Disclaimer… I do not own Maple… Aeons do not own maple!
Nathan didn't know who the archer boy was, but something about him was making his hair stand on end. And the blue-haired girl...there was something odd about her, too. Ba Gua and Grendel were watching each other silently, eyes locked and faces set. Then suddenly, Ba Gua burst into laughter. "Grendel, my best enemy and worst friend, how good it is to see you!". "Ba Gua, you old rascal, what are you doing in the company of demons?", Grendel asked, embracing his long lost rival and friend. "Hey! I'm not a demon!", Hitori said indignantly. Grendel chuckled. "But you're not exactly an angel of pure goodness, either.", he said, cuffing Hitori playfully on the shoulder. Nathan turned away. Such a long time on Howler's Peak, such a long time waiting, he hadn't realized what people thought of him. Demon. He supposed he deserved it. There could be no forgiveness. Not after what he had done...
The two groups had melded together, though Nathan pointedly avoided the two called Spike and Freya. They stopped at Grendel's library, and Hitori and Grendel went to bed. Ba Gua went to explore Ellinia, while Freya and Spike made up for the supper they had missed. Nathan meditated, waiting as he had always done. Footsteps approached him. "Hey, do you want some soup?", a voice asked. Nathan's eyes snapped open, and he grabbed Spike's outstretched arm, flinging him over the treetops. Freya stormed angrily over. "What did you do that for? He was just trying to help!", she yelled. Nathan froze. Those words...the exact same that he had heard so many years ago. Nathan left the tree silently, jumping off the mighty trees to land softly on the ground below. Unbidden, memories of the past came rushing to him, memories he had tried to forget...
In a quiet, sunny meadow, a child, barely five years off age, cried for his mother. It was a younger Nathan, a Nathan that was not yet the Silent and merely a boy, abandoned by his own parents and left to starve. Plopping onto the ground, Nathan cried, for anyone to come comfort him. Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath him. Nathan stopped crying and whimpered, fear enveloping him. A badger burrowed out of the ground and stalked towards him, attracted by his tears. The badger had pale, blind eyes, eyes that saw a world of black and white, just like Nathan's eyes did. It walked up to him, pacing around the shivering boy. It came right to his face, and sniffed warily. Then it licked one whole side of his face, and the child giggled. Nathan returned the sniff, and licked the badger's nose with his own miniscule tongue. The badger grunted, and returned to its burrow. Nathan followed it, crawling on all fours and trying to imitate its movements. His old parents had abandoned him, but a burrow spirit had found him.
Eight years later, Nathan stood, tall and proud. The burrow spirit had taught him in spirit lore, but had given him human clothes and a gave him rudimentary human knowledge. Wearing the same outfit he wore today, Nathan breathed deeply. He raised his right foot, stomped it heavily on the ground and quickly stepped forward with his left. Drawing his left foot up, he kicked out. Nothing happened. Groaning in frustration, Nathan fell back onto the grass. The burrow spirit grunted at him, and Nathan hummed back. The badger dropped an apple into Nathan's hand, and Nathan nodded in thanks. They ate in silence, when suddenly, an arrow whizzed out of the trees. The badger raised a rock wall to protect himself, and Nathan sprang up for action. Almost immediately, another arrow came through the trees, this one aiming at Nathan. The badger leaped in the way, taking the arrow in the heart. Collapsing on top of him, both the spirit and the boy fell to the ground. Nathan slowly lost himself to unconsciousness as voices above him spoke. "Is the badger dead?". "Yeah, I think so...what should we do with the kid?". "Leave him for now. If he's still alive, then we question him. If we don't get the right answers, you know what to do.".
Kevin wrote this chapter.... Hitorihyuuga...