Aoi has never left the Jungle before. The wrongness of it all causes her skin to prickle as she heads towards the border of the only place she has ever known. The tangled vines thin, and the cacophony of jungle voices lessen into nothingness, leaving her naked. For a moment she hesitates at the border of her home. She remembers venturing here as a child, her mismatched eyes staring out into the great plains. She had never dared venture any further. Even now, she feels as though she is that little child again, and she can almost hear her mother calling for her from the jungle vines behind her.

She sighs. She is far from a child now. Years spent wandering the jungle have molded her into something like an Amazonian warrior. She had trained within the safety of the vines. Her sisters had mocked with her. The trees had taught her to be agile. The fallen leaves had taught her stealth in her steps. She knows, because she has been told, that the trip to the Deserts is long and open. If her Mother Jungle had not asked it of her, she would not dare go.

The quickest route to the neighboring kingdom is barricaded by The Beach. Even if Aoi hadn’t known of that place from stories, the stench was enough for her to consider taking the long route through the open Plains. While her training in the Jungle had taught her to hone her agility, it had left something to be desired for stamina. Her arabian ancestors help her cause, but only so far. Aoi resolves, amidst licking her dry, thirsty lips, that she must train harder as she comes to the borders of the Deserts where firm ground turns to shifting sand.

Aoi calls, and her voice echoes through the dunes within, but she waits respectfully along the border. She knows how the sisters feel about trespassers in the Jungle, but she also has no desire to get lost amidst the sands. She waits, not quite knowing what to expect. After all, this is her first time venturing out of the Jungle, and to do good rather than seek blood no less. How strange.

A O I