"Did you guys do this?"
"Yes, or rather Cleo did, but same thing," the girl answered, as the boy plucked a piece of cloth off the only furniture in the room — a wooden, hand-carved table with unbalanced legging —and tossed it to Austin.
By instinct, Austin caught it with a flinch, before realizing the piece of cloth was actually a shirt — A blue, button-down shirt. As Austin put on his new shirt, he allowed his ears to hone on to the other two's conversation.
"—after that last incident with that owl girl, do you really believe they'll ever accept the boy?" the girl was saying. "After what she did, he'll be lucky if someone doesn't kill him in his sleep, let alone accept him, especially wearing that crest. He'll be dead by morning. Do you think he could just go around wearing that crest?"
The girl spoke with almost perfect pronunciation; she was around his age, maybe a year younger than the boy — 16 if Austin had to guess — but her posture , her voice and the way she spoke and her aura she carries herself with screamed mature for her age to Austin. The boy was similar aura, though his screamed more towards leadership.
"Probably not," the boy answered before turning to Austin and pointing to the raven crest on the shirt he tossed to Austin. "Keep the shirt on. Don't wear the one you were wearing when they found you. You'll likely die if you do."
"Wait, are we letting him stay, Stryker?" the girl asked, perplexed. "Are we sure that's a good idea?"
"Maybe, maybe not," the boy named Stryker stated, his studious gaze still taking Austin in, unendingly. "The fact that he was ambushed by not one, but three of the Bane Siblings and he's still breathing means he can fight, or at least is a survivor. Letting him stay may even perhaps prove to be beneficial for our own survival."
"Stryker—," the girl tried.
"Reya, I know that you've felt it. Something is about to happen soon," Stryker said, completely losing Austin. "We're going to need all the help we can get. I just know it."
What did he mean by feel it? That something was about to happen soon? Whatever the case, Reya seemed to have gotten it, because her glare had not at all ceased up, not even a little bit. In fact it seemed to increase its pressure on him. "That's what we said about the last one we found possessing a jacket with the same owl's crest on it. Remind me, Stryker, how did that turn out again? She almost destroyed the entire Meadows and everyone in it."
Though Austin had no idea what the hell was going on, he sensed a close relationship between these two. 'Romantic, maybe?' he though to himself, before subconsciously shaking his head. 'No, the vibes are off. Relatives? Probably siblings…,' Austin's thoughts trailed off as he inspected the two more closely. 'Yes! They have to be brother and sister!' Austin just knew it, though how? Aside from reading the room, he didn't know; he just did; like with his fight against his attackers, the way he had just tossed that dagger through the guy's leg — it was as if reading people came to him so easily because he has had a habit of doing it; as if it were instinctual.
"I don't have any idea what the hell is going on, nor who the hell you people are," Austin suddenly erupted the months worth of confusion, frustration and anger he'd been feeling since he first woke up in that 'containment cell' three months ago. "I've been locked in a cell, alone, by myself with no memory of how I even got there — I still have no memory of my life before waking up; I was ambushed by crazy siblings you people calling the Banes, and I threw a dagger in someone's leg with such accuracy that I don't think it was my first time in combat. But I still wouldn't know because every time I try to remember anything before waking up, I get a headache and hear a ringing. Every fucking time. And now I've been abducted by some people who want me dead?! What the hell man?!"