Akira found herself darting into an alley in an attempt to lose her tail. While she ran, the foxling giggled to herself. She would never lose her tail, but the tail she sought to lose was actually the authorities. This time, there was no way to use her family or plethora of friends to bail herself out of this mess. No, this was her fault, and she would take care of it herself. After turning the next corner, Akira found herself bouncing off something soft and landing on her tush rather hard.

It all started when she saw a young girl, about the same age she was before Akira got adopted. The poor thing was hungry. All of her time with the boys in Hoja Mesto had been a relatively bad influence upon her, as Akira never outgrew her thieving. Even with the money in her pocket to pay for the loaf of bread, Akira wasn't even thinking about payment as she took it and handed it off to the child. She was grateful, her large eyes dancing with glee as she gave Akira a smile and darted off, gone long before the authorities came marching up.

As she would when she ran with the thieves guild, Akira ran. To her, this was fun and games, something to do with the boys. Even though they weren't here, Akira still found it exhilarating to run. From where she was on the ground, Akira gazed up to see a bear-like man loom over her. This was not a Lokir kind of bear, either. He was large as a barrel, with limbs as thick as trunks of a tree. A large bushy beard covered half of his chest and buried half of his face that his pink lips could not even bee seen.

To make matters worse, there was a sound that only Akira could hear, causing her fox ears to twitch. Pain was blossoming from her wrist and palms, the droning in her ears more of an annoyance than something to deal with immediately. With experience, it was most probably just a sprain and scrape. "Akira sorry! Late to meet mother." Scrambling to her feet, Akira went to dart away, only to find the back of her clothing snatched by his beefy fingers, holding her in place. "Looks like I caught a mouse."

Fleeing for one's life was a wonderful way to pass the time. Or perhaps that was just Attie's overly optimistic look on things. She was bolting away from the guards whom she had wronged in a deep way. Attie hadn't done any crime like murder or theft, instead her single worst crime was that she annoyed them with an overload of personal questions that they refused to answer. In response to these questions, they had decided to arrest her under charge of disrupting their work and possibly being a spy of some sort. Now Attie was fated to flee across the streets until they stopped chasing her. In her past experience most gave up after the third alleyway. 

When thieves spotted her, they decided to not rob her. It wasn't because she was too pretty or too pure. Attie wore no shoes, had a simple bag, and didn't appear to hold wealth of any kind. The only thing on her that might have been valuable was her necklace made up of claws and a tooth or her glasses. But even those weren't of any particular value. Besides she was a fast runner and appeared to be already hunted down by somebody else. Attie darted into several different alleyways. She reached into her back and pulled out a simple journal to write in. 

"Lets see." She huffed out loud, "While fleeing from guards its best to run into the alleyways. And guards don't like to be asked whether or not they are allowed to sleep with their captain." 

Attie scribbled down this information as she turned into another alleyway. Due to the fact she was writing in her journal and not paying attention to her surroundings, she ran smack into the back of the bear thief man that was holding Akira. The ink that she had carefully balanced on her arm fell to the ground and shattered against the stone path. Ink flew everywhere. Specifically into the thief's eyes. Attie scrambled to her feet and noticed that there was a child. It took two seconds for Attie to realize that children shouldn't be with thieves. She attempted to grab the girl's arm and run. 

"Run! Ink doesn't do well in people's eyes!" She shouted out loud. 

 Attie had managed to keep a hold of her journal in her left arm. Otherwise all of that precious knowledge might have been lost. A greater possible danger than two groups of people trying to murder or capture them. 

An approaching commotion was unmistakable as Akira fought to keep her balance with her momentum being halted so suddenly. "Let me go!" she yelped. Footsteps were rapidly approaching, the man starting to turn to check behind him when he got hit by another teenager. While he kept his balance, Akira's golden gaze watched the bottle of ink, almost as if she was outside of time altogether. The moment the glass burst upon the stones, Akira's fingers twitched, a magical command without any other signs pointing out her meddling. Ink flew higher than it should have and aimed right for the man's eyes.

As he shrieked, Akira felt another hand grasp her arm, a shout over the cacophony the bear man was creating giving a command. It was a split second before her choice was made, usually being given by someone in similar situations. So many different possibilities sprawled out before the foxling with this turn of events as her feet matched the momentum of the older teen leading Akira away. Whoever it was was about a foot taller, and her polar opposite with her short dark hair. It was hard to tell, but she had every indication of being pure human. Taking a chance to glance behind them, Akira grinned to see the inked eyes causing more of a problem than the bear would care to admit.

He hadn't even started chasing after them, still screaming about his eyes as he rubbed at them. "This way." With an attempt to switch their grip so they were holding hands instead, Akira took point. She led them down to one of the rivers towards the boat docks. An hour or so had been spent watching boats make regular stops to pick up and unload passengers. While unsure of what the boats were, Akira darted under the dock before stopping for breath. The foxling went to double over, supporting herself with hands on her knees, only to wince in pain at her wrist. She shifted her position so she was standing, still gulping air as if it was water. "So, what your story? Why you run?"

Attie was a bit surprised when the younger girl had switched their direction but it was a welcomed change. It seemed that she knew much more about fleeing than Attie did. Attie followed Akira down to the boat docks and ducked underneath the docks with the girl. Attie fell to the ground once they were underneath to catch her breath. After fleeing from the guards, she was tired out. Attie rolled over to her back and looked up at the wooden docks above her. 

"The guards don't like me, I suppose." Attie responded, "I was just asking them my 54th question too before they decided to arrest me. I suppose I should have gotten them something to eat before I continued asking them questions. People can get cranky when they haven't had food."

Attie pushed herself to a sitting position. 

"What about you? What was up with those thieves? My name is Attie."

She folded her legs and looked up to Akira, as though she was listening to the other girl telling a story. Curiosity burned within Attie's bright blue eyes. The idea of learning something about somebody else was amazing to her every time. This girl didn't seem to be a criminal of any sort. This light-haired girl was wearing nice clothing and had a friendly attitude. She also seemed to be around the same age. Attie pushed herself to her feet and brought out her journal from her bag. She quickly sketched a picture of Akira. The sketch looked like a fox melted onto an over-sized monkey. Attie's art abilities was barely above a child's level but she was able to include important details so that she could recognize the girl in the future. 

Akira stared at her with wide eyes. Fifty-four questions? Was she crazy? Guards were there to protect, not to answer a million questions. What kind of questions was she asking about anyway, their morning meal? She cracked a smile to herself at that, chuckling softly. "Talk too much, they irritated easy." The foxling watched Attie sit up and gaze up at her expectantly. Her smile became warmer.

"Actually, I was thief. Took some bread for an orphan. Guess I forgot pay." Attie pulled out a book and began drawing in it. Curiosity overtook her as she got closer to look at it, giggling at the end results. "That me? I look silly!" Giggles turned to laughter as she plopped down into a sitting position. "My name Akira. Akira Sno-Nash." It made her forget about the bread and lack of payment, but the face of the guy she ran into swam in her face, causing all joy to drain from her face.

Akira's nose wrinkled at the thought of his grimy hands on her. "That guy… I ran into while try run. I replace your ink, by the way. When everything die down." She smiled again at Attie. "So, what bring you Jayou? Oh! You hear of Hoja Mesto? Most my friends live there. I think you like them." Yes, her common was broken. The young teen was working on it, but a childhood of no proper parenting nor anyone to care for the way one was raised tends to create terrible habits.

Glad to have made Akira chuckle, she could see that the girl wasn't as tense as before. Having danger no longer knocking on their door might have assisted with that. Listening quietly to Akira's story, Attie was able to understand her a little better. This girl wasn't a thief but a kind sweetie! When the girl saw her drawings, she burst into laughter which Attie couldn't help but smile at. Her drawings weren't great but she was glad that they could bring joy, even if it meant a tiny hint of embarrassment. 

"My name is Attie. It's nice to meet you." Attie responded. 

Suddenly Akira's face drained of that giggling joy and turned to an expression of slight disgust or terror, Attie couldn't tell for certain which was which. Akira seemed to be worried about the destroyed ink and the guy that had been chasing them. But as soon as she mentioned those worries, she switched to a smile and mentioned Jayou and Hoja Mesto. Clinging to worries did not sound like a good idea to Attie so she followed the trail of conversation to this new point. 

"Knowledge brought me to Jayou. I enjoy learning!" She exclaimed enthusiastically, "And I haven't heard of Hoja Mesto. Please tell me all about it! Oh! And I would love to meet your friends. Would…you mind being my friend then? If that's alright…."

She nervously played with her pen as she waited for a response. Attie didn't have many friends due to the whole asking a thousand questions thing and the fact that she never stayed in one place for long. It was difficult making friends when one traveled so often. But she couldn't stay in one place for long when there was so much knowledge to be gained in so many places!

Akira beamed at her with a slight tilt to her head, her tail subconsciously swaying. "Pleased meet you!" It was quickly decided she liked this Attie girl. There was something about her that Akira truly connected with. Perhaps it was the way she was so animated in her speech or the easy personality? All Akira knew was that they were very similar in nature. Curiosity ran deep through the pair of them.

"You seen artist place? Stinks from leather maker and dye vats. I think they pee in it. But everything one need there." Akira was drawing a crude map in the sand of Jayou. She pointed to the outskirts. "Not far from us." But she needed more room, and she scooted back. An oddly shaped lake and a bunch of connected rivers began to give a good start to the map of Parvpora. "South of Jasumin is Haza Savanna. Hoja Mesto found somewhere near… here." On the southern edge of the savanna, Akira pointed to a place just east of some mountains.

"But Hoja alway moving. Ladder and rope hang down off sides for traveler grab and climb. Somehow, people make lives there. Always shifting, many many cultures together. Xeik have group of boys, They steal from rich, ugly people. Help poor, good people. They all nice, but none like Lewis. Lewis is best boy." Akira could go on talking forever about Lewis. She was gazing somewhere in the distance by the time she got to Lewis. There was obviously a special place in her heart for the boy. Suddenly, the foxling turned toward Attie with another beaming smile. "Akira love to be your friend! I travel all time, but sometime, I go home to mommies in Sularia. Or often found in Hoja with guild."

Attie held in a squeal when she saw Akira's tail swaying, for it was almost too cute to bear. But there was more to Akira than that. They both had a lot in common as Attie still had difficulty with talking too. She was better than Akira but she had to learn speech much older in life than most. Human languages were far different than bear communications. While humans expressed themselves through words, bears expressed themselves through body language and behaviors. Perhaps one of the reasons that Attie found little issue with how Akira spoke was because she listened more to body language and facial expression than words.

Suddenly Akira began talking about the leather maker and Hoja. The map was crude but it did its job just fine. Having never been to any of these places, having a map would be useful when she visited. Hoja was always moving and there were ladders for travelers to grab on to. It was always shifting and Xeix had a group of boys that stole from the rich, specifically the ugly ones apparently, to give to the poor. A small smile appeared on Attie's face when she heard Akira talk about how Lewis was the best boy. In that moment, Attie decided to try to find a way to get Akira and the best boy Lewis together. They would be the best couple. After refocusing her attentions back on what Akira was saying, she was ecstatic when Akira agreed to be her friend. This was the second friend she had ever had!

"Thanks! Also thank you for drawing this map. May I keep it in case I want to come and visit? I'd love to meet these group of boys and to meet your mommies in Sularia." She said. 

Her eyes drifted to the beach and she noticed that there wasn't a sign of the criminals or the guards that had been chasing them earlier. Turning back to Akira, Attie held out her hand to the girl. 

"Do you want to get out of here?" She asked, "I don't think our pursuers are there anymore." 

Akira nodded happily. "Of course! And when you come meet mommies, meet my brother and sister too!" It was odd to think of Conner and Lilly at moments like these. They were still so young and innocent, she almost wanted to keep them to herself for a little while longer. Of course, this train of thought also brought a sense of guilt as she didn't visit home as often as she should. It was still odd to think of having a home to return to. Always being on her own with no one to take her in has left her feeling quite restless if she stayed in one spot for too long. Even though she loved her family, her heart was on the road.

An easy smile spread across her face as she took Attie's hand. The moment she did, Akira winced, remembering the way she fell on her wrist before Attie ran into her life. ”Ow, wait minute?” Her uninjured hand stretched out toward the river which seemed to reach for her in return with a small tendril of water. Water engulfed her hand, which she held to the hurt wrist. Golden orbs closed in concentration, her hand began to give a soft glow.

When she was done, the water was returned to the river. Akira twisted her wrist in experimentation and smiled at Attie triumphantly. With a nod and returning her hand to Attie’s own, the pair stood and eased their way out from under the deck. "Where Attie like go? Shops, food, Akira don't know casino is, but they float on water." She giggled at herself. "Aki– I do know how… to talk properly. But my enthusiasm rushes the words. And… it's slower. I think I remember seeing … an animal shop? I love animals."

Pausing the moment that Akira winced, Attie looked down to see the girl using the river to make it engulf her injured hand. After a few seconds, Akira's hand seemed to have been healed as she crawled out from underneath the deck. Attie would have lend a hand but before she could the girl had solved it herself. Clearly she wasn't a helpless little girl, which was great for Attie since she didn't know how to deal with children who couldn't handle themselves. If a helpless child appeared and needed help, she would have found an orphanage or a guard to pass the kid off to. But Akira was not defenseless as she had clearly been able to handle injuries and escape plans. Not to mention the fact that she was an older kid. 

"Hey, no worries. Talk however you like. It's good for you to practice speaking normally but I also like to see your enthusiasm." Attie explained, "Anyway, I guess we can go to the animal shop. I haven't really seen many animals besides bears and smaller prey- er I mean pretty bunnies and stuff."

Figuring that it was better to leave the whole small rodents are prey thing along, Attie began to look around to see if she could figure out where they had gone. If they were near the docks then where was the marketplace? Was the shop in the marketplace? She hadn't had the chance to buy any sort of maps yet. Scratching her head in slight confusion, Attie looked over to Akira. 

"I don't suppose you remember where you saw that shop?" She asked.