Deep within the Strander burrow, Nia was pacing back and forth. Seated on the floor, Leeli, Podo and Oskar watched worriedly. Podo's left arm was in a sling, he'd hurt his shoulder ramming down the door the other night.
"I won't wait here all day, I won't!" Nia said in frustration.
"You can't show your face above ground, Nia." Podo reasoned. "Fangs will be swarmin'!"
Nia turned to her father. "My boys and Elisheva are out there somewhere. Captured, or hiding..."
Podo shook his head. "And it'll do no good for you to go off and get caught."
Leeli was worried too. "Please don't go, Mama."
"They'll find their way back, I'm sure of it." Oskar said gently. "Elisheva is resourceful, and Janner is a clever lad."
"Aye, they know the plan. They'll stick together." Podo assured.
"If none of them are here after dark, I'm going out to find them!" Nia declared.
Leeli looked down at her feet, she was worried for both her brothers and her friend too. Yet she also feared for her mother's life.
"Think of the girl, Nia." Podo said, gently patting Leeli's head. "She needs her mother, I'll go."
Oskar shook his head. "It'll be no good with your shoulder in this condition. Besides, the girl needs her Podo. If Elisheva and the boys aren't here by dusk, I'll go. The Fangs haven't put a price on my head yet...I hope."
Nia went and kneeled down in front of them, touching Leeli's face. "Alright, alright." And she hugged her daughter.
All they could do for the moment now was wait.
In Dugtown, the Fangs were already searching wagons and other possible hiding places. They didn't know that the people they were searching for were hidden in the least obvious.
On this same morning, Rocnhy McHiggins returned to the tavern to find it a mess, and so he began placing chairs and tables back in their proper places.
For the moment he was unaware that he had three people asleep right under the counter.
Elisheva, Janner and Tink had spent the entire night under the counter, huddled together. The young woman had her arm around the boy's shoulders; her left arm around Janner and her right around Tink.
Janner woke first, blinking sleepily and he gasped at the sound of a knife. However, it was Ronchy looking at a butcher knife and placing it away. Then Elisheva awakened.
The previous night's events came back to her with cold sweat and she felt her heart sink. The meeting the guide hadn't gone as she and her friends had hoped. She'd intended to speak with the group, intending to go on her own and search Dugtown for her family... but things had gone awry.
Now she couldn't leave the boys alone, not without finding the others first.
The movement woke Tink, who yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Breakfssst," he mumbled; then he too remembered their situation and opened his eyes as wide as his sleepiness allowed.
The three then heard footsteps come up to the counter where Ronchy was. They recognized the scent and the raspy hiss of a Fang and they held still.
Nervously, they listened as the Fang demanded a mug of glog thick as sludge. Ronchy took a tankard and leaned down to fill it, and he nearly let out a yelp when he saw the frightened two boys and young woman under the counter.
Trying not to look suspicious the tavern owner began filling the tankard with a foul smelling drink that made Tink cover his nose with both hands. Janner and Elisheva also grimaced at the stench.
And Ronchy glanced up, "Er, you said add a glog, right?"
"You got maggots in your ears?!" The Fang snapped, banging a fist on the counter. "Yes! Do I have to pour it myself?!"
"Nope, coming right up!"
Ronchy filled up the tankard and handed it to the Fang to drink. The thing took the tankard and began guzzling it down, spilling some of the fluid onto the counter.
A couple droplets seeped through, making Elisheva and the boys cover their noses and mouths in disgust.
Oh, gross!
The Fang set down the tankard. "You all yourself a bog brewer? There was hardly any rot in it."
"My apology." Ronchu replied. "I'll be sure to add some sour meat juice into the next batch."
Finally the Fang left the tavern, allowing the refugees to sigh in relief.
"Where's mom and Grandpa?" Tink questioned.
"We're meeting them back in the burrow, remember?" Janner reminded Tink.
Ronchy then kneeled down to the hidden three. "What are you youngsters doin' here? My place is wreck!"
"The whole meet up was a trap!" Janner replied, Tink nodded. "Our family barely got out. We had to hide."
"A hundred fangs swarmed in!" Tink added.
"No thanks to that jerk who sold us out," Elisheva grumbled. "But maybe you alkready knew that."
Ronchy frowned. "Look, if I wanted any of your capture, I'd have handed you over ot the Fang that was just in here."
"Well your friend Migg was a liar!" Tink said with folded arms.
"Migg did this? He was never my friend, just a scoundrel I shouldn't have trusted." Ronchy murmured sternly.
"Well that soundrel is now dead as a doornail." Elisheva grouched. "One of the Fangs bit him before they swarmed in."
Ronchy was stunned for a moment then looked at the three. "Look I want these Fangs pushed into the Dark Sea as much as anyone. And if what your grandpa said is half true..." he put his hand on Tink's left shoulder. "Maybe you'll have something to do with that."
Tink's mouth popped open and he looked uncertainly at the floor.
Then Ronchy pulled out what looked like pieces of pie but the smell was savory. "Here take this Sailor's pie and let's figure this out."
Gratefully the three dug into the sailor's pie, feeling famished. Ronchy served them with a bowlful of sugarberries mashed into a curious paste, which they ate with wooden spoons. Tink guzzled a cup of water from Ronchy's cistern, burped, then asked nicely for a refill.
"Our mom and grandpa are probably hiding somewhere in a Strander burrow." Janner said thoughtfully. "We came out a hatch and that house..."
Ronchy stopped him. "Whoa, whoa! Don't be telling me about Strander burrows. They don't take kindly to folks knowing their secrets, and you never know who's listening."
"Could you go across the street and, see if anyone's there?" Janner shrugged.
Ronchy stood up, looking out the large windows. "Not today."
Curious the three looked over the counter to see two Fangs outside bullying a passerby. And the secret manhole under the florist cart was unmoved and unnoticed.
Janner thought they just hide in the tavern, but Ronchy informed the three that the Fangs would be coming in for a midday meal and some of their patrol had sniffers.
"So we'll sneak out and find out family." Janner said, trying to think up plan.
Tink then pointed out. "But we don't know another way to get to the-" he gritted his teeth reluctantly. "The thing we can't say where they might be hiding!"
"I know need to get to the east side of Dugtown, up on the hill," Elisheva said thoughtfully having had her fill.
"The hill on the east side of Dugtown," Ronchy repeated, twirling his moustache between his thumb and forefinger. "Near the river?"
"Yes sir," Janner said.
"Ah. That's a fair walk from here, but it's easy enough to find. Just follow Riverside Road till it wends away from the river..."
The tavern boss croaked out directions, explaining to them how to take a shortcut to avoid a dangerous stretch of Riverside Road. "...on Tilling Street."
"Tilling Street?"
The more he talked, the higher the sun flew, and without warning, Dugtown awoke. Outside the Roundish Widow, wagons squeaked past, people murmured and grouched, and birds fluttered about in flocks. The great beast of the city stirred into motion, its citizens crawling about on its back like fleas on a dog.
"I'll slip you out the back." Ronchy said.
"Thank you, sir." Elisheva nodded.
"Now, you young ones be careful. This city was a fearful spot long before the Fangs came to Skree. Now that trolls and lizards traipse the streets, things are worse than ever. The Fangs drive us like slaves. They don't pay for their drink or their food or for the damage when they fight. They mock and imprison, and the children-" Ronchy's croaking voice clogged. "They take the children. There are hardly any left in the south side of the city. The Black Carriage comes and takes what it pleases, be it child or mother. How could they kidnap a mother? Even Stranders have mothers and shrink from doing a woman harm, especially a woman with a child."
There was a colored drawing on the wall beside the cupboard. In it, a younger, happier Ronchy McHiggins stood beside a pretty woman who cradled a baby.
Janner noticed it before Elisheva did and said, "I'm sorry, sir,"
Ronchy took a deep breath. He turned and opened the back door, he looked both ways then let the three youngsters slip out.
Elisheva, Janner and Tink stood alone on the threshold of the door that led to the alley.
Janner peeked around the corner and into the alley. To his relief, Migg Landers's body was gone, probably tossed into the river sometime in the night.
"Ready?" he asked, feeling the gravity of the moment.
"Yep." Tink scratched his armpit with one hand and picked sugarberry seeds from his teeth with the other.
"Let's do this." Elisheva nodded.
Janner led his little brother and the twenty year old woman into the alley and left the Roundish Widow behind.
Wagons, horses, trolls, Fangs, merchants, fishermen, boat captains, carriages, cries of surprise and anger and irritation, squeaking wheels, tromping boots, jangling pots and pans, cracking whips-all meshed into a violent, unstoppable rush that felt frankly overwhelming to Elisheva.
It was so different than the bustle of New York city.
And this was just one street in a city of hundreds of such streets, on a continent of many such cities, in a world of-well, nobody knew how many continents sprawled across the world of Aerwiar.
"Look at all these people!" Tink said, beaming.
"Yeah. This is going to be harder than I thought," Janner said gravely. "According to Ronchy's directions, we need to turn left," Tink said. "Left is east. Come on."
And before Janner could stop him, Tink plunged into the river of people. After several harrowing minutes fighting the current, being bumped, cursed at, elbowed, and tripped, Janner realized the traffic on the river side of the street moved east, the direction they wanted to go.
"Tink!" Janner cried. "Get to the other side of the street! The other side!"
He and Elisheva were nearly swept up into a herd of goats, Elisheva pulled her cloak loos and Janer had to climb to a post. Tink ran into the path of a carriage, and the horse reared. Tink darted to the right and out of sight. With great annoyance, the horse and driver pushed on. Both Janner and Elisheva waited until the carriage passed, then ducked in front of a whiskery fisherman toting a string of redgill over one shoulder.
Tink appeared to have almost no sense of self-preservation, he just carelessly bumped ito people, barreling through and stopping every now and then.
Elisheva and Janner nearly lost sight of him. Then Tink's head appeared above the crowd, under the awning of a boathouse on the far side of the street.
Janner clenched his teeth, waited for a space to open, and dashed into the traffic with Elisheva following suit. He pushed for the far side and nearly fell twice.
Tink stood on a barrel, staring wide-eyed at a troll as it rumbled past. Dugtowners with purple faces scrambled to escape its smell. The troll thudded along, twirling a club around its finger on a loop of twine. It looked happy as a fed baby, and its chin glistened with slobber.
"Don't do that!" Janner snapped as he yanked Tink from the barrel by his shirt collar.
"Do what?" Tink jerked away from Janner and glared at him.
"We need to stay close. All we did was cross the street, and already I lost you. The only way we'll both get to the burrow is if we stay together."
"Why? We both know where it is," Tink said hotly, straightening to his full height, which was a head shorter than his brother. "I was standing right there when McHiggins gave you directions. Do you think I'm not smart enough to find it alone?"
"We almost lost sight of you!" Elisheva hissed. "I promised your mom we'd all stick together, and that's what I'm gonna do."
Tink replied cockily. "Then you'll have to keep up!"
Janner scowled. "No, I don't. You have to stay with me, I'm the Throne warden, you're the king."
Tink rolled his eyes, "There's not even a kingdom left to be king of."
"It's my job to protect you." Janner said.
"What if I don't want to be protected?" Tink shot back.
"You don't have a choice. I'm a Throne Warden. You're a king. That's the way it is. I have to keep you safe. I have to get you to the Ice Prairies." "Well, what if I don't want to go to the Ice Prairies? What if I want to go home?"
"Are you serious?" Janner rolled his eyes. "We can't go home. Besides, Glipwood was never really our home, anyway. Our home is Anniera, and you're the king."
Tink sighed and turned away, mumbling something under his breath.
"What did you say?" Janner demanded.
"Nothing."
"Tink! What did you say?"
Tink gave Janner a seething look. "I said, 'I don't want to be king.' And don't call me Tink anymore. My name is Kalmar."
"I bet if it were about leading those crooks back in the Strand, you'd be all for it." Elisheva sneered. "No rules, no responsibiility and not caring who they hurt so long as they get what they want."
Tink gaped then glared at her. "They're not all bad."
"As if! Look, I made a promise but I intend to kep you two together and find your family before I rescue mine."
The crowds moved past in a blur, too busy to notice two boys and the older girl arguing in the shade of a boathouse. Janner lowered his voice. "Fine, then, Kalmar. But it doesn't matter if you want to be king or not. I'm the Throne Warden, and I'm going to get you safe to the burrow. If you don't want to be king, tell it to Mama or Grandpa."
Tink's eyes burned, and a scowl spread across his face. It was a look of anger, but even more, it was a look of panic. Then Tink said something that cut to Janner's heart. "I don't want this. I don't want any of it. You two leave me alone." He tried to shove past his brother, but Elisheva stopped him.
Elisheva admittedly lost her temper with the boy. "Well TOUGH! You think you've got it hard?! Try working two jobs to help the family put food on the table and pay for medical bills so your father can be well again. Or maybe go through school with everyone else looking down on you because you're not rich enough to make the school look good!"
Janner was utterly bewildered. For the past few months, Elisheva never shouted at the children angrily before; this clued him on on how serious the matter was.
Also, she hadn't liked talking to much about her schooling after her mother died and her father fell sick.
"What? They did that?" Janner gaped.
"Then when things start to look up… you slip up once, then some scaled punks kidnap you and your family, to separate you on the orders of some Nameless Psycho!" Elisheva finished furiously to Tink. "But what do you care about everyone else?! You're a selfish brat!"
Tink broke loose and snapped back with the most hurtful words he could think of in that moment. "Find your own family and go back home to Mainhatten, New Fork, or whatever it is!"
And he ran off.
To be continued…
Author's note: Remember, even ocs have to have their fatal flaws and make other mistakes just as much as canon characters. Also one can't control their feelings of being hurt and angry either when they're hurt with words.
Yes, the words Kalmar had said to Elisheva were hurtful too - as is his foolish decision to join the Stranders. He told Elisheva to find her own family - remember they're imprisoned somewhere else. Elisheva already blames herself for losing sight of her father Samuel and brother Zev when the Fangs had forcibly separated them.
What follows won't make it easier.