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He's supposed to stay in the tavern today, while his brothers attend to 'business.' He thinks this is a load of crock and so he ignores it and climbs out a back window when the cook isn't looking, reaching in and lifting little Ariana out after him, then helping Ariana skitter and slide down the sloped roof, catching her just before she slides off an edge. This is enough like an adventure that it gets his blood boiling, and so once they are down safely off he heads to look for more.

Two hours later his clothing has been quite ruint, though under the dirt and the dust and a few smears of blood it is plain to tell that it was all this morning very fine. While Ariana shivers behind a barrel, Georgios stands with the wall of the warehouse at his back and regals a small handful of children with tales of how he'd earned his few smudges of blood beating up a slightly older boy who'd tried to steal a lunch off of a child lucky enough to have been given a loaf of bread.

" .. an' then I kicks him in the drawers, for good measure. POW! Just as that." Georgios nods authoritatively, pleased with himself as can be. "That's why you should lissen to me, I can beat up them as'd hurt you, and I can show you how to give 'em what for."

There is some hesitation over this, and a murmur of dismay that makes Georgie frown. "It ain't just for street folks that've gotten above themselves! Ain't you heard there's wolves coming? You gotta learn to fight! And I can teach you!"

The discussion may go on for some time, with someone eventually slipping away when Georgie isn't looking to fetch the one that is generally considered to be an expert on social matters. Besides, from the look of little Georgie, he is close to if not equal to Miss Olivia in status, and so perhaps she will know how to handle him.

Olivia may find the whole scene to be a strange one, for several reasons. First there is the well-rumpled little Georgie, with his earnest expression and the dirt all over; underneath his features are pleasant and sweet. They are also astonishingly familiar, for if he is not as much like the Freds as they are like each other, he is nonetheless obviously related to them. But he is also more graceful then his brothers, softer of feature, and Olivia out of anyone may have the ability to guess why that is. In addition to Georgie himself, full of fierceness, there is a little grey shadow hiding behind a barrel nearby, shivering and quaking with fear every time a stranger gets too close.

And as if this were not enough, there is another familiar face here -- Druther, the urchin who once led her to speak to the Freds, is standing at the edge of the group watching Georgie solemnly. He is wearing yet another new shirt, and a new pair of patched breeches, and his cheeks are softer and rounder than they were before, further evidence of a newfound prosperity.

Ariana has not at all enjoyed the romp through the underbelly of the city, and had been sick with fear when Georgie had gotten into the scuffle with the older boy; she is going to be long in recovering from that! Even Olivia worries her a little, but she is so quiet and careful that Ariana unbends enough to tentatively sniff the girl's fingers. If Olivia is patient, the grey fawn may decide to put her little muzzle into Olivia's hand .. and any scratching will elicit a little sigh of purest pleasure.

This attention will eventually draw Georgie's eye, for if he is not entirely sympathetic to his Guardian's desire to keep him out of all excitement, he is yet protective of the young fawn.

"Hey! What're you up to? Stay offa her, she's mine!" Though Georgie sounds ready to be angry, he does calm down when he pushes his way through the other children and sees that Olivia is being gentle with Ariana; he quiets down and crouches beside her, mollified by Ariana's own pleasure in the stranger. " .. sorry, I couldn't see what you were doing. She's a beaut, idn't she? I got her my own self, and she's going to be the beautifullest strongest Guardian ever."

Where Livy lives in the moment, filled with an energy that adults may not understand, Georgie has a wholly different energy of his own. He is impatient for things to happen, though what things he does not always know; only let something happen, and he'll show it! He is determined to take everything from life which he feels he is due, and perhaps just a little more. But he glows when Livy compliments Ariana, for this is a sure way into his heart, and does not seem to think it amiss when Livy questions his motives.

"Well, they comin', the wolves is, so it's better to learn how to fight, right?" He nods to himself authoritatively, then reaches out to rub the top of Ariana's head in between her eyes; she sighs in bliss at the caress. "Me brothers, I heard they arguing about it. Wolves are gonna come, and the grown ups be all stupid and won't believe it, so's somebody's gotta be ready." Plainly Georgie subscribes to Faye's unspoken opinion: that grown ups are very silly, and obviously don't know what's best in most situations.

"Yeah!" This guess plainly pleases Georgie, who sits up a bit taller for it, giving Livy a proud grin. "They're two've 'em. I got couple've others, too, but they's way way way way back at home. When I got Ariana, they sent me here, 'cause Last's got a deer too." He goes back to rubbing Ariana's head, and when the little fawn scoots closer and tries to climb into his lap, Georgie gathers up the little thing into his arms so naturally he must have done it a thousand times already. "They're alotta fun, but they just keep sayin' the wolves ain't coming, 'cause they don't wanna fight." He grimaces at the blatant foolishness of this, plainly frustrated by the ridiculous nature of adults, and finally snorts.

"They ain't gonna be clever, so we goes to be. Like .. wolf traps, and sling-stones, and making places so wolves can't get in 'em."

"Ain't no trees in city," Georgie points out. "So's no good for the street littles, 'caues they cain't get out to where there is any." He's thought of this already, having given the matter a great deal of contemplation -- as much as some of the supposedly more intelligent adults he encounters every day. "I were thinking of them warehouses, out past the trader's district. Kids can kip up them better than a tree, and then got a whole big space to theyselves."

He is pleased with this notion, though what the men who man the warehouses will have to say of this remains to be seen -- as well as, more dangerously, whether the roofs in question will support even small children. They are made mostly to keep the rain off, not to hold mock battles against pretend wolves. But to a child of their size, the warehouses are the closest they will come to real mountains, and their sides are smooth enough to make them seem intimidating; certainly more than enough to pose difficulties for wolves, who do not have hands or thumbs to help them.

"Right!" Georgie bolts to her feet, spilling little Ariana gently onto the ground; the little fawn ducks half underneath her, sticking her grey head into the back of Georgie's coat. "Which've you lot knows the way out to the warehouses? You wanna go now -- here now, what's your name, anyways? I'm Georgie, I forgot to say!" Georgie sounds aghast at his own ill-courtesy, and jerkily offers Olivia what he apparently thinks of as a bow, though it isn't very courtly. Despite his very expensive clothing, he is no more noble than his brothers -- and as Olivia knows, the Freds are delightfully down-to-earth. He is simply .. well .. spoilt.