They sit near each other, both unmoving while the little girl stares at the wolf with puffy eyes.

  [Are you going to be alright?] The voice asks, breaking Myra out of her daydreaming. She looks around and fils her arms wildly, calming herself down before settling her eyes back on the wolf. She sits there for a second, then nods.

  [That's good.] The wolf starts to walk further into the forest. The girl panics again for a second, watching the big wolf turn around, its tail swaying behind it as it walks away. The girl sits there for a moment, then gets up and runs after it. She catches up and slows to its pace, being only slightly faster than her normal walking speed. She stays a few meters behind it as it walks, after a few minutes it gnces back at her with a soft expression.

  [Is something wrong?] The voice says, the wolf stopping and looking back. She tenses up and takes a small step back, shying away and looking to the ground. [Are you still hurt?]

  Myra quickly shakes her head, then lets out a soft and quiet voice, "Why did you... help me?" She asks, "Is it just... to eat me?" The wolf sits there in stunned silence for a moment, staring at the little girl.

  [Why in the world would I do that?!] The voice excims, as the wolf turns and tilts its head, no longer calm and collected.

  "My mom told me stories about how the forest guardian takes the bad kids that run into the forest alone away and, eats them..."

  [I have never, and will never, eat anyone!] The voice yells, as the wolf gets an angry face.

  "I'm s-sorry!" Myra squeaks out, as she crouches down shaking, tears starting to drop onto the grass.

  The wolf instantly panics, [Uhh, wait, I wasn't angry at you, really, please don't cry!] The wolf walks over slowly, nudging her with its nose. Causing her to jump and start to cry even harder.

  [Really, I'm not going to do anything to you!] The wolf looks at her with pleading eyes. [I'm sorry for scaring you! Please stop crying!] It sits there and thinks for a moment, [How do I fix this?! Oh, bunnies! Kids like bunnies right!?] The wolf whistles an awkward tone, a minute ter, three bunnies hop out of the bushes, noses sniffing, tails twitching. [Can you please help me calm her down?] The voice asks the bunnies, they all give a salute and hop over to her. One of them nudges her, causing her to flinch and fil, her eyes settle on the big bunny eyes staring back at her. Her eyes and mouth open in shock, she wipes her tears away with a tattered sleeve, the chains on her arms rattling.

  She opens her eyes again and blinks a few times, questioning reality. She looks back at the bunnies, still sitting in front of her. She reaches out and pets one of them, the chains rattling once again. He face lightens and she gets a small smile on her face. She scoots over to a tree close to her and leans against it, the bunnies hopping over and jumping into her p. After a few minutes of petting the fluffy bunnies, her blinking slows, her eyes get heavy, and she falls asleep.

  The battle comes to an end as the three colpse to the ground surrounded by bandit corpses. They all take a few moments to collect their breath. Gncing around at the 6 children that now are grouped up in-between them. Marcus trying to regain mana by chugging a purple potion while clutching an amulet to his chest. Once he is done he lets out a long winded breath, and stands up. He takes a couple a quick breaths before starting a mass heal on everyone. Their scratches fade, wounds close, and blood dissolves into thin air. After a few more moments, Marcus lets out a long, pained sigh as he grabs his head and almost falls over, being caught by Raul.

  "Are you alright?" Raul asks.

  "Yeah, just ran my mana dry that time, I'm still not good enough to do mass heals like that without expelling most, if not all, of my mana." Marcus replies, as Raul sets him down so he can sit.

  "Is everyone alright?" Ina asks exhaustedly. All the kids nod, looking at the three.

  Raul looks over to Marcus, "Do you know where that st girl went?"

  He shakes his head, "No, she ran into the forest the way that hobgoblin came from. I have no clue if she escaped the bandits that went after her. If they were anything like these though, they would have come back if they caught her." He looks to the floor, sadness washing over his face.

  "Don't bme yourself," Raul says, pcing a hand on his shoulder, "you did all you could for her, nobody would have expected her to just run into the forest."

  "I know, but I can't help but worry about her..." Marcus looks into the forest, letting out a deep sigh.

  Myra wakes up slowly on a fluffy bed. Not opening her eyes, but snuggling into the comfortable bed she is ying on.

  [Feeling better?] She hears, causing her to quickly open her eyes and take a look at the fluffy white bed she is ying on. She follows the trail of fur up to the wolfs face, its soft expression looking at the girl.

  She panics and jumps off of the wolfs tail, "I-I'm sorry!.. Huh?" She looks at her arms to see the chains gone. "Where did..?" She looks back at the wolf with a shocked expression. The wolf gives a slow nod, [I removed those while you were asleep, they looked uncomfortable.] She looks at the wolf in amazement. She starts cry again, tears starting to stream down her cheeks. [What?! Did you want those chains on you?! I'm sorr- Huh!?!] The voice stops as the girl runs up and hugs the wolfs side, crying into it. The wolf, not knowing what to do, looks around a little before looking back down at the girl.

  There is a muffle voice that comes from the girl. [What was that?] The voice asks, the girl looks up at the wolf with teary eyes and a smile on her face, "Thank you!"

  The wolf bnkly stares at the girl, its heart starts racing as it doesn't know what to do, it presses its tail against the girls back in a awkward hug. [You're welcome.]

  After a little longer in the hug, Myra takes a few steps back. Sniffling a little as she wipes her nose on her arm. A blue light washes over the both of them, a tingling sensation causing the girl to giggle a little. After a few seconds the light fades and she is clean from head to toe. She looks at herself for a few seconds amazed with how clean she is. There is no more grime on her skin, and her clothes are back to being a solid tan instead of the dirt covered mess that they were before.

  The wolf gets up and looks around a little, stretching out its neck. [Do you know the way back home?] The voice asks Myra. Her mood drops and she shakes her head. [I can take you back to the road and show you the way back from where you came.] She looks up in shock for a second, then her head drops again. "I don't have..." her voice fades out towards the end. [Hm?] The voice asks, "I don't have a home anymore..." she says, tears starting to fall once more.

  The wolf panics again, [Oh, um, uh...] the wolf is in full panic mode, unable to think of anything to help her except more bunnies, but it doesn't think that's what she wants right now. The wolf walks over to her, and nudges her with its nose. She instantly rushes up and hugs its neck, softly sobbing. They sit there for a few minutes while she calms down. She finally pulls away, "Sorry." she says.

  [You don't need to apologize for being sad.] The voice says, [The others are still in the forest, would you like me to take you back to them?] She sits there for a moment, then shakes her head. "I don't have anywhere to go... They will just take me back to a new pce and it will happen again..." The wolf sits there for a moment, looking at the sad girl in front of it.

  [Then, would you like to come with me?]

  The three adventurers lead them back down the road, all of the horses pulling the carts either broke off and ran, or died.

  "Does anyone need some water?" Raul asks, turning to the group of kids.

  3 of them raise their hands and he gives them a small waterskin of water. They all take a drink out of it and then continue on their way. After a few more minutes when they see a cart with a cloth shade over the top of it, coming down the road. They wave it down and walk up to the driver.

  "Hey, sorry about this but, could we ask you for a ride back to town?" Raul asks, "We just saved these kids from some sve traders and we need a ride back."

  The driver looks at them for a few seconds, gncing between all of them and the kids.

  Raul speaks up again, showing him a card, "Here, this is my adventurers card." He gives him it and he inspects it a little more and looks at him.

  He gives Raul back the card letting out a deep sigh, "Sure, you are all lucky I wasn't able to get much product in Evensflow before making my way out, hop in."

  They all make their way to the back of the cart and open the half doors. They lift all the kids in and hop in, Raul makes his way to the front and knocks the wall near the front twice. The driver knocks once back and starts to turn the cart around. They all sit on the bed of the cart, the kids all grouped up, one by one falling asleep.

  Raul turns to Ina and Marcus, "This is one hell of a day..."

  They both turn towards him, "Mhm..." Marcus says.

  "I thought he was shady, but never thought he would do that..." Ina adds.

  "We are going to have to drop these kids off somewhere." Raul says.

  "What about that orphanage just past the corner with that bakery?" Ina

  "I think that's the only orphanage in the city." Marcus says.

  "Alright, we'll take them there." Raul says.

  A few hours ter and they make it back to the town gates. Raul gives the driver a few silver pieces for the trouble. They walk to the front gate, the 3 show their adventurers cards.

  "There is something we need to report." Raul says to the guards.

  "Alright, I'll go get Leon." One of the guards says. He turns and nods to the second one before walking off into a building about 50 meters away. A few minutes ter he comes out with a rge man in military garb behind him. Once they are back over to the gate Leon instantly gets to business.

  "What's the situation?" He asks.

  Raul expins what happened and Leon pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "He was always odd but I didn't think this would be the case... Alright, we'll send a small team out to confirm your story as well as look for the missing girl, thank you all for your hard work. You may leave and get these kids to somewhere safe for the night."

  They head down a few different streets and get to the orphanage. They knock on the door, a few minutes ter a man comes to the door in a bck pastors outfit. Raul expins the situation and leaves the kids with him. The kids all get taken to the dining room and given a bowl of soup and some bread. Then they get shown to a room with a rge number of beds and all hop into a bed each.

  The man in the pastor outfit leaves the building and makes his way through the streets, turning down an alleyway and waiting for a few minutes. A woman in bck robes and a mask covering her face walks up to him.