**Two weeks prior to the events where the fire King fought with Tenkai Bushinji**

Cloud was standing on the balcony of his house in the high reaches of the Air Kingdom known as the Cloud bridges. It was here that his village, Falcon village, could be found. His small house was built higher than the rest of the village, concealed by the forest of thick pure whit trees that were unique to the area and gave the region its name.

Clouds house overlooked Falcon village and had only one path that connected it to the village, he had been careful to ensure this as in his line of work he had all types of 'visitors'. In fact right at that moment he was watching a cloaked figure dressed in dark blue was making his way up the steep and rocky incline. Cloud deduced from his clothing that the figure was from the raging sea region, and from their gait that it was a man.

It took the better part of an hour for the man to reach the top of the path but he showed no signs of exhaustion which Cloud was careful to note as he approached the house. Cloud walked out to the front side of the house to meet them man.

"Your a hard man to find Cloud" The man spoke from beneath his hood and Cloud could not discern his face.
"Thats the general idea" he replied cooly, "I assume you didn't come here just to tell me that, what brings someone from the raging seas to see me anyway?"

The man chuckled, always to the point, I see the rumors were true. Very well, the reason I have come is to hire you for a special mission on behalf of the raging sea king. It has come to his attention that a certain fugitive is currently residing in the fire region, My lord wishes him returned to his palace for retribution.

Cloud considered this for several moments before asking, " If I was to accept this task, what exactly am I required to do? How much will I be payed and who exactly is this fugitive? I don't make a habit of going into a mission blind."

The man regarded him for a full minute before he responded. "I see your reputation is well earned, very well then. The fugiitive is known as Xanus, reports say that he may now also be accompanied by another man known as Tenkai Bushinji, the latter is of no consequence to your mission but he may provide resistance. You will be required to either bring him back to the kings palace alive, but if that proves impossible then kill him and bring his head back instead. you will receive 1000 gold for returning him alive or 800 for his head. So now I ask you, do you accept My lords request?

Cloud considered everything the man had told him for several minutes. His mind flowing over all the possibilities, possible complications and the long journey to reach the fire region. Finally he nodded his head slightly in ascent and said " very well I will accept your mission, but I have one more question, surely there were easier to locate mercenaries than myself, Your region is large and has plenty of skilled warriors aster all."

the man nodded under his hood, " What you say is true, however if anything went wrong in the fire region then we would be held accountable, we need someone like you who is an outsider to perform this task so that officially you were never given such a task, and certainly not by our king."

Cloud sighed... politics, how tiresome.

The man turned and as he did he called back " and there will be four other mercenaries that will accompany you, they will meet you at the border of the fire Region near the main road. I wish you good luck." Then the man turned and disappeared back down the path.


Cloud immediately began his preparations for departure and that evening he left with his sword and a pack with rations, first aid and camping equipment. By dawn he had almost reached the base of the mountains, an exceptional achievement that some would deem impossible, but Cloud knew the region like the back of his hand and made excellent time. It was mid morning when he reached the base of the mountains and found himself on the main highway that led towards the fire region. It was a two week journey from here so he steeled himself and set off once again.

The first week passed by uneventfully, Cloud passed the occasional trader moving in the opposite direction but all was quiet, bandit activity had been reduced by regular patrols so Cloud didn't bother to stop and make camp several times. It was 2 days past the halfway mark of his journey that he encountered a bandit group terrorizing a group of merchant wagons, the men were tied and slumped against their wagons while the women were being beaten, screams could be heard from within one of the wagons and Cloud saw a man emerge from one pulling after him a naked girl who was crying uncontrollably.

Cloud didn't care for bandits and nor did he abhor them, but Cloud was deeply resentful of those who preyed on women and children, and this girl looked to be both. the path he was walking on was heavily forested on both sides and he had concealed himself behind a tree as he watched in disgust. the final straw was when the bandit dropped the girl on the ground, grabbing another and dragging her back to the wagon. Cloud disappeared among the trees,moving like a wraith until he was behind the wagon. Lowering his pack onto the ground and pulling his sword out of its holster on his back he waited for the man to come around to the back of the wagon where he caught him by surprise, breaking the man neck and grabbing the woman so she couldn't scream. "Its alright, I'm not going to hurt you, go and hide in the trees until I tell you its safe to come out". the woman nodded through her tears and fled as fast as she was able.

Cloud quickly surveyed the other wagon and found it empty, which meant that the only other bandits were the ones around the front of the wagons, Cloud counted them to be 4. They were laughing and jeering the merchants, one of them was drunk and was making clumsy advances on one of the women. Cloud burst forth from his hiding place behind the wagon and by the time the bandits registered his presence and that he was a threat he had slashed one across the chest before impaling another. The drunk man picked his weapon from the ground and ran at him clumsily. Cloud punished his mistake by kneeing him in the groin and stabbing him through the chest as he well onto the ground.

The final bandit was about to run but Cloud grabbed the fallen bandits weapon, an axe, and hurled it at him. The blade took him square in the back and he fell, the life rushing out of him before he hit the ground. Cloud quickly untied the women and the men against the side of the wagon who had watched in shocked awe. Once the men had tended to the women one of the m approached him.

" There must be a god, for someone like you to come and save us at a time like this, sadly one of the girls, Christina was raped, but thanks to you she is alive at least. Those blasted bandits, If only we had seen them coming we could have killed them... the mans anger was palpable and Cloud shared his rage although he didn't show it. "Im glad I could help, I trust you are in condition to make it back to town?"

The man was startled by Clouds abrupt response and he stuttered an affirmative answer. " If there is ever anything you need, come to eken stol in spiteful mountain and ask for Jorgen, truly we are all in your debt" after several minutes of profuse thanks Cloud finally managed to continue on his way, embarrassed by the mans earnest offer of help.

Five days later Cloud reached the outskirts of the Fire region's capital as the sun began to set and went to the meeting place the raging sea man had given him. it was here that he saw 4 mercenaries camped out. he approached them and one turned to look at him "Ah, well if it isn't the 5th member of out little party, the air Kingdom fellow... the man was obviously intoxicated so Cloud turned to the one man who didn't seem to be almost falling off his feet.

"When did you all arrive? Have you located the target?" Cloud skipped the introductions and got straight to the point, making the man chuckle. We arrived this morning, and we received word of two people matching the target and his accomplices description but their current whereabouts are unknown. We plan on discreetly patrolling the capital until we learn anything more, what about you?"

Cloud smiled thinly, "I'll go and have a look around, I don't want to be seen around you guys too much in case the target finds out that your after him. I'll come and find you if I find anything."

With that Cloud continued into the Capital, booking a room in a mediocre tavern and enjoyed his first good nights rest in two weeks.

*continues in burning nation*

4 EXP
200 Gold