Shimmering lights and bright glows illuminated the room, the warm tones filled the place, creating a calm and serene ambience…

Despite this, the chilling atmosphere inside snuffed out any semblance of warmth that the room tried to transmit.

Gaviel, Alfen, Frier, Cain, and a confused little girl stood. On the other side of the table, the Chief, even though she was shorter than most of the people in the room, managed to stare down everyone with a glare, the wooden floorboards ominously creaking as she leaned forward...

. . .

A short while ago, before they could even set a foot inside the village properly, they were already being swarmed by the curious onlookers the moment they landed their sights on them.

Having had their arrival practically announced to the entire village with the boisterous welcome, more and more people started to come closer to see what all the commotion was about, family and friends dragging each one of them into different directions.

They promptly excused themselves before they got taken by the waves, for they were already way behind their intended time of arrival. They could already see their village chief, Dahlia, waiting by the entrance of the main pavilion with a resting face and thinly veiled scowl that told them that they were already in for an impending scolding.

As they approached, Dahlia did a double take at the girl that accompanied them, just now spotting her frazzled form hiding in between the group.

Various unreadable expressions crossed her face, before settling in a smile, whether that was a happy or an angry smile they couldn’t tell.

“Welcome back!…” She greeted, turning to the girl trailing behind them. ”Now just who's this adorable little one?” She crouched down to the girl’s eye-level.

She paused, looking the child up and down, and then back at the group. Studying their appearance.

Frowning, she said “And. Pray tell…” Her tone fell a level. “Why is she covered in dirt, barefoot, scruffy, dried blood?…” she gasped ”Hold on a second– is that your shirt Gaviel?"

She absentmindedly began patting the girl’s head, stopping to hold the hem of the shirt to inspect the dirty cloth, finding Gaviel’s name embroidered in tiny letters. And noticed what was under, or rather, the lack of what was under the girl’s single piece of clothing. “Oh dear– she is–!?...”

“...” the rest of the group took a cautious step back, even the girl, confused as she was, knew she didn’t want to be caught in whatever the angry lady had for uncle elf.

Of all the things that she had expected when they returned, wounds, someone missing, empty hands, or even a little modicum of information on their situation… a little visitor was definitely not what she thought that would happen.

The girl shied behind Gaviel– Ah, she was still glaring wasn’t she?

Schooling her expression, she introduced herself first. “Hello, My name is Dahlia” placing a hand over her chest “I'm in charge of beating the stupid out of these fools” she sent a pointing eye to the group of rangers ”and making sure everyone is happy, what is your name?” she said, extending a palm in greeting.

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The child instinctively grabbed her hand and… and just kept staring at her, seemingly confused.

“*cough* She… um… does not speak elvish, Dahlia…” Gaviel clarified “...Neither does she speak Victorian, imperial, gothic, or any other language that I know of.” He scratched the back of his head “we compromised, and I have been slowly teaching her, however.”

Gaviel paused abruptly, now that Gaviel thought about it he, or anyone else in the group for that matter, had never properly introduced themselves to the girl either, in their haste, they simply took things for granted and went with it.

There was a long bout of silence, Gaviel sweatdropped. “I– um… We have been calling her… ‘kid.’”

Dahlia hummed… turning towards him with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah, I… see…” she hadn't planned anything whatsoever for an unexpected guest, the rare times an outsider does come to meet them, they do it outside the village and both them and the person in question are already prepared. This certainly would make things difficult. Their policies regarding letting strangers inside their own home are usually very strict and rigorous, she would be making a point of it during their impending ‘talk’, but since it’s just a little girl and she’s already here she could concede an exception.

She was just glad that they were back home safe, and that was enough for now.

Gaviel remained silent.

“ just– *sigh* everyone... inside.”

——— –– –– -- - -

The silence in the room dragged on.

The four elves fidgeted under her piercing glare, waiting for their sentence in apprehension. The accompanying child could only stare in complete confusion, having been dragged along with the rest of the group. She chose to not utter a word along with the rest of them that were cowering under the scary lady.

“report.”

And so they did…

To the best of their abilities; The trio, wishing nothing more but to flee from the heavy atmosphere, silently agreed to delegate most of the explanation to Gaviel, since he’s the source of the whole conundrum they found themselves in, he best knew the story, after all.

*sigh.* She exhaled in dejection, resting her face on her palms. “One of you, go have the poor girl properly cleaned and clothed. I’ll ask you all to return later to decide what will be of her with what’s left of the elders.” Cain perked up “–Not you.” he had his hand halfway raised when she cut him. “You are already a bad influence to the rest of the kids as it is. *sigh* Seeing how she's already glued to you... Gaviel, if you would?”

He saluted, turning around and goading the kid over to exit the house.

She took a moment to breathe “For the rest of you, go fetch everybody else for a meeting–” she stopped, a particular detail of their story coming into the forefront of her thoughts. “Oh, and Gaviel!” He paused by the doorway. “Take her, get her cleaned and properly dressed, and have the village doctor do a preliminary checkup on her… Even if she looks fine now god knows what goes inside her veins after all that…”

Her face furrowed “Argh, knowing that annoying guy, he will be eager, if not overly excited, and will probably be doing whatever it takes just to have a huge field day with her… fuck.” she cursed.

“...fuck?” A feminine, young and innocent sounding voice interrupted.

The room froze.

Gaviel was too spent to react properly, Dahlia was mortified.

“Wait– No. no, no, no don’t say that. That's not a word you should be saying you hear me? Bad.”

“Fff-uck?...” she said again, as if tasting the word.

“Yes– I mean, no!”

“And they tell me I'm the foul mouthed.” Cain scoffed.