I looked over my shoulder to where the voice came. Saffron stood there, looking down to me and seemingly waiting for my response. Though hard to read, something about him gave off a troubled vibe, so I swallowed and prepared for the worst.

"Uh, sure," I said.

Saffron took a few steps, sitting beside me a short distance away. I dove my fork into the cut of fish on my plate, waiting for him to start talking. He looked back to the rest of the group, where Sura was still serving the younger kids. I looked over as well, when Riv came sauntering around the corner of a ruined house with who appeared to be Xhianei riding up on his shoulders. I couldn't make out much of it from this distance, but she was stood on the ground in front of the serving area before too long. He and Sura then took the plates for the youngest kids to a spot full of papers, probably some kind of schoolwork. Only after Sura and the kids were situated did Riv go back to serve up his own dinner.

Saffron's ears flattened as he turned his head slowly forward. Finally, with a deep breath, he started to talk.

"I think you're being unfair," he declared.

"Unfair?" I asked, taken aback. "What did I do?"

"I've seen for a while now how you avoid...certain people in this group," he said. "I don't think I need to break that down any further. You know what I'm talking about."

He paused to cut a bite of the fish on his plate and bring it to his mouth. I didn't know what to say and just looked aside in discomfort.

"I notice a lot of things," he reupped. "You don't hide it as well as you'd like to believe. Most people don't."

"...What is this actually about?" I asked, dismayed.

"We'd like you to stop avoiding Riv," Saffron proposed.

"Uh, 'we'?"

"Do you really think he hasn't noticed? Sura has, too, for that matter."

I fell silent as he took another bite of his food. The awkward pause felt like an hour.

"...I can't, I'm sorry."

Saffron closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with an irritated sigh.

"Just...I don't know. Something about him just scares me, okay?" I looked down to the food on my plate. "I thought as long as I did my work around here it wouldn't matter. I'm not even sure what he does, anyway."

"You're not just here to work, you're here to live with us like a family," Saffron said, unamused. "Do you know anything about him at all?"

"...Do I want to?"

"Xhias, it's a simple question," he scolded. "Do you know anything about him, or do you not?"

"...No," I admitted, my ears flattening.

"Okay, so here's someone you know nothing about, but you're dead-set on disliking and even avoiding them for some reason?" he chided. "How is that fair in any way?"

"He's big and got those creepy eyes and toothy grin and carries a nail-spiked club everywhere, I guess!?" I asserted, trying to keep my voice down.

"So...you're afraid of him because he looks different than you?" Saffron deduced between bites. "You don't think that's the least bit stupid?"

I kept quiet, but the look on my face gave away my thoughts.

"Xhias, did you forget why you're here?"

"...Because my sister and I were forced out of our home?"

"I mean 'here' as in where you're currently sitting and with the people you're living with. It was only a few weeks ago so I doubt you forgot."

"Okay, what about it?"

"Let me summarize it for you since you're being stubborn: You arrived to this region to be immediately turned away from where you were supposed to go, because of what you are...because of what you look like. You were told this by the only one in Huot who treated you both like people instead of an inconvenience. He told you to head north and you both did so, later passing out in an open field no-man's-land until the big scary guy you avoid like the plague brought you here where you could have some shot at something better. Sound familiar now?"

I said nothing but just looked at the plate in front of me, now cold.

"We know about you and we know what you are, yet none of us had any problem taking you both in. You've been helpful in your own ways and everyone appreciates it-- yes, even Riv. He could certainly have just left you both out there to suffer on your own and we could have pushed you right back out that proverbial door the moment you opened your own creepy eyes that first morning if they were such a problem. Except, you know, they're not, so we didn't. We know what that's like, so why would we do it to anyone else?"

"...You know what it's like?" I asked, a bit incredulous.

"You don't know much about any of us," Saffron swallowed the last scoop of peas. "We didn't think it was important so we didn't want to burden you with those things."

"Burden me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Think back to the way people reacted when Huot was brought up. I was there when Sura told you not to go back there, and that how things were there wouldn't happen here. People don't say those things or act that way for no reason."

I picked at the food on my plate, having lost my appetite. Something welled up in the pit of my stomach where my hunger had been and felt like a punch in the gut. Without looking, Saffron took notice.

"There won't be any food until tomorrow morning so I really suggest eating, even if you've let it go cold. It's definitely better than nothing and we're trying to avoid waste."

I gave a shallow nod and attempted another bite. Saffron looked up to the yellowing sky, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath as his ears flattened again.

"Just to get this out of the way-- Riv is why we're living in some old deserted town ruins and not in a large house back in Huot."

He opened his eyes again, but they looked different from any other time I had seen them. They were reminiscent of Sura's eyes from a few weeks ago, giving away that same strange sense of pain. I opened my mouth to say something, but decided against it.

"I really didn't want to be the one to tell you all of this and I'm sure there are details I don't have, but I think it's time you learn...why we're here."