Waiting to meet up with Rille was worrisome. Where was she? I'd been to the nursery every day since my meeting with Chance. Surely he'd met with her by now?

Something was happening, or had happened to make the watchers even more vigilant. After the earthquake they'd been distracted and they'd dropped their overall level of oversight. Last night, something happened.

I was about to sneak out to spy on the meetings when my handler came into the room. She'd opened the door and stood in the doorway. The light from the hall falling onto my face as I pretended to be asleep. It was the very first time she'd checked on me after the initial lights out and I'd been lucky enough to hear her say something to my neighbor who was also still awake. I had just enough time to get into bed and feign sleep by the time she opened my door. After that she proceeded to check the hall nearly every hour or so.

There was a very noticeable increase in security this morning too. The black dressed figures stayed out of the way as we went through our morning exercise and training, but they carried at their belts small compact magic staffs. It was the first time I'd seen them overtly carrying a weapon of any sort. Some of them even had short swords.

They rotated personnel every two hours. It was a military tactic to keep a soldier vigilant. If they were stuck watching the same thing for hours on end they'd get bored and less vigilant.

I looked up from the couch over the top of Starley's head. There was a guard here too. He'd followed me from air type building. Discreetly, of course. He was standing just outside in the hall. It must have been particularly dull for him. Since I'd been playing with the babies for the last three hours.

Rille usually arrived after her swim in the lake and after having lunch. I'd stayed longer than I normally would have hoping to catch her. Not that we would be able to talk about things with a guard standing right outside the door.

When I was just going to give up waiting, something odd happened.

The babies' handler and a second security guard entered the nursery. The handler picked up Paisley. She placed a blanket down and wrapped the infant up. Then she handed the child to the guard. The guard took the baby out of the room.

"What?" I stood up placing Starley back into her bassinet.

"The handler of 48306 has requested that we take I005 to her mother," the woman told me.

"Marcy feeds Paisley here," it was half a question and part statement. I knew that the babies never left the nursery.

"Today is a bit special," the woman said with a frown.

"I see," I glanced at the guard still in the hall.

"Yes, let's hope things settle down soon," the woman glanced at the guard as well.

It must be a bit unnerving to the healers, handlers, and other staff to suddenly have an increased guard presence. They were used to being in charge of their areas and now they had eyes watching them at all times.

"Why?" I asked, but the woman just shook her head in an 'I don't know' way.

So whatever had happened hadn't had time to spread from handler to handler yet. Gossip, as long as there were people there would be gossip. For it not to have reached the nursery was telling. The nursery was mostly central to most of the other buildings and it was right beside the main staff meal hall. Gossip always happened over food.

She'd probably learn what was happening when she went for dinner. She had her lunches in the nursery but she ate her other meals next door. Marcy had told me that since we weren't allowed to interact with the infants without their handler being somewhere nearby.

As I left the building the black suited guard followed me. I walked down the path and decided to test him a bit. To see how far I could push my limits. I guess an impish bored part of me wanted to mess with him a bit too.

I veered off the path and into an area of large fern-like plants with huge blooming orange and pink flowers. The plants were about waist high and the flowers bloomed on top of stalks that were about head high. Each blossom was the size of a person's hand. They were pretty and a great excuse to wander off, but they weren't my goal.

I broke a dozen flowers from their stems and carried them in a bundle to lay by the path. Then I went in again wading deeper into the plants. I kept my body turned so I could keep the guard within sight. He was watching me from the path but had begun to scan the area intermittently.

I bent down during one of his scans and pretended to be trying to pull a flower off its stem from a point closer to the base of the fern. With one hand I plucked the flower with the other I grabbed a palm-sized rock. When I came back up he'd taken a few steps away from where he'd been watching. I'd disappeared from view when he wasn't looking.

I did this bending maneuver a few more times so that my popping in and out of view wasn't as alarming to the guard each time. The sixth time I did this I swept my arm to the side and launched the rock as hard as I could. I didn't want him to see me throwing the rock so I made the path a vertical one. It hit a tree fifteen feet from where I was with a thump.

Pretending to be startled I spread my wings I launched myself up. Flowers in hand I scanned the ferns pretending to be looking for what made the noise. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the guard wade into the flowers. His magic staff was drawn.

"Get back on the path," he called to me.

Pretending to follow orders I flew over the tops of the flowers and towards the path. He waded through the flowers under me. His back was to me as he investigated the trees. I dropped my flowers into the pile I'd made and headed towards my real goal. The trees on the other side of the path.

I went only a few trees in. My goal was a fruit tree. It was an old large tree with huge canopied branches. In those branches were gnarled purple fruits. I perched up in those branches intentionally. I didn't try to hide. If the guard had been good at his job he'd have looked up and seen me. Instead, once he was done inspecting the area for my rock, he turned and found me gone.

They never looked up. The impish part of me chuckled. He was gearing up towards a panic when I dropped down from the trees the hem of my dress filled with fruit. My knees were showing but I didn't really care or follow the absurd modesty guidelines for young ladies.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Ok?" I called to him as I gathered my flowers on top of my fruit.

"Must have been a squirrel," he said lamely. Oh, he was so new to this. He had to actually look to place his magic staff back in the loop on his belt. If you couldn't sheath and unsheath your weapon by touch you were asking for trouble in the case of an emergency.

"Big squirrel," I commented. "Carry these?" I held out a bunch of flowers. He took them once again proving that he hadn't been doing this long. Leave your hands free. If they weren't free you couldn't go for your weapon. The delay could be the difference between life and death.

"At least it wasn't one of the crabs," he said. Oh, he wanted to talk.

"Goblin Crabs stay on the coastline," I wanted to know if this newbie was mentioning crabs for a reason or if he was just that ignorant.

"They've gotten into the lake. There are extermination teams deployed. We've been told to keep an eye out to make certain they haven't penetrated deeper into the complex."

"The lake," now this was interesting news. "The water types?" That would explain somethings but not why Rille hadn't gone to the nursery.

"They are helping with the search, though they will probably be banned from the lake as of tomorrow. At least until we've managed to clear out most of the crabs. Boss, thinks the earthquake stirred them up. You don't talk much do you?"

Well, that was rude. I knew I had issues with communicating with people but bringing it up was just rude. Hell, I had to play normal. I thought a bit about what I wanted to say before I said it.

"What do you mean about search? Are they looking for crabs?" There that was better. Gods were much more convenient to converse with. You didn't actually have to say anything if you didn't want to and they could see it all.

"Hum," He looked at me and then went back to scanning the path. "You'll probably find out eventually anyway. It's not like we are under orders to keep quiet about it."

"About what?"

"One of the water types has gone missing. Didn't make it back last night."

My heart stuttered. I stumbled a bit and had to run a bit to catch my balance.

"Rille?" I asked.

"Rille?" He asked back.

"The female."

"Oh, she's part of the search party. It was one of the males that went missing."

Well, that was good. Rille was ok. If Chance had found her then she had luck on her side.

Then I had a thought. Wait, there were only two males. Which one was missing?

"Who?" I asked.

"Who's missing? The older one. The one that's lord."

Oh, shit.

"Are you ok?" The guard shifted the flowers in his hands so he'd have one free. He touched my elbow and stopped me. "You went sort of green."

"Know him," I said simply and started walking again.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let's hope they find him."

"Yes," was all I said.

As we walked he kept looking at me. Maybe he was a talker, but I was done.

I now knew why little Paisley had been sent to her mother rather than having Marcy come to the nursery. I also knew why Rille wasn't there. Rille would do her best to find Filmore. She wasn't a fighter or an adventurer, but she was tough.

She wasn't a tracker though. She didn't have those skills. Even if it were underwater and in her element, she didn't have the skills to know what to look for. I did.

I'd even used them a time or two off the coast. Tracking people meant going where people went. That meant beaches and caves as well as cities and forests.

I didn't think I'd be able to get near the lake covertly if they had teams out killing crabs. I also wasn't certain how long my handler would be checking the rooms at night. No, If I wanted to help that meant volunteering.

They already knew what skills I had so I wasn't worried about outing myself. On paper they were skills most adventurers and hunters had. It was just the way that they were used that was different.

No, I'd volunteer. If they gave the ok then I'd be closer to Rille in a place where we could talk in private. If not, well that was fine too. I could figure out a way to get around the bed checks. Searching at night while there were extermination teams about wasn't ideal, but it could be done.

We arrived at the air building. I dumped off my flowers and fruit. One of the watchers would do something with them.

Before my guard had a chance to run off and be replaced I grabbed his arm.

"Take me to your boss."

"What? Why?" He tried to pull away from me but I kept my grip firm.

"I can track," I said simply.

"Track?" I was growing impatient. How did I get him to do what I wanted?

"Before this," I twitched my wings in emphasis, "I was a level B adventurer with the Guild. I have tracking skills. Take me to your boss." There that was a decent explanation.

"Level B?" The guard looked at me as if I'd grown three heads.

"Check my skill record." I glared at him.

"There's no way a tiny little thing like you is level B," he laughed.

It was true. I'd been small before my change. Now I was even smaller, but size didn't have anything to do with skill. If we were going by Guild ranks I was most likely above 90% of the guards. There were a few that I'd spotted. The hardened military type that were likely my equal. When it came to equality in skill size mattered. I would be at a disadvantage then.

"Take me to your boss," I emphasized slowly.

"Now you know," he reached out a hand towards me. I had to prove a point and prove it now. I grabbed his hand and twisted my body away I bent over at the same time. The guard was too easy. He followed his arm over my back and to the ground. His knife was in my hand and at his throat before he even realized he'd hit. I had to pull the knife back a bit or he would have cut his own neck before he realized it was there.

"Skills," I said simply.

" 00707 what are you doing?" a handler that had been gathering up my flowers and fruit suddenly dropped them and came running up to us.

"Proving a point," I looked the guard directly in the eye.

"Right," the guard nodded quickly. He looked confused. Just one second ago I'd been the silly little girl playing in a flower field. Now I held a knife on him.

After things settled down he took me to his boss. I'd been to the central building more than once when spying on their meetings, but it was the first time I'd been inside.

"Filmore is my friend's husband. I am going to look for him," I told the silver-haired man behind the desk. I didn't even give the junior guard a chance to explain. He knocked, we walked in together, I said what I wanted, then I turned to leave.

"Wait," the silver haired man stood up. "Just who do you think you are?"

I turned back to face him. I was standing in the doorway. I thought I'd been clear. I'd been clear right?

"I'm Maize," I told him.

"Maize, we don't need civilians interfering. Private Filks should have told you that," the older man glared at the junior guard.

"Um, she took my knife and won't give it back," the young man said.

"She took your knife, how did she take your knife?" The old man looked at me again. "Give him back his knife."

"No," there was no way I was giving it back. I needed it. If there were that many Goblin Crabs around I'd need a weapon.

"Sir, she said she's a level B adventurer with tracking skills," the junior guard said. He had a slight whine in his voice. If he wanted to get anywhere in any sort of military he'd have to stop that.

"You have tracking skills?" The old man asked.

I nodded.

"Give me your ID number I'll have it verified. Then we can talk. Does that suit you young lady?"

It seemed reasonable to me.

I gave him my number and stood to wait while a secretary with hair so tightly pulled back it made her eyes look pointy fetched my paperwork.

It was interesting the way his eyebrows moved as he went over my record. The new assessing gaze he gave me when he was done told me that I'd won. He'd let me do what I wanted because finding one of the few male water types was a priority. The researchers must have been really giving him a hard time.

It was too late to start now, he convinced me of that. However, bright and early the next day I would be allowed to join in the search. I'd be supplied with swimwear and my own knife. I was made to give the junior guards knife back. I would be attached to shore duty or if the two water types agreed, I'd be allowed to swim with Rille and the other male. My primary duty would be to guard the two water types as they did a secondary search.

Those terms were agreeable in more ways than one. I'd be able to look for Filmore and I would have time to talk with Rille. I wouldn't be attached to some other guard group that was patrolling for crabs.

Knowing that Rille and the other male had already done one full circuit of the lake was worrying, however. Not finding him with the first pass was bad news. The odds of finding him in successive passes weren't good. But Rille had Luck now, and so did I. If I could give her a crash course on how to listen to it we might just get lucky.