I would have posted this yesterday, but there was that issue and I couldn't log in! I tried so many times to get on to my profile, but it never worked! ARRRGH!

Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters.

Luck seemed to have been bipolar that week.

Kyoko's mare had returned to her, and she was infinitely grateful to have the steed after a few days of stumbling around on a deceivingly flat plain. Her progress was gratingly slow, and being hampered by falling over with far too much trouble getting up was not helping much.

She had never considered ground such an enemy before then.

The mare had come trotting towards her, saddle and bags intact. Not one thing was missing. Her eyes had lit up, and she thanked the fates many times over for it.

The two set off on a steady pace, resting during the night and traveling during the day. Kyoko's wound was healing up nicely, though the not-quite-smooth canter had caused her to bleed some in the first few days. However, now, a dull ache and a developing red scar was all that reminded her of the incident.

Travel was long, and rather exhausting. Kyoko began to understand to toil of the saddle. Her legs ached, and she often got cramps, those being in the strangest places.

A similar predicament was brought about in the form of a muscle in her elbow. It had tightened, and proved impossible to stretch, after several minutes of some awkward positions.

Kyoko sighed as she got back into the saddle, wincing as the motion caused muscles to flare up in protest.

Aloud, she commanded the horse in a clear tone, "Canter!" She mused that it was awhile since she had spoken to anybody. The empty fields had not brought many into her path, and when they did, she hid from them.

It would not last, she thought, eyeing the nearing destination on the horizon. She would be there in a half day, provided her estimates were correct.

A few hours later found her on the outskirts of Milan. The bustle of the city mingled with the clop of her horse's hooves as she rode along the cobbled streets. She had her hood up, so no one would recognize her in case they had put up signs depicting her.

She searched the marketplaces, trying to find the place.

Once, when she had been looking for a way out of that house, she had overheard two of the servants, quietly discussing. It was apparent they were hiding something, so she crept into a clump of bushes a foot from where they were.

One, a maid, handed the other, a guard, a small amulet. Kyoko strained her eyes to see an eagle with its wings stretched out inscribed into the stone, a symbol.

"Go to the building with eagles and lions in Milan, and show them this. They will know that I sent you, and you will be trained in the ways."

She had never seen that guard again, but the maid had done the same with two others.

She stood in front of a door, a small banner above it with an eagle flying away from lions, their mouths wide open.

A pigeon, roosting in a lion's mouth, watched her hesitate to open the door. Her hand shook, in midair, stopped from following through with the motion. She whispered quietly under her breath, and then a fire was rekindled.

She opened the door, to find what looked to be lit by several candles, the gray stone walls decorated by a tapestry similar to the banner outside. Pillars reached up to the ceiling, hung with red cloth for decoration. Parchment maps were on the walls, filled with lines, circles and notes, displayed plans. Books were everywhere, open to pages, their information apparent to all. A fire burned, letting out a small amount of heat. An archway connected rooms together, and one could see that there was many rooms.

Kyoko glanced around, and walked in quietly. She was nervous, because of the obvious signs someone had been there, not a whisper indicated a person.

She took off her hood, having no need for it anymore, and looked at a map. Immediately, the observation came to her that Verona was circled. The note hastily written beside it said that "R taking care of M."

A crunch came from behind her. She whirled around, to see a raven-haired woman with a dagger in hand, equally startled.

And looked just as ready to use the weapon as the mysterious man had.

First of all, I apologize for the typos I make! For some reason when I write this, I always try to make it in the present tense. So I type 100 words and then realize I have to go back and rewrite basically everything. I do edit, but often I look over it so many times I can't see the errors anymore.

So, I am going to ask something of you. When I wrote this chapter, I realized I know next to NOTHING about Italy. I know I said that I wasn't going to make this story historically accurate, but in order to get it up to par in my standards, I need info. The stuff online is just not helping enough, and my history class isn't much, either. Leave a review if you know ANYTHING about Italy, please! Like the climate, geography, customs, festivals, (that's going to play an important part later on) foods, culture, architecture, anything! It would help so much!

Thank you for reading/reviewing/alerting, everyone!