"Hannah!" a boy's voice cried from behind her, followed by a horse's snort, "Come and help me with this!"

She turned, narrowing her brown eyes at the scene she came in contact with. She would have laughed out loud, if not for one small detail…

"Michel, what are you doing? That's my father's horse!"

The boy with the stringy black haircut so that it was low enough to hide his eyes from view gritted his teeth as he used all of his entire weight to keep the horse from bucking upwards. Froth was coming from the brown stallion's mouth and its eyes glittered almost madly as it tried to jump up into the air. It was all Michel could do just to hang onto the rope.

He took a moment to glare at her in annoyance, "I know that!" Michel snapped, "I wouldn't even be touching the damn thing if it hadn't decided to kick the fence's gate open…"

"It did what?!?" her eyes lowered to the ground, where a wooden makeshift fence lay, splintered in two parts by powerful hooves. She squinted at it in disbelief, the stallion was one of the more tempered horses in the tribe, why would it…?

There was the sound of thunder coming from a distance away, and the horse neighed again, nearly dragging Michel up into the air along with its head. The boy gave a small cry, stumbled, and then managed to get his footing on the ground. Another wind blew past them, and drizzle started to fall.

'This storm's making everything go mad…' she gritted her teeth for a moment. Behind her, people were scampering out of the shelters to put things inside, away from the rain. Someone had doused the fire and it was even darker now…the horse just a vague outline…

"Han-Hannah!" Michel shouted again, pulling the girl out of her thoughts.

Sighing, the teenager ran over to where Michel and the horse were. She picked up the end of the rope that her friend had left dangling on the ground.

"Let's pull him back into the pen!" she shouted as the wind began to become a roar in her ears, "We'll worry about the gate afterwards!"

He nodded, and the two started pulling hard on the rope. At first, the beast ignored them, as it had done when Michel had been tugging on the annoying loop on its neck, then it started to comply to the added pressure of another person. With hard resistance, it took a few moments to finally get the horse back inside the fenced-in area.

"Hannah! Michel!" an older woman's voice cut through the wind.

The two turned to see a woman in her late thirties, gray streaks just beginning to show in her light brown hair, running towards them. She held two pairs of rope in her hands, the wind slashing at them as if trying to rip them from her grasp.

Hannah's grip on the rope tightened as, with the arrival of the new person, the horse's upward slashing motions became more intense. The fibers were digging into her skin slightly, the rubbing giving off a burning sensation in her palms. She gritted her teeth and pulled down harder on the rope. In front of her, she could see Michel's body tensing up as he did the same thing.

The woman finally reached the pen and she bent down over the broken gate, lifting it up in a swift motion that belied her almost frail-looking appearance. As the two teenagers hung onto the horse's rope, she took the ropes and used them to tie up both sides of the gate to the pen. The ends of the ropes she then wrapped around the splintered parts of the gate before tying them off.

"That should hold for a little bit…" she backed away from the pen, "What are you two doing…still hanging onto that crazy thing?!? Let go of the rope and get over here before it tramples you!"

Both of them let go of the rope quickly, the stallion jumping up into the air with its new freedom. Froth from its mouth hit onto the ground and it started neighing even more loudly than before as it reared up on its hind legs.

With practiced ease, Hannah vaulted over the side of the fence, landing just a few feet away from the woman that had saved them. Her friend followed suit, but tripped on a rock as he landed, stumbling a bit before balancing himself upright.

The girl almost smiled at this and the woman shook her head, "Michel, I swear…you are the clumsiest person I have ever seen. How did you even become an archer?"

A tinge of red formed on the boy's cheeks, "Well…um, you see…" he began.

"Thank you for the help, Miss Ambrosia." Hannah quietly cut in, motioning towards the gate.

She smiled, whisking a brown strand of hair from her clear blue eyes, "It was nothing…I knew that gate wouldn't hold for long in this weather, anyway…" her eyes turned towards the valleys surrounding the temporary campsite as another hard wind blew.

"…This storm's going to be a big one!" Michel commented.

Ambrosia nodded, saying nothing. The two teenagers noticed this and looked at each other, then turned back to her.

"Uh, Miss Ambrosia…?" the boy began again, when the woman brought a hand up, motioning for him to be silent.

"Do you see those lights…in the distance?" she asked them, her left hand slowly moving towards the dagger she kept at her left hip.

Hannah took a few steps past her, squinting her brown eyes to get a better view. It was hard, with the drizzle obscuring her vision and the sky's darkness, but she could make out some very faint lights, "It looks like there's a party coming here…" she said, trailing off.

"…But there are too many fires for it to be our hunters." Ambrosia said for her, "Which means…"

The girl's eyes widened, "Raiders!"

The older woman nodded, taking in a deep breath. Michel snorted, "It figures they'd attack in a storm like this…should we attack them?"

"Not when the hunters aren't here." The woman slumped her shoulders, "There isn't much we can do until they're closer, anyway. I was going to get people to volunteer to keep patrol…" her blue eyes regarded the teenagers thoughtfully, "Hannah, Michel…would you want to take the first watch?"

"In this weather?!?" Michel looked shocked, but quickly nodded when he saw that Ambrosia's expression hardened at his attitude. She didn't accept that kind of behavior when she was in charge of the tribe (which was when the hunters were gone) and she most certainly would not accept that kind of behavior from her brother's son.

Hannah nodded quietly, saying nothing. She knew better than to object to anything Ambrosia said and, besides, this was too important. The majority of their horses and shelters and been either taken or destroyed during the last encounter with bandits. The Grasslands were overrun with those types of despicable creatures…now, anyway.

"Great," Ambrosia started walking back to her shelter, where a dark head of hair poked through as a child came outside, "Tell me if anything happens."

Michel sighed as she disappeared, leaving them alone outside. He stuck his arm out, letting the droplets of rain splash down on his bare skin, "Should we go set up watch over by the hills…?" he asked, turning to Hannah.

The girl's face was turned in the direction of one of the shelters, something indescribable cast over her features. She gave a small shrug of her shoulders, "You go on ahead, Michel…I…" she paused, then turned back to him, "…I have to get something."

"All right. Don't take too long, though." He warned, walking away from her, "I'll really be mad if I'm the only one who ends up getting wet!"

She smiled slightly at this, and headed towards the shelter. The wind whipped her brown hair into her face almost painfully, and she blinked it out of her eyes as the rain started coming down harder than before.

Goosebumps prickled on her bare arms and legs, but she ignored them.

"Father?"

The leather flap that was the shelter's only entrance was pushed away easily, and Hannah bent down as she walked through the doorway and into the cramped living space. The grass was still dry here under her feet, as only a few parts of the roof were proving to be leaking in the torrent of rain that could be heard outside.

The fire in the middle of the room was small, mainly casting shadows around the entire rest of the shelter. In the darkness of the back, a huddled figure on a mat of furs and leather groaned.

"Did I wake you?" she asked, moving to the side where most of their gear was. Her father's small bits of armor for hunting, a shield from his warrior days, and a small collection of weapons…mainly ranging from spears and bows to swords and knives. She picked up one of the swords and stood up as high as she could without bumping her head on the small roof, tying the strands together around her waist to hold the sword and its sheath by her side.

"Han…nah…?"

She paused at the sound of his voice, and turned around to face the person who was now trying to stand up. A cold sweat was coming down his brow, and his pale face was red from fever. She could his breathing start to become more haggard as he tried to speak again.

Hannah moved over the bed, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. She tried steadying him as he laid back down, not directly looking at his face. It hurt his pride to have people look at him when he was so sick…

"Try to get some more sleep, Father. I have to go out on patrol with Michel for awhile, that's all. I'll be back soon." She told him.

He took another deep breath, which came out in a ragged gasp. His eyes were so sunken…she tried to avoid looking at the lifeless brown orbs as he closed his eyelids, they used to be the same as hers…

Lightning struck outside, followed by a loud burst of thunder. Hannah, who had been paying attention only to her father, almost jumped at it. However, she gritted her teeth and kept her feet on the ground. She had to be strong, especially around him…

"…Be-Be careful…Han…Han…" he swallowed, "Hannah."

The girl smiled at this and patted his shoulder again before heading towards the door, "Don't worry, I will be…and when I come back, we'll go on a hunting trip together…just like we planned before."

Hannah pulled the flap open to the outside, sticking her head out. As soon as she did so, her hair was matted down to the sides of her head as cold streams of water splashed onto her skin.

On impulse, the girl cast one more glance back at her father's still form and then touched her sword's hilt in an almost comforting fashion before slipping back outside, lightning streaking the dark sky above her.

Location: Radat

Sunlight bursting through her eyelids was what greeted Hannah as she slowly started coming back to consciousness. She suppressed a groan as she opened her eyes and sat up on her bed.

'Still in Radat..' she thought amusedly, stretching her arms and checking the slash on her arm. As was to be expected, it was now fully gone...as well as the numbness that had been there last night.

The town was no longer as quiet as it had been the previous night. Now that it was morning, people were busily going about there business…chatting with friends, checking up on things in town, going to shops…she blinked tiredly as she stared out the inn room's window. Towns were so different from the way she had grown up…

'Why did I think about that last night?' she thought, frowning, 'It's been so long since then…'

Shaking her head, the warrior ran a hand through her knotted brown hair and took in a deep breath. It was probably better not to think of it right now. After all, they had a long way to go until…

It was then that she actually noticed that neither of the other beds in the inn had occupants. The frown on her face grew even larger at this…Sudda and Richi should have still been there…

'…Unless they went exploring.'

She sighed and pulled on her boots as she headed outside in search of them.

…It was because of things like this that she wasn't used to dealing with children.

She ended up finding the two in the Items store across from the inn. Richi was looking around excitedly at the displays, while his older sister kept reminding him over and over again how he couldn't touch anything.

Walking over to them, the woman took in a deep breath to make her presence known.

Sudda turned around instantly in a swirl of black hair. She smiled at Hannah pleasantly, "Oh, Miss Hannah! You're awake now!" she exclaimed.

Richi looked up from the display cabinet as well, eyes wide, "You were asleep for a long time!" he told her.

Hannah ignored their statements and looked around quietly, "What are you two doing here?"

The girl looked down at the ground nervously, "Well…uh, you were still asleep and we figured that since we were going all the way to Tinto, we might need some supplies so we went---"

"Shopping!" Richi said triumphantly. He turned around to look at his sister, "Sudda, you really need lighten up on your storytelling."

The girl said nothing at this, but looked down at the ground again, slightly embarrassed.

"Do you have any potch?" she asked both of them, looking at the items that were lining the counter. The Medicine would probably be useful…

Both shook their heads, and Hannah sighed.

"…Well then, you should have waited for me…or at least woke me up." She turned to see their faces, both of which looked slightly shamed, "Shopping here is probably a good idea before we get going though, just wait for me next time, all right?"

Sudda nodded, and Richi was already out the door. He was looking around outside at the town, jumping up and down excitedly. Watching him reminded Hannah of someone, but she shook her head before her memories could be brought up.

…Right now, she needed to watch Richi and Sudda…

"Let's go to the bridge!" the nine-year-old was saying, "I want to see all of the boats!"

With that, he bounded off in that direction. His sister's eyes widened and Sudda began following in quick pursuit, "Richi! We're supposed to be shopping! Get back here RIGHT NOW!!!" she shouted.

Hannah shook her head once and started to follow both of them, suppressing a small sigh as she did so.

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"Hannah" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami. This chapter was posted on August 1, 2000