Part 1: The Deer of the Lake

It was the morning of a warm spring day. The sun was high and a lake was shining beautifully in the sunlight. On the surface of the lake was an animal running playfully on the water. Her name was Aqua. She was the youngest among the three deer sisters who protected the forest.

Aqua was born with a special ability which allowed her to walk on the lake and breathe in the water. Because of her ability, she was raised to be the guardian of the lake.

However, she couldn't move so freely on the land for she was still young. She couldn't run fast in the forest and wasn't so good at finding directions. Because of that, she often ended up being left alone without even knowing whenever she hung out with her sisters in the forest.

"Hurry up or we'll leave without you!"

And today was not so different. Aqua was trying to follow her sisters, but they were too fast. When Aqua stopped to catch her breath, her sisters were long gone into the woods.

"Flor? Lumen? Where are you?"

Only the chirping sounds of the birds were heard in the quiet forest. Aqua, who was left alone again, ran towards her mom feeling very upset.

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Part 2: Aqua's Complaining

"Mom, Flor and Lumen left me alone again today. I want to run with them. Why am I so slow on the ground?"

Said Aqua between her tears, in her mother's arms. The mother deer stroked her daughter's hair and said gently.

"That's what upset my little girl. Don't worry about it, Aqua. Your sisters are older than you and they've spent much more time in the forest than you. You know that people used to call Mr Wolf a slowcoach when he was little, but now he's the fastest one in the forest."

The mother deer comforted her daughter, saying Aqua will soon be able to run through wide-open fields with her sisters and no need to be impatient. This mollified Aqua's hurt feeling a little bit.

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Part 3: A Mysterious Boy

The time has passed. It was a warm sunny day. Aqua was by the lake as usual. Suddenly, there were loud voices. Surprised by this, Aqua hid herself in the bushes.

"What's that noise?"

Carefully, Aqua approached where the noise was coming from and stuck her head out of the bushes a little bit. The noise was coming from no other than her sister Lumen. Her sisters were having a conversation with a human boy Aqua has never seen before.

"If you break your promise, I will kick your ass."

Lumen snapped at the human boy and turned around to leave. Flor and the boy said a few more words to each other and then left too. Aqua was curious to know who the boy her sisters talked to was. So she decided to follow after him.

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Part 4: A Short Rest

Aqua changed into a human. She was not used to the human form, so she followed the boy with awkward steps.

"Huh? Is anyone there?"

From time to time, the boy would look back, making Aqua surprised and hurriedly hide behind the trees. However, she arrived at the entrance of the forest without being caught.

Not long after following the boy outside the forest, she began to see human villages.

"It's the human village!"

It was the first time Aqua got out of the forest and visited human's village. The village was full of people and everything was new to Aqua. While she was distracted by the interesting sights, the boy disappeared into the crowd. Aqua realized she had lost the boy.

"Wait! Where is he?"

Everyone on the street looked similar to Aqua for she was not used to seeing humans. It was hard for her to find the boy using only her eyes and the crowd was too thick to get through.

"Too bad. I might as well take some rest and go back to the forest."

Aqua gave up following the boy and began to look a place to rest. By a stream on the outskirts of the village, she found a wagon laden with a large pile of straw.

"I think I will hide in there and rest for a little while. No one will see me."

Aqua turned back into a deer and hid herself in the piles of straw. She suddenly felt very tired and closed her eyes without knowing it.

After some time, Aqua woke up to shaking and loud rattling noises.

"Oh no! I fell asleep."

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Part 5: The Free Ride

"Why is the ground shaking so hard?"

To see where the shaking is coming from, Aqua stuck her head out of the pile of straw. At that moment, she was shocked by the sight in front of her and shrieked loudly. There was a huge castle wall and it was bigger than anything she's ever seen in the forest or in the human village.

"Where am I?"

"Gosh!"

"What the..?"

Upon hearing Aqua's voice that suddenly came from the pile of straw, the horseman of the wagon and an errand boy next to him looked back and shouted. Aqua, surprised to see humans, hurriedly turned into a human in order to hide her deer form.

"Did you see that? A deer changed to a human!"

"Wait, it's not what you think.."

Aqua tried to make up a lie but they already saw Aqua change into a human. Not knowing what to do, she panicked and in the end told the truth to the horseman and the errand boy.

"I've been drivng carriage for 30 years, but I've never seen something like this. There had been a legend about 'divine animals' living in the Maze Forest, but I never believed it."

Fortunately, the errand boy and horseman were good-hearted people. They believed and understood what Aqua said.

"I can't get back to the village right now. I will take you back after running some errand in the royal capital city."

"Thank you so much! Phew... I'm lucky that you guys are so kind."

Aqua thanked them and gasped in relief, without knowing that there was someone else watching her.

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Part 6: Another Gaze

It wasn't just the horseman and the errand boy who saw Aqua change into a human. There was another person who watched everything. It was a tamer who riding in the circus carriage that was behind the wagon Aqua was in. The tamer was very sursprised to see Aqua's transformation. He mumbled with a shocked face.

"Unbelievable... A deer turned into a human!"

Aqua was too busy talking to the horseman and the boy to be on the lookout. She didn't realize there was another person who discovered her secret.

"I've got to tell master!"

The tamer gave the reins to an assitant who was dozing off next to him. He stopped a glamorously decorated carriage that was following behind and swung the door open to shout towards his circus master.

"Master! I was just saw something incredible!"

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Part 7: The Circus Master

When the tamer suddenly opened the carriage door, the circus master was feeding a banana to his pet monkey. He threw the banana peel to the tamer and shouted.

"Didn't I tell you to knock before enter? And say 'my dear circus master, may I have the honor to enter your room'? I don't know why I keep you as my right-hand man!"

The circus master scolded the tamer with a loud voice. But the tamer went on, removing the banana peel off his face.

"Did you hear what I said? I saw something incredible!"

The circus master let out a deep sigh with his hand on his head and said,

"Whew... I don't even know if you are listening to me. What is it that you're dying to say? It must be something stupid as usual."

The tamer told the circus master what he saw. The circus master asked incredulously.

"Are you sure you saw it correctly?"

"Of course I am! My knife throwing never failed once in my life! My eyes are that good and you know it."

"If so, find her by any means and bring her to me to prove it."

The tamer said okay and left. The circus master and his monkey looked at the door the tamer just left through and said,

"If it's true, I can finally quit the circus. I'm fed up with it."

"Ook ook!"

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Part 8: The Royal Capital

Meanwhile, Aqua and her party arrived at a stable in the royal capital city. Since it was during festival season, the city was crowded with countless carriages, merchants and visitors. The houses were decorated with colorful flowers and ther were fountains with beautiful sculptures here and there.

Some people were dancing with musicians performing on the street and even animals seemed to be enjoying themselves. It looked very interesting to Aqua.

"Wow, it's beautiful!"

Seeing Aqua amaze by the magnificent sight of the capital city, the horseman gave a small bag of coins to the boy and said,

"We haven't got much work today. Why don't you take Aqua and show the city around?"

"Are you sure about that?"

"It's fine. Be careful out there and I'll meet you at the entrance of the city before the sunset."

"Alright! I will make sure she sees every corner of the city! Let's go, Aqua."

The horseman smlied warmly watching them leave.

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Part 9: The Suspicious Pierrot

The first place the boy took Aqua was a famous fountain in the city for its beauty. It was a beautifully sculpted marble fountain. Surprisingly, a stream of clear water was constantly shot from the ground. Aqua splashed the fountain water with her feet playfully, feeling refreshed. She also talked to some humans in the city on the way and began to lower her guard against humans.

"In the forest, my mom always told me humans are dangerous. But now that I talk to them, I don't think that true."

At this, the errand boy told Aqua who was smiling innocently, that there are many bad people as good people and she should always be careful. When Aqua and the errand boy were having these conversations, a pierrot wearing a funny wig approached and talked to them.

"Hi little friends! Why don't you come and see a circus show? Don't worry about money, it's free for the children. The location is on this flyer!"

After handing them a flyer, the pierrot kept looking back and waved his hands saying 'come to see the show' before he disappearedbehind a building. Aqua looked at a drawing of a lion on the flyer and asked the boy.

"What's a circus?"

"It's a show where the entertainers and animals perform acrobatics together. Do you want to go and see?"

Aqua nodded her head. They got up from the fountain and headed towards the circus tent.

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Part 10: The Tamer's Lie

It was an hour ago that the tamer got to the city. He dressed up as a pierrot and handed out circus show flyers to find the deer girl. He went around for a while until he arrived at a fountain. There, he saw Aqua having a conversation with a boy.

"I found you, deer girl!"

The tamer appoarched them and handed a flyer with a comical face. When Aqua and the boy took the flyer with interest without any doubt, the tamer pretended to leave and secretly hid behind a building to watch them.

"If those two don't go to the circus tent, then I will..."

The tamer began to follow after them to see whether they were going to the circus tent. He was planning to take them by force if they weren't, but Aqua and the boy arrived at the circus tent as he wished. In that moment, he showed himself in front of them.

"You were at the fountain earlier, right? Thank you so much for coming! I will take you to the best seat!"

The tamer's words were kind but he took the boy and Aqua into a big and dark tent.

"Mr pierrot, is this the right place? It's dark inside the tent."

"It's alright. You will see light if you go further."

When Aqua and the boy took one more step forward, the tamer pushed their backs and locked them inside an iron cage he had placed at the entrance of the tent.

Clank!

"What are you doing to us?!"

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Part 11: The Circus Master's Plan

In the dark warehouse, the circus master and tamer stood in front of the cage the boy and Aqua was locked in.

"So this is the fairy who turns into a deer," said the circus master.

"I think you've got the wrong person! We're just a normal brother and sister!"

The boy lied. However, the tamer kept questioning them saying that he saw the girl changing into a deer with his own eyes. The boy insisted it must have been a mistake and shouted him to let them go. The circus master became irritated by the agrument. He banged the iron bars with this cane and shouted loudly.

"Turn into a deer now! Otherwise you can't go home for the rest of your life!"

Aqua, frightened by the circus master's threat, turned into a deer.

"Alright, I did it! Now please let us go." Aqua said with all her courage.

The circus master and tamer looked very surprised. And then, their face became ominous.

"A human turned into a deer! Unbelievable! She's a real fairy! This is a big news!"

"Let us go! Why are you doing this to us?"

The boy shouted at the circus master and tamer. However, the circus master shouted back to the boy loudly.

"Shut up, kid! It's her that I want, not you." He turned to the tamer and said, "Go and tell these aristocrats on this note that we're going to have an auction next week!"

The circus master gave a suspicious-looking piece of paper to the tamer. His lips curled up when he thought about all the money he can make.

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Part 12: The Missing Kids

Meanwhile, the horseman was looking for the boy and Aqua. The three of them were supposed to meet at the entrance of the city many hours ago. The horseman went around the city to find them but couldn't see them anywhere.

He became so worried that he went to the town guards to report them missing. However, the guard's leader refused to help, saying that this was not their job.

"We don't have time for such a trivial thing. Go back."

"Can you at least try to find them?"

"Go away before I make you."

The horseman had to give up as the guard's leader didn't want to help at all. Once again, he wandered around the city looking for the errand boy and Aqua but couldn't find them anywhere.

"Where are you, kids... Please be safe..."

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Part 13: The Secret Auction

Time passed and the auction day has arrived. In the auction, the circus master secretly sold exotic animals to rich aristocrats. There was many aristocrats wearing masks to hide their identities as it was an illegal auction. After the auction started, the boy was separated from Aqua and sent to somewhere else. Aqua was still locked in the cage. She asked the circus master to let her and the boy go home.

"Let us go right now! This is not right!"

The circus master banged the iron cage Aqua was locked in with his steel cane and said he will let her go if she behaves well. It was an obvious lie.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm not a bad person. Just do your transformation thing when I tell you to. Then I will let you go home."

The warehouse was filled with stuffy air and dust. Aqua lost more and more energy as she was away from water for a long time. Leaving her like that behind, the circus master climbed the stage of secret auction house which was lit by lights and full of applause.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The show begins now!"

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Part 14: Ignis and Ventus

(Forest. The next day Aqua disappeared.)

"Where are you Aqua! My little girl!"

The mother deer's voice resonated in the quiet forest. Hearing this, other animals in the forest began to come out and gather.

"What's going on, forest keeper? Did something happen to Aqua?"

"She's not home since last night. I looked for her everywhere all morning but I can't seem to find her. Had anyone seen Aqua?"

There was no one who saw Aqua. The mother deer became more impatient.

"This is bad. She gets sick if she stays away from water for too long..."

The mother deer was now sure that Aqua wasn't in the forest. She asked the alpha wolf to bring Ignis and Ventus from the East Mountain which was far from the forest. The alpha wolf was a very fast wolf. He left right away and brought Ignis and Ventus to the forest by the afternoon.

"We heard Aqua went missing. Don't worried, we'll find her," said Ignis and Ventus, and they started to find Aqua's traces using the power they borrowed from the mystic spirits.

Not long after, they found out Aqua got out of the forest and went to the royal capital. As the mother deer had to stay in the forest, Ignis and Ventus left to the city instead to find Aqua.

"We know someone in the city who we can get help from. So don't worry. We'll find Aqua and bring her back."

"Please be safe, my baby."

Said the mother deer, watching Ignis and Ventus leave to the city.

- To be continued in Ignis and Ventus's chapter -