The girls and Clef helped Emerria to her feet and helped her dust off. They walked around the collapsed roof and out the door. Looking at the other buildings in the town, the Magic Knights sadly resigned that if there were people in the buildings they would not be able to help them. Emerria looked at the tear filled eyes of the Knights and as if reading their thoughts said "The houses were empty."

All three girls started from the silence and looked back at the girl. "What do you mean, the houses were empty?" said Hikaru, not exactly sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"The houses were all empty. No one has lived here with me since the abolishment of the pillar system."

They were approching the end of the village and were walking into the forest. The sun was going down and the girls wanted to set up camp for the night. Without Mokona, they had to gather the fire wood and set up pallets by themselves. As they sat around the campfire eating a sparse dinner of what they could salvage from the village, they girls looked at Emerria suspiciously, remembering her earlier comment.

Finally Umi broke the uneasy silence. "Emerria, why were there no other people in the village?"

"I have no idea. After the pillar system was abolished, everyone just packed up one day and left."

"Why didn't you try to leave with them?" said Fuu.

"They day they left, I had been out in the forest. It seems as if I had been drawn there. I went in and I sat down to talk with the animals, and I suddenly lost consiousness. When I awoke, it was dark. When I walked back, there was no one there."

"Your family...your friends..." said Hikaru softly. "You must have been so lonely"

"Oh Hikaru..." she sighed as the small girl ran to give her a hug. "Hikaru, by chance, I do not have any family that I remember." She squeezed the girl tightly and then released her. She stood and leaned over the fire and pulled a piece of warm fruit from the pot over the fire. "I don't remember my family or friends. I don't remember anything from before Emeraude's tirade." she said as she sat back down on her palatte.

Clef looked closely at the woman across the fire. He had separated himself from her as the feelings became more intense. "You have no memories of your past?" he said softly.

"None. I awoke the day after Zagato kidnapped Emeraude on the doorstep of what would come to be my neighbor with no knowledge of who I was or where I was. It was only until weeks later that I regained my name. By that time, our village had become refugees in the palace. I spent my days huddled in a corner with a few of my friends and cried. I had a very hard time because I had liked to go outside and commune with nature every morning. It was only there that I truly felt I belonged, and when I was separated from it and the land was scarred and burnt, I felt as if I had lost my only true friend. After the fighting was over and we returned to the village, the other villagers never felt truly at ease. I could feel it everytime I talked to one of them. The day that everyone dissapeared, I was sad when I came back but I knew that my friends and neighbors were happy where ever they went." Emerria sighed as a single tear fell from her deep green eye. "I miss them though. Its so lonely in the temple and its the only building that no one took anything from. Everything else was taken. If you had seen the village before it had been destroyed, it would have seemed like a ghost town. All the houses and buildings had been stripped of the furnishings and nothing....Nothing was left."

Hikaru moved and sat down next to the older girl. Instead of giving her a rough hug, she put her hand on her shoulder and waited for Emerria to look up. When she did, Hikaru could see the cascade of tears from the painful subject. Emerria roughly wiped her face with her hand and looked at Hikaru.

"It will be okay, Emerria-chan!" Hikaru said brightly. "You are with us now. We will be your friends and family!" She gently hugged the girl.

In Hikaru's embrace, Emerria's eyes widened. She looked at the small red haired girl with a new sort of love. As soon as Hikaru released her, the other two ran towards her and gently hugged her. They were both crying and affirmed their new feelings of closeness between Emerria and the Magic Knights.

"You are are new friend, Emerria-san." said Fuu. "We will help you in any way we can."

"Right," said Umi. "We will keep you safe and we will be your family!"

Emerria was moved by this display of affection. She did something that she had never allowed herself to do since she had lost the village. She sobbed. As her eyes let loose a torrent of tears, her breath came in short, ragged sobs and she hugged the other girls tightly.

"I'm sorry." she said in between sobs. "I'm sorry about this." She stood and looked as if she was about to bolt. "I feel the same way about you guys... but.." Before she could finish, she ran into the forest as fast as she could.

The three girls looked at the retreating figure with an infinite amount of sadness. Emerria had to have friends or the world would seem to be lost. They looked at Clef, hoping for an answer, but when they saw him, he seemed to be in a state of utter and complete shock. Without waiting for him to recover, the three girls ran after the retreating figure.