Random Rambles: Oh lordie, here's where the fanficing actually starts! So sorry if some characters seem a bit OOC, I'm still trying to get a feel for this. Can you guess who's who? ^^;

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The night had been particularly dark, cold and long. The worst part of it being that the hunt turned out to be absolutely useless since they were unable to catch their prey, despite their best efforts. 

He had voted against hunting in their more vulnerable state, but no one listened to him, of course. Trust the older brothers, they said, what did the little brothers know about anything? He scowled at thinking back to the conversation. If only they had listened, they wouldn't have to go through all this crap. A lot of good it did them.

"Maybe we should have waited for full moon," one of his elder brothers said, biting his lip. Usually the one bearing a wide grin on his face, it was odd for him to see his older brother's face scrunged up like that.

"You think?" he was unable to hold back his annoyance as he emerged from the shadows, only to be surrounded by more shades swirling around him. In a heartbeat, he stood in front of his brothers. "I said that we should wait, but did anyone of you listen? Nooo," he complained. "Now we went through the longest night of our lives without so much as a nibble where prey is concerned and we lost precious time to sleep. Not to mention that a few of us got injured in the process," he pointed at their youngest brother who was leaning against the bark of a tree. He was grimacing as a gentle light emanated from yet another brother's hands, hovering over his knee with great care.

"We had to make sure. None of us could have foreseen this failure."

He turned his attention towards one of the eldest brothers, and found, to his dismay, that he was unable to glare at such a gentle face. Stupid doe eyes, he thought to himself. 

"If anything, you are exactly the one and only person who could have seen this useless night coming," he muttered, to show them all that he was angry. 

"Hey, you know that what I do doesn't work that way, and do I have to remind you that you're talking to your older brother, kid?" he replied, his eyes glowing only briefly.

The youth clacked his tongue and fought the urge to roll his eyes. "All I'm saying is that all of this could have been avoided if any of you took the time to listen to me once in a while. Sometimes I get good hunches, you know?" he argued.

"We know that, but considering the circumstances we had to give it a shot. Even you can't deny that you felt the pulse as well. It had never been as strong as it was tonight."

The youth lazily turned his head to face his motherly brother, his eyes following the water that moved obediently with his hand gestures.

"Here, drink some water. You need to stay hydrated," the oh-so-fearless leader urged, the water slithering through the air towards him.

In no mood to be babied, he stepped within the swirls of black mist and stood next to a rather stoic-looking youth. His big eyes blinked at seeing his younger brother standing beside him, but said nothing. He wanted to stay out of the argument, he was tired enough as is.

"I don't want to drink. I want answers. I thought we were hunting, not following that pulse, so which is it?"

The water dropped into the earth of the forest. "Can't it be both?"

"You're joking, right? Look, I can deal with hunting, that's fine- great, even. But didn't we agree to leave that pulse for what it was? Why should we bother looking for it? We've been searching for years and for years it's been the same result; nothing," he protested, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Have you completely forgotten the source of that pulse? The importance of that source, what it means to us?" his doe-eyed brother interjected. "We can't give up on that." 

"No, what I really can't give up on is a good hunt and we couldn't even manage that tonight," he replied, reminding himself not to be manipulated by his brother. He knew that his brother had enough mindtricks up his sleeve to be able to persuade him, and he didn't want anything to do with that.

"We don't hunt for sport, you know that. Tonight was important and it's unfortunate that it ended the way it did, but we'll just have to try again another time," his brother replied, manipulating a ball of water to float about again. 

"During full moon, this time," he urged, to which most of his brothers finally nodded in agreement. 

"Fine, full moon it is- provided that the three of you can control yourselves," the leader pointed at the three youngest brothers, who let out shouts of indignation. Since the youngest one was currently at the mercy of their healing brother, his protests were rather wan. Though, the fact that he was able to protest gave good hope. The injuries were healing. 

"We should head back home before anyone notices us missing," his brother dropped the ball of water on the forest floor again, and turned to the youngest one. "How are you feeling?" 

"Better, thanks to hyung," the youngest replied with relief, the lisp barely noticable. 

"Good. We should leave now while the sun is still sleeping. With some luck you might be able to catch an hour or two of sleep yourself. It's a schoolnight, after all," the leader remarked, eliciting exhausted sighs from his brothers. 

"Fine," the rebellious youth sighed. "Everyone hold on," he deadpanned. 

"Uh, wait- anyone up for a little flying instead?" a hopeful, deep voice sounded. 

"And risk people seeing you? Not a chance. Line up." 

He shook his head at hearing the argument between father and mother and sighed. 

"Make sure to arrive somewhere discreet," his brother reminded him and he scoffed. 

"Uh, duh? I didn't do this since yesterday, you know," he glowered, slightly offended. As the brothers were about to comment, he quickly concentrated on gathering the right amount of energy and sent all of them into the shadows.