Breath of Fire 1. Every Beginning has an End

Hello everybody. This is a new story that I created with a new style that I decided to try out. As I said in the preface, this story is going to be a fusion of a one-shot and a complete story. Each chapter can be read by itself and be a one-shot, or they can be read altogether and form a complete story. It all depends on how you want to view it.

For those of you who have read some of my other works, you might notice that it may not sound as adventurous as I usually write them out. Being that they are one-shots that connect together from different points in time, I can't really do it that way this time around. However, I will try to put in some adventurous flairs every now and then to keep as close to my original style of writing. Then again, I think this chapter is already close to the regular way I write my stories. Just thought that all of you would like to know that. And to all my other readers who are reading this as the first of my many stories, hope you enjoy it just as much as everybody else.

I hope that you all enjoy this new story that I created. Consider this my Christmas present to all of you. Don't forget to leave a review when you're done reading this chapter. Until the next update on any of my stories everybody! And Merry Christmas to you all!

**

* * *

Chapter 1: Every Beginning has an End**

"Hey, wake up!" a rough and bossy voice was heard calling out to somebody in a rather dark and dingy room that had only a window sealed with bars providing a brilliant flaming yellowish orange light, a clear sign of the sun setting along the horizon. The beautiful colors were a definite contrast to the attitude currently being portrayed in the sham of a room. "It ain't going to be fun for any of us if we were to go through with this while you're still unconscious. Come on, I know you can hear me loud and clear."

All the man, whom was covered well by the darkness of the room that looked to be made completely out of bricks that have collected smelly and disgusting mold over the years that it had been in use, received as a response from whoever it was he was speaking to was a small groan of pain. Despite the fact that the only source of light was the setting sun coming from a window that was too small and alone to really light up the entirety of the unkempt place, the man knew exactly where the sound came from. It had come from the person who was currently lying down in front of him on some bedding.

The person, who was almost completely shrouded by the darkness, was lying face-up on a hard mattress with a flattened pillow and a thin blanket that looked to be stained beyond the ability to be cleaned. The person lying on the uncomfortable-looking bed was wearing a pair of dark green pants that were caked with dirt and other smudges that had the color of rust on it and a gray jacket over a plain white shirt, both also stained with mud and a rust colored substance. Together, the clothes looked like they were to be worn in anticipation for journeying and adventuring. The one thing that truly stood out against this person was not his clothes and the smudges on it but his lock of untidy wild sky blue hair that could easily be seen in even the dimmest of lighting.

"I said wake up, you dumb kid!" the bossy person all but shouted, his voice bouncing off of the walls and causing an echo to form in the quiet place, as he kicked the side of the bed roughly, causing the other to whine a bit in what sounded to be in pain. The move did managed to make the other on the bed to stir slightly and make a move as if he were about to sit up. He managed to place the back of his head against the cold moldy walls and open his blue eyes to see the dark room and the man staring at him with a gaze that could easily burn a hole in someone were it to be superheated.

"It's about time you decided to wake up," the other said with a heavy frustrated sigh as he quickly turned around and all but rush-mumbled the next few sentences as if he were starting to lose patience at the current situation. "You got a minute to make yourself look good for when you go out to meet everybody, so I suggest you hurry up and get on those useless feet of yours. We'd like to do this today right after the sun sets over the horizon. It makes things real poetic and can act as a symbol of an ending to a terrible time to a beginning of prosperity. I'll be back to pick you up with a few others, so try to rest easy until then," the man finished in a sarcastically easygoing tone as he exited the room through a barred door that was a part of a wall also made of bars and closed it with a loud thud. It was clear now that this place they were in was a cell, if the terrible décor and the moldiness of it was not any clear indication of it.

"Oh, what the hell...?" the other person, who sounded like he was only a teenager getting ready to enter adulthood with his voice lagging behind somewhat, groaned in pain as he sat fully upright on his terrible bed and brought his hand onto his head as he felt a headache quickly pounding away at him. All he could do was groan in pain and tenderly handle the area where the ache seemed most prominent which happened to be somewhere on the back portion. "What the hell happened to me? How in the world did I end up in this dump of a place with the worst headache of the century?"

After waiting a couple of seconds in an attempt to get his raging headache under control, the guy decided to swing his feet, which happened to be covered with a pair of regular brown boots, over the edge of the bed and stand on his feet. He was slightly wobbly for a moment, almost as if he were on a boat and getting seasick. Funnily enough, this weak motion caused a memory to flash through his mind and he felt himself feeling both physically and mentally sick. He managed to keep it back though and walked over to the barred windows so he could see what was outside his cell.

Outside his depressing room was a scenery that was in great contrast to the dark and damp cell. Bright colors of blazing yellow and orange were but a background color on the canvas of nature fitting for the bright green of leaves, grass, and brushes along with neatly kept bricks of a wall off towards the side. A small river was easily seen just past the trees and stretching off behind the stone wall and thus effectively cutting off the rest of his view of the sparkling sapphire water with the freedom to move wherever it is it is going. If only he still had that freedom in his hands now, he could only imagine where else he might go.

Beyond the obvious inanimate objects that scattered the peaceful landscape, there were also a few signs of life flitting around here and there, some casting their shadow upon the grassy knoll as they walked or flew across the steadily setting sun. Squirrels scuttled out of bushes and into the protection of the trees with food in both their hands and cheeks while rabbits hopped over from the horizon and into the small shrubs where they made their homes and hidden away from any potential predators.

_Heh, why is it that I always manage to feel somewhat better whenever I start looking at the setting sun?_ the teen thought with some bitterness behind his reminiscent thought as he leaned against the small ledge and stared far off into the distance, allowing himself to become immersed by the beauty of the blazing horizon as if he were a part of the wondrous landscape it overshadowed. He then added with a heavy depressing sigh escaping his lips, _I guess that's it's just my way of remembering something and wanting to take comfort in it. God, this so reminds me of one of the greatest moments of my life._

With a smile that gave off both a depressing and reminiscent aura, he allowed himself to release a small weak chuckle as he permitted his mind to draw his subconscious into his land of memories and remember one of the moments of his life he found to be the most memorable. It was, in fact, the time where he first remembered being the happiest he had ever been, a memory that spanned from the first time he met his friends and what he considered to also be his family in a backdrop scenery much like the one his eyes were right now soaking in. The only difference between the two was that that first meeting took place out in the woods rather than inside some kind of building, be it disgustingly moldy or as clean as a doctor's office.

-_Six years ago..._-

"...Where am I?" a young boy with stunning blue hair and a light boyish voice wondered as he found himself sitting against a trunk of a tree on a patch of grass in what appeared to be a forest. He had just opened his eyes after being out like a light for a time he did not know and rubbed the sleep out of them in an attempt to make himself more alert. When he opened his blue eyes again, he took a better look of his surroundings, curious as to what was around him and where he even was. All he saw were more trees, a few brown patches of dirt where the grass was eaten away at by the local animals that lived nearby, and a sky adorn in a blazing orange hue from a sunset that could not be seen beyond the see of trees.

Apart from the wonderful sights around him, he also opened up his ears in an attempt to hear the things around him. He could hear the flutter of birds' wings flying above him and the soft subtle sounds of crickets and other small insects and animals hiding from him. He also saw a few mosquitoes flying around in a small ray of sunlight shining through the canopy and a couple bees trying to get more nectar from the few colorful flowers before retiring for the day. Despite all these wonderful sights and sounds around him, none of them looked or even sounded like anything that he clearly recognized or associated with home.

"This place doesn't look like any of the places near home," the boy wondered out loud while biting his bottom lip a bit as he brushed away a few loose strands of hair that fell across his eyes when he moved his head side by side. "This place looks way too green and has too many trees. Where am I? Where did everybody else go?"

Being that he was probably no older than nine or ten, all the boy did as he turned his head around in an attempt to look for anybody he knew was whimper in fear and make small sniffling sounds. Despite his clear attempts to try and keep himself from crying, he could not stop the water collecting against the corners of them. As with any other child around his age, he was scared and was not sure what it was that he should do next.

Despite his attention being greatly compromised because of his current attempt at not breaking down into hysterics, he was still aware enough to notice when things suddenly changed around him, even if it was only at the slightest. One such change was the sudden quietness of whatever small quiet animals were once making from the seclusion of their hiding spots. That was when he quickly stifled his sniffling and perked his ears opened so as to allow himself to become more cautious of what was around him. This was also when he heard a twig snap in the middle of the unnatural silence.

"Hello?" a voice that sounded like a male's suddenly called out from somewhere within the cover of the trees, startling the boy a bit as he whipped his head towards the direction of the sound and voice. "I thought I heard something that sounded a lot like somebody crying around here a little bit. Come on, where are you hiding? I can help you find your way around if you're lost in here or something like that. All you got to do is give me some kind of hint as to where you are in here. I promise that I won't bite."

Instead of answering the call of a stranger from some unknown location, the boy simply stayed sitting against the tree and kept his eyes trained on where he last heard the sound of a twig snapping. Yes, the thought of running away from there did cross his mind, but his initial child's reaction to stay where he was in fright dominated the rest of his other rational sections of thought. It was almost as if some invisible force kept him glued to his spot and prevented him from doing anything else that his brain was screaming at him to do.

In the next second, something came out from a thick covering of bushes a few feet away and was standing tall and proud. The figure, much to the boy's surprise, looked almost like a humungous cat whose very body closely resembled that of a regular human. Apart from those noticeable features, there were also other things that clearly separated him from other people. For instance, he had golden yellow fur covering his entire body with the occasional orangey-light brownish stripes appearing on both his arms. His hands and feet both had long nails that closely resembled claws and looked as if they were ready for attacking. They were clear black and seemed to be well kept, almost as well as a regular person does with their fingernails except for the fact that these were clearly a whole lot sharper. The last thing that made him unusual was his eyes, the two almost the same color as his fur if not just slightly brighter. It was kind of hard to see because of his golden yellow bangs covering them.

Apart from the rather unusual array of sights, the cat-like person was donned in what looked to be regular clothing. He had on a sleeveless brown vest which left his furry arms and chest exposed to the cool air around him and a pair of simple brown shorts that ended just underneath the knees and looked to have seen its fair share of exposure. They were held up with a simple leather belt that had holsters for what looked like knives on either side of his waist. His shoes, if you would want to call them that, covered his feet up to the ankles but were cut out at the tip so as to allow his toes to be exposed because of the sharp nails that were on it. His hands were also covered in what looked to be white bandaging all the way up to his elbows, probably to help keep his wrists straight whenever the need to punch someone or something came up. In both of them were one dagger that was both with a silver blade and a simple comfortable handle. It was clear that he was ready for whatever danger that might have decided to get in his way and try to kill him.

"There you are," the cat-person said after making sure nothing was tailing him from behind and putting his daggers back into his sheaths. "I knew I heard somebody around here while trying to hunt for some food out here. So what is it that's got you...? Oh boy, that's not what I was expecting!" he exclaimed once he finally got a good look at the boy after moving his bangs away from his eyes a bit and turned his head slightly towards the side.

"Wh-what?" the boy simply asked in a sort of dumb fashion, completely confused at both the person's rather sudden exclamation and the way he looked. Put on top that he just happened to appear right out of some bushes and that clearly left him at a loss for words.

"You know, I'd be crying my eyes out myself if I were in your shoes. I mean, not only do you seem like a lost kid, but you're a lost kid without a single shred of clothing on you," the person responded as his furry yellow cheeks seemed to gain ever the slightest of red color, indicating that was lightly blushing. He then added with a small rub of the back of his neck, "Boy, doesn't this just beat all..."

Upon hearing this, the boy finally decided to have a look at himself for the first time since waking up in the forest. It was then he knew why it was the other was suddenly acting real strange so shortly after seeing him. Like the other said, he had no clothes on him. Every part of his slightly tanned body was all out for the entire world to see were it not for the security that the forest provided for his predicament. Unfortunately, there was nothing around to help shield himself from his finder as he felt his cheeks burning at probably a higher temperature than that of the other.

"Hey Rei," another voice, this one sounding to be just as young as the blue haired boy's, called out from somewhere nearby, "did you manage to find what it is that your cat ears managed to pick up? I found nothing on my end. I told you that it was only your ears playing tricks on you. Except for a couple of stray animals that are hardly even worth hunting and eating, there's nothing out here."

"I doubt that you'd be saying the same thing once you get yourself over to where I am Teepo," the cat-person, who seems to go by the name Rei, called back as he kept his still slightly red face trained on the section of the wood where he heard the voice coming from. "Be ready to figure out that I was right this time around. You might want to prepare yourself for a few unexpected things though before you do that."

"And just why would I want to do that?" the other person whose name appeared to be Teepo inquired in a tone that sounded like he did not believe a single word that the other was saying. "I bet you're just trying to pull my leg here again. I'll bet all the money in the world to say that you're just trying to make yourself sound good here."

"Alright, don't say that I didn't give you any warning though. I don't want you crying at me like some kind of sore loser once you figured out that you were wrong. I have a feeling though that that's exactly what you're going to do."

In the next second, there was some more rustling coming from the bushes the cat-person came through before another person, this one a lot smaller, suddenly popped out of them. Unlike Rei, this new person looked more like an actual person and seemed to be at around the same age as the blue haired boy. He wore both a purple shirt and pants with a simple leather belt around his waist. On the left side of his waist was a plain brown leather sheath that looked to be the thing that housed the iron smelted sword that was in his hands which happened to be long and thin. Despite how heavy and complex it looked, the boy held it in his hands adorned with silver gauntlets with great ease as if it were but a light and simple tree branch. His hair, which was long and extended all the way down to his mid back, was a slightly lighter shade of purple than his entire clothing. His eyes, which were a piercing shade of red, looked around with disbelief reflecting off of them as he stomped the ground a bit to get some dirt and stuff off of the bottoms of his gray boots.

"So where is this thing that you managed to locate in this dense sea of trees with only your super hearing that I don't have?" the boy asked as he seemingly failed to see the boy laying back on the tree trunk upon his arrival. With a small roll of his eyes at his buddy's apparent ignorance of his surroundings, the cat-person tilted his head slightly towards the boy and the other immediately looked over. He then exclaimed after finally noticing the boy, "Whoa, who was it that decided to dump you in the middle of nowhere with literally nothing on you? Honestly, you'd think that they'd have the decency to at least abandon you with some small amount of dignity attached to you."

"Teepo," Rei groaned as he did a face palm before finally turning his face around to look at the naked boy again, this time without having to flinch or blush at the sudden sight. "I thought I told you to keep that mouth of yours shut in moments like this. Honestly, it's almost as if you just have to say something whenever you see something like this. You're going to get yourself into trouble one of these days because of that."

"Hey, it's not every day that you come across something like this," the boy named Teepo argued as if he were trying to defend his outburst that could easily be seen as an insult. "You can't expect me to just take the whole thing with a grain of salt like you do and not say anything about it. Any other normal person would have opened their mouths and said something about this once they saw it."

"Oh, you do not know how hard it is to be your older brother in times like this," the furry guy responded with a sigh as he quickly walked past his buddy and over to the boy while taking off his brown vest. "You're lucky that I'm even trying to look out for you before you get yourself in trouble." He then knelt beside the other and asked, "Are you alright kid? Sorry if my little brother here said anything to offend you."

"H-he's your little brother?" the naked boy asked, clearly perplexed at how the two were even anywhere near related enough to be considered brothers. "I don't mean to be mean here, but you two don't look like you're brothers."

"Well, I can see why you would say that," he replied as he wrapped the vest around the boy's bare shoulders in an attempt to at least put something on him. "To be honest with you, we're really not anywhere near being literal brothers. If you want to get real technical about it, Teepo and I are both orphans. We just consider ourselves brothers because we trust each other and don't really have anybody else to turn to for help."

"I know it don't look like it, but Rei here's my older 'brother' by a little less than a year," the long haired boy added, acting as if his previous comments have never been voiced. "He just happens to be big boned."

"Just ignore him, little guy. He's just kidding around with you when he says that I'm big boned. I'm just a naturally tall guy and have a pretty good set of muscles on me. That and I look totally different from other people, which I'm sure you've already figured out some time ago unless you just happen to be naturally slow. Sorry if you took offense to that. I'm telling you, it all comes with the package when you're born as a member of the Woren Tribe."

"Uh, War-Men Tribe?" the blue haired boy repeated with a hint of inquiry at the edge of his tongue as he tried to cover himself by sinking into the oversized vest that amazingly fit all the way down to his upper thighs and effectively covering him up to a somewhat decent fashion. "What are they? Do they all look like cats with fur all over them like you?"

"That's pretty much the entire thing in a nutshell. And my tribe's name is 'Woren,' not War-Men," Rei added with a small snicker at the boy's childish misunderstanding. "And just for the record, I'm kind of a part of the tiger group. I'll take it that this is your first time hearing of people like me since you're asking what I am."

"If that's the truth, then where is it that you've been living this whole time?" Teepo asked, quickly spewing out another comment turned question that could easily be translated into an insult when said to the wrong person. "The Worens have been around since before both you and me were born. There's no way you couldn't have heard even a single thing about them. Have you at least heard a little bit about the stories concerning the dragons? There's definitely no way you could miss that, especially in this day and age."

"Don't talk about that Teepo!" the furry guy immediately snapped as he supplied a sharp gaze at his younger "brother." "You know how people feel about this topic these days. Now I'm not saying that I agree with them or anything like that. It's pretty much quite the opposite for me. I'm just saying that this is definitely one thing that you should be careful about saying when around others, especially when it's around others you don't even know.

"Anyway," he continued on before letting the purple haired boy a chance to answer as he replaced his gaze onto the blue haired boy, earning him a scowl from his "brother" for doing so, "I'm guessing that you kind of led a sheltered life if you really don't know anything about Worens like me. It is a bit unusual, but it's definitely a possibility."

"I-I'm guessing you could say that," the boy responded, taking note that he has been stuttering for a good chunk of the conversation he had been having with these two strangers. "To be honest, I actually live in the mountains my entire life, but I just suddenly woke up here and I have no idea where I even am. I don't know where my parents are."

"Boy, that's definitely something you don't want to figure out right when you wake up in some place that you've never been to before. I can put in a good guess though as to why you're here by yourself. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that your parents probably abandoned you because they couldn't afford to care for you anymore. I know what I'm saying is kind of harsh, but these things happen sometimes, especially while we're in the middle of a famine around here where there's barely enough food for everybody to eat."

"Hey, that just gave me an idea," Teepo suddenly stated as he finally decided to sheath the sword that was in his hand. Apparently, he did not notice he still held it in his hands all this time ever since making himself known. "Why don't we go ahead and bring this guy with us? He doesn't know where his parents are, and he's definitely lost in here. That and I'm sure that he could use at least a new set of clothes."

"Whoa, that...sounds pretty random there," the boy responded with a small pause as he was taken aback at the long haired boy's sudden change in attitude from being insulting with his comments to giving out some friendly advice.

"Eh, you learn to ignore it once you've lived under the same roof with him," Rei simply stated as he quickly waved it off with a quick wave of his hand. He then asked in a tone that reflected annoyance as he turned to face his "younger brother", "Didn't you just hear what it is that I said? I said that we were right now in the middle of a food famine. Just like everybody else around here, we're having a hard time finding food to feed just the two of us. I highly doubt that we'd be able to at least comfortably survive the coming months if we have another mouth to feed in our house."

"Yeah, I heard exactly what it is you said earlier. So what about that? Things like that never stopped you from doing what you feel is right, has it?" the other countered with a sure look on his face. "It didn't stop you from taking me away from that abandoned merchant's caravan when you first found me there."

"Oh, please don't go pulling that mercy stunt on me again," the furry guy stated with a small groan escaping his lips as he pulled another face palm act. "We weren't in the middle of a food famine then, so I could afford to take you back home with me. I had the things to support both you and me. That and I just couldn't help how helpless you looked all on your own with nobody there to help you out."

"That's because you're one of the few people around here with a heart big enough to even try caring for someone you don't even know. I'm right now figuring that your heart's grown even bigger over the years and is right now reaching out to this little guy here, as well. Am I right on that?"

"Oh, you really have been hanging around with me too much, you know that? You really know me just as well as a book from cover to cover. You know how it is that I act and what it is that I like to do in times like this. Of course, the kid here has the last say in whether or not he wants to come with us, so I can't really force the decision on him."

"Y-you want me to live with you guys?" the blue haired boy asked, completely taken aback at the suggestion since after hearing that these two were right now trying to get by in a middle of a famine. "Are you sure that that's a good idea? I mean, I'm more than surprised by this and more than happy to go with you, but what about the food problem you're trying to get through? Didn't you just say that you two were already having a hard time locating enough food to survive this? I don't want to become a burden on you two and cause you more trouble than what it is that you already have."

"And what kind of trouble are you talking about buddy?" Rei asked with a smirk growing on his face as he stood up onto his clawed feet and stretched his hand out towards the blue haired boy in a motion to help him up. "Trust me when I say this; both me and Teepo and you can't be in any more trouble than what we are in right now. You're here lost in the McNeil Forest with literally no clothes on you except for my vest and without any parents while the two of us are busy hunting in here trying to hunt down some good food to last us for at least a couple of days. I don't think that either of us can be in any worse shape than what we are right now when you consider all of the circumstances.

"And besides, we're already starting to run low on food for this week," the Woren added with a heavy sigh leaving his mouth as he said this. "We're practically on our last legs here. I doubt having one more mouth to feed would really make us that much worse for the wear. That and I just can't turn my back on someone who's like me and needs somebody to help them out."

"So what do you say?" Teepo asked as he also had a smirk on his face and rubbed his nose in a cocky way. "Do you want to join us, a couple of kids turned orphans over the mellow years who have nobody to really turn to except to each other, and try your hand at trying to survive with us? I'm sure that you'll see that we'll have so much fun that you'll eventually forget all of your troubles. That's what always happens with me and Rei. That and I'm sure that we can use an extra hand around our house and with the hunting anyway."

For a moment, the blue haired boy hesitated in his answer as he stood rooted to the spot where he was helped onto his feet while staring blankly at both of the strangers in front of him as if they were crazy. He could not believe that they were actually asking for him, a complete stranger to them, to come and live with them, a couple of orphans who they themselves have no parents. Sure, he was more than happy to say yes to their offer, but he was hesitant in the fact that they said earlier they were running low on food. That was when he remembered hearing some sounds from before meeting them and figured that there might be some edible animals in there. If he was right and they could catch it, then he would feel less guilty in accepting their offer and feel good in helping them out.

"I-I guess I could go ahead and live with you," he finally answered after debating in his head whether or not to accept their more than gracious offer. "If you really feel that I won't be too much of a burden for you all, then I guess I could be with you guys. After all, I really don't think I'd be able to find my parents by myself without any help."

"Well, if they live anywhere around or near McNeil Village, then there shouldn't be any problem locating them," Rei stated as he unconsciously looked over to his left where the peaks of mountains could be seen just over the top of the forest. "Then again, the only mountains that are nearby here is Mt. Glaus. Nobody has ever lived there since monsters have started to go nuts up there a few years ago. I'm sorry, but the chances of finding them are close to zero. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for them though."

"Thanks...Rei," the boy thanked him as he finally flashed his first smile at him since they first met a few minutes ago. "That means a lot to me. And I'm not sure if this would be helpful or anything like that, but I heard the sound of some small animal somewhere in the bushes a couple of minutes before you two found me."

"Oh really? Where'd you hear it?" Teepo asked, taking quick and sudden interest at what the blue haired boy just said. "Tell me where it was so I can check it out and see if it could be our dinner for tonight!"

"Um, I-I think I heard it coming from somewhere over there in the bushes," the boy stuttered out, startled at the long purple haired boy's sudden change in attitude and eagerness. "I don't know what kind of animal it was, but it might help you guys out a bit with your food problem for at least today."

"Wow, those are a good set of ears you have on you to be able to hear that while you're busy with a preoccupied mind," the Woren complimented, amazed at how the boy was able to hear something while wondering where his parents were while he himself could only concern himself with finding the one responsible for making the crying noises. "I didn't even catch that while I've been here this whole time. You sure that it's still hiding in there?"

"Well, I haven't really heard it make any noise since you two came here," he admitted as he kept his attention at the other boy's movements towards the bushes as he quietly pulled the leaves away in an attempt to get the drop on whatever animal that might have been in there. He also had in his hand what looked to be a hunting knife. "Where did he get that knife? I don't remember seeing him with one on him."

"He just took it out from the back of my belt. I usually keep one on hand for him in case he needs to use it. He's pretty quick when it comes to getting a hand on it, and that's something that you'll learn to get used to along with his unusual tact with words. Believe me; he's real good when it comes to getting the drop on animals and capturing them for our meal."

"Hey, I found three rabbits in here!" the boy exclaimed as he dug his free hand into the bush and pulled out three slightly plump-looking white furred rabbits by their long pink ears. "Our new buddy here was right; there were some animals hiding from us in here. I can't believe these guys were so stupid to stay around here while we were still here talking. Oh well, that just means a lot more food for us. I'm sure this'll leave us with enough to last the three of us for a little more than a week."

"Hey, you're right!" Rei exclaimed as he walked over to his "brother" and closely examined their catch. "This could easily last us a couple of weeks if we cook them the right way. We really have to thank our new 'brother' here for that."

"B-brother?" the blue haired boy asked, surprised at how the two people he just met were more than willing to invite him under their roof and consider him to be his brother.

"Well, that's only if you really want to consider us your brothers," the Woren quickly restated. "It is your choice whether or not you want that. If not, then we can just consider each other roommates and leave it at that."

"N-no, it's not that. It's just that I've always been an only child and never really had anybody to call my brother or sister. I never thought that both you and Teepo would so quickly consider me to be a part of your family."

"Well, consider yourself lucky that we found you here in the woods today," Teepo replied with a huge smile on his face as he eyed the rabbits that he handed off to his older "brother" a few moments ago with a hungry look. "That and your good hearing and memory will really help us find more food in here. Welcome to the family... Uh..."

"You know, you never really told us your name," the tiger replied as he finally figured out that he did not know what the blue haired boy's name was. "What is it?"

Even while he was still feeling a bit sad at the fact that he could not figure out where his parents went without him, the boy was happy that the two strangers he just met were more than eager to take him in and even help him look for his parents. Sure, he hardly knew anything about them except for the things he just observed for the past few minutes, but he felt like he had already knew them for a couple years already simply because they were so fun and easy to be around. Clearly, he already knew what it was that he wanted to do next.

"My name's... It's Ryu," he answered with a small stutter appearing in his voice, this time completely unintentional as he was trying to keep his happiness in check. He then repeated with a wide smile on his face, "It's Ryu...my brothers."


	2. Different Times Same Accusatory Bullying

Hello Everybody! I hope you all like how this story started out. It's kind of a new concept for me, creating a story that solely relies on one-shots to build up the entire story and combine them into one. And for those of you who read my note on the first chapter and got a bit confused at what I meant at this story either being read as one complete story or just separate story, this is what I meant.

As you'll see when you read this, the first part of this story continues from where the first part of the last chapter left off. In essence, you could just read those parts and it'll be just one story. You could also just skip those parts and read the parts that are separated and made into one-shots. Even though you could read them in those two ways, I highly recommend that you read the entire thing from beginning to end. It would cause less confusion, and it would also set the general mood of the entire story.

Anyway, I hope I cleared up some confusion that some of you might have had from the last chapter. I hope that you all enjoyed the first chapter and will enjoy this one just as much or even more. Please don't forget to leave a review after you finished reading.

Also, for those of you who have read my other popular story, "The Altered Journey", I'll update that soon. I've been busy with college and all that, and I've been trying to get the ideas for this story out of my head. Until the next update everybody!

**

* * *

Chapter 2: Different Times, Same Accusatory Bullying**

"Alright, I'm back with a couple other guards to pick you up," the voice of the guard that the blue haired teen first heard when he had regained conscious a little over a minute ago said with a small scoff making itself known at the end of his sentence. Were it in different circumstances, it would have made the blue haired teen feel a slight shudder traveling down his spine. "The time to enjoy your last moments of life in private is over. You're lucky that you even had one whole minute to yourself."

In the next second, the sound of keys jingling and being inserted into a lock was heard from behind him where the wall created from bars was. He did not bother to turn around from his position at the window that was also barred up. Instead, he kept his eyes trained on the wonderful green scenery with the orange glow of the sunset in front of him, wanting to remember it clearly while being forced to walk to wherever it was the men were going to take in in just a matter of seconds.

"Come on; we don't have all day to be waiting for you, you nameless brat!" a second person, quite possibly another guard, snarled in a gruff tone as the sound of the door being flung open with great force echoed against the grimy prison walls. "We're currently running on a very tight schedule, and we'd be damned if you plan on staying there and ruining this special occasion for all of us with your ridiculous stubborn behavior."

"...As if I'm even trying to be stubborn at this point," the teen responded weakly yet defiantly while refusing to turn his body around and facing the people by the door. "I just want to make things harder for you so you'd suffer as much as possible without me really laying a finger on you. I didn't think that it'd be this easy to push you guys' buttons around like this," he added with a small hint of amusement in his words.

"What'd you say to us boy?" a third guard, this one sounding younger than the other two, exclaimed as the sounds of rushing footsteps practically vibrated against the floor due in part to the boots which sounded to be made of metal thudding hard against the bricks. The teen then felt a gloved hand roughly grab him by the shoulders and turned him around so quickly that he nearly banged his head against the bars of the window. He was then face to face with a rather young-looking guard with the angriest face he could muster on him. Normally, this would be one of those times where he would be feeling at least a little bit of fear in the pit of his stomach over what might happen, but he felt that now would be a good time to give these guys the hardest times of their life.

"How dare you address us like that!" the guard nearly shouted right in front of his face, a bit of his spit landing against the other's nose and cheeks. "Do you not understand the situation that you're currently in as of now? If it weren't for the mercy of the king allowing you to live as we escort you, you would have found yourself lying on the ground, bleeding your pitiful life away as your tainted red blood flows out of your very veins."

"That's quite a threat you made there," the he simply responded with a somewhat smug smile on his face, a trait he no doubt gained while growing up, as he nonchalantly blew away a few loose strands of hair that fell over his eyes from being so roughly turned around. "I didn't think that you'd be able to come up with that with such a flared temper. And are you the captain of the army or something? Last I checked, those who're not the captain aren't allowed to speak out of line and so freely."

Why you little...!" the guard growled out, raising his free hand up above his head in preparation for a strike against the teen. Before he could even bring it down though, another hand wrapped itself around the wrist of the flaring guard, stopping him just short of smacking the defenseless teen.

"Stop it soldier!" the guard behind him, the same person who the teen saw when he first woke up in here, calmly stated as he held a firm grip on his colleague's wrist, preventing the raised hand from striking its intended target. "We're wasting valuable time over something completely childish. This is exactly what this brat wants us to do. I thought that you had enough composure to refrain from frivolously wasting time."

"Wow, I didn't think that one of you actually had the sense to keep a level head here. It's too bad that you guys can't come up with thoughts on your own. You've all allowed yourself to become mindless puppets to the king, blindly following his orders without once considering for yourself if he's even right in his assumptions."

I don't know if you realize this boy, but the king's word is the king's law, regardless whether or not he is right," the second guard stated smugly as he stood by the door, almost as if he were in preparation for a possible escape attempt that might occur. "We are simply the people he employed to make sure that the people of his kingdom stay true to his orders and wishes. As such, it was his order to have you captured, brought here relatively unharmed, and brought before him to face retribution for all the hardships both you and your ancestors have brought upon us."

"Well, you sure did a pretty good job bringing me here 'unharmed,'" the teen responded with strong sarcasm in his words as he was roughly pushed out of the cell and placed in between the guard outside the cell and the hot-headed one that was about to hit him earlier. "The last time I checked, I only just knew that I was even here because you guys managed to knock me out for god knows how long."

"His Majesty only said relatively, meaning that it was okay for you to come here with a couple of bruises here and there," the first guard stated as he closed the door behind him and took out what looked like to be a gun from a belt holster on his side. "He wouldn't be that merciful as to let you come here without at least a few battle wounds. And as a small bit of advice from me to you, I suggest to you that you don't try running away from us or doing anything as crazy as that? Unlike what you've experienced previously, this gun has been specially modified to recognize your own genetic code and hone in on you wherever you are. Needless to say, a single fire from this contraption will continuously follow you around, mimicking every move and maneuver you make until it hits you and knocks you unconscious. It's amazing what the relics of the techno age gave us, isn't it?"

"Ha, do you really need all this security and fancy machinery just to escort someone as defenseless as me? It seems like the king that you all so respect and trust so fully to a fault is only wasting money and resources."

"If it weren't for the fact that your ancestors were the cause of one of the worst moments in the history of our wondrous planet, then maybe we wouldn't be persecuting you right now and escorting you to your punishment," the third guard stated calmly, eyeing his other colleagues quickly with warning eyes upon sensing their tempers flaring up again, as he led the group from the front and down the dark hallway.

_Is that what they all truly believe?_ the teen thought to himself rather than say out loud, wanting to keep this to himself, as he was forced to follow them. _Do they really think that I and my ancestors caused all the problems that they're experiencing right now? Have they ever heard of things just naturally occurring without any cause from anybody or anything? This is exactly how the world is these days; everybody just has to find somebody to blame all the bad things that are going on around here on somebody. And to my great luck, they had to pick me and my ancestors as the unwilling candidates._

With this thought passing though his mind, he suddenly remembered an occasion in his childhood when he was also wrongly persecuted, except that it was on a much lower scale and a lot more trivial than the troubles of the world. He would have rather to be in that situation again rather than this.

_-Five-and-a-Half Years Ago...-_

"Oh, thank god this stupid famine is finally over!" Teepo groaned out as he stared out of the window of a house that looked to be made completely out of wood and overlooked the forest. "I didn't think that it would ever go away. I'm starting to get tired living off of only small rabbits and birds and bird eggs that we take from bird nests after being nearly pecked to death by them. If they kept it going to another week, I would've broken into the mayor's house and took some food out of his kitchen."

"I didn't think it was that bad Teepo," Ryu, who was sitting on a simple wooden table, placed neatly in the center of the room, responded as he took a red apple from a bowl and bit into it with a noticeably audible crunch. "With Rei being the one cooking all the catches we found, they tasted pretty good to me. I'm sure that I would never be able to make them taste as good as he always makes them out to be."

The house that the boys were in was a place that they and Rei have called home. It was situated on the trunk of a sturdy tree that had all of its branches cut off with little to no leaves growing on any part of it. It was a basic wood structure that provided more than enough protection from the elements despite its rather shabby look from the outside. It was also a two-story tree house, two single rooms on each of the floors with the bottom acting as a combination of kitchen, dining room, and living room, and the top primarily functioning as a bedroom. Because it was what one would consider to be a tree house, it clearly lacked the necessary appliances that a house would normally have in it. It did not pose much of a problem for them since they only lived on what they needed to live on, and Rei was pretty handy with his hands so they had some handmade furniture and beds in the home.

"You know that's not what I was talking about Ryu," the long purple haired boy responded with a roll of his eyes as he turned around to face the other boy. "I meant that I was getting tired of always having to live off of the land just so we can survive. Before we even found you here in Cedar Woods about six months ago, we've been living in a famine for just a little over a month. Before we found you, we were barely even able to survive off of Rei's ears and my speed and skill at catching. With you also having sensitive ears, it upgraded our situation from desperate to barely scraping by."

"Nice to know that I was able to be of some help to you guys right from the get-go," the blue haired boy stated with a small smile as he wiped the corner of his mouth clean of the juice that had started to run down his chin and carefully placing the fruit on the wooden surface of the table. "What I'm happy for about that day was you guys actually finding me and letting me live with you two. I probably would've kept crying my eyes out until it was dark and some monsters decided that I'd make a good meal for it."

"Oh, I'm sure that at least I would've caught the sound of your voice sometime before the so-called monsters even had a chance to roam around at night," the sound of the aforementioned person was heard saying with a hint of pride. "We did find you along the path we always use to come back here, so it'd have been pretty hard for even a deaf guy to have missed you leaning against a tree."

Upon hearing the eldest of the boys' voice answering them, both Ryu and Teepo turned their heads towards the doorway and saw the Woren with a couple bags of what looked to be food in his arms. They then ran right towards him and quickly took one bag each out of his arms. It was only then did they notice a third bag behind held just barely above the ground by his tail, which he brought in front of him once his arms were free.

"Wow, I think I just experienced a seriously downgraded version of a herd of hungry kids taking everything I had on me and raiding them," Rei responded with a small smile and a shake of his head as he saw the two put the bags down on the table and sift through the contents, one more so eagerly than the other. "You guys must have really been looking forward to our first farm-grown meal in months."

"Of course we were," the purple haired boy responded happily as he took out some fresh vegetables and some packaged meats from the bag he took. "It's been so long since we were able to have some food that's been properly farm-raised and all that. I've been looking forward to this since after the first day of hunting."

"I only ran to you because I thought you needed some help with the bags," the blue haired boy responded somewhat meekly when he stopped looking inside the bag as he continued to watch his "brother" dig through both of them. "I wasn't really thinking about having the chance to eat some food grown by farmers. They all basically taste the same to me when they're cooked right."

"Now that sounds like somebody appreciating what it is I do to keep all of us from starving to death," the furry teen stated as he placed his third and final bag on the table, picking up the half eaten apple and handing it to Ryu, knowing full well that he was most likely the only one to eat it since it was one of his favorite foods. "I was beginning to wonder whether anyone here really paid attention to what I do around here."

"Hey, I pay attention to what you do around here," Teepo retorted as he finished looking over the products and looked at his older "brother." "I know that you do all of the cooking around here since neither me nor Ryu can do it. It might make it easier on yourself if you try teaching us how to cook ourselves."

"Uh, do you remember what happened the very first and last time I tried teaching you how to cook a year ago Teepo? You nearly burned down the house when you decided to create a flambé effect with a simple piece of pork. I still don't understand how you managed to reduce the poor meat to a pile of blacken ashes and warp the pan beyond all recognition."

"I already told you; I got annoyed at how slow the thing was cooking so I decided to speed it up by casting some magic on it. It seemed like a good idea at the time to have food ready in a lot less time."

"Oh, if there was one thing that could prove your downfall in anything, it'd have to be your inability for patience. You made me have to fix a part of the wall because it was almost completely burned through to the other side."

"And that's exactly why I consider you to be person who keeps everything running correctly. Only you can do it all without ruining either the dinner or the entire house itself."

"Do you think you can teach me how to cook Rei?" Ryu asked as he took a few more bites out of his apple, intrigued at what his "brothers" were talking about yet wanting to change the subject to something lest they continued on for the rest of what was left of the day. "It might be a good idea for me to learn in case the both of you get sick or something and I'm the only one who can really do anything around here. That and I would really like to know what it is that you put in your cooking to make it really taste good."

"Sounds like somebody here isn't shy about letting you know that they're a fan of your cooking," Teepo responded in a teasing tone as he gave a friendly nudge in the ribs to his older "brother." "I don't think that this is one of those times where you can really refuse him even if you wanted to."

"That's what it's starting to sound like," Rei stated with a wide smile making its way onto his face upon hearing his skills with cooking being praised so highly by his new little "brother." "Well, as long as you promise to be as patient as you can and do not use magic to help with your cooking except to maybe start a _small_ fire, then I guess that I can teach you a thing or two about cooking. The last thing I need with winter just around the corner is to go repairing another blackened wall."

"I think you already taught me how to be patient when you first taught me and Teepo how to go fishing last month," the blue haired boy replied as he sneaked a small teasing smile at the other boy who then scowled at him in return. "All you need to do is just show me the basics of cooking and it'll all turn out great. Besides, beyond the basic healing magic I managed to teach myself with you guys' help, I don't really know how to use fire magic that might cause this place to turn into a barbeque steam room."

"That's definitely one less worry to get rid of from my mind," the Woren responded with a sigh of relief as he walked past his little "brother" and towards the small kitchen area after walking by the table and taking a package of meat off of it. He then added while brandishing the meat over his shoulder, "If you want to learn the ins and outs of cooking Ryu, then the best place to start is with a knife in hand and ready to cut up some ingredients for a simple dish. Once you learn that, you'll be able to make anything that you want to make provided it's within your personal level of skill."

"So you're really going to teach me how to cook?" the boy asked, very happy that he was going to have the opportunity to learn how to do something else either than hunting for food and going fishing.

"I guess it's better you than me in that furry head of his," the long purple haired boy responded rather dismissively with a shrug of his shoulders as he watched both his "brothers" make their way to the kitchen. "That and I guess you do have that kind of patience you show in fishing that you might actually need when cooking. You were the only one having fun even though we didn't end up catching a single fish when we first taught you."

"Wow, are you really admitting that Ryu's actually better than you are at something?" Rei asked, shocked at what his ears picked up and turning around to face his little "brother." "In all my years of knowing you, I never thought that I would be lucky enough to hear you saying that someone is better than you at something. This has to be the most momentous moment of my life here with you finally admitting something."

"Hey, I never said anything like that. I only meant that he might be able to handle the pressure that comes with learning how to cook. I never said that he was going to be better than me right off the bat."

"Well, there's no better time than now for us to figure out if I'm finally better than you at something," Ryu simply stated, shooting a cocky smile at Teepo before moving towards the kitchen with what looked to be a couple of tomatoes in his hands. "At the very least, I'm sure that I won't end up charring up the walls around here."

"Oh, would you just drop it already? I don't need to be constantly reminded about that at every minute now that you know about it. I swear, you're probably going to end up using that to embarrass me at every chance you get, aren't you?"

"How is it that you two almost always manage to make everything we do into a competition?" the oldest asked with a sigh as his tail twitched a bit in irritation. "Personally, I don't think it matters too much on who is good at doing what. All you really get is a sort of ego boost at being better at something than somebody else, but that isn't worth nearly as much as the ability to use those skills for the rest of your life."

"Yes mother, I know that," both of the younger boys responded simultaneously in annoyance. The Woren only gave out another sigh in response to his little "brothers'" very childish behavior before taking position beside Ryu and taking a knife in his hand.

In a little less than an hour later, dinner was all ready and set on the table for all of them to eat. This included a plate of pan-seared beef in a simple tomato and egg sauce, a cooked asparagus and green bean medley dressed with black bean sauce and over white rice, steamed black bass drizzled with oil infused with garlic, and a simple soup made with beef bone and a few vegetables like carrots and potatoes.

"Wow, I've almost forgotten how good all this farm-fresh cooked food smells like!" Teepo said as he stared wide eyed at all of the good food resting in front of him while trying to keep himself from drooling over the sight. "I haven't smelled this kind of food in the longest of times. You're really going to be pulling my leg when you say to me that Ryu actually had some hand at making all of this with you Rei."

"Then you might as well cut it off yourself and save the trouble of trying to pull it," Rei stated with a pleasantly surprised smile on his face as he gave a quick glance at Ryu. "If you really want to know, he was the one who actually thought of the idea to infuse the garlic flavor into the oil by cooking them together and using a bit of the juice from the black bass as a flavorful way to thin up the black bean sauce. Those are simple things that I normally wouldn't have thought of trying out if he weren't here to bring it up. That and his skills with the knife and other things in the kitchen are practically just as good as mines. He only needs to be told once how to do something and he'll be able to do it, provided that it's relatively basic enough for him to remember and do."

"Well, all I did was follow whatever it was you told me to do and say what I thought would be helpful to you," Ryu replied humbly as his cheeks started to gain a slight shade of pink to them. "I didn't really do too much besides the prep."

"Hey, I always say that there're two parts to making a perfect and delicious meal; correctively cooking the food to how it should be and the creation of a tasty sauce that'll nicely compliment it," the Woren stated as the purple haired boy took a seat on one of the wooden chairs by the table and took a fork into his hands, ready to dig into the food himself. "The way you cook the main ingredient may change depending on what you're ultimately planning to make, but they have to follow strict rules lest you end up with tough or inedible food. The sauce, on the other hand, can be changed with anything to make it even tastier, something that you helped make happen just now. If anything, you helped me create half of two dishes that I normally make with your own twists to it."

"Guys, can we stop gloating about how good our little 'brother' is with cooking? I'm starving to death over here, and I'm going to start eating everything on this table without you whether you like it or not."

"Ain't that a good excuse for you to avoid admitting that I finally found something that I'm better at than you," the blue haired boy responded with a roll of his eyes before deciding to join the other at the table. "Then again, I would like to at least sneak in a bite before you end up eating it all."

"Something tells me that I better start eating before you two vacuums clean everything off of the table," Rei said as he took a seat at the last available chair and started to eat with the others.

For the next thirty minutes, the three "brothers" ate the deliciously prepared food in front of them with smiles on their faces. They also made small talk in order to make this relatively quiet time more eventful. They talked about what Rei saw on his visit to the nearby village of McNeil and on the road back home. Unfortunately, both Teepo and Rei were not the most liked in the whole village, and since Ryu started living with them, they started to also act the same way towards him, much to his confusion. Despite that, they did not treat them so differently that they would not serve them should they come down to buy something simple like groceries, albeit they do so rather grudgingly because of one man who seemed to be the only person who genuinely cared about them all. At least that was better than being completely ostracized by the village without knowing why they were doing so.

By the time they were about three-quarters of the way through with their meal, the oldest of the three thought he heard the sound of footsteps pounding away somewhere in the forest. He quickly dismissed it and went back to finishing up his meal. He then stopped again and perked his ears up a bit, this time hearing what he heard a lot more clearly and louder than earlier. Even the two younger boys, who have hearing not as exceptional as Rei's, stopped eating and had confused looks on their faces.

"Are you hearing the same thing I'm hearing Teepo?" Ryu asked, putting down his eating utensils and looking out a nearby window in an attempt to see what was going on outside in the forest.

"If you're talking about the sound that sounds a lot like a big group of people moving around in the forest, then yes," Teepo responded, getting up and looking out of a different window. "Where it's coming from though, I have no idea. Do you know where that sound's coming from Rei?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out right now," Rei answered as he got up from his seat and walked over to the door, opening it up and bringing his entire self out to the porch to see everywhere around him. Apart from the orange glow of the sunset reaching across the tops of the trees, nothing that seemed to be the cause of the light noise could be seen anywhere nearby. "Whatever is making those footstep noises, it must be somewhere inside the forest because I just can't see anything from where I am."

"Well, I'm not seeing anything on my end either," the purple haired teen responded as he leaned his head further in an attempt to see more. "All I see here are a few birds wanting to migrate to somewhere for the upcoming winter."

"Hey, I see some people moving towards us over here!" the blue haired boy exclaimed as he brought his head back in from the window he was looking out at. "They look like some of the townspeople from McNeil Village. They don't look real happy."

"Oh, don't this just beat all...?" the Woren groaned with an annoyed sigh leaving his lips as he walked further out onto the porch and towards the side where his little "brother" saw the people and saw them for himself. "What do those judgmental people want with us now? I doubt they're here to have a nice celebratory dinner for the end of the famine with us."

"You never know Rei," Ryu responded with an unsure groan leaving his mouth as both he and Teepo followed their older "brother" out of the house. "I've noticed that the people here sometimes do the strangest of things from time to time. I'm sure though that they're here for something else other than celebrating, if the look on their faces isn't any indication of it."

Another second later, the people were close enough to where the three were able to see just how many were in the group coming towards them. They were soon able to count about five altogether, all of them relatively young men who all seemed rather angry over something and making their way over tree roots and stones to get to them.

"We know you're in there Rei!" they suddenly heard one of the men shouting towards them. "You better get your butt down here and look at us eye to eye if you know what's good for you!"

"Are they really resorting to threatening me just to get whatever it is that they want out of me?" Rei asked more to himself than his "brothers" as he gave off an annoyed sigh while shrugging his shoulders. "I thought that they were supposed to be the adults and we're to be children in their eyes. You'd think that they'd be able to settle whatever it is they have against me this time around without any shouting."

"Well, it isn't as though we left them with the greatest impressions of ourselves when we first came to live here," Teepo admitted with a sheepish grin on his face as he continued to stare out at the crowd slowly gaining ground on them. "We did steal things from them at first just so we'd be able to at least get onto our feet."

"You'd think that they'd forgotten about that by now," the Woren replied as he walked back into the house and took his belt with his knives still on them and put them on. "That happened almost two years ago. We've kind of died down from senseless stealing once we managed to build this place and at least manage to find a way to live a decent life without relying solely on stealing."

"Well, you did steal for my sake six months ago when you needed to get some clothes for me to wear," Ryu reminded them as he remembered the stunt his "brothers" tried to pull at the village tailor's shop. "I can see why you did it since none of you guys' clothes really fit me. If anything, I'm sure that's still fresh in their minds."

"Did you hear me, you thieving Woren?" the man exclaimed, this time sounding right underneath them at the base of the tree. "Get your sorry tail down here now before we come up there and drag it out for you. We can easily burn down this worthless shack you call a house with you in it if you don't get out here in the next few seconds."

"Alright, you two stay in here while I go out and see just what it is they're so angry with me about. I doubt it has anything to do with stealing this time around; I only went in there to buy stuff and I paid for all of it."

"Just be careful when you go out there Rei," the blue haired boy warned his older "brother" with a worried look on his face. "We don't know what they have on them, and they might try to get the best of you while you're not paying attention."

"As if any of them have anything on him when it comes to fighting," the long purple haired boy scoffed with a cocky look on his face. "Trust me when I say this; Rei is the best of the best when it comes to fighting. He could easily take care of all of them with one hand tied behind his back if it ever came to that."

"Just please stay up here 'til I get back," the Woren repeated as he walked out onto the balcony and jumped off the side of it. The sounds of the people instantly talking once he did so indicated that he had a pretty safe landing.

"You wanna listen in on what they're talking about Ryu?" Teepo asked not even a second after Rei had jumped off the side railing to meet with the group of five beneath them. "I'm sure you're just as curious as me as to what they're talking about down there. Besides, it sure beats sitting around in here with nothing better to do."

"But didn't Rei tell us to wait for him in here and to not go outside?" Ryu asked with raised eyebrows at his "brother." "I don't think he wants us to see what might be going on with him and the others down there Teepo. Wouldn't it be best if we just waited for him to finish with whatever it is he's doing down there?"

"Oh, quit being such a worrywart," the other stated nonchalantly as he dismissed the concerns with a simple wave of his hand. "He didn't say anything about not watching what was going on from up here, did he? So we might as well take advantage of this and see what's going on down there."

And before the blue haired boy had a chance to say anything else, the other was out of the house and on the balcony in record time. He simply shook his head at his "brother's" need for disobeying their older "brother" before reluctantly deciding to join him in the front row view of what was taking place beneath them.

"You know darn well why we're even here in this forest!" they heard one of the men shouting at Rei with anger that could easily be heard from the other side of Cedar Woods. "There's no other good reason why we'd be in here at this time of day. Don't you dare go about playing dumb with us."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about sir," they then heard Rei reply as coolly as he could while having a shouting man right in front of him. "If you would just tell me why you're all here, then I won't have to go around playing dumb with you all."

"You really want to keep playing dumb?" a second person asked, his voice portraying his ever growing annoyance at the situation they were in. "Alright, I'll be more than happy to play along with you. Since you don't know why we're here, we're here because you happen to have something that doesn't belong to you."

"Now I'm really lost as to what you're all talking about," the Woren responded with nothing but clear confusion ringing out in his words. "Just what is it that you're saying I took from one of you guys?"

By this time, both Ryu and Teepo have situated themselves into comfortable positions beneath the balcony railing where they were able to see what was going on beneath them without being caught by anybody. From there, they saw Rei standing at the spot where he most likely first landed while the five men stood just a few feet away from him. Some of them had farming tools in their hands situated in a way that seemed like they were ready to fight if and when the occasion came about. This scene clearly showed that they were serious about whatever it was they came here to talk to him about."

"We're talking about the expensive pearl studded golden butterfly motif hair comb that my wife won in a national cooking contest last year," a third man stated as he stepped up and looked the Woren in the eye with the most defiant glare ever. "It was handed to her by the Queen of Wyndia herself, and she's been crying her eyes out since she lost it not even two hours ago. That's basically around the same time you left out little village with a bag of groceries in your furry arms."

"If all of them were even just groceries to begin with," a fourth person added with a snarl clearly annunciated in his voice. "I'll bet all my crops for this year that there were also some stolen goods mixed in with his bag of goodies."

"...You guys aren't seriously saying that I stole something of great value from right under your noses, are you?" Rei asked with disbelief echoing from his voice. "That's like saying you all found a dragon and decided to keep it in order to help you cultivate the land in a more efficient way. It's just not possible that I stole whatever it was you say I stole."

"As if you would expect us to believe that," the fifth and final person in the group stated with a scoff of his breath. "You and that Teepo fellow have stolen things from us from the moment you both came here asking for a place to stay. Have you ever wondered why it was we never once allowed you both to live in our peaceful village? You should count your lucky stars that we even allow you to walk through our streets from time to time."

"And if that weren't enough, you also managed to recruit another helpless soul into your dark ways of pilfering away the results of hard work from us," the first person added with a hint of sorrow in the back of his voice as he said this. "I truly feel sorry for him ending up with you two. Who knows how warped his mind is now that you've ingrained all those wrong-doing ways into his system."

"I suggest that you keep my two little 'brothers' out of this and just concentrate on the problem you have with me," the Woren warned them with a slight protective growl at the edge of his words. "I really don't think that dragging them into this conversation will help you out with your problem, a problem that, if I may add, has nothing to do with me. If you all haven't noticed, the only things I have ever stolen from any of you were foodstuffs and clothing. And just to keep the record straight, the only time I've ever stolen from you all during the recent famine was when I had to get some new clothes."

"Fine, we'll all give you credit for that," the third person admitted with some reluctance. "That doesn't really put you in the clear for today's incident though. While you may have paid for all the food you bought at the market, which I know to be a fact since I happened to be close by when you bought them, there's nothing stopping us from thinking that you decided to make a little side trip before coming back here. I'm sure that was more than enough time to steal something of great importance from one of us."

"Are you guys seriously going to pin the problem of one of your wives simply misplacing something that she finds to be very important all on me because of that stupid line of reasoning? I doubt that any of you have even thought about taking a careful look at where she might have lost it before you all conveniently decided to put all the blame on me. Have you even considered just devoting one entire night on trying to find it before pinning the blame on somebody?"

"Are you insinuating that my wife was lying to us?" the second man asked with raised eyebrows and a dangerous edge to his voice. "I suggest that you be careful as to who it is you're accusing of lying here."

"Look, all I'm saying here is that you guys probably all went in a panic when she said that she lost it and just automatically thought it was me who stole it since I kind of have a history with all of you. Now I'm not saying that you don't really have a good reason to even not think that it was me who did it. All I'm saying is that you guys should at least try to look for other possibilities before going about and accusing me of something that you don't even know that I did. And just for the record, I didn't steal anything like that when I went to get some things a couple hours ago."

"As if you expect any of us to believe such a transparent lie," the fourth person angrily stated as his impatience was made clear in his tone. "Then how about you answer us this question? If it wasn't you who took the woman's comb, then just exactly who else would have the motive or even the audacity to do something like that?"

"Do you think that I would be standing around here right now wasting my breath with you five if I knew whoever it was that took whatever it is you're all looking for? Trust me, if I knew who it was that took it, and that's considering if it was even taken in the first place, then I would've told you the guy's name by now."

"Not unless you're just trying to cover for them," the fifth person stated quickly, trying to get this tenacious business over with as quickly as possible.

"How can any of you be so certain that it was even Rei who stole the comb to begin with?" a sixth voice, this one sounding deep and was clearly defensive, asked with just as much defiance as the other five were portraying.

As both Ryu and Teepo were quietly watching the entire scene unfold below them from the balcony, they also heard the new voice coming to the aid of their older "brother" who looked like he was taking a real bad beating from these accusers. They, along with everybody else below them, turned their heads towards their left and saw a tall and stocky man approaching. He had bushy brown hair in both beard and moustache form with warm winter-like clothing dressing his body that included a pair of work pants, a thick leather vest over a blue work shirt, and brown boots meant for trekking through the forest.

"Bunyan!" one of the men from the group of five addressed the newcomer with slight surprise. "I thought it was your voice we heard. What are you doing here? Can't you see that we're all busy having a discussion?"

"I just happened to hear all the commotion going on here while I was walking back home and thought that I should check it out," the man simply explained as he moved his head around and quickly assessed the situation. "Judging by the looks of things here, it looks like you're all having an argument of sorts with Rei."

"We're just merely confronting him of a wrong he's committed during his latest visit to the village," the first person stated as he very briefly explained what they all was doing here in the woods. "It's nothing that can be construed as extreme. It's just a simple case of theft that he refuses to admit he's done."

"For the last time, I'm telling you that I didn't take anything from you guys that's not rightfully mines on this particular trip to McNeil Village!" the Woren responded with a very agitated sigh escaping his lips while forming his hands into fists. Even the two boys above them could tell that he was starting to reach his limit with all this nonsense. "You're all just too stubborn to try and look at things from a different perspective. You all just want to hear what it is that you want to hear coming out of my mouth!"

"Alright now, let's all calm down and try to think about this through with a clear head, something that I'm sure none of you have been doing since you all first met here," the stocky man stated calmly as he put himself in between the group and the lone boy in case they decided to close the distance and fight each other. Both sides looked ready to do so at any given moment. "Is this theft you're talking about the same one that everybody's talking about back at the village right now?"

"If you're talking about the loss of my wife's prized hair comb she won some time ago at a contest in Wyndia, then yes," the third man confirmed as he shot a nasty glare at the Woren. "It went missing sometime a couple of hours ago, and he's the only one who entered the village and left during that time. He says he was there to purchase some groceries upon hearing the end of the famine we've all been suffering the past few months. I'm more than certain that he was there to do more than just some innocent shopping."

"And I'm assuming that you all believe him when he said he went to do some honest shopping, right?"

"If we didn't, then we'd be arguing about that instead about a missing possession," the second person stated with a roll of his eyes against the man. "Do you really have to ask us questions with answers that you already know?"

"I thought I told you to keep you attitude in check," Bunyan repeated with a warning glint in his eyes. The other immediately stepped back and kept his mouth closed, although he then resorted to trying to glare daggers into the man. "And have any of you done what Rei had suggested and at least looked all over the village in an attempt to locate the comb before coming here to confront him? And all I want here is an honest answer, not another response that doesn't directly answer this question."

"Well, I can't say that any of us really did look at the places where she might have lost it," the fifth person admitted rather meekly, not at all with the kind of gusto he held against Rei earlier. "But if you think about it, there's only one person out of all of us here who would even at least pick something up and keep it for himself without thinking that it might actually belong to someone else."

"I don't want to hear about that," the bearded man responded before any of the others had a chance to agree with him or add something onto the statement. "What I only wanted to know what whether or not any of you had the sense to at least perform a small search for a couple of hours. It's clear to me now that none of you even allowed that to cross your mind. It's also clear that you seemingly refuse to listen to whatever suggestion that Rei might have had for you just because of his record with all of you."

"But what are the chances of a boy like him telling a truth like that and not trying to pull the wool right over our eyes so he can get away with thievery?" the fourth person questioned, trying to choose his words carefully so as to try and avoid a verbal backlash on his part. "You know how he likes to pull himself out of situations like this by trying to deter our attention away from him. He could be trying to do that to us right now. There's no doubt in my mind that that's what he's trying to do right now."

"You're all way too stubborn for your own good, you know that? You couldn't see the reasonable path in front of you even if there were sunlight shining directly on it. I was truly hoping to save you all the embarrassment and let you figure it out yourselves once you made your sorry behinds back to the village, but I guess I do have to say this. The prized comb that you're looking for has already been found just a little over half an hour ago while you five were walking here. It was found lying in the bushes next to her house where she most likely dropped it after placing it on the railing of her bedroom window."

"They already found it?" the man whose wife owned the lost comb exclaimed with surprise clearly projected in his words. He then quickly turned around and ran back towards the direction of the village without saying anything else while nearly tripping over a tree root in his haste. "You'd better not be pulling my leg here just to get him out of trouble or I'll come and beat you to a pulp Bunyan!"

"Hey, don't go back to the village on your own!" one of the men shouted back in warning as he along with the rest of the group quickly followed the other back to the village. "You could get attacked by the monsters if you go back on your own!"

And just as quickly the group had approached the Woren's humble little tree house, they had disappeared through the dense trees illuminated by the dim light of the sun nearly set over the horizon and back to McNeil Village as if the past few minutes did not happen. The Woren was then left in a somewhat state of shock at how suddenly they had all shifted their attention on something else and acted on it after not even two seconds ago engaging themselves in a very heated argument. The boys could only look at each other with faces of both confusion and something else that could not be directly defined. The only one who did not really seem all that surprised by this act was Bunyan himself.

"Well, don't this just beat all...," Rei stated, his mind now in a somewhat dumbstruck state as he looked at where the men ran off to. "They were just here trying to find ways to bite my head off, and now they're on their way back home as if everything that's just happened never even happened to begin with. Talk about having mood swings."

"And I believe that you have me to thank for that," Bunyan stated as he walked over to the bullied Woren and placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. "If I didn't happen to walk this way when I did, they'd have no doubt tore your head clean off and chased Ryu and Teepo clean out of these woods."

"Better my head than there's if it ever came to that," the Woren responded as he rubbed the back of his neck subconsciously. "They'd no doubt come at me with the entire Wyndian Guards at their tails if I went all out on them. I still can't believe though that those guys were way too stubborn to even hear what I was trying to tell them. They only listened to each other or what you managed to get through to their thick skulls."

"Well, you have yourself to blame for that even happening since you all but stole from practically everybody in the village at least once during the past couple of years you and Teepo lived here," the bearded man stated, although he said it more in an explanatory tone rather than accusing. "And now you have a new addition you need to keep watch over in your little group. I would guess that he's the most reasonable out of all of you being that he hasn't really been pulled into your childish pranks, right?"

"I guess you could say that. Ryu clearly doesn't like it when we go about stealing things from others, that's for sure. When I think about it, he's probably the reason why I've even started stealing from everybody in town a lot less than usual. His influence's probably starting to rub off on me from the past six months we've been together."

"Then maybe you could take his influences to heart and try to clean up the rest of your act. There'll be times when you might find yourself in over your head with people who won't take being robbed so lightly like those here in town. You're just lucky that these people are all but simple farmers and that the mayor is more occupied with his own business to really care what it is you three try to do."

"If you're trying to make me change my mind in learning how to become more mature, then I think that you should try using a different method," Rei responded bluntly as he turned around and began to make his way up the tree again, this time using a set of stairs that started at the base of the tree at the back. "Using scare tactics and all that really isn't going to force me to think otherwise on the subject. Besides, I like acting like a kid, both in actual age and spirit. It really makes me feel like a free Woren with nothing holding me back."

"I'm just giving you a bit of a friendly warning the next time you try to pull a something like that," Bunyan simply stated as he stared at the Woren for a little bit before turning around himself and making his way back to his home. "I won't always be nearby to help you get out of trouble that was never caused by you to begin with. You're going to have to start learning how to get some good standing with everybody else in the village if you ever plan to avoid something like this happening again in the future."

"I'll try to keep that in mind Bunyan," the Woren responded truthfully just before the form of the man that had helped him out of the verbal abuse he was taking disappeared into the trees and back to whatever path he was originally taking before getting himself sidetracked to his position. He then said more to himself as he continued on his way up the tree to his home, "I can't make any promises of getting some good standing with these people though. That's probably a chance that's starting to fly away after this evening's theatrics.

"Speaking of theatrics, I'm guessing that you two had the greatest seats in the entire forest to see the beating I was taking down there," he added as he finally reached the front door and entered it, seeing his two younger "brothers" leaning casually against the railing of the balcony as if they were only getting some fresh air.

"What're you talking about Rei?" Teepo asked, trying to sound innocent about the whole thing and kind of overdoing it in the process. "We didn't see anything of interest outside. We did hear a lot of things going on though."

"Then I'm guessing the sound of your voice asking Ryu if he'd like to see what was going on right after I jumped over the balcony never happened, right? Don't forget that I have hearing good enough to hear what it is you said before all hell broke loose. I was keeping my ears opened in case you two decided to actually come down."

"Well, at least Teepo only suggested that we try and see what was going on _from_ the balcony," Ryu responded with a sheepish smile as he shrugged his shoulders a bit. "If it makes you feel better, he never really said anything about actually going down to get a better look at what was going on."

"Knowing how he usually does things in situations like this, I guess I can say that it does make me feel a little bit better he wasn't planning on playing the small vigilante or anything as crazy as that," the eldest of the three responded with a small sigh as his tail swished side to side a bit. "I was kind of expecting him to come down and give those guys an earful though since that's what he usually likes to do when something like this happens."

"Then I guess this goes to show that I'm not as stupid as you sometimes think I am," the long purple haired boy stated with a teasing tone in his words to show that he was just playing around. The Woren only raised his eyebrows at this statement as he sensed something funny going on. "I don't just go jumping into every kind of trouble I see you getting yourself into just so I can try and help you."

"I thought you said that you didn't want to help Rei because Bunyan decided to come over right when you were about to go down," the blue haired boy responded with confusion written all over his face.

"And I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut about that," the other small boy said with a scowl. "I can't even make myself sound good when I want to with you telling Rei every little thing I say and do."

"I knew I smelled something fishy being cooked up inside that crafty little head of yours. Then again, I guess I should have known better when it comes to you trying to make yourself sound like a better person in a given situation. You always try to make yourself sound better than you really were over half the times we do something crazy after all."

"Alright, that's it. This's the last time I'm going to be made fun of for something that I didn't even do. The only time I'm going to talk from here on out is when you guys ask me something and expect an answer in return. That way, you all won't be able to drive me nuts with things that I might have been able to do if I had only done it."

"Do you really think that you'd be able to not talk without being asked something first?" Rei asked as he tried to keep a smile from forming since he knew that it would only serve to further irritate his little "brother." "You couldn't even manage not free talking for a whole day that last time you tried to do something like that. I'd bet you all the money I have on me that you won't even last one minute."

"Then be prepared to lose all that money. I'm definitely going to commit myself to shut up and stay quiet until one of you guys asks me a question."

"Uh, didn't you already just lose the bet?" Ryu asked as he raised one of his eyebrows a bit. "You just said that you were going to stop talking until you got asked a question. You just _responded_ to something that didn't even sound like a question."

"Well, look who's already lost their bet before they even had a chance to let it get off the ground," the Woren teased with a big smile on his face upon seeing Teepo's screwed up in frustration. "And I was actually right when I said that you weren't even going to last one minute before you failed. It's too bad you didn't bet something for when you lost."

"B-but I...! Oh, I hate you Ryu!" the purple haired boy exclaimed angrily as he stomped out to the balcony and rested his hands on it so he could cool down a bit.

"Yeesh, someone's acting a bit testy tonight. I wonder what's got his hair all tangled up in knots?"

"You don't think we took our teasing a little bit too far, do you?" the blue haired boy asked as he looked at his "brother" moping on the balcony with some concern.

"Nah, he always acts like that whenever he's forced to eat his own words," Rei responded nonchalantly as he turned his attention to the dinner table that had been long since forgotten and started to clean up the dishes that were on it. "He's stubborn when it comes to things like that. Anyway, do you mind helping me clean the table off and wash the dishes? You and I did cook the dinner together, so it's only fair that we both wash the dishes as well."

"Then shouldn't we be getting Teepo in here to help us out?" the youngest asked as he started to help with the cleaning.

"Trust me when I say this Ryu. There's no making him do anything when he's like this. You might as well be asking the meanest monster you can find on this planet and asking it to be your lifelong buddy. That and he broke a couple of dishes before, dishes that we can't really afford to replace or steal at this time," the furry boy added in a lower tone so as to not be heard by the other who was still moping on the balcony.

"Are you sure he's not doing this on purpose? It almost looks like he's trying to get out of doing all the hard and seemingly boring stuff like cooking and washing dishes while doing other stuff like fishing."

"That's exactly the same thing I wonder myself sometimes. Oh well, he's not the type to be going about admitting something like that anytime soon, so nobody except him is going to know the answer to that."

As the two continued talking about their moping "brother" and a few other things that did not concern him, they washed the dishes in a wooden barrel filled with water and using a bar of soap to get them efficiently cleaned. Within a few minutes, they managed to get them all cleaned and carried the barrel out to the balcony so as to dump the now dirty and soapy water to the dirt beneath them. At this time, Teepo had already gone back inside and was now holding onto a fishing rod and messing around with the string.

By the time they finished all of the post dinner rituals, the sun had now completely set over the horizon, covering the entire forest with a black sheet with only the light from the candle that Rei lit inside an oil lamp piercing through it. Each boy then did their own thing for the rest of the night, none of them doing anything of great importance, until it came time for all of them to go up to the second floor and get themselves ready for bed. The early evening today held a lot of excitement for them and they all wanted to rest on it rather than dwell on what had happened or what could have happened. That and they had the entirety of tomorrow to look forward to and make memories that they could create with each other, memories that they would no doubt look back at and smile when they grew older.

* * *

Sorry if the title for this chapter sounded kind of bad. With the main story branching off onto one-shots, I was thinking of each thing from the main story triggering some kind of memory as a result. As example, this one was on the bullying Ryu was taking and correlating to the bullying he remembered seeing Rei go through all those years ago. And the last one was him seeing the peaceful scenery outside as if it were signifying his last moments of freedom while also reminding him of when he first met his two "brothers."

I also felt the title was good for this because it kind of related to what I see in real life. Whether it's from when you're in high school with physical scuffles against someone or just online trying to bash someone, bullying is bullying no matter how you look at it or what generation we're in. That's also how I came up with this title. Just figured that you all would like to know that little tidbit.


End file.

Breath of Fire, Drama, Friendship