Timestamp: 50th of Spring, 522 A.V.
Tazrae couldn’t remember being this tired as she led the children away from the 5th Tenday and up the beach, skirting inland around Mathias’ place briefly. The day before had been fairly intense for her, taking a visit to the Outpost to see Alric and then staying up half the night baking for the Tenday. She'd gotten up after just a few hours to prep breakfast and lunch for the guests so they could help themselves, and had slipped out early to deliver banana nut muffins to the celebration.
She didn’t know most of the kids’ names, nor did she really know the man that walked with them carrying Luke. He was Antelokes, or so she thought she’d heard his name being said. But they’d never had a formal introduction. She would have given one now, but the children made it a bit difficult, all walking with her, their eyes wide with fear. “You guys should hold hands.” She said, knowing nothing about child care and even far less about making them feel protected.
Several Ixam peeled off from the various lounges that had been lingering at the Tenday, attracted by the crowd and the hopes for music or even extra food. They were lazy things that loved to be fed more than they loved to hunt and actually enjoyed the music. When four of them ranged up beside the little troop of children and the two adults, some of the kids started looking nervous. Taz glanced at Antelokes, to see his reaction, then spoke to the children quietly.
“They are protecting us… don’t let them frighten you.” The big scarlet male took that moment to hiss his displeasure, and Taz inwardly winced. He was wondering what she was doing with all the little ones and irritated that they weren’t going at their usual jog. The Ixam didn’t like to walk anywhere… they went in bursts of speed and pauses to look around. Humans had an incredibly unnatural gait to them.
The lounge wasn’t actually playing bodyguard, not as Tazrae explained it. But they wouldn’t hurt the children and would fight if something bad happened. They simply were heading home with Tazrae, since they mostly lived with her. She said as much to Antelotes as she drew abreast of him to smile at the little boy Luke he still held. “They live with me. I’m Tazrae… the local Innkeeper. My curse is that no one remembers me or my name. But it doesn’t seem to affect the Ixam so I’ve been sticking to them mostly this season.” She explained to the stranger. “Your Antelotes, aren’t you?” She asked, reaching down and lifting one of the children she was holding hands by the arm so he could easily jump over a fallen branch across the pathway. The child holding her other hand didn’t need such assistance. Taz had initially had a bit of an issue wondering which of Brea’s arms to take, but the girl had solved it by putting her second left hand in Tazrae’s right one. The girl had so many hands!
“So, what’s everyone’s name here?” She asked, glancing at the sea of nine heads she had with her. She knew Antelokes had Luke, who was supposed to be a little Iyvess. He even had some scales showing. Taz didn’t know much about Iyvess, but it seemed odd to her. Tazrae had two more girls with her… Brea who was eight and Dalhia who was close to that. The two girls followed her carefully. Lexi had Darcy and Kelton by the hand. Tori had sidled up to Antelokes and taken his free hand while Julian and Senora held hands. Lexi, the oldest looking of the group glanced around.
“Axim, Dalton, and Kyle are missing,” Lexi announced with a furrowed brow. “They were just here too.” She added, then carefully pointed out each child and introduce them to the pair of adults by name. “Where did Axim and Dalton go guys? And where is Kyle? The missing youths were all around the same age, eleven, twelve, and fourteen. They couldn’t have gone far. “Axim and Dalton are never far apart… and I just saw Kyle in the clearing." She added. Taz stopped unsure of what to do. She couldn’t very well leave all the kids to go find the other kids, but she certainly couldn’t take all the kids to find the missing kids either.
“What do we do?” She asked Antelokes. Taz had zero experience with children. “Did they maybe go back to the Children’s Pavilion?” She asked. Normally she couldn’t be concerned, but with Mistress Hess dead… there was a whole lot now to be concerned about.
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