*Seven months ago.*
"Damn, where is that noise coming from? I can't sleep it's so loud," Said a shadowy, cloaked figure as it trekked through the dark forest. For several minutes now the figure had been looking for the source of the noise that was keeping it from sleeping. After another couple of minutes the figure had given up on finding the source of the noise and started back on its way to its camp sight, when it spotted a girl hunched over with her back up against a tree. "Hey, girl, are you the one who's making all that noise?!"
The girl lifted her head up at the figure and brushed her brown hair out of her face to reveal tears in her brown eyes. "*Sniff*, what?"
'Ah damn, she's crying! Why did it have to be a crying girl, I can't stand a crying girl!' The figure thought to its-self as it walked over to the girl. "Hey, girl, what's wrong? Your crying has been keeping me up!" The figure asked rudely, especially to someone who’s crying.
"*Sniff*, I'm sorry, I thought I was alone..." The girl said as she wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"Well you aren't! Now what's wrong?!"
"I'm lost, I was traveling with my big brother when I lost sight of him, now I'm lost."
"Damn, it had to be a lost and crying girl!"
"I'm sorry, I'm just so scared!"
"The hell are you sorry for? You got lost, it happens. So...do you want me to help you find him?"
"Y-You'd help me?"
"If it'll shut you up then yes."
The girl shot up to hug the figure. "Thank you, thank you so much!"
"Gah, I don't do hugs!" The figure said with its arms up in the air.
"Sorry...my name's Sara by the way!"
"Okay, my name's Alex, but you will call me Al, got it," Sara nodded her head. "Good, now do you have anything on you that your brother handles often?"
Sara shook her head. "No, he's got everything."
"Even your clothes?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Sorry about this," Alex leaned close to Sara and inhaled through the nose and then let out a puff of air. "Damn, that's going to be stuck in there for a while. Alright, let's see what I can pick up!" Alex then began to sniff the air over and over.
"Do...do you smell anything?"
"Yup, I found a collection of your sent up ahead, along with another one...your brother needs to take a bath!" Alex then began to walk forward and Sara followed close behind.
They both continued to walk through the forest in silence until Sara started to hear her name being called and the she saw a man standing in a clearing. "Brother!" She yelled as she ran fast towards him, leaving Alex behind.
"SARA," The man yelled as he pulled her into a hug. "I've been looking for you all over! How did you find me?"
Sara pulled away and pointed to the forest. "I had help...but, where did Al go?"
The man looked behind Sara but didn't see anyone. "I don't know, but your safe with me now and that's all that matters!"
"Hahaha-haooo! I wouldn’t say that!" Said a voice from nowhere. It was the voice of a female for sure, one with a very sultry voice.
"Sara, get behind me," The man said as he motioned his sister behind him. "Who are you? Where are you? What do you want?" The man asked as he tried to find the source of the voice.
"Ya both were foolish to come through Our forest! Now ya gotta pay the toll!" Answered a different voice. This one was male, and he spoke with a deep voice a used a lot of slang.
"And what would that toll be?" Asked the man, keeping his sister behind him as spun in circles in the middle of the clearing.
"The toll is what ever you've got! Or, one the life of your traveling companion’s! Hahaha-haooo!" Replied the female voice.
"Than take me." Offered the man.
Both of the disembodied voices And Sara cried out in a unison: "WHAT!!!"
"Yes, neither of us would survive very long without our supplies and as the older brother it is my job to offer myself to save my little sister. So take me!"
There was a awkward pause before the female voice spoke again. "...Uh...haha-ho, y-you heard him S, g-go take him..."
"WHAT?! Ya crazy if ya think I'm gonna do it! This was yo idea C, so yo gotta take 'em..." Replied the male voice, that would have to be S.
"...Okay...HEY WAIT A MINUTE!!! This is your fault, I was just making a joking suggestion, You're the one who took it seriously!" Yelled the female voice, who’s name (or nickname or code-name or whatever) was reviled to be C.
"You're not the most organized mugger-murderers in the world, are you?" Asked the brother, while he continued to spin, fully aware of the answer (or at least he thought he was).
"We ain't muggers o' murderers, and honestly I'm a little pissed you'd think we were!" This was not the answer he was expecting.
"Calm down S, this doesn't need to go any farther than it already has!"
"Nah, He called us murderers, an I ain't 'bout to make a liar out 'em!"
"S...please, calm down, you're getting worked up-"
"To late! I'm 'bout to make it rain the pain!" A muscular figure then dashed out of a tree with blinding speed and with a single blow, knocked the brother to ground, before darting up into another tree.
The brother laid there, he wasn't moving. That paired the death threat issued by S, Sara was convinced that her brother was dead. "BRANDON," Sara screamed as she dropped to her knees. "He was all I had...in the whole world there was only him...and now...he's gone *Sniff*...and now I have nothing...because you, KILLED HIM!" Sara screamed again as tears began to role down her cheeks.
"I can't stand a crying girl!" There was a loud rustling in the trees, then the muscular figure fell to the ground, followed by a thinner one, and then by Alex, who landed feet first, unlike the other two who landed face first. Alex held tightly in hand, a long, blue katana, which was quickly slid back into its sheath, then the sheath behind Alex's coat.
When she saw Alex Sara quickly ran over and wrapped her arms around her savior. "Al...*sniff*, my brother-"
"Ugh, I already told you once, I don't do the hugging thing!" Alex said, protesting the hug while trying to forcibly trying to remove the girl, but this only made her squeeze tighter.
"But...my...my brother-"
"Is fine, just unconscious. If you'd look you'd see he's still breathing," Sara loosened her grip as she looked at Brandon, which Alex used to violently break away from Sara. "That's better, now you should get out of these woods before the real Toll-keeper gets here."
"W-What do you mean, 'the real Toll-keeper'? Those two seemed real to me!"
"They're just two thugs who feel on hard time's, I've met them before. The girl is nice but the guy...well, you saw his temper for yourse-" Alex was cut of when the ground started to shake.
Alex took a braced stance, while Sara was caught off balance, and fell onto her butt. "I awaken...to find not one, not two, not three or four, but Five trespassers who tread my land! All of them...have broken a law of this forest...and must pay the toll to leave it!"
"W-What's the toll?" Serra asked nervously.
"Those two may not have been willing to go through with it," Alex said, looking at the two collapsed imposters. "But this one is the real deal and will take a life as payment."
"Correct...normally, but you...have all broken laws, now if you wish to leave this place...you must go as a spirit!" Yelled the toll-keeper before the ground started to shake again. Slowly, the ground in the middle of the clearing began to rise and fold over its-self as a large, rocky creature rose up out of it.
"What is that," Serra asked after she brought herself back up to her feet. "I've never seen a creature like that before!
"That's because no-one who has seen it has lived long enough to talk about it...you should take your brother and go, this thing is a fighting type so you wont last very long against it." Alex warned.
"How did you know our types?"
"I could smell it."
"Then what make's you think you'll do any better, that thing is huge!"
"Because...I'm a flying-psychic type...I...I have a advantage," Alex was lying, he was a dark type, and at just a disadvantage as Serra and her brother. "Now pick your brother up and get out of here, before I change my mind!"
Serra picked Brandon up off of the ground, slung him over her shoulder and began to carry him out of the clearing, but stopped to look back at Alex one last time before running off.
"So...fast, I will chase after them...when I speed up...and after I deal with you!"
Alex fight's the Toll-keeper and takes full advantage of its Slow Start to beat it with out getting hit once.
Alex beats the Toll-keeper, but is badly hurt while trying to protect C and S.
Alex is getting beat bad and has no choice but to come up with another plan to defeat the Toll-keeper.
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