9 years later...
Lucas lie awake, staring up at the popcorn ceiling of the small room he and Claus shared. The room was largely undecorated, save for a dried sunflower pinned to the wall on Lucas's side of the room. It had been only three days, though the sparse luggage the boys had brought with them on their voyage from the Nowhere Islands would indicate that the room would not become much less barren anytime soon. Lucas had been given months to prepare for their departure, but even that wasn't enough time to say goodbye to fifteen years of memories. Even as Yokuba and his cronies slowly but surely transformed Tazmily from the peaceful hamlet it had been to a colder, modern civilization, Lucas's heart was still with his homeland. The boat ride to Eagleland had been nearly three days, and far more crowded than Lucas anticipated. He was glad he had packed lightly. With his father selling most of what they had to afford this humble house on the outskirts of Onett, they hadn't had much to bring anyway, and all the belongings they had brought fit neatly in personal knapsacks. A few changes of clothes, clean linens, and a handful of books were what the two boys had brought, and Flint hadn't brought much more than them. Duster, finally cashing the favour Flint had promised him so many years ago accompanied them, and outside of an acoustic bass slung across his back he too brought nothing but clothes and bedding. Even after arriving in Eagleland following the boat ride it had been a days trip across the country to Onett, to the little home Flint had purchased for the three (now four). Lucas sighed, turning onto his side and facing Claus, dead asleep. Turning back onto his back, he flipped over to his other side, reaching underneath the wooden bed frame to grab a flashlight and a book he had stowed there. The flashlight was on its last leg, providing enough light to read, but barely. The book Lucas had grabbed, "Overcoming Shyness" was pretty thick, this fact exacerbated by near a dozen letters Lucas had stashed inside, away from his brothers' prying eyes. After his father had broken the news to them that they would be leaving for Onett in a few months' time, Lucas wasted no time finding himself a pen pal there, not wanting to move to such a drastically new place without knowing at least one person. Lucas and the boy, Ninten, had written each other a few times a month, never about much serious, very basic ice breaking questions and questions about what it was like living in Onett and Tazmily, respectively. Ninten struck Lucas as a bit scatterbrained from his letters, as he would often go off on tangents, usually very tenuously related to what he had initially been discussing. He seemed nice enough though, and Lucas was happy to at least know one person. He had little time to meet up with the boy yet, but he planned to at least once before school picked up the next week. Just as Lucas started to read the topmost letter the flashlight sputtered, giving a few pitiful blinks of light before going out completely. "Dammit" Lucas swore, setting the flashlight and book back down quietly as not to disturb his sleeping twin. Realizing he would not be able to sleep, Lucas rolled back to the left side of his bed away from the wall, quietly slipping his blanket off of himself and slipping his bare feet into plain orange slippers sitting by his bed. He stood up slowly, wincing at the loud creak his wooden bed gave, but Claus simply inhaled in his sleep and moved his arm slightly. This movement shifted the blanket off of Claus a bit, exposing what was left of his right arm. Cut off just slightly above what would be his right elbow, Claus's stump arm was just one of the consequences he had incurred for chasing after that Drago nine years ago. Lucas covered it back up gently as he left, not wanting his brother to get cold and wake up, seeing him not there. He quietly ascended the narrow basement staircase and emerged into the main room of the top floor, where Duster snored loudly on the couch, his gangly arms hanging limply off one end. As quietly as possible Lucas fetched a sweatshirt off the floor by the door, and walked outside, feeling the crisp evening air and light rain drops on his skin. It was abnormally cold for an August night, but the boy didn't mind. Though Lucas had obviously grown quite a lot in nine years, he was still a very slight boy, standing just over 5'7, and a habitual slouch didn't help matters much. Lucas slipped on the sweatshirt, a very plain white wool one from Tazmily and began walking up the road in front of their house, leading up the small mountain that sat north of Onett. Lucas had walked this walk quite a few times in the few days they had been here, finding that it relaxed him a lot. The view from the top reminded him a lot of Grandpa Alec's mountain cabin back on the Islands, and any extended period of time where he didn't feel obligated to socialize was a welcome period of time for the blonde.
He kicked gravel as he walked, the raindrops starting to break down the little bit of gel still left in his hair. The walk wasn't long, ten minutes at most, and Lucas was quickly at the summit, a beautiful view of the Onett skyline on one side of him and the gorgeous valley below on the other. For a while Lucas just stood, admiring the scenery, his mind on nothing in particular. However, the longer he stood the more his mind started to wander back to Tazmily, back to all the faces he missed. His and Claus' good friend Fuel in particular had been hard to say goodbye to, and his tearful farewell was etched into Lucas' brain. Most of the adults hadn't been very hard to say goodbye to, they had largely become much less personable than they had once been, but Fuel hadn't changed a bit since they were kids, still the same rambunctious ladies man Claus was, only now having ladies to actually mack on. Lucas chuckled internally a bit at the thought. Him and Claus had always been about the girls, and the girls had largely always been about them. Though Claus was the more popular of the two, Lucas had had a couple girlfriends as well, though nothing serious by any means. Though Claus was quick to set his brother up with girls, Lucas never really hit it off with any of them. They were nice, sure, and enjoyable to be around, but Lucas never really thought of them as much more than close friends. This mindset was precisely what had ended both relationships rather quickly, a fact Lucas lost no sleep over.
Speaking of sleep… Lucas thought, yawning a bit. He could see their small house from up on the mountain, so quiet and peaceful in the soft moonlight. Lucas took another few seconds to soak in the view before standing up, brushing gravel off of his backside. No sooner had he started walking back to the trail though when he swore he heard faint voices, coming from somewhere near. He couldn't make out what they were saying, nor where they had come from. He continued walking, chalking it up to nerves until her heard it again. He still couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, but he could make out their conversation now.
"…told you we'd just get him in trouble"
"Oh, lighten up Jeff. It was all in good fun"
"All in good fun doesn't usually entail…"
Lucas was a bit panicked now, looking for where the voices could possibly be coming from. They were getting louder towards him, and he started instinctively backing up out of fear. However, just as he started backing up he heard a loud crackling noise resembling dead air on a television set, followed shortly by a loud POP, and no sooner had he heard the noise before someone smacked into him, sending him sprawling down the hill a ways. Lucas rolled comically, too bewildered to make a noise before smacking his head on a decent sized rock on the side of the path.
"Holy shit Jeff what did you…" was all Lucas heard before conking out.
Thanks again for reading. Chapters will start being longer once the story gets into the full swing of things. Additionally, I use the name Yokuba rather than Fassad in the first paragraph, simply because I prefer the name Yokuba. Though to clear up any potential confusion, the two are one in the same. Ciao!