The brothers followed Twilight as she walked around town square to the other side of the town. After a few minutes of walking, they came along a shoddy wooden fence, and a boy about Flash and Twilight’s age. He had brown skin and wavy green hair and wore a red jacket, indicating that he was a member of the Wood clan. He had his back turned to them and was busily hammering a wooden board onto the fence.
“Timber Spruce!” Twilight called to him, getting his attention.
“Hey, Twilight,” Timber greeted back with a small smile. The smile quickly vanished when he saw Twilight’s company. “Who are they?”
“Just some boys that my brother fished out of the sea,” she replied dismissively.
“Hey!” First Base cried in offense.
“Really?” Timber remarked, taking an interest. “Well, that might have been a mistake. Have they seen the town yet?”
“Yup,” Twilight affirmed dispassionately.
“Did Cranky trick them into ringing the Battle Bell?” Timber asked with a cheerless laugh.
“They were smart enough to do so from a distance, but yes.”
“Which is more than what we can say for your brother when you and your family first came here,” Timber added with another laugh causing Twilight to seethe slightly.
“Anyway,” Twilight continued, “I thought you could give them some insight on what this place is like from a local’s perspective.”
“In a word, horrible,” Timber retorted before pointing to his jacket. “You see this jacket? It means I’m part of the Wood clan. Everyone wearing green is part of the Stone clan, and everyone here has only one purpose, to make life for everyone in the other clan as much of a living Tartarus as possible.”
“Yeah, we figured out that much just from walking through town,” First Base replied. “What can you tell us about the bell and the man and the lady in black?”
“The Battle Bell? What’s there to tell? You ring it, and everyone in town is required to go out to the square and beat the living daylights out of each other.”
“So, how come you’re here instead of out there?” Flash asked the obvious question.
“Because I think this whole feud is stupid and that everyone dumb enough to take part in it can go fall in a ditch!”
“Timber!” a voice called. Everyone turned to see a young woman with raspberry-colored hair and pinkish skin approach them. Her hair was a mess and her red clothes were in tatters, indicating that she had just returned from the town square. Timber groaned and rolled his eyes as soon as he saw her. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“I’m fixing the fence just like you asked me to,” Timber replied with a scowl.
“Well, you must not be doing it very well if you’re stopping to talk to outsiders. We had an agreement. You get to skip out on the Battle Bell—”
“As long as I keep an eye on the nursery. I know. You only tell me a million times every day,” Timber snapped. “Now, are you going to keep yelling at me, or are you going to do whatever it is you came back here to do?”
The woman shook her head in disapproval before opening the gate to the fence, walking through, and entering the house on the other side. Timber angrily picked up another board and began to nail it furiously and carelessly to the fence.
“So, uh, is she, um, your family?” Flash asked Timber, still uncomfortable from witnessing the whole exchange.
“My older sister Gloriosa,” Timber answered, still pounding away at the fence. “She keeps trying to get me to take part in the feud. Says that our ancestors demand it. Why should I care about our ancestors? They’re dead and have been for a long time.”
“So, how did this whole feud start in the first place?” Base asked.
“That’s dumbest part about this whole thing!” Timber cried. “The whole thing happened so long ago that NOBODY EVEN KNOWS ANYMORE! The only reason why anyone keeps it going is because Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis tells us to. Something about how ending the feud will dishonor our ancestors and thousands of years of tradition or something.”
“Lord Tirek and Lady Chrysalis?”
“The people in black,” Timber explained. “They’re the clan heads. Lord Tirek heads our clan, and Lady Chrysalis heads the Stones. Their only job is to keep the feud going.”
Timber picked up particularly unwieldy piece of wood from the stack of boards and struggled to put it up on the fence. Flash stepped up and took the other end, surprising Timber.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Timber asked him in bewilderment.
“I’m helping you fix your fence,” Flash replied.
Timber eyed him suspiciously and questioned, “Okay, what’s in it for you?”
“Well, nothing, but if you’re offering, my brother and I do need money for—”
“I’m not offering, and you can forget it!” Timber yelled, cutting Flash off and yanking the board out of his hands. “I’ll fix the stupid fence myself.”
“Gee, no wonder you and this guy are friends,” First Base muttered to Twilight. “He’s about as mean as you are.”
“You try living here for a while and see if you don’t get a little mean yourself,” Timber retorted, having heard Base’s remark. He continued to struggle with the long board for a little bit before Flash stepped forward and helped him with it again. “I thought I told you—”
“Yes, I know you either can’t or don’t want to give me any money,” Flash interrupted, “but you clearly need help, and I want to give it to you, so I’m giving it to you.”
Timber glared at him warily and asked, “Why?”
Flash paused, looked at him calmly in the eye, and said with a sigh, “Because that’s how I’d want to be treated.”
Before Timber could say anymore, Flash held the board up against the fence and gestured for Timber to start nailing it on. Timber just stood there, staring and sputtering in shock. Meanwhile, First Base looked around the stack of wooden boards, searching for an extra hammer. When he found one and an extra box of nails, he triumphantly went up to where Flash was holding the board and began hammering the nails into the board.
“Okay, now the mouthy kid is helping me?” Timber exclaimed, finally finding his voice.
“The ‘mouthy kid’ has a name,” First Base spat, “and it’s First Base. And yes, I’m helping you too. Now, hurry up and help before your sister comes out and yells at you again.”
Timber hesitantly nodded his head and took another board from the wood pile. He was struggling a little to hold it in place when Twilight walked up and held it for him.
“Uh, thank you,” he managed to say. Twilight didn’t answer but nodded curtly.