Rain pounded the dirt path, turning it to mud. The black-and-red clad teenager Lloyd Irving was hurrying down that very same pathway, riding on the back of his 'dog,' Noishe, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him suddenly force the animal to stop. Lying against a tree, a knife in her navel and red mud surrounding her, was a silver-haired girl. His eyes widened as he took in the sight.

He slid down Noishe's side, almost falling over in his haste, and ran to the girl's side. He put his ear close to her mouth and was relieved to find that she was breathing, if only just. But it certainly wouldn't be so for long if she didn't get some serious medical attention immediately. He whistled for Noishe to come and lie down, lifting her onto his back and swinging up himself. He nudged Noishe with his knees and took off, just in time for the school bell to ring. For once, Lloyd didn't care about being scolded by his teacher for tardiness.

After all, Professor Raine couldn't be too mad at him for being late if it was because he was trying to save this girl.

*~*~*~*~*

"Professor Raine! You have to help!" Lloyd shouted, hurrying into the one-room schoolhouse. The guards at the gate hadn't been to keen on letting Noishe in at first, but seeing the state his new passenger was in, had told the two to hurry and get help. Lloyd had raced through the village, silently cursing the fact the schoolhouse was on the far end, but had made it quickly. He'd stayed atop Noishe just long enough to make sure the girl wouldn't fall before jumping off and running into the schoolhouse.

The teacher, used to Lloyd's tardiness, had been waiting for the teen after telling everyone else to study for a quiz in ten minutes. The quiz didn't seem so important after she saw the dark blood on Lloyd's hand, a once-white bandage wrapped around the glove now stained crimson with life fluid. There seemed to be blood on his black pants, too, and she thought she could see more spots of darker red on his flame-colored jacket.

"Lloyd, what happened!?" she demanded,

"No time! Come on!" he shouted, waving her to follow him as he charged back out of the building, not even bothering to check that Raine was following. He could hear her hurried footsteps.

Raine had to keep from being sick as she saw the amount of blood covering Noishe's back, all stemming from one source. She gagged at the sickening smell of copper as her healer's instinct took over, the teacher pulling whatever supplies she had on hand from the pouches on her waist, where she kept the supplies for when the kids injured themselves during recess. Lloyd motioned to Noishe to lie down, steadying the girl as he did, allowing Raine to reach her.

The first thing Raine noticed was the dagger. It was still there, rather a blessing, as it had prevented her from bleeding out worse. But that didn't mean she was in good shape. The silver-haired teacher opened two apple gels and handed them to Lloyd. "When I pull, on three. One… two… three!" she shouted, removing the dagger as Lloyd smeared the apple gels over the wound. Queasy as it made her, Raine reached to help, quickly opening another gel and rubbing it into the wound to heal any internal injuries. After all, if there was to be any hope of the girl surviving, they had to work quickly.

I just hope she's strong enough to hang on…

*~*~*~*~*

Raine sighed, resisting the urge to wipe her forehead with her bloody hand. "That's all we can do. It's up to her now. Come, bring her to my house. I want her where I can keep a close eye on her."

The majority of the children had been sent home almost an hour ago, and, though she wanted to stay, the priests had come to take Colette to the Temple for study a few minutes after. Since then, Raine and Lloyd, with a little help from Genis, had moved the girl inside, applied a few more gels and cleaned up the worst of the blood. She was still in her ruined clothes and the injury was unbandaged, but Raine planned to fix those minor oversights when Lloyd and Genis weren't in the room.

Lloyd nodded and opened the door to whistle at Noishe. "We need you to carry her again."

The dog-like creature whined in acknowledgement, laying down next to the door so they could easily move her onto his back. He looked like a dog, but Raine had her suspicions. He was too intelligent for her to not be interested in him, after all. But for now, she had a patient. "Careful, careful. Don't jostle her too much; we don't want to reopen the wound." It took a minute, but with a bit of extra help from Genis, they were able to lay her on Noishe's back.

Lloyd and Raine each took one side of Noishe and Genis sat up top, keeping an eye on her, so that he could warn them if she was about to fall. They made it to the two-story house without incident, and Noishe again lay down next to the door to allow them to take her inside more easily.

*~*~*~*~*

Aramina blinked confusedly. Where…? Am I… dead? The last thing I remember is someone saying something to me… The light was so bright… She blinked several more times, her eyes unused to the brightness. Once her eyes finally adjusted, she gingerly sat up, hissing as she felt a small, sharp pain in her abdomen. Looking down, she discovered that her tunic had been replaced by a large bandage wrapped around her entire torso, and her hair had been freed from her ponytail.

As she looked around, she found herself to be on one of two beds in the room, with two doorways, one of which seemed to lead outside, judging by the light slipping between the curtains covering the windows on either side of it. The other one seemed to lead into another room, a dinging room, from the looks of the table and the cup sitting on it. She quickly turned her attention back to the first door, however, as she heard someone fumbling with the knob. A moment later, the door opened.

Three people walked in then, two of them with silver hair, like Aramina's, and blue eyes, and the third with brown hair and red eyes. She blushed and was suddenly quite glad that the bandage covered anything inappropriate, as two of the people were young men. The woman of the group, one of the silverettes, who was dressed in a white blouse, brown pants, and an orange overcoat, immediately turned her attention to Aramina.

"Ah, good, you're awake! I was starting to worry whether or not you'd wake up!" She quickly walked over, standing beside the bed and checking the bandage. "Good, good, no bleeding, I was a bit worried about that when I saw you sitting up…"

"What happened…?" Aramina rasped, her throat dry.

The lady looked to the younger silverette. "Genis, get her some water." She then turned back to Aramina, the boy, Genis, running off. "You took a nasty wound, young lady. If Lloyd hadn't gotten you here when he did, I don't think that you would have made it. You'd lost a lot of blood as it was…"

Genis came back with a glass of water, handing it to Aramina who quickly drank half of it. "Thanks."

"It's no problem. Besides, you really should be thanking Lloyd! He did, after all, save your life."

"Well then, I guess I'm in your debt," she said, looking at the brunette she assumed to be Lloyd.

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Nah, it was no problem, anyone would have done what I did… Besides, it was Professor Raine who healed you."

She turned back to the lady, Raine, and smiled gratefully at her. "Well, it seems I owe you my life as well. Thank you."

She smiled back for a moment before her face turned serious again. "How exactly were you injured? Lloyd found you unconscious and badly injured on the ground just inside the forest, when he was on his way to school a full week and a half ago."

She grimaced. "I was attacked in the middle of the night… I couldn't get to my weapons, and so was unarmed against a man with a dagger… I tried to get away, but he grabbed me, and you saw the result… I'm lucky you guys found me." She shivered, and everyone fell silent for a moment. The silence was quickly broken, however, by Aramina's stomach. Raine smiled knowingly and turned to Genis.

"Would you go and make lunch for all four of us? Something light."

"Alright, sis." Genis was practically grinning as he bounced to the kitchen.

"Ah, so he is your little brother. I thought as much, but wasn't quite sure." said Aramina, smiling as she watched Genis.

"Yes. Genis and I have been here in Iselia for a while. In fact, I'm the schoolteacher. Genis and Lloyd here are two of my pupils."

"Well, in that case, I probably owe you for Lloyd finding me as well. I am forever in your debt, Miss Raine." Her face contorted into a scowl. "I just wish I knew who attacked me. If I could have gotten to my weapons, I would have been able to take him easily, I know it! And now I've been here for a week and a half, and'll probably be stuck here even longer because of this injury, huh?"

Raine nodded. "Yes, I'd say another couple weeks at least."

"Aw, man!"

*~*~*~*~*

By the time Genis had finished making lunch and everyone had eaten, Aramina just wanted to sleep. Apparently, Raine, Genis, and Lloyd all needed to get back to the school as well, so they left her in peace to do just that.

*~*~*~*~*

She was shaken awake again several hours later, Raine handing her a bowl of soup. "Hey, it's getting late and I figured it would be a good idea to have you eat dinner. So eat up. I'll be heading to bed as soon as you're done, so I'll be right over there." She motioned to the other bed in the room. "Genis is sleeping in the other room."

"Okay. Erm, Raine?"

"Yes?"

"By any chance… Did you take a necklace off of me while I was out?"

Raine shook her head. "No, I didn't see any kind of jewelry at all."

Aramina bit her lip and looked down. "I can't believe I lost it…"

Raine looked sympathetic. "Was it something personal?"

"Mm-hm. It's my only lead. I've been traveling, looking for my parents."

The teacher furrowed her brows. "Well, I suppose that you could ask Lloyd to look where he found you. Or you could look yourself, once you're able."

Aramina's face lit up.

"But! I can't guarantee either of you will find it. For all you know, the bandit who attacked you, for I'm fairly sure that's what he was, could have stolen it."

Her shoulders slumped.

"We won't know until we look, though. It's possible it fell off or something. In the meantime, what is your name? None of us thought to ask earlier, and Lloyd felt terrible about it."

"Oh! I'm sorry, my name is Aramina Silverblaze." At Raine's odd look, she explained a little further. "I don't actually know what my last name is, so I came up with my own. My foster parents agreed to it, so Silverblaze is my last name for now."

"I see. Well, you should get to sleep, and I'll be taking my own advice. Good night, Aramina."

"Just call me Ara."

*~*~*~*~*

Ara dreamed that night.

She was standing in a forest clearing, the silence calming. After a few minutes, a young man walked through the trees, coming to stand in front of her. He was clothed in a lavender robe, his hair royal purple. It floated around his head, almost like a halo.

"Hello again. It is good to see you are doing better."

"Huh? …Do I know you?"

He smiled knowingly. "No, but I know you."

Aramina opened her mouth, but the man cut her off before she could say anything.

"I know you must have questions, but I will tell you only what you need to know for now. I trust you to follow the path laid down for you." He paused a moment, kneeling down and pulling a blade of grass. "First, this is not Calestri."

Aramina furrowed her brow. "What do you mean, 'not Calestri?' Of course it is."

"How do you explain the village? There wasn't a village for another day's walk at least, and you were still a ways into the forest. But suddenly, you're right at the edge of a forest, much smaller than Greatwood, and quite conveniently in the path of the one person who regularly passes through said smaller-than-Greatwood forest. And the village is a good deal closer than it should have been."

"An unknown village, and the edge of the Greatwood forest, though an average of nine days walk from the center, does have areas where it's a day more or less than the average. Hmph."

"Why are you so stubborn!? By the elements, your mother wasn't even this bad!" he cried, raising his arms in exasperation.

That caught Aramina's attention. "What!? My mom!? You know her!?"

The young man suddenly stopped. Hmm… She's curious. This could work to my advantage…and hers. "Yes, I knew your mother, albeit briefly. Your father as well…"

"Tell me!"

"Ah-ah. I'll tell you a little at a time, if you promise to keep an open mind."

"Bu-"

"Nope. Promise to keep an open mind, and I'll tell you. Not all at once though."

"Aw, come on!"

"Promise."

"F-fine. I promise. I'll keep a slightly more open mind about it."

"Good. Now then, as I said before, this isn't Calestri. You are now back on Sylvarant, where you were born. And before you ask, you were moved to Calestri for safety, around the time you turned three. Do you follow so far?"

"Mm-hm."

"Good. Now then, Sylvarant is much more dangerous than Calestri. The majority of people here know how to fight, to some extent, though you do as well, so you're not behind in that. A good thing, since you've no elven blood and thus can't use magic. Once you're allowed to move around, ask Lloyd about a pair of twin blades. He should have a spare pair that you can use for a while. Make sure to practice your bladework as much as possible without injuring yourself. You'll need it. Unfortunately, I doubt there's a spare bow to be found in Iselia; you'll have to wait until you visit another village or city to pick one up. I don't know when I'll have time to check in on you again, so don't slack."

"Okay."

"Good. I need to go now, as do you," he said, getting to his feet.

"W-wait! What about my parents!?"

"Ah, yes. Your mother was… fiery-tempered, to put it mildly, something you don't seem to have inherited. But you did get her stubbornness. Now I really must go."

"But-" she didn't have time to say anything more as he dissolved into purple mist and swept away. As he left the clearing, a white fog rolled in…

*~*~*~*~*

… And Ara awoke to Genis standing next to her bedside.

"Breakfast's ready!"

Looked blankly at the tray he held out to her, sleep still clouding her mind. "Huh…?"

" Breakfast…? You know… Food?"

Aramina's eyes brightened as the words broke through the haze of exhaustion in her mind. "Ah. Sorry, I'm still tired. Thank you for breakfast," she said, taking the tray from Genis.

"Heheh, no problem!"

Raine walked into the room, presumably having had her own breakfast. "Genis and I have to get to the school. I put a stack of books on the side table, though would like you to sleep more than read. We'll be back around noon for lunch."

"Okay. I'll see you later, then."

"Yes. And I don't want you getting out of that bed without anyone here to keep an eye on you, so I left a pitcher of water and a glass on the side table as well. Be careful not to spill on the books."

"Okay. I'll be careful of that."

"Alright. Get some rest, and we'll be back in about four hours!" she called, closing the door as she followed Genis out.

Aramina nodded to herself, then picked up the top book on the stack.