"That's-"

"You mentioned a fox earlier, right?" Afraid to argue while he appeared so confused, I simply nodded. What was I even doing talking to him? I shouldn't have let him find me, I knew I was more susceptible to speaking up whilst surrounded by trees. "Can you find it for me?"

"I… I guess. Y-you just need to be very quiet."

"Deal." I closed my eyes once more, letting my instincts take over completely. I was useless at finding my way back to places I'd come from, but discovering new adventures, that was my speciality. I didn't know if he was following or not, all my senses were tuned in to the sound of claws scraping against a thin layer of ice. I could already see it in my mind, the delicate figure of the fox, gliding silently across the forest in search of its next pray. Its eyes locking on us, scared as it glanced around, unknowing that we didn't mean it any harm. And then, all that was left were paw prints, as it took off towards the next hideout, in fear of becoming the meal itself.

When we found it, I wasn't surprised to discover that that's what actually happened. I had a knack for understanding animals.

"I need to get you back home now."

"No, please don't hurt me, I'm sorry!" Once again, he was shocked at my remark. When was he going to discover that I didn't trust him or his family? No matter how many times he promised, I knew that all it took was one word, one action, to get someone in the place where morals don't affect decisions and promises cease to matter. And god knew I was all too good at getting people there.

"I just want to show them this ability that you have. It's incredible. In fact, a little bit too incredible." He practically had to drag me back. I was begging and pleading the whole way, but instead of just getting the pain done and over with, he kept trying to reassure me.

As if that would fix the problem.

Gray's POV

My eyes opened blearily, a ray of sunshine bypassing the closed curtains blinding me for a couple of seconds. The first thing I realised was that it was early, too early, or at least that's what my tired mind was trying to convey. The second was that it smelt of scrambled eggs, and mum couldn't cook for the life of her. None of my brothers were allowed to cook and if my dad had been cooking I would've been woken up by the fire alarm, rather than a delicious smell. Which left no one who could've possibly cooked that meal.

Or, at least, no one my drowsy brain could recall.

I made my way down the stairs in a stupor, still too exhausted to really be curious about the food. The table was all laid out when I got to the kitchen, but there wasn't anyone eating, and the cutlery was untouched. Who would've cooked a meal only to leave before they could enjoy it? Slowly, an image of a shy, skittish (but admittedly beautiful) girl seeped into my mind. She wouldn't have done, surely? Then again, that seemed like something an abusive parent would make their child do, so it would make sense if she thought that we'd want her to cook.

Except we weren't like her parents at all. We would've never asked her to do that. But she didn't know that though, did she?

Turning around slowly on my heel, I went back upstairs, planning on dragging her downstairs to force her to eat something. I'd try to be nice but, if I was being honest, I'd much rather she eat, even if she ended up mad at me.

The second I was stood in front of her door though, I knew she wasn't there. Having my uncle Yves' ability, I was able to make the energy inside of things turn into heat energy which in turn made a fire. But there was no energy inside that room apart from that of the fireplace, which had died out long ago. A sinking feeling in my stomach removed all hope of finding her in the house, so I ran to mom and dad's room, shouting all the way.

I didn't care if I looked crazy. Last time Maisee had run away she'd almost gotten herself killed. Not that she didn't have more than enough reason to want to high tail out of that house, but there was no reason to do that now.

"Gray? Honey what's wrong?" Mom was half asleep, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Dad on the other hand had been trained in the savant lifestyle, immediately jumping out of bed and putting a shirt on. All the while, he was looking through my head, tossing memories here and there in a fervent search of what the problem was. It hurt, I wasn't going to lie, but it would be easier than me trying to explain. Once he got what he wanted, he was already at the door, sending telepathic messages to the whole family and organising a full scale pursuit.

By that point, mom had already seen how distressed my aura (as she called them) was. Mom was incredibly sensitive to people's emotions, to the point where she could see them in a halo of light. That's how she immediately knew that something was very wrong. It just wasn't wrong in the way she was imagining it. No, there wasn't anyone breaking into the house. No, there was virtually no threat to our family. So I didn't know why I was freaking out so much, but Maisee's clumsy trip kept playing over in my head. What if she fell and hurt herself?

What if she was attacked by a wild animal? Or a crazy savant, like what happened to mom and dad? It was no emergency per se, but it definitely felt like one.

2 hours later found all of us spread across the forest. Searching, apparently futilely as none of us had found any trace of her yet. Damn that girl could hide. A part of me was glad about that because if that was the case, she'd be less susceptible to any attacks, but, then again, it also meant that we'd basically wasted the whole morning with no results to be seen.

Dad was close to calling the search off, in favour of calling for a savant whose gift was to find people, when I finally found her, curled up at the base of a tree. If I hadn't looked twice, I would've missed her. Her cream coloured sweatshirt didn't stand out remarkably against the tree bark, yet that wasn't it, it was like she just belonged. I would've cast a glance at her and thought "yeah, just another bit of the forest, better move on and keep looking"

"Guys, I found her! Maisee, what are you even doing?" She quietly blinked up at me, appearing to be confused for a second, as if she didn't even remember that she belonged with us, the rest of the human race. I couldn't blame her, when I first found her, I'd doubted that too.

Hi :)

Ok so this was a little bit of a recap of last chapter (which will continue onto chapter 7). Sorry 'bout that. But you got to see how Gray sees Petal so that's always a bonus.

Anyhows, thanks so much to the two Guests that reviewed, you guys make my day :)

Bye bye :)