It was early in the morning and the sun was just starting to rise, Sin found himself sitting by the river that ran a bit away from the camp. It was quiet not even the sound of birds chirping in the morning could be heard only the soft flow of the river and Sin found peace in that, It was the only thing that kept him calm as he tried to understand the drawings that were on the paper, but it was hurting his head to try and figure it out.

He had been walking around the camp the day before trying to avoid running into people but was very unsuccessful in that, when he passed a tent he heard a woman talking to a child in a tone he understood. But words he could not and the child was drawing it all on the paper that he now held in his hand. He found a stick and started to make the drawings in the sand by the river, it was a bit dark but he could see well because of all the time he had spent moving in the dark.

"Run along the river." Sin jumped at the sound of a voice and spun around as he shoved the paper in his pants pocket, he looked up at the bear man that stood across from him and bared his teeth stepping back causing the older male to sigh. "That is what the drawings mean, it's words that make up a sentence and the sentence is run along the river." The bear man tried to explain it in a calm tone and only got a growl in reply before Sin was running back into camp and the man sighed.

He picked up the bucket he had been carrying and quickly dropped some water before heading back into camp, he went into his tent and saw that his children were still asleep as his wife was now stretching the sleep from her bones. He poured some of the water into a cup and passed it to her so she could drink quickly before he took some water for himself. His wife looked around the tent and then looked at him "Where is Sin, did he run off again?"

The man shook his head "no I just saw him by the river and when I tried to talk to him he ran back into camp so he's around here somewhere." His wife nodded and stood up saying that they should bathe and prepare before their kids woke up and made it hard for them to get anything done. He nodded and went to fetch their things so they could head to a small lake that was across the river, where they would brush their teeth, bathe and wash their hair.

When they were finished they his wife took a seat by the entrance to the tent brushing her hair so she could pull it into a tight braid, he took a seat next to her. "We need new cloth to make some clothes for the children and some other things that we can't find out here, so we're going to have to go into the nearest town and get some things." The man nodded as his wife took the brush to his hair and pulled it in a short braid wrapping it up on his head when she was done.

"Oh and when we're bathing the children I need to give Sin a bathe as well, he's starting to stink, so good luck catching him, I don't care if you knock him out because I need him clean so I can get new clothes for him." The man frowned and sighed before nodding to what his wife had said, he would have to try and catch a child as he would an animal and it didn't sit well with him. The children woke up an hour later and the mother's in camp were quick to round them up so they could take them to the lake.

The children were stripped and sent into the lake the smaller ones having to stick close to the end as not to drown. Fen's wife took her time scrubbing her children down and washing out their hair before she scrubbed their teeth, she rinsed them down and then dried them down before getting the dressed. She sent them back to the camp with their aunt and her long ears twitched as she heard a loud scuffle going on between four persons.

She looked around when the rowdiness got closer and saw her husband and his two brothers fighting to drag Sin to the lake, the boy was wet from being dragged through the river and was fighting as if they were taking him to slaughter him. She frowned and stood up going to where they were as Sin dug his feet into the dirt refusing to go any further. They were able to hold him still so she could place her hands on his face and he fought until their eyes met and a wave of calm rushed over him.

She took his hand and led him over to the lake, she helped to discard his clothes and the helped him to get in, he sat down in the water and she picked up a bowl dipping the water so she could pour it over his head. She took the soap and a rough cloth scrubbing him down from head to toe, she paid extra attention to his tangled hip length hair and combed it out as she washed it. When she wa finished she got him out of the water and dried him down before she put him in some of her husband's clothes that was a bit big on him but would have to do until they could get him new ones..

She was able to put a few braids in his hair and pull it up in one before he slipped out of the calmness and he stared at her with furrowed brows. She watched him with a smile and he slowly stepped back before he turned and ran back towards the camp. "Something is wrong with that poor child, someone ruined what he could have been and now he's like a wild animal that's trying to protect what remains of himself." Everyone agreed with what she said "I feel sorry for using my magic on him, I hope he's okay."

Her husband came and pulled her into a hug trying to reassure her that Sin was as fine as he was ever going to be, they all headed back to camp and she joined the other women in preparing breakfast for the camp. The men got to work on other chores and the children made up little games to play with each other as they waited on breakfast. Sin sat by Fen's tent by himself just watching on at the people as they did different things but he was more interested in the food than anything else.

The women were soon finished and begun dishing out food for everyone handing the plates out, Fen's wife had to take a large plate over to Sin who gave her a strange look and waited for her to set down the plate and retreat before he began eating. Soon everyone was finished eating and the mess was cleaned up, Sin watched as Fen's wife whose name was Bai moved around the tent collecting their dirty clothes before she headed out to the river to wash them.

He followed her from a distance and stopped a few feet from her when she took a seat next to the river, he watched on as she begun washing the clothes, using a rock to scrub them. Bai smiled silently as she felt young Sin's eyes on her back, she liked that even though the child seemed ruined he still had a bit of child like curiosity in him. He was able to keep some of the curiosity because of his ignorance but she figured even if she made him less ignorant her would still be like a curious child because that's just how he was.

When she was finished she went to the the back of the camp and set up some wood to hang the clothes on and then went back to the tent with Sin still behind her. She went back to the river and sat down, listening for when he would sit down and then she closed her eyes and pictured him in her head. "Do you want to learn, Sin?' she didn't have to move her lips to speak and she also didn't have to look around to know that Sin had heard her.

She had heard him when he jumped in shock because of her voice that echoed in his head, she knew he was looking at her when she had spoke through her mind and he was confused as to how she did it. "My mother always told me the reason I could do this was because I had a stronger connection to the gods than anyone else, but I always just thought it was luck." She didn't get a reply because she knew that Sin couldn't understand most of what she was saying but she just felt like talking to him.

"My mother taught me to do all the things I know to do even a bit of fighting, she taught me to be smart, she taught me to hunt and she taught me what I would need to do when I had children of my own. If you want Sin, I can show you how to read and write and then maybe you can understand everyone and life would be a lot easier for you. Maybe one day you could own a home and have a family of your own and prosper in life but that will only happen if you're able to understand it."

She picked up a stick and wrote his name into a sand "Your name is Sin, a quite unfortunate name but it is what you know and one of the things that truly belongs to you, so this is how you spell it." She traced over the letters of his name pronouncing each one aloud, continuing even when she thought he was getting closer. Soon she could feel Sin's breath on her arm as he leaned over to watched her trace his name in the sand.

"Your name is Sin and this is the first letter of your name, S." she said pointing to it "I'm not sure if you've ever seen a snake but when they move around that is the shape it makes." She repeated it over and over until she heard Sin trying to say it, he got the sound a snake made first before he got the pronunciation of the actual letter and he seemed pleased with himself as he waited for her to move on to the next one and she happily did so.