Cloud woke up a little while before dawn the next morning, and he felt better and more refreshed than he had in a long time, if a little bit sore in certain areas. The room was slightly chilly when Cloud finally managed to de-tangle himself from Zack and the covers, but he wanted to get ready to move as soon as possible. It was going to be a long day of travelling, and Cloud wanted to stock up on a few more supplies before leaving Kalm, something that was going to be both easy and hard with the festival; easy because there would be multiple stalls and the such that would be hawking their prices cheaply, but hard because the Kalm festival would attract hundreds of people and therefore Shinra would definitely have a presence around as well.

Once Cloud was dressed he quietly left the room and headed down the hall to the bathroom where he took the time to wash his face and freshen up before heading down stairs into the Tavern area.

"Good Mornin' dear. It's rare to see anyone up this early." Cloud looked over to see an older woman with greying hair and kind brown eyes walking out from the kitchen area with a steaming loaf of freshly baked bread in her hands. Cloud figured that she was probably the owners wife, and that she was in charge of breakfast preparation.

"Morning." Cloud replied with a tip of his head.

"Come, have some bread while its hot." The lady said with a warm smile.

Cloud thought about turning down the offer, but the smell of the bread was enticing, and his stomach grumbled as well, reminding him of the face that neither he or Zack had eaten last night.

"Thank you." Cloud said, moving to sit on one of the stools at he bar as the lady sliced up the bread. "Would you mind if a took some for my companion as well?"

"Of course!" The woman smiled warmly and handed Cloud two slices of bread for himself, followed by some butter and jam.

"So what is your name dear?" The lady asked, busily packing the bread into two neat bundles. Cloud thought about whether or not to actually give out his name while here, but soon decided that it would be best not to; he was pretty distinctive, and his name was even more so. If anyone came looking for him, it would be best to throw them off the trail a bit.

"Fenrir." Cloud answered, not even blinking an eye lid as he said the name. He had always used the symbol of the Nibelheim wolf god, and now it was the first name that came to mind.

"My, that is an interesting name." The woman said with a smile, "Are you in town for the Kalm Festival?"

Cloud Shook his head.

"Just passing through." He replied respectfully.

"I thought you might say that." Cloud paused with a slice of bread halfway to his mouth at the woman's odd words, and the next thing he knew, the two bundles of bread that she had been packing, and a smaller plate with two slices, were placed in front of him.

"The only people who would be up this early on festival day are the merchants that need to set up or those that are hoping to leave before everything gets hectic." She explained. "So take this, it travels well and will keep your stomachs full."

Cloud let a small smile slip at the thoughtfulness of the woman, and went to grab his coin bag only to be stopped before he could so much as open it.

"It's on the house dear. Good company this early in the morning is rare, so that is payment enough for this old lady."

"I couldn't..." Cloud began only to be silenced when the lady raised her hand. The blond felt as though he was a teenager again in the presence of the motherly woman.

"Take it dear, there are not many places to restock for quite some time after you leave Kalm, and I would sleep much better knowing I did not let a polite young man and his companion leave unprepared."

There was little Cloud could say to that argument without insulting the lady, so he simple nodded and smiled.

"Thank you ma'am."

"Oh, none of this 'ma'am' business now, my name is Ronda."

"Well then, thank you Ronda. You are very generous." Cloud decided that he was indeed grateful as he quickly finished off his own bread while Ronda moved to continue getting the place ready for the morning rush that would be happening sometime in the next couple of hours.

Once he was finished, Cloud leant over the bar and placed his dishes next to the sink -an old habit from living with Tifa- before standing and grabbing the two bundles of bread and Zack's plate.

"Have a good day Ronda." Cloud said, "And thank you again for the wonderful bread."

"It was my pleasure dear. Now you travel safe, you hear?"

Cloud smiled and nodded before heading back up stairs, missing the look of motherly care that the lady sent his way.

Once back in the room, Cloud found Zack sprawled out in the bed in a rather interesting way, and took delight in throwing one of the discarded pillows at the sleeping SOLDIER and watching as Zack spluttered into awareness with a very puppy-like yelp.

"Wh-wha...?" Zack looked around the room with wide eyes before they finally landed on Cloud standing with a smirk, holding some very delicious smelling food.

"You could have just, ya know, shook me or something?" Zack said as Cloud chuckled lightly.

"Then I would have missed out on seeing your face like this."

Zack glared playfully as Cloud placed the two bundles of bread by their bags before moving over to Zack and offering him the plate as a peace offering. Zack looked at it skeptically for a moment before dropping the game as the smell hit him and his mouth watered.

Cloud laughed as he watched Zack dig into the bread like a starving man.

"Courtesy of Ronda downstairs." He said, "Even gave us some for the road."

"Gave, as in a present?" Zack asked around a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise." Cloud said, although he already planned on leaving some Gil for her before they left.

As Zack finished eating and got dressed, Cloud checked their bags and got ready to leave. Now that they had some extra food, Cloud only wanted to get some extra materia and camping supplies before they left Kalm, and even then it was only a few things; they had gotten most of what they would need for the trip before they left Midgar.

"Ready?" Cloud asked as Zack secured his cloak over his shoulders.

"You bet!" Zack answered, his enthusiasm full blown now that he had food in his stomach.

Cloud smiled, and checked over the room once more as they left. Once down stairs he waited until Ronda had gone out into the kitchen for something before placing a few Gil on the bar where she would find it before leaving the Inn completely.

Outside, the air was still chilled from the recent dawn, but already there was a fair crowd of people weaving their way down the streets, hoping to get in early at the numerous stalls set up on the sides of the road. By mid-morning, Cloud knew that these streets would be packed.

"Let's get what we need and get out of here." Cloud said, not looking forward to having to interact with the well versed merchants, such bartering was just irritating.

"What should be look for first?" Zack asked, his eyes wandering around at the various colourful stalls.

"Materia. It will be the most expensive and hardest to barter for." Cloud said, beginning to walk down the street, keeping his eyes on all the stalls.

Zack spotted a few stalls that seemed to have a fair variety of materia available, but Cloud simply took a single look at most of them and moved on. Zack's curiosity finally got the better of him.

"What about those ones?" He asked.

"Quite a few of them were fakes, or extremely weak ones." Cloud answered simply, "It is one of the issues of merchant stalls."

"But... How did you know? You barely looked at them." Zack was amazed.

"Practice, and if you really focus on the mako within the materia, you can tell if they are close to being burnt out, but that took me years to master."

"Hmm, I think Genesis might had mentioned something like that before." Zack mused, trying to remember if the expert materia wielding SOLDIER had said something like that in between all his Loveless speeches.

Lost in thought as he was, Zack practically walked right past Cloud as the blond finally stopped at a stall and began inspecting the materia he found there. Turning back to join Cloud, Zack stopped as something caught his eye at the next stall down. Walking over he looked down at the item, or matching items really, and found that the impulse to buy them was almost impossible to ignore. Looking over to where the blond was stoically bartering with the merchant, Zack found that it was something about the items that just seemed to match to Cloud in an uncanny way.

"How much for these?" Zack asked, making the bored looking merchant finally acknowledge him.

"Eh? Oh, 50 Gil." The merchant responded.

"What? 50? No way!" Zack yelped, he didn't have a hell of a lot of Gil on him. "What about 20?"

The merchant looked like he was going to argue for a moment, before sighing.

"Fine, but only because it's too damn early for this shit." The merchant grumbled.

Zack positively beamed as he passed over the Gil and accepted the wrapped items, where he was quick to place them in his pouch on his belt for safe keeping.

"Thanks man!" He said, before bounding over to where Cloud was only just paying for the materia he had purchased.

Cloud gave Zack an inquisitive look as he carefully placed his new materia into his pouch.

"What did you get?" He asked.

"I'll show you later." Zack said, looking forward to giving his gift to the blond already.

Cloud chuckled at Zack's enthusiasm as they continued down the ever busier street, looking for a stall that sold the camping equipment that Cloud wanted. The blond sighed as a group of raggedy young kids came racing through the crowds, pushing and bumping into people as they went. The blond was quick to take hold of his coin bag to ensure the little rascals didn't nab his money as they had been doing to many of the other people they passed.

Cloud had just spotted a stall that looked like it might have what they wanted when he heard a startled cry from Zack, and turned to see the raven-haired man racing down the street after the children.

"Zack!" Cloud called, hoping that he would hear him and not bother chasing after his money, but if Zack heard him, he didn't show it and continued weaving his way through the crowds.

With a sigh Cloud followed at a slower pace, having an idea that the kid that stole from Zack would likely be hiding along the street while his friends led Zack away. Sure enough, only a matter of minutes later, Cloud's sharp eyes saw the hair of one of the kids that had run right by him, hiding behind one of the stall crates.

Walking over, Cloud quickly grabbed the back of the boys shirt and hauled him up until his feet hung in the air, kicking wildly while the kid squeaked in surprise and then fear when he saw who had him.

Cloud didn't bother saying anything, but simply held out his hand to the boy, and after only a few seconds of brittle defiance, the boy handed over Zack's coin pouch. With a nod Cloud let the kid go and watched him scuttle into the streets.

With another long sigh, Cloud began to move through the crowds, hoping to see where Zack had run off to, but the rather crowded streets now made that quite difficult.

"Damn it..."Cloud muttered. This was just what they needed; to be separated in the middle of Kalm festival. They were just lucky that so far there hadn't been any Shinra soldiers around, but Cloud doubted that their luck would last as the day wore on.

Cloud froze and swore as an all to familiar voice reached his ears from just in front of him, and he quickly pulled up his hood to hide his face and hair.

"Naw, come on yo! Surely you can do a better price me man?" Reno's voice rang out from where he stood at one of the stalls, his eyes looking down at a display of batons and weapons that Cloud knew Reno favoured.

Quickly looking around to avoid going past the loud red-head, Cloud moved to duck into one of the many alley ways that Kalm seemed to love. Cloud had to admit that he had always wondered how Reno had been partnered with the silent, explosion-loving Rude, but he never expected to practically come face to face with the man the moment he entered the alley way either.

"Cloud Strife." Rude said. "The boss thought you'd be here somewhere."

XxXxX

Zack couldn't believe that he had let his guard down enough for a child to snatch his coin pouch. It was embarrassing! But what was even more embarrassing was that he had quickly lost sight of the kid as they went through the crowds,and he now found himself in a small court yard with not a child in sight.

"Gah! This isn't fair!" Zack whined.

Turning with a pout Zack turned just in time to see a familiar face back into a small alley way on the side of the road. With a frown Zack walked over, his mind trying to work out why he would be here. They had only just left Shinra yesterday, surely there was no way for him to have found them already.

With a quick glance up and down the street, Zack walked into the alley way. He didn't expect trouble, but he remained tense and alert anyway.

"Zack." The deep voice rang out from the shadows to his right, and the raven-haired man couldn't quite avoid jumping as he turned to look into blood red eyes. How the hell did a man wearing a red cloak manage to hide so well in the shadows?!

"Vincent! Don't scare people like that!" Zack growled. He still wasn't entirely at easy with the strange gunman yet, and his creepy abilities didn't make that any easier. Although, he speculated that it may have more to do with the fact that Vincent seemed to know Cloud so much better than he did, and both of them moved around each other in such a way that made it obvious that they had spent years fighting together. Perhaps he was a tiny bit jealous?

Vincent stepped away from the comforting embrace of the shadows in an attempt to calm the younger man down. It had amused him to no end at first to watch the way that Zack Fair interacted with Cloud, and it certainly matched Cloud's story that he had indeed taken on Zack's personality during the time that they had initially met, although he would only admit to himself that he thought the blond's more reserved nature was more befitting of Cloud.

"We need to find Cloud and leave Kalm." Vincent said, not wasting any time with preamble. "There are Turks here, and they have been given a very high level order to apprehend him."

"What?!" Zack yelped, "Already? But... But..."

"Understand that he circumstances around Cloud were strenuous with Shinra from the moment the Darkness attacked him publicly, and now that he has disappeared there are many higher-ups that want answers that they believe he has."

"But, we got split-up when the kids took my coin pouch..." Zack said, a tinge of fear working its way into his voice.

"Exactly, so we must move quickly to ensure we find him before they do."

Zack nodded, his face turning from fearful to powerfully determined in a heart beat.

XxXxX

Cloud wanted to swear under his breath, but refrained from doing so. This was the first time that he had come face to face with Rude in this time period, so hoping that his hood was adequately concealing his features, he decided to play the innocent party.

"Cloud who?" He asked, forcing his voice to take on a confused, slightly fearful tinge.

Rude only frowned, the effect more prominent due to the dark glasses he always wore -some things never change.

"Seriously, I don't know who you're talkin' about." Cloud continued, pulling back a bit from the large heavy hitter.

Rude's mouth opened to say something, but whatever it was, Cloud never got to hear as a familiar and very surprising voice rang out from behind him.

"Fenrir? There you are, I have been looking for you all morning! Slacking off on your duties on Festival day of all days. How could you?" The voice of Ronda sounded sure and strong, the voice of a woman who knows a person on a more than 'just-met' basis.

Cloud pretended to flinch as though busted and he couldn't help but wanting to hug the woman for
what she was doing.

"Sorry Ronda..." Cloud said, playing along. "I just..."

"I don't want to hear it! Get your ass back to the Inn and in that kitchen to work." Ronda growled, sounding like a mother scalding her child.

"Yes Ronda." Cloud replied, moving away from Rude as though his presence was of no importance now that he had been 'busted' by his employer.

Whatever Rude's thoughts on the matter, he did not move to stop or slow Cloud in any way.

Once Cloud had caught up to where the older lady was standing, he took note of the intimidating hands-on-hips stance that she had adopted and couldn't deicide if he wanted to laugh or run towards the hills. She was definitely a mother. No doubt about that.

Not wanting to ruin the act and bust them both, Cloud played along with the act until they were back at the Inn and closed safely behind the doors.

Cloud pulled down his hood and turned to thank Ronda for her actions when he caught sight of Zack and Vincent standing near the bar, both with a cup in their hands. Vincent looked rather awkward, while Zack looked like he was rather enjoying himself.

"Wow, I didn't know if that would actually work or not." Zack said with a grin that failed to hide just how concerned he really had been.

"Ok..." Cloud said, now rather confused, "Fill me in on what just happened?"

Both Ronda and Zack laughed then, and even Vincent's lips twitched in such a way that only Cloud knew he was hiding a smile of his own. Apparently he had missed something rather important.

"Take a seat dear, I think it would be best to wait for dark before you leave."

As I have said before, I am not giving up on this story. I apologise for the long wait on this chapter, however life has been rather stressful of late, not to mention turned upside down and shaken around, and I am only just getting back on my feet now.

So I hope you enjoyed the Chapter and I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Oh and Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!