We arrived in Werites Beacon tired and hungry. The sun was beginning to set, allowing me to assume that since I would never sleep twenty four hours straight, I only had an hour long nap inside the waterways.

Will was waiting for us inside his house. He smiled and thanked us for our work and quickly shuffled off to his lab where he would test his theory. Senel, Chloe, Jay and I stood awkwardly in the living room, not really knowing what to do or say.

"I guess I'm going to head home." Senel said to break the ice between us.

Chloe nodded her head furiously. "Yes, me too. Coolidge, I'll walk you part way." Senel smiled at her and they left together, side by side, making small talk the whole way.

I rubbed my neck. "Shouldn't it be the man walking the chick home?" I asked. When I didn't get a reply from Jay, I looked over at him.

He was silent, of course, and the only action he did was glare heatedly at me. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets like usual, but his lower face was tucked behind his huge collar. It gave me the impression that he was hiding and I inwardly smiled. He was such an open book.

"You're still upset over what I said before, aren't you?"

He scoffed, going deeper into his jacket. "I wasn't upset about it in the first place."

"Sure you weren't. Just like Moses isn't a retard."

"Are you mocking me?" He leered.

I grinned. "I prefer the term 'teasing'."

"Then if you must tease someone go find that stupid bandit or worse yet, Norma."

My smile disappeared. Norma? Oh lord. She scared me somewhat. Clad in that bright yellow revealing outfit with that oddly happy personality that seemed to whip into pure rage whenever she wanted. She was demanding and it freaked me out. "No thanks. You're a lot more fun than them."

He made a noise in the back of his throat. Turning he marched off towards the door and like the pestering woman I was, I trailed along after him. He swung open the door, fully aware of my footsteps behind him. He ignored it for awhile until finally as we passed the inn he stopped and faced me. "Why are you following me?"

"I'm not." I lied. I pointed to the inn and smiled. "I kinda sleep here y'know."

He raised an eyebrow and gave me a bland look. "Really?"

"Yep."

"So you've made amends with the innkeeper?"

My face fell. Damn, didn't think about that one. Immediately a lie popped into my head. Another great trait about thieves; we could make excuses anywhere at any time. "Nope. Don't need to. I can just sneak in."

Jay seemed to roll his eyes. "You really are as dumb as that cousin of yours."

I put my hands on my hips. "Hold on, are you calling me stupid?"

"You must be deaf too. I didn't say anything about stupid. The word I used was 'dumb'."

"It's the same thing."

He sighed and put his back to me. "This is why I don't deal with simpletons. Their brain usage is far too low to have a normal conversation with."

I snorted. "Well, excuse me for not being a super-genius. It must be a crime to have average intelligence. Besides, even if I was as smart as you we still couldn't have a normal conversation. Wanna know why?"

"Not in the least bit."

"I'll tell you anyways. It's because you suck at socializing. You're pretty much gimped when it comes to it."

He looked offended for a second, but he easily masked it with annoyance. Giving me a final dirty look, he seemed to nearly disappear his speed was so fast leaving the town.

I stood there in the street staring after him confused. He sure could move quickly for a little guy. Casually shrugging, I placed my hands on the back of my neck and looked up at the darkened sky. The starts were beginning to shine brightly, the moon partly hidden behind thin clouds. 'I guess I should see Moses.' I thought. Even if I didn't want to, it was the right thing to do.

I sighed. My arms fell to my sides like they were made out of lead. I was a thief, a beast-tamer and worst of all a failure at doing what my tribe was best at. I couldn't make a pact if my life depended on it. For years I'd searched for my beast, the one animal I was to form a lifelong bond with, and each day passing I wondered if it was really worth it to keep looking.

The Sandor family was one big clan but since the war last generation it was spread out into three groups (the two that left the island strayed from one another. The two on the island stayed as one.). Each child from the last head chief ruled the tribes. My father and our two uncles were the leaders. Although it had only been a short time since the family broke off like that we had all gained our own rules and ways of teaching; including different methods of fighting.

Each tribe specialized in a different sense. Moses' was scent. They were in-tuned with those of the canine type beasts, able to track and hunt with their ferocious animals. My tribe excelled in sight. Our keen eyes related us to the bird type beasts, and we believed that we were all bound to our beasts by a thread of fate and it was destiny that made us find them. The third tribe used their hearing to travel. They didn't stay in one spot very often, and were associated with feline type beasts.

There were many exceptions in the family. Sometimes one from my tribe would be more that of Moses' tribe. If that was the case then they weren't exiled from the clan. Instead they had a choice whether to stay or leave to find their proper tribe and train those abilities.

Moses and I were very different yet at the same time so much alike. It was only right for me to follow the path of our forefathers in quoting about family. Always look out for them. Words from my father echoed in my head and as I came up to the camp, unaware of my feet moving underneath me, I frowned deeply. Why did I think about him so often? I barely knew the man. He had left when I was only a child. I could remember his silhouette hovering above my bed as he stroked my hair, whispering his final farewell. That was all.

My sister spoke nothing good about him. She would always curse when I brought him up after he left and over the years I learned not to say anything about him. I grew up oblivious to the man I was part of. I had hundreds of questions. Why did he leave? Didn't he love us? Was it a mission? Was he exiled?

Mother was a quiet woman. She didn't speak much and when she did it was soft and barely heard. You could never stay mad at her for being so meek though because she had a smile so sweet your anger melted away. I didn't have the heart to talk to her about anything that might worry her. I thought those tiny shoulders of hers would break under the weight and sis' often told me to never bug her, that our mom needed time to recover. Recover from what, I never did learn.

"Alex?" Csaba's voice broke me from my reminiscing.

I turned towards him and forced a smile. "Oh hey, Csaba. What's up?"

He returned the smile, but his was more real than mine. "Nothing. I came out here because I thought I heard someone coming. I guess I was right." Csaba wasn't part of the Sandor family, but his own clan had been living on the island with us for a long time. It was smaller and less developed than mine but he didn't care. He melded in with Moses and me easily.

"I see..."

His lips turned from upwards to down. He stepped towards me, head tilted to the side. I saw his brow crease and worry spread across his well shaped face. "You don't seem normal... is something wrong?"

I shook my head. He'd always been the worry-wart. "Nah. I'm just thinkin' too much, that's all."

We were both silent. The best thing about Csaba was he knew when to talk and when not to. If it was a trait he got from his clan I was jealous of it.

When the wind began to pick up and my bangs shifted to the side ever so slightly, he placed a hand on his forehead and ran it back over his tied up teal hair. "Come on," he said gently, touching my wrist with his fingers, "you can sleep with me tonight."

Now, if I were a normal person that would have sounded absurd. Sleeping with him in a tent? Ew. I loved inn beds. Their softness made me feel like I was floating on a cloud. But I was a beast-tamer. Born and raised on hard grounds surrounded by half naked men. None of it freaked me out. How could it when we were family?

So I smiled at him, that time meaning it, and said, "I want to talk to Moses first."

He immediately understood. I think my answer relieved him somewhat because the shine in his eyes got brighter. "Then I guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah. G'night, Csaba."

His fingertips grazed my sleeve again, unable to touch my skin through the fabric, and he headed off to his own tent, waving a hand over his shoulder. "Good night, Alex. Don't bug him too much."

"Har har, very funny." I couldn't help laughing.

Those were our last words exchanged that day. I would see him later on, but in a different situation and at that time no sounds would escape our lips. As he ducked into his tent the faded light of a candle flickered from the sudden breeze inside. I waited till he was gone before making my way over to Moses' sleeping quarters.

Of course his tent was the nicest. It had the best furs hanging off it and I nodded my approval to them. Not bad for an amateur hunter. Since there was no door and the flap was closed, I simply let myself in, not quite caring for politeness.

Moses was leaned against the one wall, staring off into space. His body jerked when he saw me enter and he dropped the sharpening stone in his one hand, a spear in the other. "Hey, Alex!" He grinned.

I wondered to myself if he was still peeved about before. Somehow I doubted it. Nobody could be angry with that silly look on his face. "Yo."

"What're you doin' here? Miss me already?" He teased.

Rolling my eyes I trudged over to his bed of furs and made myself comfortable on it. "Of course not. Now that I have Shorty to talk to I'm completely happy."

His smile dropped. I had to grin. "That was sarcasm, Moses."

"Oh." Was all he said. "I knew that."

'Sure you did.' I thought to myself. I kept my mouth shut in case he got angry at me. Tilting my head I indicated towards his weapon. "So what were you doin'? Looks sharp enough."

Moses laughed and brought the items closer to him. "Y'never were good at figurin' out weapons. I'm surprised you take good care of those things." He nodded to my arms and I smirked, taking his words as a compliment.

"Thanks. I'm not bad with them. They're pretty easy to handle." I pulled back my right sleeve and switched the claws up. "All I gotta do is sharpen them every once and awhile, maybe a little bit of shine here or there and sometimes it gets jammed up with dirt so I bring it into a shop." I waved my arm side to side, allowing the metal to gleam from the light he had sitting near him.

He followed the actions with his eyes for a moment, then switched his gaze to me. I swore I saw something like longing in those deep mahogany orbs.

After a minute of just the two of us staring at each other I stood up off the ground. My chest was tight and my throat constricted. It was almost as if my body didn't want me to talk, to say the things I craved to tell him. Inside myself there was a battle going and my will was losing big time. I opened my mouth to talk and managed to let out a quiet, "I have to bring you back, Moses."

His face darkened. A shadow casted over it and he lowered his head. "Yeah, I know you do. But I ain't goin'."

"It's for the sake of the family," I tried once again to argue about it with him, "I know you were exiled years ago, and that's why you left in the first place, and you don't wanna go back—even though they're giving you a chance to return—because you don't want to see Aunty suffering from the illness—" A muscle near his eye twitched from those words. "—but think of everyone else. You, Sis' and Antal. Out of you three it's obvious you'll win in strength. People are expecting you to come. We need you."

Abruptly he stood up. Dropping everything he held he took an angry step forwards. "What am I supposed to do then?! Huh?! I don't got Giet with me no more! He's free! A head chief can't be a good one without their beast by their side! It's their strengths together that make 'em so liked! I'm... I'm just a coward... I don't have Giet... Half my power is gone, Al'. I can't beat Antal. Hell, I won't even be able to beat yer sister." His voice lowered from the yell it had started from and I felt bad about putting so much weight on his back. I had to though. My family, my people, were looking at me to make him come back and be the rightful lord of our clan.

I shook my head. "Pitiful. You preach on and on about taking care of family yet you won't even help those you're truly related to by blood. You make me ill." I stole the last line from Jay and I saw it worked. Moses' eyes went wide and a rush if sadness went over him.

I turned around and left the tent, allowing my back to be the last he saw of me and my words to echo in his mind. I didn't want to be so cruel. Really, I didn't. I just had no choice.

Making my way to Csaba's tent I quietly snuck inside. He was laying on his side facing the one wall, his thick hair splayed over the furs. My lips twitched and I shed my jacket, trying to be as quiet as possible while I unhooked my weapons.

Thankfully the man was a deep sleeper. I wriggled my way into the bed and tucked myself under the furs, loving the warmth inside them. I didn't notice how cold it was outside till then.

Beside me, Csaba groaned. I guess he wasn't a deep sleeper after all. He rolled onto his other side to face me and in the darkness I saw a smile stretch his mouth. He didn't speak. Instead he moved closer and put his arm around my side, making sure I was safe in his hold. We fell asleep like that until the dawn, when the action began.