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Tia sat on the entrance to the Park and waited for Herold. It was uncommon for him to be late since he was always here before she came. They had talked about searching the neighborhood again today at kindergarten after the failure of crossing the big road yesterday. She still didn’t know how the policeman had figured out where they were going. She had played with the thought to ask her brother but she was afraid that he would become suspicious about the question and find out what she was trying to do. Tia didn’t care if he found out, but she was very afraid what would happen if he told their mother.

  “Hey, sorry for being late.” Tia turned around to see Herold waving energetic his hand. And behind him was Birim. A quiet sigh escaped her. Why was he here?

  “I went to Birim’s place to pick him up. So that's why.”, he said broadly smiling. “Ah, is that so.”, answered Tia stiffly. “Come on, the more the merrier. And more eyes will see more right?” Herold grinned while patting Birim on the back who smiled shyly. Tia could really not see what Birim could add to their search. Even if he would see something, she doubted that he would speak up.

Tia got up and glanced into the streets. “So, what do you think should we do? I know we talked about searching around here again but we pretty much looked everywhere.” Herold closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of him. “Yeah, not much around here anyway. Just one block after the other. The kindergarten is off limits after it closes and the community house is no good, too.”

  “Y, you have aledy se, seched the en, entile sector?”, asked Birim in awe. Tia gave him a glare. “Yes, we did. We did talk about it in kindergarten, didn’t we? Not that you helped.” “Well it’s fine, isn’t it? New day new luck.”, laughed Herold awkwardly. “Let's just go around again. Maybe we overlooked something.” Tia sighed but nodded.

  “Yeah, let's just do that.” But Birim fidgeted his arms nervously around. “Ca, can we g, go to the st, store?” “Ah right. Your mother gave you money for juice and stuff. Fine by me.”, smiled Herold. Tia frowned. She didn’t have any interest in escorting him to the store so that he could get juice. But she couldn’t just say no. They did want to search the area again and Herold would definitely use this as an argument. “Alright, let's go.”, grumbled Tia without any elan and set her feet into motion. Small steps hurried beside her and Birim looked at her. But his eyes didn’t meet hers and he seemed frightened. “Wh, wh, wha, what ki, kind o, o, of snacks do, do y, y, y, you like?” Tia raised a brow. This was new. Birim himself taking the initiative to speak to her directly. But she couldn’t understand why he was asking her that. “Why do you ask?”

He moved restlessly his hands around. “S, so that we ca, can get so, someting that w, we all l, like.” Tia's eyes widened. So he wanted to get something for all of them. That was not something she would have expected. She thought that Birim would only get stuff for himself and didn’t care for the others. She turned around and gave Herold an inspecting look. Surely he had set him up for this. But he just smiled. She couldn’t read him at all. “Well, I do like potato chips. The sour kind.” Birim swallowed. “I, I, I, I am not go, good with so, sour st, stuff. Wou, would be salted o, once be o, okay?” “Yeah, sure. No problem.”

Birim breathed a sigh of relief.

They reached the shop and were just about to enter it, as Herold poked Tia softly with his elbow. “Hey look, there is that mean girl. Let's avoid her.” Tia looked in the direction Herold showed her. There stood the Girl that had insulted them before, carrying shopping bags in each hand. She wore long clothes even though it was pretty warm. She wondered why anyone would run around in those clothes in the middle of July. But then again, Tia herself got cold quite quickly herself. Except for the hot summer, she also wore clothes like what that girl was wearing. Maybe she is coldblooded. She was scaled after all and most people had fur to keep them warm. Except for summer, Tia always envied her brother for that thick fur of his.

But then an idea crossed Tia’s mind. Her tail slowly curved around itself while a mischievous grin formed on her. She waved her hand towards the girl. “Hi, what's up. Got yourself some snacks?” Herold besides her groaned. She girl froze up and stared with a shocked expression at them but it turned into an angry one at once. “It is nothing to put your nose into it.” “Yeah, your right. If you excuse us we are on a mission.” Herold underlined his last word while glaring at Tia. Her eyes widened. A mission! What a wonderful word. It was true that is was nothing less than that. But even though he said that they were here escorting Birim. So a little detour on the expensive of Herold was not that bad.

  “What? A mission?”, asked the girl with excitement in her eyes. “We se, search for a secret base, you kno, know.”, said Birim in a quiet tone. Tia flung around and stared aghast at him. Herold did the same. “You can’t just tell anybody what we are doing Birim.”, called Herold sternly. “A secret Base?”, whispered the girl. She put on a smug face. “I have a secret base.” Herold looked at her disinterested. “Ah, how nice for…” “You have?” Tia jumped forward almost hugging her. The girl stepped startled back and the only reason she didn’t fall over was thanks to her tail pressing against the ground. Her bags gave the sound of glass hitting glass. “Ye, yeah, I have.” “Can you show it to us?”, asked Tia enthusiastically. “No wait, Tia we shouldn’t…” “Shush!”, interrupted Tia Herold without looking at him. The girl stared at her for a few seconds before starring to the side. “I could. But it is my secret base. So you have to listen to me there.” “You show it, great. Let's go!”, announced Tia who had only heard the first part of the sentence the girl had spoken.

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  “Eh? Right now? Sure.”, said the girl and a soft smile formed on her lips. But it turned almost in an instant into a sad one. “But I can’t. I have to bring the shopping home first. But If you wait here for me I will come as soon as I drop it.” “We can come with you. Herold here could even carry the bags. They look quite heavy.”, pressed Tia not wanting to waste even one second. “NO!”, shouted the girl. Tia made a step back shocked at her sudden yell. For a moment the girl appeared to be in panic but before Tia could blink her expression was an angry one. Did she just imagine that? “I mean, there's no way I would let that idiot carry my stuff. He would just drop it and break everything. Wait here or I am not going to show it to you!”, declared the girl. Herold glared at her irritated. “You are an idi- umpf” Tia hit Herold in his sides with her elbow. “Alright, we wait here.”, she said sweetly. The girl nodded and gave Tia a shy smile and glared at Herold before she left. She made small steps and it was obvious that she had to fight hard not letting the backs drop. She put her feet down heavily with each step and her face was strained.

  “Why did you do that?”, asked Herold beside Tia. She turned to face him and noticed his angry expression. “So that she doesn’t change her mind”, answered she carefree. “Not the hitting. I mean why did you call out to her?”   

“Oh. Well, you know, the more the merrier, right?” Tia put on a smile like an angel. Tia hadn’t thought about inviting her. She just wanted to mess with Herold in the same way he did with her. She didn’t really dislike the girl. True she had insulted her but basically, it was always Herolds fault. The first time was because Herold had annoyed her too much and she just snapped at everyone around her. And the second time was when Herold had attacked her in her own yard. That this was not entirely the truth threw Tia into the back of her mind. That was not important. What was important, was that she had a hideout. So who cares if the facts didn’t line up. Points deducted from Herold.

  “And thanks to me calling out to her, we have now a hideout.”, grinned Tia. But Herold frowned. “Thanks to Birim you mean. Without him, she would have never known what we searched.” “Ah, you are right. Thanks, Birim for shouting our secret mission to everyone. Good job.” Tia faced towards Birim with a fake smile. But he wasn’t there. Bewildered she looked at Herold. “Where is he?” Herold sighed. “He went into the shop a few moments ago. And come on, can’t you be nice to him. He even gets us something with his money. He asked you what you want, right?” “Yes, he did. But I bet you told him to do so.” Herold made a stoic mime. But it crumbled fast as Tia's glare didn’t stop. “Well, yes. But you know, he is scared of you but he really wants to get along with you.” Tia snorted.   

“He is scared of life. But I will take his offering.” Herold sighed. They stood there in silence until Birim exited the shop. “I, I got us some ju, juice and potato chips.”, he said smiling shyly. “Thank you Birim.”, said Herold still glaring at Tia. She put on a fake smile. “Yes, thank you.”

They sat on the sidewalk beside the shop and ate the chips and drank their juice in silence. Birim looked nervous from Herold to Tia and back. After a while, Herold broke the silence. “I don’t think she will come back. She probably laughs right now about how dumb we are.” Tia put her head into her neck and stared at the clouds. “I don’t think so. The stuff she was carrying looked pretty heavy. Maybe she just takes a few breaks every now and then.” “Maybe. Maybe not. But I know we don’t have much time to wait anymore. The streetlights will soon ring and tell us to go home.”, argued Herold. But Tia just gave him a relaxed glance. “If it comes to this it will. But until then let's wait.” Herold jumped on his feed. “No, we should just go already. I bet her hideout isn’t anything great anyway.”

Tia shook her head. “We told her we would wait and I, as the demon lord, hold my word.” Herold stepped closer to her. “You didn’t the last time we waited for someone.” “First, I never gave my word to wait for him. Second, it was pretty clear that he wouldn’t come, he didn’t and so I am right in my impression of him.” Poison seemed to almost drop from Tia's smile. “Alright, that's it.”, yelled Herold. “You can wait here for all I care. We are going.” He turned around and stomped away. Birim who got more and more afraid as the conversation dragged on starred shocked at Herold's back. He turned to face Tia. “I, I, I, I, am so, so, sorry.” Then he ran after Herold. Tia raised a brow. Did he get that they were talking about him? And did he say sorry because of that or because he didn’t show up last time. Or maybe he excused the way Herold was behaving which was obviously a tantrum. Well whatever it was, he earned himself a few points with his behavior today. A good goon knew to treat his superior and excuses the faults of him. So points transferred from Herold to Birim.