A/N: hmmm…..been a while, eh? I've been doing this thing where I don't leave things half finish. And I will do this even if my regular readers are gone. But damn, Kai's change was supposed to be a surprised….was it too obvious? M'kay.

Kai wandered through the forest, not sure of what he was doing, or why he was there. It almost felt as though something was pulling him in that direction.

'What am I doing here?' he thought as he looked up at the giant full moon. Had it not been there, he probably wouldn't have even been able to see his way through the Forrest. As he was distracted his arm scrapped along a sharp piece of bark from a tree he was walking close to.

He seethed at the sudden pain in his arm, then shrugged it off as a scrape and continued walking.

'This is pathetic. What did I think I could accomplish here?' he suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked up at the full moon as the moon was becoming covered with clouds, making the Forrest around him grow darker. 'It was a mistake to come to this village, I should go back home.' He thought. Despite him telling himself this in his head, he really didn't want to go. The atmosphere was so relaxed at the White Tiger village, sure their customs made no sense, but being an outsider meant he didn't have to be involved init himself.

He sighed as he concluded that he would think it over for a couple of days.

"I still haven't made it up to her…Mariah." He said aloud as he turned towards the exit of the Forrest, only to come face to face with an old woman.

"My, what's a handsome young man like you doing alone in the middle of the Forrest at night?" she immediately asked while flashing a creepy grin.

Kai quickly composed himself after the shock of her seemingly, appearing from nowhere.

"Its late young man, but you don't look like a member of the White Tiger village.

"I'm not, I'm just walking." He replied as he turned to head back in the direction he had come in.

"What deary, aren't you hungry? I can make you a drink? Or some soup perhaps?" she said whilst trying to keep up with him, but Kai didn't reply.

"Your arm dear, it seems to be cut? Let me at least take care of it so I'm not up all night worrying about you." She improvised whilst hastily moving in front of him to block the way. Kai just looked down at her, beginning to get mad at this random old woman who was trying to stalk him.

"This is quite an exotic Forrest you know, you should be more careful, let me take care of that arm, you wouldn't want your girlfriend to get worried now, would you? Why don't you come inside?" she said whilst pointing to a cottage which Kai was certain wasn't there before, perhaps if he wasn't so concerned about the cottage that appeared out of nowhere, he might have thought to question her girlfriend remark.

Kai turned and looked at her in suspicion as Mariah's words filled his head.

'Kai, if you ever see anything in the forest, or anyone, PLEASE, leave immediately, it's a dangerous place, and you'll regret going in there.'

'She couldn't have possibly meant this old woman? She's harmless, what could she possibly do? It wasn't as if her house was made of gingerbread and she was offering him all the food he could eat.' He thought to himself, still staring.

"Come on deary, it wont take a second, then you can go on your way." She smiled whilst walking towards her cottage door and leaving it open for Kai to follow. He frustratingly sighed and followed.

He noted how plain the house looked, and followed the woman who signaled him to enter the kitchen. He sat down at the table whilst she grabbed a cloth and run some water over and wiped Kai's arm.

'Yeah, cause I couldn't have wiped my arm back at Ray's' he said frustratingly at himself as he realized this was a complete waste of his time.

"Thanks." He said in emotionless tone.

She smiled and turned around and began to collect various herbs and ingredients and grabbing a pot.

"I'm not here to eat." He said whilst standing up, signaling that he was planning to leave."

"Oh no Hun, it's an old remedy to help detox your system to prevent infection." She replied somewhat unconvincingly. 'Damn, this one's smarter than the other naïve villagers.'

Kai was skeptical, he had never heard of this kind of thing. But then again he had never heard of growing your hair to symbolize marriage. Perhaps it was just their custom he sighed as he sat back down.

"So if you are not from the village, then why are you here dear?" she asked, trying to distract him of the 'remedy' she was concocting.

Kai pretended to be thinking of something else, he was smart enough to know that when an elderly person started to ask questions, it was only an excuse to start reminiscing about 'the old days'. The woman glared with her back facing him. 'You'll get what's coming to you.' She thought as a grin widened across her face.

"So, this girlfriend of yours, she must be beautiful." She said whilst stirring the boiling mixture.

"What makes you think I have a girlfriend?" he replied whilst being reminded of how she had mentioned that earlier.

"Well you…said a girls name….Mariah, wasn't it?" she mentally cursed him for causing her to keep improvising.

Kai ignored her words and dwelled on the possibility of him and Mariah becoming an item, of course it quickly shrugged it off and began looking for excuses. 'Making this old woman was right? Maybe I caught something through my wound?' he unconvincingly told himself.

"Here, it's finished." She smiled as she handed the drink to him.

"Hm. Thanks." He replied without even looking at her. He just wanted out as soon as possible so he gulped the whole thing in one go, not even allowing enough of it to touch his tongue to taste it.

"Its late, I should probably head back." He said while heading towards the door.

"Oh yes deary, tell that pink haired girl that I said hello." She smiled as she closed the door behind him.

Kai walked a few steps before he realized that he had never mentioned the color of Mariah's hair, and with that he turned around and to his disbelieve the cottage was no longer there.

Mariah's voice rung in his ears as he remembered her warning yet again. But he was fine wasn't he? She hadn't hurt him or anything.

'I should just forget this whole thing ever happened.' He thought as he headed back to Ray's house.

-Sometime later-

Kai approached Rays house to find the lights lit up in every room, he wasn't wearing a watch so he was unaware that he had been gone an hour or so.

As he entered the house he looked in the living room to see Ray, his mum and Jay along with Mariah and her mum all panicking.

"What if he was kidnapped!?" Ray panicked whilst pacing back and forth.

"Must've been ambushed to take that guy though." Jay continued.

"I'm sure he's fine, but does your friend sleepwalk?" Mariah's mum tried to reassure.

"Ray….what if….the woman…." Mariah began.

"What woman?" rays mum retorted.

Upon closer examination, Kai noticed saw tears welled up in Mariah's eyes.

'The old woman….did she do something to me….' He wondered as he walking into the room. Everyone starred in shock, followed by relief, except Mariah who looked pissed.

"Kai! Where have you been! We were worried sick!" she stood and glared at him through welled up eyes.

Kai didn't expect anyone to be worried, when he snuck out everyone was asleep anyways. Ray stood in front of Mariah.

"We were just worried is all, Kai. You just wandered off without telling anyone, so where were you?"

"I was wandered around the Forrest is all." He looked away. Mariah's eyes widened as she starred back at an equally surprised Ray.

"Well kais fine, I'm gonna hit the sack." Yawned jay as he headed up to bed.

"Yes dear, me too." Rays mum began, but stopped in front of Kai. "We're glad you're safe Kai, but next time if you're going to wander off in the middle of the night, could you at least leave a note?" she smiled as she too headed up to bed.

"Mariah, we should head back home too, it's late." Her mum signaled as she smiled at Kai before stopping at the entrance.

"Um mum, could you go ahead…..I'll catch up soon, I promise."

"Okay dear, but be quick." She replied while walking out the door.

Now that everyone had left the three alone, thins were beginning to feel awkward.

"….whatever." muttered Kai as he headed towards the stairs, anticipating being told off like a child.

"Kai wait." Mariah pleaded as she ran to catch up with him before he went up the stairs.

"Please Kai….did anything happen while you were in the Forrest?...did you meet anyone?...did you drink anything?" she begun. Kai's eyes widened at her summing up what had happened to him, but before he could ask her why, she had noticed his arm.

"Kai, I'm pretty sure that scrape wasn't there before. Did something happen? Was there a fight?" she continued, jumping to conclusions before even allowing him to reply.

He was tempted to tell her what had happened to her this night, and the odd woman and her disappearing cottage, as she seemed to know something he didn't. But seeing the worry in her eyes, for some reason he couldn't.

"I just scraped it, nothing happened Mariah." He tried to say reassuringly as he stretched and headed upstairs.

Ray walked behind Mariah and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Well it seems like he's fine. Don't worry anymore now Mariah. We can keep an eye on him during the day, and I doubt he'll pull a stunt like this again after everyone was so worried." He smiled. "You look so tired, why don't you go home and rest and we'll hang out tomorrow?"

"Okay Ray, I guess your right." She sighed.

-------

Kai lay awake once again. Surely something hadn't happened to him, he didn't feel any different. What could this old woman have possibly done?

'But Mariah looked so worried…..should I be worried too?...she really cared….' He thought.

"I'm fine, nothing happened." He concluded, and finally went to sleep.

A/N: ooooooooh, will Kai change into something ishy? Will the old woman ever have a heart attack and die? Will Kai and Mariah sleep together after a night of booze? Will jay ever say anything worthwhile? Tune in next time fir, 'We're screwed!' ;)