Icy cold water dripped from the ceiling above as Afton was rudely awakened by a sharp transparent object suspended from the ceiling.

He didn't know how that thing got there or how exactly he was awoken by it but a drop of freezing water dripped onto him from above, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Afton looked up to find that he was at the bottom of a real heart shaped enclosure of ice. It was crazy but the whole thing was vibrating... beating steadily.

He tried to scale the walls but it was too slippery. He was stuck...

After a moment of despairing, Afton noticed that the heart was melting in some places. He was going to fall sooner or later.

Afton took out his switchblades from his pockets and used them to climb.

About halfway to the very top, he saw that in the middle of that heart sat three people: Kaylie, Alistair, and Rain. After trying to break through there, Afton was satisfied with the fact that where they were felt like a bubble of some sort of impenetrable material, so Afton continued climbing...

Higher and higher, he climbed, 'til he reached the top....

****

Afton opened his eyes to see the little swaying leaves overhead. It was night, so everything looked like silhouettes. He'd just woken up, but he felt tired, and somehow, his heart was beating quickly. Small pictures, flashbacks of his dream, swirled about him and he fancied he was really in a heart of ice.

The sleep, weariness, and the little bit of the dream itself was blinked away and Afton crashed back into reality.

“Hurry up, we have to make it back tonight. It'd take us all morning and we'll reach just in time for the weekday training,” Rain whispered urgently, shaking him as if to make sure he would stay awake.

Afton got up quickly and was silently reprimanded by Rain, who gestured to Kaylie lying on the mud floor, fast asleep.

His first impulse was to go to her side and give her something on which to at least spare her head from the mud, but he stopped himself. It was improper and they needed to leave quickly. It wouldn't help to wake her now. His next thought was accompanied with a flush of embarrassment. For, having slept fitfully, tossing to and fro, he must have attracted the attention of Kaylie. From there, she must have fallen asleep...

Soon after, Rain went off to get the horses ready, leaving Kaylie and Afton to themselves. Afton was sheepish and could only cover her slightly with her own cape before quickly rushing away.

“Done?” Rain asked.

“Yeah,” Afton replied.

They mounted their horses and Rain noticed a little wistfulness in his eyes. His actions spoke loudly and he looked as if he was reluctantly leading the horse away.

Rain tapped the horse lightly at the sides to bring him to a canter. Afton followed soon after, urging his horse into a gallop, “We have to make it there as early as possible, Rain.”

They hurried on quickly...

****

“So, the little kid ran off already?”

“Yes, master. I believe that if there's a soul in this present age that could find him, it'd be that boy,” Jasker said lifting his chin and standing proudly at attention.

“Good, very good. But.... did you get any information on his past?” the king asked.

“No... no, master,” Jasker admitted, his pride crumbling instantly.

“I see. I see,” the king said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I think you should send someone after him. Anyone skilled enough to keep hidden from a child yet capture his every movement in mind?”

“Nno....” Jasker stuttered.

“Never mind, then,” he said, waving it off, “I'll take care of that while you go find out his past. That is a job of tremendous importance.”

Jasker bowed and left.

****

Afton and Rain made it back safely to the underground channel without any obstructions. They only passed a few late-night travelers in carriages and that was it.

The journey underground to their rooms seemed longer than the first time and Afton thought a couple of times that Rain must have forgotten the route back.

However, the little genius guide had proved his title and they were in their respective beds by roughly 5 o'clock am.

The events of the night were rather uninteresting, but it didn't get at Afton in the least.

Even as he lay in bed, waiting for that dreaded roll call announcer at the corner above him to ring, he thought of Kaylie.

It was funny how though he'd never thought of her that way before, she was all he could think about now. A picture of her had been engraved in his head and his heart fluttered so wildly that it was almost torture.

How is she? What is she doing? Thoughts like these run through my head. Am I just being over-protective? Whatever it is... it's a... different feeling.

What it was exactly he liked about her, he didn't know. It was, after all, his first taste of any kind of love that he remembered....

He was still dreaming when the roll call bell sounded.

Then, he experienced first-hand the torment that sound is capable of inducing. Many of the bunkmates groaned and rolled over, covering their heads with pillows in an effort to block out the noise. All endeavors failed miserably and pillows were thrown around by their possessors as ranted out their annoyances upon the poor objects.

It was a terrible racket they produced altogether. Even Kaylie was blown out of his thoughts for a moment as he observed their recital, puzzling at how he'd gone through everything before still in his sub-conscious.

“Welcome back, Nissan,” Blake yawned as he glanced his way, “the sergeant was really worked up when he realized you were missing. Coincidentally parallel to the vanishing of someone crucial for our victory, too.”

Afton tensed a little but calmed himself quickly. Any blunder on his part would put him in danger...

Soon they were trailing out the door, out of the circle room and into an enormous room that Afton hadn't seen before.

Around forty people were standing at attention before a solitary personage in an important-looking uniform on an upraised platform, whom Afton presumed to be the sergeant.

“Is Nissan present?” was the first thing he asked, “Call him out to his punishment if he is!”

Afton spoke up timidly, “Yes, sir.”

“So he is,” the sergeant muttered rather loudly, “Come up here, kid. We need to work out something with you.”

Afton made his way to the front shaking terribly with fright on the inside while he kept his composure on the outside. There wasn't a hint of fear on his face.

“So tell me, Nissan. Where did you go? When did you go? How did you go? Who did you go with and who did you meet? Also, tell me what you really are. Are you one of us or one of our mangy neighbor's devious spies?” the sergeant blasted, eyeing Afton suspiciously as he spat out the last question.

“Ah, I beg your pardon, sir. But, would you repeat your questions one by one slowly?” Afton asked respectfully.

The sergeant narrowed his eyes but complied.

To the first question, Afton replied that he had gone stumbling his way through the tunnels and losing himself. To the second, Afton told the truth. The third question wasn't needed and he went on to answer the fourth, saying he hadn't left with a soul, but had bumped into Rain after a couple of days of wandering around And to the last, he simply said he was a citizen.

The sergeant nodded slowly, apparently not fully convinced. “Rain! Come up here and testify,” he grunted, turning his attention to a short blonde head that bobbed slightly at each step.

Rain attested to Afton's statements and that was all they needed to flick the last bit of suspicion out of the sergeant's head.... for now at least.

**A few days later**

Afton lay in his bed thinking... of her. The last three days of training had gone well enough. He had dropped, dead-tired into bed after all that. Yet... he still had the time, the madness to think of her every now and then.

He'd go smiling in the middle of a leopard crawl in a man-made mud environment, making the subject of quite a few fellow crawler's jokes. But he didn't care.

Don't get this all wrong, his accuracy, timing, and speedy reflexes were flaunted during training, directing both awe and jealousy toward himself.

It was truly a marvel how he could dodge all the mock weapons and return with a blow with spectacular speed and accuracy.

But that was in the course of the last three days. Now, Rain was at his bed, writing a poem...

This one surprisingly seemed to capture Afton's attention.

“Life is the weirdest. When one is experiencing it, he feels the horrors, the pain and everything else. Yet when he looks back, it shall one day come back, as a comedy, one can laugh at, as a memory, one can cherish or throw. For that is life,” Rain read aloud, then he sighed “It's really not poetic in the least.”

“That's more of a quote. A life quote,” Afton said, patting his head.

Rain sighed again and buried his head in his hands, “I'm so tired. I've been wracking my brain and chewing on it for more than half a week and haven't thought of a plan B.”

Afton continued patting Rain, “That's alright. You're a little genius anyway. Everything will work out in the end, anyway,” he said, reassuring the little boy.

“But I know... I know how much it means to you and... and I trust you,” Rain said.

“What do you mean?” Afton asked, beginning to color slightly at the tips of his ears.

“You like her, don't you? She means a lot to you,” Rain said, bluntly, not caring to see Afton's reactions.

Afton tried to speak, but all that came out was a little, “I... I...” which Rain did not even hear.

“But I know she has you friend-zoned. More like she thinks of you as a brother and not an eligible bachelor...”

“Rain!” Afton manage to blurt, coloring more at every passing second.

“What? It's true that she's over-protective until she could seem like your...”

“Stop! Please!” Afton whispered hoarsely.

It was then that Rain looked at Afton, surprised, and was sure of his assumptions.

He sighed again and banged his head on the wall, “Distant love is a torture... I hope I never have such a fate.”

Afton had buried his head in his pillow to hide all the red. But that only sent Rain on another sighing statement.

Rain talked quite a lot more, but his voice was drowned out by all the captured pictures of Kaylie... Alas! 'Tis the terrible, yet wonderful feeling of young love....

A few hours later, a visitor for Afton came around...

“Is there a Nissan here?” he asked, stepping through the door.

Afton quickly jumped down and saluted stiffly.

“I've come to check on you. To see if you've endured your first few days well,” the person said, going straight to the subject. “If you would like to resign, please do so now.”

Afton would have jumped with joy if it wasn't against his character. There was the solution, gift-wrapped and delivered straight to his doorstep!

Afton ended up leaving that night, escorted, carriage and all, back to Sundance.

He decided to use buy a black hooded cape rather like Kaylie's just slightly smarter, as well as a metal mask that covered half his face, the left half. He put his new costume on and contemplated on his next step. Afton was rather driven to see Kaylie again and Rain wasn't there to stop him...

Taking the chance to possibly see her again, Afton found his horse, which he had left in an innkeeper's care during the period he was training underground. He rode at a gallop straight to her... the one who had stolen his thoughts... possibly his heart.

****

“Queen, please understand that your health is at stake. I beg you to eat a little. Even a bowl of soup would be fine.”

“Not until I find her,” the queen answered coldly with determination.

“Oh, queen! That is madness! Please! I beg you to consume a little meat and vegetables!”

“Just a word that she's alright,” the queen muttered, disregarding her attendants beseeches.

The attendant cried patiently, holding a tray of food toward the restless queen, pacing a flight of steps above, “Oh queen! Take this food! I beg of you to eat!”

The queen did not reply and kept pacing back and forth.

“You have not eaten for a day!” the attendant continued, trying to reason with her.

Yet the queen was resolute...

This little scene was soon disrupted as soldier #2 flew through the door, pale as death.

“What is it?!” she cried, running down the flight of steps as fast as her dress would allow her. The attendant followed with her tray.

“It is...” soldier #2 gasped, “it is...”

“Do not keep me waiting!” she cried, holding her head, “Next time, compose yourself before you come in. I swear I shall die of suspense one day!”

The attendant quickly put her tray away to hold the queen.

“It is not good!” soldier #2 said.