Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.

It's been quite a while since we left Kuroyuri. It's been dark for hours and I still don't know what time it is. I put a clock in my inventory, but when I took it out, it was still set at the time I put it in. A scroll is one of the first things I need to buy once we get to a town or something that sells them.

We've just been traveling the same road and only a single creep came across our path so far. I was expecting more, but there can't be grimm all around every corner with how many random settlements are supposed to be outside of the main cities. Just avoid going deep into the woods and stick to man-made paths, they are much less likely to encounter grimm even at night like we are currently traveling.

I stopped my walking when I heard the yawn Nora was letting out beside me, and I turned my attention to her. "We may need to stop and make camp," I said, moving the lantern I'd pulled from my pack/inventory when it started to get dark in her direction.

"Out here, is that even safe?" she wondered, gazing back at the road we had just traveled, then back at me.

"It's really late, we're both exhausted and I don't know how much longer this thing will stay lit" I shook the lantern in front of her. We could both hear what little fuel was left in the jostling lamp.

Seeing the reluctance on her face as she looked around at what she could see in our surroundings. The outside of the stone path we had been following had only grass, shrubbery and trees, fewer than when we were directly in the forest, but still enough to easily fill your vision when looking away from the path.

Continuing my walk forward, "We'll keep walking for a while to see if there's any good clear areas for us to camp." I'm not sure if an open area would be better or worse for us. I would assume having an open area would make it easier to see grimm approaching us, but the opposite could be true.

In the end it didn't seem to matter as we continued our way up the path we saw some lights in the distance as we approached closer another village came into view.

We walked up the entrance intending to find a place to stay the night, but before we could enter.

"What business do you have here at this time of night?" someone asks, getting our attention.

Looking up past the direction of the voice atop the wall that was joined to the village entrance stood a man looking back down at us.

With how dark it was and only the moon and lanterns near the entrance for light I could not see much of the man except for the huge axe he held.

Assuming we would just enter without being asked anything like when I got to Kuroyuri. I looked over at Nora, who simply shrugged and I looked up at the guard(?) who had his empty hand resting on his hip, impatiently waiting for our reply.

"We're just looking for somewhere to stay the night," I say.

At my answer he leans over the edge of the wall getting a better view of us from his perch. "You're just a couple of kids" he says, looking away from us towards the direction we came from. "Why are you two roaming around this late at night, you know it's dangerous." he says, bringing his gaze back to us.

It's not like we really had much of a choice.

"The village we were at was overrun by the grimm, we have been traveling for most of the day to find a place to stay and rest."

At my mention of the grimm he looked back at the path we came from again. "Kuroyuri is the closest village in that direction. Is that where you two came from?"

Nodding my head, then realizing he couldn't see my confirmation I said, "Yea".

Upon my reply, he backed up from the wall's edge overlooking us and out of our sight. He then appeared in the entryway in front of us a few moments later.

"I think I ought to take you to someone in charge first so you can tell them about your village then we can figure out if we can get you a place to sleep" he said as we walked into the village and stopped in front of him.

Now closer, I got a better look at him. He is an older man perhaps mid to late forties if I were to guess. His hair was short, spiky and a light color maybe gray or a beige it was still somewhat hard to tell with the lack of light and a thin chin strap like beard. He had tan skin, but lighter than my own, and a scar running up the side of his left eye. He was wearing an old tattered black cloak that covered most of his upper body; the axe he had carried before was now on his back.

Gunther

Race: Human

Level ?

The first human whose level I couldn't see. I guess he's a hunter.

He looked at me and my pack squinted, then glanced at Nora and her own pack with a spear and crossbow attached to it.

He said, with suspicion in his tone, "You two look awfully prepared for a couple of kids whose village has been randomly attacked by grimm."

Internally sighing at my new trait "We weren't living in Kuroyuri when it was attacked, we were just passing through when it happened, we're orphans and hunters in training that's why we have the weapons'' I explain moving my coat to the side showing the handle of my sword.

It's not the exact truth. Nora did live in the village, but we have killed grimm and gotten money for it via the game so we are kind of hunters in training.

After I explained, he regarded us with scrutiny, under which Nora stepped closer to me, grabbing at the cuff of my coat.

At her action, he let out a sigh and looked up again into the direction from which we came.

"Sorry about that there are roaming bandit tribes all through Anima, I wouldn't put it past them to use kids to scout a place or something like that, come on" he said motioning for us to start walking.

Although he wasn't going to drop his suspicions about us(me) as he purposely walked behind us to keep us in sight.

Quest completed

[Quest: Lost and not so Alone]

Objective - Find your way out of this forest and to civilization with Nora.

Reward - 1000 EXP

+1000 EXP (250)

Looking around, even with the low lighting, we could easily see many buildings were only partially constructed and others were just empty or had random building materials like wood and stones piled around.

"Yeah, Oniyuri here is still under construction", he replied as we stared at the half finished buildings. "In Mistral, some elites are tired of the way the councils operate in the Kingdom, so they're trying to start their own city claiming that one day the city will be a Kingdom of its own or some nonsense like that."

"Wouldn't it be better if there were more kingdoms?" asked Nora, speaking for the first time since we arrived here. Given how talkative she had become after we left Kuroyuri, perhaps she was still getting used to being around others beside me.

"Oh, so you can speak," he said mockingly to Nora, who went quiet and stepped back closer to me in our walking.

I glared at him in which he responded by raising his hands in a jokingly placating manner. I suppose even with me actually glaring I can only be so intimidating towards a hunter as a ten year old.

"Anyway to answer your question little lady kingdoms aren't as easy to build as you think. Just throwing some money at some villagers to build some houses and walls and hiring a single hunter to protect them isn't enough to create a kingdom."

"You're the only hunter protecting this place" I ask.

"Well me and my protege, she's a huntress in training like the two of ya, she's sleeping right now you'll probably meet her come morning."

I would say that having only one hunter in the village is just stupid but Kuroyuri didn't seem to have any at all. That doesn't make it any less stupid just more commonly stupid. I was going to ask him more about the village, but he interrupted me.

"Well, here we are," Gunther says, stopping us at one of the few completely constructed buildings in the small village. He walked up to the door and started knocking. After a while, the door opened to reveal a frail-looking man who looked exhausted, holding a lantern.

"Do you know how late it is? Did something happen?" the frail man looked at the hunter in front of him then briefly glanced down at the two of us "What's going on who are these children?"

"They're from the village east of here, Kuroyuri. It was overrun by the grimm" Gunther explained.

He seems to wake up at the mention of a nearby village being attacked by grimm, "Are they on their way here? What do we do? Quickly wake everyone we need to."

"No the group of them were continuing east." I cut in stopping the man from causing a panic. "We traveled in the opposite direction and ended up here, hoping to stay the night."

"Ah, I see, they headed further east," he said, calming down, "so you two are refugees then, I want to hear more about this horde that attacked your village but you two must be tired. Kuroyuri is nearly a half a days walk from here."

He looked back at Gunther and said, "Have someone put them up in one of the empty buildings. We will figure out the whole situation once they and myself have had some rest."

Gunther left us with some random woman that was in the village. She was quite obviously wary of us, probably due to my trait and the weapons we carried. She took us to a mostly constructed home where only parts of the roof were unfinished. She offered to get us some blankets, but we declined, pulling out our sleeping bags which we just set up in the middle of the empty room in which we both then got some much needed rest.

The night of the Kuroyuri attack.

-An Ren-

All I could do was watch from the shrub where I and Lie had become entangled in. As the boy who Li told me saved my life and his friend continued to roll down then off the edge of the cliff we were somehow now on.

My body ached from the sudden landing. I could feel the stinging sensation from all the rocks and sharp twigs I rolled over.

I attempt to get up while still holding onto my son but am thrown back to the ground by a rush of pain in my left foot, nearly causing both of us to continue our earlier descent. Laying my son against me to keep him from moving I checked my leg.

I was able to clearly see the swelling in my left ankle even with only moonlight as illumination. I clenched my teeth at the pain of putting some of my weight on it. I definitely can't climb back up this slant and carry Lie.

leaning over him I started shaking him lightly to wake him after a few minutes he finally started to stir.

"Honey honey, I need you to wake up, we are in a… situation" I say, still holding onto him so he doesn't move around too much as he wakes.

"Mother?" he asks, wiping his face, then starts looking around. "Where are we?"

I move closer and embrace him trying to calm him down. "I'm not sure where we are, but right now, we need to get off this slope, okay" I say, getting him to focus on me. "I hurt my ankle so I need you to climb up on your own," I say, pointing toward the top of the slope.

"How about you?" he asks, looking at my swollen ankle with concern in his tone.

"I'll be behind you. I just can't put any pressure on this foot so it's just going to take me a little bit to make it up on my own" I reassure him.

Giving me a determined nod he turned and started making his way back up. After he had made his way part way up and I was convinced he would not lose his footing or any such thing and come rolling back, I began making my own way up.

It was an awkward crawl climbing up a somewhat steep hill while trying to avoid using one of my feet but I made it up some while after Lie did.

Having caught my breath at the top, I looked at where we now were and noted that it only led to more forest looking down at where we just climbed from. I could now see a river farther down, and maybe the other two are down there. If we can find a way around, we could go down there and see if they are alright.

As I get to my feet or at least my good foot, Lie rushes over to my side, helping me stay balanced.

"Thank you, sweetie, but we can't stay here. There were two others with us. Maybe we can make our way around and down to the river where we may find them" I tell Lie as we begin to head down to the river searching for another route.

After a while we were able to reach the bottom of the cliff and near the river, which is where the boy and his companion would have landed, but they were nowhere to be found, given how fast the river was flowing they probably pulled downstream.

"I think I know where we are," says Lie from my side, still helping me stand. "Father took me hunting out here before, this river leads back to the village." Removing himself from my side he steps closer to the water looking down the direction the water is flowing then turning back towards me it's that way.

"That's great honey, but going back to the village might not be a great idea right now", I tell him sadly. As he recalls what I told him about what happened to our village as we were making the trek down here. When he asked me about his father, I told him I didn't know.

"It would be best if we headed towards another village if our home is that way then Kuchinashi should be in that direction." I want to find those other two, but with my injury and not knowing if they survived the river, I can't risk Lie and my own safety by returning to our grimm filled former home.

"Come, let's move" I say to Lie as he walks back to me and helps me walk.

It's been maybe an half an hour or so since we were walking in hopefully the direction of another settlement, with the exception of random forest sounds. It's mostly silent until we started hearing some noises not too far from us.

Not knowing what to do we both just stopped where we were and listened. It sounded like some kind of loud snorting. Expecting some kind of wild pig I could feel all the color drain from my face at the sight of a big Boar like grimm in the distance heading in our direction grabbing onto Lie and moving the both of us the best I could out of its soon to be path and hiding behind a large nearby tree.

The Grimm moved closer and closer to where we were hiding, I looked down at Lie shaking with fear in my arms, tears forming in his eyes. Glancing around the tree I could see it was now walking towards us.

Leaning down and whispering "Lie I'm going to need you to run when it gets closer, I'll keep it here and you need to get away, okay."

At that moment, he hugged me even tighter with tears running down his face and shaking his head back and forth, "no, we both have to run.""

"Honey I can't, not with my leg like this but you can, so please go," I say back removing his arms from around me and turning around facing towards the direction of the grimm.

It started moving around the tree. I stood tall the best I could, arms outstretched hopefully able to distract it from seeing my escaping son.

I was surprised at first by him not running but gripping back onto me, then again by the grimm standing there not paying us any attention, and a third time by how calm I was even though I was face to face with the grimm.

Looking down at my son which held on to me, he seemed somewhat gray like the color of his body was muted looking back at the mostly still grimm neighbor who was next to us and then down at myself I could also see that I was also muted.

Is this Lie's doing? Is he somehow hiding us from the grimm? I don't know how long he can keep this up. This Beast needs to hurry and leave.

Looking around then down at my feet I see a fist sized stone. Slowly crouching down not to break whatever concentration Lie needs to keep doing whatever it is he is doing. I picked up the stone and tossed it as far as I could back in the direction we came from. The sudden noise the stone made caught the attention of the grimm it turned in the direction sound and charged off leaving us be.

After it ran out of earshot I collapsed against the tree taking Lie with me. Whatever he did to keep me calm during that whole ordeal now leaving my body. All I could do was hold onto him tightly random bits of laughter escaping my lips as I peppered the top of his head with kisses.

"I don't know what you did, Lie, but you saved us both." Initially, he seemed to be just as confused about what was going on, but when I showered him with praise, he just seemed to understand that we were going to be okay.

After we both calmed back down we worked on making our way out of the forest.

After several hours of walking we made it out of the forest and onto a path and the sun was starting to rise.

Ahead of us down the road we could see a cart being pulled by a horse we stopped and rested at the side of the road for it to get closer.

"Hello there it's quite early to be out for a str..." the words died in the person who looks to be a merchant's throat as he drew closer to us seeing the state we were in, our clothes ripped and torn in places, faces and hair dirtied with mud and grime.

"Now what happened to you two?" he says bringing his chart to a stop in front of us.

"Our village, Kuroyuri was attacked by the grimm last night. We spent the night traveling the forest to escape."

"The grimm, I see Kuroyuri, that's where I was heading. I guess I need to head back. Hey youngin help me get your mother here into the cart she shouldn't be moving around anymore then she needs to with her foot like that."

After being helped into the back of the cart with the help of Lie and the kind merchant. "Where are we heading to Kuchinashi?"

Having the horse turn the cart back in the direction he came from "Well Kuchinashi is about a week by horse from here. But there was a smaller encampment I passed a few hours back. Will stop there to see if we can get you something for that leg. For now, get some rest, the both of you look to really need it."

Author's notes: I know not much really happened to Rain and Nora this chapter. I spent the last week researching and fixing up my timeline for future stuff and playing FFXIV, but didn't want to not put out a chapter. Quite a few people were wondering what happened to Ren and his mom so half of the chapter went over what happened to them after the separation.

My initial plan for the whole Kuroyuri part was to have Rain mess up Nora and Ren's meeting and then try to fix it. Which would result in Ren dying during the grimm attack. But I felt bad both taking his girl then killing him off so I ended up changing it so he can go live somewhere with his mom.

Now onto the questions:

Raidentensho - I haven't decided on his semblance or familiar yet but if anyone got ideas for either leave in a review.

Mckenray - Thanks for reminding me about D3, I'll definitely look it over for future skills.

Runeion - Well now you know what happened to them after the split.

Guest - Ren and his mother are somewhat heading in opposite directions of Rain and Nora. Each girl in the harem will get a ring. The bonus increases for each person who has one, but don't expect a big harem probably 4 at the most in this world. I have a few ideas for Nora's weapon. I don't mind the rapid fire questions. And yea her background wasn't really necessary it was going to have more importance in the original idea but stuff got changed but I just left it in.