Finally, putting his newly washed white shirt back into the drawer, Tai was fully dressed in his normal clothes again. They felt great, as clothes do feel good when you get into clean ones on a brand new day. Pulling his hood over once adjusting his headphones, he soon began making his slow way out the door. He wasn't limping or crippled, but the pain from the soreness he was having made this complicated. Wincing a bit, he slowly made his painful and eternity-seeming way down the stairs and to the door. Waving good-bye to Mrs. Singh and her husband, he exited the inn.

Coming outside, the petals dropped in front of his face and caused him to smile. It was great being back in Halure, the peaceful wind blowing by. Making his way down, he slowly began climbing the hill towards the tree. As he made his way up, he didn't notice that Repede, who had been resting outside the inn, saw him and stood up. He then followed the sore teen up the hill, only to watch him go the tree and rest against it.

Tai always felt comfort underneath Halure's tree. He loved the beauty it had always given to people, and how it was a big barrier in the past. He missed how the people could rely on this beautiful plant of nature, instead of risking themselves to be hurt from having to band together. He closed his eyes and relaxed onto the tree.

"Ahhh... so peaceful..." he said quietly.

Repede managed to get on top of the hill and stand to see Tai just spacing out quietly and resting. He looked so happy; just being able to be alone and appreciate the tree. It made him even more curious into the teenager, as he quietly walked over. The teen happened to open his eyes and see the dog coming towards him. Feeling a bit uncomfortable again on why he kept getting close, he slowly moved a bit.

"Repede?" he simply said.

Soon, the dog silently laid down next to him and rested his head. He closed his good eye and remained silent. Tai figured it out; Repede was doing exactly what he had been doing. Making him smile a bit, the boy soon smirked and bit and rested back against the three, letting the petals and the breeze entertain them with their cooling gentleness. It was at least a half-an-hour before a certain male came walking up the hill.

"Tai?" the teen heard Yuri's voice.

Repede lifted his head and looked at Yuri, giving him a silent answer of what they were doing. The man came over to then, and placed a hand on his hip as he looked at them.

"Seems you're up and about," he said.

"Yeah, but sore as hell," Tai groaned a bit, his eyes remaining closed.

Slowly bending down, Yuri ended up sitting on Tai's other side and rested his arms in his lap. He looked over to the teen, who was so content with himself, and sighed.

"Hey, Tai?"

"Hmm?"

"Look, I want to apologize for how I acted yesterday to you," he said, rubbing his neck and slightly blushing from embarrassment, "I get the fact you were into a lot of stress, and I didn't really help by getting in your face."

"Well..." Tai said, blushing too and looking away, "I wasn't really a big help either, losing my temper about what happened and threatening you. So, I'm equally sorry."

"It's just... I... We all were worried about you after that Orochiberus monster punted you across the plains," Yuri said, shrugging, "According to Raven, you were totaled and messed up when he got to you."

"Oh, yeah, I remember..." Tai chuckled in pain, his body sore from the huge landing he took.

"You know, you could've used an arte to prevent yourself from being caught like that. I mean, sure you don't like using them, but don't you think you wouldn't be hurt like this?" Yuri offered a thought for him to consider.

Tai looked down in silence. He didn't want to use artes, because he didn't trust people outside of Halure to understand and not take advantage of him. Sure, he trusted Raven and Estelle, and that may have been true, but...

"Well, hey, at least you're alive, and also, thanks for taking care of Estelle," Yuri said, standing up and looking down on him.

"Sure, no problem," Tai said, looking up at him.

"Come on," Yuri said, smiling as Repede stood up and the man went to grab Tai's hand, "Estelle made breakfast and she'll get pouty if we wait."

Before the teen could react, he took a strong grip on the left hand that Tai wore his glove on. But he suddenly felt odd as his hand felt him and helped the teen stand up. He let go and gave Tai an neutral face.

"Tai... that glove of yours," he began to say.

"Like it? I made it myself," Tai said as he soon didn't like the suspicious twinkle in Yuri's eyes.

"Really... because that glove felt like normal skin to me," the man said.

Fear crept up the teen's spine as he felt naked to the two. Repede staring at him along with Yuri's look that expected an answer, he felt very nervous, trying to think of words to say. But just then, the old man happened to be a blessing in disguise as he ran up to the hill and came at them.

"H-Huh? Raven?" Tai asked, as Yuri turned around to see him.

"What is it, ol- H-Hey!" he said off guard, as the old man had grabbed both Yuri's left arm and Tai's right.

"I will not stand and wait anymore for your squabblin'! Estelle won't let me eat unless everyone is at the table! We are havin' breakfast now!" he yelled in righteous fury as he yanked the two, forcing them to follow his running.

"Hey! Raven, let go of me!" Yuri yelled, nearly stumbling down the path.

"Whoa, slow down! You're gonna make us fall!" Tai shouted, as Repede ran behind the pathetic three-man crowd and to the mayor's house.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Ahhhhh... nothin' makes an old man happy like a good old fashioned breakfast," Raven said as he shoved several bacon stripes into his mouth.

The group were all sitting at the table near the door of the mayor's main entrance room. It was a perfect breakfast; bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns, muffins, and your good old orange juice and milk. Yuri, Estelle, and Flynn sat on the left side, while Raven and Tai sat to the right. Repede sat near the table, eating some bacon and sausage made for him.

The old man was just helping himself to eating as much as he possibly could. Despite the commandant and princess both staring at him in awe of his manner of eating, Yuri closed his eyes with annoyance at the old man's rude manners and he tried to eat his meal. But taking another look at the disgusting pig's side of the table, he noticed Tai grinning in amusement at Raven like he himself would do when he goated Estelle or Karol in the past. It seemed this teen really did like Raven, after all.

"Well, I'm glad I made a perfect breakfast for you, Raven, and to the rest of you," Estelle said, smiling a bit as she sipped some juice.

"The food is delicious, Estelle," Flynn said smiling as he nodded to her, "You did a great job on cooking all of this for us."

"I would be enjoying my breakfast more if the old man hadn't dragged me and Tai down the hill and let go of us when he got near the house," Yuri said, a bit upset, "Man, who knew falling down a hill and into some prickle bushes would be so painful. Remind me to pay you back the next time we train, Raven."

Repede groaned in agreement, then went back to scarfing a strip of bacon down.

"You've been bitten, sliced open, had magic spells casted at ya, and worse during our past travels, Yuri," Raven said, making a hilarious face with his lips sticking out, "I think ya can take fallin' down a hill without complainin'."

With Tai closing his eyes and chuckling a bit, he drank some milk and began to eat his plate of sausage and eggs.

"And it's good to see that you're okay as well, Tai," Flynn said, pouring maple syrup on his pancakes and catching the teen's attention, "I must say, I was afraid you wouldn't make it after what happened."

"Yeah, gotta say, you got us freaked out back there, by how far you were flying," Yuri looked at him, "I can't even begin to imagine how painful that had to be," with Repede whining a bit.

"I was so worried, Tai," Estelle said, finishing some hashbrowns and then eating a muffin nicely, "You were bleeding so badly. And you wouldn't wake up. I thought you were really gone."

"Well, I like to shove it in fate's face that I will not be dying until I say so," Tai said, joking about the critical condition he was in as he dug his fork into the plate for food.

"Tai, that's not really funny..." Estelle said, worried about him.

"Oh, come on, Estelle, Tai's just kiddin' around," Raven said, grinning cheerfully.

"I'm just joking, Estelle," Tai said, giving her a glare that said 'lighten up', "I'm gonna be fine, but let's just say I'd appreciate not being on the front lines of any battle for a while if we do fight again."

"Well, before we go thinking of fighting anyone, we need to discuss what we've learned so far," Flynn said, eating his pancakes politely, "About what's happened to the messenger and all of this. It's a bit hard on me."

"Flynn, you did what you could," Yuri said, closing his eyes, "Don't get caught up in the 'what-ifs' of the past. Focus on the present to make sure those things don't happen again."

"I know... but a lot of those men and women were good friends of mine," Flynn said, sighing, "It's a shame they had to meet an end."

"We'll make whoever or whatever did this pay, Flynn," Yuri said, looking at his friend, "I promise."

"So, before Raven gloriously declared how he loves breakfast," Tai said, grinning a bit at the old man again as he ate happily and then looked back with a serious face, "You left off at finding the man, and then what?"

"Ahh, yes," Flynn said, nodding apologetically, "After we found him, we healed him and sent him his way, and he gave a description of the man who jumped him."

"Jumped him? Then Tai and Raven were right," Estelle said in astounding awe.

"Apparently, our guy beat the soldier up, stole his armor, and impersonated himself as him to us telling us a bogus message," Yuri explained, finishing the eggs off his plate, "Which gives me a bit of a bad feeling about this."

"Yeah, you're tellin' me," Raven said, smirking as he wiped his mouth with his arm sleeve, "So, it seems you're gettin' at the thought I'm havin'?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Estelle asked, as the others tuned into the idea forming.

"We're thinking this man who beat up the messenger may be connected with this monster," Yuri said, starting to grab some more pancakes, "It all seems to make sense. How this monster just shows up and starts to wipe out the Flynn Brigade. In order to make sure the monster stays there, Flynn blocks off access for extreme measures for safety."

"Then, this unknown guy just comes and gives us a phony message, to send us, especially our princess, into harm's way," Raven said, drinking juice, "We're guessin' that whoever this guy is, he has a beef with the imperial knights and might just be wantin' to get some revenge on them, maybe even takin' out one of their dearest nobles."

"The classic overthrow of power for crazy people," Yuri said, shrugging, "Too bad this plan of his failed... somewhat."

"No... I think it's much bigger," Tai said, finishing his plate.

"Hm? Then what do you think it could be?" Yuri said, giving a curious face.

"What if the monster and this unknown man were related to the blastia thieves?" Tai proposed.

Suddenly, all their faces were "enlightened" as they all looked at each other and back at him. That... was a very interesting idea.

"What? How is that even possible?" Estelle said, fearful of what he said in a way.

"Flynn, you said you were put in charge of stopping these blastia thieves, right? What were your plans after Yuri and the knights you intended to get were with you?" the teen asked the commandant.

"I was planning on crossing to the next continent to go to Dhangrest and work together with the Don to stop them," Flynn answered.

"So, you were gonna be making plans to go with a massive brigade over there, pretty much ready for a fight. Then, Orochiberus comes out of nowhere; a monster who was so strong, it nearly wiped your whole army out," Tai said, slowly making the gears of everyone's head catch his drift.

"Yeah... Tai's got a good angle. It'd seem pretty foolish of a commandant to just go chargin' off with a tiny number of soldiers after gettin' destroyed immediately," Raven nodded, looking down as if to think.

"So, where does the unknown man fit in?" Flynn asked.

"You said that you blocked off access from anyone to enter, so that you could contain this monster kill it," Tai continued, "Now, think of how you went to the Don to get Raven to come help, and how you went to get Yuri and Repede's help. What do you the three of them have in common?"

"The old man and me or Repede having something in common? Come on, don't insult us," Yuri said, smirking at Raven as his partner gave a bark in agreement.

"Hey!" Raven pouted, then turned to Tai, "All right, ya got us. What is it we have?"

"The fact that you guys were a part of the group that defeated the Adephagos," all realized as the teen started to continue.

Raven nodded and agreed, "Yeah, don't ya think that a group of thieves would be concerned of the world's heroes just showed up at their doorsteps, demandin' they stop and com' to justice?"

"And so..." Yuri started to put the puzzle together, "the man gave us a false message to send us to where the monster was..."

"...So that we would be killed by it," Estelle said, looking down.

"That settles it, then," Flynn said, as he stood up from the table, "This wasn't a simple coincidence; it had to be the thieves. And they must pay for these horrible crimes."

"But we can't just go charging in blindly. If this is true, and that monster was a part of their plan, then that means..." Yuri said, his voice fading out.

"What? You don't think they created that monster, do you?" Estelle asked, worriedly.

"There's no way that could've been a natural monster, Estelle. Somebody had to make that, and if it's the thieves, we need to be careful that we don't charge into another one of those monsters again," the man explained to her as everyone started to stand and clean their places.

"Then, we better prepare for the worst," Flynn said, looking back, "and we might need more help."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The plot thickens even more! The blastia thieves possibly behind this!? Oh, the humanity! And what's with Tai's glove? If it feels like normal skin, what on earth could this kid be hiding? Find out more, next time!