On a snowy planet in the Leo System, a pair of young Avenix were hugging each other, a couple of siblings. The older brother was getting ready to go on a trip with his parents, saying goodbye to his younger sister.

“You think you can hold out until we get back?” The brother asked.

“Are you sure I can’t go with you?” The sister asked.

“It’s far too dangerous out there, you’ll be much safer here.” The sibling’s father said.

“My little hatchling, you won’t have to worry for long.” The sibling’s mother walked over at picked the young Avenix up, hugging her.

“When we get home… you and me, we’re going camping.” The brother said. “Love you, little Cleffy.”

“Bye Denza!” The young Avenix shouted out.

The scene shifts to about a week later with the father holding onto the young Avenix, named Clef in the modern day. He was crying while she had a horrified look on her face.

“W-where are they, papa?” Clef asked.

“My fledgling… I’m sorry…” The father, Alto Azta said. “They… they are gone.”

“What?” Clef asked. “Mama? Denza?”

“I did all I could… the dangers of the Cosmos got the better of us.” Alto said. “But I won’t ever let it happen again, never… Little Fae, I never want to lose you.”

Years passed after this incident, and Clef, currently known as Fae Azta, had grown distant from her father. She was Avenix royalty on her home planet of Avenos Prime, next in line to inherit her father’s throne. She was getting prepared for some kind of event by a stylist.

“Look at you, Fae.” The stylist said. “You look more and more like Queen Melody every day.”

“That’s what Dad always says…” Clef said.

“My apologies, ma’am… I know that it’s hard on you to hear about your father.” The stylist said.

“Oh, you don’t need to apologize…” Clef said. “Maybe we can… skip the styling today?”

“Sorry, you know with the coronation coming up, your father wants you to be ready.” The stylist said. “It must be perfect!”

“Right…” Clef said as she looked down.

“But, maybe we can take a little break.” The stylist said. “How about I go get you some lunch, what do you want?”

“Anything is fine, I just need a minute.” Clef said.

“Of course, your majesty…” The stylist left the room and Clef went to look out the window, sighing. “Is this really all that life is gonna be, is this the greatness that the Grateful Phoenix bought into my life…”

Close to dozing off, Clef was woken up by a flash a light. She shot up and looked out the window, spotting a small craft landing in some trees just off the horizon. She stood up and looked at the door to her room, she got onto the window sill and shook her arms causing her wings to retract. Her stylist returned holding two bowls, confused.

“Miss Azta… what are you doing?” The stylist asked.

“I saw something flash across the sky and land in the woods!” Clef said.

“Oh it’s probably nothing, space debris always falls from the sky.” The stylist said. “Now come along and eat, you must be hungry.”

“But what about the… thing?” Clef asked.

“Oh young Fae, if it’s of any importance, you know your father will send out his best men to investigate.” The stylist assured. “Now come along!”

“But…” Clef looked out the window again and started to walk over to the stylist. “You’re right… it’s probably nothing.”

“Good, it’s Saltneedle Soup, your favorite.” The stylist said.

It was late into the night, Clef had pretended to fall asleep. There were guards talking outside her door, who had left soon after finishing their conversation. Clef stood up wearing an expedition outfit, pulling a small bag from under her pillow.

“Let’s see… water, extra clothes… a cute little snack.” Clef said as she stood back up on the window sill. “If no one is gonna take a look at that object, then I will.”

Clef took off and started flying towards the crash site, at least she thought it was a crash site. She had heard no crash earlier when she spotted to ship landing, maybe the inhabitants were just making a small stop. After flying for a while, Clef managed to find the ship, landing in the branches of a nearby tree to simply watch. She spotted two people emerge from the ship, Ryuu and Kidd, they were arguing.

“You dumb ass, I told you we should’ve worked on the ship before leaving Crash Town!” Kidd shouted.

“Hey, you were the one that wanted to get away from the Federation.” Ryuu said.

“We could’ve at least landed somewhere that we could’ve taken a look at the ship before we left.” Kidd said. “At least this won’t take too long to jury rig until we can get to an actual mechanic.”

“It’s cold… I’m gonna make a fire.” Ryuu said as he spit a burst of flames at the forest floor. “Go check if we have any leftover food.”

“Yeah yeah…” Kidd climbed back into the starcraft.

As Ryuu began to build a small pit around the fire, Clef had flown back up and landed behind Ryuu. She held up a pretty thick branch, ready to hit him upside the head. She suddenly felt the barrel of a gun pressed up against the back of her head, alongside that gruff voice.

“You should put that down, missy.” Kidd said.

“Huh?” Ryuu got up and turned around to see the young Avenix.

“Dammit, how did you know I was here?” Clef asked.

“Heard you taking off.” Kidd said.

“Who are you?” Ryuu asked.

“Fae Azta… what’s it to you?” Clef asked.

“Well, when you come along, all ready to knock us out. Then it is our business.” Kidd said. “Explain yourself.”

“Well… I saw your ship landing earlier today.” Clef said. “I thought you might’ve been pirates or something.”

“And you thought that you could take us out, huh?” Kidd asked.

“Well… yeah…” Clef said.

“You thought wrong… give the go and I’ll make us some chicken wings, Ryuu.” Kidd said.

“Stand down, cowboy…” Ryuu said. “We don’t need to hurt her… she hasn’t done anything to us.”

“Right, I didn’t do anything to you!” Clef said.

“Fine… you got lucky.” Kidd put his gun down and set the bag of food down next to the campfire. “Say, you’re an Avenix, aren’t you?”

“Yeah… why?” Clef asked.

“Not used to seeing one of ya go all violent. You’re usually just farmers.” Kidd said.

“Well… I watched my dad’s guards train sometimes and was just doing what they usually do.” Clef said.

“Fae Azta, was it?” Ryuu asked. “I know it’s your name, but is there anything else we can call you… it’s kind of a mouth full.”

“Ryuu!” Kidd smacked Ryuu upside the head. “Sorry about him… he’s kind of an idiot.”

“Oh, that’s fine… my brother always called me Cleffy…” Clef said.

“Fae is fine then… shorter than Cleffy.” Ryuu said. “It’s less to think about.”

“Um… okay… so you know my name, but what are your names?” Clef asked.

“I’m Ryuu, Ryuu Aka!” Ryuu shouted.

“Kidd Bautista… enough said.” Kidd said.

“You two sure are… colorful.” Clef said.

“Colorful is good!” Ryuu said.

“Not always, colorful can be bad.” Kidd said.

“Well, how long are you gonna be here?” Clef asked.

“Probably no longer than a few days.” Kidd said. “Gonna be traveling a little while, is that anything you ever wanted to do?”

“What, explore the universe?” Clef asked. “I mean… would you be willing to take me with you?”

“Well, we could always use more people.” Ryuu said. “But you have to be absolutely sure about it.”

“Yeah, Ryuu is right.” Kidd said. “When we leave, we’re not turning back.”

“What do you mean?” Clef asked.

“We’re on a one way trip to the Adventurer’s Guild.” Ryuu said. “We’ll gladly take you with us, but we won’t bring you back.”

“Oh…” Clef said.

“How about this… take a few days to decide. We’ll be leaving midday, three days from now.” Kidd said. “If you come by, we’ll take you… but if you don’t show, then we’ll take the hint.”

“Okay… can I at least bring you some supplies tomorrow?” Clef asked.

“Sure, we could always use more stuff.” Ryuu said as he turned back to the food bag, which had caught fire. “You don’t happen to have any food now, do you?”

“Yeah, but not a lot… I’ll be back tomorrow night.” Clef said as she handed over her bag, it was filled with rice snacks. “I’ll bring something that’ll help with filling you guys up later, but for now, these’ll have to do.”

“Thanks Fae, we’ll see you tomorrow night then.” Kidd said.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow!” Ryuu said.

“Yeah, thanks guys… don’t get caught though.” Clef said. “There’s no telling what my father’s guards will do to you.”

“Good point… but!” Ryuu’s arm transformed into its typical draconic appearance.

“Woah!” Clef was bewildered. “How did you do that?”

“A little thing I like to call Red Dragon Style!” Ryuu said.

“We don’t have time for this, Ryuu.” Kidd said. “Besides, the lady should probably be going on home for now.”

“Oh! Right!” Clef said as she got ready to take off again. “I’ll be back tomorrow night, same time?”

“Same time is fine.” Ryuu said.

“That works for me.” Kidd said.

“Good!” Clef said as she began to fly away again, looking back at the two boys.

The next day, Clef was walking through a corridor in the palace. She was holding onto another, bigger bag, looking around so that she doesn’t get caught by anyone. Suddenly, she was greeted by a tall eagle Avenix.

“Good morning, Princess Fae!” The Avenix said.

“Oh… good morning, Xatl…” Clef said. “ I didn’t see you there. What’s up?”

“You’re up rather early, what’s that you got there?” Xatl asked.

“Oh, this bag? I found it in my room.” Clef said. “I wasn’t using it for anything, so I was gonna put it away somewhere.”

“I see I see… well, your father is looking for you.” Xatl said.

“Uh, that’s fine… it’s probably not important.” Clef said.

“When your father wants to see you… you will see him.” One of Xatl’s pupils darts around. “It’s what the Grateful Phoenix wishes for!”

“Fine! Fine!” Clef said. “Just stop doing that thing with your eye, you know it freaks me out.”

“Excellent!” Xatl went back to normal. “We don’t want to Phoenix to invoke wrath, now do we?”

“No sir…” Clef looked to the side.

“Good, now off you go.” Xatl said as Clef walked past him, his eye twitching.

Clef had slowly entered the palace’s throne room, looking at the center throne, she spotted her father. He was meditating, so he hadn’t noticed Clef yet. She was worried about what he had to say, she always was whenever Alto had called for her. She stopped in front of the throne and talked to her father.

“Hello dad…” Clef said.

“Fae, my light…” Alto said as he opened his eyes. “The guards spotted someone flying out of the palace last night, only to return within the hour.”

“Oh… they did?” Clef asked.

“Don’t play dumb with me, young lady.” Alto said. “I will give you one chance… do you know anything about it?”

“Why would I know anything about it? I don’t know why anyone would be leaving the palace at that hour.” Clef said. “Maybe another guard just saw something.”

“Is that your final answer?” Alto asked.

“Yes…” Clef assured him.

“Fine… I’m just worried with your coronation in the coming days.” Alto said. “Last thing I need is something happening to you…”

“Even if I left… I’d be fine dad.” Clef said. “Is it really bad to travel?”

“What do you mean?” Alto asked.

“It’s just… maybe it isn’t so bad to explore.” Clef said. “We send off expedition groups all the time…”

“That’s different, our expedition crews are searching for more resources for us.” Alto said.

“Well… maybe I could join them sometimes.” Clef said.

“The answer is no…” Alto said.

“But… there’s so much out there!” Clef shouted.

“Do you want to end up like Denza!?” Alto shouted angrily.

Clef stepped back, clearly hurt by what Alto had said. Meanwhile, Alto realized what he had said and started to hold his wing out, causing Clef to run out of the room.

“Wait! Fae!” Alto shouted. “I didn’t mean that!”

“I don’t care! You don’t go there!” Clef shouted as she slammed the throne room’s door.

“Grrr… that child!” Alto said as he put his head in his hands. “Why is she acting out like this now… of all times?!”

“Might I suggest something, sir?” Xatl entered the room.

“Xatl! My most trusted advisor… come along and tell me what you’re thinking.” Alto said.

“My best guess is that some sort of… demon from the Cosmic Other is starting to infect Miss Fae.” Xatl said.

“A demon? That’s preposterous!” Alto shouted.

“Is it though?” Xatl asked. “There were cases of such nature before, it’s possible.”

“While I won’t disagree with that… my Fae, infected by a demon?” Alto asked.

“Then… entertain a potential solution.” Xatl said. “I can simply change the patrol routes for the next few days so that they go by her room’s windows.” 

“Hmm…” Alto said. “I suppose it wouldn’t harm anyone, they’d check up on her every few hours.”

“Excellent… I’ll let the guards know.” Xatl said.

“Before you leave!” Alto said. “You better not do anything! We can’t jeopardize the coronation!”

“Of course, my liege…” Xatl said as he exited the room. “We’ll make sure young Fae is all ready for her big day.”