It was midday. The sun shone over the trees of the forest, shedding light everything below. However, the beauty of the sun was not the first thing on Kappo Dias' mind. Rather, the first thing, or first things, on his mind were that he had no money, no food, his stomach was rumbling and that he was walking away from the only real civilisation for the next few miles.

As far as he was concerned, he was an ordinary fifteen year old orphan. He had plain blue hair, the only odd thing about it was the fact it always flicked at the top (one thing that many of the orphanage's staff had told him off for) and spiked out at the sides, essentually making his hair longer than most girls'. His blue eyes were unsually flat-topped, making him look permanently bored. Which, as it happened, he usually was.

Luck was on his side, however, as up the path loomed a small shop, which made its business from passing travellers. With no money, Kappo had already begun to formulate an excuse to get some free food. It started with something like "Oh please sir or madam, I'm a poor starving orphan, won't you give me something to eat?". The orphan trick got most people in one, how could you resist helping a parentless teenager? Puppy dog eyes and a little lip curling never hurt, either. Struggling out of his long-sleeved hooded shirt, revealing his plain white t-shirt underneath, and tying it around his waist, he pushed open the door to the shop.

Inside was nothing more than a clutter of shelves with an assortment of food and drink stuffed onto the shelves. Past the mess, Kappo could just about make out a counter with an old lady sitting behind it. An old lady! It was just too perfect, they were the easiest bait for this sort of thing. They'd fall for any old story, no matter how obviously fabricated it was.

Looking as sad as he possibly could, he slowly made his way to the counter. Looking the old woman dead in the eyes he opened his mouth. Before any words could get out however, the old woman screamed :

"GET OUT OF MY SHOP RIGHT NOW YOU BEAST, YOU CREATION OF THE DEVIL!"

Startled that an old lady could say such a thing, Kappo turned on his heel and began to flee the shop. Whatever it was about him that made the woman angry, it wasn't worth staying to find out. When he slid out of the door, he realised that the old woman had chased him all the way there. Running in the heat away from the shop, he looked back to find the woman had stopped running. However, a shoe was flying towards him at great speeds and quickly made contact with his nose. With a smack and a roar of frustration, the shoe fell to the ground, innocent as a shoe could possibly look. Scowling at the shoe, as if it was the cause of the confusion, Kappo continued to walk onwards, ignoring his rumbling stomach to the very best of his ability.

By the time the sun had set, Kappo's feet were aching and his stomach, he assumed, had digested itself a few hours ago. Sitting down with his back to a sturdy tree, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, the full day's walking having tired him endlessly.

"Oh my.. he looks dead. Is he breathing? No.. I don't think he's breathing. What should I do? What if he's dead? Why me of all people?! Why me, why me.."

Kappo fluttered his eyes open. The first sight he saw that morning was a single eye, a metallic grey in colour staring right at him. It occurred to him in the next few milliseconds of awkward silence that the other eye was covered by a similar coloured mess of hair.

After the pause, the two screamed and jumped back, the girl jumping onto her feet and Kappo banging his head off the tree behind him.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" exclaimed the girl, who looked about 20, making hand motions in a melodramatic way that you'd expect to find in a frankenstein remake, hand motions to boot.

Kappo just stared. There was nothing else his brain could compute for him to do in such a situation. Sensing his confusion, the girl smiled and said :

"Oh, sorry. I freak people out all the time." she said, rolling her eyes and holding out a hand as she did so, "My name's Keyaki. But you can call me Key if you like. I'm forty-three, by the way."

"F-Forty-three?!" blurted Kappo, taking her hand and getting to his feet, "You look - and sound - like you're 20! You're just kidding me on, aren't you?"

"No, silly." She replied, "Why would I lie and make myself a good 20 years older than I am? Hah! No one believes my age! But you're all fools, all of you!" she continued, making more crazy hand motions. "So, your name, mister spikey-blue?"

"M-my name?" said Kappo, hesitating as if the question was some sort of impossible math question, "It's Kappo. Kap if you like, Mrs. Messy Grey."

Keyaki sniffed at his remark, then, realising what he had said, she exclaimed :

"Grey?! My hair's not grey.." she pulled at it and looked at her messy fringe "It's silver. Metalic. Not grey!"

"Whatever." said Kappo.

Keyaki stopped pulling her hair and put on a thoughtful face. She stared straight at, or through, Kappo as he pulled back on his top. After mouthing his name, she seemed to have come to a decision, and smiled.

"Since you're out here, I guess you ran away. You must be hungry, but I consider myself to be an hospitable person, so you, mister, are coming with me!"

Totally perplexed, Kappo did not resist as Keyaki pulled him away from the side of the path and into the trees at the other side.

She's going to kill me thought Kappo, wondering why else anyone would lead an adolescent into the trees in such a secluded location. Keyaki, he figured, was quite a freak in any case, so it didn't seem too far fetched.

"What are we doing out here?" he asked, hoping the answer would at least be sane.

"Looking for the path, of course!" was the reply.

This was of no help at all. They had just crossed the path. Was the woman blind as well as insane? He listened as she mumbled to herself about being so stupid and losing the path, and how it must have a life of its own and must be moving around all the time. He didn't understand how people could believe in things like that. Fantasy was just another silly fad to him, science was law, animals didn't talk, paths didn't move. All the stupid things people make up to scare or inject joy into children and the general public were naught but a lie, werewolves, vampires, fairies, mermaids, and especially not God. Religion was, as far as Kappo was concerned, a lie to keep people happy. That was all he had learned from religious lessons at the orphanage.

"Found it!" declared Keyaki, jumping onto a not-so-well worn patch of land that did appear to be a path. In the middle of the forest.

For the next ten or so minutes, Kappo found himself tripping over tree roots, getting whacked in the face with branches Keyaki brushed past, and wondering when the crazy woman was about to pull out a chainsaw and murder him.

However, his thoughts were forgotten as they came upon a house. A nice little house with two floors. It was then Kappo stopped and wondered who in their right mind would build a house in the middle of the freaking forest! Blinking furiously to make sure he was not hallucinating, Kappo followed Keyaki around the house and into what he assumed was the back door.

The door lead into what appeared to be an everyday sitting room, complete with big comfy-looking couches, a low down table and a big plasma TV. Kappo stood and blinked at the extreme normality (except for the size of the TV) as Keyaki brushed past him to a far door.

"Stay here and don't break anything" she said as she walked out of the room.

Kappo stood awkwardly beside the couch, not knowing whether he was allowed to sit on it or not. He watched the clock, immersed by the moving hands.

Suddenly, there was a thump as if someone had just jumped, or fell, down at least half a flight of stairs. Worried, Kappo leaned sideways in an attempt to see out of the closed-over door. When it opened.

A girl walked in. The first thing that hit Kappo was not her bright red, intimidating eyes, but her long, dull red hair which flowed down to her knees. She wasn't stunningly beautiful, but was, by any standards, very pretty. However, her over large eyes seemed to be betraying her. She stopped.

"Wu- Who are you?!" she demanded.

"I'm.. uh.. who are YOU?' stammered Kappo, refusing to be beaten by a girl.

"I asked first! And this is my house!"

"My name's.." began Kappo, slowly walking forward, "Kap- WOAH!"

He had tripped on the rug. The girl was only a short distance from him, so he hoped she would at least break his fall.

She did.

But not in the way he had hoped.

He screamed as his face flushed with red and pulled his face away from her chest. She screamed as she brought back her fist and knocked him as hard as she could in the chin. Keyaki chose that moment to walk back in the door. Kappo stumbled and fell over after having heard a distinct click! from his chin.

"Aaaaaaa..." groaned Kappo, unable to move his jaw.

The two girls stared at him for a second. Another, more violent click resounded around the room as Kappo's chin seemed to fix itself. Poking it in disbelief, Kappo stood up, embarassed.

So, thought Keyaki, I was right.