Tink glared at the sleeping form next to her. Even now, covered in dirt and sleeping on the ground, the girl looked like a china doll in the F.A.O. Schwarz window; dainty, lacy nightgown, perfect curls splayed across her face and long lashes tickling her rosy cheeks.
Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid girl! What gave her the right to just waltz, batting her eyelashes and twirling her hair, right in to the life she'd always known? Why, thought Tink, she deserves to go to that orphanage. And for TInk, that meant a lot; from what she'd heard (she'd never actually been) it was the very embodiment of evil. But this girl, this Wendalynn certainly deserved it.
Tink sat cross-legged, staring into the dwindling fire. She knew what would happen, it was like in all the storybooks ever written. Shep (a prince, of course; if anyone was one, it would be him) and Wendalynn (sadly, a princess; she certainly looked the role) would fall madly in love. The Lost Boys, as she liked to call them, would be like the little princes when they got married and became kings and queens. But Tink didn't get a role in the story. A fairy, perhaps? A fairy that was shunted to the side, forgotten by all. It was only logical. Unless...
Unless.
Unless the evil stepmother took the princess away, banishing her from her betrothed. No... there was a severe lack of evil stepmothers these days.
Unless a great evil sorceress stole the princess away in the night, locking her away in a tower. No, the prince always rescues her. Shep would for sure.
Unless the future little princes, believing the princess to be nothing but a mere wrench, sent her off to the Great Unknown, never to be seen again.
That was it.
Tink leaped, quiet as could be. This was, in fact, almost silently. Shep had taught all of them well.
SHe daintily rushed to Slightly's side. Shep had gone away to beg for food, so she was safe.
"Slightly!" she said urgently, nudging him with her foot. His eyes snapped open, and he instinctively grabbed his pack. Fast exits were common for them, so being able to wake and be able to form coherent thoughts as soon as possible was a necessity.
When he noticed her big, solemn eyes, however, he calmed almost imperceptibly.
"What is it?" he said, eyes darting around, searching for some unknown threat.
"There's a tagger," she said, sounding as alarmed as she could. Slightly understood, and went to wake up the others.
'Tagger' was their word for when someone else invaded camp, taking advantage of our food, fire and shelter. It had happened many times before, and the people always tried to plead that they were weak, young, innocent; whatever this girl, and her companions, would say would just seem like a far-fetched protest.
Slightly, after waking up Nibs (the second oldest, and third-in-command), creeped to the corner where the implied 'taggers' were sleeping like rocks. If it had been any of them, they would have woken at the faintest whisper.
Dropping the act, Slightly, pulled back his foot and swiftly kicked the angelic, elegant Miss Wendalynn Dear in the ribs. She jolted awake, and Nibs roughly yanked up the eldest boy, twisting his arm behind his back while he groped for his spectacles. They ignored the young one; it was an unspoken rule that younger children would always go untouched, no matter what.
"Who are you?" Slightly demanded, shaking Wendalynn and dropping his voice an octave to sound intimidating. Her eyes widened.
"Oh, please don't hurt me, Peter, he sent me here, he'll tell you so-" She spoke in the fast, panicky tone of someone that had fallen for the tough-gang act.
Behind her, the eldest boy slammed his glasses onto his nose, looking up at Slightly indignantly.
"Unhand her, you vermin! I ought to alert the authorities, handling a young lady so harshly-"
"And tell them what?" Slightly said coldly. "That we rightfully punished you for invading our camping?"
The boy, wide-eyed and speechless, tried to stammer a good reply.
"No-well, you see-Shep! He; er, he sort of-"
Slightly scowled. "Back to the street with the lot of you," he growled menacingly, "unless you preferred Angels of Mercy?"
Not expecting an answer, he shoved them into the bustle of the city, waiting for them to dissolve in like many of the past taggers had. He stood his ground, however. Tink inwardly admired his nerve.
"Now, see here!" He snapped. "That dirty boy you call Shep or Peter or something, he told us to-"
"I told you to what?"
Shep entered the alley, lazily eyeing the scene. His eyes widened when he saw the manner of how the Dears were being treated.
"Who did this?" he hissed angrily, eyes burning. "Why are you treating them like this, like filthy taggers or something of the sort?"
Slightly blinked, dropping the act.
Nibs stared blankly. "Tink said that they were taggers." He stated simply. Shep turned to Tink, and she winced involuntarily. Shep when he was angry was really scary; she rarely saw him this way.
"Tink?" he said, and he sounded confused for a moment. "But I told you about them, how they were coming and everything last night!"
Tink cowered sheepishly, afraid of what would happen when he figured it out. His eyes flared when he had.
"I know I did. Why did you tell them that? They could have been killed, or mugged, or taken to Angels of Mercy!" His voice dropped. "This isn't like you, Tink. This isn't the Tink I know."
The last phrase had done the most damage. He could yell and scream and wave his arms around, and she wouldn't be too perturbed. But the disappointment was almost too much to stand. She didn't want Shep to be sad.
He stared at her intensely for a few moments, reluctantly breaking off eye contact when she didn't respond.
"Wendy, John, Michael," He said, lazily gesturing at the newcomers, who were huddled together, whispering. "New additions."
They knew not to ask or protest; this was how it had always been, Shep just picking people up off the street and adding them in. All of them had been 'new additions' at some point.
Tink huffed quietly to herself as the rest of them quietly went about their normal Shep wold be talking to her now, getting her dressed, etc., but instead he was talking solemnly to Wendalynn.
Not a good sign at all.