To Kill a Nightingale

Innocence . . .

Runa kicked at the broken Dwarven Sphere at her feet. "Goddamn it!"

"Oh, Jesper!" Rusty called out in singsong, scanning the premise. "Where'd you get to, kid?"

Hroar took off searching.

"He ran away, dammit!" Runa. "Should have put a leash on him!"

Rusty raised a brow. "Well, I didn't realize that's what was running across your—"

"Ah, shut it," Runa snapped. "I'm not in the mood." She then responded to the look he gave her by narrowing her eyes. "Don't you even dare!"

He chuckled.

"Yeah, laugh it up. Let's see you laughing when we get lost in this damn maze trying to find our way to the Nightingale."

"I don't see the problem. Personally, I think the kid was only in the way."

"True as that may be," said Runa, "I can't shake the feeling there's something ominous about him splitting. Why would he, unless—"

"Here!" Hroar yelled.

"What?"

"He's here."

They rushed to where Hroar was standing by one of the pillars, looking at something on the ground behind it. Had there been another Dwarven thingamajig after all, one which had done the poor fool in? Runa cursed at her poor ability to protect those in her charge. And she had been about to blame Jesper for treachery!

Coming by Hroar, then, she raised a brow. Well, it was Jesper alright. But not sliced to ribbons after all. At least physically.

"Jesper!" Runa cried. "We were worried." She cringed. Yes, she sounded exactly like her mother. Or at least someone's mother.

Jesper lay on the dusty floor in a position not dissimilar to what you'd call fetal, in his eyes a look very much like a rabbit who'd met a fox in its burrow.

Rusty snorted. Then looked puzzled when Runa swatted hard at his arm. "Ow! What?"

"Don't mock the whelp. It's perfectly understandable he got scared."

Jesper raised his head, indignance replacing some but not all of the shock on his countenance. "I did not—" The words died on his lips with the look she gave him. "Yeah, I got scared."

"Takes a big man to admit it," said Hroar.

Runa cocked her head at Hroar, but then added, "What he said." She shoved Hroar's proffered hand aside to give hers.

Jesper looked at the hand for a while, as if suspecting a trap, then took it.

She pulled him up. "You did good. Wise to get out of the way when . . . the more seasoned folks handle business." She'd almost said "grown-ups".

Rusty clapped the boy on the shoulder. "Aye, boy. Well-hid!" He shied away from Runa a bit, as though expecting a blow.

Ignoring him, Runa put her arm around Jesper's shoulder and led him aside. "Pay no mind to him, Jesper. Ain't no shame in prudence. After all, we all possess different strengths, if you know what I mean."

It looked either as though he did not know what she meant or that he did know but wasn't sure what to make of it. Perhaps he was also a bit discomfited by her arm around him. She chose to keep it where it was.

"I think," she said, "we got off on the wrong foot. I sense there's hope for you yet."

"Hope? What hope?"