As he often did on sunny afternoons, Vance played in the open space in front of his house. What might, in a better part of Juldania, even have had some plants or grass, and be considered a yard. Of course, Vance's house was in nowhere near a nice enough area for that; while he knew that outside of the city there were vast fields and hills covered in plants and animals, none of that was a part of Vance's world. There had only been a few times in Vance's short life that his father had even taken him on the long wagon ride out of the city, and thoughts of the outside world rarely entered his mind.

Rolling around and wrestling in the dirt with his older brother Richard was some of the best fun that he ever had, and it had the side benefit (although he never thought of this) of giving his mother some peace and quiet when two rambunctious young boys simply became too much for her to bear. Vance's mother was not an especially patient woman, nor an overly kind one - but she was his mother, and to Vance she was perfect; so when she had thrown him and Richard outside for a while earlier that day, he was as happy as could be, unaware of what else might be going on.

Even Richard at the wise old age of eight seemed to be blissfully ignorant of the turmoil that was just now entering their lives. When the local constable came down the dusty path and stepped onto their property, both of the boys gave him a measured look of equal parts derision and fear.

This wasn't the peacekeeper's first visit to their home, not by a long shot, and while they understood that he had a certain amount of disruptive power, in practice his visits had never done anything more than put their parents into a bad mood. Richard ran up to the man and found the courage to shout at him: "Get out of here! You aren't wanted here, and there's no reason to keep...harassing us." Vance shot his brother a look of admiration for his vocabulary, but both knew that protesting was useless.

"You've got a lot of your father in you, young man. I hope that as you grow, it serves you well. For today, though, step aside and let me about my business," the constable calmly replied. Though he could have easily sidestepped around the boy, or even pushed him aside roughly, he waited for Richard to consider his options. After what seemed to Vance to be an incredibly long time, Richard raised his chin at the man, narrowed his eyes into an unmistakable glare, and moved to one side quietly.

Before the man could even reach the front door, their mother opened it and looked at the constable, without even a trace of a smile. "Terrence, back again so soon? Don't you have some sheep rustlers or wife-beaters to go bother?" With a resigned sigh, she pushed the door open slightly further and allowed him entry.

Vance just watched, while Richard attempted to follow the constable into the house, and received only a swift kick to the rear for his efforts. "If I wanted you back in here, boy, don't you think I'd say so? Let the adults talk, and go take a walk with your brother. Dinner will be in an hour or so; find something to do until then."

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As Richard turned to leave, he heard their mother say "He's not here, you know. Smarter than that - don't know why you even bother." Richard grabbed Vance's arm, pulling him roughly, until they were far enough away to be out of sight. They did walk, at least for a little while, but neither of them were really comfortable outside of their immediate neighborhood, and the curiosity was too much to bear anyway. They quickly began to conspiratorially plan their strategy for getting home and learning what was going on, without getting caught.

After the walk, many of the houses they passed were darkened - life was hard in this neighborhood, and many families relied on both parents working a long day. The upside of that, for the children, is that there was a large contingent of kids with very little supervision and a lot of time to themselves. They were never short for activities or playmates, although they also had to solve their own infighting and look after each other's scrapes and bruises.

Among the children milling around outside were many of their own friends and schoolmates, including Vance's best friend Ben, and Ben's twin sister Jez. While normally he would have been happy to hang out with Ben for a while, today Vance was in no mood to be distracted; he and Richard simply acknowledged him and continued their aimless - yet intense - walkabout.

They had managed to wind their way through most of their small district by this point, but cutting across properties, under clothes lines, and between the small ramshackle houses made getting home an easy job. They were within sight of their own door when Mrs. Gowtha, the local busybody, noticed them and called out "I was sorry to hear about your father, boys...but then again, he had it coming, now, didn't he?" Seeing the look of confusion and fear that quickly crept over them both, she turned her head away with what appeared to be a self-conscious grimace, but was clearly a perverted smile.

Vance ran to keep up as Richard suddenly pulled away, racing for home. He reached the door just seconds after his brother, it was the fastest he had ever run before, and a few moments elapsed before he realized he had been screaming the whole way. Constable Terrence was nowhere to be seen, and their mother sat in the large central room on their sofa, rage and sadness in her eyes.

She snapped her head around and faced her sons. "Shush, both of you. I'll not have you screaming to wake the dead in my home." She stood and suddenly seemed gigantic to Vance, larger than life. "Your father is missing. That idiot the constable thought he could catch him hiding here in the house. Not one of his 'associates' is talking, even to me - I suppose I'll have to find him myself. Why that man insists on working with that gang of fools has never made sense to me...he could be doing so much better if he just listened to me." She seemed to become lost in her thoughts for a minute, then looked as if she had made a decision.

"Well, there aren't many places that are safe for him to go, and hopefully he didn't give them all up to his so-called friends. I'll go look for him tonight after dark; less likely to be followed that way anyway, and if he's hiding out, he'll hold a few more hours. Then I'll teach him what happens when he doesn't send word." With that, she walked into the kitchen, past her confused and upset children, to finish making dinner.