wish i didn't know now what i didn't know then

[wheyoftheadept]

 

You slide open the door into the warm summer sun, and the shrieks resolve into laughter.  A cluster of children race by, intent on a small, dark-haired figure streaking across the grass to the cheers of her comrades behind a cardboard-and-milk-crate fort.  There’s a flag clutched in her hands.  She jukes left and vaults over a bench, buying a few more seconds as her pursuers scramble around, and ducks behind her front line just her allies swarm past their barricades to meet the oncoming horde.  From there it’s a flurry of “got-yous!” and “no-fairs!”

The girl, for her part, drops down on the bare earth behind the makeshift fort.  They’d set it up with a tree to guard one flank; under it sits another girl, larger then the first but somehow frailer, shoulders hunched like someone used to concealing their size.  She’s an orc, if you know what those are; if you don’t, her lower jaw has two small tusks jutting up and out.

“That was really cool,” she tells Saturday. 

“Nah, it wasn’t nothing,” Saturday responds cheerfully, tying the flag to her belt.  Then she notices you and gets to her feet, moving to stand between you and the other girl. 

“Can I help you?” she asks, polite enough, but clearly wary.  She doesn’t recognize you, so you shouldn’t be here.