An hour later the group, along with me, had migrated to Will's house to talk about the situation. After being smacked twice on the head, Moses and I agreed (against our wills) to follow the others and discuss everything as one big happy family.

Alright maybe not a family and certainly not happy, but you get the point.

I scratched my head. Such a comfy couch. We didn't have those kinds of luxuries over at my camp in Gadoria. Everything was hand crafted out of wood.

My eyes wandered around the room. It was pretty big for a single guy to be living in. Unless he secretly had a wife. I highly doubted that though. He didn't wear a wedding ring or seem the husband type.

Across from me sitting on a couch similar to the one I had my butt planted on, Chloe, Senel and Shirley sat staring at me. Will stood between the two couches, arms crossed, and Moses had chosen a seat beside me with the new girl, a bouncy brunette I thought was called Norma, on his other side.

Frowning, Will began the group talk. "So, Alex," he said my name using a darker tone and I wondered to myself what he had against me. Aside from the fact I practically robbed every expensive store in his town of course, "Why don't you explain properly why you're here?"

I sighed. "Look, I already told you guys what happened. Our uncle, the chief of all the tribes in the Sandor family, died. So now the oldest kids from his three siblings have to go through these tests to see who will become the next chief. Moses is one of them. I need to bring him back home so he can participate in the event."

Chloe tilted her head looking confused. "Why can't one of the old chief's siblings do it?" She asked.

"That's not how it works." Moses said. He leaned back on the couch and I saw Will wince, worried the red head would get dirt on his furniture. "Y'see, the chief is supposed t' be young at the start of their rulin' and then die of old age at the end. Nobody can take the position from 'im unless he's dead. Uncle was the second oldest from granddad's four kids, so the others are too old t' rule. Got it?"

"Not really." Norma muttered.

Senel leaned forwards, placing his elbows on his knees. "Why didn't the oldest child become chief in the first place then?"

I let myself explain that one at the sudden glazed look Moses got in his eyes. "Aunty was the oldest, yes, but she was quite frail and the stress of being chief would be too much for her body. The others knew that and my father told them to let Uncle be chief instead. Which they did."

"So how long ago was that?"

Moses and I looked at each other, both thinking backwards in time. "Uh..." I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to add up all the different years together. "Maybe... about... I dunno thirty or forty years ago?"

"How could he die so fast?"

I glanced over to my cousin, worried at his reaction. He didn't move an inch. Hell, he actually looked at me with an arched eyebrow and pushed me to answer the question. That's right. He wasn't told, was he? He hadn't been on the island long enough to learn about the cause of our uncle's death. "It... it's a long standing problem in our family..."

Red eyes widened.

"... a lung disease. It's incurable and unfortunately it got the best of Uncle."

"Shit." Moses stood up from the couch and everyone moved their attention towards him.

Will's brow creased. "Moses, what's wrong?"

He didn't get a reply. The bandit had grabbed his quiver of spears by the door and left as quickly as possible, hiding his face under his shaggy bangs. When the slam of the door signalled he had left angrily, all eyes darted to me.

I hung my head. I knew it. Leave it to Moses to put all the troubles of explaining everything on me. But I didn't blame him. Or more, I couldn't. If it was me in his spot I would do the exact same. That's what family was for wasn't it? To be there to support you and take what you leaned on them.

"What was that about?" Senel mumbled.

"Yeah, is Red alright?"

Chloe was still staring at the closed door behind me, eyes fogged the slightest bit. "No... Did you not see his face? He looked..."

"Scared?" I guessed.

She looked at me, surprised. "Y-yeah. How..? Do you know why?"

I clasped my hands together and placed them on the back of my neck. 'Maybe I shouldn't tell.' I thought. I knew what was bugging him. His mom had the same illness and it was most likely she would die from it. He didn't want to be reminded how bad it was and with Uncle dying that way it only brought the pain of reality harder down on him. Did he really want me to blab out all the issues to other people? Was it even my right to tell them?

I sighed and opened my mouth but Senel cut me off. "If it's something big enough to upset Moses that fast," he spoke softly, eyes hard on my face, "then I think you should wait for him to tell us instead of explaining it yourself. Even if you do know the reason."

I nodded. Thank god there was someone with a brain that could save my ass from getting kicked in the future. "Yeah..."

Norma stuck out her bottom lip and leaned her head to one side with a scowl. "Well what're we gonna do then? He never said he'd go back to do the thingy-ma-bob."

'He probably won't.' I thought with a gloomy look upon my face. 'He won't because I brought up the sickness. Just to piss me off.'

Shirley was still staring at me. She held a very subtle smile on those pink lips of hers and when I caught her eye I felt my face begin to heat up. What was she looking at me like that for? I eyed her blonde hair with dislike. It made her look so much more angelic, so much more delicate.

I directed my eyes sideways. I couldn't handle her feminine face anymore. Even without saying anything I understood what she wanted me to do. 'Go and find the answer.'

With another sigh I stood off the couch and rubbed my neck. "Well, sorry to disturb y'all like this. I'll be on my way now—"

"Hold on a minute." Will grabbed at the collar of my jacket as I tried sneaking past him. He jerked me backwards and I groaned. 'Now what?' "Just where do you think you're going, young lady?"

I pointed to the door and he glared down at me. "Oh, please. I didn't take anything while we were finding Moses."

"That's not the point. You stole in the first place, that's what landed you in jail. Or do you not remember that little incident?"

"Yeah, yeah..."

He narrowed his eyes and I wanted so badly to punch him square in the face and break those god forsaken glasses of his. "Look, I robbed all the best places in the town so there isn't anything more for me to do, right? I'll just be on my merry way to the port where I'll take a boat home."

Senel rose from his seat. "Will, I don't think we should trust her just yet. She doesn't seem like the type to keep her promises."

"How would you know, Dickhead?" I snarled, my temper getting the better of me.

He blinked. He immediately got over his shock though and soon he was glaring at me just as harsh as Will. "What did you say?!"

"What, are you deaf too? Man, what's with the guys in this town. You're all stupid and disabled in some way. I asked how you'd know a single thing about me when you've only known me for a few hours."

"That's not what I'm getting angry about!" He cried. "And I'm not deaf or stupid!"

"Oh, but you don't disagree that you're disabled?"

"Wh-what?! No, I'm not—"

"ENOUGH!" I yelped as Will's fingers grabbed onto my shirt, allowing him to lift me up off the ground. I began thrashing around, kicking my feet and screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL?! PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT YOU STUPID OLD FART!"

The others watched as the sheriff carried me out through the front door, me shrieking all the while. My cries soon faded when the door was shut and pretty soon all they heard was silence.

Norma blinked, turning around in her seat to try and see over the top of the couch. "Do you think he killed her?" She asked.

Chloe made a face. "I don't think Raynard would go that far..."

"She mixed 'old' and 'stupid' together in one insult; I think he'd do more than a good whacking to her for that."

"Maybe to you, Norma, but we don't know her at all..."

"He-llo! It's Teach we're talking about here, C! He hits anyone!"

The door opened and their talked ceased. Into the silence I stepped, a large bump forming on the back of my head. 'For an old man he sure can hit hard.' I inwardly cursed Will, glaring as hard as I could at him when he came around to my side. "Alex here has agreed to do community service until her debt for the things she stole is done. In the mean time Norma, can you find her a place to stay?"

Happy as ever, the treasure hunter hopped up off the couch and beamed a smile so bright I felt blinded. "Sure thing, Teach! C'mon Lexy, I'll get you an awesome deal on a room at the inn!"

My eye twitched. "Lexy?" There was no chance I would ever get to ask about it because I was tackled and dragged from the arm by the brunette all the way though the house and down the street, not a bone in my body willing enough to put more contact between me and such a giddy person. My sister always taught me that if you stayed around people who were freakishly excited all the time it would rub off and pretty soon you'd find yourself wearing colours of the rainbows and singing along with the flowers.

Inside the house, Shirley cast Will a curious stare. "Will?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you simply make her return the things she took?"

He smiled eerily. "Because then I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her for long now would I?"