(This is the first chapter that I ever wrote for Beats For a Family. I'm leaving it up as a momentum to how far I've come in my writing and my characters and in the weaving of this story.

Original date published: June 15th 2020)
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           We crouched in the foliage as two men in black suits approached the clearing. They looked at the ground tracing our footsteps from earlier, I heard Kin hiss next to me as one of them spoke in an oily voice. 

"P-2 definitely came this way, but whose could these footsteps belong to?" The passive voice of the other man spoke, "Nobody we can't kill. Don't worry about it.".

I gulped, that wasn't good news. I wasn't a fighter, I could scout really well and sneak around, but the only fight training I had was when me and Kin sparred. I'll admit I never won against Kin, and I don't expect to in the future. 

I heard Kin and Rook shuffle and mutter some curses, displacing some leaves in the process, at that I flinched. The men in the suits immediately looked up at where we were hidden and the oily voiced one pulled a crossbow out of nowhere. I scurried across the branches and curled up in a pod of bangle leaves. I knew I was safe because of the leaves' thick fibers but I was worried about Kin and Rook. I heard the oily suited man yell,

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

I scooted closer to listen in and heard the calm voice of the second man,

"If your going to be suspicious of the trees; do it properly" 

Not even a second later, I heard something firing and a crossbow bolt whizzed past me, gracing my cheek, and landing with a thunk! in the bark next to me. My headphones went off the charts, whining in my ears that something wasn't right, sensing my adrenaline rush. Despite all that, I managed to stay perfectly still, and heard Kin approaching me from up ahead.

"Wait! Stop and think for a sec! Kin!" I hissed

"Why not!?" You might be bleeding to death!" He whispered

"Stop talking! I'm fine but you won't be if you keep this up! Shut up!" I quietly retorted.

"...Are you really fine?" His voice so quiet, I had to strain my ears to hear him.

"...I…Sure." I manage to whisper back.

"Stay safe." And with that I hear him quietly stalk away.

After an hour or so of listening, I snuck out if my cocoon and backtracked my way to Kin and Rook. When I finally saw them instead of just hearing them, Kin tackled me with a hug. I hugged back in surprise, whispering in his ear,

"Did you really miss me that much?" 

"No," he half sobbed back "I just thought I really lost you there…"

"Hey it's ok, and even if I did die. You would've just punched them in the face right?" I said trying to lighten the mood. 

I will admit, I thought I was going to die too, but that's in the past. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rook eyeing us skeptically, I did not like that look. I mouthed 'stuff it' and left it at that.

After that, he pulled away laughing a bit under his breath, I pushed away the hair that was covering his face and looked to see if he was okay.

"Hey look at that," I teased. "Your eye is glittering and rainbow. Seems kinda girly for you, huh?" 

He started sputtering in the most hilarious way, making me cackle, "I-I! What!? No! Screw you, you-you pampered llama!" 

I heard Rook quietly laughing from the side and laughed harder after seeing the glare that Kin shot her. It was then that Kin noticed the scratch on my cheek from the bolt.

"OK WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!?" He exclaimed in surprise.

"I honestly don't know how you took this long to notice." I replied. "It's not like I was hiding it or anything!"

"Y-yeah well I was just worried! Here let me fix that up for you." He replied, flustered.

"No it's fine I got it." I answered and pulled a first aid kit from my backpack...and the curry.

"Oops I forgot that was in there…" I jokingly said.

"Well I'm not that hungry anymore you want it Rook?" I offered.

She took it without a word and proceeded to devour the dish. I took a bandaid and stuck it on my cheek.

"That'll have to do for now, at least until I can get a magic healer to do some proper patching." I said lightly. "Now, let's get going, me and Kin have to be back home by sunset. I'd say we have two hours more until we have to head back."

Kin stepped in. "So anything you need us to do asap, now is your chance."

"I don't need anything right now, but I've been dying to ask what the heck is going on with you two. Like, you guys must have some sort of powers or something." Rook studied us, narrowing her eyes at Kin especially.

"Ok fine, we'll talk. But you should put your mask on before we leave the tree cover." Kin said quickly.

Rook puts her mask on and we start to hop down the tree.

"I don't get it." Rook suddenly says. "How are you guys so good at treehopping?"

I grin at her, "Practice. Lots and lots of practice. Also fall out of a hecklebird tree a couple times and you'll learn." 

As we reach the ground, I can tell the Rook has something on her mind by the way she was shuffling her feet.

"What's up?" I question. 

"Well, I was wondering how you could sense they were nearby" She said pointing to me.

"I was also wondering how you pulled out those scary claws" She continued, glaring at Kin.

I answered first. "It seems we haven't introduced ourselves. I am Beats and I have these cool headphones that let me sense people's location and strongest emotions. However, my family is the only one who's able to do this because of weird genetic reasons. Thi-"

I was cut off by Kin who for once wanted to talk about himself.

"I'm Kin and I'm essentially part blaster or something."

"But which part of you is part blaster? Because it certainly seems that it's affecting your personality" Rook replied.

"Fine, I'll do it your way." Kin retorted and glowed a soft purple. Within a second, Kin had his signature horns, ears, tail, and claws. 

"Are ya happy?" Kin sarcastically questioned.

"Sure." Rook said non-committal as Kin faded back.

I interject seeing an argument bubbling."Anyways we need to ge-" but I'm interrupted by those guys in the black suits.

"Step away before I shoot!" Said the oily guy.

"Damnit." I heard Kin mutter under his breath.

I took a step back and pulled Kin with me, putting my hands up. I knew we could track Rook from a distance, I just had to hope that she could figure that out.

A calm voice spoke, his voice clear in my headphones. "Good, you will not speak of this or follow us. We know what you can do. We may not have killed you now, but we will next time, even if you are from wealthy families." 

I looked at Kin and he gave a slight nod. We immediately backed into the bushes that covered the ground until we were out of view. After that we jumped to the trees and eavesdropped on Rook and her captors.

"So you thought you could run away, pretty girl?" The oily one said, I could help imagine the disgust on Rook's face. The passive one stepped in with his cold words. "You should know that wherever you go we will always find you, no matter where you hide or how far you might be able to run, we will find you."

With that I heard them slink away and followed from the trees, hearing Kin behind me I commented, 

"Wow, what scum, let's go help her." The only response I got was Kin growling. 

After a while I saw them getting into a van on the edge of the forbidden forest. Seeing as it was dark now, I waited for them to get into the car before jumping off of my branch and rushing onto the car, hiding myself as best as I could. After hearing Kin giving an affirmative that he was under the van, I whispered for him to crawl over.

"There is a lock on the doors holding Rook! Can you pick it?"

"Yeah, gimme a knife and some time."

I take out and toss him my emergency knife and he begins to pick the lock in record time, I wonder where he learned that.

The van had come to life sending panic through me and Kin equally. I wait in anxiety until the lock springs open. I grab my knife from his hands and jump in, dragging Kin with me while he exclaims in protest. I glance around the room unable to see anything, however I sense a burst of hope come from the corner and slowly walked over.

"Hey Rook it's me, Beats. You okay?"

"Ymmrf." 

Wait a second, she's gagged.

"Oops I didn't know they would gag you, here."

I managed to cut it off without hurting her and slid the knife back into my sleeve.

"Thank you, for a bit there I thought you were going to leave me." Rook said in a rush.

"Weeellll, Kin might've left you, just saying. He doesn't like new people, no offence of course."

"Oh yeah Beats? I think you don't appreciate how dangerous strangers can be, especially masked strangers who follow you into the forest." Kin argues with a little salt.

"Before you both start bickering again, I need you two to tell me what's going to happen now that I can escape." Rook interjects

"Well it's simple hop out of this van!" I say

Even with the low visibility, I can feel the look that Rook is giving me, one that I have seen time and time again. A look that I loath with all of my being 

"You know that we are on a highway right now in the middle of the meltwater district, right?" Rook says with disappointment lacing her tone. 

"No." I mumble bitterly

"We can still jump off the van, y'know." Kin said in a voice that was clearly trying to be bored, but this close to breaking. I know he could see the hate in my eyes from that look. He was trying to make me feel better but failing miserably.

"C'mon, let's just go" I manage to say after a long pause. I can feel the displeasure radiating from Rook's corner. As I turn to leave, Rook stands up and shuffles behind us. 

I pushed open the doors and was greeted by the sight of the rushing roads and the few cars still out and about. At least not a lot of people were going to see us escape. I start to prepare my jump, and see from the corner of my eye Kin doing the same. As a strong wave of uneasiness took hold of Rook.

"What's wrong?" I ask, not willing to stay mad at her forever.

"This isn't the most rational thing to do… Maybe we can think this over and look at all of our options? Maybe..? She hesitantly answered.

"It's going to be fine, can't you use those wings of yours?"

"No*" She replied dully.

"Oookkaayyy, ignoring that. So, the plan is me and Kin go first, and then you will jump out after us and we will catch you!"

"We need to go, save the chit-chat for later." Kin interjected.

I start to count down, "three, two, anndd, ONE!" 

With that we jumped out the back doors of the van, it was breathtaking, really. Kin had managed to boost me by pulling my arm as we launched. We landed in the bush that ran alongside the road and after being momentarily dazed, we quickly saw Rook jump too. I jumped up to my feet and dashed to catch her. Seeing that Kin was a bit slower I put on an extra burst of speed to save Rook. 

When I finally intercepted her trajectory, Rook landed in my arms with an 'oof!'. I couldn't hold her and fell onto the ground. When Rook clutched my shirt and started sobbing it was an understatement that I was surprised.

"R-Rook!? W-what are y-you doing!?" She continued to sob,

"I-I was j-just so s-scared… I-I t-thought I w-was g-going to d-die… T-thank y-you… B-Beats…"

I heard Kin finally catch up to us. I sensed a wave of hatred consume him and raised an eyebrow. He just looked away and said,

"So what now?"

A/N

Hello! Well isn't this a long chapter? I actually switched the page number setting on to see how many pages I managed to write. I gotta say I did not expect four pages of words (I write in docs then copy-paste into Wattpad). The crazy thing is I didn't even write until my goal, but then again I twisted it up a bit :P. So thank you to my brother and those who make funny stories that keep my inspiration and moral up! This chapter (more like book tbh) is for you. Also, shout-out to the Outer Wilds Ost and Stormheart Official, their music is the only thing keeping me sane at this point :).

Try not to get a cold *cough cough*

-Flaff

Ps. 2268 words :)