Basil Fortuth:
You know you’re not allowed to eat with people. Your food is somewhere in the kitchen go find it.

Casee:
Just once I wish I had parents who cared for me… Just once I wish you guys would drop dead.

Basil and Cam stare at their daughter in surprise for Casee had never in her life talked to them in this manner. Their surprise faces quickly turn to anger and Cam stands up and slaps Casee with full force. Casee carelessly feels the mark of the handprint across her face then gets up without a word and leaves the dining room. She goes into her room and quietly starts packing some clothes, money she’d stolen from her mother, and the bear that her mother’s friend, Lorn, had given her for her first birthday. Despite her mother being down right evil, Lorn was the complete opposite and treated Casee like she was her own. Sometimes Casee wished that she was Lorn’s daughter then she could happy forever, at least this was according to Casee’s thoughts. She sits on her old, piece of scrap called a bed trying to carefully avoid the spring in the lower middle part. Casee pulls her long black bangs with the green and purple streak in the middle towards the front of her face. She covers her purplish/gray eyes with her bangs and closes her eyes to think. Casee is a thirteen year old girl standing at 5’3, small and frail with delicate features. She has a bright, golden complexion, long black hair that reaches her waist, no piercings long fingers with unusually long, pointed fingernails that gives her a faerie like essence. She liked the way she looked because it angered her parents. She was beautiful and that angered them the most since everyone complimented her every time they saw her. She thought about this sadly because tonight something was about to happen; something that was going to change her life for good. It is now dark out, but not quite dark enough. She had to wait a little bit longer to take her happiness back. After a couple of hours she carefully opens the badly worn wooden door and heads towards the back. As she inches closer to it she feels the light shine on her. Her father has made it into the kitchen stumbling in for a snack. He opens his eyes fully and stares at his daughter in disgust.

Cam:
Where do you think you’re going at this time of night?

Casee:
I’m going out for walk. What do you care?

Cam:
I don’t care but I don’t think you’re telling me the truth. We need you here Casee. We don’t need you running off and telling everyone (cynical tone) what bad people we are.

Casee:
Listen Cam, I wouldn’t tell a soul about you or that witch you call your wife. For too long I’ve been held here against my will like a prisoner as you and that awful woman torture me. No I would never mention your names. I would never tell of your faces. I wouldn’t breathe a word to begin a sentence starting with “My parents.”

Cam frowning up his face:
You should be lucky we’ve kept you alive all this time. We could’ve just left you in the bottom of the Bas River and been done with you. Now get your butt back to bed right now before I find one of my pinchers and use it on you.

Casee holds up her hand and out comes a small pen like object. It opens up to show five sharp needles which looks like a claw. After it fully opens it begins to spin faster and faster until sparks begin to fly from the tips. It is her Wikgun, a small, sharp claw that could scratch your skin off. It is often used when a person is in danger. Every Arcanthian has a special Wikgun that they use but to access it you have to feel it deep down inside. Casee was pleased that hers had finally shown itself to her. She discovered it the day before which gave her the courage to run away and leave the sad place she called home for good. As Cam backs up Casee edges closer to the door and turns the knob.

Cam stammering:
H-h-how’d you get your Wikgun to work? How do you even know about it in the first place?

Casee:
Never mind that.

She is about to close it behind her when she sees her mother running into the kitchen trying to figure out what is going on. Cam stares at the door and Basil now understands what has just taken place—Casee was gone and they were left without someone to torture. Casee begins running through the woods until she finds the clearing that she’d discovered the day before after heaving a pile of horse dung into the river like her parents ordered her to. Though they lived in a cottage in the woods they had a horse ranch that specialized in the rarest flying horses. Casee hated those horses since they received better treatment from her parents then she did.

Casee staring into the clearing:
This road better take me far, far, far away from these deadbeat idiots. All I want is to be happy…

**

Three weeks away from Misa and Fazil was looking better already. His cheeks were no longer sunken in, he looked as if he’d gained a great deal of weight in no time, and his spirits, which were the most important part of him, were soring in the air. Though he didn’t have a job or a proper place to sleep he was happier than ever. He stole his food during the night so that in the day time when they were looking for the culprit he was virtually undetectable. Though he was feeling a tremendous weight lift from his shoulders he still wondered what it would have felt like to have the love from a real parent not someone who lap he’d been dropped in by chance; the love from someone like his mom. Although this plagued his mind for some time he knew he had to shed it if he wanted to make it on his own. He was going to have to grow tougher skin… a couple of months pass and Fazil has finally come to terms that he is run-away; a misfit; someone not worth talking to by real Arcanthians who had a home and a stable life. He’d realized this when he asked a lady’s daughter on the street the time just to be shoed away.

Fazil to himself:
So I’m a misfit; someone not deserving of even descent small talk such as “What time is it?” I’m definitely going to have to get used to talking only to myself.

Fazil wanders around and finds a fountain in the Feerial Park grounds just north of the shopping square. The idea to clean himself suddenly crosses his mind for he hadn’t had a bath in two months, and he was feeling a bit light headed from the smell alone. He walks over to the fountain and dips his hands into the cool waters feeling the warmth of it flow within him. Fountain waters in Arcantha were pure and came from the mountain falls. These waters flowed from the heavens into the rivers, streams, lakes, and seas, and of course the fountain of Feerial Village. The fountains were especially sacred and because of this they were enclosed behind walls. Arcanthians could access the fountains to gaze upon it through a small entrance way that only they had access to. Others outside the world weren’t allowed near these fountains. Because these waters were sacred no one was to touch them. Fazil was aware of this but he desperately wanted to feel clean again so he kept going until he thought he’d seen someone spot him. As Fazil looks up and sees a young boy’s face disappear behind the parks entrance wall, he stops short and runs in the opposite direction. After this, Fazil decides to wait out the day until it is time to take his food supply once more. As night time approaches Fazil slips from a hiding place—a crack in the wall of an abandoned building next to an alleyway—and begins to hunt down his victim. He sees a man putting away Sappas across the way, and his mouth starts to water. Sappas were a rare fruit that grew on the second, or Middle Island, Nan. Nan, due to its easy access, is the main port in which merchants from other worlds could load and unload their goods sold and purchased on Arcantha. A side rail was most useful to Arcanthians and Fazil was definitely aware of this. At the moment Nan was the last thing on his mind all he wanted was the fruit. He sees the vendor locking away the fruit and cautiously walks over. As he snatches two sappas from the stand the vendor turns and sees Fazil running away.

Vendor yelling wildly after Fazil:
Stop you thieving pest!! Get back here with my goods!! You must pay! You must paaaaaayyyy!!!

Fazil feels badly about what he’s done but he must keep running and never get caught. If he was caught he’d be sent back to Misa and that was out of the question. As he tries to dodge the vendor he slips into an alleyway right next to the abandoned building he’d been hiding in, and as he tries to go back to the hiding space he stumbles over something lumpy. Falling to ground, Fazil rubs his sore elbows and gathers the fruit. He is about to take off when he hears a soft-spoken, yet tough sounding voice from the lump.

Lump:
Who are you and what are you doing in my place of resting? Come on speak up now. I would like to know why you’ve just come crashing in on me waking me at this hour.

Fazil getting to his feet and feeling uneasy:
(To himself) Aww Hell I’m done for. (Out loud to the girl) Many pardons miss but I was trying to escape a vendor. I took some of his fruit in order to feed myself for the night, but I seemed to have caught his eye and I was trying to get away as quick as possible.

Girl:
Well that’s all well and good, but still you’ve caused me to be awake after it took forever to get to sleep in the first place!

Fazil:
Again I’m terribly sorry. But I had to eat. I’m so very hungry and stealing is my only means of survival. I had to take the food from the vendor, which by the way has he gone yet?

Girl:
He’s gone for now, but if you don’t watch it I’ll make sure he returns to take you away to be stoned at the stone yard.

Fazil smiling a toothy smile:
You’re a pretty tough cookie I see. (Holding out his hand to the girl) My name is Fazil Sinth of the First Clan. I’m a mind spiritualist healer. I stay beyond Feerial on a small farm with my dad, or at least…I used to but I ran away almost two months ago. Hell I don’t even feel much like a mind healer I feel…broken; like my powers just don’t exist inside me. If they did I would’ve used it against my maniac father a long time ago.

Girl in a surprised tone:
Wait! You’re a run-away just like me?! I’ve been roaming on my own for about a year now and I have yet to find another run-away just like me. I came here after finding that there was a way to escape my awful parents. Plus I was tired of the way they were treating me, so I told myself that there was no way I was going back to that God awful place. They even tried to track me after a time, and were close, but I gave them the slip by coming here to Feerial where they aren’t allowed anymore. I don’t know why, but I didn’t care at the time either. I still don’t… Anyway I saw this sheet sitting in this alleyway and decided to stay here. That and the building here is rather creepy at night. All they did was find new ways to hurt me and make me cry. I hate them so much.

Fazil:
Wow, that’s really awful. We really are just alike. I ran away from my dad. All he did was beat me to no end. See my mother died six years before and after she passed that’s when things changed for the worse. I just couldn’t take that anymore no kid should have to go through that. (In a sad voice) I maybe fifteen, but I’d rather be on my own then be a dead guy walking.

It hurt the girl to hear Fazil’s story sound almost identical to her own. Fazil looks away from the girl and turns to look at his surroundings. The girl on the other hand turns over and begins to gaze at the sky. After a few minutes of silence Fazil speaks up again.

Fazil:
So what’s your name? How old are you?

Girl:
Oh yeah that’s right I haven’t told you my name yet. I’m Casee Fortuth of The Fourth Clan and I’m a heart purest. I cleanse the heart…or rather that’s what our clan is supposed to do, but all my parents knew how to do was kill the heart. (In a bitter tone of voice) They certainly were trying to kill mine.

The words fall from Casee’s lips as though they had burned her mouth inside out. She closes her mouth suddenly and turns over on the ground to face Fazil. Fazil tries to find a comfortable enough place to rest his head, lays down, closes his eyes, and falls fast asleep. Soon Casee is not far behind him. They both had a rough life growing up and now the reward of a good night’s sleep was long past due. As Casee closes her eyes she smiles suddenly. She was happy she’d found someone like herself to talk to and have around to understand her feelings. She was happy she’d met Fazil Sinth… This was the day two run-aways met.