Just before the fist was about to collide with his face he moved his head backwards, seeing the fist move past his face. He then grabbed onto it with his remaining hand, feeling the futile resistance of the one who had tried to punch him.

"What a nice greeting," Zane stated mockingly.

He turned his face to take a closer look at the one who tried to assault him. He had two light green eyes and short snow-white hair. His eyes were filled with both tears and anger. The man wore a light brown-yellowish shirt, the same colour as Viola's dress. The collar was decorated with light green scales that became rainbow coloured at the spots where the light hit them. Hanging beneath them were white feathers that also lined the hole for the arms. His pants were of a much darker brown and his shoes were made of black scales.

"H-How dare you!" the man shouted at Zane, his spit flying everywhere.

In the corner of his eye, Zane could see Mira look at him with fear in her eyes. Zane looked up at the man with a cold look in his eyes, then he tightened the grip he had around his hand. He immediately saw the pain on his face.

"L-Let go, let go, let go, let go," the man said, trying to get Zane's hand off with his free one.

Zane let go, making the man fall onto the ground.

"Blake!" another, smaller man said loudly when he saw Blake fall to the ground.

The man ran towards Blake. He had snow-white hair as well which he wore in a very long ponytail. One of his eyes was light green and the other was a milky white.

Ilmar?

He wore similar clothing to that of the other man, the only difference was that he had no scales on his. Crying now came to his ears from the door where four more people stood. One of them was Viola. The other was a, compared to all the others there, tiny man with black hair and brown eyes. He wore the same clothes as Blake. Next to him kneeled the woman with the incredibly long hair, wearing a similar dress to that Viola wore, the only difference were the scales decorating hers. She had both of her hands pressed against her face and was sobbing loudly.

"You made mom cry!" Blake shouted from the ground as he jumped back up, preparing to punch Zane again. "So, so many times you made her cry!"

He became louder and louder with each word.

"Stop!" the woman on the floor shouted before Blake's fist could collide with Zane's face. "I don't want my children fighting with each other!"

Blake stopped right before he hit Zane in the face.

"Why would you defend him now?" Black asked loudly. "He made you cry so many times while we were looking for him!"

"I know! I know," the woman on the floor said.

She now got up and approached Zane who was still laying in bed. The sad look on her face pained Zane. He felt as if something was crushing his heart.

"I'm . . . I'm sorry . . . for just leaving," Zane said, staring down at the blanket that covered him and tears running down his face.

Why do I feel so guilty now?

The guilt continued to crush his heart as his mother wrapped her arms around him and embraced him.

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

"I understand," his mother said with a caring voice.

"What!?" both Ilmar and Blake shouted at the same time.

"Stop it boys!" the man with black hair said loudly, stopping the two men in their tracks.

Guess my family is fine then.

Zane's mother now ended the hug and got up from the bed. He looked up into her light green eyes. The next thing he felt was a biting pain on his left cheek. His mother had slapped him with all her strength. He felt his cheek throbbing from the biting pain.

"How dare you just run away!" his mother screamed with tears in her eyes. "Do you even know how much you worried us!? How much it pained us to see that empty bed!? For how long we searched!? Just to come up empty-handed!? Do you have any idea what you did!? To us!? Your Family!? And especially to me, your mother! And then we suddenly hear from your uncle that you appeared in the village! All that just so we could hear that you had left again! And now the hunters find you with some girl and a missing arm! How do you expect us to feel!? Can you even explain this whole mess you're in!?"

Zane listened as his mother screamed at him, her snow-white hair flying around as she hectically moved her body. His father and siblings were just silently watching the entire time and in the corner of his eye, he could see Mira look at all of them with a look of fear on her face.

"I . . . I'm sorry . . . for everything," Zane said once his mother finished her lecture.

"A sorry doesn't always fix things, especially not when you've been gone for fifteen years," his mother said, now much calmer but with tears still running down her face.

"I know . . ." Zane said, looking down at the dark blanket.

"But no matter what," Zane's mother said, turning to her two other sons standing behind her. "I don't want my children fighting one another!" she continued, raising her voice.

Both Ilmar and Blake nodded quickly, their eyes slightly red from the tears.

Zane's mother turned back to him, her eyes were even redder than those of his brothers.

"I think you know that I don't want to hear any excuses. For now, I'm happy that I just got to see you again. Now tell me . . . who is this girl?" she asked, looking at Mira with a look in her eye that Zane couldn't quite read.

Mira looked around confused for a few seconds, then pulled the blanket higher to cover more of her body.

"I-I'm Mira . . . Mira Vermillion," she said after a short moment of silence.

Zane could feel her fidgeting around on the bed.

"A Vermillion!?" Zane's father and mother said at the same moment.

Zane's father immediately ran up to the bed and stared at Zane.

"How did you get one of . . . them here?" he asked with a concerned look on his face. "Y-You didn't kidnap her, did you? Oh if Holvin finds out about this . . . if he finds out you're here . . ."

"Don't worry dad," Zane said. "I didn't kidnap her."

"Oh good," his father said with a look of relief on his face.

The anger Zane had seen in his eyes before was now gone as he looked at Mira with great interest.

"I also . . . didn't not kidnap her tho," Zane said, a bit quieter.

"What!?" his father immediately shouted. "What did you do!?"

"I think it's better if I don't tell you," Zane said as he got out of bed.

He now stood there, completely naked. Both Mira and Viola immediately looked away and he saw his brothers avoid looking at him as well. This was when Zane noticed how much taller he was than anyone else in his family. Even his older brother, who had always seemed as tall as the mountains. But now, now he was nearly a head smaller than Zane.

"W-What are you doing?" his father asked.

"I need to take a bath," Zane said as if nothing was wrong.

"At least cover yourself up," his mother said, handing him a piece of underwear out of one of the drawers.

It was tight and didn't fit properly but was enough to cover Zane up.

"We'll get the two of you some clothes, for now, you two should take a bath," his mother said.

She clapped her hands which made both of his brothers follow her out of the room, even though it was quite reluctantly.

"And no scales!" Zane shouted after them as they all left the room and Blake slammed the door shut.

How nice of my dear brother . . . ah who am I kidding I deserved all of that.

"W-What was that?" Mira asked carefully.

"A family reunion of the worst kind," Zane said with a sad tone. "Anyway. Let's go take a bath."

He walked over to the mirror, slightly lifted it up, and then pushed it in, revealing a small passageway behind it that led to a bathing area.

"Why is it hidden?" Mira asked confused by what she just saw.

"My uncle loves hidden passageways, the entire village is littered with them," Zane replied as he went into the bathing area.

He heard Mira get out of bed and walk over to the hidden door. She then entered the bathing area after him. The inside was similar to the bathing area in the Vermillion mansion. There was a natural hot spring in the ground and a hole in a ceiling that had been covered up with a wooden roof where the steam could escape. The walls were decorated with the bones of basilisks and a large skull hung from the wall, its four empty eye sockets directed at them.

Zane sat down in the warm water, leaning back. Mira got in after him and held her tails in front of herself.

"Why were they so angry?" Mira asked.

"Didn't I tell you that I ran away? Well, that was . . . a little over fifteen years ago now . . . I was twelve then," Zane said, looking up at the wooden ceiling far above them. "That was my family, my brothers Blake and Ilmar, my sister Viola, my mom Lilia and my father Darion."

"Must be hard for them, seeing you like this for the first time in fifteen years," Mira said, fidgeting around in the water.

"Yeah . . . I kinda wish they were a bit . . . a bit angrier at me you know," Zane said. "It feels like my mother forgave me too quickly . . ."

"I think that's just what mothers are like . . . they love their child, no matter what," Mira said.

"You might be right about that," Zane said.

"But w-what I'd l-like to . . . know. Why are all of you so tall?" Mira asked.

"They say that our family has giant blood. But no one knows if it's actually true, I mean that would have happened long before the time of our great ancestor," Zane said.

"Giant's blood? So d-does that mean you live longer as well?" she asked.

Zane nodded.

"I heard my grandfather died at the age of two hundred," Zane stated.

He could see a bright smile creep across Mira's face for a second.

That's how long they live, isn't it? I guess she really wanted that to be true . . . this will become difficult in the future. But for now . . . I don't even care.

Zane leaned back even farther and slowly let himself slide deeper into the water which quickly engulfed everything but his face.

"H-How long do you think it will take . . . for someone to get us?" Mira asked after a short while of silence.

"I'd guess around a month," Zane said. "Maybe sooner if Ishtar is the one getting us."

"Good . . . good," Mira said.

"By the way . . . what about your . . . problem?" Zane asked, staring up.

"Oh . . . it should be o-over in a few days," she said.

Even while not looking at her Zane could perfectly picture her face before his inner eye, red from embarrassment. After a while longer, when both of them were done washing themselves they got out of the water and dried themselves with one of the towels they took from a shelve that was embedded into the wall of the corridor that connected the bed-chamber with the bathing area. They stepped back into the room and looked at the clothes on the table.

Two nearly black coats and clothes that resembled that of Zane's brother Ilmar and his sister Viola, adjusted to fit their sizes. The left sleeve of Zane's shirt had been cut off and there was no opening.

At least they listened to me.

"By the way, why did you say you don't want any scales on the clothes?" Mira asked as she inspected the skirt they gave her.

"It's a cultural thing. People who wear the scales of the same basilisk are a couple. And since usually people who aren't a couple don't see each other naked, let alone sleep together in the same bed I expected them to think we are a couple," Zane explained as he put on the clothes they had given him.

"Oh . . . right," Mira said as she did the same.

There was a slight disappointment in her voice that Zane couldn't help but hear.

Why do you have to make it so hard for me?

Once they were done putting on the clothes they stepped out of the room and onto a wooden walkway that connected the building they were just in with another. Zane looked down at the massive village that had been built within a massive, hollow mountain. It was open at the top.

All the building were made of stone and wood, connected by one of the many streets, or one of the many bridges or walkways and elaborate staircases. Some buildings had been stacked on top of one another so high that they nearly touched the natural walls the mountain provided them. Some even did. The walkway they were on was built against the rocky mountain wall just like the two buildings it was connecting. Beneath them, Zane could see more buildings.

"Welcome to the Boriamus village," Zane said when he saw the surprised look on Mira's face.