"So, how do you like them?"
"They're so good! Especially the strawberry ones!"
My ears flicked. "The... whatberry?"
The kid rolled her eyes at me. "STRAWberry! The red ones!" She said, her mouth full of another pastry.
"Ah, sure, sure," I said, holding my hands out placatingly. "Hey, I'm gonna see if the kitchen has any more steamberry-"
"Strawberry!!"
"Right, strawberry. I'll be right back, so watch my backpack, okay?"
"Okay!" She said, messily devouring another hand pie. She must have been starving. Her small, rounded ears barely poked out of her hair. How did she hear anything?
I headed to the bar of the little tavern/cafe, where our party's wizard was busy glaring at the old elf in grey robes she'd been talking to since this morning. "Any luck, Yix?"
"Bozo the wise over here still claims that this kid is the only way to defeat the Dark Lord." She licked her eyeball in frustration.
"That's Belanor! And the child is the child of prophecy! She who would come from another world to save us all! Through trials and hardship-"
I hissed, and ears flattened against my head. "I'm not interested in your dogma, old man! That kid is maybe eight years old, tops. We found her in the woods, crying for her mom. We are NOT," I slam my claws into the counter near his hand for emphasis, "just going to hand her a sword and hurl her into harm's way!"
"But without the child, the Dark Lord is invincible! His armies will turn the world to ash!"
"Bullshit," I said, "there has to be some other way. This kid needs to go home."
Belanor opened his mouth, and Yix stood up, silencing him. "Forget it. Talking to this guy is like arguing with a brick wall. We'll have better luck in Turia. If anything like this has happened before, the library there will have answers."
"But the prophecy! Without the child-"
I grabbed a double fistful of his robes and pulled him right up into my face. "Eight. Years. Old. She should be playing pretend in the garden, not getting herself killed by the restless undead. If our world needs the sacrifice of a child to survive, then it's not fucking worth preserving." I shoved him back down onto his seat. "Don't let me catch you trying to talk to her again, or I'll make you regret it." I extended my claws for emphasis, then sheathed them and licked my paw so I could smooth back my mussed fur.
Yix and I went back to the kid, and I hunkered down to get to eye level with her. Her eyes went wide. "Mrs. Rune! Your tail is all poofed! Are you okay?"
I grabbed behind me without looking and started smoothing it out. "Oh, hah, how funny! I went into the kitchen to ask for more strawberry pies, and the chef got startled and dropped some dishes. Boy did I jump!" I laugh easily. "Say, there's a big city not too far away that has a real big library. Mrs. Yix here thinks she might be able to find you a way home there! Doesn't that sound nice?"
The kid shuffled around so I was more in between her and Yix. She grabbed my arm with jammy hands. "I dunno..."
"Come on, it'll be an adventure!" I grabbed her and hoisted her up onto my shoulders while she giggled. "Have you ever ridden a bumbo before?"
Her hands grabbed the fur on top of my head as she bent down to try to see my face. "Izzat like a horse?"
Yix and I exchanged glances. "I don't know!" I cry, not losing enthusiasm. "Let's go find out!"
She giggled as we exited the tavern, leaving a few coins on the table for the meal. I glanced back to see the old man glowering at us from underneath his cowl. I gave him a rude gesture as a parting gift, then launched into an old marching song, the kid happily joining in off-key.
Yix murmured at me between verses. "How'd you get so good at dealing with kids, anyway?"
"Lots of younger siblings," I murmured back. Then, at full volume, I started singing a silly song about bugs, and tried not to pay attention to the gathering storm in the south.
