Small, dirty blond pup padded along in the black, blank space. It was as if nothing was around anymore. Everything had disapeared. Deep sea blue orbs scanned the blank space, hoping to find a scrap of something it remembered. Before long, a world washed over the blankness. At this sight, the pup jumped in shock, as though he was not expecting what had just happened.

The pup found himself standing in a meadow, many different flowers everywhere, many different colours. Looking up, the sky was painted a beautiful blue, clouds coming above. Looking forwards, the pup saw a lake. Of course, this pup knew that this world was not real, but all a fantasy. Though, it just felt so real to him.

"Arien...Arien..." someone called far off, making the young wolf pup's auds flicker up.

Running towards the sound, paws underneath fumbled and soon the pup tumbled, rolling down the hill he was once on top of, standing as though he were king of the world. Coming to the foot of the lake, Arien, the pup, rose his head to see a familiar figure just across. His father.

Jumping up onto his paws, Arien started running across the lake, which froze with the steps the pup took. Arien had the feeling that this was wrong but it felt so right to be free and being able to see his father. I shouldn't get caught up with all this...I mean, it is just a dream...right? Arien had asked himself. Though, his happiness drove him to jump into the air, aiming to land on his father. Though, to his dismay, something happened.

Everything froze and changed. Instead of landing on his father and in the beautiful world he was once in, he landed on a corpse of his father in the middle of a battle field of where the boy had once lived. Stepping off, Arien grew to what seemed to be just a little boy, the past form of what he is now. As he looked up to see what was going on, Arien saw a gun pointed at him. Before the trigger went off, he could tell it was a male. Eyes of blood red and hair of black.

Closing his eyes, Arien reopened them to find Likana and Kamary infront of him. Looking at the two, he saw their smirks and he had a strange feeling that something bad had recently happened or was going to happen. Before long, he listened to the two laughing. Putting his hand to his head, he felt something slippery and a little gooey. Taking his hand away, he looked to see Black Paint. Sighing, he took a cloth and took his water bottle and, as the two a little ways away from him laughed, he washed the paint off of his face before looking down at his entertainment, who was still asleep.

"Alright, what was the reason for this prank and how long have you been waiting for me to wake up?" Arien asked, sitting up against the tree, arms crossed over his chest, watching the two laugh still. Becoming slightly annoyed, he just shook his head, closing his eyes and waited for an answer from the two females.

"Aww, c'mon Air Head!" laughed the raven haired female, reopening her eyes behind the black blindfold of hers. Reaching back behind her head with her two hands, she tightened that blindfold, a smirk across her face. "The reason was because you were asleep and we couldn't help ourselves. Also," she started, sitting down and taking a piece of candy and popping it into her mouth. "We've been waiting for a good two minutes. I guess the paint wouldn't dry fast enough, what a shame." she finally added, shrugging her shoulders with a wide smirk across her face.

As the golden-brown haired female regained herself, she smiled as she usually did and spoke. "Though, while you were asleep you were tossing and turning as though you were having a nightmare. Though, that was only at the end. You seemed pretty peaceful otherwise." she said, getting up and standing on her feet, staring blankly ahead with her useless eyes.

Sitting there, Arien thought for a moment. The two were watching him? That thought just made him about uneasy. Shaking off the thought, his attention was caught by the group, who were still, surprisingly, talking. Scanning the group, he saw Guy, Gray, Luke, and Tear. That was pretty normal, to him at least. Though, seeing the colonel, he was trying to figure out why he was here. Didn't he go with Asch? Well, so did Guy but he was appearently waiting for Luke. Standing, he walked over to listen in.

"So, let's head off to Daath."

Sighing, Arien then figured he had missed the whole conversation. Going back, he picked up Mieu, gently laying him back in the items bag, which, funny thing, Arien had sewn up a little area where Mieu could actually sleep, supplied with a small pillow and blanket. Putting the bag over his shoulder, he walked back towards the group, following them. Catching up to Gray, he asked simply "What's going on? Why are we going to Daath?"

Gray looked at him before looking back to the group, following them with hands in his pockets as though he was bored or something. "We're heading to Daath to save Ion and Natalia. Appearently the two were Fon Master Napped an-"

"Wait, what? Again?" Arien asked, interupting Gray, a tad bit surprised that Ion was Fon Master Napped again. Noticing he had interupted his friend, though, he gestured in a way of saying that Gray could continue, bowing his head in a way of apologie.

"As I was saying." Gray started, rolling his eyes and letting out a deep sigh. "Ion was Fon Master Napped and Natalia was Princess Napped. So, we're going to go save them." Gray explained further, soon going off quicker ahead before being knocked over by Kamary, who still seemed to be trying kill him.

Arien shook his head, jogging to catch up with the group, yet being slow so he would not wake the creature that he was taking care of at the moment. Before Gray had gone off to catch up with the group, Arien was about to ask 'And Jade trusts Luke with this?'. Even if Arien knew Luke had changed, he didn't think that jade would know right off the bat. Though, he figured that Jade was smart enough to bring Luke along just for the help and not out of friendship. He had then decided that it was the most likely reason because it was more Jade like.

Watching the group, Arien had a thought. It was as if this journey was bringing everyone together, or at least had been before Luke decided to follow Van and blow up Akzeriuth. Though, with that thought, Arien only chuckled. He knew himself that it was not all Luke's fault. He didn't know a thing about Van's intentions. He understood that Luke was just trying to be useful for his former master. As he was thinking that, though, his own past rolled into his head and, as he continued to walk, he looked down at his feet.

Flash back

"Hey! Hey! Sensei! Take a look at this!" said a young, dirty blonde boy, holding up a rod. A silver and blueish rod. Though, as the sensei looked down at the weapon with a frown, the boy understood he had not pleased his master. Lowering the rod, the boy hung his head before walking off, thinking of what he could have possibly done wrong.

"Haha! Looks like you're having some trouble!" said a black haired boy, who looked so much like the dirty blonde haired boy. "At least I don't have the same trouble with Sensei! He praises me for what ever I do!" The boy stood proud, head up high with a wide smirk across his face, a gleam of pride in his Deep Sea blue eyes.

Hands cluched around the rod that the dirty blonde boy had made as he shouted. "Shut it, Raien! Don't feel so proud just because Sensei likes you better and because you are older! Besides, you're not too much older than me! Only by a minute or even less!" spat the dirty blonde haired boy. This actually only made the other boy laugh.

"Aw, c'mon Outoto! I'm just pulling your leg!" Raien laughed out, still full of pride. Punching the other boy's shoulder gently, he smirked. "Here, want me to help you out with sensei? I could probably get him to praise you in n time if you just listen to what I say. How about that, Arien?" the boy, Raien, put in, crouching down to come eye level with Arien, who was by now sitting on a rock, putting his hand out to him.

Arien smiled, nodding. "Alright, Onii-san." he replied, taking his older, twin brother's hand, being pulled up. "But don't think your stronger just because of it. You know dad has been teaching me more then you." he smirked out, looking at his brother.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Let's just go already" the other said in slight annoyance.

With that, the flash back ended.

"Hoi, Arien! Hurry up or you'll get left behind!" Gray called a fair distance away, waving his arm up in the air. "Seriously, what are you doing just looking down at your feet?" Seeing his friend smirk, Arien did the same before running up to catch up, thinking about the positive things in his past, remembering about how he met everyone here.

And that started another journey with the group.