The next morning I woke up to the bright sun shining in my eyes. I groaned and raised my arm, mentally urging the light to go away and come back a couple hours later. There was warmth under my back and to my side I felt chilled.

Not wanting to wake up anymore I rolled away from the cold and squeezed my eyes shut tighter, commanding my body to shut down again. A voice pulled me back from slumber just as I was entering it. "Took ya long enough to get off... my arm's numb..."

I cracked open an eye. Shifting, I turned just enough to see where the noise was coming from.

Moses was lying on his side facing me, a look of awakening on his tanned features. I blinked, bleary eyed, and reached a hand up to rub the sleep away. "Mmm... Moses? What're you doin' here?" My words were slurred and he chuckled.

"We fell asleep on the beach, dummy."

"Oh." I suddenly felt stupid. Memories of the past day flooded through me and I sat upright. "That's right. We battled and then..." Glancing over my shoulder I saw under me was his arm. So that's what he meant by it was numb. I had slept on it all night. "Ah. Sorry 'bout that."

He shrugged. At least, he tried to. Lying sideways with a dead limb and being half-awake didn't help with the situation. "S'fine." He mumbled.

Tired, I looked away and angled my head towards the sky. Bright and blue. It was past dawn for sure. I wondered if the others were looking for us. More specifically me. Will wasn't going to be very impressed with the stunt I pulled at the inn. I simply didn't want to get my ass kicked without a fight. Maybe he'd understand if I explained it.

I pulled a face. Who was I trying to kid? That guy would never get it. He was an old fart. A geezer. He didn't know what it was like to be young. Okay, maybe he did, but that was a long time ago it didn't count.

Moses shifted beside me. He grimaced and muttered about tingles in his arm and as he shook it he sat up. I felt smaller when he did that and inwardly pouted. Why was I the only Sandor to have a delayed growth spurt? Everyone else was tall. "What'cha thinkin' 'bout?" He asked after seeing my expression.

"Huh? Oh, nothing." I shook my head and tried to stand up but he caught the back of my jacket.

He grinned. "C'mon, Al. I know ya better than that. What's botherin' ya?"

I looked down and glared at him. When I spoke I meant to have a hard voice, one that would get my point across, yet it seemed it didn't work and instead it came out soft. "Y'know, maybe after four years I changed. It could mean something totally different than what you think. People don't stay the same their entire lives."

His smile disappeared and I wondered if he got the seriousness I wanted to use. My hope was destroyed at the sight of a playful smirk stretching his lips. "You're right. People do change." He nudged me with his elbow playfully. "But you don't."

"Moe!" I groaned.

He laughed. "Alright, alright! You've changed. Happy?"

"No." I stuck out my bottom lip and crossed my arms. "I know you're lying."

He slung his now awoken arm over my shoulders, bringing me towards his chest. "Nah! I'd never lie t' ya! You have changed, Cuz'. I jus' don't wanna admit it."

We sat for awhile like that. Me leaning on him with his arm over me. We didn't bother moving until I heard a low rumble and glanced down. At the same time we blushed.

"I think we're hungry." I mused.

Moses nodded. He patted my shoulder, signalling for me to stand up. "I missed supper last night 'cause of you, y'know. You owe me."

"I don't owe you nothin', Cuz'." I mocked him with the 'cuz' part and he caught on to it.

Frowning, he placed his hands on his hips the moment we were both standing and glared at me. "Hey! What's with that tone?"

"What tone?" I asked.

"I heard a tone in that sentence!"

I shrugged, turning around and starting off towards Werites Beacon. I wanted to wash up at Lumen Spring before we got anywhere near civilization. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You do too!" He sounded baffled at my words. "Don't you start playin' dumb with me, Girl! I know your games!"

"What games?"

"Alex!"

I only laughed.

--

That day I wished I had never been picked to go to the Legacy. Or better yet, I wished I had agreed to Moses' demand on stopping at the camp to grab a bite to eat before going to Will's place. Why did I try to do good things? It always ended up wrong. I had told Moses no to the food—although I wanted it just as much as him—and said we had to tell Will we were okay after explaining what I did in the inn. I hadn't heard my cousin laugh so hard in all the years I knew him after telling the story. I didn't find anything funny about it. I was in serious trouble because of that stupid shop manager. Yes, it was his fault, not mine. You can't blame a thief for stealing. That's like telling an orange to change its name and turn green. The world just didn't work that way.

Apparently that wasn't an excuse for Will. I wasn't even three steps into the living room and he had me in the air dangling by the collar. He was yelling things here and there, telling me how irresponsible I was and how reckless it had been to do something like that. I guess Jay told him about Moses and I's fight by the shore because he brought that up too. I felt glad I wasn't the only one getting scolded.

"But... it's normal." I tried for the billionth time to explain it to him. "Fighting's always been a way of settling things in the family—"

"Savages." Norma hissed to Chloe from the other couch.

"—I mean, what do you think the three kids have to do to be chosen as head chief? They're not gonna play hide and seek to pick, that's for sure—"

"Barbarians." Another sneer.

"—If we were raised that way and taught such 'peaceful' things then we would never be strong enough to call ourselves beast tamers. Isn't that right, Moses?" I looked to my cousin for confirmation.

He nodded his head enthusiastically. "Yep! That's right, Cuz'! Couldn't have worded it better myself!"

"Hippies."

Moses glared at the brunette who looked away innocently at his narrowed stare. "What're you talkin' about over there, Bubbles?"

Norma's smile was so fake I had to roll my eyes. "Oh, nothing!" She replied, her voice just as sugary sweet. "I'm defiantly not making fun of your traditions!"

"Like hell you aren't."

Will shot them both a look telling them to be quiet, which they did quickly, and then shifted that heated stare back at me. "That's still no excuse for harassing the inn manager then swinging through a window—" Yeah, that's what Norma told him. I harassed the guy and then turned into super Alex monkey and used my 'rope hand' to swing through the open window. She said nothing about the fact he attacked me first and all I did was run until I found a place to get out of. I bet the manager didn't side with my story either. "—and disappearing the entire night with Moses."

"Yeah, no kidding." Norma said. She eyed Moses with mild disgust. "You weren't... you know... trying anything with her, were you, Red?"

Beside her Senel choked on his drink and Shirley's face went red. I saw Chloe cover her mouth in an attempt to hide her giggles, but when she accidently let some out I leered at her. It only made it worse.

"What?!" Moses lurched off the couch, face beginning to shade darker. "No! Course not! The hell do you think I am?! She ain't my wife!"

"Well don't you guys breed in the family?"

'Breed?' I thought. 'What does she think we are? Dogs?' I only shook my head and finally I smacked Moses in the stomach. "Sit down." I growled. He swore at me but did as he was told and I jabbed my thumb towards him, looking at the others. "Is that the image he brings to your mind about our family? That we marry our cousins?"

The four on the couch shared looks. Shirley was beginning to get the nervous giggles and Chloe had settled hers a few seconds ago. Senel held such a devastated look on his face I couldn't stop my grin from forming. Norma, blinking, opened her mouth to answer but Jay—who stepped out from behind the couch Moses and I sat on—beat her to it. "Actually yes, he does."

Trying hard to stop my lips from twitching, I turned to face the ninja. "You get the idea we take the clothes off our dead family members and then eat them later for dinner, believing some psyco god will give us sacred eres if we devour enough human flesh, correct?"

The faintest hint of a smile caught my attention and I wondered whether or not he realized he was doing it. "Yes."

"Man, Moses," Again I hit the brooding man beside me, that time harder, "you suck at showing off the Sandor name. You made the entire Legacy think we're a bunch of freaks that run wild in the forest."

"I do not! Why y'all gotta pick on me?! She's a Sandor too! Make fun of her!"

"Yeah, but I look normal."

"An' I don't?!"

"What are you, stupid?" I paused. "Y'know what, don't answer that, you'd make yourself sound worse."

"HEY! What's that supposed to me?!"

"My point exactly. Rocks for brains."

"You little bitc—"

Taking as much as he could handle, Will came over and hit us both over the top of our heads. "Stop fighting!" He scolded. "It gets tiresome after awhile."

"I think it's funny." Norma quipped.

He glared at her and she shrunk back into the cushion of the couch. Returning to face us, the elder man pushed up his glasses and glowered down at us. "That was your punishment for fighting yesterday. Alex, because of what you did to the inn manager, you must assist Senel, Jay and Chloe in going to the Waterways to check out something for me. Got it?"

My heart fell. Waterways? That didn't sound too good. It sounded underground. I really, really hated underground things. Really badly. I wrung my hands together but other than that showed no sign of paranoia. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

I think Will thought I was going to fight back because he raised an eyebrow at my easy-going answer. Suddenly he glared again. "You're not planning anything, are you?"

"Of course not." Liar.

"Good." He said. "But since I don't trust you I want Jay to follow you around until Senel and Chloe get all the supplies you'll need."

Follow me? What was he expecting me to do, run away? I thought harder about that and decided that was most likely exactly what he assumed I was going to do. Still, follow? He was basically telling the kid to stalk me. Not that I was complaining or anything. He was cute. I had a soft spot for cute things.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

Hah, yeah, and pigs would fly.