"We won't even have to hide killing you." Kelsi reached for her medallion but he was faster, pinning her arm to the tree before drawing his knife. Kelsi's eyes followed it as he slid it from its sheath. The blade caught the small bit of sunlight filtering in through the trees and threw it in her face. She flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, not opening them again as she anticipated the pain.

Instead she heard the man grunt and the branch creak as he shifted and started to fall…. dragging Kelsi down with him. Kelsi's eyes flew open and she scrambled to hold onto the branch. An arrow of golden light thunked into his side and his feet lost purchase. Kelsi held on tightly with both her legs and hands. His nails left deep gouges in her neck as he fell.

Before he could hit the forest floor, he disappeared, likely using his adventurer's medallion to teleport away to safety. Kelsi looked down and found Kyna gone already as well. And standing a few feet away, amidst the trees, lowering their golden bow was a familiar face.

They fixed their silvery-white eyes on her, face impassive, and Kelsi instantly tensed to run…

Then someone burst out of the bushes next to them. A young boy with short white hair in a middle part, pale skin, dark eyes, and white robes with twigs and leaves clinging to him. "Truth elude them!" he shouted, stomping up to the spot Kyna had been standing in just minutes earlier, "I can't believe those liars and murderers got away!"

The pale, red-headed girl Kelsi remembered being a part of the Golden Coin Guild's Beta team, stepped out of the bushes after the boy, "chill kid, at least we stopped them from killing someone else." She looked up at Kelsi, fixing her red-eyed gaze upon her that didn't make her want to run as much as the archer's, "you alright?" She jerked her thumb at the young boy, "he can heal you if you're hurt."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Kelsi shook her head, shrinking back into the shade of the foliage. The red-haired girl frowned, lowering her hand, her concern tainted by suspicion. Kelsi almost fled right then, barely keeping herself in place by her grip on the tree branch.

"Your neck's bleeding, are-" Kelsi screamed, her feet slipping out from under her, and plummeted to the ground. She tried to catch herself with one hand. Her arm slipped out of the shoulder socket at the impact. For a blissful second she didn't feel much of anything until the pain hit. She flopped onto her back, whimpering.

The orange-haired girl that had appeared on the branch next to Kelsi, stared down at her wincing when she hit the ground. Kelsi fumbled for her adventurer's medallion, having to fully reach around her body to grab for it. She couldn't quite get ahold of it before the archer was stepping up to the bush she landed in and looking down on her, eyes piercing through her. "You're Hiro and Alphonse's teammate, aren't you?"

The girl looking down on them from the tree blinked a few times rapidly, her eyes widening, "shit, is she? Does that mean those two are around?"

The young boy in white also approached Kelsi, waving a staff that was similar to Hiro's but much smoother and pure white. Her arm popped back into its socket and the cuts on her neck closed up. When he lowered his staff, there was nothing but a dull ache left. Kelsi rolled her shoulder a few times experimentally then shoved her hand into her pocket to loosely had her medallion.

The archer offered a hand to help Kelsi up. She hesitated but eventually put her free hand in their and let them pull her to her feet. "Are they in danger?"

Kelsi started to shake her head then stopped, "…maybe…?"

She stifled a second scream as the orange haired girl disappeared from her perch and reappeared next to Kelsi again. "Where are they?"

Kelsi shuffled a bit away, looking down, "they are in the village… Kyna said she wanted to kill them."

"The young boy's hands tightened around his staff, "we got to stop these falsifiers' lies and- ow!" the boy was cut off when the red-haired girl dropped her fist on top of his head, "shut up, you're freaking her out."

The boy rubbed his head and stuck his tongue out, running to hide behind the archer when she raised her fist again.

The tan, orange-haired girl cleared her throat, "we owe Hiro and Alphonse." the red-haired girl made a face like she was sucking on a lemon, "we want to help."