Chp.10: The true intentions of Rhaegal and the others

"Darbi? Darbi! Wake up!"

"Mh? What?" Darbi opened his eyes sleepily. It wasn't the light that welcomed him, but the darkness, a sign that it was still night. He rubbed his lids to bring his surroundings into focus, and he saw Rhaegal in front of him. "Brother? What...?"

"Sssssh! Don't raise your voice!" Rhaegal whispered to him almost putting a paw in front of his mouth to silence him.

Darbi was somewhat confused by this behavior. But when he was able to fully awake and his mind returned to full throttle, his body tensed. "Are there any enemies nearby?" he asked, expecting an affirmative answer. From his point of view, the only explanation for being awakened in the middle of the night could be that the lookout had sighted a group of humans or other dangerous creatures.

But Rhaegal shook his head. "Not exactly" he said, shifting slightly, allowing Darbi to see what was happening behind him.

Darbi saw that all of their sisters were standing and that some of them were waking up Kotaru too, who looked pretty confused as well. The only one that no one was trying to wake up… was Haku. Darbi had a bad feeling at that sight. "What are you doing?"

"Yeah, I wish I knew that too" Kotaru said rubbing her sleepy eyes.

Rhaegal bit his lip, as if he was making a great effort, then he responded: "We are leaving"

Both Darbi and Kotaru widened their eyes in confusion and concern. "What does it mean?" Darbi whispered.

"That we're leaving" Rhaegal replied, then pointed to their sisters. "All of us. We're leaving this place, now". He just looked up and looked at the sleeping Haku. "We are leaving him"

Kotaru and Darbi looked at each other. They both clearly had the same thoughts, they could see it in their eyes. "Do you want to leave without us?"

Rhaegal shook his head. "No. We are a family, and we must stick together. That's why we woke you up" he said. "Come with us you too. We can still stick together"

"And abandon our brother?" Darbi said. "How can you talk about keeping the family together if you leave behind one of..."

"He's not part of the family anymore!" Rhaegal snapped. "Darbi, Kotaru, I know you care about him. I care about him too, and I hate what I'm doing. But I can't stay here anymore. He doesn't see us as family, he sees us as servants". Behind him, their sisters nodded in clear agreement.

"Hey, let's stop for a moment. Let's all calm down" Kotaru said. "I know Haku can be a little feisty, but he doesn't see you as servants..."

"Maybe he doesn't say it out loud, but that's how he sees us!" Malchia exclaimed. "You saw it. He keeps giving us orders even after what happened, and when today Sisna came up with a plan that didn't suit him and Teramon tried to defend her, he yelled at her. These aren't the actions of someone who considers himself our equal"

"We love him too, but he's getting more and more dangerous every day" Finiar said. "We can't tolerate it anymore. We have to leave, now that we still have the chance"

Well, they couldn't blame them entirely. "I know it's a difficult situation, but please don't make any hasty decisions" Darbi tried again.

But Rhaegal shook his head. "It's not a hasty decision. We've been thinking about it for days"

Darbi was speechless. "Days?" he whispered. "When did you plan to tell us?"

"I tried to do that while we were together at the pond, but… I backed out at the last minute" Rhaegal explained. "I'm sorry. I know that I've been a coward... I think I was afraid you would tell Haku"

Darbi didn't know whether to be angry with his brother or agree with him because he had actually thought of spilling to Haku what Rhaegal had told him privately, and they weren't even his real plans. Maybe he wasn't exactly in a position to judge him.

"So you've been thinking about it for days..." Kotaru murmured. "And you all agree?"

Rhaegal and their many other sisters nodded in unison. "Some of us weren't sure at first, but we can't live with him anymore" Corgorin said. "We can't trust him and we can't sleep peacefully with him around. The way he forced himself on Sisna today was the last straw. Now we've had enough"

Kotaru and Darbi looked at each other with no hope in their gazes. Their siblings were really convinced of what they were doing. "And where will you go?" Darbi asked.

"We will follow the plan, of course" Rhaegal replied. "We know which way to go and we have everything we need to survive very well. We don't need Haku to guide us"

"So you're just going to leave him here?" Kotaru asked. "He may have behaved badly, but he's still our brother!"

"We won't leave him empty-handed. In his dimensional bag, he has all the supplies he needs. And we all know that Haku is full of resources. Even on his own, he'll be fine" Rhaegal replied, then he pulled a stone slab from the his dimensional bag, above which were engraved some phrases. "I wrote here what we did and our motivations, and I also wrote to him not to seek us and that we wish that he will be fine and will find happiness one day. If he really loves us, then he won't follow us"

"If he won't follow you, then he can't follow the plan either. Where will he go?" Darbi asked.

"Wherever he wants. On his own it will be easy for him to move. He could return to our mother's old territory, now that it is empty. Or he could go wherever he wants" Rhaegal replied. The idea wasn't silly: they too had considered using their mother's old territory as a refuge. They had rejected the idea because, unlike the Thul Oasis, it wasn't protected by several square kilometers of desert. Even if a bad reputation hovered over it, before the ten years necessary for them to become adults were up, surely some newcomers would have passed by there and spread the word that the passage was now safe. Therefore, it was safer to reach the desert and keep to the original plan. However, Haku could have safely returned to their mother's territory, and if he hid well he could have enjoyed years of peace and quiet before being forced to move.

Knowing their brother's intelligence, Rhaegal and the others weren't so concerned about leaving him alone. They were sure he would have been able to get away with it just fine. Probably after just a few days of discomfort he would have already thought of some new plan all for himself.

"And if instead he doesn't give up?" Kotaru asked with a frown. "What if he chases you? What will you do in that case?"

Rhaegal seemed to tremble slightly. "If one day we will see him arrive at the Thul Oasis, we will make it clear that he is no longer welcome among us. And if he will refuse to leave again... we will drive him out in the most appropriate way" he answered.

That was the option Rhaegal would have rather not take. He didn't like the idea of ​​having to fight bitterly with his brother, especially since he knew that Haku had many verbal and physical tricks that he could use. But if that would have been the case, they would have kicked him out the hard way. After all, there would have been many of them, while he would have been alone.

Darbi and Kotaru were discouraged and bitter. It just seemed like their siblings had thought of everything. They hadn't lied: they really must have been planning to leave for days. "So... do you really want to leave?" Kotaru murmured in a broken voice, looking at her sisters. "You too, Tikka?"

Her sister didn't seem to have the courage to look her in the eye. When she spoke, however, her tone was firm and confident: "Sorry, Kotaru. I know how much you care about Haku. I've tried to forgive him, really. But he keeps making the same mistakes. I'm not willing to put up with him bossing us around any longer"

The others also reacted the same way. None of them were willing to stay with Haku any longer. Not anymore.

Darbi lowered his head. "So... so this is it? You just leave us here?"

"No, brother!" Rhaegal exclaimed. "Come with us too. I know how much Haku is important to you, but it's not worth separating from the family for him. We can still be a united family, if only we want to"

"You would be safe with us" Sisna said. "We will protect each other, as we always have. Like siblings"

"And in any case, Haku doesn't deserve your support" Maleficent added in an angry voice. "You know he doesn't value you the way he should, and don't try to say that this isn't true"

Both Kotaru and Darbi knew their sister was right. Even though they were the closest to Haku, even with them he had a rather snooty relationship. When they tried to give him advice, he became stubborn and uncooperative. It was clear that he didn't even consider them his equals, but he thought he was above them. They had seen it several times, especially Kotaru.

But despite that, they both shook their heads. "Haku supported me when I needed help, both physically and emotionally" Darbi said. "I will not abandon him now in his time of need"

"Me neither" Kotaru said. "He fed me when I didn't even have the strength to stand on my legs without staggering. I can't leave him, not now"

Rhaegal sighed. "I was sure that this would have been your decision. Well, then here we say our goodbyes" he said in a saddened tone. "But remember that you will always be welcome at Thul Oasis. If you ever change your mind and come, we will be delighted to see you arrive. It would fill us with joy to reunite the family"

"Thank you" Kotaru said. "But our family will never be reunited until we are all together. It is 'everyone' also includes Haku. Therefore, if we will ever arrive, you will have to accept us all"

Rhaegal didn't seem to know what to say; he turned and looked at their sisters. Darbi and Kotaru didn't know what their siblings had said to each other with that exchange of glances, but when Rhaegal turned back to them he seemed to have had an entire conversation: "Let's go like this: if you ever get to Thul Oasis with him, and you will assure us that he has changed… we will discuss about it and perhaps we will give him a chance to prove it to us" he said. "It is said that experiences shape people. Maybe our escape will lead Haku to really realize his mistakes and become better"

He would have liked to add 'but I wouldn't hope too much about it', but he kept that last sentence to himself. After all, there was nothing wrong with giving others a little hope, right?

Darbi and Kotaru actually seemed happy with that answer. "Thank you, brother. Don't worry, I'm sure one day our family will be united again" Kotaru said.

"Me too. We just need some time to ourselves" Darbi said. "Take care of yourselves, ok? When we meet again, I want to find you all alive"

"Don't worry, we have hard scales and are very difficult to kill. We'll be fine" Rhaegal replied. "You two too, take care of yourselves. I know you can take care of yourselves, but I still advise you to always keep your eyes and ears open"

"Don't worry, we're used to it by now" Darbi told him. Then he lifted his paw and gave him a small punch on the shoulder. Rhaegal returned the brotherly gesture. "So... this is a goodbye"

His brother nooded. "Yeah. This is a goodbye"

"Not so fast"

Those words made everyone jump. They turn around and saw that Haku had one eye half open, and his pupil was focused on them. And inside that pupil it seemed to dance a hot flame.