Rei story: Chapter 1

	Christine walked through the forest alone, admiring the wildlife she rarely saw
living in the city. It was amazing how much she had missed out on by living in a "civilized"
part of the world. And the air was so much cleaner here! The near constant coughing that she
went through in the city was gone. She made a mental note to herself to ask her father to
let her stay with Uncle Iono when she got home instead of leaving.
	She heard a vaguely familiar sound coming from behind her. It was like when the dogs
were angry at something. She turned around slowly. Maybe it was just one of the villager's
pets that had gotten away from home...
	But upon sight of it she decided that was definitely not the case. It was bigger
that any dog she had ever seen before, with sharp teeth and a yellow glow in it's eyes. It
looked like a wolf she thought although she had never seen one before. It advanced towards
her slowly, licking it's chops.
	Christine backed away but tripped over a root and fell to the ground. That's one
things nice about cities, they don't have roots. She shuffled back until she felt a tree
against her back, probably the same one that had tripped her.
	The wolf almost seemed to laugh at her as it advanced.
	She wished for the first time that her kind were more like their animal cousins so
she could climb the tree behind her and escape but she didn't know how to climb. It wasn't
something "proper" young ladies did. So took a deep breath and did the only other thing she
could think of. She screamed.
	The wolf stopped advancing for a few seconds, seeming startled and annoyed at the
sound. It reminded her of something she had once heard about dogs not liking high pitched
sounds but she didn't thing she was capable of a sound that high.
	Something leapt out of the growth somewhere to her left and growled something that
sounded almost like words to the wolf. Christine stared at the creature that had just
appeared. The wolf did too.
	It was a creature that looked like a cross between a human and a very, very, very
large kind of cat. It pounced towards the wolf and clawed the wolf's side. The wolf didn't
seem too hurt, as in not dead, but it did look frightened. It growled at the cat-thing and
then ran.
	The cat-thing turned to Christine with the same feral look in its eyes that the wolf
had had but worse.
	Christine did something so ladylike that her sisters would be jealous if they knew.
She fainted.

* * * 

	Rei reverted to his normal form and looked at the limp form at his feet. "I guess
wolves are preferable to me," he said with a laugh but also a bit of disappointment.
	He sighed and picked her up carefully. She certainly wasn't one of the girls from
the village simply by her reaction to the wolf. Almost all the girls in the village would
have gotten out whatever weapons they had and fought the wolf till it ran off. This girl had
to be one of the people from the city.
	He carried her towards Bunyan's house where she could recover. She'd also be close
enough to McNeil Village that she wouldn't be able to get in anymore trouble.
	Rei arrived at the small house shortly and went inside. Bunyan was there, working as
usual, and when Rei came in he looked up from his work.
	"Find a new friend, eh?" he asked with a slight smile.
	"Found her in the woods meeting some of the more interesting wildlife," Rei said,
setting her down on one of the beds, "Do you know who she is?"
	Bunyan took a look at her and replied, "A relative of the new mayor. A bunch of his
kin came with him from the city, I forget which one, to help him get settled in. This is one
of his brother's kids, Christine I think."
	Rei nodded, "I'm gonna head back out. Maybe I can get something done before lunch."
	Bunyan watched his apprentice leave and then turned back to his work. The boy was
learning something at last.

* * * 

	Rei walked through the forest towards the clearing where the tree house had once
been. Since coming back he had been working on clearing away the ruins, most of which was
still usable.
	He stopped by a stack of wood and got out his small ax. He began the process of
cutting the pieces so they were small enough to fit in a fireplace, just as he had been
doing for almost a month now.
	The rhythmic chopping was tedious and dull so Rei let his mind wander. He thought
about back when he didn't have a real job. When he was carefree and lived for the moment. He
wasn't sure exactly what changed him. Something along the way had made him realize that he
couldn't stay a child. It was probably when they'd been forced to kill Teepo. Rei shoved
that thought to the back of his mind. He didn't want to remember that. Didn't want to
believe that after getting revenge for Teepo's death he had to be the one to kill him.
	Rei stopped chopping the wood. He couldn't concentrate enough to even chop wood.
Trying he'd probably just get himself hurt. He sat down against a tree and closed his eyes.
"May as well have a catnap if I can't get anything done," he said to himself.
	He didn't fall asleep immediately, however. His thoughts drifted to the girl he had
rescued that morning, Christine. She was different than any other girl he had ever met. Even
Nina would have put up a better fight against the wolf than her and she was a princess. Rei
didn't know anyone else who would just scream when about to be eaten. And fainting! He
hadn't actually ever seen someone do that before. :I wonder if she was taught how to do
that, he wondered with a laugh.:
	Rei drifted off to sleep thinking about the strange, helpless, city girl who was so
out of place in the country.

* * * 

	Bunyan looked up from his book when Rei came back just before dusk. "Get a lot of
work done?" he asked.
	Rei blushed, enough answer for Bunyan. He probably fell asleep again. That's what
cats seem to do best.
	"I left some dinner for you downstairs," he said and went back to his book. He spent
most evenings reading nowadays, it was something he didn't get around to doing much of when
he was younger.
	Rei went down the ladder to the storeroom that also served as a dining room and sat
down at the table. He didn't really feel like eating much which was odd considering he
usually ate everything that was for dinner and still had room for more.
	When Bunyan came down to the storeroom a while later he found Rei asleep in his
chair with his dinner untouched. "Kids," he muttered to himself as he put the meal away.