Hey all KitsuneSango here! I'd just like to say a few things before I start my first fanfic. I hope this all turns out looking all right on the site. If it looks crappy, I'll do my best to change it. But I can't promise perfection my first try, only my best. I'd like to thank everyone who gave me- Garfakcy: Get on with it. You won't finish if you don't stop chattering. You probably won't even get to the part where I'm in it today. KitsuneSango: Yes I will. I'd like to explain that I kind of made up one main character, Toukina. You can see her in book five. She's the chick that gets robbed by Ekidonna. She- Garfakcy: Just read the disclaimers. KitsuneSango: Why don't you? Garfakcy: Because I didn't write this thing. KitsuneSango: I can make you say them. Garfakcy: How? KitsuneSango: Like this! Garfakcy: The characters in this are not mine. All Dragon Knights Characters, settings, and items belong to the owners and Mineko Ohkami, not me. Please don't sue...... What the hell? How'd you do that? KitsuneSango: With the magic of a keyboard. Now, this first part is an introduction, to let you get to know the main character before the action starts. If you no like, you no read. You can just skip ahead to the part at the bottom. It's a long ways down. I'll add in a note so you know when the action starts, for those of you who don't wanna read my incredibly long introduction. Now the fic:

Chapter 1;

"Toukina," a woman called up a set of stairs, "Toukina! Your shift is starting. You should be downstairs right now! Toukina!"

No one answered. The girl Toukina was in the middle of a forest outside the tavern where her mother was calling her. She was in deep thought making something. It was a beautiful piece of ceramics. She was taking great care as she turned her potter's wheel. The piece moved slightly under her strong but graceful touch. Her piece was about done. All that was left to do was to add a handle before firing the piece in a kiln. As she stopped her wheel, Toukina looked about her in the dim light. She looked up at the sky, realizing the sun had set and cursed silently to herself, "Chikusho!"

She took off running, shouting, "Tenicia! Tenicia!"

She ran through the forest along a trail shouting the name over and over again. Finally she saw a small light bobbing several yards in front of her. She ran up to it, and told the water light, "Quick! Please follow me home, and when I get there I need you to use your healing power on me."

The small fairy said, "But what are you doing? Gah! There's no time now I suppose. I'll grab on, just run!"

Toukina took off again, popping out of the forest and into the backyard of the tavern where she lived and worked with her mother and father. "Ah! Late again, Toukina? Quick go through the side door. Your mother is waiting at the front," a voice called from the third floor balcony.

It was the voice of a woman in town for a couple of weeks who seemed to like Toukina. Toukina called back, "Arigato!"

Toukina and the girl bowed to each other before Toukina took off running toward the door the woman had indicated. Toukina grabbed the small fairy and quickly put her unceremoniously into her pocket on her shirt. She whispered, "Gomen," to the small water light before stepping inside.

Toukina was breathing very heavily and wheezing. She tried to hide it as she walked from the door past a set of stairs, picking up her girdle she wore for work, into a small room she could change in. The first thing she did after lighting a lamp was take Tenicia carefully out of her pocket, and whispered another apology. The fairy looked ruffled with her hair frizzy and clothing rumpled. She stood on the back of the chair in the small room facing Toukina, and straitened her rumpled skirt. The small water light then began to heal Toukina so she could breathe easy again. Toukina took in a great breath grateful for the feeling from being healed. But Tenicia wasn't through. She started speaking very quickly in an even tone and Toukina disliked so much, "I know you were late, but you shouldn't have taken the risk of running. What if I hadn't heard you yelling? What if someone else found you like you were a few seconds ago? What if"

"I know what I did was risky, but I had to get back! They're already upset as it is! You know how my mother gets when I do this! Eventually she's gonna find out where I go! She"

Toukina was cut off from her cut off by her mother saying, "Who are you talking to? You're very late today. About twenty minutes by my watch. We'll talk about this later, on your time. Right now, you should be behind the bar serving dinner. Your father has been working by himself for some time now. Get in there. I'll speak to you again in the morning."

Toukina looked at the fairy and thought about how to hide her. She quickly changed into the girdle, and told Tenicia, "Get inside the pocket of my shirt. I'll carry you up to my room that way, and then I can get to work. You can exit through my window when the villagers are no longer in the street. Unfortunately, my window faces the street, making it hard for a water light to get out unseen. Don't let my mother see you, or anyone else for that matter. Quick!"

Tenicia was about to argue, but just sighed and tried to get comfortable inside the wadded up shirt for the ride up five sets of stairs. Toukina didn't want to waste time, or get another attack from running, so she bounded up the stairs in leaps. She was glad no one came out of their room on her way up. The first floor held their pub, their kitchen, and a check-in sort of room for the inn part of their four-story house. The second floor held most of the rooms for guests staying. The third floor held more luxurious and more expensive rooms. The fourth floor held her parents' room as well as their 'living' space. There was another small kitchen, a sitting room, and a bedroom. The last flight of stairs led to the attic, her room.

Her room was mostly still storage. She had a bed, a still unpacked suitcase, and her hidden pottery. Her parents never came up the stairs, so she didn't have to conceal the ceramics too much. Her bed was near the window that looked out onto the street. She hated that town. It was a small town, not even on most maps. It was at a place where the three rivers forked out of a small lake. The rivers started out huge. It was amazing water flowed out of the lake so strongly in the three directions. Her town was formed around the lake. Their inn was the largest in the town, so they got a lot of business. It was also at the edge of the town, near a small uncharted forest. That forest was where she loved to be. It once held a lot of fairies, but they all had gone into hiding, save Tenicia, Toukina's life long friend. She hated her job with her parents as a waitress to the people who came into their tavern for dinner. She didn't mind her late morning job of waiting on, and cooking for the few who came for lunch. During that time, she didn't have to be around her parents and afterward, she would always go to the woods to make pottery. That was the most joyful part of the day. This was the worst. Toukina left her fairy friend to go to the dining area.

Toukina leaped down the stairs nearly a flight at a time. She was in the kitchen in no time, where she greeted the cook's usual frown and continued through the kitchen to the area behind the bar where her father was waiting. "Gomen nasai, Father. I am late again." "We'll talk about this later."

He was a large man, tall and oppressive, very different from his daughter, the short, slim, fifteen-year-old, pale, Asian looking girl standing next to him. He gestured toward a table of three men. Toukina picked up a pen and pad and stepped up to their table to take their orders. She said in an even voice, "Welcome. What is it that you would like, sirs?"

The first man, a regular customer she held silent contempt for said, "I wanna ale and a pork dinner."

Toukina wrote down the order on a pad and asked the next customer in an unnatural sweet voice, "And you?"

That man was one who came once a week and always ordered the same thing, beer and chicken. His response was the same as always, "Just ale and a chicken dinner, darlin'"

At his last word, Toukina resisted the urge to use the pen in her hand as a dagger and stab the man in his big throat and wrote down his order. Then the man continued, which he had never done before, "And my nephew would like the same."

The last man was much younger than the other men who were in their forties. He was around eighteen and looked uncomfortable around the other two men. He looked unhappy, like he was about to cry, but couldn't around these men. She could not help but feel sorry for the guy. She knew the turkey dish the cook cooked would taste terrible. He wasn't a very good cook, but most customers wouldn't taste the food anyways because of the beer. She asked the boy, "Are you sure?"

He looked up at her with sad eyes and said nothing. The boy's uncle said, "Oh yes, he'll get used to eating here."

The boy looked back at his hands, which were in fists on the table. She said, "Your orders will be up in a half hour or so. I'll go get your drinks now." Then continued to the boy, "Are you sure you don't want a salad or something?"

"Sure," said the boy, "that'd be fine. I don't care. I just don't care."

Toukina was a little thrown off by the boy's misery. She thought it was just like she was right after she had to move back in with her parents. It had been a night of misery for her. She had lived her whole life with her aunt and uncle in a small forest outside Luwa, where she now lived, and had treated her like one of their own. She remembered every painful memory from that night when she had to leave. She snapped out of her thoughts and with a look of empathy, left the three men.

She returned to her father who was serving a few men who had sat down at the bar while she had waited on the men. She ripped off the paper with the orders on it and gave it to her father who gave it to the cook, after making the ales and handing them to Toukina on a tray.

Toukina brought the drinks back to the men. She gave them their drinks, but the young man, whom she had never seen before, still sat with his head in his hands, his fingers pushing through his thick dirty blond hair. She felt sorry for him, as he handed the drinks to the men waiting. The older men grabbed their drinks merrily and began swigging. It made her sick how men behaved around alcohol. She now missed, not only the days she had lived with her aunt and uncle in the small uncharted forest full of elves and fairies, but also missed the days when she had sold trinkets on the first floor of their inn with her father. Those days, when she didn't have to deal with drunkards, were put to an abrupt stop when Ekidonna robbed the shop she ran during the day. A dragon knight and a human girl had come by and stolen some things back from the demon. But none of the stuff returned belonged to Toukina or her father, so they were forced to find some new way of living, thus the pub. She would cook lunches for people everyday, then go and make a few pots at her aunt's place alone in secret, then come back and serve dinner for people in the diner part. She hated it, but it had been her daily routine for nearly two weeks. She had had enough.

The young man didn't touch his drink until his uncle slapped him on the back and he forced himself a sip. He looked up at Toukina, who put on a girly smile that did not come naturally, that she only used as a way to get tips. She was starting to get a collection. It was almost enough. Just a few more and she'd never have to put up with this anymore.

The man smiled shakily back, his white teeth gleaming. She thought she saw a sparkle for a moment. That freaked her out. 'Great', Toukina thought while still smiling, 'A pretty boy, just what I hate. If he's going to start flirting with me right after he got my sympathy, he must be a jerk. I hate boys like him.'

Toukina continued serving the customers as they came. She hated it, but kept smiling and receiving tips. At the end of the day, midnight, to be exact, her father called over from the bar, "Oi! Toukina! Close up now, okay? There are only a few customers left. After they leave, you can close up for the night."

Toukina answered back, "Hai, father."

KitsuneSango here! Just saying it's about to get exiting! I'm actually gonna add a real character now! Keep reading!

She was no longer faking a smile. It was real. She had collected enough to go. When she closed up tonight, thanks to the generous tip of the pretty boy, Toukina would leave this town forever. She began to chase out the remaining customers, who were mostly done eating or drinking and were just talking over their empty plates and mugs. They were reluctant to go like every night. When she had escorted the last reluctant man out the door, she looked down the road at what seemed like an old man hobbling along the road. As the figure walked under a streetlight, she saw that he was terribly wounded, and was not a doubled over old man, but a very short young man, but not a boy. He got close enough that he was in the circle of light coming from her inn's lanterns hanging outside the doorway, and then they young man collapsed.

Toukina rushed over and turned him over. He was still breathing, but had terrible gashes all over him that were bleeding. She could tell by the outfit that he was no ordinary farmer boy, but a warrior. He groaned slightly as she picked him up. She felt odd taking him into the inn, but he would die out in the street. She carried him slowly up all five flights of stairs to the attic, a place where his presence would go unnoticed by her parents and everyone else in the inn. She prayed that no one would decide to leave their room in the middle of the night. Her prayers were answered when she got all the way up to her room without anyone noticing her and the small man she was carrying. Tenicia, the fairy she had left in her room had already returned to the small forest. She laid him on the floor while she prepared an area he could sleep on. Toukina decided she could postpone her escape another day. She would leave tomorrow. Toukina remembered an old cot in a corner of the attic and brought it out for him. She took one of her two sheets from her bed and laid it on the cot, then picked him up and carried him to it. She snuck back down to the kitchen to get some gauze, and some water. She went into the laundry room to find a towel she could steal, and then snuck back up the stairs to the attic.

When she arrived, she was relieved to see the small man just as she had left him. He looked strange. He had the height of a child, and a young teen complexion, but just seemed older. She shook it off as just a strange feeling and, while feeling slightly embarrassed, began to take off his shirts, where he had the most cuts. She took off his belt and pouch and, resisting the urge to look inside the small leather pouch, set it on top of the pile of clothing and armor under his cot. She thought, "Thank God he's not wearing low rise pants or else I'd be really nervous right about now," as she went back to clean his wounds. She took the towel and warm water she had taken from the first floor and began cleaning away the dried blood around the wounds and the dirt that seemed to be around the wounds as well. Some of the deeper wounds were still bleeding as she wrapped them. As she did this, she absentmindedly put her tips for the night on his pile of things. She wished there was more she could do, but she knew for a fact that doctors in that town would not treat for free, and she had seen no money on him thus far. She left him, feeling guilty that she could not do more, and walked down stairs to close down the inn for the night.

There was still a lot left to do. The major things were the numerous dishes. When those were done, she blew out all the candles after seeing that it was nearly two in the morning. She yawned then climbed back up the stairs. Her legs were aching from walking up and down five flights of stairs so many times. She rubbed her calves when she entered her room, and saw that the boy was still sleeping. She got into her bed with its one cover left and blew out the candle. She went to sleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The sun was rising early the next morning. Toukina had slept for about four hours when she turned over in her sleep and slowly awakened. She saw the cot with the boy inside and was startled by the fact that someone else was in her room until she remembered the happenings of that early morning.

She got up and walked over to the boy, who was still asleep. She sighed and thought about what to say when he woke up. She realized she hadn't bothered to change out of her girdle, which was wrinkled from her sleeping in it. She knew she'd have some major explaining to do if her mother saw her in this state, and would be furious about the boy in the cot. She decided to brush her hair before attempting to awaken the boy, since she did get awful bed head. It only took a moment to brush her long black hair. She had to take it down out of a small pony tail before she brushed it, so after a few moments, she decided that it was time to try to awaken the boy. "Oi," she said, thinking that there must have been something a little better she could have come up with.

"Hey, wake up," she said softly while nudging him.

He groaned, then stopped abruptly, opened his eyes then jumped up, surprising Toukina. He then saw the girl and relaxed a little saying sharply, "Who are you? Where am I?"

"My name is Toukina. You're in the attic of the inn of my parents. They don't know you're here, so please keep it down. I saw you collapse in front of our inn last night when I was closing down our restaurant. It was very late, so I carried you up here and treated your wounds. For that I think I deserve to at least know your name."

"Girl, why did you do this? I would have been fine. Your kindness was wasted. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find more fairies for Lord Kharl. I'm going unless you can tell me where to find them."

"Fairies? Why do you need fairies? Besides they've all gone into hiding because someone's been killing fairies all over Dusis. Don't you know about that?"

"Well yes, that's why they're getting harder to find. They've caught onto me."

"Onto you? You've been killing fairies? You're the" Toukina was cut off by a small voice saying, "Oi! Toukina, did I leave anything here last night? I'm looking for a"

The small water light looked at the scene, with the short man on the cot, and Toukina at his eye level standing on the floor, with both of them looking at her. Toukina had a look of emergency on her face, while the boy had a look of triumph. They both dived for Tenicia at the same time, Toukina shouting, "Tenicia, fly fast!"

Tenicia didn't have time to react before the short man was grabbing her, but Toukina was faster. She ripped away the boy's hand from Tenicia before he had a full hold. Toukina shouted, "Get out of here, Tenicia!"

Tenicia didn't react. Toukina shouted, "NOW!"

The two wrestled for a bit, then both rolled away from each other and jumped up. Toukina was on the verge of having another attack from her damned curse. She cursed the day she received it for the price of her happy life with her uncle and aunt. She thought, okay, I can't rely on Tenicia right now. I have to stop my heart from racing. She slowed her breathing and stood ready. She would not be able to loose her head in this fight. She would have to stall him while she thought of a way to fight without letting her heart race. She said, "I still don't know your name. That is all I wanted for my services last night."

"Garfakcy. Not that you'll live long enough to care."

"Hn." Toukina stopped stalling and charged, thinking she might be able to stop the attack from her curse.

The two deflected the other's attack, and then jumped back. It was a stalemate. Garfakcy demanded, "Where are my shirt, jacket, and pouch?"

"Baka. Where would they be?"

Garfakcy looked at the cot, and then dove for it. Toukina was puzzled. She had not removed any weapons from him. Her fears rose as he pulled out his pouch. Her first thought was poison, but that wouldn't make sense. He didn't have a mask, and wouldn't poison himself. Her eyes widened as she saw him take out a little black powder and transformed it into a large sword. He picked up his clothes and looked expecting to see Toukina cowering. She was not. She posed ready. He wondered for a moment if she thought it was an illusion, not a real sword made from ash. In reality, she didn't know what it was, but she knew her chances weren't good, and calmed her heart rate thinking that she could possibly survive, but would die if the curse got her. She didn't cower, but remained in a defensive position. She knew she must look comical, a girl striking a defensive martial stance in a girdle, but what choice did she have? He charged past her. She was surprised, and turned, only to see his sword coming at her face. Then everything went dark.

You like? Please R&R!! Oh and here's a side story a friend begged me to write, at least the first chapter.....MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

It was a dark and demonic night. Rath and Cesia were caught in a storm in a local inn. Cesia was sick a gain, but Rath was prepared to attempt cooking again. DUH DUN DUH!!! Cesia was groaning in the corner. Rath set up to fry some eggs. If only they were normal eggs. But no!!! These were talking Mormon teen eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rath picked up the first of the three eggs. The first egg said, "WAIT! DON"T COOK ME!!" Rath: Why? Egg1: Because I am a talking egg! Rath: Oo Egg2&3: NO! Not Egg1!! Rath: Cesia: What the hell is going on? KitsuneSango: Well that's all for my side story! Please R&R!! I'll update soon!