“Crane has a daughter?”, Constable Tanglerush asked incredulously. “With an ELF?!?”
Millaray dismounted her pony, brushed herself off, and straightened her Watcher’s hauberk.
Nodding, Millie answered, “Aye, Constable, at least that’s what Caladna Greenlake says at the orphanage.” She punctuated her answer with nod towards the children’s home just inside the Staddle Gate of Bree. The Constable’s face briefly wore a quizzical frown, thinking that the Greenlake girl had married Claywick Cob and had taken his name, but Tanglerush chose not to stray from the subject.
“And you say this … Half-Elf child was leading a knot of orphans about? Wasn’t Fetcher with them?”
“Tessa…” Millie started, gently using Fetcher’s real name to correct Tanglerush, “apparently had her hands overfull with maintaining control of them. This Bainiel, as the Crane child is called, has a rather … fairy-like quality. She is quite the charmer.”
“I expect Caladna will re-double her efforts to … keep this fairy-child in tow? We certainly don’t need small children unsupervised near the Little Staddlemere. What were they doing there, anyway?”
Millie scratched beneath her helmet and behind an ear, carefully forming her answer. Seeing there was no way to put it other than bluntly, she said. “She was trying to teach others to swim.”
“Swim!”, the Constable exclaimed. “Didn’t you say the Crane girl was no more than four years old?”
Straightening her helmet, Millie muttered, “She only appears that age. Caladna indicates the child is …. not yet a year old…”.
Tanglerush silently gaped at Millie for a long moment. “And what other deviltry has this little hooligan been up to?”
“Well…”, Millie paused to recollect the most surprising from a lengthy list.
“The little one is particularly curious about horses. She apparently notices they are good for riding and was seen in the Watch stable next to the orphanage trying to …talk one into giving her a ride? Although the horse could not possibly understand, she had its undivided attention, and it seemed … charmed.”
Before Tanglerush could interject, Millie continued. “During a thunderstorm the other night, she managed to crawl out onto the orphanage roof to watch the lightning. Tessa found her out there apparently trying to reach up and grab the bolts while she cheerfully laughed at the thundercracks….”
“STOP!” Tanglerush interrupted, waving her hands as if directing an unruly crowd. “We CANNOT let this … fairy imp… endanger herself or the other children! Go talk to Tal Greenshoot at the Staddle Gate watch office. Tell him we need to keep a closer eye on Bainiel until her parents return.”
Millie looked at the Constable for a long moment, suspecting where that conversation would lead. She then silently nodded, mounted her pony, and nudged it forward, plodding towards the Bree gate. She knew Greenshoot didn’t have the authority to do anything but volunteer himself to the task, and Millie doubted he would. Sullenly, she passed through the gate into Bree, spotted Greenshoot, and beckoned him. At her first mention of Bainiel, his gaze signaled “NO!”, but she continued to report Constable Tanglerush’s concern.
“If your Constable wants someone to personally guard Baniel, she can assign one of her own. We don’t have any extra men to put on babysitting detail.” He walked away, refusing any more discussion on the subject.
And, thus, did Millaray Boggs, Watcher of the Staddle Auxiliary, become personal guard to Baniel, daughter of Seregrian and Cutch Crane. Caladna Greenlake and Claywick Cob were greatly relieved.
For the second time, Crane’s life had crossed Millie’s in a significant way, and she hadn’t yet met the Man.
