Save it for later. We have a Giganto Monster to beat up. And just so we're clear, don't hold anything back. You won't survive if you do.'

'I couldn't trouble you by dying, now could I?' I grinned, trying to get my mood to be as light as the expression.

I nocked an arrow and drew back, my eyes locked onto my target. With a long breath to calm myself, I channeled aer into the arrow and released it.

There we go :3 Sorry to leave off in a fight but I thought that would be a good spot to transfer back over to Tsubasa's point of view if only to keep you interested. Anywho, please review!

Review Replies: (Only one review :( )

Tsubasa: Well, I didn't know how else to fit her in :3 I'm sure you two will have fun when you finally meet...