Hearing her daughter's call, Oum Boonchuy dried her face of water and smiled, the girls were back earlier than she'd thought; maybe they wanted to clean up extra nice for the resyeraunt's anniversary?
…Yeah, unlikely.
Still, little Marcy was always a joy to have over, and Sasha was such a sweet and brave girl, so she didn't mind. Heck, a small pqrt of her was jealous Anne had such good friends.
"Just do it like this when and repeat what we say." She heard Sasha tell someone.
"And no worries, Anne's mom is super nice and her dad is funny!" Marcy added.
Oh? Did they have a new friend? Oum asked herself as she stepped out.
"Hi sweetie." She cooed to her daughter. "You're back early, whose your…?"
She then spied the newcomer; a little boy with slightly tanned skin, red hair in overalls with one golden and one purple eye
"Swa di ka." The boy said with a bow and his hands in a 'Wai' pose and a bright, kind smile on his face…which faltered as he looked to the girls. "Um…D-did I do it right? Swa di ka?"
Marcy gave him a thumbs up as Sasha nodded and Anne went up to her mother to introduce the boy.
At the same time, Bee had decided to take a break from sneaking in a chapter of Cythina Coven to see how hus daughter's day had been. He was also a little worried; the girls had only been gone for an hour, usually they had to go pick them up….and there was no calling of the ice cream truck.
"Hi kids, how's...?"
Bee's eyes widened in shock as he saw his daughter's new friend and he fully processed what was going on:
The new face was a boy.
A boy.
There was a boy in his house.
A boy.
WHY was there a boy in his house? A filthy, lustful, troublemaking, baby girl stealing….!
'Wow, is this how Oum's mom felt about me?' He asked himself. '…I think I better call her and apologize…and then remind her Anne's here because of me!'
"Mom, dad? This is Olivier. We met at the park." Anne began.
"You can call me 'Ollie', if you like." Olivier bowed respectfully with a sweet smile. Well, Oum thought the smile was sweet, Bee didn't trust him!
"He and his mom just moved to town." Sasha added.
"He helped Sasha save me and Anne from some bullies!" Marcy added.
That one line filled the Boonchuy parents with worry and righteous anger; first those two teens a week ago with Sasha and now this?! What, was their kids' playground a bully magnet or something?
Pushing the anger aside, Oum looked at Olivier dead in the eye and then patted his head in thanks.
"Thank you, Olivier." She smiled
"Well, Anne was helping me first…" Olivier admitted.
Bee's attention was rapt. Was this punk taking advantage of Anne's kindness?! And framing himself as a hero! Oh, clever boy…. But not clever enough for Bee Boonchuy; not only an excellent chef and devoted husband and father, but MAJOR fantasy and fiction geek!
"Oh?" Oum asked, her attention also peaked, but herself more curuious.
"I…um…" Olivier started, wanting to not sound like a dumb brat, or King, in front of these two adults. "Well…"
"Ollie…he…he's kind of…" Anne started.
"I got lost." Olivier said, not wanting to force these new friends to say it for him.
Oum gasped hearing that and instantly any hate Bee felt towards the boy left his form.
"Mom and I are staying at a motel I know isn't too far from the park." Olivier explained, tears beginning to stain as shame in himself began to build up. "We were supposed to move into an actual house, but it's not ready yet."
Not a word of this was false: Thanks to that 'Stan' fellow, Eda had a small place for her and her boys to look forward to, but the contractor Stan arranged for was slow moving and acting.
"Mama was on the phone all day, trying to get some money back and or speed up the house being ready…" Olivier continued, still telling nothing but truth. "I tried to be patient. I knew it'd take a while and she always played with me a bit and fed ust after a whole day and the TV getting boring and remembering the park…I thought I could…I thought I could remember the way and get back before she noticed…But when I tried to go back, there were so many people nothing looked the same…"
The half-witch was close to tears despite it all. How could he have been so dumb?! The city was NOTHING like the woods he grew up in or the Gravesfield town they'd flown over! Heck, there was that story mama read to him about the country and city rat-people…!
"Oh, you poor little thing!" Oum cooed, kneeling down to hug the boy, who was unsure how to react to that. "Don't worry. We can look up the motel and call them. And in the meantime, you are more than welcome to stay with us."
Olivier smiled in gratitude and cleared his eyes just as his belly rumbled again.
Bee then returned with a plate of snacks.
"Its still a bit before we all head to the restaurant, put help yourselves."
The girls waited until Olivier had taken a handful beforehelping themselves as Oum lent the boy a hanky to dry his eyes.
"Thank you." Olivier said, his tears now gone.
"You saved my daughter; this is the least we could do." Oum smiled, then gently pushing him with Marcy and Anne. "Now, why don't you four do some coloring and drawing the meantime?"
And so the four did.
OWLPHIBIA
"All units, please be advised."
It started out as a simple message that all LAPD radios picked uop.
"Be on the lookout for a woman, around 30 years old. Red hair with white streaks, red dress, golden tooth, hair like a lion and golden eyes..HEY!"
"WHERE'S MY BABY?!" Another voice, one that looked like it was two, one a woman and the other a beast, cried out, scaring all who heard her.
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IF YOU SEE A BOY THAT HAS ANY OF THOSE QUALTIES, RADIO! AND OR HELP HER!" The officer managed to follow, sobbing now clear in his voice. "SHE'S ALSO PUT UP POSTERS! YOU'LL KNOW WHEN YOU SEE THEM! AND OR THE KIIII….!"
"Useless!" The female voice snapped as she then FLIPPED the car over and continued her way.
Frankly, the LAPD was half terrified and half stumped; none of the parents within them faulted this crazy woman for going on a rampage for her missing son…a few even eventually began to try and help her…
But did she have to make them look so bad?!
This woman had already wrecked six creepy looking vans (only one of which was innocent), suspecting her sweet little boy might've been stolen off the street. She did rescue some kids, but her son was not among them. She'd also delayed some drug and weapon deliveries and put several gawkers, wannabe Casanova and one DEFINTE 'r-word'er into the emergency wing.
Also, she apparently had an immunity to tasers and all kinds of gas they had on hand.
"You use THIS stuff?! C'mon! I could whip up something WAY better!"
…They were not sure they wanted to know how she could do that.
AMPHIBIA
Annoyed by these excuses of authority enforcers, Edalyn Clawthorne continued her search.
The former Owl lady of the boiling Isles had gone to the park first; finding three dumb teenage boys beat up and initially thinking nothing of it. Maybe a small hint of nostalgia for all the times she, Raine, Alador and Darius wiped the other school's collective behinds and easily beingt able to tell how these punks had lost..
Until she saw the vial.
The vial that held Olivier's exlir for when he used too much magic.
Now, there didn't seem anything out of the ordinary in the park, so whatever magic her baby had used must've been small in scale, like she'd always taught him. But considering bthe boys were out coild and she couldn't use Chrono-magic no matter how hard she tried and her Beast-keeping magic was to risky to use…
'If I ever find who cursed me, I'll rip them apart!' Eda vowed before she decided to mix putting up Missing posters of her baby boy while rampaging whenever she felt the slightest hint of a clue or worry.
Back home, that cuser felt a mortal fear….as did the Emperor, for some reason….
"OLIVIER!" She cried out, plucking out any feathers that sprouted…and somewhat noting that for as stressed as she was, she could FEEL that the curse wasn't coming out anytime soon. Almost as if it knew doing so would cause her trouble.
Grateful for this, she marched on. She'd find Olivier, hug him, kiss…THEN GROUND HIM FOR LIFE!
Or at least as long as she felt after he flashed her that adorable smile of his.
What? He was a Clawthorne and was already using his good looks to get out of trouble! What mama wouldn't be proud?