Oki, here I go again. This time I wont delete it. I promise. I just had to fix a lot of things that I overlooked before.

Anyway, yea, I swore never to write maple fanfiction, ESPECIALLY romance. But the plot bunnies attacked me, took me on vacation to munchkin land, and oh boy did they do some breeding. This is, unfortunatley, the end product of said ordeal.

It sucks, yes. But I kind of grew attached to it, and I think I’m going to continue. so RAWR.

Peace out, tell me if you like it.

(PS: Attatched a character sketch of Ceana I did real fast in open canvas)

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~Persistance~
Chapter One

“Uh oh.” Was all Ceana could say about her current state.

Her heart beat rapidly in her chest. All around her was quiet, but she knew she was completely surrounded, and only seconds away from doom. Her muscles froze. She felt that should she even breathe, they would launch their attack.

Her breath came heavy and slow now as her racing heart seemed to suffocate her. She knew that even the garnier on her right hand couldn’t even save her now, bearing in mind she only had a few subis left.

Ceana had been training on the typical monsters found in the hills west of Henesys– Green slime, orange mushrooms, and harmless stumps.

If only she would have known how close she had been to that pit, maybe something could have been done to avoid it.

The closest exit, a single rope, was too far away for her to reach. They would get her before she even laid a finger upon it. No one was even around to hear her cry for help.

‘I am never training here ever again. EVER.’ Ceana swore to herself in her head.

She tried to relax, but something shook in the underbrush behind her, and she tensed quickly, turning to face it.

She fingered the few subis left over in the case hooked to her side, and let hope flood through her, overpowering her fear.

If she was going down here, she wasn’t about to go without a fight.

“You jerks! Why don’t you just come out!” She shouted into the shadows and underbrush of the woods.

It came without warning. A banana. She had known Lupins often wandered into the pits located in the forests west of Henesys. She was caught off guard, since she had only been expecting blue shrooms.

Throwing up her hand in defense, the banana slammed into her garnier, which even now provided limited protection. She cursed out loud as another launched close to her head, barely scathing her blonde hair.

And then something else flew by her head, except this time it was no banana. It was steel. Or something similar, silver maybe. Hell if she knew. All she heard was a loud screech, as a banana fell to the ground.

Another.

Another.

A blue mushroom.

Another blue mushroom.

Oh look, a blue potion.

Silence.

Ceana slowly dropped to the ground as she took in a deep intake of air. She was saved.

A dark figure walked passed her and swiftly scooped up the mesos that had dropped from the vanquished monsters. They picked up everything except the blue potion. Ceana tried to keep herself steady as she stood back up, and called down the stranger.

“Hey, don’t you want that?” She inquired, pointing a finger to the lone blue mana potion.

The figure turned around, and Ceana recognized the Dark Shadow armor worn by the very few high-level thieves she had seen since her journey had begun. Which wasn’t a lot, beings she had limited herself to Henesys and Kerning.

She didn’t know what level he was, only that to her, he seemed the highest level imaginable. And he had the dark bandana hat thing with the skull thing on it! He HAD to be a high level, she knew it. Maybe the highest ever. Well, at least the highest she had seen.

He looked back at her, his jade eyes– hid mostly by uncombed jet-black unruly bangs– seemingly scrutinized her very existence. Was he glaring at her?

Sticking his thumbs into the belt of his dark pants, he hunched over a bit to get a better look at her.

“Heh. You need it more than I do.”

A strange blue symbol that Ceana had never seen appeared in front of him for a split second, and the dirt around him flew up into small clouds of dust. And he was gone.

Ceana looked onward after him as he disappeared further into the forest, towards Kerning City.

A strange hope filled her as she began to mentally recover from her previous brush with death. She had found a cause.

She would become a great thief just like him. And then once she was, she would meet him again and return the blue potion to him. She swore to it.

Nay? Yay? Burn? *whips out a lighter* o.o