"What the?!" Alen drew his sword and Rowd followed suit. He didn't know what was happening, and wasn't sure if Jillia was in danger, or a danger herself.

But then she dropped limply to the ground.

In the woods along the path a farmer cursed. "They've got some kind of protection! We'll have to get into close combat!"

A swine herder nodded. "That's General Alen with them. Don't kill him if you don't have to!"

Alen spotted the men emerging from the forest on the left side of the trail first. They looked like simple farmers, but they had weapons. A pitchfork, a scyth, and the third had a crossbow and knife. "Rowd..."

"We've got a few more problems than that, Alen," Rowd replied.

Alen looked over his soulder. Damn. Two more were emerging from the woods on the other side. And Jillia was still down, whatever had happened to her. There was no choice but to fight.

"Damn, I'll take care of the three in front. Rowd you take care of the ones behind us." Alen ordered.

"Don't order me around!" Rowd replied. Heh, I'll show him who's boss! Rowd thought to himself.

Alen leaped forward with his sword drawn, and took a low blow at the farmer with the crossbow.

Rowd lunged at the other two, sword swinging wildly and not hiting a damn thing. The farmer sidestepped and cracked Rowd over the head with a mallet, knocking him out cold. Sweatdrops started forming over their heads.

By now Alen had two of the farmers on the ground. "Give up now, you can't win, I'll let you go if you surrender." He offered.

"We can't do that Alen, although you aren't a Highlander, you stand between us and the Princess." The farmer with the dagger replied.

"Very well," Alen said.

The man with the dagger ran at Alen desperatly striking with his dagger.

Alen jumped out of the way, raised his sword and impaled him through his chest.

His body sliped off and landed on the ground.

"Why? Why did you force me to do this?" Alen asked with a tone of anger in his voice.

"I...Did..It.....For..My Family...Who...Burned to death..At the hands of....Ruka..Bright.." He said followd by several urking sounds that sent chills down Alen's spine. After coughing up some blood, he fell to the ground and died.

What... what happened...? Where? Jillia opened her eyes slowly, with a pounding headache and, oddly, hand ache. Oh damnit. The rune. Something had forced the rune to take effect. And then she saw the muscular man standing over her, a mallet over his head, about to swing down.

With a scream of surprise, she rolled to the side just as the mallet came down where she was a moment before. She didn't stop moving, though. The man trying to smash her skull in certainly wasn't.

"I'll kill you, witch!" he yelled as he prepared to strike again. Jillia was still unsteady on her feet; she couldn't dodge him for long. It was a good thing she wasn't alone.

The man's eyes widened with shock and he fell to the ground. Behind him, Alen pulled his bloody sword from the man's back. He looked down at the newly killed man, a frown on his face. But the frown was not at the man, but for him. He obviously had not wanted to kill him.

He turned before Jillia could puzzle out his expression. "The last one escaped," he stated. "We'd better get out of here quickly, who knows if he'll be bringing reinforcements."

Jillia nodded.

And then they both looked at where Rowd lay. Jillia felt a sweat drop on the back of her head. "I probably don't really want to know, do I?"

After a short pause, Alen responded. "Probably not."

They continued along the path, dragging Rowd by his collar. It was a good thing they weren't too far from the next town...

The next town turned out to be a tiny little village that lay just on the border between Toran and Jowston. Rowd was still out of it from the mallet to the head, so continuing travel that day was not an option.

At the door of the inn was a cute little girl calling out to the few travellers, mostly traders, who passed through the village to stay at the inn. The girl spotted the three upon their entering the village. "Please stay a night at my daddy's inn," she smiled sweetly, "The beds are the nicest in the whole village, and my mommy's the bestest cook!"

Jillia smiled. A born salesperson, it looked like.

"No choice in that, kid," Alen said a little grumpily. He'd had to drag Rowd for almost a mile, so it was understandable.

Elly grins even more brightly as the travelers go inside. Elly 33, Visitors 0. Bonus: the travellers who just went in look interesting. Not as interesting as the 'va-ca-tion' woman, but still interesting. She hopes to get a chance to meet them during dinner.

"Three rooms for one night," Jillia told the innkeep, "Along with supper and breakfast."

The innkeep jotted down a few notes and came up with a total. "One hundred twenty potch or one hundred fourty bits is the total."

Jillia raised an eyebrow. "Usually potch has been worth more to the bit."

"True, but wartime changes economics alot," the man informed them, "Toran's been at peace for a few years now and productivity is up, so the bit is on the rise. Jowston, on the other hand, just got itself in a major war and the value of potch is falling. Some people out here on the border are already converting capital into bits."

"You certainly know a lot about these kinds of things," Jillia commented.

"That's right," the innkeep replied, taking the carefully counted out potch. "And I didn't need to go to any bloody 'college' to learn it, either."

Rowd laid down in his bed. He was just now waking up. Oooh, my head. Wha? Where am I? Rowd looked to his right and saw a small boy staring him in the face, about two inches away.

"Hi Mr. Soldier! My name's Koh!" said the small boy, "You look pretty beat. Did you get hurt fighting a dragon??!"

Oh great, this is just what I need... "Why don't you scram, kid?"

Koh looked at him with big, teary, exaggerated anime eyes. A tear dropped and fell to the floor.

Oh no...no anything but that! Rowd thought to himslef. Oi, I hate it when kids cry!

"Hee hee hee, I'm just kidding Mister!" said Koh as he punched Rowd in the arm. Rowd tried to keep himself from bellowing in pain...

Alen began to lay down in his bed. Aaaah, a nice rest after dragging that moron around

Then, something corrputed Alen's moment of sublimity. It sounded something like, "OOOOOOOWWWWWWWWOUGHJEEEEEEEEEEZ!!!!"

Alen nearly jumped up and smashed his head onto the ceiling. He could tell by the voice, that it was the moron again...

Elly looks at the traveller woman across the room. She thinks she is not being too obvious about it, but the woman notices anyway. She is not mad that elly was staring, though, not like some of the other travellers who pass through here.

"Hello," the traveller woman says with a smile.

Elly decides maybe this traveller will have some nice stories. She hops down from her slightly too tall chair and, abandoning the book she is supposed to be reading, walks over to the woman traveller. "Hi!" she chirps, "My name's Elly. What's yours?"

There is a slight delay before the traveller woman answers, "I'm Jill."

Elly smiles. The first thing she thinks of is the question she's been thinking about for the past few days. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Jill looks surprised, "Pardon?"

"My mommy asked me that a few days ago," Elly explains, "but I don't know what."

"If it was all up to me?"

Elly nods.

Jill sits thinking for a moment. "I don't really know. Maybe a rune mistress, or a trader. Or maybe I'd be an innkeep."

Elly thinks about that. "My little brother, Koh, listens too much too the bards and travellers who fib. He said he wants to be a Tenkai, but he won't tell me what that is. I don't think he knows either."

Jill smiles, "Tenkai means heavenly leadership. I think your brother heard someone talking about the Genso Suikoden, a legend in which there are a hundred and eight destined people called the Stars of Destiny. The Tenkai Star is their leader."

Elly is fascinated. Jill know even more than the bards who pass through Banner!

Jill notices her rapt audience and begins to tell Elly the legend.

Jillia had just gotten to the part of the legend about the Tenkai Star meeting the Tenan and Tenko stars when there was a very, very loud sound that sounded like someone was trying to figure out another way to skin a cat. "OOOOOOOWWWWWWWWOUGHJEEEEEEEEEEZ!!!!"

They both jumped in surprise. Elly ran towards the stairs, "Koh!!"