“Grand, It's sure is great to see you again,” said Akira.

“It is you!” said Grand happily walking over to Akira and giving him a bear hug nearly suffocating Akira.

“Grand elder do you know this person?” asked the young interrogator still wary of the group of unusual people.

“Yes, I most definitely do! How could I not,” said grand releasing Akira from the deathtrap hug.

“So you will personally vouch that this group will not cause any problems for the clan?”

Seeing the way she spoke to Grand, Akira saw that she held great respect for him and viewed his words and opinions highly.

“I don't know the other people but they should be alright. No need to worry your little head about it, there might be a bit of commotion but that is just normal nothing new around here,” said Grand as turning back to Akira.

“So you did receive the letter I left with Delgar? The one with the directions to the clan. What took you so long to get here?”

“What letter?” asked Akira.

“Wait...don't tell me you never went to the dwarven town and met Delgar?”

“No, I did. I met Delgar when I was there and he even taught me the basics of blacksmithing and we cleared out a dungeon together when I was there.”

“Haaaah... that guy is forgetful as ever. I'll have to give him a good earful the next time I see him. No wonder you took so long to get here. I was worried something bad had happened after a month of not hearing anything. In truth, I was starting to think you would never arrive.”

“Grand, I am truly sorry that I have made you wait and worry for so long. It took a while to get here because one thing after another kept popping up. I can go into more detail if you would like.”

“No need, this is not the place for such topics we can do that later. I am just glad that you're safe.”

“Grand elder why does he keep calling you 'Grand'?” asked the young interrogator.

“Ah yes, I sorta gave him a false name when I met him in the Kingdom of Beorin. I wasn't sure if he was the right person I was looking for at the time. I didn't have enough time to tell him my real name due to the trouble we ran into while we were escaping.”

“Wait, your name isn't grand?” asked Akira.

“Yes, my real name is Wulfric. I am bad with coming up with secret names so I just chose something easy like Grand from the fact that I'm a Grandfather. Get it Grand...Grandfather? Hahaha,” Wulfric laughed quite hard at his own corny sense of naming for over a minute.

Both Redbeard and the young interrogators face were red from embarrassment not for themselves but for Wulfric and his terrible jokes.

“I see, so you're a grandfather. Who's the lucky person that gets to have you as their grandfather?” asked Akira ignoring Wulfric's odd sense of humor.

“That would be the young miss who has temporarily taken over the job of clan chief until the elders decide on the next leader, and... I am also your grandfather,” said Wulfric quickly speaking the last words as if it were nothing.

“What!!” asked Akira and everyone else in the room including Redbeard and the young interrogator.

“Haha, that's right! Akira, I am your GRANDFATHER!” Wulfric said the later part in a very serious and deep voice.

“NOOOOO!”

“What?”

“Oh, it's nothing. I just thought it fit the situation,” said Akira brushing it off.

“So I do have a family? This feels weird since I have been alone for so long. If you're my grandfather then what is my relationship with the young miss you spoke of before?”

“The temporary clan chief? She is... Your little sister! Hahaha!”

“Little sister?... Can you take me to meet her?” asked Akira.

“No need! You already have met her! Hahaha!” said Wulfric pointing at they young interrogator.

“Mouuuu, Grandfather why tease me and everyone like this! Hello my name is Azura,” said the young girl while pouting.

Akira along with his companions were all shocked that she was his little sister. He had not paid much attention towards her before but now he stared at her to take in all the details he had missed from his first inspection.

She seemed to have a haughty but noble-ish feel to her. Akira thought it was cute to watch her puff out her cheeks and pout. She had a pair of cute dimples that added even more to her cuteness.

She also had something in common with Mileena...but better not mention that since it might be a taboo with her as well.

Overall his assessment was... she is just too cute! Maybe he was a bit biased now that he knew she was his little sister.

Were they really related? How unfair! It looked like she got all the good genes and he was stuck being average!

Maya laughed at this unexpected situation. “So now you're a real brother. You have two little sisters now!”

“Two little sisters?” asked Azura with a sharp glint in her eye looking at the two Nyantails.

“That's right when were at the capital of the mermaids the little princes would not stop hanging all over him and calling him big brother. What are you jealous?”

“No, it's just that I'm the only little sister that my brother needs. No one else!” said Azura loudly.

“Heh, heh someone is jealous,” said Maya.

“Haha, the little miss is jealous!” said Chack wanting to join in the fun.

Azura gave him a death glare and shouted: “I'm not!”

“I lie! You are jealous, but I won't say you are because I don't want to be eaten!”

“Grandfather, Azura, I would like to get to know you more and understand more about the clan, my parents, and so much more!” said Akira.

“Like I said before this is not really a good place to talk about such things. Azura take him to our house and wait for me there. The rest of you since you are friends of Akira's you may stay here as long as you don't start any trouble. You Nyantails are in luck. There are several other families from your race that came to live with us for a while. So you should be able to fit in well with them I'll arrange some guest rooms for everyone,” said Wulfric.

“It looks like I'm not needed here so my job is done. Grand elder, it was nice meeting you again,” said Redbeard.

“Be sure to tell the clan chief I said hi and not to be such a stranger. Haven't seen him since the last tribe meeting,” said Wulfric.

Redbeard left the room and gathered the roaming werewolves under his command and without another word headed back towards the trading post.

Azura led Akira out of the dark building into the hot and humid outdoors.

Akira took a moment to scan the surrounding area since he had been blindfolded when he had arrived.

As far as he could see was all dry land with lush green plants everywhere. Large trees populated the whole place.

There were only a few rough buildings that Akira could see. Nowhere near enough for a whole clan to live in.

“Not exactly what I was expecting when I hear town,” said Akira looking for other people and buildings.

The only thing he saw was a bunch of wolves running around. They must be the ones that sleep in that building back there.

“Hmph you're looking in the wrong places,” said Azura while pointing up.

Akira's head looked above and was rendered speechless. Hundreds of houses and walkways were built on and between each of the large trees.

A whole city was built in the trees!

“Hmph! It's nothing much just our current place we are calling home,” said Azura proudly puffing out her small chest.

Akira was taken to a large tree where a rope ladder was hanging. Azura began to climb up towards the city above.

Akira just stood there looking at the city. Thousands of new thoughts and questions were buzzing in his head.

“Hurry up!” shouted Azura.

***

Bonestringer paced back and forth in the dark hallway outside the main meeting room of the 7 heads. He was worried about the report he had to give and did not want to be here right now.

“Bonestringer come in!” the voice of Number one boomed out into the hallway.

The doors opened without anyone pushing them revealing the darkroom inside.

Bonestringer walked into the room and stopped in front of the 7 heads.

“This had better be good. What do you have to report to us?” asked Number 2.

“Gulp...Well you see...whoever entered my lab killed all my test subjects and...stole the gem. I don't think it was the lizards as they knew nothing of it when I interrogated a few of them,” said Bonestringer who had started to sweat buckets even though the room was almost as cold as a winter blizzard.

“What!? You lost the gem! You useless piece of trash!” Yelled number 3 his anger soaring.

“How could you be so careless with such an important item!” asked Number 6.

“Do you know how bad of a mess up this is? You know that we are at an important stage in the research and this will cause major delays if it is not taken care of!” said number 5.

“Get out of here and go find the gem don't return until you have found who has it!” ordered Number 2.

Bonestringer hurriedly scurried out of the room grateful that he was still alive. The door slammed shut behind him with a loud bang.

***

Akira was walking next to Azura following her to where here house was while trying not to look at the ground.

“Akira, wait up!“ an unfamiliar voice call out him.

Akira turned around to see someone running over to them using the various winding and crisscrossing pathways from tree to tree to get to them.

Akira was able to see that the person who had called out to them was a tall skinny man with glasses with his age somewhere around the same as Akira.

The man stopped a few paces away and bent over panting from having run all the way over to them.

“Uh... Do I know you?” asked Akira.

“Just ignore the idiot,” said Azura.

The young glasses guy stood up straight and pushed his glasses all the way back up onto his nose.

“Azura, don't be so mean to me!”

“Klyn, how did you find out that Akira was back,” asked Azura.

“Fred was talking about it when I was passing the tavern earlier. Anyone with ears knows that someone named Akira is back. But only a few understand the significance of his name, I am one of them! I decided to come and see for myself if it was true. So here I am!”

“Hmph! That damn Fred has such a big mouth. Don't tell anyone yet as I have to clear up a few things with my brother. I'll be calling everyone for a meeting sometime later to inform everyone of the news. So you better keep your mouth shut,” said Azura threateningly.

“Sure wouldn't want to anger the little temporary clan chief now would I.”

“Excuse me! Just who are you?” asked Akira.

“My name is Klyn!”

“No not that I already know your name. What I want to know is how you know me?”

“That's because...I am your childhood friend!”

“Huh?”

“What are you disappointed I'm not a girl? I know that all the stories make the long lost friend of the main character a girl and then they both get into a super lovey-dovey romance. Well to bad! I'm a guy and nothing like that is going to happen,” said Klyn pushing his glasses back up.

“I don't want anything like that to happen either! I barely even know who you are!” said Akira slugging Klyn in the stomach.

“Yup it truly is you my childhood friend always impulsively punching me in the stomach like when we were kids.”

“I don't remember any of that, and I don't even remember you!” shouted Akira.

“I would like to say I'm saddened that you forgot me but I can't say I'm shocked with the bad memory that you have,” said Klyn.

“I can remember things just fine, thank you very much,” said Akira.

“Stop arguing you two. See, I told you just to ignore him he is an idiot that only reads books and can barely even pass the monthly physical training. Hmph!” said Azura.

“Hey! Little miss barbarian who are you calling an idiot? I am not like you. I can use my brain to fix problems I don't need to use brute force to solve everything!”

“Hmph! So what if you can spout stuff from books you have read. I'm done talking with you! Brother come! We're leaving,” said Azura pulling on Akira's arm.

“We can talk later and catch up on things when you have time,” shouted Klyn.

“Go away!” shouted Azura pulling Akira with her as they ran to a large house near the center of the city built in the largest tree.

She opened the door and pulled Akira in slamming the door shut behind them.