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Tsurai shook his head, seeming upset about it. "No, it isn't."
Frowning, he looked to the ground. "It's stupid. I just..."

He coughed slightly, closing his eyes and rocking back once befor ewatching his knees with his green eyes.
"I really want to read a book. Maybe after that, I'll just give up on everything, because I'm not any use to anybody. I'm trouble." He choked. "I just really want to be able to read a book before I die."

He put his face on his knees, "I'm so close..." He hoarsed.
"Isiah started to try and teach me, but Connor..."
Tsurai curled up in his ball. He was trying really hard not to go into tears about this, but was still looking like a baby in that one effort.

Tsurai shook his head over his knees, sniffling. "I don't know what that means."
He looked over to Kaegan. "I don't know what anything means!"

The boy stood up, wiping his face and looking toward Braeden's, and taking one step toward there before his mental block set in.
"I should go," Tsurai mustered. "What will everyone think of you if you start hanging out with a crybaby?"

Tsurai took a deep breath, craning his neck toward Braeden's.
"That.. Doesn't make any sense," He replied.

If he cared about what people thought, why would he be in a fetal position? Then people might think he was a baby. People who cared what others thought usally acted tough. Kaegan seemed like someone like that.

Tsurai couldn't make himself walk to where he wanted to go, and he didn't efeel right asking again if he could leave. He just kind of stood there, until he saw Connor walking through some houses. Tsurai couldn't tell where he was headed, it could be anywhere, but he mere fact that Connor was around made Tsurai pale.

He instinctively grabbed what shoudl've been his tags, but was now just empty shirt. Suddenly, Tsurai felt completely naked. He shoved his hands in his pockets to pull out the dogtags, but once they were out and making noise, the boy had no idea what to do with them.

The clanking and shine of new metal caught Connor's blue eyes. He stopped what he was doing and looked over to Tsurai. He wondered how and why the dogtags were off, and what Kaegan was doing with the kid. Tsurai looked pretty upset.

Connor groaned inwardly, forcing himself to keep walking toward the well, trying to respect Isiah's wish about trust. Inside though, Connor couldn't help but be very protective.

Tsurai put the hand with the chain to his ear, feeling the cold steel against his skin.
"I should... Go. I mean. :eave this town. Thanks for.. Everything, but I can't..."

He hesitated. His legs ached. Tsurai was like a deer who wanted to bolt, and looked like he was ready to at the next noise.

"I'm nothing but trouble for everyone. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come and... Burdened you. Like this,"

His hands went to his sides, right fingers twitching slightly. "I need to go."
Tsurai's left hand curled into a fist so he wouldn't drop the tags, unable to hold the coiled springs anymore.
He sprinted off toward the sewer town, which was a week away.
Tsurai knew he would starve to death before he got to the town, but that wasn't why he was running.

He had to.. Get out of the sight of everyone. He felt like he was going to explode at how everyone stared at him. He needed to just sit somewhere, and cry on someone, and write an angsty poem. But he couldn't do any of those things, so resorted to running off somewhere so he could just sit and cry alone for no reason other than life being so hard for him. It appeared so easy for everyone else.
Even Braeden knew what he wanted, but Tsurai didn't. He was confused, and after making a concious effort to not resort to violence, he ended up with the complete opposite emotion, crying in a little ball out of everyone's sight.

Sometimes punching a wall seemed easier.

Connor, already in the hole, was taking his canteen from his shoulder when Kaegan adressed him.
"If he really did run off, it would be better for us all," He stated calmly, bending over to fill his canteen.
"It doesn't matter what he's done to me. He's a DuPloy. They're all the same. I may have been wrong about him acting stupid, but I know I am right about him being a loose cannon."

When the canteen was full, he screwed the lid back on. "But with no supplies, he'll either die out there or come back here. He'll probably come back. You should take whatever that kid says with many tablespoons of salt, Kaegan. It's not smart to trust him as you do."

He put the canteen back over his shoulder and began to climb up the rope ladder.

He sighed, climbing out and stepping away from the hole before turning to talk to Kaegan.

"If he had a backbone, it would'nt have scared him." Connor adjusted the canteen over his shoulder. "I really don't think I've ever met anyone as pathetic as him."

He started walking back toward his own hut. "Why are his dogtags off? He seemed to be more upset about that than about me. You cut them off, didn't you?"
Connor was being overtly calm. He was tired, and he didn't want to get in a fight over Tsurai.

The kid had to have some sort of mental retardation oing on, and every second that passed made Connor feel idiotic worrying about the threat Tsurai was.
He kept referring to the analogy of a dog. Playful and stupid and shy normally, but when backed into a corner...

The brief things Isiah said to Connor made him believe that Tsurai over-steered. Whatever set Tsurai off... A normal person may just bite the hand nearest to them, but Tsurai may try and take out the whole town.

Not that he would be able to, but the sheer act of trying...

"He's like an attack dog," Isiah had said. This predicament was an interesting one.

"That''s his whole identity you just cut off."

Connor stopped and sat on an upright piece of debris, watching Kaegan. "That''s probably why he ran away. If his tags were on, he would have tried to ignore me."

Connor unscrewed the canteen''s cap and took a sip. "Why did you take them off?"