[Saaxol’s POV]

I walked downstairs to the doors of the dining hall. Minervina side eyes me, and without a word she opened the door for me.

"Thank you, Minervina," I say, smiling.

Minervina didn't respond as she closed the door behind me. I look in the room and see a long mahogany table draped in a bright red cloth on top.

Constantine sat at the end of the table with his legs crossed with a black tail coat on and a white powder covered his face. His bright yellow eyes shined at me as he smiled and waved for me to sit next to him.

I walked past Mansoon that was sitting up perfectly straight. I took a seat next to Constantine.

"How are you getting settled in my lovely Saaxol?" He said.

"Quite good! This place is like nothing I've ever seen before. It's honestly kind of overwhelming" I replied.

"I feel the same way, never thought a bed could be so fluffy" Hexa said as she walked in with Baldr.

Constantine laughed, "Get used to it. You'll probably walk into much grander places than this!".

Bud walked in with his hands stuffed into his pockets and took a seat on the complete opposite side from Constantine. Elwen followed from behind. Constantine stood up from his chair and bowed at Elwen who had a white and purple dress on.

Constantine held the chair out for Elwen and pushed it in when she sat down. Constantine stood behind her.

Elwen raised her shaky voice, "Ahem. My name is Elwen L. Flavius, I am thrilled to be working with all of you. I hope to restore this empire to a glorious place and to bring the people of Sela into a golden age!”

I waved to Elwen, “It’ll be a pleasure working with you!”

Constantine smiled, “We're still working on her public speaking skills anyways, I have a small job for you guys. Have to keep you all in shape, for the upcoming events ahead!”

Mansoon leaned back on his chair, putting both of his feet on the table, “What upcoming events would that be?”

“Any public appearances can get very dicey sometimes! Many people don’t like the fact that I am a Snow Elf trying to become queen of this country” Elwen says.

Hexa looks up at Constantine, “What is the job?”

“The small town below this mansion has been having a problem with a mass disappearance of children, could you guys find the children and bring them home?”

My head perks up, I love a good mystery! I stand up and say, “Yes! We will do it!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait… Where are the guards? Shouldn’t town guards be handling this?” Mansoon calls out.

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Hexa nods, “I hate to admit it but, Mansoon is right. It is kind of strange not to have any guards in the town at all trying to find these children”.

Constantine with his perpetual smile, “I see what you all are saying. The reason why there are a lack of guards here is because the capital refuses to send any. Even if it holds a very important candidate for the throne”.

I saw Mansoon raise an eyebrow but not argue any further.

I do a small hop, “Alllright! Let's go! We need to find these children, they could be hurt!”

Baldr steps out of his seat and flashes me a smile, “Saaxol is right, we should go quickly”

“In other words we should, ‘Make haste’? Did I use that phrase correctly?” Bud asks.

“Yes, good job Bud” Baldr says.

…

We all walk into town, we see some villagers walk into the forest calling out names.

Mansoon cracks his knuckles, “We should split up around town, ask questions and find any clues”.

I nod and make my way for one of the villagers I could see in sight as I walk up to this older looking woman I can see she gives me a suspicious glare,

“Hello, I am known as Saaxol! Constantine hired me and my friends to help in the search for the children”.

I could see the suspicious glare turn into a look of relief from the woman, “Oh thank the divines, I’m so glad the lord of these lands can support us even when he’s so busy. I am one of the mothers, I’ll help in any way I can”.

I smile, this conversation was going way better than most of my other conversations with people from villiages, “When did your child go missing?”.

“I assume last night because she wasn’t in her room in the morning”.

“Can I have a look around your house?” I ask.

“Yes, please do” she surries off into a small cottage.

I walk inside and find myself in a clean dining room and kitchen, I take a look at the front door… No force entry.

“Do you keep your doors locked at night? Also is there any other doors to the outside?” I say as I look around her house.

“No, that’s the only door and yes I do lock the door. I found it locked this morning” She replied with tears in her eyes.

“Can I see the child’s room?”

“Yes please follow me” I follow her into a small doorway that I had to crouch under to get into the room. This house was not at all built for tall lizardfolk.

I look around the room, no scuff marks or anything. My eyes darted straight for the window, it was small. But large enough for a human child. I open the window and feel the rough rim of the wood. I feel something out of the ordinary, 4 large claw marks on the bottom of the rim. I closed my eyes and activated a small trick I learned while living in the forest, called druidcraft. With it I can do a lot of small actions, like tracking animals, finding my way through a forest or even finding out what an animal is through any marks it left.

A slight green sparkle came from the claw marks, the animal… Is a Black Lion? What would a black lion be doing here? This is no where near their habitat. I looked down from the window, trying to push my large head out the small window and saw large four pawed footprints, with a lot of other small humanoid footprints.

Bingo I cracked a smile as I force my head back into the house.

“Do not worry. You’ll be having your child real soon” I claimed while running out, calling to the others in my group.

“I found something!”

Mansoon runs up to me with the others soon following, “Oh good, we weren’t as lucky. What did you find?”

“I can track where they went, but I did find something strange, Black Lion footprints outside of one of the child’s window” I put my hand up to my head.

Mansoon narrowed his eyes, “Are you sure? They’re not even native to this country”.

“Positive” I reply “Follow me, we should hurry”.

The others nod and follow me quickly. I used druidcraft on the footprints and pinpointed thier location and started to make a dash over in the direction.