Velvet awoke the next morning as the bright sun shone directly on her eyes from an above crack in the roof of a barn. She briefly shut the lids of her eyes once more as her eyes adjusted to being awake once more. Hansel's arm was draped over the area of the sleeping bag that covered her waist in the same position that he had rested it in when the two had fallen asleep the night before. She tilted her head back to get a good luck at his face and his current resting arrangement.

A layer of blonde scruff had found residence on the lower area of Hansel's face. He breathed softly, prompting a small breeze to raise the hairs of Velvet's neck along with a slow pulsating motion that could be seen in his midsection. His body covered the bicep of his free arm, leaving the forearm to extend onto the bedding that he slept on. As odd as Velvet found it, Hansel had remained fully dressed as he drifted off to sleep.

I guess he didn't want to leave any room for a misunderstanding to take place.

Velvet rolled herself in her sleeping bag to reach the zipper of her sleeping bag. The zipper creaked as it made Velvet's liberation of the bag known to anyone in the immediate vicinity. A combination of both this and her moving of Hansel's arm off of her caused the owner of the arm to awake as well and prop himself up onto his elbows. Velvet and Hansel looked at each other for a period before Hansel directed his vision in the general direction of Velvet's thigh.

"How's your leg feel?" He asked with what Velvet perceived as genuine concern.

"Well, I feel nothing. Since that's the case, I suppose that could mean one of two things: either the operation was a complete success and my Aura took care of the healing process overnight, or..." Velvet trailed for the sole purpose of building suspense.

"Or what?" Hansel said with an awkward chuckle.

"Or you messed up so badly that the wound in my leg became infected and it is now totally paralyzed and useless." She said half-jokingly.

Now that the thought had put itself in the forefront of her mind, Velvet frightened herself with the very real possibility that something terrible and irreparable by means of Aura had transpired while she had been knocked out.

"Don't even say that. Now you have me freaked out."

"I'm sorry, Hansel. It was just my bad attempt at humor to break the ice. If itt'l make you feel better, I'll try it out."

"Please do. I won't be able to truly be at ease until I can see that you can fully function on it."

"I understand. I'm truly touched that you care so much for my well-being." She said with a warm smile directed at her male companion. He returned the smile and allowed a small chuckle to be produced with closed lips.

Velvet slipped herself out of the dark-blue sleeping bag that had contained her through the night and stood with no pain to speak of. She turned her back to Hansel and placed her hand in her leggings over the area where she was shot. To her expectations, there was no tangible scar where it had been. A wave of relief rushed over her as she became certain that she would not have any inhibitions of her movement. However, she removed her hand and slowly walked to the center of the barn.

The other end of the barn placed itself in Velvet's sights. She primed herself in a sprinter's position and took a deep breath. She sprinted as fast as she could and leaped into the air above her. Velvet tucked her legs in and leaned backwards, sending herself into a backwards cannonball of sorts. Just as she began to descend to the bedding on the ground, she extended her legs once more and landed gracefully on her feet.

The test of her leg continued as she ran to the wall of the barn and jumped once more to firmly plant both of her feet on the section of the wall directly in front of her waist. Her body arched back as she performed another backflip off of the barn wall. The barn around her was a colorful blur as her body spun through the air. As it did before, she firmly landed on both of her feet. Velvet briefly debated whether or not it would be wise to see how her otherwise-healthy leg would handle under the pressure of usage of her Semblance. She decided against it, knowing that such actions had a higher risk of attracting unwanted attention from the outside.

She walked over to where she had rose from moments before, now assured that her leg would not fail her during their escape from the Atlesian Military and the 4 Kingdoms. Hansel had never taken his eyes off of her once during this entire period. Normally, Velvet would be repulsed by such eyeing from someone of the opposite sex, yet she felt flattered on this particular occasion. These new feelings perplexed her, and they exhilarated her all at once.

"Well, glad to see that you're not gonna be held back when we're on the run. Now that's out of the way, we're gonna need to go into that house and see if we can find some things that we need." Hansel said.

"I hope you're not talking about stealing again. I thought you had enough Lien to cover us." Velvet chided.

"No, no. Of course not. I was talking about using something, not stealing."

"What is this 'something' you speak of?"

"Either the black hair dye I spoke of earlier, or..." Hansel's voice trailed as he visibly shuddered and ran one of his hands through his hair. "Razor blades and shaving cream."

Velvet sucked through her teeth.

"Well, I suppose that's only reasonable, despite it's extreme nature. We can't run the risk of you getting noticed, and your beard isn't enough, I don't think."

"Exactly. That's also the reason as to why I have to go into villages alone."

"No." Velvet said stoicly.

Hansel scrunched his face in silent response to Velvet's refusal to follow through with their original plan.

"Why the sudden change of heart? I thought you understood why that's not a good idea."

"Well, the way that I see it, we need to stay together in case something happens. We can back each other up in case something goes wrong. Ten guards against two is a lot better than against one." She said, firmly placing her hands on her hips and feeling a sense of duty and obligation to her companion.

"I don't feel right about that. For one thing, you're much more high-risk than I am. Plus, even if we do manage to get in, you'll be recognized almost instantly because of...well, you know." Hansel looked up from Velvet's eyes and gestured to her ears. Velvet felt silently embarrassed at the realization that she had not previously thought of this second problem. She knew that there was only one solution, and the idea of having to do it again made her sick.

Velvet sighed and briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Hansel asked her what was wrong. She pursed her lips and nervously chuckled.

"I know what I need to do."

Hansel easily picked the lock to the back door of the home and opened the door. Velvet followed, keeping her uneasiness about breaking into a potentially occupied household and that violent altercation that could ensue silent. As if she didn't already know, Hansel placed his index finger to his closed lips and looked at Velvet. Silently annoyed, Velvet merely nodded and followed closely in tow. Upon entry, she saw that there was a small table to their immediate left. On it rested several assorted photographs of the family that Velvet assumed lived in the home. The mother( at least, the woman that Velvet perceived to be as the mother) had sun-kissed skin with teal-colored eyes. Her hair shared the same color, with thin black streaks in her bangs.

The man whose arm rested on the woman's neck and shoulders shared the same warm smile that his (once again, Velvet assumed that this was the father of the household) wife had. He had cerulean curls and black sunglasses that refused to let Velvet see what color his eyes were. He was a thin man who had not worn a shirt in the photograph, exposing his dark-brown chest and midsection. After seeing the black bikini that the mother was in along with what was clearly the beach and the oceans in the background, Velvet surmised that the family had taken the photo during an excursion to such a place.

The young boy, whose face was eerily similar that of her own younger brother, was shirtless like his father. He had the skin tone of his mother and the mixed colors of both of his parents' hair. His eyes gleamed a bright blue, a similar shade to the one that covered his hair. The boy's wide, open smile revealed that one of his front teeth was missing.

This small detail caused an involuntary smile to cross Velvet's lips as she recalled a fond memory in which her own brother had revelled in losing his first tooth after falling from a tree onto his face. He had been playing while the rest of the family was tending to housework or sleeping. Velvet had looked out the window just as she saw Jacob lose his grip on a branch and fall to the ground on his face. When she ran outside, she expected to be required to console a crying Jacob. To her surprise, however, this was not the case.

He was already standing up when Velvet came upon him, astonishingly laughing. When his sister asked if he was alright, he looked up at her and smiled from ear to ear.

"Velvet! Look!" He lifted up his closed hand and opened it with the palm up to reveal a small white tooth. Velvet held a mouth to her hand to simultaneously stifle a laugh and cover the gasp that passed her lips shortly before the laugh.

"You lost a tooth?" She asked rhetorically.

Jacob nodded and began to ask what he should do with it.

"Well, if I recall correctly, there's a certain little fairy who would be particularly interested in that little tooth."

"Where should I leave it for her, Velvet?" Her little brother eagerly asked.

"Under your pillow. That way, she can leave Lien for you when you fall asleep tonight." She directed with a smile. Jacob then furrowed his brow and pushed out his bottom lip.

"What's wrong, Jacob?" Velvet asked.

"If I'm asleep, how can I thank her for the Lien?"

Velvet bent down and placed her hands on her knees so that she was at eye level with her younger sibling.

"Is that all you're upset about?"

Jacob looked down at the ground and nodded. Velvet took one hand off of her knee and placed on her brother's shoulder. He looked up at her once more with eyes that were beginning to well up with tears. Velvet smiled once more in an attempt to calm down Jacob.

"I know. It's pretty silly."

"No, it's not. In fact, I'll do you a favor."

"Really? What's that?"

"I'll stay up and wait for the fairy to come. When she does, I'll tell all about how you're grateful for the Lien and all about how you're..mostly a good boy." She promised with a smirk.

"Mostly a good boy?" Jacob said fearfully, his tiny voice cracking.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Velvet furrowed her little brother's chestnut hair and uprighted herself, keeping her hand on Jacob's shoulder.

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" Velvet asked.

Jacob rubbed his cheek, the smile momentarily retreating from his face. His expression showed the pain that Jacob felt when he touched the exterior of the section of his gums that was now down a tooth.

"It does a little bit."

This was the first time that Velvet realized that there was a small trail of blood that began to drip out the corner of Jacob's mouth.

"Ok. Let's go inside and get you cleaned up, ok?"

Jacob nodded and removed his hand from his cheek. He used his index and middle finger to wipe a portion of blood away from his face. The fingers were moved in front of his eyes for inspection. Once he was satisfied to see the red substance, Jacob lifted his fingers up for Velvet to see.

"Look, Velvet. I'm bleeding!" He said giddily.

Velvet chuckled and rustled his hair once more.

"Just like a real Huntsman, huh?"

This got Jacob to laugh and, to Velvet's relief, wipe his fingers on his pants and cease to talk about the blood any longer.

Velvet shook her head and was transported back to reality, where Hansel tapped her shoulder. She looked up at him just in time to see him motion them forward. Annoyed once more, she obeyed and silently crept forward, cautious of any openings that may give them away to any other occupants of the house. Velvet and Hansel clung to the walls to prevent detection, Velvet's ears flicking as she listened for any footsteps or other sounds that would give the impression that they were not alone.

Despite her efforts, there was no noticeable noises other than the near-silent ones that Hansel and herself made. Soon, they came across a large staircase that led to the floor above them. Hansel looked up, then back at Velvet. He threw up a thumb and mouthed, asking if Velvet was prepared to go to the second floor. She nodded and they proceeded upwards.

The creaking boards that made up the stairs made Velvet uneasy, momentarily forgetting that she was the only one that she knew of in the house who could have heard such a miniscule noise. The stairs looked to be made of cedar, with a long, red rug with golden fringes covering the centers of the steps. At each end of the railing of the stares were large wooden cubes. The railing was adorned with beautiful carvings that Velvet could not truly appreciate in her current state. Her nerves were especially placed on end when they reached the top of the stairs. She heard the worst noise that she could imagine in their current situation: the soft breath of a human being.

Velvet tightly clutched Hansel's shoulder to prevent him from stepping onto the upper level. He looked back at her, his annoyance visible on his face. It was obvious that he was attempting in vain to hide such emotions.

"What is it?" He asked quietly.

"I hear breathing: I think it's a human. There was no sign of a pet downstairs."

"Do you know where at?"

Velvet shook her head. Her hearing was acute, true, but she had trouble at times pinpointing the exact location of noises coming from a source that she was unable to see. It was a small factor that few people knew about: herself, Coco, and her family. Velvet saw it as a shortcoming, and had preferred that there was as few people who were knowledgeable about it as possible.

Hansel grunted, then hugged the wall once more, prompting Velvet to do the same. He risked a peek around the wall, then looked down the hallway to his right. Satisfied that he had not been spotted, he looked back at Velvet.

"What do you think we should do?" He whispered. "Turn back, not be able to go into town, and we'll probably have to hunt food and raiding houses since we'll be too recognizable in the towns? Or we raid this one house, run the risk of getting caught, get what we need, and get out so we have what we need to do this as legal as possible? Your call."

Velvet looked up at the white ceiling above them and held her chin in her hand while she pondered in thought.

Ok, Velvet. Two options here. Both of them are equally risky, only the former is more risky than the other in the sense of long-term. So do we run this one wrong so everything else may run right? Or do we just keep going wrong and hope it fixes itself eventually? Do you really want to leave such a thing to chance? No, no. Of course you don't. So both choices are equally bad, but what is the lesser of two evils? Obviously the course of action that only requires you and Hansel to raid a single house instead of a dozen. I guess that gives your answer, then. Doesn't it?

"Ok, here's what we do. We only use what we need. Nothing, and I mean nothing, leaves this house. You either find dye, or shaving cream, use it as fast as you can while I keep watch. When you're finished, we leave. That's all that needs to be done. Sound good to you?" Velvet asked of Hansel.

Hansel looked away from her for a moment, then returned his gaze. He nodded and took a deep breath.

"We go on three." He whispered.

Velvet nodded back at him. "One..."

"Two..."

Velvet threw up three fingers in the stead of calling out verbally. This briefly drew the attention of Hansel's eyes, causing him to nod once more and turn his back to Velvet. The two crept up the final steps to the second level of the home. Once again, Hansel turned to Velvet.

"Where's the breathing coming from? The general direction, I mean?" He inquired.

Velvet closed her eyes and concentrated on the noise that had steadily filled her ears for the past few minutes. She tried ever so hard to pinpoint, if not the exact location of the breathing, then the general direction that it had come from. The auditory respirations seemed to mock her after a time, as a child who could not be found during a game of Hide-and-Go-Seek may after the game's end. It seemed to beckon to her, yet do its damnedest too repel her all at once.

"Come to me, Velvet. No, wait, I changed my mind. Let's stay apart, huh?" It seemed to cry.

This only made Velvet want to find it more. She furrowed her brow and placed her hands on her temples. ("In retrospect, I suppose I could've just moved around," Velvet said to Rojo,"But I was a bit young and, well, a little stupid." Rojo only replied with a nod, which Velvet took as a signal that he wished for her to continue the story.) After a few seconds more like this, she found it. It suddenly became more defined and clear that before. Velvet opened her eyes and looked in the exact direction of the room that held the person. It was not known to her as to why the person's breathing level had changed, but Velvet was aware that she did not have time to ponder such trivial thoughts. Hansel never took his eyes off of Velvet, doing what she thought was trying to look for any type of expression that would telegraph to him that she had found her target. When she looked directly at the room, he knew exactly what it meant.

"That the one?" He asked in his soft tone.

"Yeah. Make sure to steer clear of that one. Their breathing's changed, so that may be an indicator that we should hurry and find what you need."

"Noted. Let's find out which one of these is the bathroom so we can do what we need to and get out of here. If we do go down, I don't want it to be at the hands of some kid."

"How do you know it's a kid?" Velvet interrogated.

Hansel did not immediately answer, but continued to look at Velvet. She could see in his eyes that he fumbled for an answer in his mind.

"Call it intuition." He said with a nervous chuckle.

"Hmm. We'll get back to that later." She said indignantly, not bothering to conceal the fact that she did not believe him.

Hansel said nothing, but began to open random doors on the side of the floor opposite of the location of the person that Hansel referred to as 'kid'. There were a total of 6, including one that led to a linen closet. Frustration filled Velvet as each door led to either a bedroom, a powder room(that, to her dismay, offered none of what they required.), or some sort of closet. She could see that Hansel had begun to become desperate, and indiscreetly began opening doors on the side that had been a bit of taboo prior to this stage.

"Be quiet!" Velvet loudly whispered. "You'll wake up whoever's in the house, then we'll have a bit more to be upset about then than now!"

Hansel stopped and held out his hands with the palms out. He closed his eyes and remained this way for several seconds. Velvet watched with wonder as she slowly deduced that this was his own anger-managment tactic. She found it amazing that he had managed to find such a level of inner-peace that he was able to calm himself without some external force coming into play. It was truly a marvel that she had never seen before (aside from those people that she had met who had never had an outspoken temper problem and had been able to calm themselves without a single twitch of the muscles).

"I'm sorry about that. I don't always lose my temper like that, but believe me, it usually gets a lot worse when we're not in more..sensitive situations than the one we're in at the moment."

"I understand. Just see that it doesn't get out of hand when I need you, ok? I can't do this alone."

Hansel placed his hand on Velvet's shoulder, and whispered Velvet's name. She looked up into his eyes and the two stayed there for what felt like an eternity to Velvet.

"I'll never leave you to this alone. I don't know what I would do without you."

"What does that mean?" Velvet coyly smiled, having a strong feeling that the answer to her own question could already be found within herself.

Hansel returned the smile, softly brushing back her hair behind her ear. "Why don't we come back to that later?"

Velvet blushed and agreed. Velvet's chest was filled with a warmness that was previously foreign to her. It was one that she did not know how (or want to) process under their current conditions. So, instead, she put them inside herself, and opened the door closest to her. To her astonishment, the first door that she opened was a bathroom. A gasp of exhilaration filled the air around her. When Hansel walked over to see what Velvet had found, he made a similar noise.

"Oh, thank you, God." He said in a jubilant tone of voice.

He wasted little time in looking for the things that he desired in the cabinets above and below the sink. Velvet turned her back to him, keeping her eyes and ears focused on the door that housed the only other occupant of the house. His breathing had slowed down once more, to Velvet's relief. She leaned herself against the wall and propped one leg up against it.

Behind her, Hansel had begun to run the water in the bathroom. This gave her reason to turn her head and see what it was that he was doing. Velvet saw Hansel as he leaned himself over the sink to get himself closer to the mirror.

He had doused his hair in water and, judging by the locks of hair and scissors that rested by the sink, cut a large portion of his hair off. The only thing that had remained was a mere shell of the hair that many women had spent days,weeks, and, for some, months, adoring over. He was now running over the remains of his once-flowing hair with cream and a single razor blade.

The entire process took about seven minutes for him to complete. When all of the excess cream was wiped away, he took another look at himself in the mirror. Hansel ran his hand over his smooth head, and let an apathetic grunt loose in his closed mouth.

"How does it look?" He asked without taking his eyes off of the mirror.

Velvet leaned in the doorway, crossing her arms. She looked at her bald companion, gauging whether the hair would be enough to avoid detection from the prying eyes of suspicious villagers.

"So far so good, but you should probably keep some of your face concealed somehow. The villagers around here aren't stupid. Well, most of them aren't."

Hansel looked over at her. He straightened himself from his original position and placed his hands in his pockets. At Velvet's request, Hansel found a bag and placed all of his expended hair inside the bag to eliminate any trace that they were at all. Velvet knew that, should they leave such evidence as hair spread across the family's sink, it would most likely stir the residents into a panic and give them ample cause to phone the police. This, in turn, would give their pursuers an idea of their whereabouts. This was a risk that Velvet would not dare risk.

She watched Hansel perform this task until it was complete. He turned to her once more and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Velvet asked, walking over to Hansel.

"I just realized something." He announced, stifling another laugh.

"Oh, really? And just what is that?" She asked.

"The fact that I kind of look like one of those cheesy convicts that you'd see in a movie." He joked.

Velvet looked his head over once more, agreeing with him thereafter.

"Alright," She began to direct."We need to get out of here before someone sees us. We're already pushing it as is."

Hansel lifted his right hand up to the corner of his eyebrow. He stiffened his back and looked at the top of Velvet's scalp.

"Yes, ma'am. I say we move on out."

Velvet laughed and turned to walk out the doorway. She heard Hansel begin to follow after as she stepped onto the stairs. During the events past, she had made the mistake of taking her attention off of the breathing habits of their unwilling host. As she walked down, her ears picked up an elevated breathing level from the occupant of the room. She stopped in front of Hansel halfway down the stairs, eliciting an inquiry of Velvet's status from him. Velvet didn't immediately answer, but continued listening.

"Oh, shit. Oh, shit. There's someone in the house. It's not Mom and Dad. They just barely landed in Atlas. What do I do? What do I do? Do I try to get out? Try to confront them? Oh, screw it. I'll call the police." Velvet heard the voice say. She surmised that it was, indeed, a young boy, as Hansel had predicted earlier. His accuracy peaked Velvet's interests once more, but there was no time for her to dwell on it.

"The kid's awake. We have to go-now." Velvet whispered.

Hansel said nothing, but attempted to unsheath one of his Wind-and-Fire Wheels. Velvet placed her hand on his wrist to obtain his attention.

"Don't. He hasn't made us. We need to go." She quickly instructed. Velvet slipped her hand into Hansel's and tightly gripped it.

She rushed down the stairs with Hansel in tow. Her ears picked up the door slowly opening, which instilled a rush of panic and adrenaline through her body. Hansel was instructed by Velvet to not look back so they wouldn't run the risk of having their faces spotted by the young boy, who had swung the door open wider by this point. Unless Velvet's ears had deceived her, she heard the boy command them in a squeaky voice that they stop. Velvet had not looked back, but realized one single blunder that ran the risk of being their downfall: her ears. All the boy had to say to the police was a description of a bald man and a brunette with rabbit ears, and they would make the connection.

A series of swears filled Velvet's mind as they rushed out of the house and into the woods. The two did not stop running until the house was out of their line of sight. When they could no longer see it, they hid behind the trees. With her lower back on the bark of the nearest tree, Velvet placed her hands on her knees and bent over, taking several deep breaths.

Velvet's throat and lungs burned as her body struggled to replace the oxygen that she had lost. Her vision brought her attention to her fellow fugitive as he had placed himself in a cross-legged sitting position, not bothering to keep himself completely concealed behind the tree that offered him refuge. Hansel's hands, like Velvet's, were on his knees as well. His mouth was wide open as he tilted his head back on the tree, putting nothing else in his vision but the green of the deciduous treeline above and the small specks of blue sky that permeated the holes that were put in place by the spaces in the trees' branches.

Without warning, he closed his and began to laugh loudly. Velvet attempted to silence him, but to no avail. After a long pause of merely listening to his chortling on her end, Velvet could no longer stand the curiousity that such noises had elicited in her and asked the only question that had plagued her mind in that particular in that instance.

"What could possibly be humorous to you right now?"

Hansel chuckled once more, softer than before, and wiped a tear away from the corner of one of his eyes. He looked over and held in the next laugh, which served to emit a snorting from his nose.

"It's just that-I realized just now that neither of us had any way of knowing just how bad things would get. If you were to tell me just two weeks ago that I was about to become an enemy of the 4 Kingdoms, shave my head, and break someone's house just to use their razor and shaving cream, I'd have called you crazy. Two weeks ago, I was picturing how I would fit in on a team at Beacon, fantasizing what our name would be, wondering what our dorm would look like." Hansel took a long pause and looked down at the ground. The smile disappeared from his face, replaced by an expression of solemnity. "You know," he said. "Normal things that a teen is supposed to think."

He sniffled his nose and wiped away a second tear from his eyes. The palms of his hands covered his face as he slumped over and began to cry softly. Velvet did not hestitate to walk over and sit on the ground next to Hansel, now also exposed to any potential onlookers. She wrapped her closest arm around Hansel and rested her head on his shoulder. There was no apparent reaction from Hansel as a result from this reaction.

This is all happening because of me. Velvet thought in a moment of striking revelation. I ruined his life. He'll never get to do any of the things that he wanted to because of me. He'll never have what I never could have in the first place: a shot at living a normal life. Being a normal teen. It's all gone for him, and for what? Because he wanted to help a girl who barely even knew him?

Determined to keep her composure for Hansel, Velvet refused to let the melancholy she felt within pour out of her in any way. She simply kept her eyes on a leaf that looked to be from some unseen shrub. Every little detail was accounted for, every part of the stem and all of the bumps and crevices on its surface. Like their hopes for redemption and the chance for her friend to lead an average life, it was slowly dying. It had begun to curl and brown at the edges, while the portions closest to the center clung to life.

Velvet, despite all of her cells telling her not to, looked over at Hansel. He had lifted his head up and was looking down at the space that seperated the both of them. She looked as well, but could not see what it was that had attracted his attention. After a moment of deliberation, she realized that he was doing the same thing that she had earlier: looked at something, anything, to take his mind off of their current predicament. Without a word, Hansel reached into his satchel and extracted what Velvet thought was a protein supplement bar of some sort. After closer inspection, however, she saw it was a bar of her favorite brand of candy.

He split in uneven halves and handed the larger half to Velvet. She ate as sparingly as possible, taking small bites. Velvet lifted her head up off of Hansel's shoulder and adjusted herself so that she could place her back flush against the wood of the tree. She offered thanks to Hansel for the bar, then attempted to erase his gloom with humor, as she often did with her younger brother when he was in such a mood.

"I'm surprised that your father would allow such delectible scum in your life." She said with a small chuckle. Hansel smiled and looked over at his companion once more.

"He didn't. I remember hearing that this was one of your favorite brands, so I thought to pick some up when I saw...you know."

"Who told that this was my favorite?"

"No one told me. I have a bad habit of eavesdropping on people's conversations. Most of the time, I don't regret it. I know it's still a bad habit, though."

"I won't judge." She said with a mouthful of chocolate.

Hansel stood and offered his hand to Velvet. Shfe took it, then remembered a key conversation point that she had forgotten to bring up again after last night. As soon as she was on her feet, Velvet reached into her bag and pulled out the silver Scroll from the night before. It was held up at Hansel's eye-level for dramatic effect.

"We still need to talk about this. Where did it come from? And who were you talking to last night?"

Hansel sighed and looked around the Scroll into Velvet's eyes.

"Ok. I'll answer all of your questions right now. Answer to question one: I brought it from my home. My father has it, oddly enough, for situations like these. It's a Scroll that can't be traced, so long as one doesn't talk on it for more than ten minutes. I was talking to, as I said before, someone who has a place that we can stay at for a day or two. We can trust him."

"How do you know?"

"I've known this guy for years. We can trust him, believe me."

Velvet looked down. She felt uneasy about leaving her life in the hands of someone that she had never seen nor met. It was unknown to her whether or not she wished to place that much trust in Hansel's judgement.

"Well. I suppose I can't really say anything. If you trust him, I suppose I'll have to try as well. You better be right, though. I'm trusting you."

"I appreciate that. You won't be disappointed."

"See that I'm not."

Up until then, Velvet had kept her entire attention on Hansel. As the silence was pierced with a screeching cry, she knew that this was a terrible mistakes. She looked around, trying to see if there was a creature nearby that was capable of making such a sound. Anxious that there was none, Velvet could think of only one other location that one would be able to find an unseen animal in a forest: above the forest. Without a word, Velvet began climbing up the nearest tree until she could receive a clear view of the area around them.

Velvet looked around for several seconds, turning until she was able to pinpoint the creature. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw the terrifyingly familiar monster that sent chills down her spine. The name of her old adversary passed her lips as it caught sight of her and dove down from his point high up, a black hole that blotted out a portion of the blue sky.

"Nevermore."