Chapter 1: Little Boy Lost
Ronin was a patient man, particularly if being patient got him away from the tedium of the harvest caravans. Not that he would ever admit that; he was the general after all.
He still thought he was the wrong person for this mission, but the queen had insisted. Tara was an exceptional queen, but there were times she made no sense to him at all. She could have at least sent someone who had children. There were plenty of highly qualified Leafmen who had vastly more experience with children than Ronin did. Given that he had almost no experience at all, it would have been very easy to find someone better suited for this task.
Despite what his captains thought, Ronin did not always lose arguments with the queen; he just didn't brag about it when he won. That was never why he argued with her. He really hadn't tried that hard this time though. There was a little boy wandering around the woods, apparently alone, taking food from the harvest caravans, and they were less than a month out from the first snow. They needed to find him and make sure he was safe before winter set in.
The boy had proven to be both fast and clever, and no one had managed to catch him yet. A few of the Leafmen in the caravan escorts had tried, but he had managed to elude them, although they weren't sure how. He was too small to be faster than they were, so he must have managed to hide. The Leafmen who had given chase had only been trying to help him, but it had apparently frightened the boy, because they hadn't seen him since.
Ronin had decided he was not going to chase him. The child was obviously motivated by food, so when Ronin found small bare footprints in the mud of a river bank, he set out a pile of seeds and sweets, then sat nearby to wait.
It was two days of waiting, and chasing off the occasional ant, before the child finally appeared. He was small, far too skinny and far too young to be alone. Ronin's Leafmen had been right; the boy needed to be brought in and cared for.
Ronin didn't want to chase him though. That had frightened him off before and not been terribly effective, but he couldn't let him get away either. As he watched, the boy sniffed at the honey brittle, then carefully licked it. A happy grin spread across his face, and he crunched down on the brittle. Ronin pulled a piece of seed cake out of his pack.
"I've got more sweets," Ronin called softly, holding out the seed cake.
The boy jumped and clutched the honey brittle to his chest, eyes wide.
"That's all yours," Ronin reassured him, the seed cake still extended out to him, "there's more too."
The child eyed him cautiously. His pants were tattered and his knees and elbows were skinned. He had a large leaf wrapped around his shoulders like a cloak. He shifted nervously from one bare foot to the other, looking longingly at the seed cake.
"Can you understand me?" Ronin asked gently.
The child cocked his head to the side, listening, but he didn't show any sign of understanding. He was very interested in the seed cake though. He inched nearer, pieces of honey brittle still clutched in one hand.
"My name is Ronin," the general kept talking, hoping to coax him closer, "what's your name?"
With a quick hop the boy lunged forward and snatched the seed cake out of Ronin's hand, then darted back.
"All yours," Ronin said, not moving from his seat.
The boy sniffed at the seed cake, his eyes fixed on Ronin, then took a cautious bite, which was quickly followed by a second and third.
"Not bad, huh?" Ronin laughed softly, reaching in his pack for another one, "I have lots more."
The child stuffed the rest of the seed cake in his mouth, chewing messily, then looked up at him. Ronin held the cake out, and this time the boy was a little less skittish, although he still retreated back several paces before eating it.
"If you come with me, there will be plenty of food," Ronin tried, still hopeful that the child might understand something; he looked old enough to be talking.
The boy pointed to the pack next to Ronin's feet.
"Right, food," Ronin nodded.
The boy held out his hand, making a grabbing motion in the direction of the pack.
"See, if I give this to you, you're just going to run," Ronin shook his head, "and that doesn't really help either of us."
The boy pointed more insistently at the pack.
"Here," Ronin pulled out an acorn dumpling, tossing it to the boy, who caught it, gave it a sniff, then shoved it in his mouth.
After he finished the dumpling, he sat down to finish the honey brittle, which had been broken into tiny pieces from clutching it too tightly. While he was licking his sticky fingers, Ronin tried to come up with a way to get the child to come with him that wouldn't involve grabbing him or scaring him.
Having gotten as much of the sticky sweet off his fingers as he could, the boy looked at Ronin expectantly. When Ronin didn't produce more food, he chirped.
Ronin blinked. The boy sounded exactly like a hungry chickadee, and the tiny down feathers tangled in his matted hair looked like they could have belonged to one. Maybe…
Ronin whistled for his mount. They had made the change weeks ago from hummers to titmice, and while a titmouse wasn't a chickadee, they were almost the same size and had similar coloring, so maybe the boy would be interested.
The boy jumped, then looked up at the sound of wings. His face lit up at the sight of the bird landing next to Ronin, and he whistled like a titmouse. Ronin's mount looked suitably confused.
"Do you like birds?" Ronin stood slowly and reached up to grab the reigns, "do you want to come see him?"
The boy whistled again, and the titmouse whistled back, but stayed patiently with Ronin. The child crept closer, crouching down to examine the girth of the saddle and the buckle. He tugged on the buckle, then worked it loose, puzzling through how to unbuckle it. Ronin almost stopped him, but decided it was better to let him explore.
He did catch the saddle before the boy could pull it down on top of himself. The child jumped and looked up at him as if he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"If we put that back on, you could come for a ride with me," Ronin looked down at him over the back of the bird.
The boy chirped at him again and let go of the girth. He grabbed one of the reigns and tugged, but Ronin managed to grab it before he could jerk on his bird's head.
"Don't do that," Ronin said firmly, "you'll hurt the bird."
The boy let go of the reign and ducked under the titmouse's head, digging his fingers into its chest feathers and scratching. The bird let out a happy warble, and the boy grinned and scratched harder. Ronin left him to it and walked around his mount to re-buckle his saddle.
When he looked up from the girth, the boy was gone. He had a moment of panic before he realized the child was sitting with his pack, digging through the contents excitedly. He shoved another acorn dumpling in his mouth, then hopped to his feet and grabbed the strap.
Ronin crept around his mount and crouched low, catching the other strap just as the boy tried to leave with the pack. The child jumped and looked at him wide-eyed.
"It's okay," Ronin murmured softly, "everything's okay."
The boy tugged on the strap nervously with both hands.
"You need to come with me," Ronin pulled the bag slowly towards himself, "there's lots of food, and a warm place to sleep, and people to care for you."
The boy took a hesitant step forward, then dropped the strap abruptly and tried to run. Ronin grabbed his wrist before he could go anywhere. He had been hoping he would be able to coax the boy in without having to actually restrain him, but they couldn't risk the child getting away, not this close to winter.
The boy tried to jerk his arm loose, baring his teeth and growling at Ronin like an angry fox. When Ronin didn't release him, he shoved forward and tried to bite his arm guard.
"Easy, easy," Ronin cooed, staying still while the boy struggled, "you're going to chip a tooth that way."
The child yelled and tried to bite higher up on his arm, but he didn't have any better luck with the padded under armor. With a scream he lunged for Ronin's face, but the general spun him, pinning him in his lap and trapping his arms across his chest.
"You're okay," Ronin tried to sooth him as the boy screeched and struggled, "I'm not going to hurt you. Everything's going to be alright."
The boy screamed and kicked and bit, but Ronin held him steady. He didn't know what else to do. He couldn't let him go, and he couldn't make him understand that he wanted to help him. He held the boy pinned until his screams dissolved into sobs, and he stopped struggling.
"See, it's alright," Ronin cautiously released him with one hand.
When the boy didn't try to bolt, Ronin grabbed the strap of his pack and pulled it towards them, setting it in the boy's lap. The child tipped his head back to look up at him, his breath coming in hiccupping gasps.
"Go on," Ronin pulled open the pack, "it's all yours, just like I said."
The child tentatively dug into the pack, coming up with another seed cake and a small bag of honey brittle. He ate the seed cake in two large bites, then tried to figure out how to open the bag of honey brittle. Ronin let him puzzle through the drawstrings, helping him when they got tangled.
The food seemed to placate the sniffling boy, and he leaned back into Ronin as he munched.
"Feeling better?" Ronin asked softly.
The boy looked up at him again, then pulled an acorn dumpling out of the pack and offered it to him with sticky fingers.
"Thank you," Ronin laughed and took it, "now, what do you say to that ride chickadee?"
The flight back to Moonhaven was uneventful. Ronin sat the boy in front of him and let him hold onto the sack. This was apparently very serious work, because while he didn't show any sign of being afraid to fly, he clutched the bag to himself as if it were filled with gold instead of sweets. The sweets were probably better than gold to him. The child was all bony elbows and knobby knees. He needed to gain some weight.
There weren't any problems until they reached the rookery. They had missed the change over between the afternoon patrols and the evening ones, but there were still a number of Leafmen there bedding down their units' birds for the night.
The boy looked at all the people, none of whom had noticed him, looked at Ronin holding out his hands to help him down, clutched the sack to himself, and bolted off the other side of the bird.
"Hey!" Ronin ducked under his mount's head, trying to grab him, but he had already disappeared.
"Watch the exits!" Ronin yelled.
Immediately the guards were on alert, and heads were popping out of nests and leaning over the railings of the upper levels.
"What are we watching for?" one of the guards asked.
"A little boy," Ronin eyed the large rookery, trying to figure out which direction the child would have had to have taken to disappear so quickly. "Don't let him out, but try not to scare him."
Leafmen shifted to cover exits and openings, and the ones taking care of their birds abandoned their tasks to hunt through the levels, checking all the small places a child was likely to hide.
"What's his name?" a Leafwoman called from the second level.
"I don't know," Ronin called back, sizing up the spiral staircase that connected all the floors.
The boy could have reached it, but it was creaky, and they would have heard him climb it. It seemed unlikely that he would have made it up that way unnoticed.
"You're carrying around a kid, and you don't know who he is?" the Leafwoman gave him a skeptical look.
"Yes," Ronin decided the boy was most likely to still be on the ground floor, and he headed towards the nearest nest.
Ronin was too preoccupied with searching to catch the bemused look some of the Leafmen gave him. They needed to find the child quickly and make sure he didn't escape. Ronin wasn't sure he would be able to catch him a second time.
It was several minutes later that a titmouse whistle came from up above, and Ronin ducked out of the nest he had been searching. Scouts used bird calls to talk to each other and their units. This one meant something had been spotted. A Leafman on the top level leaned over the railing and pointed towards one of the nests on the end. Ronin signaled that he understood and ran up the stairs.
There were two titmice already roosted in the nest, and a little bare foot just visible behind them. Ronin waved away the Leafmen who were starting to gather, curious about the mysterious child their general had brought home. They dispersed reluctantly, going back to their duties.
Ronin waited until he couldn't hear their footsteps behind him, then crouched down, leaning on the edge of the nest.
"Hey chickadee," he called softly, "you alright in there?"
The boy stayed completely still, probably hoping that if he didn't move, he wouldn't be spotted. The titmice puffed out their feathers, roosting more comfortably, obviously unbothered by their new nest mate.
"I know there are lots of people here and it's scary," Ronin pitched his voice low, hoping to sooth the frightened child, "but no one is going to hurt you."
The foot drew back, but the child made no move to come out from behind the birds.
"We've got food, and a warm, safe place to sleep," Ronin cautiously stepped into the nest, pushing aside the head of the nearest bird, who was hoping for a treat, "and we'll find your home."
He could see the child pressed against the far side of the nest, curled around the pack. He gave a hiccupping gasp when he realized Ronin could see him and shrank back farther. Ronin crept between the birds, stopping just shy of being close enough to grab the boy, then sitting down.
The boy clutched the pack tighter, his breath coming in uneven sobs.
"That's yours," Ronin reassured him, "I'm not going to take it from you."
The child rubbed at his eyes with the back of his arm, smearing the dirt on his face and not accomplishing much else.
"I haven't hurt you yet, have I?" Ronin let his hands rest on his knees, palms up, "I let you eat all my seed cake."
The boy stared at him wide eyed for a moment, then fumbled to open the pack. He rummaged around inside it and pulled out an acorn dumpling, offering it tentatively to Ronin.
"Thank you," Ronin held his hand out, letting the child give it to him rather than taking it.
The boy watched him eat it, then pointed towards the entryway of the rookery.
"No," Ronin shook his head, "I can't let you go. It's not safe."
The boy waited a moment, and when Ronin didn't move, he thrust another dumpling at him insistently.
"No," Ronin curled the boy's fingers back around it, closing both hands gently around the child's, "you can't go."
The boy whimpered, making a whining noise like a distraught fox and causing the birds to stir restlessly. Ronin just missed getting hit in the face by a wing as the birds resettled.
"Everything's okay," Ronin stayed still, continuing to hold the child's hand in his, "I won't let anyone hurt you."
Something crashed on the lower floor; it sounded like someone had dropped a feed bin. The boy yelped and dove for Ronin, catching the general off guard and nearly knocking him on his back. He wasn't trying to attack though. Instead he clung to him, clutching at his jinbaoriand pressing into him as if he were trying to hide in it.
"Well, at least I'm the lesser evil," Ronin said dryly, wrapping his arms around the boy and rocking him while he whimpered and sobbed, "what do you say we go meet the queen? She can be the lesser evil for a while."
The guard outside the queen's chambers saluted when he saw Ronin, then raised an eyebrow at the child trying to hide himself in the general's arms.
"You seem to have found a friend, sir," Narsi leaned to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of the boy's face, but the child refused to look up.
"I did," Ronin rubbed the sniffling boy's back, "is Queen Tara available?"
"She's still meeting with the Willowbrook representatives," Narsi shook his head, "he's really small. How old is he?"
"I don't' know," Ronin shift the boy slightly, trying to give Narsi a better look without upsetting the child, "how old do you think he is?"
Narsi had twin boys, and while they were almost twelve now, he would probably be a better judge of children's ages than Ronin.
"Six maybe," Narsi reached out to brush a matted lock from the boy's face, and the boy snapped at him and growled.
Narsi jerked his hand back and blinked.
"Don't do that," Ronin said firmly, shifting the child so he could see his face.
The boy stared up at him for a moment, then whimpered and hid his face against Ronin's shoulder. Ronin went back to rubbing his back.
"Who is he?" Narsi asked.
"He's our little caravan helper," Ronin unconsciously rocked with the sniffling child, trying to sooth him.
"You're kidding," Narsi's eyes went wide, "he's so young."
"I know," Ronin held the boy closer, "how long has the queen been in her meeting?"
"Three hours now," Narsi shifted his spear to rest against his shoulder and used both hands to catch the boy's leg and push the tattered remains of his pants up over his knee so he could look at the scabs there, "she'll probably be another three with the way they go on."
The boy growled at him and tried to shake his leg free, but Narsi ignored him, carefully brushing away as much dirt as he could to get a better look.
"We'll be lucky if it's only that long," Ronin grumbled, wondering what he was supposed to do with the child in the meantime.
The Willowbrook trade agreements were important, and while Tara would want to know he had found the child, the news wasn't urgent enough to interrupt.
"He needs a bath," Narsi let go of the boy's leg when he tried to kick him.
"I know," Ronin nodded.
"No, he really needs a bath," Narsi insisted, "some of those cuts look like they're starting to get infected, and I'm surprised more of them aren't already."
Ronin gave the guard a speculative look. Narsi had children. He had to know more about taking care of them than Ronin did, and there was no reason Ronin couldn't stand guard while Narsi got the boy cleaned up.
"That's a bad idea sir," Narsi said before Ronin could ask, "he's barely tolerating me as it is, and my boys will never leave him alone."
Ronin supposed being exposed to two rambunctious twelve year olds wouldn't be good for the frightened child, but it was still disappointing he couldn't give the boy to someone who actually knew what to do with him.
"He likes you," Narsi pointed out, "you should take him home and get him cleaned up. I'll tell the queen you have him as soon as she's done."
Ronin regarded the top of the boy's head for a moment then relented. There was nothing for it, at least for now.
"How do you bathe a kid?" he asked.
"Usually with water, sir," to his credit, Narsi managed to keep a straight face, "and soap."
AN: Many, many thanks to Earthstar and Ladydouji who helped me brainstorm and encouraged me to keep writing. This story wouldn't have gotten written without them.
Little Nod has his own tumblr where he takes questions at little-nod dot tumblr dot com.