'How much time for the theft Clover?'
[Around 10 minutes]
'That came so fast! I just contained the explosion what feels like five minutes ago'
[You guys took your sweet time getting here. I'm pretty sure Dylan saw how drained you were and purposely slowed the whole walk down so you could be comfortable and recover well]
'He does seem like a decent boy, maybe he's not all bad, just, you know, teenagers mess up some times'
[Yeah, the whole group reacted better than I thought, they could have tried to blame you for the explosion, or just ignore you and get away in fear of getting in trouble, but they stayed and helped you, they seemed actually worried for you]
'Yeah, they were all sweet, clueless and stupid, but sweet, Dylan even told them to go warn others about it so it wouldn't happened again.'
"I don't think I should leave you alone in the woods Talia, what if you get lost or fall in the lake?" He asks worried, unknowingly interrupting Talia's conversation with Clover.
'I guess his presence could help to prevent the theft'
[Maybe if you direct him towards the prototype and make him wait with you by it, it could work]
"Okay, I think they went that way" She points in the direction she knows the prototype to be and he carries her that way.
They get to the prototype with two minutes to spare.
"What's this?" Dylan asks, "were you going to check this with your parents? did they make this?" he asks looking around at the pamphlets, and studying the prototype.
"We were going to check this before we got separated" Talia says.
"So, you think they'll come look for you here?"
Talia nods.
They stay there for around ten minutes, with no sign of the robber when the scientist comes back from lunch with his daughter.
"Oh, Hi!" the scientist says. "Were you two waiting for a presentation? I just got back, but I would be delighted to give you one" He points at his prototype proudly, his daughter rolls her eyes behind him.
"Not really. Sorry, we're looking for Talia's parents, she got lost and thought they might come here to look for her" Dylan explains.
"Oh, I see it now, you're Timothy and Georgia's little girl? they've been looking all around the lake for you" the scientist says. "And you are?"
"I'm Dylan, I'm just helping her find them" Dylan answers.
"They said they would give another look around the lake and come back here afterwards, so you can leave her here with us if you want, she can play with my daughter while we wait." The scientist tells him.
Dylan puts Talia down and asks "Is that okay with you?"
Talia nods "It's fine, and I get to play with another kid too" She answers looking at the scientist's daughter for the first time since they got here.
The little girl seemed to have been frozen watching her for a while now and as soon she looks at those green eyes Talia freezes as well.
"Yeah, seems way more fun than hanging out with boring old me, have fun Talia, hope I'll see you again someday" Dylan says running back to his friends hoping they saved some food for him.
The scientist pays no attention to the girls and goes back to tinkering with his prototype.
[Talia]
[Talia!!!]
[TALIA!!!!!!!!!]
The girls remain frozen in place looking into each other's eyes, a single tear running down the scientist's daughter's face.
Morgana, worried about her mama not moving for a while now, tries to call her too, when that doesn't work, she blows a ball of fire between the two girls. That, seems to take them out of their dazed state.
"Morgana, what are you doing? You need to be more careful baby" Talia picks up Morgana from where she positioned herself on the floor to not risk burning the girls.
"Mommy you're back!" Morgana says excited.
"I didn't go anywhere sweetie"
[Talia, you froze in place for a good 15 minutes]
'No, I didn't, where's Dylan' She asks realizing he's not behind her anymore.
[He went back to his friends, 15 minutes ago]
'What? you're serious? But why?'
[I don't know, you just looked at the scientist's daughter and froze, she froze looking at you as well, so maybe a spell? Is the prototype still there?]
Talia looks at the prototype. 'Still here' she looks around for the scientist's daughter and sees her back retreating into the woods.
"Hey wait for me" She calls running after her.
The girl stops. Her back to Talia. "What do you want?"
"Just talk, and play, maybe? until my parents get back, please? Dylan was fun but your daddy is too busy to play with me" Talia asks, trying to stay close to the girl to prevent her from going off and falling into the lake.
"Fine, but no baby games" The scientist's daughter tells her.
"Okay, I'm Talia, this is Morgana, she's a dragon, what's your name?" Talia asks.
The scientist's daughter turns back slowly to face Talia, afraid of whatever that was that happened before. "I'm Maddison, but you can call me Maddie" She says and unknowingly smile as soon as they make eye contact again.
Talia smiles back. "So, where are we going?" Talia asks walking to her side.
"I was going to take a walk around the lake, maybe you should wait here for your parents?" Maddie suggests.
"But it's boring in here, and I love lakes" Talia answers pouting slightly.
Maddie smiles wider finding the little girl to be adorable "Okay, but we'll stay close enough so we can hear if they call you"
"Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you" Talia hugs the older girl tightly in her enthusiasm.
"It's fine. So, how did a little baby like you got a dragon?"
"I'm three, and she found me, right Morgana?" Talia says pouting.
"Yes, mommy" Morgana supports the little lie they agreed upon a while back.
Maddie stops in her tracks. "She speaks?" She giggles excitedly and looks at the little dragon. "Hi, Morgana, it's nice to meet you, I'm Maddison but you can call me Maddie if you want"
"Hi, Maddie" Morgana says while looking at Talia's still pouting face. "Why did you make mommy sad?"
"What?" She looks at Talia. "Oh, is it because I said you were a baby?" Maddie asks. "I'm sorry, but I'm five now, I don't wanna play peekaboo and pretend I got your nose."
"I don't do those things" Talia retorts, really sad that Maddie sees her as a baby, for some reason.
"Okay, okay, I'm really, really sorry, no need to pout, can you try a smile?" Talia shakes her head no.
"Please? just a little one?" Talia shakes her head no again. Maddie kneels in front of her, looks into her eyes and smiles. "For me?" Talia grins unconsciously.
"There it is, c'mon, let's go see the lake now" Maddie takes Talia's hand and they walk to the lake together.
"Here it is" Maddie says. "What did you wanna play?" Maddie asks walking right at the edge of the lake.
"M-maybe not so close Maddie" She tells her trying to pull her away from the edge.
"Hey, c'mon, I thought you said you weren't a baby" Maddie tells her pulling away from her.
"I just don't want you to fall in, just come here and we can play with Morgana instead" Talia tries to persuade her.
Maddie looks at the lake, then looks back at Talia and Morgana waiting for her. "Fine, but no peekaboo"
"Of course, not" Talia tells her, smiling happily that her mission seems to be going well.
Just as Talia let's out a relived sigh at seeing Maddie start to get away from the lake, the mud under Maddie's shoes gives way and she slips and falls into it.
"Talia help" She asks desperately trying to keep her head above the water.
Talia stands up straight and focuses, pulling the water around Maddie towards her with all the little Stamina she has left, not fully recovered from stopping the explosion yet.
"ANYONE, PLEASE!!" Maddie screams in between getting mouthfuls of water.
Talia starts directing the earth under Maddie to raise her above water level as well, and falls to her knees exhausted, but not stopping for a second as Maddie screams for her.
Finally, she gets Maddie safely out of the water and immediately crawls towards her pulling her even further away from the lake while Maddie coughs out the water from her lungs.
"Talia, you saved me" she says in between coughs.
Talia nods, smiles at her and immediately passes out from exhaustion. The adrenaline that was keeping her conscious vanishing at seeing that Maddie is okay.
…
"Just a little further, I can do this just a little further, we're almost there Talia, dad will know how to help" Maddie says struggling to carry Talia back to her father.
She tried screaming for help first, but since no one came when she was drowning, she discarded that idea after a few minutes of no response, she could have let Talia there and run for help but she didn't want to let her new friend unconscious and alone in the middle of the woods, even if it would be for just a couple of minutes.
Talia shifts a little in Maddie's arms waking up, she slowly opens her eyes, seeing the red curls molding Maddie's face, the clear sky above them, and finally those green eyes looking back at her.
"Oh, thank the gods" Maddie says relieved, sitting down exhausted with Talia in her arms. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired" Talia answers with a smile. "I could sleep for a week after today"
"Me too" Maddie smiles back at her. "You were right about the lake, thank you for getting me out"
"Thank you for carrying me back" Talia looks around seeing they're really close to where Maddie's dad was working.
Maddie nods embarrassed for not being able to get her all the way back.
"Where's Morgana?" Talia asks not seeing her little familiar anywhere.
"I don't know, I think she went for help but she hasn't come back yet" Maddie says, starting to get worried about the little dragon now too.
"Can you walk?" Maddie asks helping Talia to stand up.
"I think so" Talia answers nodding.
"Let's get back, then" Maddie says wrapping an arm around Talia to make sure she doesn't fall.
Just as they start making their way back, they hear people screaming.
"TALIA! Where are you sweetie?" Georgia calls.
"Talia, we're coming baby don't worry" Tim shouts as Morgana leads them back to the girls.
"We're HERE!" Maddie shouts back.
They follow Maddie's shout and come running to the girls' location immediately kneeling in front of them and hugging them both really tight.
"Oh, thank the gods you're alright, we were so worried princess" Tim says kissing the top of his daughter's head.
"We looked for you everywhere when Morgana found us and told us what happened" Georgia says caressing her daughter's face.
"You two must be freezing" Georgia says seeing both girls are dripping wet, Maddie from falling in the river and Talia from helping drag her away and later being carried here by her.
Georgia gives Talia her jacket as Tim gives his to Maddie. "let's go find your daddy, okay sweetie?" They each carry one of the girls and walk back to where the scientist was working before.
They get to the clearing, the scientist has his back to them engulfed in his work.
"John" Tim calls.
"JOHN" Tim calls again and again no response. He goes to him and touches his shoulder, to which John gives a little jump away in fright.
"Oh, it's just you Tim, Talia was around here somewhere, wait what happened?" He asks finally seeing Maddie soaked from head to toe in Tim's arms wearing his jacket.
"What happened was that your daughter nearly drowned, and my little girl had to use every single bit of strength she had to the point she passed out afterwards to save her, because no matter how much they screamed, NOBODY CAME TO HELP THEM!" Tim says poking John in the chest at every single word. "And all this happened right under YOUR nose, while you were too busy playing with your STUPID. LITTLE. TOY!" Tim takes a deep breath to calm himself down as Maddie starts crying softly in his arms. "It's okay little girl, we'll get you both warmed up, it'll be alright" He tells Maddie with a soft voice while his eyes are throwing daggers at the gobsmacked John in front of him.
Meanwhile, Georgia pulled a log into the middle of the clearing and sat Talia there. "Bring her here Tim, and then go get some tinder, we'll make a fire to warm them up" Georgia tells him ignoring the whole scene with John completely.
Tim sits Maddie by Talia's side and both girls huddle together, waiting for the fire.
'I've never seeing dad like this before'
[I know, but can you blame him? Maddie was actually going to drown without you there]
'You're right, Maddie's dad sucks'
[He does]
Tim gets back with the tinder and Morgana lights it up. He then goes and grabs them some food and the five of them eat around the fire in silence while John is still where Tim left him, rethinking his whole life and all that could've happened to his little girl today.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, you were right, I can't even think of what I would do if something happened to my little girl" John says approaching them.
Maddie looks at him with teary eyes. He kneels in front of her.
"I'll do better for now on baby, I promise" He tells Maddie offering his pinky finger.
Maddie wraps her pinky finger around his and gives him a small smile. He sits on her other side, the one not currently occupied by Talia and they all stay there until the girls fall asleep exhausted.