The Knight and The Strawberry

chapter 3

Ichigo and Gray walked along the dirt trail through the woods on the way back from their last job, with their pockets empty.

They had thought it was a simple enough job. They just needed to Chase away some critters that had been eating all of a farmers crops. It hadn't gone quite as planned. The little creatures turned out to be smarter than the two preteens and tricked them into attacking each other in the dark. By the end of it all of the crops were either gone or destroyed by the boys. It goes without saying that the farmer was... less than pleased.

And so their reward had been denied and now the two boys grumpily walked back to the guild in a tense silence. Ichigo being a bit more level headed had quickly gotten over blaming Gray for their screw up and had realized that if they hadn't fought then maybe they wouldn't have failed.

Gray on the other hand was still grumbling about Ichigo being a dumb strawberry, though he would never say it to the boy's face after what happened last time.

It had taken all of Cana's might to pull his head out of the wall.

The trees began to clear and the dirt path was replaced by the brick road as their home town came into view. The trip had been far away and though both would claim they were "too old for that" they had both been feeling a little homesick.

"Man I can't wait to get a real cooked meal in me." Ichigo said excitedly

Gray nodded in agreement. "Yeah and a hot shower and a soft bed." The boy quickly hung his head. "so who's telling the master that we failed?"

Ichigo shivered. He knew that the master wouldn't be angry or yell at them, but he would lecture them on how their immaturity got the better of them or something like that, and worst of all, he would be disappointed. That made him feel worse than if the master yelled at them.

"I think we should do it together since we both screwed up." Ichigo states matter of factly.

"Yeah..." Gray trailed off "Hey I'm sorry about saying it was all your fault. I was just really mad that those stupid things made us look so... stupid."

"It's alright I shouldn't have gotten so mad either." Ichigo said as they walked through the streets of magnolia.

As they approached the guild they felt their moods lift a little at the usual sound of their rowdy guild mates on the other side of the large wooden doors.

"You know I bet if we ran now master would never know..." Gray whispered

"Maybe we can move away and change our names..."

Ichigo couldn't finish his sentence as the doors opened and a tall teen with spiky blonde hair came out

"Oh hey shrimps, I didn't know you two were back in town." Loxus sneered down at the pair

"Hey Loxus." The two boys said together in monotonous tones. They had never liked Loxus s he was a bit of a bully

Thankfully they didn't have to put up with him long as a voice called for them to come inside. Stepping around the tall blonde they made their way to the bar where the voice had called them, and right up to the one person they were afraid of more than Loxus.

Master Makarov.

And a redhead girl?

Ichigo immediately jumped at the chance to stall delivering the bad news. "Hey master. Who's this?"

"Hello boys. I'm glad you asked." He said as the girl turned around to look at them.

She had long scarlet red hair and deep brown eyes. She wore what looked like it was once a plain white sundress, however it was now tattered and filthy. There was dirt all over her and her dress was stained all shades of brown...and a few dark maroon.