Gathering
The child stood and tugged the Ynnwn boy to his feet, the sudden rise making the Ynnwn's rags nearly fall off, revealing no clothing underneath. He scrambled them back across his body and looked at the other child, a beat of sweat dripping down his face. The child turned around and walked back toward the crowd, ignoring what he'd just seen, the Ynnwn boy dragging his feet as he followed. When they reached the other boys, all eyes were on the Ynnwn, looking at him suspiciously and tiredly as their arms strained from carrying the meat so long.
One of the children looked at the boy that helped out the Ynnwn. "Are you sure about this?" he asked skeptically.
"Let's give him a chance." the child replied, looking back at the Ynnwn boy, who was glancing at everyone silently.
"Fine, but take back your share. I'm tired of holding it," another boy said, dumping half of the meat he was carrying in the child's arms. The boy looked at the young Ynnwn, moving his arms to hint that he wanted him to take some of the meat as well. The Ynnwn didn't get the hint and just stared at it, his mouth drooling. "Take it, ya idiot!" he yelled, thrusting his arms to hurl the meat at the Ynnwn's chest. He caught it, but then fell down as laughter filled the air. "Oh come on, this kid's pathetic!" the boy taunted.
"I apologize..." the Ynnwn said, standing up and looking down at the bloody meat in his hands.
"Come on, we have to get out of here before someone sees us with this corpse!" one of the children suggested, everyone but the Ynnwn boy nodding to his words. They started to run, the Ynnwn boy stumbling with the sudden change of pace. He regained his balance and tried to catch up with them, being a few meters behind as they ran, and constantly being distracted with the sight of the meat in his hands.
They arrived at a poorly-built structure that looked like it was about to cave in. One of the children walked up to the door of the structure and held the raw meat in one of his arms as the other turned the knob, the door falling over when he applied force to push it open. "Hey Rilos, didn't I tell you to fix the freakin' door!?" the child shouted into the darkness of the building. He walked inside, everyone else following him with small laughter. Once progressing a few steps into the building, they could see candlelight, and they proceeded toward it. Finally reaching the source, they dropped the raw meat in a pile around the flame, and scattered around the building. The Ynnwn boy watched them all walk around, and looked down at the meat still in his arms, letting it fall to the floor with a sigh.
A few more candles lit around the room, and soon the entire building was illuminated. The Ynnwn boy saw two new faces, the rest being the same kids he'd been running with earlier. There was another boy in the corner of the building, sitting there absent-mindedly. One of the kids approached the boy in the corner, his face showing anger. "Rilos, get off your lazy ass and do something around here! I'm tired of you always sitting around and doing nothing! We're always feedin' you and takin' care of you, the least you can do is pay us back a little, huh!?"
"Leave me alone," Rilos said slowly. The Ynnwn boy walked closer to them, looking at the boy who was yelling at Rilos. He turned back to the pile of meat, walking back over to it and picking up a piece, returning to Rilos and crouching down beside him, offering the aliment in his hands. Rilos looked at it, then looked up at the Ynnwn boy with a smile. "Thank you," he said, taking the meat and nibbling on it, returning his eyes to the wall.
"What're you doin' you idiot!?" the other boy asked, glaring at the Ynnwn.
"You all helped me when I was helpless, so I'm passing it on," he replied.
"Ugh, whatever!" the boy said, walking off toward another part of the building. The Ynnwn looked back at Rilos, pulling his rags back around him after realizing he'd been letting them fall.
"Who are you, anyway?" Rilos asked him.
"I...don't know," the Ynnwn replied, looking away from his rags and back at Rilos.
"You don't know your own name?"
"No."
"Then I'll give you a name. How does Suno sound?"
"Suno?" the Ynnwn boy questioned.
"Yes. Around here, not many people like to use their real names, anyway. I use mine, but most of us don't trust each other enough to give away our real names." Rilos clarified.
"Alright then," Suno nodded.
"Get over here!" a voice commanded from the other side of the room. Suno and Rilos stood and walked over to the rest of the boys, Rilos still nibbling on the meat he was given. The boy who cast the voice looked around at everyone as they were assembled in a hastily-formed horizontal line in front of him. "We have a new recruit here with us. Everyone introduce yourselves." All eyes went to Suno as he stood apart from everyone else. When they spoke their names, they stepped forward.
"I'm Scott," one of them said, stepping back again.
"Druzult," another said.
"Kor," the boy that helped Suno earlier said, repeating the actions of Druzult and Scott, stepping back out of the line.
"Ulrich."
Rilos nodded to Suno. "Rilos Kyntr," he said, stepping back afterwards.
"Hank," the last boy in line claimed.
The leader of the meeting stepped around everyone else. "And I'm Gary, the leader of this group," he said with a laugh. Everyone else sighed and shook their heads except for Rilos, who was staring off in a random direction. "So who're you?" he asked Suno.
"Oh, uhm...my name's Suno," Suno said weakly.
"Welcome to the club, Suno," Gary said, putting his hand on Suno's shoulder. Suno wrapped the rags closer around his body, eying the dirty hand that was touching him, his eyes then wandering around the room to see everyone else; his new family.
