OoC: Wow, I truthfully wasn't going to come back. I have been working on getting my story published out in the world. No luck right now. However, I'm not worrying about that currently. If I don't get it published now, I could always fix it up and try later. I'm on the second book of the series, but currently stumped because I don't think that my fighting scenes are of any good.

Actually, I'm happy to be back. I just hope that there will be people to greet me back.

IC: No one could mistaken the ashy red hair that sat on top of Keychain's scalp. Since the last time she was seen, it had grown out again. Pulled tightly into a high ponytail, it poured down to her hips, swishing back and forth as she quickly walked through the streets. Her blue eyes had become steely. The girl once known to be soft and sweet had changed to be someone stiff and hardened. How strange it was, since it seemed like as if Keychain was one of those people who could never change from the person that they had been for such a long time. But, however, if someone looked carefully, they could see a change. She was still the soft woman, but she was trying her best to hide it. With each step, the expression that looked glued to her face started to falter.

Keychain turned down an alley, quickly making her way from the crowd of people. The tears stung her eyes. She couldn't stop them from falling down her face, but she could make sure that not one single person would hear her sobbing. Her body fell against the nearest wall, leaning on it even though it couldn't give her support. She covered her mouth to make sure that the wails weren't loud enough to attract people. Her lungs started to spasm and Keychain started to hiccup. It was quickly over, and she wiped her eyes, feeling embarrassed for doing such a thing.

Not long ago, she had found out about what had happened to her whole family. It crushed to know that she was the only Innocence left. Somehow it felt like as if it was just too unreal. And, in a way, it was ironic. Always, she was the "weakest" and couldn't hold herself up on her own. Now she was doing just that and everyone else was gone. Keychain had changed herself, and, in turn, she became the one strong enough to avoid any kind of potential dangers that would end up with her death. She didn't jump into things. Her brother was exactly the opposite.

"That hot headed boy," she grumbled, "now look where you end up when you jump into things like the way you do." Shaking her head, Keychain laughed slightly. "Or the way that you did."

Keychain stood up, brushing all soot and gunk that clung to clothing desperately. she looked around quickly, to make sure that no one had seen her emotional breakdown. It would be too embarrassing--and too soon-- to explain why that had happened. She moved out of the alley and stared at the people walking by. Keychain leaned her shoulder against the building and smiled. How many people here missed her? Did anyone miss her strange colored hair? Or her quirky ways of doing things? Maybe someone missed her soft side for everyone and everything.

She certainly missed her old buddies.

A sudden hand rested on Keychains' shoulder, as the familiar face of Kasei Dornmos Gobi popped into view, with a solemn look on his face as he looked down at his crying friend. He stood there for a long time, watching her in silence as she forced back her tears. The moment of sadness seemed to last forever as he rubbed her shoulder, comforting her as best he could.

"You know..." He began, "Talking about a situation can really help in the end, even a little bit. You should never carry a burden on your own. Sharing a problem and letting others help can make you feel better." He advised, carefully watching his friend through his radiant red eyes. It had been forever since those eyes had gazed upon Keychain; buy Kasei would never forget her; or any of his other allies that he made here in Hyrule.

He waited for her response, patiently. He had already lived her life several times over, and was more than willing to wait several more to hear her story.

"Kasei," Keychain said, not even needing to turn around to know who it was, "do you know that it is never a good thing to sneak up on a woman? One day you're going to get injured by doing exactly that." She glanced up at him. During her time away, she had forgotten who puny she was compared to him. "Is there a way that you can shrink? It would really help me out with my height and all."

"And there is nothing wrong," she said. "Besides, if there was a situation that I needed to talk about, then I would. But there---" A hiccup came from Keychain's throat. Finally giving in, she rubbed her eyes. "Were you watching or did my red eyes give it off?" A tear trickled down her face. Quickly she tried to cover things up by laughing. Keychain hid behind her hands. "I won't tell you, I just won't."

She sighed lightly and looked up at him. "So, what have you been up to in my absence? I hope that you haven't been too destructive."

OoC: I am terrible at being serious! D:

OOC: SO AM I 8D

IC: Kasei smiled down at Keychain. "No, not too destructive...just enough to make ends meet, you know?" He said cheerfully, and got down on his knee, making himself eye level with Keychain.

Gently, he rubbed his fingers against her eyes, wiping away the tears that flooded out. "Bottling something inside is a horrible way to cope with it, Kitty, It's better to share your hardships, and you have a friend here who is happy to help you." He said calmly and quietly, like a nurse helping a child who had fallen and scrapped his knee.

"Is it something with your family?" He guessed, attempting to jostle her into confessing.

"You're making me feel like a little kid," she commented. Keychain giggled lightly. It had to be Kasei, him of all people to find her like this. "Just tell me if you had seen me or if something just gave away that something is off." She tugged absently at her hair. The ribbon was coming loose and she pulled it out. Dark red locks framed her face for a short time as she placed the ribbon in her mouth and gathered up her hair once again to put it up. Her hair had stayed in the same high ponytail for three days, the time that she had traveled. There was a bump where it had shaped to that way.

Finally done, she sighed. "Well, I'll tell you the good news. I found out that my mother had a brother. He had three kids before his wife passed away. Only one survived. She's. . . she should be about my age. My mother was also Hylian, so I've got Hylian blood inside of me. The pointed ear thing does show a little." Keychain quickly pointed to her ears. "Anyway, my cousin is full blooded Hylian. I don't know where she is, but she off somewhere. My uncle said something about her running off with some boy. The odd thing about everything is that he found out who I was by thinking that I was my dad with long hair. Kept calling me by my father's name. My cousin's name is Lilian. She's like a curly haired version, younger version of my mother. My mother looked like my grandmother, so you could say that Lilian is a duplicate of grandma."

Keychain rubbed her neck, choosing her next words more carefully. "Kasei, have I ever told you about my twin brother? When I came here, I separated from him, and once I started to learn my way around spells and ways to protect myself, I decided to go looking for him. You see, my brother was one of those people who wanted to be a king's warrior, but he was always over looked. He was never fast enough to move out of the way of a weapon. To them, he was useless. Luis never trained he weaknesses. In a way, he thought that he didn't need to. He was going blind too. Someone smacked him good on the head one day and ever since it seemed like as if he was seeing more and more black spots. It's obvious that he was wrong about that."

She smiled lightly. "I bet if you put two and two together that you can figure things out."

"So...." Kasei started, he could tell where this is going. However, instead of making an assumption and then being wrong; he instead decided to tell Keychain something.

"Kitty, I wonder if I ever told you about my relationship to that man, Jormund Gobi. You may have seen his wanted posters around here, maybe not." He started, slowly. "Well...he's my grandfather. I wonder if you'll take note; I think he has some similarities to your brother."

"He was getting old, and frail. His bones were breaking every other day and his muscles were not working right. As the head of the family, he was getting ready to retire. Of course, he didn't want that. He made a deal with the dark prince, and gained a tremendous, evil power." Kasei said, a sad glimpse of his past evident in his eyes.

"He slaughtered my hometown in a mad fury, Kitty. Only a handful of people survived and escaped; my wife was not one of them. She died in my arms. From that day on, I have tried countless times to murder Jormund, in a mad rage. It was like...I believed that by killing him, I could bring her...bring everyone, back." He said, some tears now evident in his eyes. "I soon realized that that was foolish." He added. "I found my granddaughter, Aria, and have been trying to rebuild my family, instead of trying to bring back the one I lost." He said.

"Does this story remind you of anything?" He asked, glancing down at Keychain with calm eyes.

Keychain opened her mouth to say something, but instead reached out and patted Kasei's head. "There are some idiotic people out there. People just want power and don't know when they should listen to their thoughts instead of becoming power hungry. It's hard to know that there is someone you know or are related to that does such dangerous things. And it's worse to remember when you did something crazy."

She shook her head. "But I don't see why you told me this. My brother was just an idiot. He was almost blind and decided to go out in the streets during the night." Keychain paused, pressing her lips together. "A young scholar found him and buried him. Never marked his grave."

"Hmph." Kasei said, patting his young friend on the head. "My point was that...yes, your family is gone. But what point is there in weeping about the loss? After all, you're still here to remember them, and are more than capable of doing just that, Kitty." He finished in a rather upbeat tone.

He smiled, and stood up. "No matter who is lost, as long as someone's around to remember them and their life, then they're never forgotten."

"Yes, I guess it would be best but the first few days are the worst," commented Keychain. She frowned lightly. "By the way, I've just noticed that you have called me 'Kitty' more than once since we've been talking. Why are you calling me that? Do I have some kind of kitten feature to myself that I don't know about?"

She smiled lightly. "Did anything interesting happen while I was gone? How's the South going?"

OoC: Baw, so short. D:

"Ah," He spoke up, rather cheery; "It's just a fun pet name, right? Nothing to worry about, ok kitty?" He said, smiling widely, petting her head in a funny manner.

"Overall, it's been really calm around Hyrule for some time." He explained, now serious. "There are occasional skirmishes here and there, but nothing major."

OOC: SHORT POST IS SHORT

Keychain frowned. "Well, what if I started to call you by a pet name? Like. . . like. . ." She paused as her eyebrows came together. She could not think of any other name for Kasei that sounded as embarrassing as him walking around calling her 'Kitty'. Her face started to turn bright red, her old self starting to stand out from the change that had happened. She kicked at the dirt lightly. "Well, just don't say it when we're around other people. It's embarrassing."

She thought lightly, her eyes brightening lightly with mischief. "Maybe we should cause trouble. Make a riot. Maybe one of us or both of us will end up in the king's torment rooms because of the trouble that we could cause." She laughed heartily. Obviously, her petite body being able to be thrown around easily would never help her out. The young mage glance at Kasei, smiling brightly.

Threading a hand through her hair, Keychain pulled the ribbon out and her hair fell around her face. She looked more mature with her face being framed by the long, dark red locks. Her eyes were still red and puffy from her crying, but they sparkled wildly. Keychain smiled lightly.

"It's good to be back," she said.

OoC: I think I'll ask some of my friends to check this site out. Maybe they'll enjoy joining it.

Kasei smiled wide at her first request. "Don't say it when we're around other people? What...you want it to be our little secret, kitty? Aw, so romantic." He joked heartily, looking down at her with a fun face, a single strand of his blue hair trailing between his eyes.

He proceeded to ignore her comment regarding the riot. He could only hope that she meant it in good jest and not as a serious threat. He goes to move the hair out of the way with his left hand, at the same time placing his right on Keychain's head.

"It's good to have you back, kitty." He said finally, as he glanced around the area, his own red eyes surveying everything like a hawk.

She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Ha! Romantic? Please, like that was what I was thinking. I find it impossible for you to be able to romanticize someone. Maybe there was one time when you could, but now I just don't see it. I just don't want people to be giggling at the nickname. Besides, I already have a nickname; Key. Everyone can call me by that because it's just so. . . natural for me to have it. I mean, my full name is Keychain. Might as well have a nickname that is shorter than my name."

Keychain stretched and let out a long yawn. She had been up for so long, but it didn't affect her until now. The adrenaline of wanting to get to the courtyard had given her the energy to continue on her way. But she could wait a few more minutes before departing for rest.

"What's been going on with you? Anything interesting or new going on that I should know about?" She went to talk some more but yawned again. "I guess I'm much more tired than what I thought. Anyway, has there been anything going on with you or Aria? By the way, I don't see that girl walking around often. Does she usually just stick to herself?"

"Me?" Kasei repeated. "No, nothing new or exciting has happened to me in some time, kitty. As I've said; it's unnecessarily boring around here nowadays, nothing to do, no enemies to crush, you know...."

"Aria? She's almost always out on her own, now." Kasei said, a bit of disappointment noticeable in his eyes and in his voice. "You don't see her too much because you weren't here." He stated. "I know where she is, though, if you want to chat up..." He offered a hand.

"What a shame, Aria should have some company. It's not healthy to be alone and wandering around. I say that we ought to go see her," Keychain said, catching the disappointment in his voice.

She wrapped her arm around Kasei's elbow, purposely ignoring the hand. "Let's go, then! There's no reason to be standing around here like a couple of people who don't know what to talk about when there's someone out there that could have something interesting to say." Keychain looked around briefly. "Well, more interesting than the weather, hopefully." She grinned widely, her eyes sparkling with her amusement.