okay. my first three reviewers told me to keep going with this (thanks, Aquamarine-Sea, organization MA, and OceanMist9!), so that's what i'm gonna do. i don't know exactly what the point to this story is yet, but whatever. we'll just keep goin' and see what happens. i have vague ideas, but nothing's set in stone. drop a line if you want to see somethin' happen.

disclaimer: don't own +anima

Husky POV

Here we are again. Traveling.

Summer was coming, so, after leaving Astar, we headed north, ending up in the foresty foothills of some small mountains. It was getting dark, so I'd told Cooro to fly around and see if he could spot any towns nearby. Nana, Senri and I waited in the clearing--Senri was quiet, as usual, Nana was babbling about one thing or another, and I was trying to ignore Nana.

It had just started to rain when Cooro landed back in the clearing.

"Well?" I demanded as he put away his wings. "Is there a town nearby?"

Cooro nodded, oblivious to the rain. "Uh-huh. It's a few miles that way," he said, pointing northwest. "But there's a big house on a hill that way." He pointed north-northeast. "It's a lot closer, and I don't think anybody lives there."

"Let's go see," Nana said, shivering. "Anything to get out of this rain!"

We started heading the way Cooro had pointed, Cooro himself quiet and thoughtful, for once.

"Cooro? What's wrong?" Nana asked. Cooro shook his head.

"Nothing. I saw a +Anima running in the woods before I saw the house."

"What?" I said sharply. "You saw a +Anima?"

Cooro nodded. "Uh-huh. It was a wolf, I think. She had ears and legs and a tail."

"Why didn't you talk to her?" Nana said. "We should have another girl with us!"

"She wouldn't stop," Cooro said. He shrugged. "I tried to catch up with her but I lost her before I could land."

Good thing, I thought. One girl's enough.

As Nana kept nagging Cooro about the girl he'd seen--what did she look like, how old was she, why didn't she stop--we finally came to the mansion on the hill, at what looked like the back door. I had a sudden feeling that I was being watched and glanced up at the windows to the house. A flicker of movement? No. . .just the rain battering the windows. . .

"Husky? Are you okay?" Nana asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know, guys. Maybe we should just camp out tonight. Find that town tomorrow."

"Aw, come on, Husky!" Nana pleaded. "It's so cold and wet out here!"

"And it looks abandoned. . ." Cooro said, trying the doorknob. To everyone's surprise, the door opened at his touch. Cooro took a few steps inside.

"Cooro!" I hissed. "Get back here!"

"I don't think anybody lives here," Nana said. "Come on, Husky, just one night!"

"Ugh. . .fine." I followed Nana and Senri into the dark manor house.

Eya POV

A sudden creak over the light patter of the rain made me pause in my sketching. I listened intently and heard voices.

"I don't think anybody lives here," a girl was saying. "Come on, Husky, just one night!"

"Ugh. . .fine," a boy agreed grudgingly. Husky, I was guessing.

I looked over my shoulder at my closed study door. I wanted to check it out, but they didn't sound threatening, whoever they were. They sounded like kids, probably no older than me. I heard their footsteps echoing in the main hall, their voices oohing and aahing at the size of the place. The rain had probably drove them in, so I shrugged and looked back at my paper, where I was sketching the likeness of Crow Boy. For some reason, he wouldn't leave me alone. I couldn't understand why. Maybe the fact that he was a +Anima, like me? Or that he'd given off a weird aura that felt like other +Anima?

My back went rigid and my wolf ears pricked up at the tiny pop. Then came the ringing. That intensely high ringing that I could only hear with my wolf senses. I dropped my pen and desperately tried to block it out. I hunched over, almost whimpering in pain. I'm surprised I didn't pass out.

Then it stopped, and the girl from downstairs was speaking.

"There's hardly any furniture in here. There are some stairs over there, but I didn't see any people."

Then a boy was talking, a boy other than Husky. "See, Husky? If nobody lives here anyway, what's wrong with staying one night? Hey--maybe we could live here! We could find work in town, and this place is so big. . ."

There was a thunk, followed by Husky's sharp voice. "Cooro! Stop being stupid, we can't live here!"

"Awww, why not?" Cooro whined. He sounded familiar for some reason, but I just couldn't remember why. The weird ringing had me all disoriented. "Nobody's gonna find out!"

"What'll happen when the people in the town figure out we're here?" Husky demanded. "They'll want to know where we came from! And maybe whoever lives here just isn't home right now!"

Cooro sighed. "Maybe you're right. . ."

"Husky's right. Besides," the girl said, "I don't think I'd want to always live here. It's so creepy!"

Well, the house thinks you're creepy too, I thought. Get over it.

"Creepy? Look who's talking, bat girl!"

What?

"Oooohh, Husky!" the girl fumed. "Just because I'm a bat +Anima doesn't mean I have to act like a bat!"

Bat. . .+Anima. Well, that explained the ringing that had pained me so much--it had been an ultrasonic screech.

I blew out the lamp on the desk and got up, finding the door to the hall easily. I can't see all that well in the dark, but my wolf senses were better than a human's. So I quietly made my way down the corridor and toward the main hall, where the +Anima were waiting.

Husky POV

We'd found a fireplace and Senri had lit a fire. We were all gathered around it, starting to fall asleep, when Nana suddenly sat up.

"Nana?" Cooro said.

"Somebody's here. . ." she said quietly, listening with her bat-ears. We all became silent and listened. My hand tightened around my staff and I saw Senri tense. Even Cooro looked nervous.

"What are you doing here?" a girl's voice suddenly asked, breaking the silence and making us all jump.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" I said loudly, holding on tight to my staff.

"Why do I have to do anything?" the voice asked. "It's my house. In which you four are intruding."

"Please. . ." Cooro began. "We just wanted a place to stay for the night. . ."

"That's it?" the girl said, finally stepping into the circle of firelight.

My first thought was, She's just a kid!!

She could be barely older than me. She had messy brown hair in a ponytail that hung down past her shoulders. Her bright blue eyes were cold, calculating as they sized up Cooro. She looked just about as tall as he was, maybe shorter than me. She was wearing black leggings under dark blue shorts that came just below her knees and a long-sleeved black shirt. She was wearing a brown leather belt that had a small pouch at one hip, a sheathed knife at the other. Her dark brown boots, which came up over her ankles, had made no noise on the stone floors.

"Hey!" Cooro exclaimed, pointing at the girl. "You're that girl!"

She blinked, taking a step back. "You're. . .that kid. The crow kid! You're a +Anima!"

"And so are you!" Cooro said, jumping up. Smiling, he approached the girl and held out his hand. "I'm Cooro! What's your name?"

"Eya," she said slowly, shaking Cooro's hand. She stared for a second, then shook her head. "Did you, uh, get caught in the rain?"

Cooro laughed nervously, his hand behind his head.

"Yeah. We saw this place and it didn't look like anybody lived here, so we thought we could stay."

"We're sorry if we woke you up," Nana added, also standing up. Senri and I copied them. "I'm Nana. We only wanted to stay the night."

"I was up anyway," Eya said, waving it away. "I just heard. . .uh, noises." She hesitated for a second, then said, "There are candles in that chest. Maybe a lamp, I'm not sure," she added, gesturing to a chest next to the fireplace. Then she turned her back and waved over her shoulder. "There are rooms all over if you want beds."

"Oh! Thank you!" Nana exclaimed.

"Wait!" Cooro called as Eya was about to step out of the light. She paused. "We're all +Anima, and we've been traveling together looking for others. You're a wolf, right?"

Eya nodded.

"Why did you run from me before?"

Eya looked away. "People 'round here can't stand +Anima. I didn't want anybody to know I was one."

"Oh. . ."

"Well. . .thanks for letting us stay," Nana said timidly.

Eya nodded. "Most of the bedrooms are on the second floor. You can have any of them except the two at the end of the hall. You can stay as long as you want." She turned and retreated back into the darkness. "Good night," she called back.

"Good. . .night," Cooro said half-heartedly. He turned back to us and said, "That was weird, huh?"

"She seemed nice," Nana said. She went over to the chest Eya had pointed out and opened it, pulling out candles. "And she said we could stay as long as we wanted."

"I don't know," I found myself muttering doubtfully as I took a candle.

"Huh?" Cooro asked. "What do you mean, Husky?"

"Well, she's just a kid," I said. "What's a girl like her doing all by herself up in a big creepy mansion like this? And where are her parents?"

"Maybe she doesn't have any," Cooro said reasonably.

"Or maybe she just found the house like this," Nana added. "Maybe it really was abandoned until she came and started living here."

"I guess. . ."

"But it doesn't matter," Nana said, lighting her candle. She turned and lit Cooro's from hers. "It's getting late. Let's go find rooms!"

I followed the others as they led the way up the stairs.