It was only after I had walked ten yards, and made several turns during that distance, that I realized I did not know where the market was. How could I? I had never been to that town. I turned around but I didn’t see Kaze’s house and I didn’t remember which way I came.

“I might as well just find the market by wandering around then find my way back the same way,” I said to myself. After around ten minutes I found a horse stable that sold horses and I bought myself an all black horse with white socks on its hooves. I also bought some saddlebags and a harness for the horse. I asked the stable owner which way the market was and he told me. I decided to name the horse Kuro. Come to think of it, Kaze had a small stable with a horse out front of his house didn’t he? I thought to myself before moving on. I walked to horse to the market and bought the things on Kaze’s list–I put them all in Kuro's saddlebags as I went. I went to a clothing merchant before I left and bought myself a new cloak and I got myself a bow and a quiver full of arrows while I was at it.

As I was wondering around trying to find my way back to Kaze’s house I overheard some people talking.

“Did you hear the news about the government?” I heard a woman say.

“What news?” asked another woman.

“They got a description of the leader of that group of bandits that they were looking for,” replied the first woman.

“It’s about time! How long’s it been since they started looking again? Like six years or something?” said a man near them.

“Yeah I know, apparently the leader is a young woman too, bunch of idiots. How long can it take to get the description of one young woman,” said another.

“Apparently,” began the first woman, “she has long, white hair! White hair!”

“Oh and don’t forget piercing dark blue eyes!” said the first man, “I hear she’s slim too. Ow!” The first woman had hit him.

“George! You have a wife!” she said, chastising him.

“I didn’t say nothin’ else about it did I?” he rubbed the spot on his head where she had hit him, “Anyway, they said she fled in this direction, escaped the soldiers by running into the desert right before a sandstorm. Probably lost in the desert by now.”

I put my hood up a little ways before passing them. I didn’t need to be recognized when I didn’t have my armor on. I had left it in the house so people wouldn’t get suspicious. I’ll have to find my way back quickly and leave as soon as I can. The people at the market may recognise me if any soldiers come by asking them if they saw someone with the description that matched the poster. I began to wander a little faster.

**********

By the time I found my way back to Kaze’s house it had been around 30 minutes. I went into the door and called for Kaze. He came into the room.

“What are you doing?” he asked. I was putting on my armor and had the horse with its head through the window.

“Putting on my armor, what does it look like I’m doing,” I replied.

“But why?” Kaze asked.

“I have to go, soon,” I replied as I continued to focus on my task.

“But why?” he asked again.

“Look,” I began, “let’s just say people are after me and I don’t have time to answer all of your stupid questions, kay?” I was doing a purposefully bad job at hiding my annoyance.

“Bad guys?”

“I consider them that, you may not,” I said simply, “Now I have to go before them find me, unless you want them knocking at your door looking for me.” I attempted to walk past him through the door but he blocked me.

“Look, I don’t have time to fool around,” I said, my anger rising, “if you don’t move soon I will judo flip yo ass into next week, so move.”

“No,” he said.

“What?” I asked, incredulous.

“I said I’m not moving,” Kaze said. Holding his position in front of the doorway.

“Why?” I asked, my anger growing ever so much with my urge to judo flip him.

“I’m not moving until you tell me what’s going on,” he replied.

“What? What? I don’t have time for that right now!” I said, desperately trying to find a way to get past him without hurting him, he had saved my life after all.

“Then take me with you,” he said. That surprised me so much I stopped trying to find a way to get past him and looked at him to see if he was serious. He was.

“What? Why would you want to come with me?” I asked.

“Well,” he began, “two reasons. One, I want to know what’s going on because I am an extremely curious guy. Two, no matter what you say, you aren’t fully healed yet, and I’ll be damned if I let you walk out of here and leave like that.”

“Are you crazy?” I asked him seriously.

“Yes,” he replied in turn.

“I...I can’t argue with that...oh, fine!” I gave in, “I’ll let you come but you have to get ready quickly and let me pass. But you have to promise that if you come with me you won’t leave. And it will be dangerous.”

“If I go with you, you promise to tell me what’s going on? Why those people are chasing you?” he asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, fine, just let me by so that I can get the horses ready,” I replied impatiently.

“Then I promise not to leave you. As you wish, my princess,” Kaze said with a bow and moved out of the way.

“Don’t, call me that...Ever,” I said with pure and utter annoyance.

“As you wish,” he came up from his bow with an annoyingly impish grin.

“Just go get your stuff,” I said. He nodded and went off to another room of the house. I went outside and looked down the alley way for any signs of people coming after me. There were none so I continued to prep my new horse Kuro, I would have to get it used to me before I would trust it for riding long distances.

After a short while Kaze came out of the house with saddlebags for his horse that were full of stuff, along with a backpack.

“What did you do?” I asked, “pack half your house?” I was accustomed to having only as much stuff as you could carry by yourself and leaving the rest.

“No, I’ll tell you what I have later,” he replied. He went to the front door to lock it. As he did I hear heavy footsteps around the corner. I finished securing my weapons on the back of the horse and quickly adjusted the stirrups.

“C’mon, are you almost ready? I can hear armored footsteps getting closer,” I said with an air of hurriedness.

“Armored?” Kaze asked as he finished adjusting the saddlebags and hopped onto the back of his caramel colored horse, “What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?”

“Tell you later, you pack any weapons in that thing?” I pointed at the backpack.

“Yeah…?” he replied.

“Know how to use them?” I asked.

“Yeah?” he replied again, even more confused now.

“Good, you aren’t as helpless as I thought you might be,” I said, “ready to get going?” As I asked that the owners of the armored footsteps rounded the corner and saw me.

“There!” one of them shouted.

“Time to go!” I said, and pulled back on Kuro’s reigns, taking off.