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After spending a few days playing "Romancing SaGa" to work over my brain, I'm ready to add a new chapter to this story. So here's where the story left off:

After arriving in town, Chris and Kat discover that they're the only things standing between a bunch of ruthless bandits and their clean getaway from robbing the bank. A gunfight breaks out, and Chris experiences first-hand just what kind of power the Howling Moon Revolver held. It was thanks to that power and some backup from Kat that Chris managed to take down the bandits. With that taken care of, the two of them shopped for supplies and then stopped by the local inn to call it a day. But a new surprise awaited them in the morning.

And now, on with the story!

Ch. 4

I wondered what was so interesting that I had to rush out of the inn to see. Turns out that there was a terran traveler sprawled out in the dirt in front of the inn. A small crowd of people had turned up to watch, but nobody was getting close. I yawned. Seeing as how nobody else was going to check on this person, I got closer and crouched down. It was very possible that the person was dead, but I checked anyway.

"Hey, you alright?" I shook the terran.

Without warning, the terran suddenly gripped my ankle. "Food! Water! Please!"

Startled, I looked back at Kat.

Kat nodded. "I'll go get some food and water."

I turned back to the terran. The terran looked and sounded young, probably younger than me. I helped him off the ground and took him inside the inn, out of the sun's rays. Then Kat came back down. After quickly chowing down on the fruit and jerky as well as guzzling down all of the water in our canteen, he seemed to be fine.

"Haa! Thanks. I thought I was gonna die." He said with a grin on his face.

I was already confused about a few things. Why was he starving if he was in town? He didn't have a bag, so did he live in this town? And why does he seem perfectly fine now? Kat must have been thinking the same things, because she looked like she was ready to ask him something.

"You've got some explaining to do, pal."

The grin didn't fade from his face, nor did her tone of voice seem to trouble him. "I'm Reiko. I was going on a journey, but I got lost and some wild animals ran off with all of my supplies. I guess I was a bit careless there, heh heh..."

I'd say he was a lot more than a bit careless. I didn't feel sorry for him one bit. But I was a bit curious about what it was he was going on a journey for in the first place. I couldn't help but ask.

"So what's this journey you mentioned?"

"Oh, that? I was supposed to find a rare remedy for our village's elder. Have you ever heard of the wonder elixir?"

"Nope, never heard of it."

His smile seemed to dim a bit. "I see..."

I looked at Kat. There was something about the look in her eye.

"Kat, can I talk to you for a second?"

She nodded and we walked over to the far end of the room.

"You're not thinking of inviting him to come with us, are you?"

Kat shifted her gaze. "Well, maybe a little."

"We hardly know the guy. I'm sure he'll be fine on his own."

"How could you say that? If he would be fine on his own, he wouldn't have ended up here."

"That was because his supplies got stolen. I'm sure he'll be fine once he gets new supplies."

"No. He's coming with us, and that's final."

I hated losing arguments to Kat, but she won that one and it looked like Reiko would be traveling with us for a while. But I decided that if he had to travel with us, he had better be properly equipped. So I took him to the gun shop.

"Pick out which gun you're best with."

He looked at me and slightly frowned. His ears also drooped. "I don't like guns. They scare me."

Then he spotted a bow.

"Hey, that's the bow I had when I left the village! Why's it here?"

I came to an obvious conclusion. Wild animals hadn't stolen Reiko's supplies. Someone from this town did. I looked at the gun shop owner. He suddenly looked panicked. Before I said anything, the owner spilled the beans.

"Okay, okay! Some shady guy came in the other day and sold me a nice bag and that bow! I'll give back the little guy's stuff, just don't hurt me!"

"Thanks, and I had no intention of hurting you, just so you know. By the way, do you remember what the guy looked like?"

"Yeah. He was wearing a wide-brimmed hat and had the strangest rifle I'd ever seen."

It was him. My parents' murderer. "Do you know where he went!?"

"Sorry, he didn't say."

I sighed. My first lead and already a dead end. After our business in the gun shop was done, I asked some people in town about the mystery man. They told me he went north to Galedna, a big city well known for it's light shows. The new lead left me eager to go, but I didn't even know which direction to go in. So when we got back to the inn, I asked Kat about it.

"Which way's Galedna?"

"It's north of here, but you have to go through the Moaning Caverns to get there. Why do you ask?"

"It's our next destination. How soon can we leave?"

"Well, if we left now it would take us a few hours to get there, but traveling through the Moaning Caverns at night is dangerous. People say that wild beasts roam the caves freely at night since there's no light coming in from outside. If we go during the day, we'd just have to avoid the darkest parts of the caverns and we'd be fine."

"We don't have any time to waste. Let's leave now!"

Reiko looked at us. "Why are we leaving?"

His question irritated me slightly. "Because the longer we stay here the less chance I have of finding the man I'm after."

He said nothing after that. We gathered our things and headed out of town. It was dusk by the time we reached the entrance of the Moaning Caverns. We set up camp for the night. I decided to ask Reiko about himself. Reiko had come from a small village of Terrans. They had lived peacefully until they found a wounded traveler just outside the village. They nursed him back to health, but sometime after the traveler left, the village elder fell ill from an illness they'd never seen before. The only thing that they could think of to cure him was the wonder elixir that the traveler had mentioned while he was staying there. So Reiko had been chosen by everyone else to go in search of the wonder elixir. It sounded rough to me. It didn't even sound like he had a choice in the matter. I looked at Kat. She looked sad.

Kat wiped a tear from her eye."Don't worry, we'll help you find that elixir."

I didn't say anything. It was just like Kat. She's always easily moved. She also worries too much. I pulled out my blanket and laid down.

"See you guys in the morning." I went to sleep.

Before long I was rocked out sleep. It was Reiko. He looked worried.

"Kat's missing!"