Broken Wings

Sparks

"How do you know?" The second, the one I thought was a she due to the slightly higher voice asked as she eyed me doubtfully. "He's supposed to be part dragon. This one looks like any of the other humans." The boy rolled his eyes at her.

"Those parts are on the inside, stupid. Of course he looks the same."

"Hey! I'm not stupid! You're stupid!" The ogern right in front of me shifted uncomfortably as the kids in front of us descended into an argument and shoving match over who was stupider. Eventually he decided the young sylvan weren't going to move off the path without prompting, so he cleared his throat.

"Young masters, if you would stand to the side, we would greatly appreciate it. We must take this human to the Central Complex, and you are blocking our way. He is very dangerous, and we are not to let him approach too close to any younglings."

"Dangerous?" The little girl asked. "How? He's wearing a suppressor. He can't do anything to us." The boy's eyes suddenly widened.

"Ooh! Make him breathe fire! He's supposed to breathe fire like a dragon right? Make him do it! I want to see!" Two of the ogern behind me grabbed my shoulders and dragged me back a few steps as the two sylvan kids scampered closer. The three ogern still in front spread out and crouched to block them from getting any closer.

"What are you doing?!" the boy demanded, indignant.

"Yeah, get out of the way," the girl ordered.

"I cannot," the leader said stiffly. "This is for your own prot-"

"I said: make him breathe fire!" the boy shouted again. Adult sylvan were starting to poke their heads out of the surrounding tents now, drawn by the noise. This only seemed to embolden the kids. "You have to do what I say!"

"I have specific orders from-" the lead ogern tried explaining again and was again interrupted.

"You're just an ogern! You have to do what I say," the first little sylvan repeated while the other bobbed her head in agreement. Both were wearing wicked grins now, and the adults watching seemed to share their mirth. Not one did a thing to help the ogern with their predicament.

"Listen," I muttered to the female ogern restraining my left arm. "I swear on my life, I won't lay a finger on those kids. Just march me straight past them, I won't try anything." They ignored me. I found that a little insulting, but I thought I understood what was going on. They had their orders, and no promise from me would change them.

"Turn around," the leader ordered over his shoulder. "We don't have time for this." The guards did as he said and we quickly marched back the way we came. One of them was keeping a firm hand on my shoulder, but they weren't dragging or shoving me along. I glanced backward, and sure enough, the two kids were following us. A few dozen steps later, the boy ran off while the little girl kept jogging along behind. The rear guard saw the same thing I did.

"Jex, one ran off. Might be going for the rest we saw." The lead ogern, Jex, heaved a weary sigh.

"Of course. Alright, we'll approach from the south. The tents aren't packed so tight there. It will be harder for them to block us. Hok, go straight to the Central Complex and try to find a supervisor who will assist. The last thing I want is an incident involving younglings."

The tents thinned out as we backtracked. After a few minutes, the guards led me off the path we'd been following, then we began weaving between the tents. There were plenty of sylvan going about their own business: washing clothes, preparing food, reading from or writing in books. It would have been just like the human section, except hardly anyone was speaking. In fact, almost all the voices I heard here belonged to children. The only time a more mature voice popped up he was clearly talking to one or more of the kids. The brat from earlier was still doggedly tailing us, but as the ogern hustled me between the tents, I began to hope we'd lost the others.