As I walked out of the longhouse, I felt lost. It seems Haruc was right. Maybe I should take his advice. After all the patriarch of a clan is reminiscent of the clan as a whole more often than not. He was definitely the cowardly sort, scheming, planning, but for all that I don't feel that he is particularly smart, nor capable. Before I left him I asked for a place to stay, as this is the very last clan of our coalition. It was part of home, be it a part I would rather not existed just few months ago. Surprisingly enough, I was given one.

I was settling in, as they say. I had a house, work, food, I had enough to live like a king.

"Be kind Logher, a king should be kind, and men should aspire to be a king." That's what old Mourney used to say. A lot of good that kindness did him. He won his position fair and square and he continued to follow such attitude into his rein. None objected to his ruling, not out of fear, but out of respect. And yet, he was butchered like a pig.

I hated this. The peaceful life. I would rather fight and bleed, than polish unused weaponry, but that is the position I was given. Maintenance. I was still grateful, as they accepted me quickly and integrated me into their ways, but it was all hollow. I had to remind myself that this is what Mourney would want for me. "Discomfort breeds character." he used to say, though finding discomfort in an easy way of life is irony that he might not have been prepared for.

A few women with raven black hair looked my way, but I was as bored of my station, as to not even given them a second glance. Though I had to admit that Ravenbeak women were as fair as is rumored.

The hardest part of the day was after dusk. Though my bed was filled with straw, though my duvet was filled with feathers, I could not sleep. My heart was beating and it was somewhere it did not want to be. Every night I argued with myself. This is better. I can live freely here. What happened is not my fault, nor my responsibility. I still never quite managed to win. My heart was beating too loud for that. It was relentless, it offered me no rest, until I had the blood of the guilty on my hands. We fought night after night, only dawn breaking our battle.

I was just sharpening a blade, a heavily dented sword which must have gone through many a battle. I wondered what it was doing here. Frankly there were far too many overused weapons, considering that Ravenbeaks fought only when necessary. There was also a number of weirdly shaped swords. Something you'd get if you took a sickle and sharpened its dull side, prolonged it to a full blade and crafted it from sturdier steel. It was crude, but judging from the dried blood, it obviously worked before.

Normally, I would spend the whole day here, grinding the rust away. There wasn't anything else I could do anyway, but today, I felt my intuition sharpen same as I sharpened the swords. A man and a woman were walking down the street, shooting paranoid glances around, as if they thought they were being followed. I did not see anyone walk after the couple, but anyone good wouldn't have gotten spotted easily anyway. I grabbed a small hammer and strapped it onto my belt, then I gone after the couple.

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I did not want to skulk about. I had started living here. Rumors could hurt the little reputation I had built. So I brazenly came to the couple and loudly greeted them.

"Hello neighbors!" I laughed out heartily then I put a hand over the man's shoulder and kept my smile on. He tried to jerk away, but I kept a strong grip. The woman pulled out a knife, but I gently grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes. They were wide open. Scared would be an understatement.

"Need any help?" I said with a smile across my face. They were both still very tense, maybe even more now that I had gotten close to them.

"…please…" The man whispered under his breath. I patted him on the back and cheered loudly.

"Yes, precisely! We should! Come now, if you have nothing to do, I invite you and I insist. I have not spoken to thee for a moon and a half!" The theatrics may have been a tad too much, I was not a good actor.

The girl looked at me, measuring my face, maybe trying to see if I was lying. Her eyes were ice blue and they were big. I was a bit startled by the intensive eye contact, but it seemed I passed her test. She nodded to her brother and they both turned to me.

I herded them to my hut the same as shepherds would hurt scared sheep. They were young. The man had no calluses and his eyes still portrayed the brightness only a child would have, he was still a boy. The woman…the girl was the same, although her gaze clearly showed a lot of thoughts pouring through her mind, maybe trying to asses whether I would pull a hatchet on them. Both of their hair were fair, almost as ash blonde as mine were now.

"So…" my smile faded "what's going on?"

The two exchanged glances, they argued with their expressions, talked with their eyes. The boy seemed more inclined to speak, but the bulging eyes of his friend stopped him. NO. The eyes said. We are fucked anyway. Said the other set of eyes. I said NO!

"You already followed me to my house, you might as well tell me." I grunted when I sat down in my chair. I made pillows that I stuck to it, making it the most comfortable chair on the island.

"We are being hunted sir." said the girl taking the lead. I did not take any offense from the distrust. If I was "hunted" as she proclaimed they were, I would have slit my throat already. There are so few kind strangers, especially those with no ulterior motive.

"By whom?"

They looked at each other again. Neither speaking. Silence took the room as they let their heads down.

"Ok, can't ask that. Why then?"

After a while has passed it took my patience with it.

"I don't know what you are waiting for, but I probably don't have it."

The man let out a sight and he looked at his partner. She was about to tell him to stop, to not say anything, but he put out a hand to stop her. Their tight knit bond was obvious, they trusted each other with all their hearts. They must have spent their entire life with one another. Young love can warm up even the heart of a warrior.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her.

"Always." she begrudgingly accepted his intentions.

"Anything you love birds want to tell me now?" I smirked.

"We are siblings."