Save the Babies!

[Angharad Warbeck]

Since Dunmor’s death and her recovery, Angharad had made a lot of new discoveries. Some of them were exciting, like the fact that there were other children on the island, some of them not too far from where she lived (maybe someday she would even talk to them). But most were difficult, like her discovery that the only way to get water without Dunmor’s spells was to trek more than a mile down the road one way to the water spigot over and over again with a heavy bucket. Some were even frightening, like her first glimpse of a dragon on the new, wider trapping route she had to use to catch anything without Dunmor’s skill and experience. None, however, had been quite as disturbing as her realization just one day earlier that her closest neighbor. One that she had often heard and once even seen Dunmor arguing with, had a tiny little baby living in in the same house with him. Well, either that or in a pushchair outside his house as that was where she had seen yesterday afternoon, when she had come home with her second catch independent of Dunmor, a rather small, scrawny rabbit.

Either way, she knew the moment she saw it, sitting up in the chair giggling at a butterfly that was flitting around its face that it was in grave danger, worse yet, grave danger that it was too small and innocent to even see. The neighbor was an awful man. When he and Dunmor shouted at each other, his voice sounded angrier and fiercer than a wounded bear and the threats he made were just awful. Worse yet, he was a giant of a man. All it would take was one swipe of his hand and the baby would be gone just as surely as Dunmor was gone. A man like that might even eat it afterward. She had watched it for nearly an hour until the mother, who seemed kind enough to the little bairn, but obviously didn’t want to protect it very badly living with a man like that, came and brought it back inside.

She knew straightaway that she had to do something as quickly as she could if the baby was going to live much longer. So, the next morning, this morning, she had let her trapping grounds lay fallow and committed herself to hunger so that she could find the perfect time to take the little baby away from the trap it had gotten caught in the day it was born. For hours, she sat waiting, without any sight of the baby. The big monster of a man left looking chipper (probably with the thought of a baby meal later that day) and a tabby cat came and went between the house and the garden. But it wasn’t until late morning when the mother pushed the baby back out in its cart and strolled back inside, past the window at the far end of their house, undoubtedly out of sight of the baby. Knowing that she might not get a better chance than just then, Angharad went straight down to the stoller and lifted the baby out of it as quietly as she could. She worried for a moment that it might cry and bring the mother back out but it just looked at her with a big, toothless drooly smile and stuffed one of her braids into its mouth with a giggle.

Placing the baby on her hip, she started off quickly back through the thicket, towards her house. She wasn’t really sure where she was going to leave it. That big monster man would probably look at her house and the thicket, while a good hiding spot was much too close. They would find it in minutes and it would be in danger all over again. Her trapping routes were too dangerous because of all the animals there, but she didn’t know anywhere else all that well and, despite being so small, the baby was awfully heavy to carry all over the island looking for the right spot. Eventually, she decided that somewhere by the road would be best. If she followed it far enough, the monster man and his wife wouldn’t think it might be there, but maybe another child, one with more food to share than her, would find it and take care of it. The dirt road (the only one she knew of, anyhow) was just a short trek to the right and she reached it pretty quickly, but by that time, the baby had started to fuss and squirm, making it hard to hold onto. Then, something worse happened. She had hardly walked a half mile down the road when she heard something behind her, making its way out of the grass and onto the road. She could tell from the footsteps that it was a person, smaller than the monster of a neighbor, but big enough to be his wife. She stopped in her tracks, frightened that it might give chase if she ran and turned around slowly only to see an older girl who she had never so much as laid eyes upon standing there, looking at her and the baby.

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

Tilda watched as the knife she threw embedded itself in the bale of hay with a satisfying thunk. It hadn't hit the center of the target, but then again, Tilda was rather distracted as of late. She was anxious for school to start, and anxious to start her lessons again and see her friends. With the quarantine being enacted, Tilda couldn't see her friends, and that worried her. They were safe in the Hebrides, but without even being able to so much as apparate there, she would just have to rely on owls from her friends.

She couldn't practice anymore – she was too distracted. Tilda wrenched the knife out of it's place in the hay and stowed the knives away in their shelves by the targets. Tilda's parents had allowed her to move her practicing into the barn they had on the property. It was divided into 3 sections. One larger section for the few horses they had, and two smaller ones; one for tack and supplies, and the other for a resting room, which was the one Tilda had moved her practicing in. Though smaller, the barn was magically larger on the inside than on the outside, so Tilda had more than enough room.

After putting the knives away, Tilda decided she would tack up one of the horses and go for a small stroll. Today, she chose one of her favorites, Venetia, a beautiful Irish Hunter with a sleek dark copper coat. Walking up to the stall with carrot in hand, Tilda kissed at the mare, whose ears perked up as she approached. After tacking and warming the horse up, Tilda took off to the forest behind her house.

After some exercising, Tilda dismounted and walked her horse a ways, letting Venetia cool down. Luckily her parents owned a good portion of land behind their house, so Tilda was safe from having to have a chaperone whenever she took a horse out. It was also uncommon to see people in the back woods, as lovely as they were, so Tilda was greatly surprised when she came across a small girl as she was about to cross the road. And she was even more surprised when she saw that girl...had a baby with her. She couldn't be more than 9 years old, and she was carrying a baby! She was so shocked, she almost forgot to speak. Venetia nudged her from behind with her nose though, and it shook Tilda out of her daze enough to finally speak. "This is privaete property," she said not unkindly. "Are ye lost?"

  

[Angharad Warbeck]

Angharad raised an eyebrow at the older girl. She didn't seem like much of a threat. She was acting kindly enough, but she certainly wasn't very smart thinking that the outdoors was part of her house. As busy as she was, trying not to drop the baby, Angharad  took the time to set her straight, though she did so with a noticeable scoff. "Nae, The ootdoors is fur a' fowk. It isnae yer hoose." 

 Having already decided that this girl wasn't fit to take care of the baby (she may have been wearing fancy enough clothes that she would be able to feed him, buy she was still much too big and didn't have an ounce of common sense), she turned her back on the girl and walked over to a bunch of bushes  nearby. She eased herself down on her knees pushed aside the leaves of one of the bushes, making a space just big enough to fit the baby into. Once she'd gotten him in, she rearranged the leaves and twigs to cover him up. He started crying in earnest then. Either he was scared of the dark or a branch was piking him. Either way, she hoped he'd stop before someone who might want to help him came by. Nobody would want him if they thought he was just a big crybaby. 

But, really, there wasn't anything that she could do about it. Instead, she turned back to the girl and explained in a matter of fact sort of tone. "A monster is chasin' heem. Donae teel whaur he is." then she turned and started walking back home. Maybe the older girl would at least give him some food or something since she knew he was there.

a much cleaner, newer version of Angharad's dress (pretend the basket and shoes aren't there. She has none)
the baby she has kidnapped rescued

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

If Tilda hadn't grown up around her cousins, she'd be quite offended by the child's brash and stubborn words. But she did grow up around them, and she sighed, putting a hand on her hip and looking down at the girl with an eyebrow raised. The other girl merely turned and walked over to a bunch of bushes. What on earth was she doing? Tilda's eyes widened as she observed the other girl practically bury the baby in leaves. Her mouth was slightly open in shock. She sincerely wished this baby wasn't the girl's responsibility.

As if to even shock her more, the girl practically commanded her to not tell anyone where that baby was and promptly started off to god knew where. "Excuse me, wha' d'yeh think y'er doin?!" Tilda said, finding her words through her disbelief. "Get back here righ' now! D'ye just plan t'leave tha' babe there, defenseless and alone?!"

  

[Angharad Warbeck]

With a roll of her eyes, Angharad turned back to face the older girl. Honestly, how could someone so big be so thick? She had just explained it to her a second ago and now she had to explain it again. Maybe she couldn’t hear so well or something like that. Just to be sure, she raised her voice above the sounds of the baby’s cries when she spoke again, a clear note of annoyance in her voice. "I tauld ye. A monster is chasin' heem.” She snapped, placing her hands dominantly on her waist. “It probably wants tae eat heem. He is better aff thaur. Joost feed heem an' he'll be alrecht." She really hoped that she wouldn’t have to move the baby again or fight the girl to stop her from giving it back to the monster to be eaten, but if she had to, she would. After all, the baby was counting on her to keep it safe and she couldn’t let it down.

She couldn’t help but think that, if Dunmor were still alive, this would all be much easier. She was sure he would have known someone good that lived far enough away from the monster neighbor that he wouldn’t find it, someone with enough food to give the baby and at least twice the brains of this girl. Unless, that was, all of the other people around here were just as dim as her or dimmer. Maybe her, Dunmor, Aulay and Maw were the only smart people on the whole island. The baby’s mother certainly must have been dumb to keep her baby with a monster. That may have only been two people, but they were the only other two people she knew too much about except the monster and the baby and either of them could have been dumb. She just didn’t know yet.

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

"And wha' kiend o' monster would ye be talking' 'bout?" Tilda responded. Obviously this girl did not know the first thing about taking care of a baby beyond feeding it, but Tilda did not like the idea of being an accessory to manslaughter or homicide. Not today, not ever, thank you very much. Usually she was quite nice to younger kids, but this girl was rubbing her buttons, which made her bristle.

Venetia could feel her mistress's mounting annoyance, and the horse snorted, pawing the ground roughly with her hoof. The sounds of the baby were making her even more uncomfortable, as well as the girl. She began backing away from the scene only to be stopped by Tilda, who grabbed the reins. "Easy girl," she said softly, patting the horse's nose. She decided to figure out exactly what this girl planned on doing besides merely feeding the babe. "So what d'ye plan on doing' besides feedin' the babe?"

  

[Angharad Warbeck]

Angharad shared a knowing look with the horse. Obviously, it was getting as annoyed with its stupid owner as she was. Horses knew what monsters were, just like owls did. That’s why they ran away from big, loud mean people like that neighbor, but this girl seemed to need telling. She probably wouldn’t notice a monster person even if it was right in front of her, trying to kill her. “The big bodie kin' fa yells an' says he'll kill fowk if they dinnae bide aff his lain.” She explained as slowly and clearly as she could, hoping that she would finally realize the obvious, that this was better for the baby even if it wasn’t perfect. “I hink it's his da.” She added as one more justification for her having to get the baby away from where it was. If that didn’t get it through to her nothing would. Even someone who was more than a little bit slow ought to know that babies shouldn’t live with monsters.

But, she didn’t seem to understand the gravity of that at all. All she wanted to know about was what she was going to do for the baby. She must have been really minted not to realize that what she could do for the baby, she had already done. With a sigh and another glance at the horse, she explained again, making hand gestures to emphasize her point because she really wasn’t sure how she could make it any simpler. “I cannae feed heem.” She started, pointing exaggeratedly to her chest, then to the now violently rustling bush from which the baby was trying to escape. “I dinnae hae onie scran.” She pointed back at herself and shook her head, watching the girl to see if there was any sign of recognition or understanding on her face. Seeing little to indicate that there was, she pushed on pointing over at the dim girl. “Yoo can feed heem, 'en fin' a bairn wi' mair scran tae tak' heem in. I woods hae given heem tae ye, but ye ur tay dumb. I hae tae teel ye erythin' twice.” She finished with a patronizing smile. “Do ye kin noo ur dae I hae tae teel ye again?” She really hoped that she wouldn’t. She was losing patience and every moment that she was here with her and the baby, gave the monster neighbor and his wife more time to start looking for the baby and maybe come across her before she got far enough away from here to make the baby too hard for them to find. She didn’t know what he would do if that happened. Probably, he would eat her and the baby and she certainly wasn’t too keen about being eaten today. She wasn’t ready to die yet and whenever she did die, she wanted to do it on a full stomach, which she certainly didn’t have right now.

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

Most people would probably be offended and angry at the kid's rudeness. Tilda had been with her cousins way too often to feel any sort of offense, and she couldn't help but laugh at the defiance in the younger girl's face. "Noe, y'doen't hav'te tell me again, ma'am." Tilda saluted the younger girl, an amused expression on her face. The horse had sobered but was still eyeing the small child with uneasiness.

Tilda's expression also sobered once she processed what the other girl was saying. And people told her that her accent was hard to understand. The prefect sighed, tilting her head and trying to figure out what to do with the girl. And the baby. "Ye couldn't have given him t'me anyways," she replied. "I cannae feed a babe nor take care of 'im any better than ye."

  

[Angharad Warbeck]

Angharad fought the urge to roll her eyes at the girl. She said that she understood, but then repeated almost exactly what she had just been told and even laughed at the idea of a baby being eaten by it's own da. Normally, she would have been horrified, but she knew that she had to make allowances for people who weren't all that bright. "I ken." She explained in a very slow, uptoned voice hoping that, this time the girl would really understand. "Because ye ur tay dumb. I jist said 'at. Bit ye swatch loch ye hae got plenty ay scran. So ye probably ken other kids fa hae got plenty ay scran an' if onie ay them want a wee brither, ye can teel them tae come gie heem haur."

She searched the girl’s face for understanding, but not being able to discern any, simply sighed, turned away and started walking towards home again. “Jist lae heem haur.” She called back to the other girl in an exasperated, but authoritative tone. “Jist lae heem haur.”The baby was still crying, in the bush, but she was sure he’d quiet down eventually and as long as she checked in on him by dusk, he shouldn’t be in too much danger from animals. Maybe by then, the monster’s neighbor’s search for him would have died down enough that she could bring him back to her house if he was still there. She couldn’t feed him, but at least she could keep him safe until morning. Then she would put him back tomorrow and try to find someone brighter than this girl to look after him.


Translations:

"I ken."- I know

"Because ye ur tay dumb. I jist said 'at. Bit ye swatch loch ye hae got plenty ay scran. So ye probably ken other kids fa hae got plenty ay scran an' if onie ay them want a wee brither, ye can teel them tae come gie heem haur." - Because you're too dumb. I just said that. But you look like you've got plenty of food. So, you probably know other kids who have plenty of food and if any of them want a little brother, you can tell them to come get him here.

“Jist lae heem haur.”- Just leave him here.

“I’ll come back an' swatch in oan heem later.”- I'll come back and look in on him later.

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

This girl really thought that she could leave the baby here. Tilda sighed, rubbing the spot between her eyes. This small girl insulting her at every point she got wasn't making it any easier to resist the urge to get her cousins to haul the girl back to where she came from. What would her cousin's do? She looked at Venetia, who swished her tail and whinnied softly at Tilda before stepping forward and nudging the girl along. Tilda trusted Venetia to be gentle with the girl, and she went to pick up the baby. It wasn't crying too much, just whimpering. Merlin, it didn't look to healthy either. She cradled the baby in her arms as best she knew how, and started heading back to her home. "C'mon," she said definitively over her shoulder. "Noe time t'waste."

She would get some food for the babe and it's family, and then get this poor girl something to eat. She was obviously more than malnourished. Must have been the lack of food to make her so snappy. Everyone knew Tilda turned into a monster when she was hungry. "Y'must be hungry yerself." she commented, not bothering to see if the girl was following. Hopefully Venetia would have a good time convincing the girl to move. "Ye have a name?"

  

[Angharad Warbeck]

Angharad wasn't surprised that the girl didn't grasp the importance of not bringing the baby back to the monster, but when she felt the horse nudge her in the direction that she had come, she was genuinely shocked and disappointed. Obviously, it didn't have as good an understanding of the situation as she thought it did, which was really unlike animals. She had never known a smart animal like a horse to act like such a fool. She blamed the bad influence of its dumb owner. Turning around on the spot, she gave the animal a brief, but indignant look before turning narrowed eyes towards the back of the older girl, who had since fished the wailing baby out of the bush and was marching off down the road, spouting nonsense about being in a hurry.

She briefly considered trying to tackle the girl from behind and take the baby away to safety, but she knew that she wasn't nearly big or strong enough to win a fight with even the girl alone, let alone the girl and the horse. She would just have to follow along and hope that the girl wasn't able to find the baby's house or ma on her own. Of course, that didn't mean she had to be friendly about it or pander to her stupid questions like 'was she hungry?' Of course she was hungry. She was skinny enough for anyone that wasn't blind to tell that on her own. Still, she answered the question, but only in a way that served her own purposes and the babies. "Not as guttin' as th' monster ye want tae gie 'at bairn back tae." she bit back at her, stomping along behind with resentful scowl on her face and her arms crossed angrily over her chest. "I hiner ye can bide wi' yerself when it gits eaten up an' dies." She didn't of course. If the baby got eaten, she hoped the girl found out and felt guilty about it for the rest of her life, hated herself for it, even. She certainly wasn't going to give an idiot like that her name either. The next thing she knew, she would start asking around about her, find out that Dunmor had died and hand her right over to a hungry monster too. Really, stupid, careless people like that were almost as bad as the mean, nasty, baby-eating monsters of the world. It's no wonder Dunmor had made her hide from everyone for so long.

Translations
"Not as guttin' as th' monster ye want tae gie 'at bairn back tae." - Not as hungry as the monster you want to give that baby back to.

"I hiner ye can bide wi' yerself when it gits eaten up an' dies."- I hope you can live with yourself when it gets eaten up and dies.

@ Tilda MacFusty

  

[Tilda MacFusty]

Chuckling slightly at the girl's indignant responses, Tilda continued down the path towards her house. "And how would ye feel if Ah just took ye from yer home and put ye in a strange place that y'didn't liek? Hrm?" The baby was wailing at this point, which Tilda was surprised to discover that it didn't put her into a panic. She merely put the baby to her chest and patted it on the back, focusing on calming herself down. Soon enough, the baby's wails subsided, and it fell asleep, the rhythm of walking putting it to rest.

Turning her attention back to the girl, she sighed. The girl was head strong and stubborn, Tilda had to give her that. "The man won't eat it up. He'd get sick. Dogs are more likely t'eat the babe than humans." she said bluntly. "Ye haven't got a dog, have ye?" She saw that Venetia walked placidly alongside the girl, occasionally making sure she wasn't turning back. She felt bad that the horse hadn't gotten much exercise. "If ye want te ride the horse, I'll lift ye up. She's a good ride."

ooc: Sorry that took a bajillion and a half years