The girl seems somewhat calmed by Natanja's gentle voice and touch.
She startles slightly when the masked Eli speaks, but relaxes when the mask is removed, and returns his smile weakly.
Looking back at Natanja, seeming both fascinated by and wary of Natanja's fiery hair, she responds softly, her small voice quite hoarse...
"I'm Gina. Who are you?"
Keeping her voice at a soothing level, the Emberkin continued,
"That is a pretty name. I am Natanja. These people are my cousins. Together we journeyed here to aid your town but it is with sadness that we arrived too late."
"Let me help you sit up so you may drink some water. Your throat must be parched from the smoke."
Taking the offered waterskin, Natanja raised it slowly to the girl's lips.
"You need further healing, Gina. Would you allow us to tend to you?"
"My name is Eli, and my cousin, Natanja," he gestures to her, "speaks true. It was she who found you."
He would help with the ministrations.
He would wait, patiently, a calming influence as much as possible, as she's tended to, giving some of their water and food.
After she is aided, and has some water and a bit of food, "If you can, please, Gina, tell us: what do you recall? Do you know of any more that may have been well hidden as you? What happened?"
He asks gently, hoping to ease her into the difficult mental place.
With help, Gina sits up to drink the much-needed water.
She nods at Natanja's question, accepting the healing, and the bit of food offered by Eli is gobbled down quickly.
Then she glances around at what she can see of the area beyond...
"Where are we?"
She seems to have not fully heard, or at least not fully understood, Eli's questions.
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"I will let go of your hand just for a moment so I may take a blanket from my pack to cover you with." Using her body as a prop for the child, Natanja removed the backpack from her shoulders and reached within and drew out her blanket. Wrapping it about the girl's shoulders, hoping to stem some of the child's tremors, she gently cradled Gina and answered her question simply, "We are a few steps from the building we found you in. Perhaps your home?"
To one of the other cousins, Natanja requested a little more food be brought to the child.
Gina seems confused and looks around...
"Where?"
A concerned look crosses Eli's face, as he glances at Natanja, significantly.
"Where are you from, Gina?" he asks, gently, a soft hand on her shoulder.
"My town is Endurant, the home of the strong."
Gina speaks the words as if they are a well-practiced saying she has been taught.
As she does, however, she continues to look around, seemingly trying to recognize her surroundings.
"Wait... wait... This is the path to the water... But the town is gone!"
Her eyes widen in amazement, and she seems to be looking at your faces for answers.
Eli swallows, closes his eyes, and drops his head.
He places his mask back on.
"Yes, young one. It is gone." he says in his even tone. "We are here to search for answers to how this happened. And in the searching, we found you."
Natanja's arms held the girl reassuringly, comfortingly. Her voice was still low and gentle,
"A fire tore through the village a few days ago. I'm sorry, Gina, but Endurant did not prevail."
Gina nods slowly, taking this in...
"The fire nightmare. It was real."
She hesitates, then asks...
"Was... was the little monster nightmare real, too?"
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"Can you describe the little monsters, Gina?" gently coaxing the child to better help them understand if it was just the imps or another darkness that entered and destroyed Endurant. Natanja did not want to push the child too hard or too fast in her current state.
Eli quietly attempts to assist comforting the little girl with a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"I dreamed that four little monsters hurt mommy and daddy. They were ugly and smelly and they laughed and were gone like poof! I... I don't think they saw me. But mommy and daddy wouldn't wake up and they were hurt... And I wanted the nightmare to be over so I crawled back under the bed and went back to sleep."
Still in gentle voice, "You were very clever to hide under the bed and go to sleep, Gina." The bedding and her unfortunate parents had borne the brunt of the fire and it saved the child.
Natanja looked across at Eli, wondering if the four creatures were the same ones who attacked them on the road.
"Your mother and father were brave. I am sorry they are gone, little one." comfortingly stroking the girl's hand.
"They are gone... like the town?"
Out of the corner of her golden-glowing eye, Natanja made out the figure of her cousin, Shyness, down on the path near the water.
She raised her hand and called out her cousin's name, gesturing her with hand to come up.
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"Yes, little one. I wish I had happier news. I am most sorry for your loss."
After a moment's pause, and another gentle squeeze of hand, Natanja asked delicately,
"Gina, do you have other family elsewhere in the World? Someone we may contact on your behalf?"
"..." Eli starts to speak, but stops, breathes, looks at Natanja, and nods.
"Yes, Gina. They are gone. Like the town." he says! with no trace of emotion in his almost painfully steady voice.
"You mean like Uncle Max?"
Natanja looked at the little girl swathed in the large blanket.
"Aye, like Uncle Max. Where does he live? Do you know, Gina?"
Oko, perched on the medium-sized rock near Natanja, glowed softly and stared silently at the child.
"Uncle Max lives a long way away in the big city. The big city is called Viligant. I went there to see him once. Sometimes he comes here to see us."
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Wiping ash from her hand, Natanja reached down and laid it on the girl's hand and used her magic to stabilise her in case she would live yet. Natanja pushed her face closer to the girl's partially burned one and it was then she discovered there was breath still in the child! Shallow but enough to keep her alive. By Eth's grace!
Shocked by the discovery, she called out to her companions, "Kaya, Cernan, come and help me carefully lift her from this rubble. The child breathes! I would provide her with some healing."
While washing the foraged berries, Shyness hears Natanja call out something about a child. She rushes over with what she has already gathered. When Natanja asks for more food, she offers up some berries.
With great sympathy, Shyness says, "Yes, tribe and home gone. We help, though."
"Vigilant." Natanja's golden eyes were drawn to Eli's masked face once again.
"We just came from there, little one. We know this town of Vigilant."
Natanja smiled as Shyness offered berries to Gina.
"I do not mean to cause you pain, but what were your parents' names, Gina?"
Gina gobbles up whatever berries Shyness offers.
"Thanks. I always like eating lots of these."
She turns to look at Oko.
"Your bird is on fire. Is it okay?"
Then, she notices Rex and her shoulders stiffen.
"That is a wolf. Will it eat us?"
EDIT:
In response to Natanja's question she responds...
"Oh! Mommy and Daddy."
"Indeed." says Eli, suspicious.
Natanja was somewhat caught unawares by Gina's question regarding Oko.
She smiled at the girl, scoffing down the berries, her lips becoming stained by their juice.
"My hawk is called Oko. And she glows like candlelight -- warm to touch -- but not on fire, little one."
And upon her reaction to Marius' wolf, Natanja shook her head, "Nay. He is with us. Friend. He is called Rex and is companion to my cousin Marius, there."
"Do Mommy and Daddy go by another name, sweet child? Names that the other villagers used to call them?"
"Indeed." says Eli, suspicious.
"Hmmm...."
Gina seems to be thinking hard...
"Gina's Mommy?"
...she offers, trying to be helpful.
"Wait... Missez Gelthis. An' Mistur Gelthis. We're the Gelthis family!"
She brightens briefly upon saying this, then her face becomes expressionless, and she stares off toward the former-village, her eyes starting to fill with the first signs of tears...
Cernan says nothing, but while the girl appears distracted, turns his back and gets off a quick casting of Detect Magic.
Also, towards the child,
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A little girl, orphaned, alone... Shyness unashamedly allows a tear to run down her cheek. She starts to reach out a hand in comfort, but pulls back. So many around her already... loss of family... overwhelming...
Shyness perks up a bit at the mention of the uncle. "You still have family. We come from Vigilant. We take you." Shyness looks to Eli, suddenly aware that she just spoke for a lot of people.
The Gelthis family. "Aye, that helps, Gina. Thank you."
Natanja continued to offer what solace she could to the little girl, especially upon sight of her tears.
The girl half-nods at Shyness's words, and at Natanja's words, still gazing off toward the ruins.
EDIT:
"I think you should try and get some rest, little one. You've had an eventful few days. There is a cabin we found. You may sleep in there, alright?"
Natanja pushed the hair away from the little girl's eyes.
"Would you like me to take you there? I can sit by your side until you fall asleep?" Natanja held out her hand for the child to grasp.
The girl just nods.
"Come, little one."
And Natanja lifted the small, skinny child in the blanket up in her arms and proceeded to carry her to the cabin.
"Shyness is correct." Eli states, flatly, "We will be glad to take you, when we can."
He glances around, slowly, "We do have need of gathering more information, first, however."
Eli stands, and turns toward Cernan, and walks a short ways away with him, an arm on his shoulder.
"Cousin. I do not trust this. Something seems off, somehow. I may well be incorrect, I sense no specific duplicity in her, but this is a very strange occurrence and exceedingly suspicious timing. I would ask someone you trust to keep her well under guard after Natanja and Shyness rest - for everyone's safety, including hers, if she is genuine; in that case, something might return to finish the job. I entrust you with this, as I respect your keen mind, and, given my own weakness, I may not be in a state to make that call." Despite being delivered in a monotone, it's clear that the calm words hide depths of emotion. Eli nods at him once, before letting go, and turning.
Eli walks back to Natanja. "Cousin," he states, "I would ask that you and Shyness keep a careful and close guard over the girl. Get her into a comfortable, safe environment where nothing can move without being noticed. It is important that Rex be present as well, if Marius is willing." The lack of apparent empathy, concern, or any emotion - even distaste or disinterest - would be disconcerting coming from most anyone.
"Nothing should approach or leave the area without you and Shyness being aware of it." he explains.
"Young one. Gina." he turns to the girl. "I ask that you go with my cousins, quickly, and well. Find a place to sleep and to rest." he says. "Good dreams to you, and peace to us all at this time." Eli notes with no trace of feeling.
The girl, bundled in the blanket, actually falls asleep in Natanja's arms.
Natanja carries her to the logging camp to rest with the others for the night.
Eli walks back to Natanja. "Cousin," he states, "I would ask that you and Shyness keep a careful and close guard over the girl. Get her into a comfortable, safe environment where nothing can move without being noticed. It is important that Rex be present as well, if Marius is willing."
Natanja nodded her head in acquiescence to Eli's request. "I will stand watch until I sleep and another replaces me."
************************************************************************
She called Oko to her and together with the sleeping child they moved toward the logging cabin.
"Thank you both." Eli says in his constant monotone.
Vincent is busy with Shyness as she picks and washes berries.
So, where did you come from. Me, I am from the streets.
"Easy, Eli. You're not the healer here, although it seems like everyone else might be. The girl's probably just disturbed by the whole thing, and perhaps by our accents and costumes as well."
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Vincent is busy with Shyness as she picks and washes berries.
So, where did you come from. Me, I am from the streets.
Shyness takes a moment before answering in her melodious voice, but with dissonant language. "I... hard explanation. Orphan, I thought, but I meet mother. She evil, I run, father find me in mist, lost. Thark teach honor and tribe, how to survive. Who teach you?"
Rex takes a step forward, his ears held tilted back in submission. With an uncanny intelligence in his eyes, he sits at a safe distance and watches the girl like another member of his own pack.
Marius didn't do the whole kid thing. He and children just generally didn't get along very well. Maybe it was his own troubled childhood, or maybe it was his lack of parental instinct, but he did his best to avoid kids (as they did him).
And yet, looking on this girl, he felt overwhelming sympathy. The poor girl didn't deserve this. No one did. But to be the sole survivor of this massacre was more of a curse than anything else. Her whole life would be directed by the course of these events. He waits until Natanja takes the girl away, then addresses the others.
"So... what now? Do we bring her straight back to Vigilant, and let the bastards who did this put more distance between us?"
Poterol has stayed away, tending the dying embers of the funeral pyre. He was able to note the arrival of the child, but little else, though he nodded with satisfaction of the guard placed on her sleep. It would be very poor of them to not help any child, much less one that had suffered such an upheaval as this.
Perhaps, he thinks, teaching her as I have taught other children will help her through this troubled time.
Shyness takes a moment before answering in her melodious voice, but with dissonant language. "I... hard explanation. Orphan, I thought, but I meet mother. She evil, I run, father find me in mist, lost. Thark teach honor and tribe, how to survive. Who teach you?"Vincent is busy with Shyness as she picks and washes berries.
So, where did you come from. Me, I am from the streets.
I taught myself I guess. I refused to roll over and die, like many others in my position did before me. Could I have a berry you picked?, he looks over his shoulder back to the wreckage. He wondered if they even cared if he was gone.
"I would suspect there is more that we should do in or around this region, but I could be very wrong. Although Endurant is gone, we have little evidence, now of who did this or how. Even though I agree with how we handled the dead, the fact that there are now no bodies may work strongly against our favor." he says with no hint of the emotion beneath the words.
He looks around.
"This was done on purpose." he explains. "Deadly purpose. The question is why. What would induce them to burn a whole village. Endurant wasn't a font of spiritual power. It wasn't wealthy. It wasn't important. That we know of. What did they get out of this. What did they want. Something of this size is too large to hide for long. They could barely have managed longer had we not shown up, I suspect. Thus their motivation for doing this is extremely suspect. I suspect they were looking for something, attempting to keep a secret, or both. It would seem unwise to allow them time to enact their schemes further, or to return with such large questions unanswered. For if they are not answered in the eyes of all who are not us, how will things appear. Fourteen armed and powerful strangers - one of whom is made of fire - go to Endurant, and return with the only survivor who vaguely recalls things as if a dream, and some trade goods that are not theirs, but, alas, can be claimed by no one else. Mysteriously, they report Endurant destroyed by fire, but of course claim they have nothing to do with it. They have three dead spirits, which is good, but they have no bodies to prove how the people of the city died. When questioned, they can only claim that they followed dreams. Nothing here explains our presence, and everything makes us look bad. And we are still no closer to guessing the why, except secrecy."
All delivered without so much as a waiver in his steady monotone, Eli turns.
"I demand nothing, but I speak that it may be clear: we have learned nothing of value, and placed ourselves into a precarious situation. I am an Embishiu, a tribesman. Even though it has been long since anyone has shed blood between my people and the 'Kingdoms, there are still many with prejudices. I dare say that many of the rest of us are in similar situations, or could be in this instance. We currently have nothing to show our innocence. I do not wish to allow any who would do this escape either due to leaving too early or due to being imprisoned for false suspicions. We all must weigh in our council on this matter. One alone cannot decide it." Eli states, flatly.
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Natanja sat on a barrel, Oko perched on her shoulder, as Gina slept in a small, makeshift cot, Natanja's blanket covering her.
Emberkin and spirit animal watched over the young girl during their designated shift. The day had been long, the work hard, and Natanja's mind pondered all that had happened. Emberkin and hawk remained attentive and ready in case of trouble.
Marius shrugs his agreement. "Wouldn't be the first time I've been run out of town, but you've got a point there," he says with half of a chuckle. Would have been funnier if it wasn't true. "What I'm more concerned about is the girl's safety. I have little intention of letting the trail go cold. Someone's going to pay for this." He pauses, then resumes with a low, cautious tone. "But can we really justify dragging her along with us - can we protect her from whatever might lay ahead?"