Derek brought the girl out. He had put her in white clothes with gray spots on them.

Lo stared at the girl for a bit.

"Did you get anything out of him?" Derek asked.

"He wrote down 'Lo', but I don't think it's his actual name. He seemed to be having trouble spelling out something longer." Amber explained.

"Huh," Derek sat the girl on the floor in between Amber and Ben's beds, "like Ben."

Like Ben.

"What did that other boy, Ryan, mean by 'ferals'?"  Amber asked.

"Kids that we find dirty as hungry in the forest that don't speak. It was a nickname for Ben, but I guess it's referring to all of them now," Derek grabbed Lo's hand, "come along, then, Lo, let's get you into better clothes."

Derek led Lo away.

The girl studied Ben and Amber with wide and innocent eyes. Ben tried to grab his paper and quill, but Amber held them close.

"Not yet, Ben, we still need this girl's name." Amber chided, giving the paper and quill to the girl.

The girl looked at the paper, the scribbles that Lo had done, then scribbled herself.

Ben couldn't spell. Lo couldn't spell. Now this girl couldn't spell.

The girl seemed to be getting more frustrated with every flick of the quill. Eventually she threw both the quill and the paper on the floor.

Amber picked up the paper. The girl hadn't written a name at all, but her handwriting still seemed better than Lo's.

Amber could make out a few e's.

"...Eve? Evelyn? Eevie?" Amber tried.

The girl looked at Amber. She seemed almost curious.

"Can we call you Eve?" Amber asked.

The girl hesitated for a moment, then nodded. 

"Hrr! Hemmmm!" Ben whined, reaching out for his stuff.

Amber gave him the quill and paper. She expected him to continue the drawing of the pig and the waterfall, but instead he turned the scribbles that Lo and Eve had done into a drawing of a storm.

A Witherstorm.

Derek appeared in the corner of Amber's eye, leading Lo over to her. He had been dressed in white clothes with orange spots on them.

"Lo definitely isn't his name," Derek said, "it takes him a while to realise that I'm talking to him when I say the name 'Lo'."

Amber nodded. "Well, Ben-"

"Nuh!" Ben squeaked.

"I don't think it's his name, either." Amber admitted.

Derek looked at the three 'ferals' thoughtfully, then walked over to Ben. He didn't seem fazed by the drawing of the Witherstorm.

"Hey, buddy, maybe write out how you think your actual name is spelt a couple of times and then we'll figure out what's up, okay?" Derek said softly.

Ben pointed to his drawing.

Derek whipped out a new piece of paper.

It was as if he had everything someone might need in his pockets.

Ben scribbled down some spellings of his actual name.

Rooben

Ruben 

Robeen 

"Ruh...beh..." Ben muttered.

Reuben.

------------

They asked me why I twisted the plot

And I said

Wynaut 

I'm surprised you didn't see this one coming earlier lol