Chp.9: The answer is no!

Darbi waited for a while before turning back. Rhaegal's words kept echoing in his head, and actually Darbi couldn't blame him entirely.

Haku wasn't bad, he knew it for sure: he had always worked hard for them and he had done everything to keep them alive. Sure, he'd made some questionable choices, but everyone could make mistakes, right? But he had to admit that his brother often didn't realize how big an impact his actions had on those around him. Darbi doubted that Haku didn't know the difference between healing a wound and making it worse, like Rhaegal said... but he certainly didn't have it very clear in his head.

Haku was a pragmatic creature and reasoned almost exclusively with logic. This was good, because it had allowed him to devise great plans to ensure their safety. Unfortunately, however, this logic didn't allow him to notice those nuances in his behavior that could hurt their siblings.

Ok, now Darbi knew what the problem was; the trouble was, how to fix it? He certainly couldn't get into his brother's head and change his personality. But he had to do something, and he had to do it quickly before things escalated.

When he returned to the others, many of them were already packing up their things. Evidently they were preparing to leave: it was natural, since they could not stay too long in one place. Darbi looked for Haku with his eyes, but he was the one to find him first: "Oh, you're back. Where were you?" he asked, appearing in front of him almost suddenly.

Darbi pointed towards the pond. "I went to drink some water with Rhaegal"

"I know that, but he's been back for a while. What were you doing?"

"I was just taking a bath. Why, what do you care?"

"I care! I was starting to worry for you, brother"

"Why? You said it yourself, there's no danger around here. Or do you start to doubt of your nose?"

Haku fell silent for a moment. "Yeah... you're right" he said rubbing his temple. "Sorry, I think I overreacted"

"Yes, you did" Darbi said shaking his head. "Haku, stop being so apprehensive. I know we aren't safe here, but you don't need to constantly know where all of us are. We can take care of ourselves and we aren't your responsibility"

"Of course you are my responsibility! You are my family!" Haku snapped in an annoyed tone.

"Yes, but you're not..." Darbi was about to say 'our mother', but he fell silent before letting those words come out of her mouth. "... our big brother or something. We are all the same. Each of us is responsible for ourselves. We support each other, but we don't need to inform each other about everything we do. Stop to think of us as YOUR family and think of yourself as part of the family instead"

Haku looked a bit dazed by those words. "I don't think I understand the difference" he admitted after a few moments.

"Yeah, I figured so" Darbi replied as Rhaegal's words flooded back into his head. In fact, Haku really seemed to view the family as it was a possession of him. Darbi was sure that his brother didn't do it with malicious intent, but he couldn't blame the others for feeling uncomfortable with such behavior. "Just stop wanting to be in control of everything, okay? You can worry if I disappear for a day or two, but you can't lecture me because I've been on my own for half an hour"

Haku had a strange expression. He seemed to be trying to understand Darbi's reasoning and at the same time he was a little annoyed by those words. But in the end he just said: "I guess you're right. Pack your things, we have to go"

"Wait! Did you ask the others if they want to rest a little longer?"

"Uh? No. We can't stay here too long, we have to continue taking advantage of the hours of light"

"Okay, but don't you think it would be better to ask the opinion of the others first?"

"When I told them to prepare, they started to do it. If anyone had any grievances they would have voiced them, don't you think?"

Darbi sighed. His brother really didn't realize that he kept acting like he was the boss or something. Kotaru was right to say that as much as Haku was a genius in any field, in terms of social relations he understood practically nothing.

Should he have said him what Rhaegal had told him? He wasn't very sure. He didn't know how both of his brothers would react if he spoke. Part of him hoped that Rhaegal and Haku would just sit and talk face to face, but the rational part of his brain didn't believe that would be the case. First, Rhaegal would be angry with him for spilling his secrets, and Darbi would risk tearing their family even further apart. As for Haku... Darbi wasn't sure how he would react if he knew what Rhaegal and the others really thought. Darbi wanted to believe that Haku would use that information to improve the situation like he always did, but something inside him told him that the exact opposite would happen.

In the end, he decided it was best not to say anything for now. He risked doing only damage by speaking out of turn. He would have asked for advice from Kotaru, who understood certain things better than him; and only then would he decide what to do.

The group of dragons thus resumed their journey. After just an hour they finally reached the border between the two countries; they would have arrived sooner if they hadn't stopped to rob the adventurers, but at least they were here now. The border turned out to be a rocky and barren plateau, in the middle of which just a few tufts of grass and a few solitary trees were sticking out (although this was probably due to the arrival of the cold season: the soil didn't seem too infertile, therefore it was probable that in summer that area was covered with flowers, mosses and lichens). That was the ideal ground for the dragons: walking on the rocks they avoided leaving traces and when they wanted to rest they just had to find a stone big enough to be comfortable, without having to build a bed.

As Haku predicted, they didn't cross any humans or beastmen in their path. They were too busy fighting elsewhere and those unable to fight would not have ventured there. All they found was a few adventurers now and then, who were easy to avoid using invisibility runes. Otherwise the only signs of civilization they found were some fortresses in the distance, or in the case of those on the beastmen side some fortress remains. They were quite small fortresses, so they were probably just guard posts to control the border.

However, danger was always lurking. Keeping their overdeveloped senses active to the max turned out to be a winning move: at one point in their journey, in fact, they almost ran into a large tiger. Haku suspected its name was baheko tiger, since that name was on the list of animals that they stole from the adventurers. The tiger was considerably larger than a wolf and possessed a large mouth full of sharp fangs; his coat was red and black and had some thorns protruding from his shoulder. The feline was salivating constantly, a sign that it must be very hungry, and as the dragons passed by it seemed to become alert. As they'd imagined, it wasn't enough just to disappear from sight to trick the senses of predatory animals. Fortunately the dragons knew how to hide their scent and their tracks and managed to get away without being discovered by the tiger. None of them wanted to face her: the feline was a little smaller than them, but probably like wolves and all the other animals they had met up to that moment, it would have been able to use mana very well to defend itself. It was better not to risk a direct confrontation.

When they were far enough away and deactivated the invisibility runes, however, Sisna suddenly said something: "Guys, I think maybe we should capture the next adventurer we find"

"Why should we do that? We'll only expose ourselves to unnecessary danger" Haku replied.

"Yes, but I think we should know the beasts that are roaming around here" Sisna said. "That tiger almost smelled us just now. We don't know what he could have done if he had discovered us. So I think the best thing to do is to capture one of those adventurers and let us explain the characteristics of these animals. By doing this we can prepare ourselves for a possible fight in the future"

Haku was about to reply again, but Teramon gave her support to their sister: "Sisna is right. We'd be more relaxed if we knew what we were getting into"

"Yeah, she is right"

"I'm agree with that"

Many of her sisters seemed to agree with Sisna's idea, but Haku wasn't at all of the same opinion. "Don't even talk about it" he said. "There are no places here that can hide the screams. We couldn't torture an adventurer, or they'd hear us from miles away. And humans will notice his disappearance"

Sisna seemed a little intimidated, but continued to defend her idea: "There are dangerous beasts around here, aren't there? We just need to chew the corpse a little to give the impression that it has been attacked by one of them..."

"Right, I forgot. There are dangerous animals around here. So not just the humans, but also the wandering beasts will hear the screams of our prisoner, not to mention the smell of blood. They will rush at us like a swarm of flies on the honey" Haku grumbled.

"We could use less invasive methods to interrogate him" Sisna said again.

Haku almost chuckled. "And how would you like to do? Ask him politely?"

Sisna was clearly offended by his teasing tone, but she didn't give up: "We could blackmail him. Let's also capture some of his comrades with him and threaten him to kill them if he doesn't confess. With Sarpa it worked"

"We had luck with Sarpa. He was bound to his son by a very deep bond. A team of adventurers wouldn't be at the same level" Haku said. "Forget it. In a few weeks at the most we will have reached the desert. It makes no sense to expose ourselves to unnecessary risks. We will continue to avoid wild beasts thanks to our senses, as we always have"

"Couldn't you at least consider our sister's proposal?" Teramon scolded him.

Haku was starting to get annoyed. It was a stupid idea, why consider it? It should have been clear to everyone. "I had thought of this idea too, and I've already evaluated all the possibilities we have. We can't interrogate an adventurer, not in this open space. So stop it, my answer is no"

"May I remind you that you don't..."

"I SAID THE ANSWER IS NO!"

Haku didn't realize he raised his voice until he saw his sister jump. He hastily apologised: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have screamed. But we can't do that. There's no sense in risking exposing ourselves like this, so we'll continue with the original plan. We'll just have to be a little more careful than usual to avoid the dangerous animals, It won't be much different than usual. It's certainly better than risking unwanted attention"

His sister nodded. "Yes, I get it, Haku. Sorry, it was a stupid idea actually" she said with a little tremor in her voice. It seemed like she finally figured it out.

"Good" Haku said, then looked up at the sun in the sky. "We still have a few hours of light left. Let's go on over there" and he pointed to a very large rock in the distance. "We'll stop there to sleep. Let's go"