Chisato stood at the entrance of Payon on the bridge, listening to the roaring river underneath her while she waited for the others to prepare. Thoma had gone to buy supplies with the zenny they had all chipped in and Fanged had gone with her. Bleu said she had to meet up with someone and would meet them at the Payon caves. Chisato and Cornflakes stayed behind on the bridge, letting them know to come fetch her when they were ready.

It has been a while since Chisato had last been here. It brought back a lot of memories for her.

Payon was known as the Archer Village, since all Archers and Hunters made their beginnings there. It was one of the smallest cities in Rune-Midgard, not nearly as populated as Geffen or Prontera. It was located in the middle of the forest on the outskirts of the city of Alberta, Chisato's hometown.

She thought back to when she first started out as a Novice. The ridicule she put up with from her family, and the trials she went through to make it to the city. The pain of training herself as an Archer was all worth it the day she became a Huntress. That day will always, in her mind, remain one of her greatest achievements, no matter what anyone else said or thought. She was too stubborn and proud to let anyone rain on her parade.

Chisato almost totally forgot about why she was here as she was absorbed in the atmosphere and let her mind wander deep in thought. As she stood on the bridge, looking over the railing at the water below, a voice from behind startled her.

"Well, are you coming or not?" came Fanged's voice, sounding impatient.

She turned around looking annoyed at the Knight, not liking to be interrupted. "Why? In a hurry for another ass kicking?" she said abruptly.

Fanged smirked at her, "Funny. You won't let me live that down will you?" He sounded half embarrassed, half miffed.

"Sorry," she smirked back, trying, but failing, to be nice. A little nagging voice in her mind reminded her not to judge him for being a Knight but she couldn't help it. It was a prejudice that was hard for her to shake. Maybe it was his attitude from the day before that she just couldn't get out of her mind. At least with Aaogan she could look past it since he was nice off the bat.

"Anyway," he continued, changing the subject, "Thoma went on ahead to the caves and said to meet her there, though take your time. She wanted to try and sell off some more stuff before we head in."

"I see..." she said, turning her attention back to the water below.

"So what are we looking at?" said Fanged as he moved over to stand next to her, not realizing Cornflakes was there. The Poring let out a squeak in protest to almost being stepped on, making Fanged jump back.

Chisato glared over at him, now feeling irritated, as Cornflakes mouthed off at the Knight about being more careful where he steps.

Fanged waved his palm at him and apologized profusely to him and Chisato.

Chisato said nothing and began to walk down the bridge toward the city. Cornflakes stuck his tongue out at Fanged then joined her. Fanged also followed to her dismay.

They hadn't gotten far up the bridge when they heard screams come from the town followed by a young, female Assassin that came running toward them. As she had gotten closer they noticed she was wearing a set of Katars that seemed to be dripping with a reddish substance. She had a scared and angry look about her face as she approached them. One of her eyes was covered by her short blue hair. Chisato had noticed for a brief moment when the wind had pushed it aside that it seemed to be a different, abnormal color from the other blue one.

Fanged pushed Chisato behind him as she was getting ready to take aim with her bow. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it to the oncoming Assassin. Chisato roughly pushed Fanged back out of her way knowing what he was trying to do. She did not need his protection.

"Stop her! Don't let that murderer get away!" came the yells from the small crowd following up behind. The Assassin stopped, looked behind her at the approaching crowd, then back at Chisato and Fanged, who momentarily had their attention off her as they bickered between themselves. She feigned as if to come at them, but took a sudden leap, flipping over their heads and landing behind them.

Shocked at the sudden action of the Assassin, the two looked back at her, mouths agape, as she sped off. Chisato aimed her bow again to hit the 'sin in the leg when the rushing crowd caught up to them and knocked her to the side. Her arrow flew out from her bow toward the water as she fell flat on her ass. Before she realized what happened the Assassin was gone and the crowd was out the gates. She cursed loudly and looked back to Fanged. He held Cornflakes in his hands.

"I guess this makes up for me almost stepping on you," he said to him, for he had just saved him from being trampled on by the stampeding crowd. Cornflakes gave a small squeak of approval and bounced over to Chisato whom was starting to get back to her feet.

Fanged held out his hand to help Chisato back up. Chisato knocked it away and got to her feet on her own. "Yeah thanks a lot," she said sounding peeved.

"Huh? What did I do?" he said sounding confused.

"I didn't need you to protect me there. Thanks to you she got away. If you hadn't jumped in front of me I could have shot her down!" she said, her voice rising.

"Hey, sorry if I was just trying to help," he said, looking pissed and hurt.

"I don't need your help," she said, then turned and stormed off away from him.

"Yeah whatever. I'll remember that next time Miss Hot Headed Huntress," he yelled back at her.

They entered the city, not talking to each other, when they noticed a large crowd had gathered near the Payon temple. They could see it was the place that the incident with the Assassin and another person had taken place. Chisato caught tidbits of rumors going all around about some rivalry that had sparked between the Assassin and the victim that stemmed from a long time ago. She didn't stay around long enough to really hear much more or see who it was, for her and Fanged seemed to be trying to move ahead of one another while heading in the direction of Payon Caves.

The walk through Archer Village couldn't go by fast enough, for the sooner she didn't have to be alone with Fanged, the better, for she was feeling awkward. She finally saw Thoma up ahead dealing with a few other people. As she finished she took notice of Chisato and Fanged approaching.

"Oh good, you're here," she started to say when she noticed the look on their faces. "What's the matter?"

Chisato was about to answer with a simple "Nothing" when Fanged beat her to it saying, "Incident in town. Someone got whacked by an Assassin."

Thoma looked dumbstruck and mouthed an 'Oh my God.' "What happened?" she said aloud.

"Not really sure," he said giving a shrug. "Didn't really stay long enough to get the whole story."

"Oh..." Thoma said, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Meanwhile, Chisato got a look into Thoma's cart, double checking for herself that Thoma had bought her the right arrows for the trip. Silvers were always the best choice when tackling Payon Caves. Bonguns and Munaks were especially weak to those, along with a lot of the other undead things that lurked around down there.

Chisato noticed Cornflakes also trying to take a peek inside but pulled him away by his backpack. She flashed him a look of "I wouldn't if I were you" before dropping him back down to the ground.

As Fanged finished telling Thoma about the incident in town, Thoma turned back to Chisato. "Is everything you need there? Hope I didn't forget anything," she said looking back at her cart and shuffling a few items around. "I didn't buy as many reds this time since we have Bleu with us," she continued without waiting for Chisato to assure her she had gotten what she needed.

"Speaking of which," Chisato chimed in, "where is Bleu?" Chisato realized she was nowhere to be seen. "Hadn't she returned yet?"

"Oh, she did. But unfortunately we found out we need permission to enter the lower levels of the caves. The Payon Guard decided it was too dangerous with that psycho Wizard to let just anyone wander around down there. Bleu went to get us some passes. She should be back shortly," Thoma explained as she continued to sort items around her cart.

Chisato sat down to the side of the road in the grass nearing the entrance to the Caves. She noticed Fanged had walked off a bit more near the caves alone. Thoma looked up from her cart and took notice to Fanged sitting so far off, then turned to Chisato. "Geeze, what's up with that?"

"Meh, who knows," Chisato said, not wanting to say anything about the spat they had on the bridge. "Maybe he just likes to be alone. Said people called him the 'Lone Wolf' right?"

Thoma grinned and was about to respond when Cornflakes spoke up.

"You probably hurt his feelings Chisato. Yup, I think you did," he said so matter of factly.

Chisato grabbed a hold of Cornflakes and put her hand over his mouth. "Shush you," she said through gritted teeth.

Thoma cocked a brow at her and Cornflakes as she sat down next to them. "Uh? What happened?"

"Nothing really, just a slight misunderstanding," Chisato said trying to play it off as not a big deal.

"Chisato yelled at him for trying to protect her," Cornflakes said in a muffled squeak.

"Chisato! Why would you do that?" Thoma scolded. She looked over to Fanged, whom sat quietly under a tree near the entrance of the Cave, chewing on a piece of grass and seemed to be looking off into the distance and not paying attention to anyone.

Chisato frowned. "It wasn't my fault. He jumped in front of me when I was aiming for that Assassin on the bridge. If he hadn't done so I could have gotten her."

"You mean the murderer?"

"Yes."

"Sounds just like what, Cornflakes wasn't it? What Cornflakes said. He was probably only trying to keep you out of harm's way."

"Peh, I don't need his protection," Chisato spat turning her head in the other direction away from Thoma and Fanged.

Thoma looked back at Fanged, then frowned at Chisato, "He didn't want ours either, remember? Maybe this was just his way of repaying you his debt."

Chisato kept her head turned away from Thoma's gaze. What she said was probably true, but Chisato never liked to be told she was wrong. "Maybe....." she finally grumbled.

Chisato stayed quiet for a while, glancing off into the distance as Thoma attended to a few random customers. Through her sulking, she caught sight of Bleu standing not too far from them, but she wasn't alone. Standing next to her, talking, was a familiar face that made Chisato's mouth drop and her face go white. It was Kali.

"Ta..Thoma look, next to Bleu," she stammered, glancing back over to Thoma and tapping her on the arm, motioning in Bleu's direction.

Thoma looked over in Bleu's direction. "Oh good, she's back finally."

Chisato looked back to see Bleu was walking toward them, alone. "What? Where did she go?"

"Where did who go?"

"The Priestess that was next to Bleu!"

"Chisato what are you talking about?"

"You didn't see Kali standing next to Bleu only a moment ago?"

Thoma looked at Chisato like she had a screw or two loose and shook her head.

Chisato glanced down to Cornflakes in her lap, who seemed to be nodding off. She shook the Poring till he stirred a bit. "Cornflakes, did you see her?"

Cornflakes yawned. "See who?" he asked looking up at her, a bit irritated at being awakened.

"Forget it, just.....forget it." Chisato, now realizing that she was sounding crazy, dropped it abruptly as Bleu was almost near enough to hear them. If she was crazy she didn't want Bleu to confirm it by saying that Kali was never there.

"Welcome back Bleu," Thoma said as Bleu got close to them.

"Thank you," Bleu smiled at her.

Fanged was now also by their side. Chisato and Thoma got to their feet to prepare for their departure into the Caves.

"Got everything we need?" asked Thoma to Bleu, referring to the passes to enter Payon Caves.

"Yes," she said softly, then handed each one of them a small parchment.

"Great!" Thoma replied and then peered back into her cart, letting them all know what items she picked for their specific needs, such as Blue Gems for Bleu, and arrows and traps for Chisato.

"Is everyone ready then?" asked Fanged as he spit out the piece of grass he had been chewing on.

"Yeah, I guess so," said Chisato, double checking her quiver of arrows to be sure she had enough at hand.

"Ready as I'll ever be," answered Thoma as she picked up her cart and started to pull it in the direction of the Caves.

The rest followed, and thus began their venture down.