~1 month before the events in Gilmer's Tower~
* Damp Forest *
A collaboration between Sketcher and Shadowcatcher

Aura's heart pounded in time with her footsteps as she sped through the Damp Forest of Floor 15. Never in her real life had she been more afraid, and this fear she was feeling was driving her mad. She had sworn since the man who attacked her on Floor 1.... she had sworn that she would never run from another player. That she would fight until she died. But turns out... when she was faced with that situation, her promise to herself was the farthest thing from her mind. Three others were already dead. While there was still no real confirmation that if you die in-game you die IRL, she wasn't going to be taking any chances. Her health bar had already dropped to yellow since she had dared to go up against one of the players with the orange cursor. They had come together, 2 against 1 were the odds between them and her party. Now the only people left were her and...

"Edge?" she called as she looked around her. She didn't see him, and she didn't want to stop running. For a moment she thought maybe they had gotten him too and she should just go... but she couldn't. "Fuck!" she shouted as she dashed behind a tree and crouched there panting. She looked from around the tree back in the direction she came and started to listen. "Edge.... can you hear me?' she called into the darkness.

Edge was still back at the site where they had been attacked. He kept hiding, letting his Battle Heal ability fix whatever damage he'd gotten and trying to escape again, only to be attacked each time. One on one wouldn't be too much trouble since PKers never really fought on the front lines and didn't have enough levels to pose much of a threat to those who had but still, when they were together, they were extremely dangerous. He realized that he was the only one left in the visible area among the group. Cursing under his breath, the boy sheathed his sword and ran through one of the people blocking his way with his unarmed and sprint skills, making a run for it. He soon heard a familiar voice. He made his way towards the source without answering. The last thing they needed was the others finding them again. He soon lost the attackers though they were still searching. "Aura, over here," he said, coming to an opening where he could see her. "They're still looking for us!"

Staying low, she quickly made her way over to where he was. Though she'd never say it outloud, she was happy to see he was still alive. "I don't know if we should keep running or stay and fight. But, I don't think I can do much of either for too long. Do you have any health crystals? I'm all out." she said to him keeping her voice low. In the distance she could hear the sounds of them walking as they stepped on twigs and dried leaves. She still was unable to tell how many there were by just listening so she looked to Edge for help. "Did you see how many were left?"

Edge pulled out his inventory and scrolled through the list. "I usually keep these for emergencies since I trained my battle heal skill but I guess this is one," he said and a small panel popped up in front of her, asking if she would accept the two crystals. "And sadly, no. I didn't look out for their numbers. I'm in favor of running. What I know is that there were more than we can beat. Unless we divide them or something, they'll definitely overpower us and even that can be risky."

Aura accepted the crystals and used one immediately. "Thanks." she said elbowing him in the arm. "And I agree.... fighting them would probably be suicide. I'm not risking my life for that. But i do suggest we split up. It might be our best option so at least they wont be chasing us all in one big group." she pointed with her finger to the place where his name was shown under hers. "If one of us sees the others health bar start to go down, we can meet up and help. That sound good to you?" she jumped slightly when she heard something close to them and she quickly stood and pulled him to the safety of a different tree.

As he followed her, he thought for a moment, pulling up the map they'd made after going through the area and located the four exits, three of which would require passing through their camping point. "Pull up your map," he whispered after finally getting to safety. "We can split up but we should still stay close. Being on the main path would be suicide so I suggest we both go through different sides and meet up in front of the exit of the forest here." He pointed at the exit point as he emphasized on the last word. "That way we'll have a good idea of where the other is in case there's trouble."

When he told her to pull up her map, she had done so and listened to his plan. It seemed like it was worth a shot so she nodded and put it away. "Sound good. Just... make sure you dont trip and fall like those stupid girls in movies, ok? I can't really afford to drag you along." she said bitterly but with also a hint of a joking tone. She gave him a smile then stood up and took out one of her throwing picks. "I can hear them... i'll send them off track if I can so wait for my signal." She stayed quiet then and listened to the talking of the players who were after them.

"They couldn't have gotten far. Find them, they know our faces thanks to someone." she recognized the voice of the one who was most likely the leader.

"Dont put this all on me, I just wanted to have a little fun with the pretty girl."

Aura frowned and turned in a different direction and threw her pick randomly into the woods, hoping it went far away.

"Yo, I heard something over that way." one of them said.

"It could be a trap. Stay on track." the leader said again.

"Like hell they could trap us, come on man."

Just like she thought it would, the sound of her throwing pick had distracted them and made them go in a different direction. Tapping Edge lightly with her foot she nodded and turned to run away.

Edge smiled upon seeing the dumber player killer divert the rather wiser one off track by falling to the simple trick Aura had used. He looked over to her and nodded back, following her for a few seconds before dashing across the path without being sighted. They were spread out far, though. Some of them were ahead, even though there were few. The men all travelled in pairs which was quite troublesome. He made his best to avoid them, putting distance between himself and them. However, one of the trackers had already picked up on the boy with the poor hiding skill.

"There's something there," was the only thing he heard before starting to run without caring about being heard. "After 'im!"

The two men started to follow him, their bloodlust getting the better of them. Instead of informing the others, they went after the boy alone.

As Aura ran, she was careful to make as little noise as possible. She was good at it, but diverting from the path and into the thick brush of the forest made it hard for her to stay quiet for too long. Her Acrobatics skill made it easy for her to jump and avoid fallen logs and other things blocking her path, but at one point while she was running, a twig got caught in her impossibly long blue hair, and she had to stop. Biting back a cry of pain as her head was pulled back, she quickly tried to untangle herself from the bush she was caught on. Her trembling hands didn't help, so out of desperation she pulled out her sword and carefully cut the section of her hair that was stuck.

As it poofed into a bit of blue glitter she turned and continued to make her way through the forest. Her sword came in handy and after a moment she heard voices and stopped, becoming completely still.

"There's something there." she heard and for a moment she thought it was her that they had found.

"After him!" someone said again and then she knew she was in the clear. But, that meant Edge was in trouble. Fighting her way through the trees, Aura started running some more. For now he seemed to be okay, his health had not dropped at all, and so with her ears focused on listening out for him, she kept running on her path, still determined to make it out of this godforsaken forest alive.

Looks like we're far enough from any help they can get... If I damage them enough, they might panic, Edge thought to himself and stopped, spinning on his heal and leaping forward to the man who was now rushing into Edge's sword skill. A significant amount of the man's health dropped in that instant. He didn't wait for the man to react to land another attack, kicking the man to the ground. At that moment, the second man hacked at him, dealing some damage which showed that they were lower leveled than Edge and Aura. He quickly continued attacking the first man, though this attack was blocked. Maybe I'm a bit in over my head taking two opponents at once, he thought in regret but there was no going back now. He drilled through the second one with Linear just before the man swung his sword at the air.

In the corner of her eye she saw Edge's health drop slightly. That meant he was probably fighting them. "Damn you. You'd better not die on me." she said but made no move to help him. She was sure he could take care of himself, and Aura thought she was getting closer to the edge of the forest. She used that as an excuse to herself for not going to help. It wasn't that she was afraid. She was not afraid... just being cautious. Yeah. Just being cautious. she repeated to herself as if trying to get the lie to sink in.

Edge kept dodging for a while before trading blows with the two. His health bar kept replenishing during the time he was dodging and one out of two hits were Sword Skills. Before long, the two low leveled PKers were down to red, and so would have Edge been if it weren't for his healing. Their movements were dulling which was the boy's cue. He turned and made a run for it once more before they could attack another time.

Aura sighed in relief as she saw his health bar slowly start to increase. So, he won then. Nice. she thought kind of proud of him. Once she got to the point where he suggested they meet up, she slowed her pace to a light jog and looked around for him. It was not too much longer that she heard footsteps and her left hand went to her sword just in case it wasn't Edge's smiling face she would see.

Edge had fallen behind when he was fighting the PKers but he could see the exit. He heaved a sigh of relief, slightly slowing his pace as he continued to run towards the way out of the forest. He finally found himself a few meters away from Aura. "Sorry! I ran into some trouble on the way here. I didn't want them following us out so I... incapacitated them."

As soon as she saw him coming through the forest, she marched up to him and punched him hard in the arm. "Stupid! Don't do something so reckless next time! I don't like having to worry about people." she mumbled the last part as she grabbed his arm and led him out of the forest. Geez, this kid had me all stressed out for nothing. she thought, glaring straight ahead as she pulled him along.

Edge ended up getting dragged out of the bloodbath. "Right, right... Though if they followed me to the exit, it would've been much more troublesome, don't you agree," he said, smirking at her last comment. The expression faded quickly. "We should spread the word that there are some PKers on the loose. I don't know how anyone's gonna solve this kind of problem." He knew that one way was just staying in safe zones and the other was having the Front Liners hunt for them which was the same as sinking to their level.

Aura listened to him speak as they walked towards the nearest town but didn't say anything for a long moment after he was done. "There is nothing we can do about the player killers except avoid them. I doubt any Front Liners are willing to risk their lives just to put a bunch of freaks in the prison. In any case, we were lucky this time." she said with an annoyed tone. This whole situation had turned Aura's mood dark and her pride was hurting more than she'd care to show. The experience made her want to get stronger so she could protect herself. First I have a ghost wanting me dead IRL and now there's a weird guild going after innocents like hungry wolves? My life is shit right now. Sighing, she let go of Edge and allowed him to walk on his own. "When we reach the town I have something I need to find so we'll be splitting up again." she said simply. She pushed a bit of hair from her eyes as she thought maybe she should say goodbye in a 'nice' way. "Though I don't plan to join any more parties, if I see you again, I won't pretend I don't know you." Aura paused again. That was nice.... right?

A smile curled up on the boy's lips as he looked back to the forest that they'd gotten farther from. "Right, I understand how that feels," he said, chuckling. "I guess this could be called a traumatic experience since it happened during a party raid. Anyway... Thanks. I'm hoping to see you again as well. I'm gonna try and get the front liners to do something about this as soon as I can." He held out his hand for a shake. "Till next time."

Aura looked at the boy's outstretched hand then back up at him. Scoffing she turned around. "See you around." she said walking in a different direction and waving over her shoulder.

The boy sighed and pulled his hand back. Not bothering to respond, he kept his smile as he walked off in another direction.

Working Together - A silly Quest in Taft - Floor 11

Waltic walked towards a building he had heard still had a quest in it. He had heard it was a rather simple one that shouldn't take too much effort. Good amount of EXP and not cost much of his time, this was one of the reasons he was good at MMORPG's was his efficiency with time.

As he entered the little building with an NPC that was obviously crying he walked over to her. "What happened?" he said as he started the interaction. The NPC named herself as Ulga, she started to tell Waltic about her son. My son, he has run off into the hills over in the south. I tried to go look for him but I can't find him. Please, help me. if you could just go find him, bring him home! Heavans knows what trouble he has gotten himself into!" she said crying.

Aura had been looking around all day so far for the Quest NPC that was supposed to be in Taft. One of the easiest ones supposedly and she needed the exp to level up. Absently she noticed a guy ahead of her walk into a random building that seemed small and wondered if maybe that was where the quest was. "Nah. That's probably just his house." she muttered to herself as her frustration began to grow. Aura was anything but patient and she was really close to just giving up the search and go kill a few mobs to get her last bit of exp. As she walked by the house, her Straining skill picked up on the sound of crying inside the house and she paused. "Still, that doesn't mean anything." she said as she kept walking.

She was getting more and more pissed at the information broker who had told her about the quest and she took out the slip of paper that had a message written on it. Reading it over, she paused. There was a description of the building and one part that she didn't notice when reading before was that it had a dark blue roof. Turning back to the buildng she passed, she noticed it too had the same colored roof.

"Ah, like hell that guy is going to get that quest instead of me!" she said to herself as she ran back towards the building. She kicked the door open and marched inside right up to the guy who was in the middle of taking the quest. "You there! This quest is mine so be nice and step aside for the lady."

Turning around at the sudden interuption Waltic eyed the girl up and down. She didn't look like someone he had seen on the frontlines but that doesn't mean she wasn't any less dangerous. However she was wanting the same quest he was about to accept. He raised his eyebrows, "Are you implying that because you are a female that you have the right to a quest before I do even though I got here before you?" he asked with half a devilish grin on his face.

"Because I don't play that game, I'll be chivilarous to a lady but it's when you expect something that I get turned off to the fact that you are a girl." he said. "Now then, I am going to accept this quest and I don't want you interfering, understand?" he said as his tone got serious and his eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to let someone else just walts in and demand the quest from him and then get it. That wasn't how he played MMORPG's he didn't allow others to take quests and items when he was there first simply because they asked.

He turned around and continued to talk to Ulga now asking, "How could I get to the mountains from here?" he asked as she started to give directions to him. He now chuckled a little bit inside because he realized he was about to take this quest right infront of this girl. It was kind of cruel, but hey, his sense of humor was morbid before this whole SAO thing started.

Aura just stared at the guy as he seemed to simply brush her off. [i]What the hell did he just say to me? ...This guy... she frowned and crossed her arms then and just listened to the lady talk about where the quest was to take place. In her head she was thinking of what to do to solve this dellimma she was in.

"Hey, you can't take this quest. Its way too hard for someone to do it on their own so... so... if you ask me nicely I'll think about coming with you." she said crossing her arms. She tried to not sound snarky or sarcastic when she said it so in the end she ended up just sounding bored. "And, I know a shortcut to the hills where she said he ran away to. The way I see it you totally could use my help."

Waltic grinned as he pressed something right infront of him as she started to talk to him. "Well, I was wondering when you were going to ask." he said as he turned around and looked down to her. He was pointing at a small screen that invited her to his party. "I figured it was only a matter of time that you either asked, or challenged me for it." He said as he then turned around and clicked the accept button on the quest.

"Ask? Who's asking? I'm only doing this to help you out. its not like i really want to." she lied, speaking in a bitter tone as she clicked the accept button to join his party.

He started walking to the door as he put his hand on her shoulder and patted it, "Don't worry it'll be a blast!" he said. He had a smile on but the second he walked passed her everything in him changed. He remembered how he let down his friends in that dungeon. And although this was suppose to be a simple quest he couldn't help but think maybe the information was wrong on the difficulty of it. Aura's amber colored eyes glared at his back as she silently followed him out.

He looked back at her and with a very straight tone asked, "You can take care of yourself if things get dicey, right?" he asked very seriously, "I don't know what guild you are in if any I just hope you know what you are doing incase things take a turn for the worse!" he said as he remembered back to the walls crashing infront of him with the large monster cutting off him and his friends in the dungeon.

Waltic stared at her for a second, "Aura is it?" he asked as he looked at her cursor above her head. "The name is Waltic, my friends call me Wally, my real name is Caleb." he said with a half smile now extending a hand to her.

Crossing her arms when he extended his hand, she frowned up at him. "The last time I shook hands with a guy in this game, he nearly killed me so its nothing personal. No im not in a guild, because I don't like partying with people. I prefer to be a solo player so unfortunately i have to do stupid quests like these to help out with getting stronger. I assure you i can take care of myself and you if things get bad. Just dont make me have to be your babysitter." she said that last part as she turned her head away from him. "Its cool to meet you Wally." she added that last part in so she didn't come across as too mean. Afterall he could disband the party and then she'd be screwed. She gestured with her head for him to follow her when she turned and started walking towards the entrance to the town.

Waltic looked at her very seriously as she talked to him, "Be assured one thing." he said as his voice turned cold. "I am no player killer, and I will take the life of anyone who is." he said with malice showing in his eyes. And I understand the quest thing, you don't have to explain it to me. I am a solo player now, I am exactly what my old guild was known as, we were known as The Nomads. So that is me a Nomad." he said now following her.

He kept close by her as they walked and he explained to her, "I was not trying to say you were not able to take care of yourself by the way. I was simply wanting to make sure the same thing you just said, I didn't want to have to babysit someone who doesn't know what they are doing." he said. He was following close to her as he said, "Sorry also if I'm too cheery, some people find it to be annoying, so I'm just warning you now. But to me it keeps me going to have positivity. Positivity like, I will beat this game and not have to worry about it ever again." he said with a semi-serious tone, it was hard to tell if he was being serious as his grin though was a bit devilish. This was only because he was thinking of defeating the final boss and how he envisioned it in his head.

Aura listened to Wally talk and stayed quiet as he did. As they came to the town exit she looked around for a large tree as a marker for the direction of the south hills. She stood on her toes then looked at Wally. "Yo. Giant. Give me a boost on your shoulders." she demanded.

Waltic shrugged, he wasn't that tall, but whatever. "You got it." he said as he bent down and quickly put his head between her legs and then lifted up. He felt her weight add to his, but it honestly wasn't that bad. In fact she was super light. "That good?" he asked as he stabilized her by holding onto her legs.

Her hands went to grab onto his hair as she was scared for a moment after being lifted up. The change in height was scary at first but after a few moments a grin crept onto her face. She felt like a kid and she allowed herself this moment because she knew he couldn't see her. Looking around she spotted the tree in the distance and pointed in that direction. "over there." she said to him.

"You got it!" he said as he started to walk at a fast pace instead of taking her off his shoulders before he got moving. "Sorry, obviously' you'll be able to see the shortcut from up there so it's easier this way." he said. Truth was though he hadn't had touch interaction since Natasha and him were split. So he was enjoying remembering they were all people and not just pixels. He grinned as he got an idea and now started to run with her on his shoulders.

Aura squealed like a little girl as he started walking and looked down at him. "Are you sure im not to heav- aaah!" she screamed as he started running then. She fisted her hands in his hair to make sure she didn't fall off and squeezed her eyes shut. After a bit of freaking out in her head she peeked with one eye then closed it again. "Slow down! I feel like im gonna fall!" she yelled at him.

He slowed down suddenly as his hair was being pulled. "Ow ow ow." he said as he stopped and grabbed her hands from his hair. He sat her hands down on her thighs now. "I've got you, it's fine don't freak out." he said as he kept his hands on her hands to keep them from going back to his hair. "If you pull my hair I might, well, you never know I might just-" he acted for a second like he was gonna fall backwards but caught himself as he started to move forward again chuckling. His hands still on hers to keep them out of his hair.

"Even when you say that it worries me. I want to make sure I don't fall off. I could die." Aura said angrily. Her mood did not reflect from her tone however because she was actually having a bit of fun. Just in case, she turned her hands and held onto his tightly instead of his hair.

"I want to make sure that you don't pull out a ton of my hair as well." he said as he now started to run even faster. "And don't worry you aren't that heavy, in fact your really light!" he exclaimed. He was now in a full sprint as he saw the tree with the marking on it. He moved his hands just infront of hers so that way she could move her hands, he was trusting her to now end up pulling his hair though. On the way to the tree a small cobald and a couple wolves appeared and charged them. "Okay, hang on!" he yelled as he pulled out his sword and slashed the cobald faster than it could even raise it's sword. He spun in a circle now with her as he slashed down the two wolves. He stopped and put his sword away as he relaxed and started to walk now towards the tree with her still ontop of his shoulders. "How you doing up there?" he asked halfway sarcastically as he looked up at her. He had a huge smile on his face though. He hadn't had this much fun since Natasha and his other friends were around.

Atop Wally's shoulders, Aura was flung around like a ragdoll. Everything had happened so fast that all she could do was strangle the man with her legs as she fought to hold on. That and scream like a three year old. When he finally came to a stop and asked her how she was, she looked down at him. "Release me or else I will throw up on your head!" she threatened.

Waltic shrugged as he let her down by grabbing her by the sides and setting her down to the ground. "Sorry about that." He said with a grin "Hope I didn't scare you too much." Waltic said with a smile. He walked up to the tree and put an arm around it. "So.... Where to now? Or do you need another lift?" He said jokingly.

"Scare? Who was scared!? I just like to use my own two feet thank you very much." she said crossing her arms. Her face was bright red from embarassment and all her pride had been killed in that not even 10 minute ride on his shoulders. Taking a moment to regain her composure by fixing her hair and her gear, she cleared her throat before speaking. "If you look over there to your left, you'll see those grassy hills. Some people say that there are caverns and stuff through there. I'm sure if we look there, we'll find him. Come on." she said leading the way while walking this time. All the while she had a pouting look on her face.

Waltic grinned as she seemed emberassed and upset. He walked with her towards the caverns. "Come now don't be like that! Have some fun! Its something that is important here. Yes we are trapped here, but you know, if we dont have some fun we will lose who we are. We lose hope. It is why i am so into positivity, because then my hope doesnt falter." Waltic said.

Aura listened to him speak but when he wasent looking she rolled her eyes and began playing with the ends of her hair. Waltic followed close by Aura as he spoke, "Okay so ive told you a lot about me, tell me abo-" he was interrupted by the sound of yelling. He grabbed Aura's hand as he ran toward it.

H-hey, what are you doing? Dont drag me along!" she yelled but followed him anyway.

"Come on! Lets go! That might be the kid!" he yelled as he ran towards a group of caverns as he heard another scream in the caverns. To her surprise, he held onto Aura's hand tightly as he looked it into one of the caves. "I think he is in here!" he said as he let go of her hand and grabbed and readied his sword.

As he and Aura rounded the corner there was a giant Cobald with a kid next to him. "Come on buddy!" Waltic said. The kid ran over to them and then whispred to them, "Catch me!" he said as he ran out of the cave. As Waltic turned around to run after him the cobald jumped infront of both of them. "Hey fatty get out of the way!" Waltic yelled.

"I figured this was going to be harder than we thought." she said pulling out her sword as well. "I'll keep him distracted, you focus on damage. That way we can finish him off quickly." Brushing her hair aside with her right hand, Aura ran foreward towards the Cobald and appeared to get ready to strike him. At the last possible moment, she ducked and rolled between the creatures legs until she was behind him. Instead of trying to make an impossible dash towards the fleeing kid, she took a glance to remember the direction he was going and then activated her Sonic Leap skill. She dashed forward and attacked the back of the Cobald right before it turned around to face her. Its fist came down and she blocked with her sword, knowing that this was a good chance for Wally to strike it from behind.

Waltic nodded as he watched her move very smoothly with her agility. "I've got you!" he yelled as he backed up and attacked the Cobald. He lifted his sword into the air feeling the energy of his sword as he slashed horizontally twice in opposite directions making an X. Then he stabbed the Cobald right in the middle of the X. It yelled in anger as it swung a fist to Waltic. Who blocked it with it's sword. The Cobald's body was twisted now and off balance. Waltic quickly dived now and smashed it's head. He was hoping Aura got the jist to attack him low next since he was already off balance. If she did he would follow up with causing the cave to cave in on top of the cobald.

Aura watched Wally's movements and wondered when the best time it was to come in on the attack again. Then he did a move that caused the large Cobald to stumble and start to lose his balance and she took that as her sign. Activating Rage Spike as she ran forward, Aura dropped to the ground and slid like a baseball player while slashing at its legs. As she slowed in her slide, she rolled into a crouch and watched with satisfaction as it fell. "Nailed it." she stated smugly.

The Cobald crashed to the ground as it's legs were taken out from underneath him. "Nicely done!" Waltic said as the Cobald struggled to try to get back up. "Quick!" he said as he grabbed Aura's hand once again and ran out of the cave. In which he activated the energy he felt for a special sword attack. He smashed the rocks above the Cobald and caused them to crash on him. "There we go. That should do it." he said with a grin. "Now then where'd the kid run off to?" he said with a smile.

Aura smirked when she saw the rocks fall on the Cobald and finally feeling like the fight was over, she spun her sword once before sheathing it on her left side. Flipping her hair away from her face before turning to Wally, she pointed in the direction she saw the kid running. "That way. Towards town." she said and started to walk in that direction. After taking a few steps she had an idea and turned to face Wally again. "You said I should have fun right? How about we have a race to town?" she suggested with a cross of her arms.

Walic grinned, as he nodded. "That I did. I did tell you to have fun." he looked up at the town and grinned. "I guess if I told you to have fun I should endorse when you try to." he said as his smile got wider. "So in that case..." Waltic sprinted toward the town as he yelled, "Your on!!!" Waltic was cruising through the field now at top speed as he ran.

Aura's eyes widened as he charged ahead of her before she got a chance to say 'start'. Frowning for a moment before running after him, she yelled at him. "Your going to get it if I catch you! Cheater!" Though she tried to sound threatening, it hardly came out that way as she smiled as she began running. With a determind mind set on winning, she pushed her feet to move faster, but then she had an idea. Instead of trying to beat him, she decided to just catch a ride on his back when she caught up.

Waltic pushed himself as he ran. He needed to be able to go faster. He needed to b- suddenly he stumbled as he tripped over something. He looked behind him seeing Aura catching up. "Shoot!" he said as he started to run. He dodged through some trees as he tried to get away from her. But he could hear her catching up, until he felt something suddenly shove him forward. "What the hell?!" he said as he looked back. Seeing Aura hanging off his back as he ran he looked at her with a surprised look, "What are you doing?!" he exclaimed with a large smile.

Holding back a laugh when Wally fell, she decided to take advantage of that moment and used her Sprint skill to catch up with him completely. With a little hop, she ended up on his back and to her satisfaction, he looked surprised. Smiling back at him she held on to his shoulders and said excitedly, "Run like the wind giant man! Run!" To be totally honest, this was the most fun she had in a long time, not only in this world, but the real world too. Then she remembered he wanted to know a bit about her. "When we get to town I'll tell you a bit about myself. But you have to carry me there." she teased him.

Waltic grinned at this comment. "Okay, but if thats what you want." he said as he put his arms around her legs to keep her steady. "Hold on!" he said as he was now sprinting as fast as he could down the hills toward the town. There was one moment where he almost lost his balance but he regained it as he got to the bottom of the hill. The town was in sight and he was at full sprint with Aura on his back. He missed this, the fun, the friendship, the wonderful way he used to interact with people.

He kept sprinting as he finally made it to the town where the kid stood at the entrance and said, "What took you so long? Come and find me!" he then ran off and disappeared into the town. Waltic set Aura down on the ground, well, while we look through the town you can tell me about yourself then." he said happily.

As Wally ran with Aura on her back, her blue hair fanned out behind them like a long blue tail. Though most of the time she had her eyes closed, this time when she was squealing, it was out of excitement and not fear. The way he moved was just like a train, and while she was on his back, it had felt as though she was flying through the air. Too soon however, it was over and they had reached the gates of Taft. There stood the little boy who challenged them to find him in a cocky tone before running off. Sighing as she slid off of Wally's back, the two of them started to walk casually through the streets. "Fine. A deal's a deal. Hmmm, where should i start?" she said mostly to herself, raising a hand that rested under her chin as she thought.

Waltic smiled, "Wherever you want you can talk about who you are in RL or you can talk about the things you've done and seen here, your morals, whatever you want I'm open to talk to. Oh and one more thing." he said very comfortingly, "I don't judge people, so you should know that, I try to love everyone equally even if they've made mistakes so don't be afraid to tell me anything!" he said with a smile. It was a rather comforting gaze that he gave her, he was always the person in his group that seemed to be there for anyone no matter what they did, it was almost like he was a counselor; and he was proud of that fact.

All the while he spoke, Aura had been listening to the sound of his voice. It was one that she wanted to commit to memory for some weird reason. Looking at him sideways and frowning when he gave her an annoyingly cute look, she rolled her eyes and said sarcasticly "Careful bud. You keep looking at me like that and I just might fall for you." Crossing her arms across her chest as habit, she thought about where she should start. "Unfortunately wether I tell you about my real life self or myself in the game, it might be a bit of a mood killer. On the one hand, I suppose its good for me to tell you so someone remembers me in case I end up dying here." she paused again and turned a corner before speaking once more.

"In real life I'm a model. I kind of took a break from it because of an accident I had a while back. Before that, my life was normal, nothing too special I suppose. But after I got into a crash and lost my best friend, I haven't been the same." Aura dropped her head and looked down at her feet for a moment before mentally shaking off her guilt. Her name is... was Nora. We did everything together. Now that she's gone I kinda didn't know what to do with myself. I had been going to a councelor but it wasen't helping because shortly after, one day I woke up and I couldn't speak anymore. I was really shocked when I got here that I could speak again... it made me happy." Turning her head to look at him, she gave a weak smile.

"Unlike most people here, i'm not so in a hurry to get out of this world. Here its easy to forget about everything that happened, and I can finally get away from Nora. I've been seeing her ghost for the longest time. Everywhere except for my room.... and here. I'm afraid that if I go back to the real world, she's going to get me and do something horrible because its my fault that she died." Feeling a few tears fall down her cheeks made Aura stop in her track and wipe them away. "Ah, sorry. I wasen't supposed to start crying." she gave a fake laugh to brush it off.

"Ummm.... anyway. I can't say that I hate being stuck here, but just like in the real world, I'm afraid that if I die, Nora is going to find me and torture me for killing her. That's what keeps me going I guess. I have to keep getting stronger so I can live as long as I can. I keep thinking in time, she'll forgive me and all of this will be over... and she'll finally leave me alone." By this point Aura's tears had started falling faster than she could wipe away. "Shit..." she mumbled angrily at herself as she turned away from him. "Don't you ever tell anyone you saw me like this." she said bitterly.

Waltic had started to fall behind, but as Aura finished he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around and hugged her, embracing her. "I'm sorry, but when I don't know what to say I generally turn to hugs to try to make people feel happier. " he said as he patted the back of Auras head as it rested on his chest. "It must be really hard and I understand, you don't have to be sorry to be sad." He tightened his hug on her as he spoke. "I know that it must be hard, I do believe it will get better though. You are too good of a person to just have to be stuck in this type of situation." He said.

As he hugged her he spoke softly, "I know what it is like to lose someone, I lost a lot of friends here, and I have lost my girlfriend from real life here. I don't know what happened to her and my other friends; a few levels ago we got separated and I've never seen them since. I know how it is like to have lost and I know there is not much I can say to make it feel better, that's why I'm a touchy person, touch brings out the words that we can't say." He said as he continued to hug Aura and held her in his arms. "I'm sorry my issue isn't like yours so it doesn't relate much, but know that I may have just met you, but I care for you." He said.

For the first time in a long time, Aura didn't pull away when someone tried to touch her. All this time she didn't want to take any chances of being hurt, but besides the obvious fact that she was in a safe zone, she actually trusted Wally and what he was saying. She didn't hug him back, just allowed him to hold her for a little while, and she said nothing in response to his words. After she had calmed down enough, she raised her hands and gently pushed him away. She noticed a few passerbys were looking at them and so she took a step away from him. "Come on. We have to find that kid." she said, all traces of sadness were gone from her voice and what was left was her normal, bored sounding tone.

She turned and started walking away but paused a few steps away and pulled up her menu. After a few clicks, she looked at Wally as a screen would pop up in front of him asking for a friend request. "Dont you dare reject it." she warned bitterly.

Waltic smiled as it popped up. He accepted the request as he walked up next to her "Yes lets find that kid." Waltic said as they started walking. They looked through many buildings and such trying to find the child that had ran off. "This kid is honestly starting to bug me." He said as they came out of another empty alleyway. "Where is this little kid!" he exclaimed after about an hour of looking, "Where would I go if I were a kid?" Waltic wondered as he realized one place they didn't look. "Come on!" he said running to the building with Ulga the NPCs house. He went around to the back where the yard was and behind a tree sure enough there he was.

"You found me!" the little boy said with joy a he ran up and hugged them, causing Aura to frown. "Thanks for helping me!" he said a he ran inside. "Rather odd NPC." Waltic said with a grin. He walked into the house to accept the reward, he pressed a few buttons as exp was given to both him and Aura. Then someone else barged into the room. "Wally!" the man yelled as Waltic turned around.

"What's up Zeke?" he asked with grin, Zeke though looked like he was sweating as he talked with heavy breathing between his words. "Floor 5 forest area of it, looked like your friend Natasha and your Friend Sosa!" he said as Waltics eyes widened. "We need to hurry that area is ran by player killers!" He said as Waltic nodded. He looked at Aura, "I'm sorry, I have to go... I yeah." He said as he gave over all the gold and items to Aura. Next thing he did was disband their party. "I'm sorry, I have to go." He said his face was more serious than ever. He looked like tears were almost out of his eyes but his face was serious. He had reached that heightened zone he gets in, in video games when he got dead serious. He ran past Aura as he yelled back, "It was nice meeting you! Keep positive Aura!" he yelled as he ran off to head toward the 5th floor.

Aura barely had enough time to wave, let alone say goodbye as Wally rushed out with a fiercly determined look in his eyes. She ran to the door and looked out, watching him run away towards the Teleportation Gate in the center of town, and for a split second, she wanted to follow him, but she didn't. Sighing and slamming the door shut behind her, Aura crossed her arms and began her walk to the gate to head to the next town. "I swear if I ever see him again, he's gonna get it. Right in front of his girl, i'll just bash in his stupid, stupid head!" she yelled and caused a few people to jump or stare at her. Turning a bit red from embarassment, Aura walked out of Taft, heading for the nearest town, and she didn't look back. She also refused to think about wether or not she'd regret not running after him.