Sarphi didn't appreciate the fact I didn't follow along with her train of thought. She had let me return back to the others and go on watch whilst she moved and cuddled up with Prin. I was the last one on watch, with Senka falling asleep on my lap. I watched the sun rise over the trees with a crimson glow, which unsettled me immensely despite the beauty.

We didn't have much of a plan when we continued walking along the barely seeable path. It had been worn down by the weather and years of use. But I was still stuck in my thoughts about what happened here. The person said that the trap had been used years before we came here. I didn't know if that meant they were dead, and somehow were revived to tell me of my unfortunate kidnapping, or if they were still alive. If they were alive, then that didn't bode well for us, as they seemed to be a very powerful person.

Sarphi hadn't said a word to me, and I felt like Prin and Aknon knew something was up. We were usually the two loudest people in our group, bouncing off of each other as we joked and talked about anything random. This walk was silent, which only made me more agitated. It got to the point where I pulled out my guitar and began strumming and humming, just to fill the silence.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Aknon asked suddenly, turning to face us. I would've figured that he'd enjoy the silence but that didn't seem to be the case. He always told us to shut up and that every moment didn't need to be filled with chatter, but he appeared more grumpy than usual. "What did we miss?"

"Nothing" I replied automatically, which immediately told him that he had missed something rather important. "We just had a small disagreement."

Senka scoffed and yawned, stretching her limbs out, which looked very odd. I still wasn't used to her being a sentient doll, as I kept imagining the beans inside of her body moving like a nervous system. "Yeah right, if it were nothing then you would have told me good morning this morning." She huffed.

"We were awake this morning," I pointed out. "We woke up at four in the morning after our sleep was needlessly interrupted."

"It was your turn to go on patrol," Sarphi defended herself. "Or night watch, or lookout or whatever you want to call it." She crossed her arms and pouted.

"Prin asks if that was the case then why did you end up cuddling her?" Senka translated and wiggled her eyebrows. "Was someone a bit lonely?"

Sarphi blushed and stammered. "I was not lonely." Her voice was weak, and we all knew what that meant, at least I thought we all knew as I glanced over at Prin. She looked completely unaware of the hidden meaning behind that, as she just gave a concerned look to Sarphi.

"Look, nothing happened. We had a disagreement over what a crack in a wall looked like." She wasn't wrong, that was what we'd argued about, but there was far more than that. She didn't seem to want to tell the others, so I remained quiet, even when Aknon burst into laughter.

"Seriously?" he asked. "Out of all the stupid things you two have argued about, this is what causes silence?" The more he spoke, the more laughter escaped him until he was almost bent over, clutching his stomach in pain. "Oh, I should've used this years ago if this was all it took."

"Shut up, Aknon!" Sarphi yelled after a long while of his laughter, causing us all to go silent. Tears filled Sarphi's' eyes and she stormed off ahead of us, sprinting.

Onyx followed quickly after her with a bark, leaving a trail of darkness behind him. "Wait!" Senka called to her as Prin ran past me. I figured that Prin was the one who wanted Sarphi to wait. Prin couldn't keep up with Sarphi at all, but she was putting up a good try.

The path was flat, so it really wasn't possible for them to go out of sight, which was a very big positive. I didn't mean to upset her this much, but maybe she'd been thinking about what she told me for the entire time Aknon, and I were down in that trap.

I held tightly onto Aknon, so that he could lean on me if he had to. He wasn't the kind who wanted to rely on others, so I knew he was suffering unnecessarily. But I didn't mind so much when he frowned at Sarphi's' back. "She's really upset," he stated blankly, before his tone became accusing. "It can't just be a simple rock."

I grumbled under my breath before sighing, I couldn't keep anything from him. "She thinks that there are more people like us." My voice was monotone and a little bitter, which was rather unusual for me. "I told her that it's just a coincidence, nobody out there could be like us."

"Acer, you're an idiot." Those words didn't usually hurt, but these ones did. They hurt because I knew it was true. "She had hope that there's someone out there who understands her, who isn't related to us."

"They could be related to us for all we know," I argued feebly. "What if it's just genetics wanting to screw us over because we're that unlucky? What if we're the first in a brand of mutants?"

"Then Sarphi would be right and there would be people who understand." Aknon shook his head. "That's what she's after, knowing she's not alone."

"But she's not!" I exclaimed far too loudly. "She's not alone, she has me and you. And just because we look like this, it doesn't mean that she can't have friends or people who like her. She's perfectly happy right now with Prin." Even though she was far away from us and probably crying her eyes out. "I don't see why we need this validation about what we are. We know who we are because ...because it's us." I really didn't know what I was trying to say. It was difficult to articulate the fact that we made ourselves. It didn't matter if people thought that we were monsters or evil, because we knew that we weren't.

"That doesn't matter." Aknon shook his head once again. "You know, not all of us like to believe in the delusion that we're special and unique. Not every one of us thinks that we were born this way to entertain or see it as some useful bonus. Some of us really hate this and need reassurance that we're not monsters." He pushed himself away from me and limped forward.

Great, now I had both of them angry at me. This happened rarely, but it's getting more and more often now. They all walked ahead of me, so far that I couldn't hear them, but I could see them clearly. Even Senka seemed to want to be away from me as she moved around me, going from my shoulder, down my arm and to my bag, and then my coat pocket. She was acting so restless it was driving me insane. The feeling of her moving by herself, the beans sliding within her little doll body, made me shiver.

"Go on then," I grumbled. "Go and talk for Prin." I crouched down so that she could jump out of my pocket.

"Thanks," she said in a slightly energetic voice as she sprinted over to them, crawling up Sarphi's boot and trouser leg. Disappearing under Sarphi's distressed and torn skirt.

I was feeling very grumpy and miserable as I looked at our surroundings, thick trees on either side and a simple road to follow. I wondered when we'd actually get to the caves, and what would happen after Sarphi and Aknon got their answers. Would they become normal? Would they simply abandon me to go and live their own lives amongst regular people? Would Sarphi go and have a life with Prin and make a little tavern or inn? Would they have a little bakery and adopt a little one? Would Aknon go to school and be treated with the respect he deserved whilst I continue my travels all on my own?

These thoughts made my mood even worse, turning into a very large cycle of self-loathing and worry. I didn't want my siblings to leave me, obviously, we'd always only had each other but I feared that wouldn't be the case if I remained as I was now, and they gained normal appearances. The thought of them desperately wanting this felt insulting to me, even though I knew it wasn't their intention.

After around half a mile of walking with a rain cloud over my head, I stopped and glanced around. "Does this road seem strange?" I asked loudly.

The others turned to me with frowns on their faces, and I'm sure I didn't look much happier.

"What are you talking about?" Aknon asked. "If you're just after attention then-".

That stung, and I knew that showed on my face. I was the kind of person who would do that, sure but I was being serious right now.

"I don't think there's anything strange," Sarphi said begrudgingly as she glanced around. "It's long. It's dark. It's like other paths we've gone along."

"It's very long," Senka said in an exasperated voice. "So long, so long that I'm getting tired." I didn't know if she was joking or not. But she'd pretty much hit the nail on the head.

"Exactly," I agreed, clicking my fingers and putting my guitar back in my bag. "It's long, it's too long."

"It's a road, how can it be too long?" Sarphi questioned, but her voice got quieter and quieter the further along in the sentence she got. She slowly turned to our right and stopped walking. "Haven't we seen that rock before?"