The glow of morning had already spread across the horizon of the harbor early in the morning. Many of the ship crew was already scurrying about, helping each other get their ship ready for the next voyage, whenever that may be…

To some extent, half the town was already going. It seemed like the deadest part in the town were the hours twelve to four. It was already at least three days in this new town, and Neinheart had already memorized this much.

He rose out of bed around eight or so. He had to help Tru set his new business up and hopefully have it running next week. It didn't help that Tru got drunk every night instead of actually going to bed. Sometimes Neinheart felt more like a nanny opposed to his cousin, but what could he do? He walked down stairs and looked around. It was really quiet. Tru was clearly not awake yet. But another thing that stood out to him was how warm it was.

Back on Rien, every day was cold. He would have to jump in his coats every day just to stay warm and hope he didn't catch a cold. Inside was nice, but in order to survive, he found himself needing to go outside into the cold first thing for everything. He slipped on a jacket out of habit and walked into the kitchen. Someone had to make breakfast…

Neinheart had a small meal started up when Tru walked in the kitchen, "Ah? Heya kiddo!" he said brightly in the morning. "What cha cookin? Smells good!"

Neinheart looked over at his cousin, "It's a scramble plate with eggs in it. It'll be ready soon." He sighed out. He watched as Tru went and chugged a glass of water down. Clearly the man was still suffering from some kind of hang over. Neinheart looked back at his skillet, "You know Tru, I do wish you would stop drinking so much…"

Tru let out a laugh, "Ahh, don't worry lil' chap. I'll be fine! I don't really over dose anyway!"

Neinheart sighed again and decided it wasn't worth arguing with him. Neinheart looked down at the skillet and wondered about what he had put in it. It was actual fresh bacon, not the frozen sort that he had grown accustomed to. "It's certainly a lot thicker." He thought to himself. He felt a bit silly looking at the food the way he did. Fresh ingredients were a lot different from frozen. Typically the colors were more intense and they seemed to be fuller in a way. Neinheart looked at it again and felt it looked good enough. He turned the stove off and put the skillet on a stove top that was still cool. "Breatfast is done." He announced.

Tru grabbed some plates and filled them up with the breakfast meal, "Who boy, you sure can cook!" he said as he bit into it. "Must be from our related blood because my mom couldn't cook for nothin!" he announced.

Neinheart himself took a small bit and shook it off. He sighed and looked at Tru, "So what all do we need to get done today, Tru?"

Tru looked up at his cousin, "Hmm?" he began to think, "Hmm… well, I need to get those files in those boxes in order. " He scratched his head, "We got a lot of work done yesterday though, so I think we can just explore the tow—"

"Don't try to get lazy now." Neinheart scolded to Tru, "Your business isn't fully up yet and you only have enough funds to get through one month like this."

"Yeah, but if we don't get to know anyone in the town, what good is a social business?" Tru retorted.

Neinheart winced a bit. He hated to be proven wrong, but he hated being proven wrong by Tru even more. "Fine. I suppose you could go out and I'll sort the files." He ate more of his breakfast.

"Sweet!" Tru cheered. "I plan on talkin to some of the Viking descendants. They'd probably be great help with us in the future, eh?"

Neinheart just quietly continued his meal.

Tru accepted his silence and changed the subject, "Eh? Kid, why you wearin a jacket? It's like… 80 degrees outside already."

"It's a habit." Neinheart remarked sharply, "I don't plan on going out with it anyway."

"Well if you want something to wear over your shirt, how about a cloak or something that could breathe a bit more. You're gonna bake in that thing come this afternoon."

Neinheart looked at his cousin, "How about I worry about me. If it gets hot, I'll take it off."

Tru whined a bit, "Why you gotta be so mean to me, Neinny?"

"If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times, I hate that name." Neinheart looked at Tru coldly.

"But I've called you that since you were young! You were Neinny and Lilin was little Lil—"

Neinheart slammed his fist on the table loudly, breaking Tru off mid-sentence. "I don't like it. End of discussion."

Tru stared at his cousin, realizing that the last snap was probably the last warning he would give to him before making him work all day. He had managed to get the day to go socialize with others and saw no need in trying to get that revoked. Even if he was the older one, it was pretty clear that Neinheart had better skills and getting things started than he did.

That afternoon, Tru walked out to go meet with others in an attempt to promote his business. Neinheart, on the other hand, stayed back and looked through many files that Tru had stored in boxes. In these boxes were the records of generation upon generation of his clan. They had quite a vast amount of knowledge. Some were even said to be so smart that they could tell the future.

But none of that was important anymore. The island of Rien was all behind him… all of them actually. When the island's snow began to melt, it caused many avalanches and cracks to appear. Many of the islanders took it as a sign that the curse was simply fading. They looked for the heroes a bit more before saying that it was too much. They felt that the curse would lift and the heroes could come back. That or they felt they were never there to begin with. After all, they only had one book that mentioned them.

But Neinheart wasn't stupid. He knew there was only two reasons the curse would suddenly be lifting after centuries, and that was either that the black mage was actually dead or worse… he was coming back.

He tried. He tried so hard to find some clue to the heroes, but every time he felt let down by them. They never threw him any sort of clue or any sign that they ever existed. At this point, you could say he wished that legend never existed.

To an extent, Tru still believed in it, unable to shake off centuries of belief from himself, but Neinheart… Neinheart had given up entirely. How could he believe that they existed? His clan was on that island for centuries themselves, but they never found anything! Not a single clue. How could they all say "the book was true" after so long? How could they not give into sense and accept that it was fake? Were they scared of failure?

He wasn't like that. He refused to be that way. He could accept this failure if it meant he could move forward. He could accept it and find a better way to focus on the true motive behind finding the heroes in the first place: defeating the terror known as the black mage.

But… even though he could accept this failure, and even though he could move forward, it did him no good what so ever to know that the most foolish one of his clan was someone of his own flesh and blood. His sister. He shook that thought off.

"I've got to focus on this." Neinheart told himself. He started to go through the record and started to sort them based on year. The closer and closer it got towards the present, Neinheart started seeing familiar names. Some of the names were long gone, a few were even still alive today, walking around Victoria and living normal lives like they should be.

Not on some cold island, isolated from the world where no one would know you ever lived… Neinheart shook his head again. "Damn it. I should go back to older material." He thought to himself. He flipped through the paper work but found his mind wandering again…

That day was cold as usual, but Neinheart couldn't help but feel it was colder than usual. Was it because half of the house was packed? He looked around the corner and saw Lilin getting ready to go outside to get some fire wood.

"You know, you could just come with us and not have to do that at all…" Neinheart remarked.

The girl looked back to him and closed her eyes, "No. I'll be staying." She said as she calmly walked out the door.

Neinheart's eye widened a bit again before he found himself chasing her outside. "Don't be foolish, Lilin! How do you expect to even survive here? The whole town is leaving! This isn't just some two or three people walking out, it's the whole town!"

Lilin simply ignored him and picked up a log. It seemed to be a bit heavy for her tiny frame, but she got by. Neinheart walked up to her and took it from her arms, "Here…" he sighed, "You can't even carry these things."

Neinheart walked with Lilin back into the cabin, "What are you going to do when we're gone? You can't fish, you certainly can't row a boat, You can't even-!"

"Tru said he would come over and bring supplies." Lilin interrupted, "And as for the logs, I just have to adjust to their weight."

Neinheart gritted his teeth again, "Lilin , this is foolish! You can't think I am going to be okay leaving you here just to chase some crazy fairy tale, you're only thirte-!"

"It is NOT a fairy tale!" Lilin snapped at Neinheart, "Just because YOU chose not to believe in it doesn't mean it's not true!"

"How the hell can you believe it?" Neinheart yelled back, "We've done all we can. Our whole clan has, and yet you still expect something to just POP UP one day?"

"I chose to believe these legends." Lilin stated, "They brought our clan here. If I must be the last bit of hope for our forefathers, then so be it."

He couldn't believe it. His sister hadn't packed a thing since the announcement was made to leave Rien, but still. Still! Neinheart just heavily stormed off to his room where he continued to pack his belongings. As he packed he felt a stinging sensation against his eyes, "Stupid… little… crazy!" he muttered as he shoved another book into a bag.

Lilin simply listened for a moment and then took off to make breakfast.

Neinheart snapped to his senses. He looked around and saw papers around the floor, "What was I?" He said to himself before remembering the records.

Ah, there was no way out of this, was there? He would have to finish this… He set up another folder with records in it, focusing solely on the work at hand.

Still, eventually he knew what would happen. His mind would wander again, and he would be reminded yet again of how awful he was.

"She had her chance to come with us…" Neinheart started up in his head, " All that's important now is moving forward… just… moving… forward."

He set the last record down on the shelf and looked at them. "There." He told himself. He looked at the clock and saw it was gearing towards five. "Tru might be back soon. I suppose I could start on dinner." He got up and realized that he was still wearing his jacket. He had told Tru that he would take it off when it bothered him, but he was so used to it that he forgot it was even there…

"Ah, I suppose I could take this off…" Neinheart slowly took his jacket off and set it off to the side. With a sigh, he walked towards the kitchen.

As he prepared up some dinner he started to think again, "I wonder how she's eating… is she getting enough food? I know she can cook and she got to keep all of our rations but…" Neinheart looked down at the meal the prepped. It was ready to be cooked now, but suddenly, he just felt really drained.

He took a moment to sit down and relax, facing the window which showed the bright sun. It was the same sun he saw on Rien, but right now it seemed so bright. Too bright even. He got up to close the curtains before stopping in his steps.

Outside, he heard the voices of kids playing simple games. He never had the luxury of playing games like hopscotch, so he had always wondered about it. But it was enough. He didn't really like kids that much anyway. He closed the curtain and sat back down. In the back of his mind, the worst possible memory reeled through.

The winter winds were barely noticeable on Rien. Neinheart was dragging along with the others, looking back and hoping Lilin would show up to come along. "This is stupid." He told himself, "Who would CHOOSE to stay here?" He grumbled a bit before walking forward.

As the crowd walked forward, Neinheart heard a voice ringing behind him. He turned around quickly and saw Lilin running as fast as she could. "Li-Lilin?" Neinheart asked in a hopeful voice. Maybe, just maybe she had changed her mind?

"N-Neinheart!" She yelled in a loud voice with tears running down her face, "A-Are you really… really just going to up and leave? You're going to just …. Hic…. Give up like that?" She sobbed.

Neinheart had no idea how to respond. He had never seen Lilin cry like this before. The mist she ever sobbed about was when her crayons were broken or a toy went missing, but it wasn't like this. Neinheart was still for a moment before running up and embracing her "Lilin." He started, "Lilin, you have to listen to me. There is nothing here. We can't keep living this way." He tried to explain, "I know you want to believe Lilin, and there is nothing stopping you, but you have to know that everyone else is just tired. We want to be a part of civilization again."

"I don't care about civilization!" She rebutted, "I wanna stay here!" she rubbed her eyes and continued to cry some more, "A-And I don't want you to leave either. It's not fair!"

Neinheart couldn't bare it. This moment was being far too cruel on him. If he were to stay, he would probably be stuck here forever, but if he left, he could find a way to move forward and find a way to defeat the black mage… maybe he could even find people stronger than the five heroes to fight in their stead. "Lilin, I am not staying." He spoke firmly.

Lilin looked up and wiped the tears from her face, "B-But why?"

At this point, he couldn't do it. He couldn't talk to her face to face. He didn't even want to be there anymore. He stood up slowly and turned away, letting his back face his sister, "Because Lilin… I give up on the heroes. I can't find anything and we're running out of time." He stood there, trying to force himself to move forward but found himself aching to hear what could possibly be said next.

"B-But why? Our clan exists to find them! "She sobbed again, her tears were calming down again, but her sadness was still present.

"We can't decide our clan's origins, Lilin." Neinheart spoke, "We can only determine our clans future. And this is the future we have chosen."

And… nothing. It was quiet. Nothing was said and the silence of the wind didn't help much. Neinheart could feel himself sinking further and further into the snow. He knew if he stayed too much longer, he wouldn't ever be able to leave. He picked his bags up and started to walked forward, trying to meet up with the others at the ship that the harbor had set up for them.

"I hate you…." Lilin muttered out. "I hate you!" She said even louder. "You're not my brother!" She yelled again, "I don't have one!" She said before running back to the now deserted village.

Neinheart felt himself sink further into the snow, but pressed forward, hoping that maybe he would feel better if he just got off the island.

Neinheart snapped his eyes open and realized where he was. He also noticed his face was a bit wet from his previous flashback. He looked at his hand, trying to gather the situation in his head again.

Tru walked in the door at this moment too. "Hey buddy!" he spoke cheerfully, "You're never going to believe what happened today! I met up with those Viking people and- huh?" Tru looked at his cousin ad saw the tears running down his cheeks. "Hey Neinny, are you okay?" He placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort his younger cousin.

"No…" Neinheart jumped up and answered abruptly, "No, I am not okay." He started speaking promptly. He jumped out of the seat and started pacing around, muttering things to himself, "Tru, what if… what if we just made a bad choice?" He started to ask. Tru noted that Neinheart was talking much faster than usual and held a great deal of uncertainty on his face, "Should I have forced her? I know I could have if I tried but… No, I don't think she would have liked that, but maybe we could have come to some kind of agreement or something… maybe that could have worked out?" Neinheart asked himself as he paced the floor.

Tru automatically know what Neinheart was talking about and jumped up, "Hey Neinheart, look, settle down and take a seat. You need to relax."

"Relax?" Neinheart cried out, "Are you out of your mind? My sister could be eaten by wolves or something right now and you are telling me to relax?"

"Now Neinheart, you know the wolves on Rien are pretty docile. There wasn't a simgle wolf attack on history." Tru said.

"Yes, but there was also a lot more people!" Neinheart yelled, "She could be sick or hurt. What if one of those logs crush her?"

"Now you're just getting paranoid." Tru spoke in a more serious tone. "Sit down Neinheart."

"I refuse to do that, Truth!" Neinheart yelled out.

Using Tru's full name was something Neinheart and Lilin rarely ever did. If they did it was typically pretty serious. He was able to see at this point, Neinheart was just freaking out and needed to get the worry out of his system.

"I…I need to go back… I can't do this. She could get hurt or worse!" Neinheart started to say to himself.

"Feel free to go back," Tru announced loudly. Neinheart looked over at him and say him take a bit of a yawn before finishing his statement, "But if you do, don't ever expect to come back. I can tell right now what would happen if you return."

Neinheart stared at Tru. He stopped and registered what Tru had just said, and leaned against a wall before sinking to the ground. "This… this isn't fair…. This isn't fair at all." He cried. At this point, he wasn't even trying to hold back any tears he had.

His sister had begged him to stay and he left her there alone. If anything happened to her at all, who would be to blame? Lilin for her choice of staying behind or himself for leaving her there. He couldn't get a straight answer. He couldn't even think right. Scenario after scenario played out in his head, each one getting worse than the next. He couldn't handle this…

Just before Neinheart had the chance to tell Tru that he wanted to go, Tru brought up his own two cents. "You know Neinheart…" He started up, "She's not a weak girl. She's very strong in terms of spirit and determination. I don't think she could be knocked out that easily, do you?"

"But… she's just a little gi—" Neinheart started up

"She's growing up." Tru stated, "This is just the path she has chosen to grow up on. You chose your own. I know it feels odd now, but just keep in mind that you can't baby someone like her forever." He chuckled a bit, "She's probably get pissed after a while."

Neinheart stopped and simply stared at Tru. His gaze was just empty and tired, unable to find any humor in what he just said.

"Why don't you go lay down for a bit?" Tru advised. "You look like you could use some rest."

Neinheart looked at the ground and realized he was probably right. Neinheart slowly stood up and made his way up to his bedroom. He could tell from there that Tru had taken the meat he had prepared and had started cooking it. But it didn't matter. Right now, He was just tired of everything. He wanted to move forward, he really wanted to, but what he had to give up in order doing so was too much. It was leaving a void in him that Tru simply could not fill in for.

As he fell asleep, he held a small glimmer of hope that one day; his sister would prove him wrong and prove that the legends were real.