Demon Eyes

Lectro was given all of 30 seconds to himself when Faen showed him to their tent, and his new room, after that Faen commenced practically force-feeding him. Lectro was thankful when Caliga finally told Faen to give him some peace and quiet, but all this was once more shattered on the entry of Jay Robin that evening, who was grinning like a maniac despite the fact his eyes didn't spread the same message of cheer. He had long, bleeding scratches down one side of his face, and Faen gasped at the sight of him.

"Is that what that rotten old Raven did to you?"

"Yeah but, it's nothing, seriously Faen I'm fine," Jay replied. Caliga entered just as Faen responded.

"Nothing?!-"

"If that gets infected, you will die!" Caliga said seriously.

Jay took a step back, "It won't get infected."

"Not if it is treated."

"Yeah but-"

"But..?"

"Err..."

"Unlucky Jay, you won't get out of this one," Faen chuckled at his best friend.

Jay pretty much had to admit defeat after that and reluctantly let Caliga treat the wounds on the side of his face. He did thank him afterwards though, despite the sting of the stuff used to treat the scratches. Caliga went off to wash his hands afterwards and Jay went back over to join Faen and Lectro.

“Hey, you two have known the black haired man for a while haven’t you?”

“He is our father; it would be worrying if we did not!” Faen whispered back to him.

“Err, I knew that. But what’s the secret to winning an argument with him?”

The brothers looked at each other. Lectro rolled his eyes, “There isn’t one. Good luck trying.”

“I agree with Lectro there actually Jay, you cannot win an argument against Caliga Vadale!"

"Whether I should be taking that as a compliment or not Faeneror I am not sure, but I thank you anyway I suppose," Caliga said approaching them, he turned to Lectro, "And as for you it is getting late, and a lot has happened-"

"I'm really not that tired father."

Caliga gave him a look to tell him not to argue, and so Lectro decided it would be best not to. Caliga had already won one argument that evening. After saying his good nights to the three men, he entered his new room. It was a lot smaller than his old room; however that was one thing which Lectro really didn't care about at the moment. He was just glad to be back.

-----

Lectro's sleep was dreamless, yet unfortunately disturbed in the early hours the next morning by something, or rather someone, falling on him. He tried to sit up before opening his eyes however he was pinned to the ground.

"Err... Ok I'm really sorry. Don't kill me... please?" the person responsible for his rather rude awakening said, standing himself up again setting Lectro free. He knew that voice, Jay Robin.

"I might say I've had ruder awakenings. What happened?" Lectro replied, standing up himself to face Jay. The scratches on the side of his face had stopped bleeding, however they had formed ugly scabs, they would definitely scar. Jay also had looked as if he hadn't had any sleep, and yawned loudly before answering Lectro's question.

"I tripped, sorry."

"What was there to trip on?!"

"Yeah I know, I'm really clumsy... you know, you remind me somewhat of a cat!"

"Haha. Yellow eyes joke? I know them all."

"No I don’t purely mean the eyes, you just remind me of a cat, and you even yawn like one!"

Lectro stopped yawning, suddenly feeling self-conscious. He barely knew Jay, but that man was definitely weird, especially how he could just stand there and be so cheerful at this time in the morning, after the events of the day before. He reminded Lectro an awful lot of Faen, "Where is Faen? He would've stuck his nose in by now."

"He's out with his girlfriend-"

"What? Faen has a girlfriend! Who? Since when?!"

"You didn't know? Oh, well, the day before you came, he stopped a girl around your age from committing suicide. I personally don't think it will last, not really the best thing to base a relationship on. I'm no expert though."

"Who is she?"

"Don't know her name I'm afraid, but you may know her, she's around your age and came in the group of survivors from your ambushed forest settlement. She's quite... I don't know how to describe her, I suppose you could call her dress sense gothic, and dark, I've never seen her in light colours-"

"Leaf Yew?! Ok that's never going to work."

"Aww, so nice to hear that you have such little faith you pessimist!" Faen chuckled, turning up right on cue.
Jay looked at his best friend and rolled his eyes, “A bit of a strange time to be out with your girlfriend. What did you do, watch the sunrise?”

“A bit late for that. Leaf got kicked out of her tent whilst Aleron and Willow wanted to talk in private, and since Leaf knew I am a morning person she came round to call. Bit early for you is it not Lexy?” Lectro gave his brother a very frustrated look, much to both Jay and Faen’s amusement. Then Jay spoke once more.

“Where’s Grouchy-blonde?”

“Grouchy-blonde?”

“He means Aleron,” Faen butted in; “He is still out with Willow I guess. Those two really have been spending a lot of time together recently; I think they are hiding something.”

Jay gave a very devious smile, “Oh I think I know what it is! It should really be good news so why they keep it secret I don’t know.”

“Has Aleron finally proposed to Willow? Are they planning to elope?”

“Nope,” Jay replied, casually rolling his eyes, “I think Willow might be expecting something bigger-“

“Do you now. Well stay out of it!” Aleron yelled as he entered, grabbing the front of Jay’s shirt, “Do I make myself clear?” he hissed. Jay nodded frantically and he released him again, before turning and narrowing his eyes as he saw Lectro.

“I see you’re still around,” Lectro growled, disappointed to have his day ruined by seeing him.

“Unfortunately, so are you.” Aleron coldly shoved past Lectro and into his own room.

The silence that followed could not possibly have felt longer. And something was evidently bothering Aleron, Faen was right, he was hiding something, and considering his reaction to finding out that Jay knew, it was certainly something big. Faen, troubled further by something, went back outside the tent without another word. Lectro didn’t need to ask why as Jay answered the question for him.

“Probably going back out to see his girlfriend,” he shrugged.

“What do you think of Leaf anyway? Be honest.”

“Well she’s... ok I guess. She’s cute, I’ll give her that, but a little dark I suppose you could say.”

“She has an almost identical twin you know,” Lectro said, “A more light-hearted twin.”

“Really. How light-hearted?” Jay asked, almost sarcastically.

“For starters her hair is a lighter blonde than Leaf’s, her eyes are blue, not green, and she doesn’t have such a gothic dress sense. Even her name’s lighter, Breeze. Mind you, she loves her sarcasm-“

“Are you advertising my sister?!” Leaf’s voice yelled from behind Lectro. Lectro turned, and sure enough, there she was, Faen just beside her, “She could be dead you unempathatic b-“

“Lectro was just telling Jay you had a sister Leaf, I do not think he meant any harm by it,” Faen said in a desperate attempt to calm her.

“He should be considering being more respectful towards the dead! I mean... she’s gone... just...” Her mood seemed to have swung dramatically as she closed her eyes to prevent tears welling up.

Faen took her into his arms with a comforting hug, “She may not be dead you know.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead, and Lectro looked away discretely, something seemed awkward about that small kiss. They all turned however towards the entrance of the tent at the sound of feet scuffling outside, as if restless. Faen, who was closest to the entrance, pulled back the entrance fold of the tent, revealing Nieeva, standing outside. The look in her eyes was almost as if she was scared that by being here, she had done something wrong, and her timid nature still prevailed in her speech.

“Um, hello... is-is Lectro in?” she asked quietly, avoiding the gaze of anyone’s eyes.

Lectro walked around Jay to get to where Nieeva was at the entrance, smiling, “Err, morning... would you like to come in?” Faen and Jay sniggered; Leaf didn’t seem to react, her head hung low still. Jay however chose this time to make a joke of his own.

“Well, now I feel left out,” he said.

“Why?” Lectro replied, the guy was happy a second ago.

“Every other guy in the room apart from me has a girlfriend!” he said with a grin, he knew Lectro would be annoyed at that, and to say the least he was, playfully pretending to knock Jay down. Nieeva flushed a rosy shade of scarlet, and the two best friends Faen and Jay laughed aloud. In response to all this, Leaf gave a shivering sigh and whispered something to Faen before leaving the tent, the laughter continuing until Caliga himself emerged from his room still looking drowsy.

“Is a lie-in unheard of in your worlds? You are making enough noise to crush mountains,” he yawned drearily, stretching as he spoke.

Lectro turned to Nieeva, as if to start a conversation, and she smiled back at him. “So...” she said.

“You... I mean, your- your skin looks... soft today,” he replied, he could just hear Faen and Jay snigger uncontrollably in the background, why did I say that? He thought to himself. Even Caliga had turned and tilted his head slightly, giving Lectro an odd look. Nieeva found this very amusing.

“Of all the things you could say!” she chuckled softly, “You are really funny sometimes.”

“Err thanks, I’m not really good with jokes though-” He blushed and stopped speaking when the sniggers turned to teasing laughter, and even his father gave an amused smile and rolled his eyes at Lectro. I’m never going to live this down...

“There you are Nieeva. Please tell me before you disappear next time!” Galiahana entered the tent with a look of relief spread across her face. She looked at Caliga and stopped for a second, “I’m not intruding am I Mr Vadale?”

“Caliga, not Mr Vadale if you please, that was what my father was known as. And no, you are not intruding.”

“You know, I’d bet that your father used to say that as well, about the name.”

Caliga’s eyes darkened, as if he were recalling something he would rather have forgotten, “No, he drew a very fine line between informalities and insolence, especially with his own kin.”

“Ah, I’m sorry if I caused any offence. Anyway, I was actually here to take Nieeva back home for breakfast.” Nieeva stood up obediently and went over to her mother. They left saying a few more goodbyes.

Faen walked up to Lectro and patted him on the back, “Aww, my baby brother has a girlfriend!”

“She is just a friend.”

“She seems to like you quite a lot for a friend. Did you see how much she blushed when you said that smooth chat-up line of yours?”

Jay chuckled, “She’s a bit of a strange one though; you have to admit. Something about her is a little... odd.”

“But she is quite sweet, reminds me of a mouse or something-“

“Or a rabbit.”

“Good point Jay. Anyway Lexy, you two really are an adorable couple!” Both of Lectro’s tormentors laughed loudly once again. Lectro scowled.

“Stop teasing your brother, Faeneror. And for goodness sake cut your hair or something, you look like girl!” Caliga responded, Faen and Jay calmed their laughter down, and Jay looked awkwardly around.

“I’d better go, check when I’m next on ridge-guard duty,” he said, leaving the tent.

“Well, breakfast anyone?” Faen said, vanishing off to gather everything together and set things out.

Caliga meanwhile returned the amused smile to his face and walked over to Lectro, facing him and putting a hand on his shoulder. He lowered his voice, “By the way, that compliment you made to your girlfriend-“

“She is not my-“

“I did not mean it in that concept; I meant friend-who-is-a-girl. Anyway, I would strongly advise working on your compliments. ‘Your skin looks soft today’, is like a comment you would make about a rabbit. It made me smile however.” He ruffled Lectro’s hair lightly. Lectro himself found himself distracted by looking over Caliga’s shoulder; Aleron had woken up.

He stood, giving Lectro a look riddled with hatred, who glared back at his older brother. Caliga noticed this and turned, but before Caliga could speak to him, Aleron swiftly departed the tent with no words said. His father sighed and went over to Faen.

Aleron was unseen for the rest of the day, and even Jay was gone for most of the day, until the afternoon. Lectro meanwhile was visited for a while by Nieeva, which resulted in Faen constantly winking whenever he caught Lectro’s eyes whilst he was talking to Nieeva, albeit their conversations were a little short. When Nieeva left, Faen continued to tease Lectro through the afternoon, much to his annoyance while Caliga stayed out of it, until Jay burst in again.

“Hey guys guess what?”

“Ooo what?” Faen asked eagerly. Lectro and Caliga did not look too interested in guessing.

“I’m on ridge-guard duty tomorrow! Maybe I can look out for your other brother that you lost. What was his name...? Sylvester wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Lectro immediately felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably, they don’t know... “I have seen him. I saw him before Nieeva, Galiahana and I escaped. He did not survive the ambush, and we came across many more bodies of people we know as well.”

A stunned silence swept across, and Jay shifted awkwardly, obviously now regretting having started the conversation. Caliga walked slowly towards the doorway of the tent, with an expression that Lectro couldn’t read, but Faen knew all too well – loss.

“Father it is not your fault,” Faen said quietly walking towards him.

Caliga clenched his fists tightly, “It is, I should never have let him remain behind while I went on, it is entirely my fault!”

“You were injured. You would have been killed too.”

“But I could have saved him beforehand. I would rather have been the one to die than him, than any of you... Ocre included. Far before his time...”

Lectro stirred in surprise; Ocre was not a name he had heard very often mentioned, it was like a taboo within the Vadale family, and he didn’t know why. Either way, if Caliga had mentioned him, something was wrong. Not another word was spoken for a while, and Jay retreated from the tent shortly after this, apologizing for saying anything. Lectro couldn’t have felt guiltier if he had actually killed Sylvester.

The only words that were exchanged for the rest of the day were near the end, after sunset. Faen was clearing up from dinner – which Caliga had declined to eat from his mourning – Lectro approached him and whispered.

“What happened to Ocre? Why is the only time I have heard father mention his name been today?”

Faeneror sighed and turned to his younger brother, eyes dim, “Your older brother Ocre died when he was fourteen. The illness that killed him had done so in just under one season. I can remember that day clearly, no one spoke, not even Sorcho our practical joker. In my opinion that was also when Aleron started acting up shall we say-“

“I find it hard to believe that someone so unpleasant could have ever been-“

“Lectro stop it, please. I know that the rivalry between you two will never heal over, however think; you two and your bickering will only cause more damage. The three of us are the only sons left now; we should stick together as a family. Please.”

“Try saying that to Aleron.” Lectro said ultimately.

Faen watched him walk away into his room, and sighed solemnly, going back to cleaning up after dinner.