[Land of Dragons] Key's and Locks. (Shiru)

[darkunslint]

Rellen had finally gotten out of the small dirty roads that lead through China Town. She had been out buying supplies, collecting them in case she needed them later on for synthesis. She was just walking down a small dirt track that led towards the forests when she stumbled.

Now, Rellen wasn’t the most careful of people, words to describe her could have been things such as, klutz, clumsy, tripping over a matchstick. And with that, down she tumbled, from a mere rock, down the grass bank stopping a mere metre in front of a small pond. The tall grass hid the pond well and she thanked the gods she didn’t roll just that little bit further.

“Ohhh shiiii—ugar. Burning in hell damned sugar lumping fudge cake” she cussed. She was never one for actually swearing so avoided it wherever possible with much more… happy words. She grabbed at her already red ankle, obviously she had sprained it from her fall, she looked around her, the synthesis materials she had bought where scattered around her so she began to collect them up. Slowly a pile formed, although they’re where probably one or two still out there somewhere.

Rellen placed her swelling ankle into the pond, allowing the cold waters to soothe her pains. Her biggest concern should have been how she was going to get back to her ship but the thing flashing through her mind was / Oh, I do hope no one saw me. I would feel such a fool. Knowing my luck I bet someone did. Oh…/ and the self-conversation continued for a fair while.

The one thing that Rellen hadn’t noticed was gone was her master key, obviously it had fallen out when she fell, but she was yet to notice that her most prized possession (Aside from her Moogle Teddy Bear which was safely tucked away in her backpack.) was gone!

[sephiroth]

As an adventurer with a large battleship and, as the saying went, nothing better to do, Shiru ended up wandering the worlds quite a lot. This time just happened to take him to a world he'd been just once before...

He hadn't even entered a city yet, merely wandering about the countryside. There was the occasional Heartless or five about, but today seemed more or less peaceful. It was odd, but certainly a welcome change. That said, he was hardly one to merely expect that a lull meant anything. He'd been wandering too long for it, and any new world he wasn't familiar with he knew better than to not keep one eye out while traversing.

Just one, though. The rest of his attention was set on trying to recall just how that tune went, so he could properly whistle it.

Shiru hadn't seen her fall, or he'd have rushed to her side to help. He did, however, as he crested a hill, see the woman lower her ankle into water, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that there may be something amiss. It was just enough of a chance that he altered his course, jogging easily down the slope and across the way, slowing to a walk as he neared her.

"Hey there!" One hand raised in a broad wave, the other fiddling with one of his many keychains. "Really nice day out, isn't it?"

[darkunslint]

Rellen had just lowered the ankle into the soothing water when she heard something, something coming towards her, through the tall grass down the slop that she had just tumbled. She turned, expecting to see a heartless or some other nasty to maker her bad day even worse. It was however a lad, in her opinion must have been around late teens or early twenties.

The lad seemed very jolly, his appearance was that of someone who enjoyed life and lived it to the full. He spoke to her about the nice day and she responded “ Yeah, its quite a nice day, so nice I got distracted and fell” she said as she motioned a hand to her ankle.” She looked at him curiously before adding in a half serious half joking tone “ Your not going to rob me are you?” she chuckled lightly.

She glanced around the other thickets, it was nice to know that she wasn’t alone, she hated that idea, it was the one thing that truly scared her heart, heartless pfft, worlds going poof pfft, loneliness…

She glanced back up at the man or boy, she was still trying to decide which and replied quite happily “ My name Is Rellen by the way, what’s your name?” She added in slowly “ Are you lost?” in a half sarcastic tone.

[sephiroth]

He'd be a mediocre thief at best, and just as likely to leave payment out of reflex. Though he may joke of being a pirate after his visits to the Caribbean, and despite the fact that he has an intergalactic (or interstellar, at least) warship, a good pirate he'd not make. (Even then, pirates, in his estimation, were still awesome.)

"Hm, nah. Just of your solitude." With that, Shiru plopped down merrily beside her on the bank, ever cheerful. Still, she did confirm one thing - she may well need help. Walking on a hurt ankle was not easy, and certainly at times like these, where darkness ran rampant, it wasn't ever a good thing. No worries, though. If he was here, the least he could do was get her back to the [insert name here] to recover. Lily was better at first aid than he was.

Then again, most everyone was better at it than he was.

"My name's Shiru. Or Crow, either works." To her second question, he merely grinned at an excuse to actually use the line. "And I am not lost; I am exploring."

Lost? It was hard to be when there was a ship in orbit that one could merely transfer back to, provided you gave it time to find your coordinates. That massively helped.

[darkunslint]

Rellen glances up at Shiru. “ Shiru is a … good name” she chuckled at her own stupidly for a moment. “ Not that there is any bad names” she continued snickering to herself before finally settling down. “ My name is Rellen. I came here seeking supp—“ and with that she broke off, glancing around her quickly to see that quite a few of the synthesise materials where still spread out. “—lies…” she finished.

Glancing around slowly laughed lightly as the boy explained about it. “ Is there really a difference between lost and exploration? If you are exploring you don’t know where you are going; that’s the definition of lost… right?” she smiled to herself and her little paradox she had created.

She hummed a small lighthearted tune to herself as she bathed her ankle. “ I like this pond, maybe it’s a good job I fell here” she chuckled to herself just before a dark shine appeared in the water. “ What the—“ Rellen broke off, quickly pulling her foot from the pond and rolling to the biggest pile of synthesising materials.

The Assault rider walked from the lake slowly at first and then came to a complete stop in front of Shiru and Rellen. “A thief of heart!” she gasped “ Shiru, run, I will hold it off for as long as I can.” Quickly she smashed a few of the synthesising materials together, throwing the glowing balls of synthesising at the heartless and they formed into normal sized swords before colliding with the heartless, these phased through the heartless body and the heartless turned around to watch them pass through the other side. “ Run, I can’t distract him for long” she re-announced.

[sephiroth]

Though he blinked when she paused, he didn't question further on it. "Haha! Yeah, maybe," Shiru conceded. Lost, exploring... maybe exploring is getting lost voluntarily. He shrugged it off as rhetoric and left it at that.

It was a good pond, at that. And he decided then and there that he liked Rellen's attitude. In fact, he was distracted enough to not even notice the heartless until it was almost upon them. "Whu-oh," he'd said, just as Rellen also spoke.

At that, he was up on his feet in an instant. This thing felt strong; a thing he wasn't able to sense before. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. And Rellen was immoble...

Well, that left just one option.

"Notta chance!" He did run, though - towards the thing, calling Sentinel in a grey-violet pulse to his hands. "Just stay back!"

He was slowly getting used to fighting with Sentinel. There was a constant secondary almost-awareness in the back of his head now, ever since it came to him, but drawing the weapon out amplified that sense easily twofold, or more. He could attack it, and would have to get close to do so, but moreover he had the idea that doing so was going to be tricky. The only real way to know, though, was by --

That spear moved faster than he could even see. All he was aware of was being knocked straight into the water with a splash, nightmare keyblade, keychains and all, and rushing forward again, this time with a plan forming...

[darkunslint]

Rellen watched in horror as he Shiru charged at the monster. “ No Shiru” Strange, she had only just met him yet the thought of losing him seemed unbearable. That’s when it happened, the purple flash, her eyes instantly caught along the large key. What was it?

Rellen’s eyes transformed into a querying stare, lost in a trance as the information came to her from the key. Ingredients to create one, this was … unreal. No matter how Rellen tried she could not comprehend what she saw. It was purity, either pure darkness or light in a heart. A heart of purity… that was the ingredient for a key? A heart of purity… so either pure darkness or pure light, one or the other, it was already obvious which Shiru was.

“I will help you” Rellen yelled as she took her dagger from her shoe and stood up quickly… so quickly in fact that her ankle collapsed under the pressure from her body and she fell back down again. She really wanted him help him but what could she do?

Grabbing handful of a material she flung it towards Shiru as it glowed a white and changed into a small potion. “ Drink that,” she said. After being hit by that large lance and blasted into the river he was sure to need a little heal. For now there was little more she could do, the pile of synthesising materials nearby was running low and she couldn’t move to get the others.

“ I’m counting on you,” she whispered to the wind.

[sephiroth]

Too fixated on the monster before him, Shiru failed to catch just how the potion was made - just catching the potion itself as it entered his peripheral. He downed it without second thought. "Thanks, Rellen!"

And with that, he charged through the water towards the heartless, keeping low, and ready to dodge to either side in an instant.

The centaur - for he had no better term for it, and it so closely resembled the creature of myth - also charged, which meant that all Shiru had to do was time his motions carefully. One time being knocked into the water was enough for him. This time, the moment it struck, he dove into a roll to its side, hoping that his speed would be enough to avoid being trampled by the thing, and slashed Sentinel into its underside as he came out of the roll. "Too slow!"

All he had to do now was just keep that up, and then get Rellen out of here. Now wasn't the time or place, it seemed.

One of these days, they'd have that back - the ability to just enjoy a countryside without fear or being in the dark without having to fear nameless shapes just beyond it. One day.

But for now, all that was left to do was fight for that day.

[darkunslint]

All Rellen could do was hope, hope that this wonderful stranger called Shiru could save her. This weapon, there was something about it, that key… could it be the key of the worlds? The sacred thing that their world had waited for all that time but never gotten. How did this kid get it? It was a sacred myth that a man of extreme power held the key of worlds that was the only thing of sealing the heart of the world away. Yet this kid had something so similar… she should ask later.

She panted a few times, synthesising really took it out on you, especially when you had been walking all day then had fallen down a hill. She glanced up and watched, that’s when she had an overpowering sense to do something, something she had never done before… she prayed.

Clasping her hands she whispered lowly, not to a god, not to anyone really, merely to the strength of the boy “Please let Shiru overcome this. Please let him be ok. Please give him my strength,” her own heart sang for the hope of Shiru.

“Bearer of the key of worlds save us” she mumbled.