Before Teruk could mingle with the angry crowd for too long, his attention was drawn to a fellow merchant sprout hobbling towards him from the direction of the park. It was none other than Mr. Teko, a kind old peddler from Southern Swamp who used to sell magic beans before retiring. Now he occupied something of a leadership role among the traveling scrub merchants, settling disputes among the business scrubs and also working with the Mayor's office to ensure the business scrubs were kept in line, but also had a fair chance to peddle their wares in Clock Town. Although Mr. Teko didn't hold any actual power among the scrubs (as they were all either independent businessmen or in the employ of the Deku Royal Family), most of the fellow scrubs looked to him for advice and offered him at least a certain amount of respect. 

The unique title of "Mr." Teko was something afforded only to him out of all the Deku; Teko was not his surname, obviously, as the Deku race lacked such trivialities, but he was referred to as Mister for as long as anyone could remember, most likely because of his role as the "team dad" of this particular group of traveling merchants. He was an old and withering scrub whose head-leafs had long since changed to a grayer, browner hue as opposed to the yellow-green shade of his younger colleagues. He walked with a hobble, a short oak walking stick bearing the brunt of his hunched, frail wooden body. He almost seemed out of breath when he finally came within earshot of Teruk.

"Teruk! Thank heavens! You must come quickly, Treka was attacked back at the park! Come, come, I'll explain on the way!" he implored, pulling Teruk away from the crowd urgently. Treka was the youngest scrub of Mr. Teko's flock permitted to come along for the trip to Clock Town, something that was usually reserved for only the older, more seasoned merchants due to the long period away from home and the competition from other salesmen being far too much for the young ones to handle. Treka's family specialized in selling (rather pungent and unpleasant) perfumes made from a special strain of flowers found only in certain parts of Woodfall. Her mother was supposed to be representing the family business at the carnival, but fell ill the morning of their departure and was forced to stay home. All in all Treka was a quiet girl who preferred to keep to herself, making it seem especially odd that someone would have reason to attack her at all.

"I can't believe I let this happen. When all of you left to watch the speech, only a few of us stayed back in the park to keep watch over our wares and our flowers. Things were really quiet with the park so empty, so I decided it would be a good time to take a nap while I had the chance. When I woke up, poor Treka was on the ground unconscious and your aunt and uncle were trying their hardest to wake her up. I came to get you as soon as I could. Hopefully she's awake by now," explained Mr. Teko, frantically. The two scrubs tried their very hardest to muscle through the crowd, but the waves of people leaving East Clock Town made such a task rather difficult, especially with Mr. Teko's already slow gait.

"Oh, but what of the Prince's speech, Teruk? I see a lot of confused and worried faces in this crowd. I take it the news was more than a little unsettling?" queried the old scrub, between grunts of frustration as he bumped into stray elbows making his way through the crowd.

~

Oliver Clementine Pike's attempts to find his father in the procession of Ikana Knights ended up being rather fruitless, unfortunately. Even with a spot fairly close to the stage he couldn't pick out any knights wearing Swiftblade's sigil. He tried to tell himself that it was possible that Swiftblade had changed sigils recently or that he wasn't wearing a cape at all, but the rational side of him quieted these slim possibilities rather quickly. He'd gone his whole life without meeting his father, after all, and as far as he was concerned he could continue to live his life without him if need be. Even so, if the Prince came through on his promise to open up Ikana's borders once more, then Oliver would surely get a chance to meet him in the near future.

Getting a close up view of Davos Du Ikana himself was certainly something that Oliver wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon. He would be proud to serve under such a man one day, and he would jump at the opportunity to do so if it was ever offered to him. Although he would never in a million years admit it, Oliver internally swooned just the slightest bit upon hearing the prince's voice for the first time. His soothing baritone of sent shivers down the young swordsman's spine, surely, but once again this was a secret he would take to his grave. He feigned a stoic but earnest interest in the speech to save face in front of Zunari, but he made no effort to hide his concern as the prince went on to explain the dire circumstances surrounding Ikana's isolation. What if Swiftblade wasn't here because he was killed by the undead scourge? What if he died during the siege of the Stone Tower? Could that be why they never heard from him?

As soon as the crowd dispersed, Oliver made a beeline for the small group gathering outside of the mayor's office, bidding Zunari farewell -- while he did appreciate Zunari's company, he simply wasn't in the mood to hear anything from him at the moment. This pack of dissenters, refusing to disperse, continued to shout their own questions at the mayor's office, but Dotour didn't look like he was going to be coming out anytime soon. Some of the rioters reluctantly gave up and shuffled away (including two very concerned looking Deku scrubs), but Oliver refused, shoving his way to the front of the now thinning crowd to say his piece.

"Please, you must tell me if my father is alive! He's the only family I have left! I must know!" he demanded, unsure of why he was shouting at a closed door but ultimately too flustered to care. After a moment of thought and a quick look around, he discovered that not only was he standing next to that circus girl from before, but that she was also one of the people he had rather rudely shoved aside to get to the front of the pack. Oliver slowly realized that his elaborate web of lies from before had also just imploded spectacularly with that one outburst, as it revealed that he did not, in fact, have a little sister like he'd previously claimed in order to wiggle his way out of having to see one of her weird dance shows for pervy old men. He knew he'd have to choose his next words very carefully to avoid looking like a complete tool.

"Oh, gosh, hey, uh..." he stumbled, rather sheepishly. It was at this point that he realized he'd completely forgotten Lorelei's name. He had in inkling that it started with an L, but he wasn't about to take a wild swing at a girl's L name and risk digging his hole of social ineptitude even deeper. However, he'd unfortunately begun this sentence with the intention of using her name, as one could obviously discern from his inflection in doing so, but as he currently lacked the information necessary to make such a feat possible, he was left staring at her blankly with a heavy, awkward pause right in the middle of things. His cover-up plan was not going particularly well.

"...you! Hey, you! Sorry to shove you and all, but, uhhh, hey, some speech right? Crazy, heh, hehhh..." he choked out, full on panic-mode now. Apparently his loud outburst had attracted the attention of some of the Ikana knights, who stopped talking among themselves to peer over at Oliver and the angry people behind him, some of whom he'd even accidentally pushed to the ground in his hurry to get to the front.