Wyatt assumed that he and Craven were the only ones in the woods, so he was reasonably surprised that there were eight more people—and perched in the trees of all places.
"Captain…" one of the shadows called out menacingly. "You were supposed to introduce us ten minutes ago, stupid."
Jumping down from the trees, a young man came crashing down and fell directly on Craven.
Craven and the young man began wrestling on the ground, occasional insults spewing from the young man's mouth.
Soon, all the new figures came down from the trees. Well, almost all—one of them still remained up there without a care in the world.
"Hey now, let's not act all rowdy in front of our newest member. After all, it would get me mad. And you know what happens when I get mad, don't you, Captain? Randy?" a cute young lady with pink hair said with a smile.
Even though she said it so nicely, Craven and the young man looked like they had seen a ghost and stopped immediately.
"Good," the pink-haired girl said sweetly. "Now introduce yourselves."
"Name's Randy. Strongest person in the group—"Randy could feel the glares of death coming from the pink-haired girl, so he quickly corrected himself.
"—strongest guy in the group."
Before Wyatt could respond to Randy, another person was already up in his face.
"I'm Tai, nice to meet you. We haven't had a new kid in a long time, so you must be strong. Otherwise, the captain would've never let you join, right?" Another girl with short brown hair introduced herself. "Oh, and up there is my twin brother, Lung."
She pointed up into the trees where they had all come from.
Out of all the eight shadows, the green-haired teenager known as Lung was the only one who didn't come back down.
Lung greeted Wyatt with a simple "Yo," then closed his eyes, probably sleeping.
Wyatt was still wondering if he had made a mistake when another person—a blue-haired teenager—walked up to him and gently took his hand.
"Hello, I am Julius the Third, charmed to make your acquaintance. And yes, I am beautiful, but do not let it intimidate you."
Julius bowed lightly as he introduced himself to a bewildered Wyatt.
"Julius… you're not rich, you idiot," Tai and Randy said simultaneously.
'Creepy…' was what was running through Wyatt's head as Julius left to go talk to the captain.
It was still running through his head when a very large man came in front of him.
"I'm Bob," he said. It was barely audible, more of a whisper.
Then he walked off to meet the pink-haired girl from earlier.
"Hey," a blond-haired, good-looking kid called out to him.
"Hey…" Wyatt replied hesitantly. He was a bit surprised someone let him speak.
"I'm Callum. Nice to meet you, Wyatt."
Callum introduced himself and shook Wyatt's hand.
'Finally!!! Someone normal…' Wyatt shed internal tears.
"Unfortunately, I'm more of a healer for the group. I'm not really strong," Callum revealed shyly.
"Oh…" was all Wyatt could say.
Their conversation was cut short when a little blonde girl came tugging on Wyatt's trousers.
"And this is Annie." Callum patted her on the head.
"Hello, Wyatt," the pink-haired girl said from behind him.
Wyatt jumped with a shriek.
When did she get behind him?
"I'm Candy. Let's be friends, okay?"
She took his hand in both of hers with a smile.
Wyatt kept looking between where the large man had stood—her former location—and where she stood now.
How did he not notice when she moved?
"If you want to live, don't get on her bad side," Callum whispered to Wyatt after she left.
"Huh? What do you—"
Before Wyatt could ask, Callum was already walking away, whistling.
'What's his deal?'
"What were you guys talking about?" Candy asked from behind him again.
"NOTHING!!!!!" Wyatt replied quickly—and loudly.
Candy smiled before looking in Callum's direction.
Callum flinched grandly, then looked away and whistled even more obviously.
"The Dark Bulls? And you guys keep saying 'group.' What does that mean?" Wyatt asked in confusion.
"Oh, it's just what we call ourselves," Tai explained. "We're all children the captain adopted."
"But we're all strong," Randy continued, flexing his muscles.
"Well, almost all of us." He side-eyed Callum.
"The next time you get injured, you better go meet Candy," Callum stuck out his tongue.
"Anyways, since we're strong, we decided to be a faction," Randy ignored Callum and continued.
"An 'unofficial' faction," Candy corrected.
"Whatever. So I dubbed us the 'Black Bulls,'" Randy said, flexing even harder.
"Because he was poisoned by mushrooms and kept seeing a black bull. He almost died," Tai revealed with a laugh.
Everyone joined in.
Randy, embarrassed, deflated his pose and went to bicker with Tai.
'This Craven guy… he just goes around adopting kids?' Wyatt thought. He had assumed he was the only one Craven helped.
After talking with the group a bit more, Wyatt strangely felt good.
Felt more at home than he ever had.
Wyatt had never had a home or a family, and everyone usually looked at him like he was a beast.
He sat on his own for a bit, letting it sink in that he was no longer alone, it all felt like a dream.
"Nice trinket you got. Where'd ya get it?"
Craven came and sat beside him, clearly referring to the silver locket around his neck.
"It's been with me for as long as I can remember," Wyatt said with a pained smile.
"I'm assuming it was from my birth parents since it was with me when I appeared at the orphanage."
"Hmm," Craven hummed thoughtfully. "It's nice."
But he couldn't shake the feeling that the engraving looked familiar.
"Thanks," Wyatt smiled, then looked away.
"The strange things ya mentioned… that happening to ya," Craven said after a slight pause. "We're gonna have to do something about that."
"Like?" Wyatt gulped.
"Calm down." Craven patted his head.
"For starters, we could test ya out. From what you said, you sounded really powerful. Maybe I could help you keep that power in check."
Wyatt thought about it for a while but before he could answer, Bob walked over.
"Candy says it's time to leave…" he said quietly, then walked away.
"Best not waste time, it'll make her mad." Craven stood and followed him.
"Where are we going?" Wyatt asked, holding his head. A slight headache had started.
"We're going back home. What, you think we live in the forest?" Craven winked.
"Okay…" Wyatt pressed his head harder now. "Just give me a moment to clear my head."
"Just make sure Candy, doesn't come get ya herself." He chuckled.
After Craven left him alone, Wyatt rubbed his head more and more.
His 'slight' headache had become serious.
Suddenly, he stopped.
He looked up with a devious smile. His eyes glowed red.
The glowing-eyed Wyatt looked back at the group and licked his lips.
"He has quite the strong essence."
The person he was staring at was Callum.
The glow faded quickly.
Wyatt scratched his eyes.
"That was weird."