Heirot

"I'm called Mayn," Mayn replied excitedly to the other girl. "Is this your house?" she asked, looking up at the house."

Rai nodded and looked behind her. She waved to Soran. "Yep!" she said and smiled. "Would you like to play with me? No one here wants to play."

Rai didn't give any thought to the fact it was late at night and there was a child wondering around by herself.

"Sure! I suppose I have a little time to spare from my secret hideout," Mayn said proudly.

Rai grinned and looked at the girl. "A secret hide out?! Can I see? Please!" Rai found the idea of a secret hide out so interesting she was practically jumping up and down to go see it.

Mayn looked at Rai suspiciously. "It's top secret," she warned. "But I can show you."

"I won't tell anyone," Rai said truthfully, smiling and looking back at Soran for a moment. "But, I don't know if Soran would want me to go with you in the dark woods with out him... I might get into trouble for wondering off." Rai remembered clearly what happened the last time she wondered off.

"Oh, you two must be very close," Mayn observed. She looked thoughtful in a childish way. "If you think he can be trusted, he can come too."

Rai giggled. "He can be trusted!" She turned around and waved at Soran. "Soran! Come here!" She called to him, begging him in her voice to come fast.

"Hurry!"

Soran was watching Rai from the porch, recognizing the girl she was talking to as the girl he'd seen with Mizuki earlier. When she called to him, he calmly jumped down from the porch and walked over to where the two children were standing. "Meet someone?" he asked Rai calmly, casting a flat glance at the white-haired girl beside her.

Rai nodded. "Yes, she wants to show me a secret hide out. But, I told her I couldn't wonder off. So you can come too!" Rai told him, grabbing his hand.

Soran looked back at the house, where Mizuki was. After all that had just happened, he had an urge to be with her, but this shouldn't take long. "It's nearby, right? Let's make this fast," he said calmly to the girls.

"Yay!" Mayn said, and spun around. "You guys are the first people i've shown it to! It's a little ways down the river," she said, and promptly began skipping away and along the riverbank, glancing back over her shoulder to gesture energetically for them to follow. Soran followed her with Rai, easily keeping up with Mayn's pace with a swift walk.

Rai pulled away from Soran to skip along with the girl, Mayn. "Is it big? Rai asked, wondering what the secret place could look like.

Jhaptal/Tensho had been all of this from in a tree, well hidden by the shadows of the leaves. Once Soran and the girls were out of eyeshot, he dropped out of it and walked at a brisk pace towards the house. For now his clothing was still the same as before except for the addition of an extra belt pouch.

When he entered the house he gave a nod of greeting at the people inside, then walked over to the katana he and Soran had retrieved.

"It's not too big, but it's very cool," Mayn said happily, leading them on for what began to seem to Soran quite a long time.

When they'd walked several minutes, he said, "Just where exactly is this hideout of yours?"

"Almost there," Mayn smiled sweetly, and they soon approached an abandoned beaver dam that stretched out across half of the river. "This is my hideout!" she bragged and knelt down to crawl into a gap at the edge of the dam. "Come on!" she encouraged, turning back to wave Rai to follow her into the child-sized tunnel that led into the dam.

Rai eyed the beaver dam warily... She didn't know if she wanted to go in or not. It seemed dangerous being built on the river... and she wasn't entirely good at swimming yet. What would happen if it caved in?

Rai shrugged and looked back at Soran. Rai got on her knees and followed behind Mayn.