Farn solemnly armed himself, double checking that all his knives were razor sharp and that they were securely strapped to him. He wasn't actually a part of the army, as he had instead been assigned to the reserve troops, but as the next head of Lejus Village, he would ride out to battle with his father, before going off to report to where he had been assigned. The only reason he was riding out to begin with was to raise morale, as the fighters knew that his father would never bring him into a dangerous situation. That was also the reason that Mel was riding out as well.

An hour later, he was waiting at the agreed location. His father was in front of him, his mother and uncle to his left, Mellana and her parents to his right. The two of them were sandwiched between the adults, for extra protection. A cloud of dust came towards them, which was revealed to be the army from Meir a minute later.

The two armies had stopped with quite a bit of distance between them, and the border between the villages directly in the middle.

"Gradas Meir! I have no wish for war between our villages. We can still discuss this, if you turn back now. If you don't, then war is certain!" Kadaras boomed, using his Spirit Energy to ensure that his voice carried over the opposite army. Gradas Meir stood at the front of the army, with his four generals directly behind him.

"You were the one who started this, Kadaras! I asked you for access to the falls, but you refused to grant it to my village! You brought this upon yourself!" Gradas yelled back.

Kadaras looked at the army. It was quite a bit larger than he expected, and he couldn't recognize some faces. Apparently, to gain an upper hand, Gradas had hired mercenaries. Farn, having come to the same conclusion, bit his lip, looking at Mellana with trepidation, only to find that she was looking at him in the exact same way. Reaching out, he grabbed her hand. She squeezed it.

At that moment, a loud sound echoed throughout the clearing. It sounded like... Well no one was quite sure as to what it sounded like, as no one had ever heard anything like it. Only Farn knew what it was.

A gunshot.

And the only person in the world who had a gun was Aurelie Kanos.

Turning his head so quickly that he nearly gave himself whiplash, Farn looked up at the source of the sound. Sitting on a tree branch that was just barely on Lejus' side of the boundary between the villages was Aurelie. She still had the weapon made of black metal raised above her head, the muzzle pointing towards the sky, and her legs were swinging beneath the branch. A wide smile stretched across her face, and it was evident that she had just taken a bath, her skin blood free and hair damp.

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When she was sure that everyone was looking at her, she jumped off her perch and landed softly on the ground.

"Hi!" She chirped, waving at Gradas animatedly, who looked as though he was having an aneurysm and a heart attack at the same time.

"Wha-... How...?" He stuttered, his face going from tomato red to the vicinity of plum purple, a vein above his head throbbing in a way that was decidedly not healthy.

Aurelie began to walk towards him, the smile on her face growing brighter. Farn and Mellana had never seen her like this. She was usually cheerful, but somehow this cheerfulness had an undercurrent of menace and lethality that was chilling. Her smile was the most entrancing and the scariest thing they had ever seen. It was like a train wreck. A horrible thing that you just couldn't take your eyes off of. Even Gradas twitched for a moment, before he reminded himself that Aurelie was just a second stage Master and a little girl. Then, predictably, he got angry at his fear. By the time she was a few inches away from him, Gradas was bristling with anger.

"Wondering how I'm here?" She asked. Though she was still grinning, she subtly tightened her grip on the gun. It was the only reason she had dared to get this close to begin with. Fact was, Meir could rip her head off with the same amount of force that a normal human (or was that Earthian now?) could rip a piece of paper apart, and he was way faster than her. But he wasn't faster than a bullet, especially one from close range. If he gave any indication of moving against her, she would shoot, consequences be damned.

"Well, it's a fairly long story involving a good amount of deception, and since you look like you’re about to strangle me, I should probably get out of your way now. But first, let me ask you a question. Why was I in Meir Village that night? What had I been doing there?"

The question startled Gradas so much that he didn't attempt to stop Aurelie as she walked away. He had been pondering that, but figured that it was just to create mischief, such as messing up training formations or destroying equipment, and put it out of his mind. But the gleam in her eyes when she asked him the question made him reconsider.

"Shall I give you a hint? It had something to do with... this." She said, snapping her fingers from where she stood, once again at the border of the two sides.

"Shut up! You are just attempting to buy time for Lejus aren't you! Well, it won't work!" Gradas yelled. He lifted the heavy claymore in his right hand and swiftly brought it down. "MEN! FORWARD!"

And then all hell broke loose.