Redeeming the Lost (A Comforter's Tale)

Epilogue

* * * Epilogue * * *

I ran beside a runt; he was far more agile than me, even though we were almost the same size.

"Keep going!" I told him, "I'll try to distract them."

"I'll grab a snack from the kitchen for you and meet you in the tunnel under the playground slide."

I turned down the left hallway and quit suppressing my aura. It wouldn't take them long to sense it and track me down. It was probably me they were after anyway, especially since I had the television remote clamped between my teeth.

The floor vibrated with approaching footsteps, and a veritable horde of children ranging from one to twelve years old appeared in the hallway behind me. Most were in wolf form for better speed, but a few of the older ones were on two legs.

"Eep!" I quickly took shelter in a family room and squeezed under a big couch. I hid the remote behind me as I lay down.

Wolves and humans peered underneath.

"Come on, hand the remote over! The cartoons are about to start!"

"What remote?"

"The one you hid behind you."

Some kids tried to push the couch away from the wall, but it was heavy and didn't budge.

"Where are Carl and Pat?" one of the girls asked. "They are small enough to get under there."

"They're still catching up. Ah, there they are."

Under the encouragements of the others, two of the smallest pups began crawling under the couch in search of the remote.

I tried to distract them. "Want to play?"

The tail on one began wagging, as easily convinced as any one-year-old.

"No! The remote, Pat! The remote! So we can watch cartoons!"

The pup looked between me and the girl, confused and torn by two fun-sounding things. Beyond the girl, I saw a larger set of feet approaching.

One end of the couch suddenly lifted, raising up my hiding place and the eight kids who had been piled on top of it.

"Thanks Vera!" several of them exclaimed, darting forward to pull me away from the wall and expose the remote.

Like an invading force, they ran back to the other family room to watch their shows, the bigger ones carrying the smaller ones this time.

I snorted and sauntered out so Vera could put the end of the couch down since it was just the two of us now. "Ruining my fun..."

"Keeping the peace," she corrected. "Even Conrad felt the disturbance from the training field."

"And he sent you to fix it?"

"He knew it involved a lot of kids, so there was a good chance the group from the orphanage was involved."

"Ah, that makes sense since you are in charge of the kids sent here. The others also listen better to you than to most adults when they're up to mischief."

"With the exception of one particular troublemaker, yes. With all-" she suddenly paused and tilted her head.

I tried to look as innocent as possible, which probably wasn't working considering the emotions I was feeling from the kids who were likely mindlinking Vera.

She looked down at me and raised an eyebrow. "And why are the batteries not in the remote?"

"I can honestly say I didn't touch those. I was told it was a game of hidden treasure, and they have to find it."