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And here we are wis outlined flat color, which continues until page 4-6. It gets the point across, but it's even uglier than the usual stuff, isn't it? I'm working on re-drawing these pages, but it'll take a while to get them all done. And now for a leetle story about how Sano and Seijuurou first met. ***

Seijuurou had been aware of the horsemen concealed in the trees as he'd passed, but they hadn't seemed to care about him. There were only a few reasons for people to be hiding thus, waiting silently on either side of the road in a such a dense area of the forest, none of which he particularly liked, so he'd left the lane just after the next bend and made his way back quietly through the trees to keep an eye on things. He could simply have confronted them about their suspicious behavior, but was interested in seeing how the scene would play out if there turned out to be one.

Presently a wagon came lumbering around that same bend, loaded high with cargo and manned by a couple of relatively sturdy, middle-aged women whose conversation, though not particularly loud, would probably keep them from hearing anything from those that lay in wait until it was too late.

Such proved to be the case. Their horse came to an abrupt halt, jerking the equipage to a similarly precipitous stop, as the two others that had burst from the trees perpendicular to the road blocked the latter neatly by facing each other across it. A long moment of silence followed as the women watched the riders warily and the horsemen, completely ignoring the merchants, examined the wagon's contents and construction with easy, pleased expressions. The sword in the hand of one and the other's bent bow made their intentions clear.

The women, unable to produce weapons of their own for fear of being shot, shifted uneasily. "What do you want?" the driver finally demanded, her tone and bearing impressively unintimidated.

"Get down and walk away from the wagon." The man gestured with his sword. "Just down the road a bit, where we can still see you."

"And if we don't care to?" replied the driver coolly.

"Then we'll still take your wagon," the second man said, tightening his drawn bowstring, "only you won't walk away."

The second woman murmured something to the first, whose grip on the reins slackened somewhat, but neither moved. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement," the driver said.

The first bandit glanced at the second with an expression of feigned confusion. "Didn't we just explain the agreement?"

"I think we did," the second concurred seriously; he didn't look away from his targets.

"My mistake," said the woman with a tight smile.

"All is forgiven," the bandit replied mockingly.

"I thought the king took care of all you Ayundomei bandits in this area," the driver went on, almost conversationally.

"We're new to the business," answered the first man somewhat smugly.

"But you are from Ayundome?"

The bowman opened his mouth to answer this, but the swordsman cut him off. "That's right! Born and raised in Celoho, but we heard there was easy pickings here." This was obviously untrue -- judging by the man's accent, he couldn't have been born and raised anywhere other than this very region -- but the bandit was just as obviously not stupid enough to admit where he and his companion were actually from.

The wagon driver didn't care, though. She was just trying to keep the men talking and distracted long enough for her companion to reach slowly behind her without being noticed. Then things would get ugly.

"We're headed for Eloma," she continued. "City goods fetch a good price out here."

"Oh, don't I know it," grinned the bandit. "But you're not taking nothing to Eloma."

"This is stuff they need," the merchant protested.

"Sure it is," the man agreed. "Only now they'll pay us for it, not you."

The other woman's hand was slowly closing around the hilt of a long knife that lay half-concealed behind her in the high-piled cargo. Which meant it was time to intervene; no matter how skilled she was with the weapon, the odds were badly against her, especially with that nocked arrow pointed so surely at the other's chest.

Seijuurou, who didn't fancy seeing the women get shot or robbed blind, stood straight from where he'd been leaning against a tree to watch. But before he'd taken a single step a new voice joined the conversation beyond.

"Some reason you're blocking the road here?"

It was a loud, annoyed, suspicious tone, and a familiar one. Seijuurou's view of the newcomer was obstructed by a tree, but he recognized the voice and the accompanying energy; it was Eloma's resident heretic, the boy with the brown hair and angry expression. At the inn where Seijuurou had been restocking his liquor, he'd overheard that voice conversing with the innkeeper's, accepting an errand to Egato, which explained the young man's presence on the forest road. He must have left shortly after Seijuurou, and had now arrived, shortly after Seijuurou, at the miniature, confrontational roadblock just in time to provide the distraction the merchants needed.

Both of the bandits looked around, startled, for a mere fraction of a moment, and that fraction was all it took for the woman to draw and throw her knife.

The bowman cried out, weapon falling from his now-bleeding hand and the suddenly-loosed arrow flying harmlessly high into a tree. The other woman shook the reins and called out shrilly to her horse, which leaped forward; the bandits' startled mounts protested and fell back as the wagon thundered by. Seijuurou, who had avanced nearly to the road's edge, observed the young man from Eloma spring aside to avoid being trampled, then return quickly to the center of the lane to confront the furious thieves.

He was now holding a sword, and Seijuurou noted with some surprise that it was a keonblade. Given the inexpert grip on the hilt and the shortness of the energy blade, Seijuurou might well have thought him yet another bandit, this one with a stolen weapon he didn't know how to use, if he hadn't already been aware (in general) who the young man was. He doubted the real bandits knew much about keonmastery, however, and wasn't surprised that they were now eyeing the rough-looking, irritated heretic in blood-red with easily as much caution as anger. It took guts, after all, to stand up to two armed, mounted men, and it took guts to walk around in public dressed like that.

"I fucking hate bandits," the young man announced.

"And I fucking hate little shits who think they're big enough to get in my way," the swordsman replied, kicking his mount into motion. The bravado in his tone, matching that of the heretic, really didn't do much for him; it wasn't difficult to be brave facing a man on foot when you were on a horse.

The boy, to his greater credit, stood his ground, scowling, as the animal and its murderous rider bore down on him. At the last second the horse, no more anxious for a collision than the heretic probably was, despite its superior size, swerved aside. The swordsman swept the weapon in his hand at his target, but the latter dodged and struck out at the bandit's leg with the pommel of his own sword. Seijuurou couldn't quite see everything clearly through the mess of branches that still concealed his presence, but the blow must have connected, for the bandit roared and was overly slow in halting and wheeling his horse.

Meanwhile, the young man had turned toward his second enemy, who had been groaning over an injured hand and attempting clumsily to wrap it up with something. The bow still lay on the earth where it had fallen, and the bandit looked on warily as the heretic bent and picked it up; his expression changed to one of slight dismay as he watched the boy toss the object into the air without a word and swing his sword at it with shocking force. The bow did not break all the way through, but there was a loud cracking sound as the blade made contact, and a second similar noise as the ruined weapon hit the ground hard. The young man kicked it away, toward the edge of the road and the trees, then turned to face the swordsman again. The latter was now even angrier than before and ready for another charge.

Now it was really time to intervene. Though the bandit's anger would likely make him even more careless, the fact that he was mounted still put the Eloma boy at a disadvantage -- and the other man might not sit there nursing his hand forever. Seijuurou stepped from the trees and drew his own sword, allowing it to flash slightly as the blade extended. "This has gone far enough," he declared. "It's time for both of you to go back to wherever you came from and rethink your way of life; if you continue to prey on travelers in this area, you will not live long."

All three of the others present stared at him in surprise; as the bandits looked him over, this, in their case, changed to trepidation. Seijuurou met the gaze of the swordsman without emotion, and it wasn't long before the bandit broke eye contact and looked away, then urged his animal uncomfortably past Seijuurou and the heretic to join his companion.

Horse or no horse, it was a little more difficult to be brave facing Seijuurou than it had been to face the younger man.

After a muttered conference, the bandits took off up the road at a brisk trot. The first man, who'd sheathed his sword, did look back once as if he wanted to make a defiant parting remark, but seemed to think better of it. Seijuurou watched until they were out of sight, then put his own weapon away and went to retrieve the knife that the merchant had thrown and been forced to abandon. When he returned to where the heretic was standing and looking a little baffled, he said, "It was a good thought, but a trifle suicidal." And he held out the knife.

"What do I want that for?" the boy asked.

"You'll be in Eloma again sooner than I will," explained Seijuurou. "If they're still there, you can return it. If not, keep it; they owe you that much at least."

Slowly the young man reached out and took the knife, then turned to stare up the road in the direction the riders had gone. "I would have pounded both their asses into the dirt if you hadn't scared 'em off," he grumbled discontently.

With a raised brow Seijuurou said, "Not with that weapon, you wouldn't have."

"What? Why the hell not?" The heretic glanced down at his keonblade, his scowl not diminishing, then sheathed it.

"Come on," the bigger man gestured. "It's going to rain soon." There was no mistaking the heavy, wet scent and feel of the air, and Seijuurou wanted to get home. He hadn't planned on having his walk back from town interrupted by stupid criminal activities. When the boy caught up with him a few paces later he went on, "I'd recommend taking some lessons before you run into someone who actually knows how to use a keonblade."

"Someone like you?"

Seijuurou nodded. "Fortunately, I'm not inclined to kill you at the moment."

"Well, who says I wasn't just holding back on purpose? Those guys woulda been too easy to beat with a full blade."

"I say," replied Seijuurou with a roll of his eyes. "Where and why did you get a keonblade if you don't know how to use one?"

"Someone who came through here a couple of months back had one for sale. I figured it couldn't be too hard to figure out. Since when are you an expert on this, anyway? Aren't you that potter who lives all alone up past the crossroads?"

"Yes. My name is Seijuurou. And I've been a keonmaster since before you were born."

"How fucking young do you think I am?" the boy retorted skeptically, perhaps not realizing that he was inadvertently complimenting Seijuurou with his incredulity. "And if you're so great, why are you living all alone in the middle of the forest?"

"How young do you think I am?" wondered Seijuurou mildly, entirely ignoring the young man's second question. "And what's your name?"

"Sano," replied the other.

"You're a heretic, I understand."

"Yeah... that a problem?"

"Only for you."

Sano rolled his eyes.

"I was impressed by your little performance today," Seijuurou informed him, "and that doesn't happen often. If you're interested in learning how to use that second-hand weapon of yours, we could probably make arrangements."

Now Sano's eyes widened. "What, just like that? You've been coming into town every couple of weeks to buy shit for as long as I've lived there and never once talked to me, but all of a sudden when you see me swinging some crappy keon sword around you're willing to train me even though I'm a heretic?"

"That about summarizes it," Seijuurou nodded. "Of course it won't be free, but I'm sure we can agree on reasonable terms."

Sano opened his mouth, looking concerned, but Seijuurou interrupted him, gesturing at the road ahead as he spoke. "Here's where we part. I don't feel like standing around talking to you in the rain, and you need to get moving if you're going to be back from Egato before Mis'hyou. If you're interested, come to my house when you do get back; you can't miss it if you keep on up this road."

They'd reached the juncture where the way to Egato met the road up the mountain from Eloma. With a slight nod at the somewhat bemused Sano, Seijuurou didn't break his stride as he left the young man standing uncertainly at the crossroad and continued on toward home.

"I'll... see you then, then..." Sano called from behind him.