They weren’t necessarily starved, but the soup and hard bread with just a bit of protein was making everyone sluggish and putting many of the younglings in unpleasant moods. After a month of none of the parents showing up for the rest of the younglings who had been left behind, it was decided they would start to move and return to the villages of the younglings. The adults who had undertaken to caring for the lost younglings no longer wanted to shoulder the responsibility, though they could not abandon them they would return them to their villages and let others care for them as they saw fit.

They’d started at the farthest corners of the Chibale Isles and now they’d reached Jauhar. They were in some unknown village and had decided to make camp for a few days to stock up on food and other things while giving out the children to those who took them in. Aseara was once again cramped into a small space with the same three other little girls, they barely had space for the four of them but they managed. Soon it would get less cramped but until then they had to suffer for a little while longer.

Aseara still couldn’t believe her parents had left her to this kind of fate; she hated this place, hated the people and was as angry as ever. At least though, she would be able to return home and a small part of her believed her parents might be there waiting for her. For now though, Aseara left the crowded space with the girls and roamed about in the village. They were allowed to leave and go as they wished, probably because the adults wished they’d never return adopted by some family. Now Aseara wondered the street alone, looking and poking her nose in places.