-5-

The three canines wait in the general's living room, waiting for Jin to make his appearance. After about twenty minutes of waiting, the general comes in holding a tray with four small cups of tea, he sits down on a chair and place down the tray on what appears to be a coffee table.

"It's an honor and surprise to meet you Milla Basset." Jin says in a calming voice "Well, I would like to say surprise, but I was expecting you."

"You were expecting me?" Milla says, confused.

"Of course, the master of the Dōng mén Dojo, Jie Jilu, informed me of your arrival." Jin explains "Though I am surprised to see someone of the Red Scarves." Jin look towards Kai's direction, greeted with a smirk on the husky's face.

"Is that a problem?" Kai said in response.

"Not at all, although the Red Scarves is a group of mercenaries, trained in thievery and assassination, they still have a sense of discipline and occasionally, honor. I would hope that you are one of those few Scarves members." The general observes the nonchalant husky leaning back on his chair, arms behind his head and right leg on top of his left leg, realizing the scarf inappropriately positioned on his left arm "But you're not a member." Jin said after scanning the husky boy, leaving the husky with a serious face and Milla and Fang confused.

Kai gives out a sigh "I'm an affiliate." he finally said after a few minutes of silence, "I help design bots for the Red Scarves for both security and training, there, happy?" Jin responds with a small grin.

"So thats why you messed around with those machines back at the Lotus Forest." Milla said in an enlightened tone only to become furious "Why would you test robots like that in a forest anyways?! Look at what they caused, why couldn't you do that in some kind of testing area or something?! I'm covered in bruises because of you, not to mention Talia's kidnapping!"

"I'm going to say this one last time." Kai responds in a monotonic and exasperated voice "That. Wasn't. My. Fault! Besides that was almost a week ago get over it!" Both canines begin to growl at each other, Jin gives off a loud deliberate cough.

"Anyways, Milla you have something to deliver to me, right" Jin says trying to keep the peace

Milla responds "Oh! thats right!" Milla grabs something wrapped up in cloth, with the Dōng mén Dojo insignia. Jin grabs the item and begins to unwrap it; after unwrapping the cloth a small, glint katana with a jade green handle appears before Milla and Kai.

"That's the item Milla was supposed to deliver to you?!" Kai said in disappointment.

"This is crafted in reinforced Běifēng steel, sent to Dōng mén to one of the best blacksmiths in Qin." Jin explained "This is possibly one of the strongest blades you'll ever see in Avalice."

Kai gives a skeptical face "One of the strongest, huh?"

Jin turns towards Milla "I have a question for you Milla."

Milla responds "Yeah."

"How long were you at the Dōng mén Dojo?"

Milla recalls when she first entered Qin territory, Dōng mén was the only way to get in and out of the Qin Empire, "six or seven months"

"Have they tried teaching you swordplay?" Jin said giving off a grin which made all three canines confused and suspicious.

"Yeah, but I only know the basics, I'm not very good." Milla says modestly, scratching the back of her head.

"Kai, you seem like someone who know your materials, do you recognize the material used to make the handle of the sword?"

Kai examines the katana, and was perplexed by the material "I… I don't recognize it, what is this?" after pondering for a moment, Kai asks Milla for one of her gloves observing the arrow-like symbol on the glove. "This is the same material from Milla's gloves and anklets… "

"Correct!" confirmed the draconic general "A small sample of this material was founded not so long after Brevon's arrival to Avalice, when the miners found it they were very confused but intrigued about what it could be, after days of observing the material we decided to send it over to the eastern city of Dōng mén for further observation. When Milla came to stay at the Dojo, you can imagine Jie's surprise when he discovered the striking similarities of her bracelets and anklets to the material."

"So the sword was never meant for you, wasn't it?" Kai responds giving off a neutral face.

"It was made specifically for Milla, I suppose Jie felt as though she could improve her skills through swordplay."

Milla holds the sword and sees her reflection through the blade "I don't think I could accept this, I only know the basics, I don't deserve this kind of gift."

"Don't be so modest, I'll make you a sheath and start training you tomorrow. There's an inn not so far from here, tell the Innkeeper that General Glaust sent you and she'll gladly let you stay for free."

"Thank you." Milla says bowing in respect, after she got up she asks the general a question "Are you a dragon?"

"Indeed, I am a dragon." Jin responds "You're not the first one to ask that question, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Milla and Kai reaches the inn the general informed them about, the inn was about two stories tall, and similar to Jin's house it lied on the side of a cliff, overlooking the city of Běifēng. When both the hound and husky enters the Inn they see a middle aged rodent-like woman brooming the lobby floor, the woman notices the two pre-teenage children standing by the front door "Welcome, how may I help you?"

Kai stays silent, Milla greets the woman "Hello, General Glaust sent us here."

"Ah, the good general sent you, well then, allow my son to take you to your room." A eighteen year old rat boy lead them to their room. The room had two full-size beds with one night table with a blue candle in between and a dresser across from the two beds with a television on top of it.

"This is a nice room!" Milla says cheerfully.

Kai seemed disappointed and responds "I would've prefered to be in a separate room from you, but I guess I should be grateful that the woman let us stay free of charge."

Kai continues "Well, I'm going to go get some supplies, and some new gear."

"Why not get some new clothes too then." Milla says with a neutral face.

"What do you mean I need new clothes?!"

"Have you seen yourself? You look ragged… and are those oil stains, when was the last time you washed your clothes?"

"Fine, I'll get new clothes, only to shut you up."

Milla unpacks her stuff as Kai leaves and continue to glare at the katana Jin gave her, she examines the sword and confirmed that the handle was made with the same material as her anklets. A twenty year old girl appears before Milla, the hound assumes she's one of the Innkeeper's children "I forgot to thank your mother for letting us stay for free."

The girl makes a faint smile and responds "It's our pleasure, you're friends with General Glaust so it's only natural we provide hospitality, also your towels are ready."

"Towels, for what?"

"For the hot springs of course, your friend told me that you're all bruised up, and that you'll need a relaxing time at the hot springs."

"Really, that doesn't sound like Kai to me." Milla makes a grin "Oh well, whatever he has planned, I'll just take advantage of this little favor of his."

Milla, wearing only the towel the girl prepared for her, enters the hot spring with several therapeutic candle and health petal water flowing down into the spring, she gets into the spring, I needed this SO MUCH.

Kai enters the gun shop, with a large assortment of firearms and crossbows, he takes a look at the available ammo, he sees regular, reinforced, and explosive physical bullets as well as special energy bullets for his sniper rifle. There was several different types of rifles, shotguns, machineguns and pistols; Kai replaces his dual pistols and their holsters for more accurate shots, a new scope for his sniper rifle, and restocks on ammo including some energy bullets.

He then heads over to the clothing store to by a more clean and modern black jacket with two straps to keep it closed, a familiar pair of black jeans and boots as well as a white t-shirt, the jacket was the only real difference with his wardrobe. Finally the husky heads over to the blacksmith and bought a small hunter's knife, I guess one melee weapon can do me some good… I still rather still shoot the heads off of my enemies though.

Kai begins to walk back to the inn after gathering supplies and gear, as he enters the room and notices Milla sitting on her bed in a bathrobe watching some kind of movie, "I see you enjoyed the hot springs, though you do realize you owe me twice now."

"You're the one who told the girl to take me to the springs, though I guess I owe you now."

"Now?! You owed me for making me hunt!"

"How is that a bad thing?"

"What are you watching anyways?"

"Some horror flick, what can I say I like a good surprise."

Kai unstraps his rifle and new holsters with his new pistols, taking off his jacket he gets on his bed and decides to watch the movie with Milla, who seemed to be invested on the film. After watching a few movies both canines goes into a deep slumber.