At the crack of dawn, everyone was up and preparing to leave the campground. It was the day that everyone would have to relocate.
"Yui, will you dump this bucket of water out by the nearby river? I will start taking down the tent" Satarou asked his brother.
"Sure thing, Satar!" Yui spoke chirpily. Enthusiatically, Yui grabbed the bucket full of dirty water and began carrying it out towards where the river would be.
Satarou let out a small sigh at his enthusiastic brother before he stepped out of the tent so that he could begin taking it down. He heard Lightning's light footsteps pad up to him.
"Are you here to help, Lightning?" Satarou asked. Even though he had been joking, his tone was flat and monotonous.
"Lighten up, Satarou! We are all a family here in the Bloodstone clan!" Lightning replied back, his tongue lolling out as he decided to lay on his side in the dirt right next to Satarou, though far enough so that he wasn't in the way.
"I only trust you and Yui" the teen stated bluntly.
Lightning looked both directions before he decided to lower his tone, as if anyone but Satarou and the little kid could understand him, "so, did your secret ninja identiy bring you to join Bloodstone? Are you here in hopes that you will be able to track down the man who killed your family?"
"Shh!" Satarou turned sharply in Lightning's direction, "yes, I am here for that reason. Don't tell anyone."
"Who am I going to tell? A six-year-old boy?" Lightning frowned, "or a pack of wolves? Don't worry, I won't let Truman overhear me. Besides, everyone here has joined Bloodstone for one reason or another. Here in Bloodstone, we don't pry, whatever the reason is."
"Yes, keep it from Truman" Satarou frowned. By now, the tent has collapsed completely. All that was left to do was to bag it up. Satarou already had his weapons strapped to him, and Yui had his weapons with him as well.
"Alright, will do" Lightning responded as Satarou carefully bagged up the tent. He could vaguely see someone walking up to him. He turned around to see Katie. She came to a halt when she reached him.
"Hey punk" she said with a harsh tone, "you done packing yet?"
Satarou nodded. He didn't offer her any other words. He saw Corvus tip-toeing to Katie. Katie didn't seem to notice.
Corvus hugged Katie from behind, and Katie let out a loud gasp before she spun around to face her tormentor. "What do you think you're doing, woman?"
Corvus cackled. "You can call me princess, you know. After all, I am known as the crow princess, as I have the ability to speak to crows."
"Not just you, idiot" Katie rolled her eyes, "or did you forget that you have a twin sister?"
Corvus let out a shocking gasp, "oh, right, her!" She smirked, "I completely forgot about Asuna."
"I heard that!" Asuna snapped from behind. Corvus sharply spun around on her heels.
If she was facing Satarou, he was sure she would visiably be sweating out a river. "I-it was all a lie, I swear! It was just another one of my attempts to get in Katie's pants!"
Katie let out an annoyed cough. "Excuse me? You idiot! Just give it up already, it's not going to happen."
"Hey, a girl can dream, right?" Corvus smirked, now facing Katie once again.
A moment later, Yui was running back to Satarou with the bucket in hand. "Satar! I'm back, brother!" He froze when he noticed the crowd in front of where the tent use to be. "Why is everyone here? What do they want with you?"
"Nothing. Katie is just here to collect the tent. Corvus is only trying to get with her, and Asuna probably came to retrieve Corvus" Satarou shrugged, "i'm going to prepare Winnie for our journey."
"Alright, Satar! Be safe!" Yui gave his brother a big smile. Satarou nodded and began walking down to where his horse was being kept.
It didn't take him very long to reach Winnie. Satarou noticed that Luke, Leia and Tiny were saddling up the horses. Little Truman was playing in the leaves so that he wouldn't get in his father's way. Including Winnie, there were about six horses. Winnie was the only horse that was still in her stall.
Satarou walked over to Winnie and pet her. "Hey girl. Are you ready to have a nice trip?" He gave her a soft smile that went unnoticed by everyone else. "Alright, let's get you all saddled up." Satarou expertly placed the saddle on her. Afterwards, he led her out of the stall by her reigns. Satarou noticed everyone else walking over to the stalls where the horses are kept. Yui, Luke, Leia and Corvus all had tents strapped to their backs. All of the other five horses were saddled, and four of them had buckets tied to their saddles. Luke had just finished tying the fourth one when Lightning brought it to him.
"Are we all ready to go?" Luke asked. There was a loud, echoing chorus of "yes" from everyone.
Satarou hopped onto his horse and offered Yui a hand, which the younger boy happily accepted. Luke picked up his little boy and placed him on the horse before climbing up himself. Corvus and Asuna both shared a horse. Asuna was the one leading it. Tiny hopped on his own horse, and then leia hopped on her own. Katie was the last one to climb aboard her horse.
"Let's all go then" Luke told everyone. He brought his voice down just so his son could hear, "hold on tight to me, Truman. I don't want you to fall off."
And with that, they all began to ride off into the distance. Satarou had no idea how long it would be before they reached their destination, but he didn't care. As long as he was a step closer to finding Casper, then that is all that mattered to him. That and keeping Yui alive and close to him. Yui was the only family he had left, and Lightning was the next closest thing to him.
They have been riding for a few distances when they found someone who was lying on the grounds. Satarou left Yui to continue sleeping on the horse as he hopped off to get a closer look at the mysterious boy.
The boy was wearing nothing but a thin hooded shawl that barely covered his important parts. He was sleeping, but had snapped awake when he heard Satarou approaching. Satarou noticed that he had short and choppy midnight black hair, and blue eyes that were brighter than the ocean that glimmered under the night sky. The boy was covered head-to-toe in dirt.
"St-stay back!" the boy warned, pulling his lips back in a snarl as Satarou stepped closer, unafraid.
"Who are you?" Satarou asked, "a street rat?"
"Why does it matter to you?" the boy snarled, "you're nothing more than a stupid and pathetic wolf!"
Satarou remained calm. "If we are calling species, then you are a bear. Who are you, bear?"
"Why do you want to know?" the boy hissed, "you probably just want to keep me from finding my family!"
Satarou hadn't noticed when Asuna had arrived when she spoke up, "are you lost from your family?"
The boy nodded. "What does it matter to you? You are probably just like everybody else."
Asuna knelt in front of the boy and smiled to him, "what is your name, boy?" She was surprisingly really calm and nice. The boy couldn't help but to relax in front of her.
"I'm Sparrow" he looked down at the ground to avoid her caring gaze.
"How old are you, Sparrow?" Asuna's smile never faltered.
"Fourteen" the boy mumbled.
"Alright" Asuna replied, "can you tell us what happened? How did your family get separated?"
Finally he looked at her. "We were being chased. There were hunters trying to kill my family and I. We had to split up in all directions in order to avoid them. I've been missing from them for a month now."
"Alright" Asuna let a small frown paint her features before she quickly replaced it with another small smile, "how about you hang out in our clan for a little bit? Currently we are relocating the Bloodstone clan, but we could get you cleaned up once we relocate, and then we can help you search for your family. Sound good?"
Sparrow nodded. "That sounds good."
Asuna let out a small laugh. "Perfect. You can ride with Tiny."
Tiny gave a small wave from his horse that was located nearby.
"Alright, thank you" Sparrow mumbled. He walked over to where Tiny was and climbed onto the horse. Satarou retreated to his own horse. He was amazed that Yui was still asleep.
It was another long while of riding on the horse before everyone came to a stop.
"Alright, everyone" Luke frowned, "lets sleep here for tonight. We won't worry about putting up tents until we actually create our camp. We can set a fire, though."
Everybody hopped off their horses before tying them up to a nearby post. The sun was starting to set.
"Sleep well?" Satarou asked Yui.
Yui let out a big yawn before smiling at Satarou, "yes, brother. I slept very well, thank you. You should have slept, too."
"Wish I could have, but I would rather make sure we get to our destination okay" Satarou replied.
Yui finally noticed the new kid. "Who's that?"
"Sparrow" Satarou replied, "he's a werebear. He got separated from his family. He's staying with us until he finds them."
"Oh!" Yui spoke worriedly, "I really hope he gets reunited with his family."
"Yeah" Satarou mumbled.
Yui's tone got softer. "I wish we were able to be reunited with our family."
Satarou frowned at that. "Yui, you know the only way we can be reunited is in death. There's just too much to live for so I won't allow it. At least not until Casper is dead at my feet. But you stay alive, you hear me?"
"How can I live if you're gone?" Yui wrapped his arms around Satarou's stomach, "you are all the family I have left! So please, don't go after Casper if it means dying! If you go, then I go, too. After all, we are stronger together, right? We are in this together. We live together, and we die together."
"Alright, alright" Satarou told Yui, but hugged him back nonetheless.
Yui's voice got softer again. "Besides, I think mom and dad would rather you be alive, too. Revenge isn't that important if it means dying. I think they would agree that they want us to be safe."
"We will get revenge on Casper, and we will both live. Alright?" Satarou smiled at his younger brother.
"Alright" Yui smiled back.
"Alright then" Satarou patted his younger brother on the head, "let's go get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us again tomorrow."
A/N: So sorry I didn't get this chapter up yesterday! I wasn't feeling well and completely forgot about uploading. So sorry! So I am uploading the chapter today for you guys instead :) I hope you are all enjoying the book so far! Also, if you guys have a favorite character already, I would love to hear who it is ^^ Please leave a comment and a vote <3 it motivates me to put more out there when I know you enjoy it! I love hearing from you guys, and I will try my best to respond to every one of you :).