Chapter 1:

Chapter 1:

The mysterious Rune makes a friend

The waves crashed gently on the shore outside of the tiny port town of Arni. A gentle breeze blew through the usually fairly busy town, which now stood empty save the lone visitor at the entrance. Rune found the absence of life confusing, but not as confusing as the news he'd received in Termina. An evil man named Serge, and all of the terror he had caused in El Nido. Rune had never heard of Serge before, and was even more surprised to hear that the notorious villain Lynx, the destroyer of Guardia, had evidently turned over a new leaf. The thought sickened him, but it didn't change his resolve. He was going to get revenge for Guardia, if it was the last thing he did.

He shook his head, fearing that this Serge character had killed everyone. He'd hoped to get information from these people, and the thought of another town wiped out… It was unnerving, but he knew that he had to search the village.

It turned out that Rune's luck suddenly changed for the better. He found a young girl sitting on the dock gathering some small fish with a net. She had red hair that fell down to her hips, and a large frying pan strapped to her back. As Rune approached her, she reached up and ripped the pan from the make shift sheath, whirling around to face him. Rune held his hands up, giving her a nervous smile.

"Don't hit me!" He exclaimed, waving his hands. "I'm a good guy!" The girl looked him over, and narrowed her eyes.

"You're with Porre."

Rune shook his head, tearing his badge off.

"No I'm not." He said pointedly. "I used them to get a ride out here to El Nido. I'm from Guardia… Well, North Porre…" The girl looked at him with her green eyes, as if she understood the pain he held inside him.

"Oh…" She said softly, lowering the pan. "You're a boy from the old country…"

Rune nodded.

"Yeah… I lived through the war. My father fought for the king." He smiled a bit, remembering the happy times in his childhood. "He was a great knight… He fought to his last…" He shook his head, scattering the memories. He frowned a bit. "But that's not important right now. Are you here all alone?"

The girl lifted the pan a bit, then nodded.

"The others are hiding at the Elder's. I came to get baitfish for the fishermen. They go out and get us food at night."

Rune nodded and took a step back, making the girl relax.

"Well that's good." He said with a sigh. "I'm glad that Arni wasn't wiped out. When I got here and saw how empty it was…"

"That's because of…"

The girl turned away suddenly, and went back to bait fish catching, her head bowed. Rune sat next to her, taking a net as well.

"May I help?" He asked. The girl nodded a bit, and Rune began to try to scoop the fish into his net. He wasn't very good at it, and in the end, he grinned at the girl. "I'm kinda sucky at fishing. I grew up in the woods."

The girl giggled a bit despite her evident worry.

"You won't make it in El Nido then. We're all about fishing." She scooped some fish up, placing them in her bucket. She sat back, looking at the sky. "What brings you to El Nido anyway, Mr. um…"

"Rune." He said, looking up at the sky. "I've come to El Nido because I have a bit of a score to settle…" He looked at her. "What's your name?"

The girl smiled.

"I'm Leena." She replied.

Rune grinned.

"Okay, Leena. Do you know that much about Lynx?"

Leena looked at him sharply, her eyes wide.

"You're here for Lynx too?!"

Rune blinked.

"Who else…? Oh." He said flatly. "You must have met Kid. Quite the charmer, eh?"

"I thought you'd know her." Said Leena. "She lives to kill Lynx."

Rune nodded.

"That's because of what he did to her, and Guardia." He looked out across the sea to some small islands off in the distance. "He killed her best friend. He also murdered King Chrono and his family, and burned my hometown to the ground… He killed my family as well… He and Porre…" Rune looked down, and Leena placed her hand on his shoulder.

"It must have been awful…" She said softly. "I can't imagine… How old were you…?

"Three." Rune said, frowning. "I wasn't even sure what war was… I didn't understand it until I saw my mother killed right in front of me…"

Leena bowed her head.

"Porre invaded us just after Serge…" She sighed. "I don't understand this world…" Rune blinked at her.

"You know this Serge character?" He asked in surprise.

Leena nodded.

"Yes… I thought that he was just confused… You see… He swore to me that he was a boy that had died here ten years ago. When Lynx confirmed it… I was shocked. I didn't know what to say…"

Rune blinked.

"He's a ghost?"

Leena shook her head.

"No. He came… From another world."

Rune nearly dropped his net.

"Another world?! What…"

Leena stood up, gazing into the sky.

"We were told that there is another world, just like this one in another plane." She turned back to him. "In that world, he never died. He grew up, and became very strong. But something drew him here… I don't know what, but whatever it was, wanted him to alter the course of this world's future."

Rune looked down, his face paling.

"Was it… Lynx?"

Leena nodded.

"I think so. Lynx and Serge… I don't know… They switched bodies or something the last time they fought… It's so eerie…" She looked down this time, as if the memory was causing her great pain. "It's so eerie to see Serge's smile on that monster's face… He came here, to try and get me to help him beat Lynx, but I refused… I can't travel with him when he's like that… It hurts every time I look at him…"

Rune grinned a bit.

"Can you imagine what it must be like for your friend Serge? To wake up every morning… And see a face in the mirror that is not his…?" Rune gazed up at the sky, his eyes burning. "To ache in the inside… Each time he sees his own eyes on the face of another…?" He realized that Leena was staring at him, and he quieted down a bit. "I'm sorry…"

Leena smiled weakly.

"It's okay… But you sound like you know what he's going through first hand…"

Rune sighed.

"It's only because… I pretend to be something I'm not…" He looked at Leena. "I've tried my whole life to live up to what my father was… He was such a great fighter… But no matter how hard I try, I just can't live up to him. He drew his sword and looked at his reflection as if transfixed. "And every time I look in the mirror… I see my father staring back at me…"

"Rune…" Leena smiled at him a bit, and then tapped the hilt of his sword. "The fact that you fight against someone as terrible as Lynx gives you merit… You're fighting for El Nido now. You're fighting for all of us, just like Serge is…" She stood up, and looked out towards the islands. "And I need to fight too." She turned to him, and smiled again. "Rune, may I come with you? We can meet up with Serge, and maybe help him become himself again."

Rune looked at the ground.

"Leena… I've always fought solo…"

Leena placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"Then it's time for a duet! Come on!" She pleaded. "Please take me with you! I'm an okay fighter, and besides… Isn't it lonely on your own?"

Rune looked at the ground.

"You remind me of my mom…" He sighed, then looked back at her. "Okay, Leena. You can come… And don't worry, I'll protect you."

Leena smiled.

"Great! Let's get going, okay? I've got all my gear—my mother wouldn't let me leave the elder's place without it."

Rune blinked.

"Shouldn't you tell your mother where you're going?"

Leena smiled weakly.

"Rune… Would your mother have let you fight for Guardia…? Do you think that mine will let me leave Arni?"

"I suppose… You have a point…" He said softly. He glanced over his shoulder towards the town. "We'd better leave quickly then."

Leena nodded. She placed the bucket of fish down near the center of the dock, and pulled her ribbon out of her hair. She tied it to the bucket, and then turned back to Rune.

"Mom will know I'm alright." She assured him. "If I had been attacked, I wouldn't have had time to tie this here." Rune nodded.

"Okay then… Let's go, Leena."

The two quickly made there way out of Arni, heading back towards Termina. A few hours after they had left, a man came in search of Leena. When he reached the bucket, the gulls had overturned it and were picking at the fish. Leena's ribbon had been blown into the water, and he found it stuck in some kelp near the dock. When he brought the ribbon, and the news of Leena's disappearance to the others, a sorrow shot through the small town, and Leena's mother had a stroke from the shock. The pain that Arni felt that day had only occurred a few times in the small town's history… And one of those times was ten years ago… When a young boy named Serge had been swallowed up by the waves…