Ellie spent a week searching for a job in Orbis, but to no avail. She was not in any state of mind to train. Training wasn't the same without Terra. She then went on to El Nath where she found a job as a waitress in a small inn which was neither here nor there. The inn owners were a fatherly old man and his intelligent wife. The old man, which Ellie called Uncle Rick, was shocked to find a pretty young girl with barely any luggage knocking on his door in the middle of a terrible snow storm. She proved herself to be a fast learner and a good confidante. Well, she was confidante to Uncle Rick's wife, Aunt Rachel, whenever the old lady needed to let off some steam over her semi-deaf husband.

"Ellie, would you mind preparing some more of your holy arrowed Ribbon pig steak? These young lads find it simply addictive." Uncle Rick called to her.

"Sure, in a while." She replied.

At the back of the inn, was a generally clean pig sty (am I contradicting myself?), it reared ribbon pigs and even more ribbon piglets. It usually pained Ellie to look in the face of one of the piglets and kill it with her holy arrow then cook it by shooting even more holy arrows into it. The slaughtering of the previous piglet left her in a fountain of tears. Ellie doubted it would be any better this time. Slowly, she picked up a tiny one, whose ribbon was pinker and longer than the rest's, it squealed in delight at the sight of her. Ellie was unable to withstand the ignorance of the little piglet and let it down before bursting into tears once more. If anyone had come around the back of the inn, you would have seen a fair skinned girl with black hair that rippled rhythmically in the soft noon El Nath sunshine, sobbing quietly, her pretty brown eyes red and sore.

She was in the midst of crying some more when she noticed a dark figure moving around the mountain. She pulled out her fairy wand (which was a gift for her leveling up from Uncle Rick and Aunt Rachel), a brilliant, shining bow and arrow materialized in her hands, she pulled it taut.

"Show yourself!" She shouted, though you could still hear a trace of a sob in her voice. The next thing she knew, a dark haired ranger stood firmly in front of her. He had no arrows (soul or not) stretched on his Golden Hinkel, which would have most likely said that he had no intention of attacking her. Ellie however, did not let her guard down, her arrow was still taut in her hands.

"What kind of mage are you?" The ranger asked curiously.

Ellie in fact did not look like any other mage you would have met. She wore a huge shawl draped over a leatty fur jacket. Which she made herself, (You can tell it was not bought from a store through the thin layer of fur used. She wasn't so in to killing the sweet little monsters around the inn, which she called darlings), and an amoria skirt.

Before she could answer "Duh, I'm a cleric, can't you see my holy arrow?" ( Which would have been completely different from what the ranger meant.) The ranger said, "Why were you crying while holding that pig?" With that, he shot a soul arrow straight for one of the piglets. Ellie leapt sideways trying to stop the arrow and was struck by the blow. She was thrown back furiously by the arrow, her side was pierced and she started bleeding.

"Oh my Goodness! Are you okay? What in the world did you do that for?" He dashed forward only to be caught off-hand. Ellie healed herself and rotated her right wrist in elaborate movement. A pair of magic claws soared straight for the ranger, he was thrown back with twice the force of his arrow.

"Now I ask you, what's in your right to attack this inn's property?" She voiced, furiously.

"I-I, thought you wanted help in killing it."

" I don't need you're help." She said, wielding more fury than ever.

But suddenly she overcame her anger and rushed forward to the ranger, she brushed back his fringe to examine the injury and healed him in seconds. It was not in her nature to attack something more than twice. But in those seconds, the ranger ( Who's name is Reiln) examined those lips of Ellie's and knew his father was wrong to say he would never fall in love.

"I'm so sorry." Ellie muttered softly.

Something I had not mentioned earlier was that when she brushed away Reiln's fringe, she was taken aback. For someone with hair as dark as his, she had never seen such striking bright green eyes.

" I have to get back to work." Ellie stated. But before she could move away, Reiln reached for her hand and pulled her all the way to the inn's bar.

" Reiln, my boy! You're back after so long!" Uncle Rick exclaimed.

" Uncle Rick! You know him?" Ellie was in a puzzle.

" Of course! He's my son! My one and only son. Crazy boy, goes traveling everywhere, now he's finally returned. What do you wanna eat? Daddy'll make it for you!" He said, grinning estatically. " Whadd'ya want? Pig steak? Ellie here makes the best holy arrowed pig steak in the whole of Ossyria!"

"Actually Pop, I wanted to tell you something about this pig steak." Reiln began, Ellie's heart was thumping like a rocket starting countdown. " Ellie doesn't seem very happy killing your pigs at all. In fact, she was crying, I saw her. How long have you been making her do this?"

Uncle Rick's moustache looked like it was going to fall off in the shock or something. " For a year?! I've been making you do something against your will for a year?! Goodness Gracious me! You always came back from the backyard looking fine! Oh my Dear, I'm so sorry." Tears began pouring out of his eyes and flowing down his scarlet face as he pulled Ellie into an apologetic hug.

" It's okay Uncle Rick, I never told you anyway. I just thought it might be bad for your business as you said it was the inn's signature dish." She replied with relief, Uncle Rick was so understanding.

" And also, Pop, I'm here only to stay for a while ( Uncle Rick rolled his eyes as if to say " Again.") . Cos I just wanted to look for a training partner or someone to train, I'm too young to retire!"

" Oh. Hmm…… Well there're lots of young maplers here, all low leveled. If ya wan-" But before Uncle Rick could finish saying what he had in mind, Reiln pulled his jolly, Santa Claus like father away from the crowd and whispered to him.

" Pop, I was wondering could I borrow That Ellie for about a year? You see she is you know quite attractive- wha-what I-I mean, she's got a very good magic claw for her level and it's be a waste for her to spend her life killing pigs for you isn't it?"

Uncle Rick grinned at his son with understanding.

" Pop! What are you looking at me like that for?!" Reiln's cheeks growing red.

" Ah…… I know where this is heading, I know so well. You ah, like her don't ya? Well I'm not surprised. Quite a few travelers thought I was her dad and asked for her hand in marriage. Now my son likes her too! Haha! And I thought you were never gonna fall'n love."

" Pop! Aw, darn." Reiln's face was now so red it would have made the Crimson Balrog ashamed of its name. " But then again, it might not be, er, love. I just want to see where this girl'll end up."

"I love that girl like my own daughter, so if you do anything to hurt her, you better watch out for my Magicodar." He warned with a growl, making him bear remarkable resemblance to a walrus.

"Yeah, I know. I will take good care of her." Reiln replied, emphasizing 'will'.

"But, you know, I was thinking, I can't let you come here and just take her away, can I? So, I want you to fix every broken thing in this inn before you can even ask her to go away gallavanting with you." His father then added, "But I have to warn you, it's hard to activate her into killing mode, the only things she's been killing for a year are pigs."

"EVERY BROKEN THING IN THE HOUSE?!" Reiln cried in disappointment. That was a mean feat. But at the thought of him training with Ellie, or perhaps establishing a close relationship with her thrilled him.