[FIN] But Getting There is Half the Fun [Harps]

[Lucca]

Mirriam wrinkled her nose in distaste as well. Coffee, blech. She much preferred fruit juice or a very sweet tea. She'd also had a sip of red wine once. That had tasted really weird, but still better than coffee! At least it was made from fruit! She nodded at Joel. "I think you're right. The bad guys must be out doing bad stuff, and he just came here to make sure he knew where they lived so he can track them back here later and return all the stolen loot in their secret hideout!" The little Bat was so caught up in this fantasy that she nearly missed the fact that the door was opening, but luckily a glance back into the shop showed her the white form getting closer just in time, and she moved out of the way.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Joel was quicker. And ooh, that was a nice and proper greeting! She was sure her guardian would have approved. Her tail wiggled as she waited for a response, sure that it would be favorable.

Aberforth was already done with his coffee by the time he walked out of the store, and it was a good thing because he'd need the boost to deal with the situation that presented itself. Well, whatever, at least the kids had been smart enough to move. The little girl looked far too excitable (though an Avington, who he definitely understood quite well) and the little boy was a bit more promising (though a Corvie, who were notoriously good at putting on a normal face when they were completely insane). He turned and, in a calm tone, responded to the query. The titles meant little to him one way or the other. "Yes? Can I help you children with something?" his accent was a little harsh, but his tone was level, and, thanks to the caffeine, at least slightly upbeat.

[Harpsdesire]

Joel was immensely relieved by the Goat's calm reaction. Although his voice was a little rough, and the accent strange, his tone was considerably less grouchy than his appearance. And he wanted to to know if they needed help. "Yes. Yes." Joel said, but with more excitement than urgency. He was a little star-struck, as many small boys would be, to be talking to a genuine, bad-guy-catching police officer. He took a deep breath and went on, a bit breathlessly.

"We, this is Mirriam," He paused but a moment to indicate the little bat with a nod in her direction. "And me, we were following this butterfly, a yellow one I think... maybe it was orange... and we went on the wrong street or turned the wrong way, and..." He realized with a blink of wide eyes that his story was going on a bit too long, and decided to get to the point. He did so, abruptly."We're lost. Sooo lost."

With a pleading expression and apologetic tones, Joel shuffled his over sized front paws and asked, "Can you help us find the park?" And then, remembering his manners belatedly, "Please?"

[Lucca]

Oh yay, he was going to help them! "Thank you for helping us!" Mirriam said, and then, because she was never great at keeping quiet, couldn't help but inject additions of her own into Joel's story. "His name is Joel!" was first, because the silly boy had forgotten to introduce himself, and had introduced her instead! She tried to get a look at the officer's badge, jumping up slightly to be at eye level with it. It was so shiny!

"I think the butterfly had blue on it," she insisted next. "And also, also, we became the Green Team!" She beamed, holding her antlered head high, quite proud of this fact.

Aberforth listened to the kids' stories, and thought they were lucky that he was a creature of near-infinite patience, because these two little excitable creatures were already trying even that. At the end, he nodded, and then asked the obvious question, and one he seriously hoped they would have an answer to or his job was going to be made a lot more difficult. "Which park, exactly, would this be, Joel and Mirriam?" After all, Capital City had several large parks, and numerous small playgrounds, and any of them could be where these children had wandered off from.

"Joel's park. It's the one he goes to all the time," Mirriam answered promptly, and looked hopefully back at her friend, sure that he would remember. If not, then she could just tell the police officer that it was also next to the tea shop. (Still blissfully unaware that Capital City had many of each of those things.)

[Harpsdesire]

When asked which park they were looking for, Joel nodded seriously. Mirriam was partly right, although he didn't go there often enough to actually know where the park in question was without an adult to walk him there. As far as he knew, it didn't have a name, but there must be something that made it different from other parks that he had been to. Hmm... It had an anthill... but that wasn't rare, probably lots of parks had them. Then it came to him.

"It's the one with the fountain that looks like a swan spitting." There may be many parks in the capital city, but probably only one spitting swan fountain, he thought. "Also it has a garden and a fence that is kind of pointy and poky on top. And black. Black and pointy." Pleased with himself, Joel smiled at the nice, helpful police officer, totally unaware of how much he was probably annoying the Tulgey.

[Lucca]

Aberforth was quickly revising his opinion of children. Far from being a breath of fresh air in the fetid pits of society or a sad little group ignorant of the evils of the world, they were just as bad as everyone else, in their own way. But he kept his calm demeanor even as he listened to their very unhelpful descriptions of this park, and he had just resigned himself to a long afternoon of traipsing around to every park in Capital City when something Joel says jogs his memory.

The Goat was hardly the sort to ever visit parks, however the description of the fountain sounds suspiciously like something he passed every day on his way from his apartment to the police station. "I believe I can help you. Follow me." Aberforth began to walk down the street, back the way he'd come, trusting the children to follow. His hooves, as always, made that strange echoey sound over both pavement and grass.

Mirriam tilted her head. A fountain with a swan? That didn't really sound like the park she knew about. Maybe it actually was two different parks, and that was why she'd never seen Joel before today. "Is it near a tea shop?" she asked Joel, but then she noticed the nice police officer was leading them to Joel's park! So she quickly flapped her wings and took off in pursuit.

Aberforth completely ignored the little Bat's question about tea shops, as he had a sneaking suspicion she was a little slow. Or perhaps all children were like that.

[Harpsdesire]

"Yessss!" Joel did a childish little squirm-dance of victory when his description succeeded in identifying the park. He was going to be un-lost in no time! Eagerly he followed the goat down the street, trotting a bit to keep up with Aberforth's longer adult stride.

When Mirriam spoke, Joel assumed the question was directed to him, the one who knew about the park. Still, it wasn't a question he could easily answer. It seemed familiar, or was that a different park? or both? "I think," He said thoughtfully, "Every park is near a tea shop." After a brief pause the boy added, "Most of them are also near an ice-cream stand."

Ice cream. As the excitement of speaking to the police man died down, hunger was coming into focus again. So hungry... but he decided not to say anything in a surprisingly astute moment of discretion. Even though the Tulgey seemed to Joel like a very nice man, he clearly wasn't a mom, and everyone knew only moms had the snacks in their purses.

[Lucca]

Mirriam's ears went back and she frowned. All parks had tea shops near them? How was she going to find her guardian again, then, since her park didn't have any cool fountains or anything like Joel's. The nice police officer wouldn't know where it was, and she didn't know where it was either, and by the time she found it the sky would be dark and dinner would already be over! And then she'd get lectured...unless she talked about what getting lost had taught her, as a Sprout. Hey! There was an idea! Though that still didn't solve how she was going to find the park in the first place...

But hey...wait a minute...if all parks had tea shops near them... "Oh, I know!" the little Bat said excitedly. "Next time maybe my babysitter will take me to your park instead, since she just wants to have tea while I'm playing! Then we can team up again!" She grinned at Joel, this idea having perked her right back up out of her worries over still being lost. "And maybe we can get ice cream too!" Man, ice cream sounded really good right now...especially strawberry ice cream!

Aberforth continued at his normal pace, either not noticing or not caring that it might be a bit hard for the kids to keep up. His pink eyes darted around, always observing, both watching out for Cards that might jump him or Cards that might get the wrong idea from the fact he was leading children that were obviously not his around. Yes, he was in uniform, but that wouldn't have stopped him from being suspicious, had he seen one of his fellow cops playing pied piper for a couple of excitable and naive kids.

At least the park was only a few more blocks away, and then he could drop the kids into the arms of their waiting guardians and be on his way.

[Harpsdesire]

"Oh, yeah! That's a good idea!" Joel grinned enthusiastically, still tagging along behind Aberfoth at a trot. Now that he was on his way back for sure, he suddenly didn't feel as tired from the long walk. "We can look for bad guys to defeat, or study the bugs and plants, or play games... but this time I think we should stay IN the park... getting lost is kind of fun but I think I'm gonna be in trouble with dad..."

Joel's face scrunched up at the uncomfortable expectation of a lecture, maybe even punishment. He was happily distracted from these thoughts, however, as they rounded a corner and he saw a patch of lush green up ahead. It looked like a park, all right! Maybe it was his park and maybe, just maybe, his parents hadn't noticed he was even gone! That seemed unlikely, but he could always hope, right?

[Lucca]

Mirriam beamed, more than happy with how this day had turned out, lecture or no. After all, it was nothing she'd never earned before...and this time she thought she might know how to spin her story to avoid getting in a lot of trouble. Besides, no matter what happened now, she'd made a new friend, and you could never have too many of those! Especially ones as smart as Joel. "Yeah, yeah! Those all sound like great ideas. But, yeah, no more getting lost." She giggled a bit, and then tilted her head...and decided she might as well share her idea with Joel. "You could tell him you did it on purpose, for the Sprouts! As a Sprout, it's very important to know what to do if you ever get lost." She looked solemn for a moment, and then broke into a giggle. "It's what I'm gonna tell Mr. Birdy Man!" She still had trouble remembering her guardian's name, so that was what she privately thought of the King as being called.

"Oh! Oh Joel, look! Is that the park?" Mirriam had not only seen the lush green area ahead, with a pointy, pointy fence, but she could hear water running and smell the flowers in the garden from here! Her leaf-shaped nose twitched excitedly and she sped up her fluttering.

Aberforth felt a bit of relief at finally seeing the park, and unconsciously sped his pace toward it. He stopped when he got to the edge of the little path that ran through it, and turned to wait for the children to catch up. It gave him time to compose himself into the friendliest expression he could muster (which really only made him look slightly constipated instead of cold and emotionless).

"Is this the park you meant, Joel and Mirriam?" He had a feeling it was (hoped it was!). It had, after all, all the requirement's set out in the little Corvie's description, including a large stone fountain shaped like a swan.

[Harpsdesire]

Mirriam's unlimited enthusiasm for every idea he had made Joel feel very exciting and clever. She never seemed to tell him, "Nah, that's a dumb idea" like his siblings sometimes did, and it made her company all the more desirable. He hoped he'd get to play with her again soon. Maybe they could play tag, or hide and seek! (although probably not wrestling... she looked disconcertingly breakable...)

Mirriam also had good ideas herself... although this latest one might not work out as well for him. "I dunno... I think if I said I got lost on purpose Dad would be even more mad. Even though it is important to know that." He was glad that now he knew what to do when lost: Look for a doughnut store and wait for a police officer to come by.

"That looks like the park to me!" Joel let out a happy shout and increased his speed, still keeping up with Aberforth. "Yeah, that's the fountain I was talking about!" Joel wondered, in passing, if Aberforth was smelling something horrible-- he personally could only smell the cut-grass and flowers fragrance of the park and the usual smells of the city.