He was brought back to reality this time, by a knock at the door of his room.  He looked around, half expecting to see the trees to be surrounding him, but pleased to witness only the wooden walls of the Muse inn.  He got out of bed, still sluggish from the lackluster sleep, and went to answer the knock from his unannounced visitor.  When he pulled open the door, he wasn't suprised to see the innkeeper.

"I was instructed to give this to you, young sir" the innkeeper said, handing Zamza a scroll.  He turned, and began to head back downstairs.

"Hold on a second." Zamza said, stopping the innkeeper in his tracks. "Who gave this to you?"

"A man came up to me and told me that I was to give it to you." the innkeeper replied.

"What did he look like; How long ago?" Zamza interrogated.

"Uh, he gave it to me just a few minutes ago.  As to what he looked like, well, he had on a large black cloak, so I didn't get to see him all that well." the innkeeper answered as he turned once again to return downstairs.

"So, he brought it himself" Zamza said to himself as he closed the door.  He wasn't suprised, Slade would be gone as soon as he handed the innkeeper the scroll, so there really wasn't any threat posed by going himself, his blinking rune gave him that security.

Zamza looked at the scroll in his hands.  It was plain, with only a black ribbon keeping it together.  Zamza mulled over it a few seconds, not sure if he was ready to do this.

"Alright, I guess it's time" Zamza said, sighing deeply and removing his new dagger from it's sheath.  He cut through the ribbon cleanly, careful not to hurt the paper itself, and let the ribbon drop to the floor.  He unrolled the scroll and carefully read the words scrawled onto the paper.

'Greenhill.  I'll be waiting.' was all it said, but it included a smiley face at the end of it.  "Well, at least he hasn't lost his sense of humor" Zamza stated, placing a hurtful smile on his face.

What didn't make sense was, why Greenhill?  He had been there a few times, and he hadn't seen anything special about it.  It contained a university for children, but other than that it was an ordinary town.

Zamza put aside his thoughts for a second and travelled over to the table in the middle of the room, and poured himself some wine.  He cupped the glass in his hand and contemplated the upcoming duel with Slade. 'Why, why, why?  Why Greenhill Slade?' Zamza thought to himself.

"Damn." Zamza said, pissed, all this worrying was hurting his head.  Time to think of simpler things, he decided.  He decided he would take the long way to Greenhill.  He would travel to Coronet, take a boat to lakewest, then hike it from there.  That bastard could wait for his presence.

He finished his wine, and grabbed his satchel.  He would have one more meal here and then start on his trek to Greenhill.

The downstairs was packed, as per custom, but Zamza didn't mind this time, he had other things to think about.  He ordered some food, and some more wine.  'Why Greenhill?'  Zamza continued to think.  The answer still eluded him.  There had to be some reasonable explanation, didn't there?  Slade would have planned this out, Zamza believed, and when he fought, Slade liked to take every unfair advantage he could get his hands on.  It wasn't any fun to fight him when they trained, and with Slade having this much time to prepare, it was going to be even less fun.

His food came, a BBQ bun and some vegetables.  The fight couldn't take place inside the walls of Greenhill, Zamza knew, so it had to take place just outside of Greenhill.  What was outside of Greenhill, Zamza questioned picking at some green vegetables, and then it struck him.  Forests. Greenhill was encased by extremly thick forests.  Since they couldn't fight in Greenhill, Slade would pull Zamza into the forest.  The trees would provide Slade with a great degree of invisibility, making it harder for Zamza to fight him, especially since he didn't know the area all that well.  Advantage Slade.  Zamza had also heard legendary tales of secret passages going through the forests.  Slade would have scouted the area intensly, so he would know all the escape routes if he needed them, and would know what spots would be best for a possible ambush.  Advantage Slade.

"You have created a good plan Slade, but once again you aren't smart enough." Zamza said jubilantly.  "This time I'm going to put you down for good Slade, just as I thought I did so many years past.  There will be no escape for you in Greenhill."

Zamza finished his meal quickly after that, pumped that he was able to decipher Slade's plan so soon.  'You always were one step behind, Slade.' Zamza thought with a smile. 'You were never as quick, never as powerful, and never as smart.  You just weren't as talented as me.'  And then Zamza remembered.  'And that's why you took Arya away from me you sorry bastard.' Zamza thought, his mood changing quicker than the sides of a flipping coin.  'You are a dead man, Slade'.  He decided it was time to leave.  He paid for his meal and picked up his things. 'Greenhill here I come'.

He woke up in a cold sweat, his clothes wet and sticking to his body, her piercing screams still violating his eardrums.  The vision of tears and blood still engraved into his head.  'I couldn't save Arya again.  Dammit!' Zamza thought. "Listen Zamza, you have to stop torturing yourself, or you're never going to avenge her" he told himself.  He was really getting tired of these damn dreams.

The morning sun had already risen over the plains and a soft wind blew in from the east.  He had made very poor progress the day before, just taking his leisurly time as he went, plus, he was enjoying the scenery.  If Slade had meticulously planned out there encounter, as Zamza believed, then he would have no choice but to wait anyway.

Two riders passed about halfway through the day, asking Zamza if they were on the right road to Muse.  Zamza merely nodded.  One rider reached into his pouch to give Zamza some potch, but Zamza politely declined the gesture.  The riders thanked him and continued on their way to Muse.

As night approached, with the wind blowing harder, and the blades of grass waving back and forth as if hovering midair of their own fruition, Zamza spotted three men and a woman camped under a tree.  From this distance, he could see the woman tied up and gagged and could here two of the men screaming obsenities at her.  Zamza was going to leave them alone, seeing as it was none of his business, until one of the men struck the girl across the face.  '

"Only the weak strike those who cannont strike back" Zamza said to himself.  He walked closer, trying to assess the three men.  They each carried swords on their belts, but Zamza was pretty sure that not one of them really knew how to use it.  If it was possible he wanted to solve this without any fighting, but if he had to kill all three of those men to get that girl out then so be it.

Zamza continued to approach, still oblivious to the three men.  He walked a few more steps and stopped dead when he got a good look at the girl who was tied up.  It was Arya.  'No' Zamza thought, 'Arya is gone, this isn't her'. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts.  When he looked at the girl again, he realized that it wasn't Arya after all, but the similarties between the two girls were frightning, they probably could have passed for sisters.

"What the hell do you want here?" one of the men said, pulling Zamza away from his thoughts.

"Excuse me good sir's" Zamza started, " I was hoping you would share your campsite with me.  I have money, so I can pay you quite well." he finished, putting on the friendliest smile he could muster for these scumbags.

"Pay us, huh?" the first man said, obviously a little intrigued.  "Let me and my fellow colleagues discuss this for a second, alright?"

Zamza watched as the three men came together in a triangle, and began to talk heatedly amongst themselves.  They tried to keep their voice down, but Zamza heard almost every word they said.  The two Zamza had not talked to wanted to kill him right away and take his money, but the one Zamza had talked to, obviously the leader, objected saying that they couldn't be sure what kind of fighter the mystery man was.  The other two complained that it was three against one, but the leader said that it would be safer if they killed him in his sleep, and then stole his money.  The other two grudgingly accepted the boss' decision, and the triangle broke up.

"Alright, sure" the leader said with a smile "it'll be 500 potch."

"Fantastic!" Zamza exclaimed.

The night wore on, all four men still awake, the girl sound asleep.  Zamza was hoping that maybe they would fall asleep by mistake, and he could save the girl, but it didn't appear that any of these three men were going to go to sleep any time soon. 'Time to try a different approach' Zamza thought.

"So, what's the deal with the girl?" Zamza asked, keeping a casual and friendly tone.

A crooked smile appeared on all the mens simultaneously as they looked at each other.  "Her father owed us some money, he couldn't pay it, so we took her instead" the leader answered, beginning to laugh as if he had said something hilarious.

Zamza feigned a laugh and, hoping he wasn't pushing to far asked, "How much did he owe you?"

The men looked at each other, not quite sure of what to make of the question.  "Uh, th-three thousand potch." the leader answered hesitantly.  "Why do you want to know?"

"Well, I want to pay off that debt, if you don't mind.  In fact, I'll give you 5000 potch, and all you have to do is give me the girl."  Zamza proposed, taking a much more serious attitude.

"No." the leader said harshly.  Giving Zamza a stare that cut through glass.

"How about 8000 potch?  I can really use a serving girl." Zamza pushed on.

"I said no, and I suggest that you change the subject quickly if you do not want to lose your head over it" the leader stated, drawing his sword.

"You know, your awfully pushy you little bastard." another bandit chimed in.

This struck a chord in Zamza.  He realized that there would be no reasoning with these people.  He was going to have to do this the hard way.  He looked the second bandit straight in the eyes, no longer with a face of cheery playfullness, but with one which was like granite.

"I suggest you watch how you address the Zamza if you do not wish to be wearing that tongue of yours" Zamza told the man, never withdrawing his stare from the man's eyes.

A look of shock covered all three of the men's face.  None of them were quite sure how to react.  Zamza thought this was pretty funny, though it didn't last long.  The leader, recovered from Zamza's unsuspected comment, charged at Zamza, his held out in front of him.

Zamza shot up to his feet, and threw a fistful of dirt into the leaders face.  While the leader tried to rub the dirt out of his eyes, Zamza drove his elbow into his chest, spun directly behind him, and kicked him headfirst into a tree.  Zamza turned just in time to see the other two men charging at him.  The first one took a swipe at him, but Zamza ducked it easily.  The second man appeared next to his comrade a second later, and thrust the point of his blade at Zamza.  Zamza dodged to his left, grabbed the second man's swordhand, and forced him to take another thrust, only this time at his friend.  The blade entered the first man's leg just below the knee, and exited out the other side.  Blood flowed from the fresh wound, and the first man fell to the ground in a fit of agony, the blade still in his leg.  Zamza then kicked out the second man's legs from under him, forcing him to hit the ground with a sick crack.

Zamza got back to his feet, but the leader, fresh from his dance with the tree, came from behind and wrapped Zamza in a giant bearhug.  He kneed Zamza in the back, sending a sharp pain up and down Zamza's body.  The leader held Zamza's arms back and waited for the second man to get back to his feet.

"You're going to suffer now" the leader said in a menacing voice from Zamza's back.  The other man was on his feet now, and unloaded three heavy punches to Zamza's abdomen.  After two more punches to Zamza's stomach and a few more to Zamza's face, the man decided it was time to end it.  He went and picked up the wounded man's sword, since his was still lodged in his friends leg, and walked back over to where the leader was holding Zamza.

"You must die now" the leader said, with a insane laugh at the end.  "I'll see you in hell."

"Yeah," Zamza said "why don't you save me a seat!"  Before either of the other men knew what was going on, Zamza had lit up Tekkan, scorching the leaders arms, forcing him to release Zamza from his grasp.  Zamza turned back towards the leader and delivered two quick punches to his face, and then another to his stomach.  The leader fell unconscious to the ground, his shirt catching fire on the way down.

"Wh-What the hell?" said the man who was going to finish Zamza off.  It took him a minute to decide what he wanted to do, but eventually he charged full-throttle at Zamza.  Zamza smirked, let Tekkan go back to it's normal appearence, and raised his left hand.

"Angry Blow" Zamza shouted. And as he said those words the lightning rune on his left hand shined for a second, and then a large bolt of lightning came down from the sky.  It struck the man dead instantly, dropping him to the ground, sword still help tightly in his charred hands.

Zamza looked around.  The leader was lying on the ground, either unconscious or dead, Zamza didn't care.  The fire to his shirt had gone out, but not before doing some major damage.  The leader's chest was burnt and scarred severely, with smoke still rising from it.  Zamza walked over to wounded man and pulled out his dagger.  Upon reaching him, Zamza simply went down to his knees and pushed the knife up against the man's throat.  "Please tell me I do not need to do this" Zamza questioned, hoping to provide sympathy for at least one of the three men.

"N-n-no S-sir, p-please d-d-don't" the man pleaded, crying uncontrollably.

"Good" Zamza said, getting to his feet and walking over to girl, who was now awake,leaving the wounded man with the problem of having a sword lodged in his leg.

When Zamza reached the girl he was still amazed at how much she looked like Arya, despite the bruises on her face.  Zamza then ungagged her and untied her arms.  An instant later the girl jumped up at him and embraced him in a hug from which she would not let him go, and showered him with repeated thank you's mixed with tears of happiness.