Ryuku sat alone on the edge of the riverbed, one foot dipped into the cool water while he rubbed the soreness out of the other. The day hadn’t been particularly hard and the weather had been pleasant for many days now but the months of traveling were taking their toll on the young monk. He had trained his body for such hardships but without any rest he was starting to get worn down.

Ryuku was large by Cizokian standards, for he was a one hundred percent Cizokian. He stood a couple inches over six feet and was heavily muscled, weighing over two hundred pounds. He wore no shirt as he rested and the multitude of scars were visible, some caused by various weapons and others by the claws and fangs of different animals while some were nothing more then the scrapes one accumulates over their childhood years.

The monk carried a small traveling pack that budged at its seams and pockets with equipment and goods but he bore no weapons or armor, something that was odd for one traveling off the beaten path.

The sun was still high in the day and Ryuku wasn’t sure he wanted to continue, he knew he would have to swim the river a task he was sure he could complete without much difficulty but it would still be tiring and he wanted very much to find a warm spot on one of the large rocks protruding from the water and lay in the sun like some hairless bear.

He decided there was time to spare and he laid back on the sandy bank to watch the clouds as they passed over head, attributing their forms with different objects, animals and even people. It was a game he had enjoyed as a child and one he enjoyed just as much now when he could pretend things were as they used to be…

For awhile, Ryuku was alone and maintaining a calm silence. Around him, there was only the sound of birdsongs, as no travelers appeared to be coming this way with any degree of regularity. And it would have remained just as peaceful, too, had it not been so sporadically interrupted.

Still laying down with his eyes upon the clouds, Ryuku would see a face pop into his vision--upside-down, for that matter, as whoever it was stood behind him.

"Hello!" a young, cheerful falsetto greeted.

What stood above Ryuku was something blatantly child-like: a short and frail stature, a youthful face, an innocent smile . . .

There were, of course, some problems. Two, specifically. Firstly, Ryuku would probably have a hard time figuring out what this child was. It was either a young boy with girlish features or a young girl with boyish features. But given the age range, something akin to early pubescence, that wasn't exactly uncommon. Though the fact that the child wore an oversized orange kimono certainly made discerning gender that much harder. That wasn't the strangest thing about the child's appearance, though. The strangest aspect was its complexion--more specifically, its lack of complexion. The child's skin was a porcelain white, its bushy, chin length hair was a light gray, and its eyes a strange and vaguely feral yellow.

Second, and probably most important, was that Ryuku would have in no way, shape, or form saw, heard, or felt this individual coming. When the child stood in his view, yes, there was the sight and feeling of someone being there, but before that? Not in the slightest . . .

The way the warm breeze was blowing through the area combined with the slowly and rhythmic movements of the clouds above Ryuku were enough to make the young man loose track of time. He didn’t how many minutes passed while he laid there nor would he likely care, these were the moments he cherished when he reflected on them later.

Still, all good things had to come to an end. Some more abruptly then others and when a head peaked its way into his view, not giving him the slightest bit of notice Ryuku literally jumped with surprise. It wasn’t often his keen senses failed to alert him of someone approaching.

Luckily more for himself than the small child (Ryuku certainly wouldn’t condone hitting a child) Ryukus first instinct wasn’t to lash out at what surprised him, and after a brief moment of utter confusion Ryuku smiled unsurely at the child above him.

“Uhh… hi.” He said while slowly turning to sit and face the very pale ….boy…no..girl he told himself.

“Are you out here alone?” Ryuku asked as he looked around to make sure he hadn’t somehow failed to notice the approach of more than a single person.

The kid, a girl who looked somewhere between eleven and thirteen, folded her hands behind her back and smiled cheerfully at Ryuku. She hadn't meant to startle him, but there was no harm done--so, why fret over it? She didn't seem too worried about it, at least.

"I am," she replied.

She wouldn't have looked out of place at all were she only less . . . porcelain colored. Her kimono was very traditional and appeared to be very well kept, to boot. They had a Common name for people like this, something akin to an "albino," but unless Ryuku was well versed in the Common language, he likely wouldn't know of that. It all really depended on how well traveled he was.

The albino girl look at the dirt and pinched a few blades of grass with her big toe. Which Ryuku might have noticed eventually, because she wasn't exactly wearing shoes, sandals, or even socks.

"Are you?"

Ryuku stared at the girl, though he personally still didn’t know if the kid was a he or a she and it simply felt rude to ask that sort of thing and so he decided it best to remain oblivious for the time being.

“Not anymore.” Ryuku said with a cheerful grin and decided to stay seated as he spoke for two reasons. The first was that sitting down he was at eye level with the child and second was because standing he was likely to seem much more intimidating, especially with the assortment of scars he had collected.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but you appear to be very young, far too young to be wandering the wilderness alone.” It may have been strange for anyone else watching but Ryuku spoke to the girl with the same respect he would have an adult, he hated offending people regardless of their age and this interaction was no different from any others.

The girl was very odd in appearance with her white skin, white hair and even stranger to Ryuku were the nearly glowing yellow eyes that were like those of a wolf he told himself. He tried his hardest not to stare rudely but it was obvious that he was confused by her presence…she had to be here for a reason.

"Well, that is true!" she exclaimed merrily.

She shut her eyes, tilted her head, and smiled brightly. Even giggled a little. To say she was an unhappy teenager would've been a steadfast lie.

"Hm?" she opened her eyes and blinked confused.

Wait--she was too young to be out here? The girl looked down at her feet, the ground, and all around her. She was not aware of this rule . . .

"I am?" she asked as she looked back to Ryuku, "I think . . . I am not . . . too young? Because I am out here, so I cannot be too young?"

By her logic, because she was out on her own, she could not possibly be disallowed to wander around outside on her own. This logic was sound and entirely rational!

Ryuku really couldn’t argue with the young girls logic, though he didn’t agree with it. “Hmm…” Ryuku thought tapping the tip of a finger against his lips. He came to the conclusion that it didn’t really matter, the girl was here now and there was no changing that.

“That’s true I suppose. Here you are.” He said gesturing to her with his other hand. “Are there houses near by… a town or anything?” Ryuku didn’t think there was, he hadn’t seen any signs of people in the area but that didn’t mean there wasn’t, he was by no means an experienced tracker.

“Well, allow me to introduce myself, I am Ryuku.” He said with a slight nod of his head and then gestured back towards the river. “And I am planning to get ready to swim across this river here.”

“Why do you wander about the forest?”

Yes, indeed she was out here, and it was nice. It was a nice day out. The girl looked up to the sky and parted her lips. The sun was out in all its glory and it made her feel oddly enthusiastic, as if she could bathe in its warmth all day, every day.

"I do not know," she said as she leveled her eyes with Ryuku again, her tone fitting the momentary lapse into confusion she experienced at this line of questioning, "I do not know where I am."

Not that it seemed to bother her or anything. Really, she just seemed to be slightly confused, looking around her and such, but all that aside, she didn't seem all that concerned. The girl was so unconcerned with it, in fact, that she dropped the subject entirely. Instead, she sat down next to Ryuku, hugged her knees to her chest, and looked across the river. He said he was going to swim this?

"Why do you need to swim across?" she asked.

Thing were getting more and more peculiar by the second and the fact that she didn’t know where she was struck Ryuku as more than slightly odd, either she was lying or she truly didn’t know. Ryuku didn’t think she was lying to him, there was nothing to gain from it as far as he knew so he quickly ruled that option out. The only other thing Ryuku could think of then was amnesia.

“No. I could walk further along until I came to a bridge.” Ryuku reasoned. “But, I want to swim it.”

“Well, if you don’t know where you are do you know your name or where you are from?” Ryuku thought it prudent to ask the most basic of questions first if the girl did indeed have amnesia or something similar than …well he didn’t really know as he had never met someone with amnesia and so he was really just stabbing at the dark.

The girl pulled her knees away from her chest and dipped her toes in the water. It was warm and soothing and brought a smile to her face.

"Alekhi," she replied without a thought, pronouncing it name with an almost silent h, though prevalent enough to still be noticeable, "That is my name."

Her name was definitely not Cizokian--but then again, aside from the clothes she wore, the girl did not look Cizokian in the least. As far as the structure of her face went, she looked Mid-Continental, but the other details of her form strongly challenged that concept.

"I do not think I am from anywhere," Alekhi said, and as if it was a detail that mattered very little to her, she proceeded to look over at Ryuku and ask: "Are you going to swim alone?"

‘Not from anywhere?’ Ryuku thought that was an odd thing indeed. Then again this was a child and who knew what Alekhi meant by it. He continued on and nodded his head as if it all made perfect sense to him. It was obvious to Ryuku that there was more then just the childs looks that were odd.

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you Alekhi.” Ryuku knew more than your average person about what laid outside Cizokian borders and the girls looks were foreign to him. Though he guessed here origins would have been somewhere to the north maybe, beyond the charted territories.

“I had planned too, for I was alone until just a moment ago.” He looked the small girl over, she didn’t look like much and Ryuku certainly didn’t think she could swim the width of the river especially since he had purposely searched out a wide spot where the current was more difficult then in the other areas.

“Did you need to get across?” He asked as he stepped into the waters edge, testing it’s warmth for himself.

Though she didn't exactly say it, it seemed it was a pleasure having met Ryuku, too, as she smiled at him and giggled slightly. Soon after, though, she had her eyes back on the water.

"No," she shook her head and looked across the river. "But I do not have anywhere else to go."

Alekhi tested the water, kicked her left foot lightly and caused a small splash. Odd! She scooted forward, sat right at the water's edge, and set her finger within it, circled it around slightly, and pulled it back to her lips. Doubly odd, but at least it was tasty.

"Why do you need to cross the river?" she asked as she looked to Ryuku again.

She was full of questions, to be sure, but then again, Ryuku hadn't exactly been too terribly clear with his reasons, and Alekhi had no qualms asking personal questions.

It was a profound question really and coming from someone so young it forced Ryuku to stop and think.

‘Why indeed do I need to?’ He thought as he looked at the river. Even with the current the river wouldn’t provide much of a challenge. Ryuku looked down to his toes, he too was wearing no shoes, and watched as he buried them in the sand.

“Why not swim it?” He asked back with a shrug of his shoulders. In truth he didn’t really have a great answer, not that he expected Alekhi wanted one. She was a child and was asking because she didn’t understand.

“I rather enjoy swimming.” He said with a smile. “It keeps the body in great shape and it’s something between me and my destination…wherever that may be.” He didn’t expect the child to understand but that didn’t stop him from talking. He rarely had anyone to talk to and he disdained going into cities any longer then he needed too. He almost laughed at himself, trying to justify himself to one he figured was nearly a third his age.

“What were you doing before you found me laying here?” Ryuku asked his own questions as he become more curious about the youth in front of him.

The girl nodded her head and smiled at Ryuku. That made sense to her! She liked the water. It felt nice on her toes. It would probably feel nice if she were swimming, too! Which meant she'd probably like exercising, too. Hm. Maybe she'd have to try that sometime. Maybe today. Who knows? She swirled the water with her feet, then, upon looking at Ryuku's foot, pushed her toes in the sand, too. Odd! That felt kind of nice! Alekhi felt the urge to giggle.

"I do not know," she replied.

For a second, she went silent, mulling it over. But that only lasted for so long; after a moment, she just shrugged her shoulders. The question wasn't important to her, really, nor were any of the implications. They were so unimportant, in fact, that she didn't even think about them.

Ryuku roughly scratched the brown mop of hair on his head with a confused look on his face. The girl didn’t seem to know anything but her name. Had she been knocked unconscious and had just happened to wake up with Ryuku near? The chances were unlikely he told himself, yet her e she was and with no memory to boot.

“Guess it’s not really important than.” He said out loud but more to himself .

He couldn’t just leave the girl here and swim across the river, Ryuku had an obligation to help her and if he didn’t he told himself she would likely die. With a new resolve, forgetting about the river, he looked to the girl with a smile.

“I believe the water is shallower and a lot calmer down this way. Why don’t we cross it together?” He asked and gestured for her to follow down the rivers sandy edge.