Disclaimer: The disclaimer was in the first chapter so read it if you actually care.

1 Thieves Mistake

Kari adjusted herself uncomfortably in the horse's saddle. She had been taught how to ride, but it had been years since she had done any serious riding. She was starting to get saddle sore.

The small group finally emerged from the forest and walked out onto broken sandstone ground. Tall cliffs rose up in front of the group made of the same stone that the ground was.

"Where do we go from here?" Asked Kari. "There isn't any path."

"There is for us." Said Skye. He pulled a piece of metal that was in the shape of a hawk out of a pouch on his belt. He placed the piece of metal against the cliff. He pulled his hands away and the metal hawk stuck to the rock. It glowed green and then flashed. A deep rumbling came from the cliff and the horses almost fell to the ground as tremors shook the ground. A line appeared down the cliff and then split.

Skye picked up the metal hawk off the ground and placed it in the pouch it had come from. He walked over to Kari and pushed her jaws back together.

"Cool little trick, huh." Said Skye. Kari simply nodded her head. "Actually T.K. was the one that thought of it and then I just enchanted the things. It's great because anybody can use them as long as you know where to put them. You just have to get in the general area."

"Let's go." Said T.K. "We don't need to waste any more time in this pointless conversation." He flicked the reins and his horse trotted forward.

"Does he ever act nice?" Asked Kari.

"He's had a tough life. We all have, but while the rest of us had nothing he actually lost something." Said Crystal.

"Matan pelar tokar." Said Arvis. "The rich have more to lose than the poor."

"Really." Said Skye sarcastically.

"He's getting ahead of us." Pointed out Crystal. Kari, Crystal, and Arvis flicked their reins and followed after T.K. while Skye trotted along beside them.

They rode around for a while. Kari noticed that the other four of her group were glancing at the sides of the cliffs and kept tight grips on their weapons. Kari decided that it was best if she watched and kept alert. She scanned the cliffs and kept one hand on her bow and the other near her quiver.

A couple of small stones fell from the top of a cliff on the side. Weapons sang as they flew from their sheathes and the company faced the direction of the stones.

"What are we watching for?" Whispered Kari to Skye who had inched over to her side.

"Cliff spider. That's the only problem with this way to our base. Don't worry though. The spiders are big and strong, but stupid as the rocks they live in." Said Skye's.

Suddenly a huge spider jumped from the cliff at the group. It was nearly twenty feet long and its abdomen was an ugly pulsating white. Red streaks ran down the spider's abdomen.

"Wind column." Yelled Skye. He put his hands above his head and a concentrated vortex of wind shot out. It hit the spiders bloated abdomen and pushed it into the air. The spider fell down and hit the stone ground hard. Kari fired an arrow and the other four charged.

The spider had lived for a long time and hadn't survived by being overly stupid or weak. It was up on its legs in seconds. It knocked Kari's arrow out of the sky with one front leg, and knocked back T.K., Arvis, and Skye back with the other front leg. Crystal tipped her staff with a spear point of ice and drove it at the spider's face. The spider ducked under the stab and slammed its head into Crystal's stomach. She doubled over and flew at one of the cliffs. She threw her feet behind he and pushed off of the cliff. She flipped over and landed on the ground.

Kari nocked another arrow and loosened it at the spider. The spider dodged to the right, but Kari had seen the dodge and fired another arrow before the spider could dodge again. The arrow hit the spider's abdomen and exploded. The spider's tough skin was barely scorched from the shot.

The spider jumped forward at Kari with two long legs held forward like spears. "Optic Flare." Kari held her hands forward and a flash of pink light, blinding in brilliance, hit the spider's eight eyes. The spider yelled and the two long legs missed Kari, but the spider still crashed into her. Skye's horse protected her from most of blow, but she still crashed to the ground.

The spider sunk its fangs into Skye's horse. Kari tried to pull away, but her legs were tangled in the stirrups of the saddle. T.K. jumped forward and slammed his katana into the spider's abdomen. Dark light flashed up and down the blade and wrapped around the spider.

"Ice slick." Ice appeared under the spider's feet and it fell to the ground. Arvis drew his two axes and charged at the spider. He drove the blades over and over again into the spider. Skye ran over to Kari and slashed the stirrups from her legs with his knifes. Kari kicked the remains of the stirrups from her legs and scrambled away.

"Wind pin." The green knives slashed into the spider's face. Green blood spurted out of the spider's many wounds. It stood up and spun in circles swung with its legs. The company flew off and hit the cliff walls.

"Stone fist." Arvis swung his fist forward at the spider. A piece of stone the shape of his fist broke away from the cliff wall. It slammed into the spider and slammed the spider into the ground. The spider reared up and shot sticky threads at the group. The threads wrapped around the group and stuck them to the ground.

"Dang, I already don't like this." Said T.K.

"Soma." Yelled Arvis.

"What does that mean?" Asked Kari.

"Loosely translated it means "die"." Said Skye. The spider thrusted one of it legs forward at Arvis. Arvis dodged to the side and slashed down with one of his axes. The leg fell off and landed on the ground twitching. He dropped one of his axes in the loop and pulled his heavy dagger out. He threw the dagger and it sunk into one of the spider's eyes. The spider reared up on its back legs.

Kari nocked another arrow and fired it into the cliff above the spider. The rocks exploded out from the cliff side and crushed the spider underneath their weight.

"Well that was fun." Said Skye.

"I thought you said that they were easy to kill." Accused Kari.

"Well, I meant it on the way of comparatively. Compared to a dragon they are actually quite easy to kill." Said Skye.

"Stop being an idiot on purpose." Said Crystal.

"I never do it on purpose."

"Oh, so what about the time you slammed your head in the wall repeatedly to the beat of a song."

"Actually that was me." Said Arvis. "And it wasn't to the beat of a song. I was trying to kill a fly."

"I made it into a song when I started to slap him in the head to a beat."

"Oh so that was you." Kari looked over at T.K.

"What are they talking about." She mouthed.

"You don't want to know." T.K. mouthed back. T.K. sliced down with his sword and cut the webbing away from his legs. He proceeded to each of the others and repeated to procedure. Arvis walked over to the pile of rubble and shifted one of the large stones in front of him. He reached into the new hole he made and yanked his dagger free.

All of them wiped the blood from their weapons and replaced them in their sheathes. Skye walked over to what was left of his horse and knelt beside it.

"Sorry." Said Kari.

"My little Loser was getting old anyway. Better he go out in one final shot than have to suffer. The only problem is where are you going to ride, but I have an idea about that." Said Skye. He stood and smiled at Kari. He stretched a hand out to her and she felt wind gather around her. She was lifted quickly in the air and placed in front of T.K. on his horse.

"Hey." Said T.K. pulling back from Kari like she was a monster.

"You'll be fine T.K. Besides we all know that you don't mind nearly as much as you acting." Said Skye smiling again. T.K. blushed and Kari worked herself around so that she sat more on T.K.'s lap than the saddle. "See everybody is happy. Now lets get riding we're almost there."

T.K. slowly put his arms around Kari's waist so that he could reach the reins. She surprised him by snuggling deeper into the crevice between his arms. His muscles tensed into tight knots at her touch, but she felt comfortably warm against his chest. He could feel his hate for all nobles and the strange new feeling fighting inside his head. Worse was that he didn't know which one he wanted to win.

He sighed and flicked his reins and started his horse into a quick trot. The rest of them followed behind the pair with smiles on their faces.



Tai stared angrily at the cliff in front of him with his arms across his chest. Sora rode her horse up beside Tai. She looked at him worriedly. Tai was becoming more and more angry as the days passed and they didn't find his sister. His personality was becoming close to explosive even with her.

"Izzy hasn't found any tracks nearby, but he has felt some strong magical vibrations around the cliffs." Said Sora carefully.

"The cliffs huh." Whispered Tai.

"Tai don't do anything stupid."

"Fire blast." Multiple fireballs formed in the air in front of him and then flew at the cliff. The fireballs exploded and left long scorch marks and holes in the cliff.

"Tai calm down." Said Sora slapping him in the back of his head.

"My sister is missing and in the hands of some sick bastard. He's probably doing horrible things to her as we speak." Tai almost choked on the last words and tears as hot as fire slid down his face. His hair glowed cherry red and then burst into flames. Sora was too worried about Tai. Due to his magi power of fire he was immune to fire itself.

"Tai blowing the crap out of the cliff wall isn't going to help. We're going to get your sister back. You can't even be sure that they are treating her badly." Said Sora grabbing his chin and forcing him to look into her eyes. "It is better for her and everybody if you just calm down."

"But… what if…" Tai looked down helplessly at his horse's neck and his hair went back to its normal brown. "I know I've been a little hard to get along with…"

"A little…" Snorted Sora.

"Hey, my mind has been preoccupied with more than just my sister, too."

"What do you mean?"

"We've been having various border skirmishes with somebody. We usually only find burned forms or villages, but even when we do fight them we just get a bunch of men in black."

"Maybe it's just some rebel group."

"I thought that to, but they were just too organized. They had formations and they didn't get routed."

"You think that it's some kingdom getting ready for war?"

"It might be, but the only kingdom in that direction is the Green Dragon kingdom and they are our allies. I mean they sent Davis over here to marry Kari."

"You think someone is trying to pin it on the Green Dragon kingdom. We're two of the most powerful kingdoms around and us joining would be bad for them." Tai saw something in the forest out of the corner of his eye. He signaled for Sora to stop talking. He had his sword in his hand in a second and charged his horse into the forest. He spun his horse and scanned the bushes looking for whatever he had seen. He saw one of the bushes shake and rode close. A deer jumped out of the bushes and ran away.

"What is it?" Asked Sora riding up to him.

"I thought I saw something." Said Tai.

"The deer."

"Deer don't carry swords the last time I checked."

"Maybe everyone else is back at the clearing."

"Okay." Tai said still looking over the bushes trying to find whatever it was. They rode out of the forest and saw the other five standing in front of the cliff looking at the holes that Tai's fireballs had made.

"Was there a fight?" Asked Joe.

"No, Tai just got a little angry." Said Sora.

"Do you always have to blow things up?" Asked Izzy.

"Did you find anything?" Asked Tai trying to get everyone off of him.

"No, there aren't any tracks in any direction." Said Davis.

"Dang." Said Tai. A shrill shriek cut through the air and everyone looked up. A hawk floated lazily on a thermal. Sora yelled something in the screeching language of the hawks. The hawk looked down and then folded its wings to its sides. The hawk dove and then landed on Sora's outstretched arm. She and the hawk entered into an intense conversation.

Sora threw the hawk into the air and I flapped to get back into the air. "The hawk said that five people passed through the cliff early this morning."

"Passed through the cliff?" Asked Ken.

"Just wondering how that could even be possible?" Asked Yolie.

"The hawk said that one of the people walked to the cliff and placed something up against it. There was a great Earth shaking and the cliff split. The people walked through and then the cliff went back together."

"The cliff?" Asked Davis confused. "How do we get through the cliff."

"We trash it." Said Tai. "Fire Blast." The fireballs hit the cliff and exploded.

"Psi bomb." Yolie raised her hand into the air and a purple ball of energy appeared above it. She threw it forward and it hit the wall and exploded, too. When the rock dust cleared the cliff had fallen into a pile of rubble and the group could see the passage in front of them. They rode forward quickly and came upon the spider and horse's dead bodies lying in the pass.

Izzy started to get off of his horse, but Tai signaled for him to get back on. "We've almost got them now. It doesn't matter what happened here." Tai spurred his horse back into a gallop and they all followed him.



T.K.'s group rode out of the mountain pass and back into a heavily wooded forest. They had only ridden a short way into the forest when they saw a small cluster of houses on the forest floor. People worked around the small village, tending animals and fields. Suddenly a arrow whistled out of the trees and slammed into the dirt beside T.K.'s horses feet.

"T.K. did you get what you were after." Yelled a voice. Somebody dressed in green that was the exactly the same color as the leaves around him. He jumped off a platform that he was standing on and grabbed onto a rope hanging from the tree. He slid down the rope and hit the ground running.

"Matt." Yelled T.K. He ran to Matt and they met in a powerful huge. When they broke apart Matt took a step back, and looked at his younger brother.

Matt was taller than T.K. by nearly a head and it was obvious that they were brothers. They both shared the same sapphire eyes and wild blond hair. Matt however was covered in green while T.K. was clothed in black. His hands had needle gloves on them (Author's Note: Needle gloves are gloved with blades in the backs. You slip a loop over your finger and can extended the blades by just balling your hand into a fist.) and a bow and quiver were across his back. He was a magi warrior of ice.

"We didn't find much of anything good, but we found a few jewels." Said T.K. Matt looked over T.K.'s shoulder and spotted Kari.

"Not much of anything good. Who is this then?" Asked Matt with a smile.

"This is Princess Kari who we accidentally kidnapped."

"Accidentally?" Teased Matt.

"Hey I didn't mean to." Kari was at T.K.'s side by now.

"Actually it was more like he swept me of my feet. It was so romantic." Kari said dramatically. She grabbed onto his arm and nestled her head into T.K.'s chest.

"T.K. I didn't know that you had it in you." Said Matt playfully punching T.K. in the shoulder. "I'm going to go and help the others unpack everything while you two get better aquatinted." Matt looked over at Kari. "If you need somewhere to go past that grove of trees over there is a lake."

"Thanks." Said Kari walking toward where Matt had pointed. T.K. walked behind her. They pushed though the grove of small trees and walked out beside a small lake. The sun was just setting and brilliant colors were reflected on the still water. "The view is pretty." Said Kari. She sat down on a large stone that protruded out into the water.

"Yeah, it is a nice view." Said T.K. sitting down beside Kari. Kari pulled her boots off and dangled her feet into the water.

"It must have been great growing up in a beautiful place like this."

"You know the reason why all of us are here, because the royalty decided that we were expendable. They killed most of our village and my parents because we weren't the ones in power." Yelled T.K. at Kari angrily.

"I didn't do those things to you so you don't have to get do mad."

"You didn't, but it is people like you that did. The all righteous nobility."

"Our family rules our lands fairly." Kari was starting to get angry herself.

"Have you ever actually been out onto your lands princess. Have you seen your people working at their jobs and then getting half of what they do sent to the royalty. They may be more well off than most other kingdoms peasants, but they would be able to live easier without the royalty."

Kari got up and was ready to shout T.K. down. "We're the ones that protect the villages from getting destroyed by those other kingdoms."

"We wouldn't have to worry about the other kingdoms if it wasn't for the greed of the nobles. They just want to take us over and use us. If it wasn't for any nobles than we would all be fine." Kari had already prepared her next stinging comment, but was surprised by the truth in T.K.'s words.

T.K. took her silence as giving up and turned away. He disappeared into the grove of trees and Kari sat back down discontentedly back onto the rock. She trailed her feet back into the water and sighed. The confrontation with T.K. hadn't gone exactly the way she had been hoping.

She was confused of how she had acted and how T.K. had acted. Even she couldn't understand why she had put up with how T.K. had been acting to her. Normally if anybody had treated her like T.K. that person would have gotten more than a piece of he mind. She couldn't find herself to angry at how T.K. had been acting though.

Kari sighed again and dropped her head into her hands. She was to confused to even try and think through it.

Kari was raised out of her thoughts by the whistling of several arrows cutting through the air. She jerked her feet out of the water and stood up quickly. She quickly slipped her boots on and ran through the grove of trees.

She spotted seven horses standing near the edge of the village and Kari noticed her brother most noticeable on his horse. Only Skye stood in front of the seven, but Kari noticed both Matt and T.K. in the platforms in the trees with bows. Arvis and Crystal were on the ground hidden in the trees.

"Where is Kari." Demanded Tai.

"Kari…" Said Skye seeming to think. "I know no Kari. Maybe if you come back in a week I can find a Kari for you, but at the moment I know no one by that name."

"We know who you are Skye Tarve." Said Yolie pointing her spear at Skye's chest.

"Guilty as charged." Said Skye bowing. "It is nice to know that I am known among even the royalty. So what is the price on my head at the moment."

"2,000 gold pieces." Said Sora smiling despite the look that Tai shot her.

"I didn't have any idea that I was worth so much. Maybe I should turn my self and collect."

"By order of the prince of the Green Dragon tell us where the princess is." Demanded Davis stepping his horse forward.

"Green Dragon." Said Skye his voice coming out in a hiss. He threw his hand forward and a blast of wind hit Davis in the chest. The wind threw Davis to the ground and Skye jumped at Davis drawing a knife. He stabbed the knife down at Davis, but Davis managed to dodge to the side. The knife slammed into the dirt and sunk deep.

"Purple lightening." A bolt of purple lightening arched from Izzy's hands and struck Skye in the face. The force of the hit sent Skye backwards, but he had a firm grip on Davis's armor. They both flew through the air and Skye managed to flip over and have Davis land on the bottom.

Davis felt the electricity travel from Skye to Davis's more conductive armor. Davis could feel his ears pop. He still managed to grab his sword and draw it over his head. He slammed the hilt into Skye's forehead and Skye rolled to the side. Davis sprung to his feet and swung his sword at Skye's waist. Skye rolled backward and ended up on his feet.

Skye drew his one remaining knife and then flicked his wrist. Two throwing knives slid into Skye's other hand.

"Water cannon." Said Joe. A column of water hit Skye in the chest and he was slammed into the ground. His knives fell out of his hands and hit the ground with a slight clink.

"Fire blast."

"Ice spear." Tai's fireballs and Matt's spear of ice hit and disappeared in a blast of steam.

"Who?" Asked Tai jumping from his horse and drawing his sword. Matt and T.K. jumped from the trees and slid to the ground on ropes. Arvis and Crystal ran behind them into the clearing with their weapons drawn. "What do you think you are doing. Are you protecting this criminal."

Matt was about to say something when he saw Skye shaking his head no. "Of course not, but this man has not been in a trial."

"The Green Dragon kingdom has no need for trials. Any royal can execute any person that we choose." Said Davis drawing his sword.

"Stop." Said Kari standing between Skye and Davis.

"Kari." Yelled Tai and Yolie at the same time. Tai sheathed his sword and Yolie jumped from her horse. Tai ran forward and grabbed Kari in a backbreaking hug. Kari looked at Sora helplessly.

"Tai I think that Kari still needs to breathe." Said Sora pointedly. Tai released his hug, but still held Kari at arm distance.

"Are you okay. That bastard didn't do anything to you did he?" Tai sent a look of pure hatred at Skye. Who was crawling toward his dagger which lay near Tai's foot. Tai slammed his armored boot down on Skye's hand. Tai could hear the bones in Skye's hand crack.

Skye looked up at Tai and Tai felt a blast of wind hit his chest and knocked Tai's foot of Skye's hand. Skye stood up and pulled his now broken hand up to his chest. Blood seeped between the fingers of the hand Skye was holding the broken one with. Kari put reached her hands out toward Skye's broken hand.

"Don't go near him." Said Tai grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back.

"He didn't do anything to me. He didn't mean to even kidnap me, and now he is hurt."

"Great he deserves to be hurt."

"He's right Kari. All I am is a dirty thief, and the only one of my sort around for miles." Said Skye. Kari didn't miss what he was hinting at. "But they can't do anything here. They have to take me to hold trial."

"I told you that we don't need trials." Said Davis pointing his sword at Skye's chest.

"You're not in the Green Dragon kingdom though." Said Joe. "In this kingdom a person can't be killed without a trial. We'll have to take him back to the castle for a trial."

"Fine we go now." Said Tai.

"You can't." Yelled T.K. jumping forward.

"What do you mean?" Asked Tai threateningly.

"He means that you have to stay a night. It is almost nighttime and we can share our meager hospitality. The thief scum can rot in our cells for one night." Said Matt silencing his younger brother. "Crystal and Arvis can take him to the jail cells."

"Joe and Izzy will help them and I'm sure that you can stable our horses." Said Tai.

"T.K. can take care of that while I show you to where we can get you some dinner and sleep." Said Matt. Everyone went to there assigned task though the thief group and Kari weren't happy with it.



A lurking shadow broke away from a tree that it was hiding behind and disappeared into the bushes. It made sure that no one was near it before it pulled out a small mirror. The shadow breathed over it and the mirror clouded with moisture. When the condensation had cleared a man wearing green and black and a crown appeared in the mirror.

"Did you manage to kill the princess properly this time." Asked the man impatiently.

"Even better. We also have the son of the Kamiya's and his slut wife plus some of the Kamiya's best warriors." Said the shadow.

"Good kill them all and be sure to leave no survivors." Said the man.

"Your son is with them. Can we kill him, too."

"I said all." The man turned and the mirror clouded again. When it cleared again it was just a simple mirror.

"Blood will flow from my hands tonight." Whispered the shadow eagerly pulling a crude sword from its sheath.

End Note: I know that the ending is kind of cliff hanger but I'm having a severe case of writers block. I didn't really like it but review so that I can know what you think.