He hadn't thought he was doing anything wrong.

Well, aside from sneaking out of the orphanage so early in the morning to look for Sis, but other than that he thought he had been on his best behaviour.

Matron had always told him and the rest of the children to be polite to people when asking a question, and if you felt nervous about a stranger to find her immediately. He had done just that; asked his question and when the stranger became too scary for him, he back-peddled and decided to look on his own, since Matron was nowhere around.

That should have made the stranger go back to what he was doing.

Right?

So then why was he being followed by the strange person in the brown jacket holding that lantern and knife and staring at him strangely?

Squall didn't want to find out, so he quickly resumed climbing the stairs as fast as his little hands and legs could move. The stranger was around the same height he was, so he should be having trouble with the stairs too.

But when the little boy turned to look behind him, having propped himself up onto the second last step and taking a break, he saw that it was the opposite.

The green skinned stranger suddenly grew a little and just dropped onto the step, returning to his short height before approaching the next step in front of him and doing it all over again. Being five big steps ahead of the stranger, Squall immediately pulled his tired body up over the last step and stopped, finding nowhere else to go. Looking back behind him once again, he noticed that the stranger was creeping closer towards him and it was then that he noticed another set of stairs to his left; much smaller in gap than the previous set where.

He didn't know why the stairs were smaller; all he knew was that theyled to higher up and farther along than where he was at the moment, so he raced up them, trying not to trip and fall onto his face as he continued scrambling away from the frog man, who had just reached to top step as well.

Just when he didn't think it could get any worse, a loud booming sound was heard and the child gripped his ears in fright, his arms covering his head as the sky went white for a second before darkening again. Then he felt a couple of rain drops, which turned into more rain, and the next thing he knew, he was drenched, his clothes and hair clinging onto his skin.

He had been hot outside of the building, having had nothing but sun as a companion on his search for his sister, but now he was freezing.

When Squall was a good distance away from the creature, he suddenly stopped and fell forward, hitting the stairs that sat in front of him, tell tale pain shooting up from his legs and his arms letting him know that he had hurt himself again. Blinking back the tears that threatened to spill from his blue-grey eyes, he looked down to see what it was that had grabbed him and screamed in terror when he saw bones.

On the cartoons that the older kids liked to watch, he had seen plenty of bones lying around and the group of heroes who found them always looked unhappy to see them. The younger boy haddecided that bones were a bad thing to see and that he was glad he never would while living in the orphanage, but having seen bones grabbing his ankles and holding tightly, he realized that they were even worse than when they were just lying on the ground.

One of the stick-like hands tightened their hold on the child's leg, the other following suit almost immediately afterwards and Squall saw them grinning widely at him, their eyeballs missing, only black holes staring at him from underneath the stairs. They must have been hiding underneath them, waiting for him to find them.

Squall swore then and there that he would never play hide-and-seek ever again.

He looked behind him and saw the stranger was just standing where he had been when the child had begun climbing the second set of stairs, watching him with his big yellow eyes, the hood having fallen off during the chase. Squall didn't like that the stranger who had been following him since he found him was just staring at him and tried to get free again, bending down and trying to pry the fingers off of his skin. When that failed, he looked back at the green man, who was beginning to swing his lantern back and forth, in his direction before pointing his knife at him.

Pink and purple curved lights shot out from the lantern (Squall had never seen anything like it before) and headed straight for the little boy, even as he tried to break free from the monsters holding him there. The lights suddenly slashed into the child, tearing through skin and cloth and he screamed, covering his face with his hands in a vain attempt to protect himself.

Suddenly, the pressure on his legs lessened and he fell forward, landing once again on his scrapped knees and arms, having removed his hands from in front of his face to brace himself. He looked back around, wincing as his back was starting to sting, and saw that the skeleton's hand had been cut through; broken apart like when Seifer was playing with a stuffed animal.

But, unlike the stuffed animal, the pieces were slowly moving back together.

Squall didn't need to be told anything to know he shouldn't stick around and, after climbing to his feet, continued to scale up the stairs, the green man walking past the skeleton and following after him.

Finally, the small child managed to make his way to the very top of the stairs, huffing and trying to catch his breath as he did. Blood was oozing from the cuts and scrapes he had received, and his back was stinging. He didn't care that his clothes were probably ruined; he just wanted the pain in his back to go away. But he knew that Matron was going to be mad at him when he came back the way he was.

Trying not to think about it, he focused all of his attention on finding his sister. Now that he had found those monsters and the strange person, he was certain that she was being kept there. Elle would know what to do when he found her; would know how to get out of there without running into the monsters.

That was when he heard the very familiar footsteps behind him and all thoughts left the frightened child as he chanced a look back, finding that the man with the lantern was still following him. Holding back the tears that were threatening to fall, he quickly raced into the building ahead of him, hoping to find a hiding spot or something to get away from the stranger.

When he entered the room, all he saw were two sets of stairs and a floor after that, with light flowing from the hole in the roof, but nowhere to run or hide. The stairs didn't lead anywhere, and there was no way that he could climb that high up to reach the hole in the ceiling. He just hoped that the man with the lantern had gone in a different direction than him.

As he turned back around, his soaking wet clothes making it difficult to move around and making his skin irritable, he noticed a very familiar looking outline blocking the only exit to the room, a crash of thunder putting emphasis to the ominous being as lightning glinted off the knife the green man was holding. Squall backed away from the entrance, even as the being stepped forward, his beady yellow eyes staring hollowly at him as he came closer. Soon, Squall couldn't find anymore room to back up into, his back colliding against the wall as he sank to the ground, his back protesting as pain shot through him, wishing more than anything to just disappear.

"I said I was sorry," he called out, hoping to appease the stranger. "I didn't mean to bother you; honest. I was just looking for my sister."

If he heard any of what he was saying, he wasn't showing it as he continued to creep closer, closing the distance between the two until he was three adult sized steps away from him. His pleading falling upon deaf ears, Squall covered his head with his arms and shut his eyes tightly, hoping that this would all go away; hoping that he would wake up from this nightmare and that his sister would reassure him that it was just a bad dream.

The thunder boomed overhead, Squall could literally feel the stranger's presence towering over him; gripping the knife in his hand and staring blankly back at him. He wished for someone to come save him from this creature; his sister, Cid, Matron, the men who had brought him here, anyone. Tears cascaded down his cheeks as he waited for the pain to come, a shuddering sob escaping him even as he bit down on his lip, trying to calm himself.

But nothing happened.

No pain, no slashing, no nothing.

Slowly, the four year old lifted his head over his knees and cracked an eye open, only to see a small floating ball of white light dancing in front of him. The stranger was also staring at it, tipping his head to the side in wonderment, even as Squall lowered his arms to his side. The stranger backed away a couple of steps, the knife still in hand, but Squall was glad that he wasn't nearly as close to the green man as he originally had been.

The light still sat between the two; not really doing anything special; just floating there. Squall shifted himself so that he was kneeling and leaned forward, curiosity overriding the initial terror of the situation, his left arm extended in front of him as he physically inspected the ball of light. Hesitantly, he pointed his index finger at it, moving slightly closer to the object, brushing the tip of his finger with the light and feeling calming warmth from it, despite the cold rain storm outside.

Suddenly, the ball of light started to expand; its glow intensifying and forcing Squall to sit back against he wall, wondering feebly just what it was he had done this time, shielding his eyes from view. He didn't know what the stranger was doing, nor did he care as he shut his eyes tightly, hoping that someone would be able to save him from whatever it was that was happening.

Suddenly, the light faded and Squall slowly cracked his eyes open, only to push himself against the wall in a vain attempt to turn invisible.

There was a new monster in the room; far taller than the little green man he had been running from. It had a mane of white fur underneath its chin and had five red horns sticking out of its head. It was dark brown in colour, with red long stick-like thing sticking out of its elbow with a long red-tipped tail that swished back and forth like a cats. It was flying; it had brown and white wings that were keeping it up in the air, and this confused Squall, since he had never met a cat with wings before.

Either way, the number of monsters had increased and Squall didn't want to be stuck in the same room as either of them.

"Trust me when I say you do not wish to attack." The bigger monster said, though Squall thought it sounded more like a growl. Its tail continued to swish around, and Squall hoped that it wouldn't suddenly touch him and bring his attention towards him.

Deciding that it would be better if he took this opportunity to run away, Squall rose up onto his feet. However, before he could even take a step, the room echoed with the growl of the newer creature, who wasn't even looking at him. "Sit back down, child. I refuse to have to scour this continent in order to retrieve you."

Stumbling back into the wall, he winced as his back came into contact with the cold object and he slid back down, tucking his knees under his chin and trying to still his trembling. He didn't know what scour meant, but he wasn't too keen on finding out the hard way. The child merely watched the events in front of him unfold, wondering if the brown monster had eyes in the back of its head like Matron seemed to.

The green man looked from Squall to the monster and back towards Squall, looking like he couldn't decide who to go after. Despite the blank expression on its face, Squall could see the indecision in its eyes before it finally made its decision, stalking over towards the dark monster. The child didn't think that was a good idea, but he wasn't about to interrupt and tell him that; interrupting had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

The green man stopped really close to the monster before raising his knife and stabbing forward, catching the monster in the foot. Squall winced as he saw some blood drop from its appendage, staining the floor beneath it, but the monster didn't even seem to care. Squall looked from the green man, to the monster and to the blood on the floor, wondering exactly what it was that was going to happen next.

The dark monster growled loudly, and Squall tried to shrink back against the stone he sat in front of, hoping that he didn't make the monster angry enough to attack him. There was nowhere to hide, after all. Finally, after a moment of silence, the monster spoke again. "Child, cover your eyes and ears. I do not wish to scar you at such a tender age."

Squall blinked in confusion. What was that supposed to mean exactly? The monster didn't want to give him a scar? Did that mean he wasn't going to get hurt? Was there such a thing as a good monster?

The monster growled once again, causing the four year old to jump as it turned its head to look at him, Squall noticing for the first time the yellow and black eyes it possessed. "I said cover your eyes and ears. Do not make me repeat myself again!"

Squall immediately did what he was told, shutting his eyes tightly while placing them on top of his knees while placing the palm of his hands against his ears, trying to block out all sound as much as he could. He pushed against his head so hard that his ears started to hurt, but he didn't care. The dark monster was scary, and he didn't want to get on his bad side.

He didn't know how long he sat like that, but all of a sudden, he smelt something burning. It wasn't a pleasant smell either, and he tried desperately to cover his nose with his knees and was forced to breathe through his mouth. He tried to keep from making any sound, hoping that the monster would just leave and forget about him.

Suddenly, something light tickled the bottom of his right foot and hepulled his leg closer to his chestto get away from the feeling. It returned once again and Squall kicked out instinctively, only to have his foot impact with something hard. He looked up slowly, wondering exactly what it was, his hands still covering his ears and he immediately pulled his foot back, pressing up against the wall even further as the monster loamed over him. He looked back down to see that the monster's tail was closer to his foot and realized that the appendage was what he had felt tickling him.

The monster merely reached forward, his claw-like hand outstretched and Squall turned away, clenching his eyes tightly until he felt that same calming warmth he had felt with the ball of white light. He cracked an eye open and saw a bunch of blue light surrounding him, the pain in his back, legs and arms disappearing, almost as though the pain hadn't been there to begin with. When the light faded, Squall looked himself over, seeing that his shirt and pants were badly torn, but that there wasn't a single scratch on him. There was plenty of dirt, but there wasn't any blood or anything. Even the knee he had scraped earlier was feeling better.

He looked up cautiously at the monster, expecting him to do something else, but all he did was return his claw hand to his side. Squall gulped audibly, knowing that he needed to say something, but was at a loss as to what it was. Finally, he decided on something simple. "…Sorry I kicked you." he muttered quietly.

The look on the monsters face didn't change, but Squall noticed that his eyes looked a lot friendlier than the green man's had. He looked like he was laughing at his apology.

Thinking back on the green man, Squall wondered where he had gone. Looking behind the monster, he noticed that his cloak was there, same with the knife and the lantern, but the yellow-eyed frog man had somehow disappeared. He didn't know how, but he was glad that he was gone. Sighing in relief, Squall looked back up at the monster towering in front of him, no longer feeling scared. "Thank you for saving me."

The monster's eyes softened before he spoke, surprisingly without opening his mouth. "It was my pleasure," he growled out. "I never did like those things."

Squall was a shy child by nature, keeping out of sight when a new person appeared, and mostly kept to himself. The only people he really even spoke to were Ellone, Cid, his matron and, when he was fighting with him, Seifer. Other than that, he kept very quiet and tried to become invisible around anyone else. But there was something about this monster that compelled him to say something else. It was as though he knew he could trust him, even if he did look scary. He even managed a small smile as he whispered, "I don't like them either."

Before anything else could be said, however, it started to rain. Squall knew that it was raining outside; he was still soaked from running away from the green man, but it had been dry inside the room before now. But it couldn't rain inside a building; they had a roof.

The monster seemed to agree, because the softness in his eyes disappeared and Squall couldn't help the fear from creeping back up again. He didn't like it when the monster looked angry, but at least it wasn't because of him.

Suddenly, the wall behind Squall rose up and unbalanced the child, forcing him to fall onto his back and look up, watching as the section of the wall climbed up to the very top, making the hole in the ceiling disappear. Squall vaguely wondered how that was possible; was there an invisible string pulling it up or something?

Something snaked around the child's leg, and pulled Squall away, as the wall slowly began to return where it had originally sat. The monster's tail, which Squall now realized was responsible, gently returned him to the ground, directly behind him as both watched the wall come back down with someone on top of it.

Squall was so amazed, his jaw dropped in wonderment as he gasped in surprise. He remembered Matron showing him a picture of a horse, and it only had four legs. This one was white in colour, and had six legs, two in the middle, and Squall wondered how it was possible. It was also a lot bigger than what he had imagined a horse to be; coming up to the dark monster's waist while he was in mid air. The man who was sitting on the horse wore black, grey and white armour and had a greyish-white cape draped along his back. His face was dark yellow, and he only had one red coloured eye, the other was pitch-black. A striped black helmet sat atop his head, the hat turning into two horns with four points to them. The scariest part about this man was that he had a sword that was nearly taller than the child was, and almost as wide too.

The monster didn't attack the man, and the man didn't attack the monster. Instead, the man climbed off the horse and took the steps down in order to stand face to face with him, coming up to the monster's chest. Squall chose to stay where he was; he didn't want to get yelled at again.

A moment past where nothing happened and Squall miserably realized that he was getting wet again. He shivered slightly, wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to keep warm when at last; the man who owned the horse spoke. "Griever," he said. "Many eons hath passed since we hath last discoursed."

Griever…so that was the monster's name. Squall decided to keep that in mind, rather than just continuously referring to him as 'the monster'.

"Odin…" Griever growled back. "So you have taken up the habit of killing children, have you? How noble of you."

Squall didn't think Griever meant the last comment; he didn't sound like he was telling the truth, and quickly moved to the right of him, so that Griever could keep a better eye on him, all the while keeping an eye on the man named Odin.

"What is this? The mighty sure hath fallen. Our Lord; the strongest of our kind, who hath been beckoned here by an infantile bairn no less, hath the nerve to enter my domain and speak ill of my person?" Sighing slightly, the man continued. "I spoke a warning. T'was their own fault for taking no notice ."

Squall didn't know what Odin was talking about; a lot of the words he was saying didn't make any sense to him. What exactly did a barn have to do with Griever being here? And how come it was infantile, whatever that meant? And what was a domain exactly?

"You expect a mere child to be able to understand what it is you are saying?" Griever growled again before gesturing towards Squall, who jumped when he saw movement. "This child has no idea what it is you just said! Of course he's not going to listen to you or your warning! He probably thought it was an invitation!"

'Actually,' Squall thought to himself. 'I just want to find my sister.'

"What say you," Griever continued, ignoring the child. "to the charge of murdering small children?"

"Tis but an unpleasant pastime," Odin waved off. "among my numerous pastimes. T'is undertaking is dour to I; but this land is sacred, and must not be tread upon."

"Do you think he understood what you just said there?" Griever asked, in a tone that reminded Squall of Seifer. "The best way to deal with children is, if you want them to leave, to just tell them to leave. That usually works well, since they understand that word oh-so-well."

Thinking about the reason he was there in the first place, he suddenly realized that Odin's voice was the one from when he had first come into the strange place. 'Maybe he knows where Sis is.' He thought before starting to move towards the man.

Before Griever could say anything else, he spotted the child's movement and changed his course of words. "Child! Stay where you are!"

Squall ignored him; no matter how scary he was, he needed to find his sister.

Griever frowned deeply as he noticed the child press onward. "Child! I said stay!"

"Oh how the mightiest have fallen further!" Odin laughed aloud. "Thou act the part of servant to protect a family who have not the power to summon thee, and when one emerges from the shadows he takes heed not of thy words. This truly is a remarkable day."

Once he was within reaching distances of the man, Squall reached upwards and grabbed a hold of his cloak and tugged lightly. Odin gave no sign that he had felt the gesture, so Squall tried again, harder this time. Odin noticed it then and stared down at the small child, who backed away out of sudden fear. "What is it thou desire of me?"

Gulping slightly, Squall fought the urge to run and hide before Griever. "Do you know where Elle is?"

Odin's frown deepened and the urge to run got stronger. "What is an Elle?"

"My sister." Squall piped up. He raised an arm above his head and straightened it before pointing both hands to the side of his face. "She's this tall and has hair up to here, and likes blue and green, and she has brown eyes." As if an afterthought, the child continued with his description. "And brown hair. Oh, and her name is Elle, or Ellone, or Sis. Or Sis Elle."

Odin stared at him for a moment before turning to look at Griever, whose eyes said that he was shocked and surprised. "I do not know if the bairn has a sickness of the mind, or is brave beyond his years."

Squall didn't know what Odin meant by what he said at first, but he definitely knew what he had said before he stopped talking. Tilting his head to the side, he looked curiously up at the figure. "I'm fine."

Griever snorted at this, and Squall turned to look at him curiously. "What did I say?" he asked, seriously not knowing what it was that made the monster laugh. "I'm not sick."

"I must admit," Odin said. "You certainly have valour."

"What does…" Squall trialed off as hestruggled to pronounce the word correctly. "Val…er mean?"

Odin's face fell slightly before he spoke again. "It means courage."

"And what does that mean?"

"…Bravery." Odin said, and upon seeing the understanding cross the youth's features, he turned to look at Griever. "T'would seem thou art correct in this case. I doth take interest in him, and wilt not see harm come to him this day."

"But what about my sister?" Squall interrupted, suddenly realizing that his question had gone unanswered.

Odin smiled a smile that wasn't a happy one. "How impetuous thou art."

This time, Squall didn't care what that meant. "Do you know where she is? She left the orphanage and didn't say goodbye. I wanna see her again; I miss her."

Odin frowned and Squall suddenly had the feeling that the man wasn't going to give him the answers he wanted. "She hath not travelled through this land; I would know if she had."

Squall's face fell as he looked at the floor beneath him. "So she's not here?"

"No child; she is not."

The conversation continued after that, but Squall didn't pay it nearly as much attention as he had before. His hope had suddenly dropped from underneath him and the panic he had felt earlier; the very moment he had found out that his sister was no longer there with him, came back harder than before. It didn't matter that strange men in cloaks or monsters had tried to hurt him; it didn't matter that he had left the orphanage and probably worried his Matron and Cid and it didn't matter than when he went home he was going to be in serious trouble.

It didn't matter because sis wasn't here, and he didn't know where she had gone.

His tired knees finally gave out as he fell to the ground, the panicked tears he had held back finally giving way and trailing down his face as he clenched his fists tightly into the torn material of his pants. The rain still fell inside of the building, but he didn't care that his bangs were suddenly matted to his face, or that his clothes were sticking to him uncomfortably. He finally covered his face with his hands, and cried.

He realized that something was towering over him again, but this time his curiosity couldn't force him to look up and see who it was. But when he suddenly was lifted off the ground, and he looked up to see that Griever was responsible for the action. He saw that the softness that had been in the monsters eyes had returned but this time he couldn't bring himself to care. Ellone had gone away and she had left him alone.

He didn't like the feeling of being alone and he continued to cry.

"This is your fault." Griever growled, and Squall could only guess that he was talking to Odin.

"I spoke but the truth."

"Yeah, well, the truth hurts." Griever shot back. "You don't need to say that much truth to a four year old."

"He is not of my responsibility." Odin waved off. "Thou art bound to his family; thou shalt deal with thy crying babe."

Squall didn't like being called a 'crying babe' (he knew what that meant at least) and started to dry his eyes, no matter how upset he was that his sister was gone. He knew well enough that to be a cry-baby meant non-stop bullying; he had seen it enough times with Zell.

"You're afraid of a 'crying babe', aren't you?" Griever said, the Seifer tone coming back into his voice.

Odin stared at him in disbelief. "I am not."

"It appears that you are."

"He is thy charge! Thou shalt with him!"

Griever was silent for a moment before turning his attention towards the dark haired child. "…Did Odin make you cry?" The look in his eyes was telling the small child that he wanted to do to Odin what he did to the green-man… whatever that was.

Odin looked surprised for a moment, but Squall shook his head in response to Griever's question. Just because Odin was telling him the truth didn't mean he had to get punished for it; Matron had always told him that telling the truth was the best thing anyone could do, even if it made someone else sad. When Squall went to explain, he had to take a few breaths of air to calm himself down. "My, sister's, gone, away."Even as the words came out, the tears threatened to fall once more, only Squall stubbornly held them at bay.

"Do not cry, little one." Griever said, and Squall could tell he wasn't comfortable at the moment. "You're sister may have gone away, but do you think she'd want to see you like this?"

Squall stared at Griever, blinking in confusion and, when he said nothing, Griever continued. "Your sister would wish that you be happy. I know you miss her, but she wouldn't want you to dwell on things of the past. She would want you to continue on and not put yourself in any danger for her sake."

"But she's –"

"Yes, she's gone." Griever interrupted. "For now. But that doesn't mean she has left for good. You will find her someday, but to do this you must be strong."

Squall blinked in confusion. He had to be strong in order to find Sis? When he became strong, he'd be able to see her again? He clung to that thought desperately, wanting it to be true…

…But how could he become strong? And when would he know if he was strong enough?

"When will I be strong?" Squall asked. "How can I be strong enough to find my sister?"

"Tis a simple endeavour," Odin said, approaching the pair and staring right at the child. "All thou need do is come to me. Ifthou art powerful enough, thou wilt find thy sister, and I will assess thou strength personally."

Before Griever could say anything, Odin interrupted. "Tis my grounds for the pair of thee to leave unscathed and virtually unharmed. For thy life, I wish a challenge later. If he doth hath potential, as thy claim he doth, then thou wilt not hath difficulty with my terms."

Griever appeared to want to argue, but Odin held up a hand to stop him. "But then, t'is not the choice thou hath to make. T'is the child's life, t'is the child's decision." He turned to look at the child once more, who was eying the pair in curiosity. "What say thou?"

Squall didn't know why Griever didn't like this idea, or why Odin kept interrupting Griever, but he didn't see a problem to these rules. Even if there were big words being used, he knew what the underlining result would be; he would be able to find his sister…

A chance to see his sister again… it was something he would trade anything for.

He didn't care about anything else; he just wanted to see his sister again; wanted to see her happy. He didn't care how long it would take him to get stronger; it was better to see his sister after a long time of hard work then to never see her again.

Having made up his mind, the small child nodded without hesitation. Odin seemed to accept the answer and, for the first time since their encounter, he truly smiled back at the boy.


Phew... writing in the form of Shakespearean English is difficult. I had to search the internet for a list that would translate some things for me, and my friend Avion Jade helped me out as well. Hopefully I didn't screw it up; I can barely understand what he's talking about and I know what he actually meant! Oh well. Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. And thanks to those who reviewed or looked at the story. We've almost doubled the hit counter number from the last time I posted a chapter.