Ren was running hard, following the flow of energy. So concentrated was she that she didn't notice the sunset or the moon rising. She didn't notice the creatures that saw her enter and leave their territory, or the eyes that followed, all she saw was four flows of energy and one that kept them apart on a void.

It was late at night as she followed the pale blue energy to the edge of the overworld, at a place where scrubland met forest in a strange balance. Orange shimmered faintly here, the earth was beginning to die here, sucked into the void. She frowned as something stirred in her memory, this place was familiar somehow.

"Are you sure it was around here?" she heard someone ask. She turned her attention to where that voice had come from. Two boys of the same age were headed her way, instinctively she slipped into hiding, gathering shadows around her for good measure. The two boys came into view, one with spikey orange hair and red tinged glasses, the other threw her for a loop, of not for the different aura she would've sworn that boy was Danny. She watched them carefully, intent on continuing once they had passed her by.

As she watched the flow, something changed, the pale red grew very slightly stronger. She twitched her nose, trying to pick up any abnormalities her 'feelings' couldn't detect, but all she could smell that wasn't there before were those two human boys.

"something's wrong here" she muttered, slipping off her mask to revert to human and dispersing the shadows. She was still able to hear the two talking about finding a creature of some sort in hopes of scanning it. her ears twitched at that, followed by a heavy sigh. Humans in Perim, even young humans was odd enough, but the terms they were using were proof she had been away from this place for so long. Where Najerin's obvious age had made her feel more like the traveler she was, these kids were making her feel old somehow.

***8***

Tom checked his scanner again, the creature decetion still showed nothing. Though he didn't believe it the thought of a creature that didn't show up on his scanners was making him uneasy.

"So tell me how you found it again?" he asked trying to keep his fear of this thing actually showing up in check.

"By accident, that's how." Kaz said, stepping a bit in one direction and changing his mind for the tenth time, "The only reason I knew it was there was because it suddenly got a lot colder."

"Sounds freaky," a third voice chimed.

Kaz nodded, "It was…!"

Both boys stopped, looking to each other slowly.

"Tom? Did you…?"

The black haired boy shook his head, eye glancing to his scanner, still showing no sign of a creature anywhere. Cautiously they turned around, seeing a girl with braided brown hair with her hands behind her back as she looked at them with amber eyes.

She blinked once looking between them carefully, holding up her hand, "am I interrupting something here?"

Tom checked his scanner again before looking her in the face, a dot was blinking on the radar showing one creature, the girl. But if she was a creature, then who was she? An Overworlder he hadn't met yet? Or maybe she was from somewhere else?

The girl smiled gently, "Oh don't worry about me. I'm just a regular human with an irregular problem, hahaha!"

As she laughed Kaz cast a questioning glance to his friend, Tom tipped his scanner so the screen was showing. He then flicked his head towards her asking silently, should we scan her?

Kaz considered it, she didn't look like much; in fact if not for the creature locater function on the scanner he never would've guessed that she was a creature. Even her clothes seemed like they were from earth somehow. The long green shirt that seemed too big for her, the brown pants stuffed into black boots, even the short cloak seemed to suit her fine.

He pocketed his scanner, Tom nodded doing the same. Not now, first find out who she is.

"What kind of problem?" he asked. He flinched as the girl waved a finger in his face, looking annoyed.

"Didn't you hear me? I said an irregular problem; irregular means out of the ordinary or strange, not what you would expect." She crossed her arms in front of her, "Honestly what do they teach you kids in school these days?"

Instantly she frowned, looking upwards as if thinking about something. She was silent for a while.

"Er, something wrong?" Tom asked.

"I can't help but think I've heard that somewhere before," she shrugged, "Oh well, Hey can I ask you something? Never mind I'll do it anyway, have either of you two seen a creature that doesn't seem like they belong around here?"

Both of them frowned.

"Mind being a little more specific?" Kaz asked rolling his eyes a little. Tom stepped in hoping this human looking creature wouldn't take notice of Kaz's tone.

"For new players all creatures don't completely look like they belong here. That's what we mean."

The girl nodded slowly, eyes staring more intently on Tom, "I'm looking for a Tengu girl. Not some old lady like most stories would have people believe; I'm talking about a crow winged female, white hair. Seen her?"

Tom shook his head, "No can't say that I have. What about you Kaz?"

The redhead didn't answer right away; he shook his head "Nope, nobody I know of looks like that."

"Are you sure?" the girl brought herself up so close to him their noses were almost touching, her voice dripped sweet as honey while the bees were still guarding it, "No new creatures at all? Not even in the underworld recently?"

Kaz gave a shiver but said nothing, shaking his head as firmly as before. The girl's amber eyes narrowed slightly as if she didn't believe him. Finally she smiled brightly, "Alright then, I'm off."

She headed off back the way she came, vanishing into the trees. Both boys looked to each other once.

"She showed up on the detector right?" Kaz asked blankly.

Tom nodded, "And since Players don't show up then that means…"

"…She's a new creature," Kaz nearly shouted, eyes going wide, "and we just let her walk away."

Both boys rushed off after her.

***8***

Little under an hour later, both of them were out of breath.

"How…could we have…lost her…so fast?" Tom gasped, leaning back against the tree.

"We must've… searched the whole forest…" Kaz wheezed looking pale.

Tom shook his head, "Not even close"

"How do you…?"

"You spend as much time in the underworld as I do in the overworld."

Kaz sighed, turning to his scanner again, eyes going wide with excitement. Tom didn't need to ask to know what was up. Literally…

Both boys looked up into the trees to see a creature, not the girl they were after, but a large fox in a green tunic and cloak. Amber eyes gleamed as they meet those of the human's staring at her.

She sighed as she jumped down to stand before them, "Guess I can't hide from that device of yours. Can I?"

Tom couldn't help but be a little surprised, from the white fur surrounding her face he would've guessed she was older, but she sounded almost like a girl in high school. On top of which, he got the feeling she had been following them.

"Have you…been watching us?"

The fox's tail twitched as a smile crossed her muzzle, "Fraid so. See I'm looking for someone and I mistook you two for them at first. However I can't help but think you might've seen her."

The boys glanced to each other a moment, "A girl? Brown hair."

The fox shook her head, "White, and winged."

She turned to Kaz, "I can't help but think you might know something. Do you?"

Kaz's face turned a shade redder as he looked right into her eyes. Her tail twitched several times under that cool gaze before he finally spoke.

"No, just like I told that other creature before, I haven't seen anyone like that."

***8***

He was trying to throw her off, she could tell. Two people after the same thing who find out about each other would often hinder each other. A good idea on his part, and it might've worked if she hadn't been the same girl from before.

She focused her power deeper into him; unlike with plants, trees and most creatures, human auras could take on all kinds of depths, textures and colors, depending on how they grew up and how they chose to react to things, some could even be layered. It's what made them, among most sentient beings she had met, so diversified. Depending on the person she was with, they could be terrifying or wondrous, both or anything in between.

When she first saw him, his aura showed him to be a gentle hearted boy with a hint of an adventurous side, it was like looking at a kitten hiding under the covers while still looking over the edge of the top bunk bed. But once he had calmed down that aura seemed a bit more like a bigger animal of some sort, and his personal flow right where his true nature should be, had a sunset sheen to it, powerful yet gentle like a small flame. In fact it almost felt like… wait how was that possible?

She stepped back, folding her arms across her chest again, "Hmm, Let me ask you something, if you were a native of Perim, what tribe would you be?"

The red haired boy frowned, looking at her confused, "Why would you want to know….?"

"Just answer the question." she growled.

The boy gulped, "U-underworld."

She watched his aura change again, her ears perking at his answer. So he did know something, and it was in what had been her least favorite part of Perim back then. Wonder how much the place had changed.

With a step back she smiled again, "Alright I believe you. I'll just continue my search elsewhere. Have a nice day boys."

She turned to leave, stopping in her tracks as the doppelganger of her stowaway called out.

"Wait, do you mind if we get a scan of you?" as she turned to look at him he was smiling hopefully. She blinked once, seeing no hint of ulterior motive in his aura she felt somewhat…well flattered. Something she hadn't felt for a long time, so long in fact she wasn't sure what to do about it.

"Scan? What for?"

He smiled a bit bigger, Ren decided to ignore feeling like a child about to be told something that was common knowledge.

"It's for our game back in Chaotic. A scan of you and we can become you in our battles."

Instantly she blushed, it almost sounded like he had said 'I want to be you'. Only with a more literal feel to it, she wasn't sure she could allow that.

"Er, well I…?" she thought a moment, taking off her cloak and holding it up, "You can try scanning this if you want."

Tom looked at it confused, "Is that some kind of battle gear?"

Battle gear? If he meant did she use it in a fight then he was in for a disappointment. However she was sure he wouldn't find it totally useless, "It's called a stardust cloak, it works better for….what's the phrase you would use? Status issues?"

Tom frowned, holding up his little device to it, the thing started humming with a little blue white light glowing from the back. Once it stopped he looked at the screen, eyes widening in delight.

"Says here this can help heal creatures, it makes them immune to smaller status effects, anything under twenty."

Kaz leaned over to look, a smile crossing his face, "Wow, that'll come in real handy during my next match."

Ren held up the cloak again, smiling, "Make it quick I got to get going."

As he finished she clasped the thing back on and turned to leave. Behind her Tom raised his hand, "Wait we forgot to…"

But she had already rushed off and she had no intentions of finding out what it was he wanted. Her mind was back on the flow, following the stream of energy into Mipedian territory.

(smacks head on keys three time) Stupid. Stupid. Ow! TT*

(knock at the door)

Hova: what ever it is I'm not buying any. try next door. (mutters) that guy buys something every week.

(Door opens and a white haired girl peeks in.)

?: Um, pardon me, are you Hovastrider? the one writing this story?

Hova: (turns to look at the girl, still upset) Yeah, why do you want to know?

?: (steps inside) Well you see, I was wondering, if maybe I could sugest a few things.

Hova: (leans back in her chair, ears flat) Such as?

?: Well maybe you could change your writing style for this story a little bit, make each chapter a bit more like an part of an episode, that way you could cover all the characters better and you don't have to worry so much about accidently writing someone out.

Hova: o_o Hmm, that's not a bad idea actually. if I think of each chapter from her n out as an episode I can concentrate on parts as I please instead of juggling the plot as a whole. which will save me a large headache if I keep trying to write so much of it at once.

?: ^ ^ yes, Also you should give Danny a reason to leave Kiru.

Hova: already thinking, for now leave it ok? (turning back to desk, scribbling in notebook and tail wagging) ^ ^ I feel so much better now. Anything else?

?: (blushing) a name.

Hova: (perks up Looks at girl again) What?

?: I want a better name, mine is too complicated.

Hova: (finally sees wings) 0_0 oh...9_9 I will see what I can do. don't expect anything in the next chapter though.

Raven winged girl: I know, just don't write me out ok? I'm supposed to...

Hova: (jumps out of her seat and knocks 'Raven wings' to the floor with paw on mouth) SHUSHHHH, No spoilers. Understand?

'Raven wings': (nods)

Hova: (turns to readers) sorry about that. anyway my request still stands. and if you misunderstood it then here it is again, rephrased. I am looking for sugestions for characters to talk with in these after chapter segments. Please oblige 9_9 I'm sure they'll have forgotten about the translator incident by now...-_- hopefully...

Please review! 0_0 oh yeah, and sorry I had to repost this chapter everyone!

wont happen again I promise ^ ^