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[i]“They were...beautiful...like flowers.“[/i]

A small smile tugged on the corners of Leon's lips. "Yeah," he couldn't put a finger on it, but listening to the others talk about home, it left him feeling empty. He wanted nothing to do with his father, his brother, or their company. But he missed home, missed the concept of time and birthdays. "They were really pretty," the boy sounded sad, but he turned to look at the guides. "Like watching all the colors collide, almost like an explosive rainbow," by this point he was staring at Lesley with a faint smile.

Rainbow mages, heh, perhaps he had seen it all.

Leon didn't want to admit it, but he was just as homesick as everyone else. 

Martini promised to get them back home and while a part of him was thankful for the comforting words, a part of him didn't believe her. They had been told the same thing since the very beginning, but where were the other humans now? Well, they were dead and they wouldn't be going home. Leon stared at his feet, his own question had pretty much left a depressing weight on his shoulders. The young man could hear Jasper announcing something cheerfully, but it sounded like a dull buzz in his ears.

"Y'know bear, that could actually be bad news." Hakuren stood beside Songbird with a smug smile. "For all we know, the witch has already roasted the poor rider. If they were here, you think we'd at least hear them? This place is pretty small."

Yes, Hakuren was his friend, but none of them needed his negativity, especially at this moment.

Leon would have said something, but the next thing that happened was unexpected. Lesley began lashing out and at Martini too. "Lesley..." he wanted so much to rush to the mermaid's defense, but everything his friend was saying was true.

A magical train that lured humans away from their own realm. They were tricked into joining some deadly scavenger hunt and it made him angry. [i]Stop, she's helped us the entire time...they all have.[/i] He kept his eyes on the floor and clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"Lesley!" Riley yelled out, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "She risked her life for you!" The fire mage couldn't believe what was happening. They had been through hell and back, they had defeated the witch and now they were turning against each other?

Harper was now facing Lesley. "Well," he looked uncertain, "they could have left us long ago, but they didn't."

"Yeah," Hakuren sneered, "well, this is a job to them." He gestured at the guides, looking amused. 

Harper took a step towards the ice mage. He really wanted to punch Hakuren in the face.

"J-O-B, they're being paid to babysit." A laugh left his throat. "If they just left us, the queen would fire the--!" The ice mage staggered back, he had a hand pressed to his cheek. Harper had actually punched him in the face? Well, well, wasn't he crawling out of his shell. Hakuren stared at the boy, Harper's shoulders were practically shaking.

"This is just a game to you," Harper lowered his fist, this was the first time he had ever punched anyone in the face and it left him feeling guilty. After hearing everyone's stories, his resolve had been strengthened, but then Haku just had to make fun of everything. "It isn't to us!"

"Doesn't change the fact that we've been duped into coming here." Hakuren was impressed, "we'll probably die before we know it."

Harper scowled, this was the angriest he had ever been at Haku. "Well, it doesn't help that you're being a pessimistic jerk!"

Leon couldn't take this. No, he refused to die in some hellhole. He refused to die in this disgusting and filthy place. Something inside the boy just snapped and soon he grabbed Songbird by the collar of his shirt. "Hakuren has a point," his voice was frantic. "Just how many humans have died here?" He was repeating Lesley, "how many batches have come and gone?" The boy's eyes went steely. "You've seen this happen all before, but you don't care, do you? Because to all of you, we're just another batch, just another casualty! Vince is dead, but it doesn't really mean anything but a drop in your paycheck, isn't the right?"

The words he had uttered left a bad taste in his mouth, but he was just too scared, so like Lesley, Leon took it out on the guides.