There was a dog barking excitedly next to a blonde girl, but my hands were quick to catch my dogs' collars. Alanis wanted to examine every animal, Val would act like she was being murdered if something so much as startled her and Kainde could sound vicious when he wanted to. The last thing this place needed was a dog fight and I was suddenly kicking myself for forgetting their leads. The blonde girl had apparently remembered hers though, and ushered her dogs outside before things got worse, or at least louder.

"Sorry." I apologised as she returned, "Keep forgetting their leashes. And dipshit here," I said, nodding at Kainde while patting his head playfully, "Keeps chewing through Alanis' collar."

If there was one thing I was still getting used to, it was the age difference of the Bari refugees. Most of the survivors who'd made their way to Bari were in their late teens at best, some in their early twenties. There was a guy making the rounds, asking everyone to put their weapons on the table. He looked like he'd barely graduated High School before Goldilocks hit, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt despite his age. I'd too much K.A Applegate growing up to be in a position to criticise, unless he gave me reason to. Disarming, though? That made me uncomfortable.

"As much as I appreciate the gesture, man, I ain't too comfortable with that. Enough people catch on that we disarm at every town meeting, it's gonna give 'em a pretty obvious target. I've seen it happen too many times before, and that was [i]before[/i] Goldilocks." I said. There was no challenge in my voice, just my usual stating of facts. Or at least what I took to be facts, anyway. "You have a room where everyone's carryin' and you're a lot less likely to have some idiot thinkin' they can get away with shootin' the place up."