-Where are you going Aeries? Sawn, shouted at his sister while she was running away from their home. It was obvious that two siblings had not enjoyed their evening together that much but rather they had spent most of their time sharing a quarrel. Aeries felt like needing to get away from the house as her anger and her frustration could bring the White house down. A wise decision as the condition of the house did not allow and too many tempers to be expressed under its roof.

As Aeries ran outside it was just a matter of few seconds before Sawn followed her at the exterior of the house, chasing his younger sister, stopping her with his hand before she would disappear in the woods.

-Please Aeries, come back home, Sawn's eyes were pleading her.

-Let go of me Sawn, do you see me in any condition to be able to talk to you?

-Why? Why do we have to quarrel so much Aeries, I am just expressing my opinion, Sawn said and let go of her.

-You are not just expressing an opinion; you are expressing a stupid opinion for all I know. Since when do you care about the human race and its destiny…Who put you these stupid ideas to your head? You want to decide on your own, live on your own…she said turning her back on him and started walking towards the woods again.

-I can't believe that you are black mailing me…have you any idea how wrong this is? Sawn protested as she was distancing herself from him even more…

-Just forget me, live with your new friends from now on…they won't hurt your feelings but they will neither care for you… and that was the last sentence she said before vanishing inside the cover that the giant forest's trees had to offer.

Sawn gave a sigh, he could no longer fight Aeries, perhaps it would be better to surrender to her demands but that just did not feel right. Why should he hide from her? He sat at the stairs of the porch. Soon the sun would come up and he was already feeling so tired.

Loosing herself in the woods, Aeries started thinking about it. How did this start? How did her brother change so much? She had thought that building a thick wall around them would keep them safe and protected from the outsiders. But now the threat was not coming from outside but from her own house, an inner threat that she could not have predicted. It almost felt like something had penetrated in their house and had revived Sawn's interest about the world that rested outside. She knew that her brother had urges and needs which characterized his young age, his male nature but she knew that he was taming them, now he even doubted their own decision to live unseen, now he was expressing himself, now he wanted freedom. It almost felt like she would lose him any second now. If she had not already…

As she walked more and more into the forest with all of these thoughts running in her head her foot choose a known path…a path that soon lead her to the waterfall…She had not even realized how she made it up to there. The sun was slowly rising and some daring sun lights were passing through the openings of the thick branches reflecting on the pond's crystal water…how beautiful and yet she got a strange feeling…it was here that she had seen him…that strange soldier that the next day had appeared to her brother telling him that he knew something that no one knew; the secret of their existence. Was that a coincidence? …he was the only one who had stepped inside her house and now it almost seemed that his pacifism beliefs where expressed through Sawn's mouth.

It was obvious…that he had affected Sawn. Sawn might be thinking about it but he was not defending his grounds that much…and after last night, when the two men had supposedly gone hunting, Sawn remembered how to support his ideals…because she had told him that the King leads his people to the doom seeking more power.

It was then when Sawn told her that "she was the ignorant one and that there were dangers and menaces that needed to be stopped in order for a peaceful coo-existence to be achieved." Oh and how had he said the other one? Ah, yes "The human race will extinct if there is no action provided", for this and for so many reasons he decided to openly "support the causes of this war".

Perhaps it was also her fault losing control; she had no right to hurt him that much and still asked to be loved, that was just impossible. But living without Sawn that was also…impossible.

Aeries reached the little pond and sat at the ground. The water's flow from the waterfall was so soothing to her disturbed soul. So many words, so many anger. "I am sorry Sawn, I am sorry for hurting you that much…I did not have that right…".

"But then you hurt me too, didn't you? Even though you did this only to stop me …". She closed her eyes and in her minds the scenes of anger, the harsh words, the assaults repeated again…

-You cannot boss me all the time, telling me what to do, when to do it and how to do it…either you want it or not, I do not wish to be a mere spectator and I am sick and tired to sit around the house all day, practically doing nothing, because that seems to you convenient.

-CONVENIENT? Have you forgotten to who you are talking to? I am your sister, I care for you, I do not want you to sacrifice yourself for anyone and anything Sawn…or how I am supposed to live eternity without you? Is that what you really want to do? to join the war? To leave me alone, to become one with all of these liars that pretend to do it for ideals, you want to be one of them? Or perhaps you want to be a part of the "victims", the sheeps, that volunteer because they are so stupid that they cannot see the real intentions behind the war, any war. Which side are you going to be? Because I think that they are pathetic all of them…

-You are twisting the subject the way it suits you, that's all I know. I never said that I will join, I just said that the King's decision was right…and you are acting hysterical.

-Oh you don't wish to join them? Who do you think that you are kitting Sawn? I may be younger but I am far more mature than you are when it comes down in the apprehension of this world…But even if you wanted to go and offer yourself in the services of the King, you think that you would make yourself worthy? Because you are useless Sawn, I do apologize, but you know nothing about war, you know nothing about using your powers, you are not wise neither a diplomat, you are just a boy reading the newspaper, fantasizing victories and fame…that's what you really are.

-Aeries…

-Yes, I know the truth is bitter. So how would you make yourself useful? They would laugh with your naivety, your clumsiness, your inexperience and your soft heart would be a burden to their death plans, they would laugh behind your back…You want to make yourself useful, then apply to be the King's comedian...at least there you won't fail, with all the things that you say lately you are a natural talent….Our parents would be ashamed for their son, if they saw you talking like that Sawn, you are insulting their memory, their beliefs, our parents knew the truth, now they would feel really disappointed to see their son getting involved in a society that killed them. They would. Are you really my brother? Are you?

-Have it ever crossed your head that they were wrong in this? Have it ever crossed your thinking that if they were involved they would be alive because they would have allies and they would be feared?

-Allies? Be feared? How dare you judging their decision? You are telling me to believe you when you know nothing about this world and to judge our parents that they knew this society by heart? Do you see know why I say that you are stupid and naïve Sawn? You certainly fit the role of the entertainment, even our parents would agree in this…listening to your ideas they would have died laughing their hearts out. Their boy wants to be a man and prove himself in the eyes of this bloody society? With what qualification Sawn? That of your allies, perhaps? They would also laugh with your ignorance and I strongly doubt that you could use their laughs and their teasing as a shield and sword but you can try it…it would be so amusing…Perhaps our parents are lucky to be dead, not seeing their son being the laugh of the…

It was then when the sound of the light air had sounded and Sawn, with his eyes filled with sorrow, had lowered his hand with a slight force on Aerie's cheek. It was the first time, the only time that he had found the courage to react back to her harsh words in such a decisive way.

She had just stood there looking at him in pure astonishment. He had slapped her? Sawn had do that? Sawn she knew? No, she corrected herself, Sawn that she no longer knew…her eyes were filled with tears ready to roll down to her cheeks, she resisted…she did not cry but she ran away… Sawn her brother, she wished to protect, had did that. The wall was not just cracking, it had started tumbling…

The sun was further rising on the sky and now the light had become more intense. Aeries felt tiredness and exhaustion to overcome her and soon she leaned her head and her body to the soft ground surrounding her soul to the hands of Morpheus.

Her eyes had merely closed when she heard deep whispers coming from the trees and to penetrate into her mind…she felt that she had fallen into the darkness of dreams and yet the voices sounded…saying words that collided together, she felt no fear as she sensed them; the ancestor spirits which lived in this forest where now guiding into a voyage through space and time. It almost felt comforting…their soul dancing around in universe that knew no stops and borders…they could show her the future or take her to a travel to the past…or they could show her a sweet dream….

And they did…

In her dream there was so much light, so much that she could not see any faces just figures wondering around her, they all loved her and looked down at her with admiration and respect. She was seating at the thick green grass and she was holding him..a baby boy rested at her hands…calmly sleeping with his head tilted to his mother's chest. She was feeling love for him…a deep love that if it could be turned to menace it would shatter the world with one breath…and then a male figure approached her and sat next to her. Sawn?

She could not see his face but his presence only brought her happiness. He caressed her long hair and gave her a soft kiss to the forehead; he put his arms around her arms hugging both her and their baby…that was so comforting. She leaned against his chest and that feeling was so fulfilling… "I want to be by your side forever", she whispered. "Promise me", he said, "I promise"… But as he bend to her to kiss her…the sweet dream started dissolving, escaping, running away from her...and she just fall again and again into a pit full of darkness …a falling that had no end, no hands to catch…please someone..

The voices whispered once again words she could now clearly hear;

Their words made no sense to her. "You talk of sacrifices…", "You will betray your own heart…", "You won't escape…", "When the time comes…" "May death be…"

"If you love yourself…" "DO NOT LET HIM PASS…" But then the voices lowered their tense as another voice far more close to her ear now clearly sounded…

- Aeries! Aeries! …, a deep male's voice was calling her name over and over again like fighting with the darkness to get her through. She suddenly opened her eyes to the light again and she lifted her body off the ground half-scared by the sudden whispers that send a shiver to her heart and half-panicked by the pureblood male form that now now stood above her.

"How did he appear here? Where did he come from?" "How did he know where I am?" "Is that another coincidence?"

-Are you all right, Aeries?

He asked while looking her with worrying eyes; perhaps he was worried because her expression betrayed both the fear and the surprise that her heart held and that made her different from the normal full of confidence little girl she was.

But then he was different as well. She had no word to define it as it really should be defined but somehow his aura far more serious, dark and heavy than what he knew the other day before at her house. Somehow he gave her the feeling that he was more…much more than what he presented himself to be.

-What time is it? She asked totally confused.

-It's afternoon and Sawn is rather upset and worried with your disappearance. You are no different than he is, you know.

-Excuse me?

-You are blaming your brother for being naïve but you are so carelessly sleeping here and there, exposing yourself…What if I would attack you, what would you do? His gaze was strict, serious and unreadable.

Aeries felt surprise along with confusion. Not only did he know how she had called her brother but he was actually turning all of her own arguments against her. That was a first, coming from a stranger and the most frustrating part was that she did not even had the luxury to quarrel with him the way she did with Sawn. What if he exposed their secret? At least her secret, as Sawn seemed willing to expose him any time soon.

-How do you know how I call my brother? She demanded.

-Oh he told me so …

-Ah… "Good" she though, "now their talk about our families issues, what's next? "Sawn why do you expose us so much?"

-You are disappointed? You don't trust me Aeries, do you?

Was he always that straight? Probably, well, if that was the case, so she should be…

-M, no, I know that this is not very polite but no, I do not trust you.

Kaname chuckled.

-You are right in this one, I would not trust me also in your position but you do not have any other choice, do you?

His honesty was enraging.

-Am I supposed to answer that? She replied in annoyance.

Suddenly his aura changed again, returning to the ordinary aura that gave away a more positive and light feeling.

Kaname smiled to her gently, she found her rather amusing.

-You are also a bit afraid of me I would say, you are such a kid, so come on little girl, let's go back to your brother, he said softly smiling in content.

Ah, that was too much…She turned her back to him and refused to make a single step forward.

-You are not coming? He softly demanded…

-I have no intention to go back to him, you can tell him that…she said still holding her posture.

-You are putting him into a lot of trouble young lady, Kaname said approaching her.

Aeries sensed that his aura had changed again becoming more authoritative.

She did not like the change but nevertheless….that was her matter and not his, he would not allow him to step into her borders, no matter what….

-I think that I can understand you Aeries, he said.

She looked at him, his eyes were gentle and his manners were soft but firm as well. Was he like that with Sawn? They hardly knew him and yet…

-I don't think that you can…

-Oh I think that I know exactly the thoughts that pass through your mind. I also know your tactic. It did bring some results before but you have to confess that is running old and ineffective, so perhaps you would like to try a different strategy…

"Tactic", "Strategy" the army had totally affected his vocabulary that was obvious nevertheless, she had no idea to what he was referring to, and not that it was his business to interfere with her family matters in the first place.

-You know I do not think that this matter should concern you that much, she said as polite as possible.

-It does not but take my advice because you will need it; what you are trying to do at poor Sawn shows from kilometers away…

-And what is it that I am trying to do? She asked, feeling drawn into the conversation.

-You intimidate him and you are totally refusing to show him any understanding afraid that if you do so then you will have to compromise and accept his side or point of view or even his decisions. So instead of admitting the truth and respect the fact that he is totally capable of making decisions on his own, in order to keep him next to you, you are trying to make him feel useless, inadequate. But that backfired already, didn't it? Sawn did not comply this time…That's why you are here.

-So? What I should do let him go and sacrifice himself for a lost cause?

-Let him try at least, if he makes it then you will take the credit for it, if he fails your arguments are proven right and you have even more reasons to hold him…

-What if he gets killed?

-You can lose him for real in the batter fields, I know, but the chances are minor…If I was you I would worry about life not death, as with your actions you are the one pushing him away. And you will be the one to be blamed for that. Anyway, that's my opinion, don't take that to heart. Since you are not coming I am leaving. I will tell to Sawn that you will come when you feel like to…and I am sure that he is mature enough to understand your point of view.

With these last words he slowly left from the waterfall. Airies was left alone again. She knew what he meant with his last words; It was not at all polite just gently stated; Sawn was mature enough to understand her whereas she, Ah yes, she was the bitch of the house. That was enraging! How all her words and acts now were reversing against her?

Perhaps it was time to go home, after all..

As Aeries returned home she found the men happily chatting at the porch. Sawn was happy and Aeries was surprised again as she saw him running to her. He put his arms around her and kissed the tip of her head. "Thank you, Aeries", he said.

-For what?

-Kaname told me that you might not object after all, you know for me joining the army?

"JOINING WHAT?"

The joy of her brother was thrilling, reflected both at his eyes and at his wide smile. Aeries was astonished, she felt that she would pass out any moment now, she would actually have done so if Sawn did not squeeze her that much out of his joy and if Kaname was not watching them from the porch.

-You are the best sister I could have, you finally understood…

"UNDERSTOOD? FINALLY?" she understood her brother every single second of his life; it was just that in the certain issue she did not wish to admit it, so she wouldn't have to fold back at her position, but now she had FINALLY UNDERSTOOD?

He squeezed her even more.

-We were discussing the details with Kaname right now…Come and join us.

'JOIN THEM?" No, she wanted to kill them, both of them, because they had left her no other role to play than that of the understanding sister…they thought that she would play along, wouldn't they? She became enraged and especially at that pureblood who was sitting cozy at the veranda enjoying the nature as he was the start of her problems, he and his royal origins.

She literally pushed her brother away and she ran to him…

As Kaname saw her approaching he turned serious again even though the image of such a delicate young female running towards him with the white dress and the long red hair, which moved in the breeze, brought to him an inner smile of pure delight. She was so spontaneous and frisky, full of fire and passion, honest and in love, she was sensational.

-What is going on here? I might not object? Why did you say such a thing? Is that what I told you?

-I said that you might not object after all. Did I say a lie?

Aeries took a deep breath after running, she needed that. She looked back to him in a scolding manner, he was impossible.

-But you made him believe that I would consent in this…JOINING THE WAR?

-I? He was happy to hear that you might consent, I did not tell him to be happy about it… Perhaps you don't like it?

He was looking at her like he did not understand at all what his fault was. She was looking at him like screaming "Are you kidding me?"

Sawn decided to interfere and since he decided to do that, he also decided that Aeries had no right interfering in his friendship with the only pureblood he knew.

-Aeries now you put it up with Kaname? Anyway if this is how you feel, I won't go, I am going to stay here and rotten to death…so you can be happy but let others alone. It is not their fault that you are completely obsessed.

-Sawn wait…

He said that and then he entered the house slapping the door behind him.

Aeries was in shock… She just wished for no wars, no pointless victims, no sacrifices on their part, why should they pay for the atrocities that they would be done, hadn't they paid enough already?

But her point of view did not matter anymore, not much as Sawn did, Sawn who has happy some moments and now…now thrown back to sadness. Was she to be blamed? She knew the answer.

-I'll better leave, Kaname said breaking the silence…

Aeries turned her head to him again.

-I am sorry if I caused you any trouble that was not my intention Aeries…

She replied nothing to him and she just ran behind Sawn….

Kaname half turned around to see her disappearing within a moment.

As Aeries walked into the house she found Sawn sat at the cough already reading the newspaper.

-That's old, Aeries remarked.

-That's the only one that I found…to make you happy Aeries, he replied.

Aeries suddenly started to laugh, the image was ridiculous…her brother was cozy resting on the cough with his feet on the middle table reading the newspaper perhaps for the tenth time but nevertheless pretending that the news were fresh and had indeed that look on his face: "Don't bother me now…I am reading the news for the 20th time".

The tension, the sadness along with her worries and frustration of this day found an exit through her laughter and she did laugh so much, laughed to tears actually, unable to control herself.

-Oh that was so good, I needed that, she said…

Sawn was looking at her and smiling. It was good when Aeries had a good time; they all had in this case.

She finally jumped on him replacing the newspaper in his hands and held him within her hug.

-All right Sawn go, I cannot keep you behind any longer, you are my brother and so sometimes I do forget that you are also a man, if you want this and really need this, I will support you, but I won't change my opinion on the matter; I still consider this to be stupid and unnecessary. Forgive me about all the things that I said love makes me cruel sometimes. Anyway even if you are stupid I still love you that way.

She said her last phrase in pure love and tenderness and Sawn hugged her even tighter. They would be together no matter what and that only mattered.

-I love you so much Aeries…this is a big moment for me…

-Yes I know but you will promise me one thing will you?

-What Aeries?

-I want you to stay close to that pureblood…

-You were blaming him just a few moments ago and now you trust him…

-I still do not trust him and I do still blame him, but he seems too well acquainted with all these stuff, you will need help and guidance and perhaps he will care if you find yourself in a weak position. Somehow he sounds mature and responsible…try to tell him to teach you anything there is…he is my only connection to you right now, so try to learn from him, I think we might be all right that way.

Aeries recognized that there was no other way to go indeed. Sawn somehow had managed to break the wall from inside and now he would be exposed to this society that had killed their parents and made them live like runaways in their country in order to survive. She also knew that this society held no sympathy for the weakest ones and either she could or could not trust Kaname, either she liked him or not, either she was scared of his influence on her brother or no, Sawn would soon join him in the battlefields.

She would do everything that it took to keep Sawn safe from harm and so as the two siblings were holding each other so tight and tender, she had already make up her decision. She would treat Kaname in the best possible way there was. If she did that then perhaps he would also treat Sawn with the best possible way.

But for one reason or another she could not help like betraying herself but she had no choice. Had she?