[Chr24] Ancient Ruins and Lost Children

Ancient ruins and lost children

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“I’ve only seen ruins like these in historic scriptures and online, never in person– it’s quite remarkable,” a voice breathes quietly, and an outstretched hand goes to run over the old stone- fingertips gracefully tracing the grooves and cracks. The lycan’s tail swishes behind him, oddly calm despite the mission he came for– to assist a fellow friend in finding a missing child.

Having never been to Ttakor, Vega decided to finally make the trip to see the alien planet with some ‘Bucks he’s befriended on Earth. One of which was Alaska– whose cheery and sociable nature never failed to make him smile. As clueless as he was sometimes, he always felt calm around her– but that was just the effect she had on people. She always knew how to cheer people up. 

So when she reached out to the group, frantic and her brows knit with worry– he knew something was definitely wrong. 

“One of my neighbors in my hometown- her daughter has gone missing. She’s always been a good kid, and we have no clue why she wandered off like that– but she’s been worried sick ever since. I can’t sit idly by knowing that she could be in danger. I know I never ask you guys for help, but please… she’s been rumored to have been spotted by a nearby ruin. Would you guys please help me look for her?” she nearly had pleaded, and they had already all made up their minds. They were going to help. 

“What did you expect? These ruins are probably thousands of years old– no one has definitely stepped foot in here for years,” another voice, Kyrie, retorts in reply. Shrugging further, she kicks a stray rock out of the way of their path. 

“Ah… come on, let’s not get into it. That’s not what we’re here for,” a softer voice whispers, and the group turns their heads to the smallest member– a shy Duneburrow named Odetta. Despite her smaller stature (which was quite strange in itself for her species), she definitely knew her way around older structures like these. She also had a heart of gold- and wouldn’t ever leave a child behind. 

“Right, let’s look around this room,” Alaska pipes in, putting her hand on Vega’s shoulder– patting him lightly before turning on her heel to go inspect some of the other ruined furniture in the room. 

The group itself had situated themselves in what appeared to be the central room of the ruin– ancient scriptures lay torn and shredded upon its walls- wooden furniture overturned and even plants had begun to grow into the grooves of the stone. Sunlight filtered through the broken windows that lined the walls, and despite how old the ruins were– they held up remarkably well. 

Talking amongst themselves, the group had split up into separate corners to look around for any sort of clues. Anything that could tell them or lead them into the direction of finding the lost child. 

Wandering off into an adjacent room, Alaska steps into what appeared to have been some kind of dining room. Overturned wooden chairs, and an overturned table. Glancing around and inspecting some of the chairs- she was about to leave before her ears picked up something peculiar. Ears twitching in response, the arctic wills herself to focus on the sound– and she hears it again, a bit louder. 

Soft whimpering. 

She freezes, instantly recognizing that soft tone anywhere. 

Moving forward towards the overturned table, she circles around it only to see it– a child, clothes and face caked with dirt and dust- huddled in the corner, crying softly. The moment she makes eye contact with Alaska, the child instantly gets up and goes to jump into her arms. The soft crying turning into full on wailing, sobbing as Alaska goes to run her fingers softly through the other’s messy hair. 

“There there,” she coos softly, “We found you. We’re going to take you home, okay? I knew we were going to find you…” 

Holding the child in her arms, she stands to her feet- clutching the small girl closely to her chest as she goes to reconvene with the others– who had gathered at the entrance of the room. 

“So she really was here,” Kyrie sighs in relief, visibly relaxing her shoulders- she leans over and pats the kid on the shoulder– giving a nod towards Alaska. “You did good, I knew we would find her eventually.” 

“I’m just wondering why the witness decided not to investigate the ruin further if they might have seen her heading this way…” Vega lets out a sigh of his own, but he’s also glad they found the child. He knew how worried his friend was– how they all were, and now that they found her they can return to the village and get some much needed rest. Traveling all the way out here was an entire day's endeavor, after all. 

Opening her mouth to speak, Alaska is interrupted by an insistent tugging on her coat– in which her head turns to Odetta- who suddenly looks nervous. 

Very, very nervous. 

“Um… guys? I think I know why they didn’t want to come this far out here…” The duneburrow interrupts, and she redirects the puzzled looks to one of the broken windows– where suddenly all the sunlight has vanished. 

Replacing the sun in the window, were large– glistening scales. 

“Oh shit,” Kyrie swears under her breath, and the group startles as they all hear a loud thump coming from outside. 

“Ah, yeah…I would say that’s likely the culprit of why the livestock have gone missing from your village too,” Vega gives a nervous laugh, in which he gets elbowed in return from Kyrie. 

All of their eyes are locked onto the scales, which are then seen slithering past the window– the sunlight returns for a brief moment. The tension in the air is high, and the group has fallen silent. Even the child in Alaska’s arms has fallen quiet- though she’s still shaking in the other’s arms. 

Odetta wishes she could jump into someone’s arms too. 

Yeah, they were screwed.