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Riyo had been about to start paddlin' away again when something seized her leg. Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder only to see that she had been captured. "Alright! You win!" She shouted as she started going backwards instead of forward. "Do your worst." Her eyes narrowed, trying to make a semi-serious face... And failing pretty bad.

Meanwhile, Atticus had already set up his camp for the night. His jacket hung on a low tree branch and a quilt covered his legs. He was still propped up against the tree and appeared to be comfortable that way. With a yawn, he closed his eyes and slowly nodded off.

Riyo's eyes widened as he whispered in her ear. Fly? What did.. Oh no. "No Neko! Don't you do it! Don't- OH GOOOOOOOD" Her voice turned from shouts to screams as she flew through the air like some awkward bird flailing its wings as if to try and grab the wind and landed with a big SPLOOSH. Instead of curling up into a ball like she should've done, she splatted against the water roughly, and comically sank. Little bubbles floated up where her outline had once been.

Then, a head slowly peeked out of the water, red eyes practically glowing in the moonlight. They watched as Neko retreated for land. Oh, she'd get him back. And she would get him back good. But for now, she would let him wonder what she would do.

Quietly, Riyo made her way to land, carefully lifting up out of the lake. Her stomach was red from where the water had hit. For the moment, she tried not to appear angry, perhaps to lure him into a false sense of safety. Instead, she rung out her blonde hair over the lake in an attempt to dry off quickly. At least it was a warm night. They wouldn't have to worry about freezing half to death.

Riyo was the last to make it to the fire, curling up with the group and also neglecting to put her clothes back on. She couldn't help but feel unusually tired, like even if her life depended on it, she couldn't stay awake. It was strange, but welcoming. Maybe tonight would lack nightmares like a few in the past.

Her eyes glanced at Neko as her last thoughts before she fell asleep were how she could get him back.

-----

Atticus awoke when the sun smacked him across the face. As if it was saying "Hey jackass, time to greet the day. We've got a surprise for you."

His eyes fluttered at first, but seemed to be drawn to a little yellow blur next to his legs.

It... It was a child.

"... Uh. Hello?" He asked somewhat reluctantly, his memory of last night somewhat hazy with this discovery.

"mm.." squeaked the small child who couldn't have been older than six, femininity obvious. She had short blonde hair that shaped to her face and... Black... Cat ears...

Wait. What?

The little girl sat up and slowly opened her saucer eyes. At first, she was calm. But... When she looked at her surroundings, she quickly stood up and backed away.

"... Riyo?"

"mmmmm...It's to early mommy...." a child's voice emerged from a huddle of blankets, and then poke sat up rubbing her eyes....Well, it kinda looked like poke. Except her ear fins were gone, replaced by normal human looking ones.
She wondered why she had to get up so early anyway. Suddenly the girl froze, and then stood up to gaze around the camp.

Where was she? where was the beach, or the town? or her mommy and daddy? And she didn't recognize anybody here for that matter. She gasped. What if she had been taken away by those weird adults? she was always cautioned to stay away from strangers since they sometimes like to kidnap people.

She then saw a boy run away, but then trip over. Looking around she saw a adult with some very funny things coming out of his back

"eek!" she squeaked, walking back and then falling over. "Who are you, wheres my mommy?!" she cried out. So much for being brave, but you wouldn't be so if you were only a kid.

"What the hell..." Atticus mumbled as he glanced around at the other children. "It's a dream." was his immediate assumption. Lifting his arm, he gave a pinch.

To his dread, he felt it.

Atticus let out a deep sigh and rubbed his head. "It's too early for this."

Alright. Lets evaluate the situation. One, everybody was a child but him. Two, none of them seemed to remember him... Or eachother. Three, he had no idea how this happened and none of them seemed happy to see him.

Except the puppy of course. Wait. Puppy? Wasn't that a grown dog yesterday? As the puppy fell over, Atticus gently picked the ball of fluff up to examine him more closely. "What happened to you?" He asked, as if expecting to get an answer.

Little Riyo took that opportunity to run as fast as her skinny little legs would carry her. She didn't know what was happening or who these people were, but more than likely they would want to hurt her.

She hid behind the closest tree and stayed perfectly still... Except her tail. Which stuck out. She wasn't very good at controlling it yet.

What could she do? If she stayed, there was a possibility of being hurt. If she went home, she would definitely get it for disappearing. And the longer she stayed out, the worse it would be.

Her little eyes filled up with tears at the thought of how screwed she was. Subconciously, Riyo's hands reached into her pocket and pulled out her only friend. He looked a little more worn than she remembered... But he was still good for receiving moral support.

What was going on? Neko didn't know what to think. He quickly turned from the girl crying for her mother to the little blonde running off to hide behind a tree. Who were these people? Did they just...show up during the night?

Turning sharply back toward the other boy Neko glared daggers at him. So he wanted to pick a fight, huh? In his aggravation, Neko's split tail began to sway, the two ends synchronized in rhythm. "Well, if you weren't blind maybe you would have seen me there and wouldn't have fell on your face!" He puffed up his chest a little trying to look bigger, his eyes a swirl of smoky storm clouds. But....he was quickly ignored as the boy turned his attention to the adult.

Tobi was excited to say the least when he was shown attention. When he was picked up, however, that escalated into ecstatic. He gave a little yip of excitement, his body shaking so hard he could hardly contain himself. Actually, he found that he couldn't contain himself and with another excited yip elevated himself. Luckily being a small puppy, there wasn't much pee to be had, but it was still pee none the less.

Yip! His tongue hung from his mouth as he panted in a happy stupor, his little tail wagging a mile a minute.

Atticus looked at his now soiled shirt, then at the puppy. For a moment, he had been about to say something, but decided that it would be silly to waste his breath on an animal. An infant animal, at that. He sat the little dog down gently with a reluctant pat on the head, then looked at the children that were threatening him.

This was going to be an exceptionally long day.

With a shake of his head, he began unbuttoning his undershirt. "Wow Blade. I didn't think you would be a little snot as a child. Go ahead. Charge at me with that sword. You'll get nothing but a face full of dirt."

"Look. All of you. I didn't kidnap you, nor do I honestly want to have anything to do with you. So if you want to leave, go right ahead. But I warn you. Wherever your homes were are probably very far from here, and everything outside of this little clearing could easily eat you alive." He didn't figure the 'you're actually adults' thing would work too well, so this approach was probably more appropriate.

He tossed the soiled garment off of him, revealing his pale, slender self that few people got to see.

"And Poke. Stop doing that. You're embarrassing yourself." One thing that was certain through this experience: Atticus did not have a way with children. At all.

Riyo had quietly listened to everything the strange man said. They were far away from the village. Far away...

For some reason, it felt like a big stone had been taken off her back. She felt relief... If they were really that far away... Mother couldn't find her. She sighed and looked down at the cat doll. "Mr. Kitty, I dunno what to do now." She whispered softly to the doll, expectantly waiting for an answer.