I try to keep it calm, looking between Rune and Dad to maybe figure out what they’re talking about. Rune’s making small gestures back to the woods, at least I think from this angle given that he’s behind Gao. Dad looks, kind of thoughtful, though not in the way he does when Aryan’s asking him questions. Instead it’s sort of like when one of us has done something bad and he’s trying to think of a good punishment. Except, kind of in the middle? Thoughtful and about to punish someone? Doesn’t make sense.

            Looking back at Rune doesn’t really make it any easier. It’s hard to hear the clicking over Mom telling Ayran and Krael to stop gawking at Torre and eat their dinner. Not to mention he’s not gesturing at the forest anymore. Now he’s making long sweeping lines in the dirt next to his meat, and it’s hard to see over Gao’s front legs and the window frame.

            I still have no idea what it means or what he’s trying to say, but Gao’s just looked and looked away. His wings twitch a bit but he’s not really doing much else. Speaking of which, Rune’s just kind of fluttering his own wings a bit, but not in a nervous way. It’s sort of like a pattern now that I look, but again, I have no idea what any of it means. For all I know he’s making comments about Torre and Casvar. Cazhene seems to have taken note of whatever’s happening here, though if he understands any of it I’d be pretty hard-pressed to actually find out from him, either from asking or just looking.

            And Rune’s just looked at my dad and jerked his head at me. Did he see?

            No, look down look down…pretend to eat and for the love of everything don’t choke on your food.

            I look up a few moments later just in time to see them looking at each other again, though while Rune looks like he’s asking something, I can’t read Dad’s look. Mom’s also looking at Dad before looking away to answer something Krael had asked her, and I’m looking away again so she doesn’t catch me staring. No one else seems overly concerned about what’s happening, though I think Salem and Boron are looking too, while trying their best not to look.

            Yeah, Salem definitely is, I just saw him looking up at Rune. Maybe I can get to talk to them after dinner before he goes back with Shoren to their cave. After all if they’re all going to gang up to keep secrets…

            I still end up saddled with clean up duty; Mom and Dad definitely haven’t forgotten about yesterday. Hopefully Salem and Shoren won’t be leaving so soon, though Boron at least I can talk to if that is the case (He’s still in the kitchen helping us put things away, and I’ll be done before him so there’s still time.). Still, people leaving is not the point of ganging up!

            The thought was enough to make me run to the window to head them off.

            “Salem, can you wait for a few minutes, I want to ask you something.”

            I caught his ‘um, sure’ before I ducked back inside, going back to attack the dinnerware with a new vigor, as I’ve heard Dad say. Mostly it’s getting the blood and other bits off, so Krael can dry. I try to rush through them so Salem won’t have to explain to someone why he’s holding off on leaving. Not that I really doubt his lying capabilities, but given the fact that Mom and Dad are still clearly remembering that I’m in trouble I think it would be easier to not give them another reason to be upset. Like poking into something that they’re talking about that obviously concerns me. Which is frustrating, and I really, really wish they wouldn’t do that. I mean really, it’s not like I’m not here and can’t see what they’re doing.

            For wanting me to learn and grow up, they seem to like treating me like a child.

            When I get the last dish done, I do my best to signal to Boron that I want him to go outside when he’s done. Don’t know if he will actually come along, ‘cause Mom’s been saying that he’s getting to an age where he tends to want to be alone more often than not, but he seems to listen, glancing over at me as I point to him, me, and then out the windows at the steadily darkening clearing and forest outside. Better hurry otherwise we will definitely be getting some odd looks from the older folks.

            I’m leaving the kitchen nearly the moment after it’s clear no one else is going to throw more work at me tonight, and though it’s tempting to just go through the windows I know that I’m less likely to get noticed and pulled into something else if I just use the door at the other end of the room. Casvar might not have a brain about this sort of thing, but I at least remember that Mom doesn’t like it. So I don’t and go out to the backyard through the door, thankful to see Salem still waiting a little ways away from the window, waiting with Shoren, and Casvar.

            Oh wow, this should be interesting.

            “Hi, Kal!” Salem calls, red eyes immediately catching me out when I step outside. The smallest, and he’s still got eyes as good as the rest of them. My eyes aren’t as strong, figured out through lots of trial and error in regards to spying games and hide and seek, but Dad had mentioned once that Salem’s eyes and his were probably best for seeing in the dark. When I asked why he said it was because they were Dorchadrak, a kind of dragon that can hunt really well even during the nights when there’s no moon. It’s something that even Gao, who can see things very well even when they’re far away, can’t do that well.

            But speaking of my dad…

            “H’lo. Did any of you see anyone…doing anything strange at dinner?” Might as well test the waters a bit, given that both Casvar and Shoren were kind of bad liars and if anyone was going to break under questioning it would be them. Casvar because he’d blurt something out, Shoren because he’d get nervous and panic.

            “Well…” Salem trailed off as he looked to Casvar, who stared back with a stare that could have probably stripped bark off of some trees.

            “Stop that. I know what you’re going to say. Stop it.”

            Salem quietly snapped his jaw shut, gazing back with an innocent look.

            “D-Don’t really think I saw anything. Torre was making a mess, b-but he does that every night we eat here.” Shoren stammered, voice slightly whispery. Sometimes it’s hard to hear him when he speaks, though when one of us has to ask him to repeat himself he tends to just stammer more. It makes his wings shake something fierce, kind of like they’re connected to his voice in some way, though when I mentioned that to Gao, he said it wasn’t true, that it just happens because of nerves. I guess it’s like when I get in trouble with Mom and Dad, though I don’t see why Shoren thinks he’s in trouble so much. He hasn’t done anything wrong.

            “I did see-. Hi, Boron!” Salem jumps in again, and I twist around just in time to see my brother come out to join us.

            “Hi, did you see what was happening with Dad and Rune?” I ask before remembering that Shoren and Casvar are still there. Whoops.

            “Yes.” Boron replies as he sits down. “Do you know…?”

            “No, they’re keeping secrets. They looked at me though so I know I’ve got something to do with it.”

            “Are you sure?” Salem asked, head tilting as he spoke.

            “Yes, I saw Rune look at me and do the head thing when he’s trying to point something out to someone. He was doing it at me though, so I was what he was trying to talk to Dad about, I know it!”

            “Are y-you sure it wasn’t a-about yesterday?” Shoren spoke up, quietly, though that for a dragon means what Mom calls normal conversation volume. Shoren might not be the biggest like Dad or Cazhene or the loudest like Torre and Casvar, but he’s still hard to miss.

            Though that is a thought. Maybe people are more upset about seeing me than I had immediately thought, it’s not like I would know if they were or weren’t. Going back to Kryoto wasn’t really something I could do, not without getting Mom and Dad pretty angry with me given everything.

            Also, if people were upset about seeing me, well then there’s an entirely different reason not to go back. Not much point in going somewhere where you’re not wanted, right?

            And Mom did say that I might end up getting killed, so there’s that too…

            Did that mean that the people in the village would try to kill me? Why would they even do-?

            “Kal?” Salem suddenly asked, cutting through my thoughts and drawing me back to the meeting. Somehow, I was glad for it.

            “Huh? Sorry, what?”

            “I was asking if they did anything else. Just because they were looking at you doesn’t mean they were really talking about you.”

            “Uh…” I hummed for a moment as I tried to remember what else had happened during dinner. “Rune was drawing in the dirt, where Dad could see it but I couldn’t. I think he’s already erased the marks though, so we can’t look at them. Wait, he also kept pointing that way, I think? I couldn’t really see.”

            “If you couldn’t see then how do you know?” Casvar suddenly asked, head tilting like a bird’s. Boron too looked at me, and I knew I better have an answer otherwise no one was going to take me seriously. How did everyone older than me make this meeting thing look so easy?

            “He was behind Gao, I only saw bits and pieces of what he was doing, and I couldn’t just ask Gao to move so I could see.”

            “Why?” Casvar asked, and I had to stop myself from groaning; he wasn’t going to make this easy. Thank everything, Salem and Boron had an answer for this one.

            “If she asked him to move, it would have made them notice that she was trying to see.”

            “And if they were trying to keep it a secret and thought we were listening in, they would just get sneakier.” Boron finished, Casvar quietly mulling it over before giving a nod, his wings briefly stretching outward in a kind of shrug.

            “Alright.”

            “Uh, so, what do we do?” Shoren broke in, his head lowering down to be right with us, his sort of snake-like body curled around to ring our little meeting.

            “Ummm…” I mumbled as I tried to come up with something. What could we do? It wasn’t like we could confront Dad or Rune, Dad because he probably wouldn’t tell anything, and Rune because he couldn’t really tell us anything. It was definitely a problem, and one that I think Dad never had to deal with. Or Mom. Maybe Gaotail, or Torre, but I think they’d already left so there was no time to bring them in.

            “The only thing we really can do is wait for them to do something else.” Boron broke in, looking between everyone as he spoke. We all stop for a moment, and to be honest I really have nothing in regards to how to go from here.

            “KAL! BORON!”

            “CASVAR!”

            Yep, that’s Mom, and there’s no mistaking that booming shout, even though we’re all tensing at hearing it. That’s a thing when you don’t yell that much, you’re even more terrifying when you do. At least we got a few minutes to talk.

            “Bye!” Casvar hollers as he runs across the field and around the house to meet Cazhene, better go to him than have him need to come seek you out after all. Especially when he sounds like that. Mom we can get a few more moments on at least.

            “Bye, let me know if you see anything else!” I say to Salem, who I catch nodding as I turn to run back to the door. Windows are going to need to be shut, and still don’t think Mom would appreciate me going through them. Boron’s right on my heels, and I make sure the door doesn’t close on his tail when we come in.

            “Make sure you wash up, you two!” Mom hollers from what she calls the ‘heart of the kitchen’, gesturing at the door heading out into the hall. Meanwhile Dad’s working on closing the shutters to the big windows, and Boron and I immediately run for the second floor so we wouldn’t get his attention if Mom yelled again.

            Despite our curiosity, we didn’t want that close of a look at whatever plans Dad and Mom might have. Me especially, chores really aren’t that much fun and if I go another round with the beans I might end up completely destroying them and the dirt they came out of.