Camp, that night, was made within a clearing in the woods. They were all exhausted from the day's hike and just wanted to sit and watch the fire.

Nanaki however, seemed on a tense alert. He's probably just trying to be protective, Aeris thought. She didn't think that they were that helpless though. They had all been taught to fight while they grew up. They were quite capable fighters.

Then she noticed Ash. He looked depressed. He had been that way since they had left Lucrecia's falls. This whole 'dark figure' thing must really be bothering him. She decided to go comfort him.

"Are you ok?" ahe asked as she sat next to him. He looked at her.

"Yeah. I still can't believe that it could have been a dream. I mean, it felt so real. Besides, I know I was awake."

"Well, I believe you," Aeris said, trying to comfort the boy. The look on his face was skeptical. Perhaps he was smarter then he let on.

She sighed. "It's getting late. You kids should probably get some sleep." Nanaki was being over-protective again. "There is still a long walk to Mideel tomorrow. I suggest that you should sleep while you have the chance."

Areis thought that it was a good reasion. Besides, she was tired. Everyone settled down and perpared to sleep as Nanaki walked around the encampment. There appeared to be a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong, Nanaki?" Aeris asked.

"It's the smell. It's all around us." Nanaki appeared to be thinking to himself, but outloud. "How could it have followed us?"

"How could what have followed us?" Aeris asked. She had always been a curious girl.

"It's the faint smell from Lucrecia's falls. It's here, and the smell is stronger now." Nanali took another long sniff, then turned back to the kids. "It's probably nothing."

Ash didn't agree. "It's the dark figure. He must have followed us here!" Ash looked at Nanaki. "I know that it is him."

As if to comfirm Ash's suspicions, there was a faint rustling in a bush. The bush was on the opposite end of the clearing. Nanaki began slowly advancing to the bush. But this seemed too easy to Ash.

Then he remembered the lesson his parent's gave him on diversions. If he was ever in a tight spot, and needed to escape; all he had to do was divert attention away from himself so he could have a clean getaway.

So while all other attention was directed in front of them, he turned to look behind. That was when he saw it; the tail end of a black cape as it flew deeper into the woods. "Nanaki!" Ash yelled. He pointed in the direction he saw the cape dissapear. "I saw him go that way!"

Victor cursed himself for his blunders this night. He was messing up everything. His father would not be proud tonight.

Victor's first mistake was moving too close around the clearing. It let the animal get whiff of his sent. And alerted the group that he was around the clearing somewhere.

Then he let himself be seen. He threw a small, unnoticed, pebbel at a bush to create a distraction. He thought that everyone in the group would be focused on that bush. But the nosy boy apparently was not fooled.

As he now ran, he could hear the beast behind him. It was chacing him. Victor knew he couldn't out run it. He desperatly tried to think of a way to escape the beast.

It came to him! The trees. He could climb up one of these tall trees, and hope that the beast couldn't climb up after him.

But this thought came too late. Just as he came up with this plan, he was knocked down. The heavy weight of the beast came down on his small back, full force. It knocked the wind out of him.

Victor clenched his eyes shut, and gasped for breath. As he did so, the beast's weight seemed to lighten. Another idea came to Victor.

He went limp and heald his breath. If the prey was dead, the predidor would leave it alone. And it worked! The beast eased off Victor's back, and sat back watching him. That was when he made his move.

Victor jumped up, and before the beast could recover from it's suprise, ran to the nearest tree and quickly climbed up it's trunk. The beast's grabbing paus just missed Victor's cape.

Victor sighed with relief. Then he became tense again. It was the others. The other kids. They could probably climb the tree.

He took a closer look, and almost panicked. They all had weapons. They were coming to kill him for his blunder. He huddled near the trunk and hoped that they wouldn't climb the tree.

Aeris could tell that Ash was extatic at being right. But whatever it was had gotten away from Nanaki. Their furry friend and protector was not sitting by the base of a tree. There was no one else there.

Jet approach Nanaki, Flayer in hand. "What happened Nanaki?"

Nanaki looked up into the branches of the tree. "He went up there. He must have known I can't follow. Smart kid."

"I bet," Ash said. Then what Nanaki said hit him. "Kid! It was a KID! Was it a kid back at the falls?"

Nanaki nodded. "The smell is stronger now, but I can still place it. It is definatly the smell from back at the falls."

"You mean that you got a good look at him, and it was a kid?" Aeris could see that Ash still couldn't believe he had been afraid of a kid.

Although Ash looke like he was feeling anger, Areis was feeling curiousioty. She wanted to know more about this boy, and why he hadn't shown himself to them. "About how old did he appear to be, Nanaki?"

"About 9 to 12. Somewhere in that age span." Nanaki looked at Aeris. "Why?"

Aeris shrugged. "Just curious, I guess." There was a pause. "Well, I have always been good with kids. You can't get him down, and I might be able to." She added that part to make it sound almost like an after thought.

"I'm not sure you should. It could be too dangerous," Nanaki said, being the worry wart he was.

"Well, I don't see any other way to get him down. And I am the logical one to send. Ash will probably kill the kid. Jet looks like he doesn't want to. I want to go, I won't kill the kid, I'm good with kids, and I'm the oldest here. Well, oldest kid."

Nanaki nodded. "Very well. You may go get the boy. But I want you to be careful."

"Yes mom," Aeris said with a smile.

Aeries took two steps towards the tree, abd a bulled went flying and landed right at her feet. This startled her, and she stumbled back a step. After collecting herself, she stepped forward again. But this time she was more careful, taking her time.

The gun fired again, stopping Aeris in her tracks again. Then a thought occured to her. She took her sword off, and slowly placed it on the ground.

Aeris looked at Nanaki, who looked like he was going to say something. Aeris stopped him with a shake of her head, and took another step forward.

Aeris breathed a sigh of relief. No gun was fired. She took another step. Still nothing. Aeris took the final step and reached the tree trunk.

She took a quick look up the tree, then began to climb. It didn't take her very long to reach the spot where the boy sat.

He looked small and thin. But if what Ash told them was true, this bou could kill them all easily. He did look lethal draped in his black cape, with his long dark hair dangling in his eyes.

"Hi," she said. It was up to her to make the first friendly move. But the boy didn't respond. Instead he looked at her with a strange look on his face. "My name is Aeris. What's your name?"

He didn't answer. Then something occured to Aeris, mabey he couldn't talk. But she dismissed that thought when he spoke.

"Victor," he simply said.

Well it was a start. "What are you doing here Victor?"

"Following you." This boy sure wasn't much for conversation.

"Why are you doing that?" She wanted to know more about this strange boy, but wanted to also seem friendly.

"To learn about you. To see of I can trust you."

This seemed strange to Aeris. "Why wouldn't you trust us?"

"I can't trust people. They always lie and leave me."

This boy must be talking about his parents. By what he was saying, it sounded as if he had been ababdoned by his parents. "Where are your parents?"

"My mother left me, and my father is dead."

"Who is your father?"

"Vincent."

Vincent? Vincent Valentine perhaps. Is this boy the son of the man they were looking for? "Do you have any friends?"

Victor shook his head. "No. I don't."

"Do you know anybody that knows that you're here?"

"No," he looked like he was becoming a little irritated.

"Listen, you can trust me. I won't hurt you. I want to be your friend."

Something flickered in his eyes. "What if you're lying to me, too?"

"No. I don't lie. I just want you to feel safe and to trust us. We can help you."

There was about a minute pause before he spoke. "Ok. I'll trust you."

"I won't hurt you," She said smiling. She began climing down, and motioned for him to follow. Instead of climing down with her, he jumped down when she reached the bottom.

Victor wasn't sure he could trust these people. But he needed them if he was going to find his father's killers.

When he dropped down, he saw that the others were staring at him. Then he noticed the mean look on the nosy boy's face. Seeing him again revived his will to fight. He really hated him.

"These are my friends," the Aeris girl said. "Jet, Ash, and Nanaki."

Victor wasn't impressed. Nice Aeris was friends with the nosy Ash. Mabey she didn't know, like the way he hadn't known about his mother.

Ash interrupted Victor's thoughts. "What a dinky looking kid!"

Victor ignored the jibe. But Ash seemed determined to anger him. "I tell ya, I must have been dreaming." Ash certainly was very annoying. "Say kid, I heard that your father is dead. It must've been suicide. I would commit suicide too to get away from you!"

Victor flew into a rage. He grabbed Ash by the throat, and threw him against the tree. For the first few seconds Ash was shocked into silence. But he quickly recovered and threw punches at Victor. Victor dodged them easily, and came up behind Ash.

His leg shot out, and tripped Ash. Ash rolled from his stomace onto his back, in time to find Victor's foot stomped down on his throat. It was choking off his air supply.

The anger was very apparent in Victors eyes. "Never talk about my father that way!" Ash was about to nodd feebly, when the look in Victor's eyes turned from anger to fear.

Victor stumbled back and looked blankly ahead. Ash looked at Aeris. She was moving towards the frightened boy. But then Victor began clutching his insides and looked as if he was in pain.

As quick as lightening, Nanaki put himself between the children and Victor. "Run!" he yelled. "I know this smell. You must run for your lives."

But the children just stood there looking shocked. By the time they bagan to move, it was too late. Victor had changed into Chaos.

The beast streached it's wings as they unfurled. It then looked at the group of frightened children. Then it's attention was focused on Ash. It slowly began stomping towards the boy.

Aeris yelled to the monster. "Victor! Stop this. Ash didn't mean to hurt you. He's just an idioit."

Ash nodded. "Yeah. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry kid." The Cahos beast appeared to slow until Ash called it 'kid'. Then it continued.

Aeris planted herself between Ash and Victor. "Victor, you can't hurt Ash. I won't let you. Just like I wont let him hurt you anymore. I promised you that you could trust me, and I still mean it! So you must trust me now. Please trust me, so I can trust you."

This seemed to stop the beast. It fell down on its knees and heald his head. Then changed back to the small boy Aeris knew. Then Victor colapsed to the ground. Aeris ran to him to see that he had passed out.

"Poor kid," she said. She then nelt next to him, and cradled his small form in his arms. As she did, Nanaki approached. "What was that?" she asked Nanaki.

"That was Chaos. It's the result of scientific experiments. An evil scientest had given Cahos to Vincent. Our Victor, here, must have gotten it from his father."

"Can we help him?" Aeris asked.

Nanaki shook his furry head. "No. The Chaos beast is part of him. All we can do is comfort the boy when he wakes up."

Aeris didn't feel right not being able to do anything else, but she knew she had to accept it. So she picked the small frighteded form up in her arms, and carried him back to the camp.

Chapter 5