Alongside those who are sinful.

Chapter 21

Dietrich scraped the last of the food from his plate, shoveling a spoon into his mouth. The mood had changed for the better since Kasma fainted, thank goodness.

The others smiled and talked, with Sehth'ker and Kasma joining in quite often. Katya and Hiroshi would bring insight and stories from their lives to the table, while Hudson, Kasma, and Sehth'ker would converse about them.

In all, it felt as if they were a family. A peculiar and strange family, but a family nonetheless.

"It is a change of pace. I have spent so long trying to stay away from others. But now, we are invincible. We cannot be stopped except by ourselves. I can take the time to learn about the others."

And so, as the man sat, he listened for a long while until the voices blurred into a rabble. His gaze fell upon Kasma and it rested there.

Dietrich took the time to study the felid, remarking that he had never spent much time identifying aspects of his charge.

Kasma was a dark grey in color, with a cream colored chest. The lighter fur poked out from under the low resting collar of his jacket, much like chest hair would on a person. He had a tail which was striped the closer it got to the end until it was as if it was dipped into a can of black paint.

When Dietrich had seen Kasma without his coat, he understood that the Thrask had stripes running across his body, similar to a tiger. They were black, and were strong in the arms and legs, yet they appeared to fade the closer they got to his chest.

His fur was soft, remarkably so. Dietrich got a good understanding of how soft it was when he comforted Kasma after his nightmare, pulling him in for a hug.

Kasma looked quite young, almost like a kitten that was still growing. Sehth'ker had stated that he was a very attractive Thrask for his adolescent age. Dietrich did not like hearing that and made sure that Sehth'ker understood his ire.

But, it did explain some things for the felid's past. Moving on, Kasma was a fairly quiet and somewhat timid person, yet he had a strong heart and seemed to care for even the worst of those in the world. There was a comparison that Dietrich made between Katya and Kasma, and how their qualities blended in many areas.

As he looked over Kasma, Dietrich's mind came to rest on thoughts of the near future and what it might hold. There was always the question of the future. Cynfael would have to be introduced sometime, and the group would have to travel to somewhere to resolve whatever it was that brought them there.

The bat itself actually preceded Dietrich in arriving to the town. In fact, Dietrich knew that Cynfael was nestled in a tree near the camp. He had instructed the chiropteran to go to the camp before him, yet wait for a proper introduction.

"Dietrich? Are you okay?" The man panned his vision over to Katya, who had posed the question. The room was silent.

"You were staring at me for quite a while. I do not think I saw you blink." Said Kasma. Dietrich sighed.

"The future sits heavy on my mind. What will become of us? Why?" Dietrich asked, rhetorically. He picked up his fork, inspecting it.

"I have spent so much time engrossed in war...I am too used to following my orders and not having to think. When I am ordered to kill, I do so. It is simple. But now, I must think." He said, putting the fork down, he looked around the table.

"I am trying not to overwhelm myself, but it can be difficult. I find myself worrying about Springs Bloom and the kingdom. Have our actions here vilified us to a new degree? Have my actions, which have been guiding us, already sentenced us to a worse fate than what we already have?" Question Dietrich.