“If you’re sure,” Thayva said, done with her own meal a moment before Serapis, “I’ll go help the staff prepare for the cleaning.” She stood, gave her husband a quick nuzzle in farewell, then hurried down to the kitchens to aid the others in gathering enough cleaning supplies for all the orphans.


“Shh!” Nick hissed as harshly as he dared, moving to clap a hand over Aurelian’s mouth at his laugh when he caught wind of Laya’s observation.
“It was probably nothing,” he heard Laya say after a short pause. “I don’t hear anything now.”
When the girls started talking again, Nick gave a sigh of relief and let his hand drop back to his side. “I recognize Laya, Kia, and Laura, but who’s the human?” he whispered in Aurelian’s ear.


“Not the pendant,” Kia said with a sigh once what Laya thought she had heard was dismissed. She glanced to Belle with a muttered, “no offence,” to which the human only shrugged. “You’re episode of gloom and doom.”
“If you want it, you can have it.” Satisfied with the cleanliness of her satchel, Belle placed it just behind her, and sat the pendant down close to Laura.

Serapis nuzzled his wife. "Right then. See you soon, love." He collected the dishes and began to clean them off in the sink. While it seemed like drudgery, he realized that Thayva was saving him the awkward task for dealing with the staff over the cleaning issue. Whether she realized it or not was unknown to him, but he had a feeling that she was doing it for him.

------------

"Uh... Belle, I think? I'm not sure" Aurelian replied. Jorn just stayed quiet.

------------

Laura took the pendant and examined it. "So what does it do? Ward off temple guards or something?" Silence greeted her comment. "What? I've heard legends about a hidden temple with guards and pendants. And something about a talking stone head and a shrine of a silver monkey. I guess this has nothing to do with that."

Thayva stood in the dining hall, her arms crossed as she looked over the mess. If she did not know any better, she would have said that it looked worse than when she first saw it. The smell had intensified with the day, making it smell more like a market filled with slowly rotting food than a dining hall. A few of the staff still rushed about, careful to avoid slipping on any of the gunk coating the floor. Though she was sure she would be laughing at the whole thing in a couple months, for now, she frowned, glad she had spared her husband having to come back and see the whole mess again and deal with organizing the staff.
“Hilda,” Thayva called to a human woman as she rushed by her, two buckets in a hand.
The human stopped and slid slightly on a patch of what looked like it may have once been someone’s plate of vegetables.
“Yes?” Despite looking frazzled, her hair pulled up in a bun with strands sticking out of it, and a slight sheen of sweat visible on her forehead, she looked to Thayva with a cheerful expression the dracon suspected was her way of keeping from
“Have any of the other staff done an inventory check on the cleaning supplies yet?”
“No, ma’am. Not yet. I was about to start.”
“Good.” Thayva nodded and stepped toward Hilda. “I’ll give you a hand. Grab Ferdinand as well, so we can get this done quick and figure out how many children get what.”
Hilda gave a grateful smile, nodded, and hurried off to find Ferdinand, a lizardfolk with brown scales who had just stole down a hallway.
Thayva walked to where a pile of cleaning supplies was quickly accumulating.


The three girls stared at Laura at her question, before Kia let out a long, loud laugh.
“You know,” Belle began, grinning, “for all I know, it could.”
“If you ever want to test that theory, count me in!” Laya’s expression mimicked Belle’s.
“Or it could always be the first adventure you and Jorn go on together,” Kia offered.

Serapis finished with the dishes and went back to his clerical duties. It contained the requests for funding from various donors, most of which were tapped out at the moment. Still, he had to try. Opening with his usual introduction, the dracon went over the usual platitudes, explained the severity of the situation, and reminded them of their past support. Thanking them for their generosity, he closed the letter with his own signature, written with his own claw dipped in ink. The rest of each letter was written using the usual quill pen.

"This isn't gonna work" he sighed. "Right. I've got to speak with Thayva and the rest of the staff" he thought to himself. "We might be able to avoid layoffs, but we have to cut some things."

-------------

Ferdinand brought in some cleaning supplies, including a mop, some bags, and a rather fragrant-smelling bucket of cleaning fluid. His name was extremely unusual for a lizardfolk, but seeing as how he hadn't been raised by his own kind, it was understandable.

"Oh, Hilda. Need something? I've got plenty of things for those darn kids to use later. And some stuff to use myself."

-------------

Laura thought about it. "You know, yeah. When I go on an adventure, I'm inviting Jorn along!"

-------------

Jorn overheard Laura's words and he blushed. It took Aurelian all of his willpower to avoid breaking out in laughter, as that were give away their position.

Hilda placed her buckets down against the wall beside the hallway the lizardman had gone down, the tops frothy with soap. Her arms were thankful for the break.
“Ferdinand!” she called after him. She skidded to a stop in front of him when he addressed her. She gave him one of her friendly smiles as she looked up at him. “Thayva wants our help in doing an inventory of the supplies.”


Kia laughed and the other two girls smiled at Laura’s reaction.
“Better start trying to get him in adventuring shape, then!” Kia said as her laughter died down to a bout of giggles.
Belle glanced to the sky, the time difficult to gauge with the clouds covering the sun. They looked a bit darker now, and a flash of lightning streaked across the sky far in the distance.
“Is anyone watching the time?” the human asked worriedly. “We don’t want to be late for cleaning. They’re already furious about the whole mess. We don’t need to add another thing to that.”


Nick grinned and nudged Jorn at Laura’s agreement for inviting him along for an adventure. “Looks like you’ve got yourself an adventuring partner,” he taunted in a whisper.

Ferdinand smiled back and stroked his frill, trying to look his best. "I never could resist one of your smiles. Here am I, trying to set up the supplies, and now you want an inventory. Ah, you win." He set the items down for the moment. "We are running low on cleaning supplies. If I had to guess, we have enough to clean up this mess plus a month's worth of regular cleaning after that. Been a while since Serapis purchased more."

--------------

"Yeah, we'd better head back down. Got some cleaning to do." Laura sighed. "It was just one prank."

--------------

"Ohmygods! They're coming down!" Aurelian whispered to the other males.

"You didn't have a plan for when this would happen?" Jorn whispered back. "You knew they would have to come down eventually. So, what's the plan?"

"Run!" Aurelian started to do just that but then he tripped and fell flat on his stomach.

Hilda’s smile grew impossibly warmer at Ferdinand’s statement. “Thank you. The extra help will be needed.” She watched him place his supplies on the floor, then slowly headed back toward where Thayva waited. “We haven’t really needed more, though, until now. We’ll have to bring it up to him or Thayva.” She gave a sad sigh. "But they've been a lot tenser than usual. More stressed. Perhaps it should wait until we get closer to needing to replenish our stocks."


Kia groaned and flopped lifelessly on the rooftop. “Do we have to move?” she muttered into the shingles.
“C’mon.” Laya stood and kicked her lightly in the side, before she heard a commotion on the balcony below them.


“Leave!” Nick hissed to Jorn as Aurelian said “Run!”
When the human bolted past them to the door, Nick made to follow, but then Aurelian tripped. Nick gave a surprised shout as he stumbled over the human, then landed on top of his friend.
Above them, the heads of Laya and Kia peeked over the edge of the rooftop, peering down at them a moment before Belle joined them.
“Nick?” Laya’s eyes went wide.
“Aurelian!” Belle’s cheeks flushed and she pulled back onto the rooftop, disappearing from sight to those below.
“Well, if it isn’t Jorn!” Kia said through a guffaw that echoed around them, as if having three boys listen in as they spoke about them was as far from embarrassing as possible. “You little eavesdroppers!” She rolled onto her back, her laughter intensifying at the mortified expressions on her friends’ faces. She could all but read their thoughts: How long had the boys been there for?

Ferdinand walked close to Hilda. "Yeah, you may be right. Funny. They go out of their way to keep the kids relaxed and comfortable, but they hardly ever relax themselves."

----------------

"Hmm? What's going on down there?" Laura looked down to find the boys. "Ohmygods!" she chuckled and blushed at the same time, simultaneously angry, embarrassed, and struck by the sheer humor of the situation.

----------------

Aurelian got to his feet. Sighing, he turned back to face the girls. "Alright, you found us out. We won't say anything to the staff if you don't say anything!"

“They’re such self-sacrificing people,” Hilda said with a nod in agreement. “I wish there was more we could do for them.” They rounded a corner and entered the disaster zone of a dining hall. Thayva stood by the pile of cleaning supplies sorting and, Hilda assumed, counting a pile of rags.


Laya seemed to collect herself first, and started down the ladder. Kia followed a couple moments later, with Belle lingering on the rooftop.
Kia jumped from the ladder to the balcony a few rungs up.
“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Kia held out a hand for Aurelian to shake as she moved away from the ladder to give the other two girls enough room to come down. “So,” she cast a mischievous grin to her female friends, “how long were you guys down here, anyway?”

"Well, I plan on refunding part of my salary" Ferdinand explained. "Not like I use much of it anyway." He helped Hilda count the cleaning supplies. He saw Thayva enter the room. "Oh, good day, madam. I know it doesn't look good. Or smell good, really. It'll be cleaned up before the day is done."

-----------------

Aurelian reached out and shook her hand. "I don't know. Maybe half an hour?"

"It seemed like much longer..." Jorn sighed. His downcast expression turned to surprise as Laura walked over to him. "Oh! Laura! I, er, uh..."

The dwarven female just laughed. "You are so cute when you're nervous, did you know that?" The halfling blushed as she spoke.

Hilda nodded thoughtfully at Ferdinand’s plan. “I’ve been saving up for a while for a rainy day. Perhaps today is the right one to use it.”
Thayva looked up as the lizardman spoke to her. “That it will,” Thayva answered Ferdinand, her lips tight. Realizing she had used a stiff tone, Thayva sighed and tried to give him a smile. “Thanks for the encouragement.” She looked back to the ever growing stack of cleaning supplies as a couple other of the staff deposited other items. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”


Nick, his face flushed, returned to his feet as Belle finally came down the ladder. The way Laya kept glancing at him made him feel self-conscious. He leaned almost lazily against the railing, trying to not show that he had noticed.
Belle cleared her throat awkwardly. “We’d best get going, then.” She adjusted her satchel on her shoulder and hurried into the orphanage, her cheeks reddening when she glanced to Aurelian as she passed.


Valera sat on a fallen tree, her back and head resting against another that had grown in its wake, as if in a tribute to its fallen comrade. She looked for all the world to be asleep, her long blond hair falling around her face. She stirred slightly, and a look of pain crossed her petite features. She had done all she could to patch herself up after their last encounter with that strange, robed man and a couple of his men, but there was only so much she could do without alerting her sister, Seaella. Using magic was an option, but that would have used precious energy, energy she needed to use to cast protective spells over the two of them to prevent being followed. She was sure she had at least a couple broken ribs, and, from the feel of it, she would need to change out the bandages she had used to staunch the bleeding from a shallow stab wound, but that would need to wait until Seaella was asleep. She still had yet to figure out how the knight’s blade had slid through her armor, leaving only what looked like a scratch as evidence. An enchanted weapon, she supposed.
How long had it been? A day? A week? The time all blurred into one jumbled mess of chaos, sorrow, and terror.
Every breath felt like fire. Every twitch sent a stab of pain through her body. She wanted to stop for the day, to stay here in the caress of the forest and sleep for an eternity, to sleep away the nightmare that had become her life. But they had to go on. For their sake and all the people of the land, they had to carry onward, no matter what that meant.
A whisper erupted among the trees, interrupting her muddled thoughts. It was not quite words, exactly, but the young elf understood them all the same. Seaella was near.
Valera took as deep a breath as she dared, clenched her teeth, and sat upright, banishing the look of agony that twisted her face the moment she heard the soft padding of Seaella hurrying through the forest.
The girl, an elf of about nine years of age, looked like a spritely flame hopping through the trees, a bow slung over her back. Her cloak, which she had never bothered to switch out no matter how many times their father had warned her that it was far too lurid for the forest, only added to the effect as it flared out around her ankles like a trail of fabric flames.
“I filled the waterskin!” Seaella brandished a waterskin as she approached Valera, the circles beneath her eyes only a shade lighter than her sister’s. Though a haunted look swam in her golden-red eyes, she put on a small, cheerful smile. “It’s going to storm tonight.”
Valera nodded, her expression stoical. “The trees are looking forward to it.” She stood, maintaining her calm and hiding the agony the action sent through her using all her willpower. “They suspect it will be here after nightfall. We’ll need to find shelter before it hits.” She grabbed her staff from where she had leaned it against the tree, and the stone at its top began to swirl with a mix of silver and green.
Subconsciously reaching to make sure the pouch at her belt still held its small, precious cargo, Valera began trudging through the forest. She leaned as much weight as she could on her staff without arousing suspicion from her sister, her pace slow as Seaella bounded beside her.

"Yes, let's. No point in delaying it any longer" the lizardfolk replied as he moved to the supplies. He began to count the supplies. "Thayva? It should be enough to clean the mess."

-------------

The boys and girls alike walked to the still-stained cafeteria, which had begun to smell. "Ah, just in time!" Ferdinand said, handing a mop to Aurelian. "You kids have a lot to answer for. I trust the ones of you with stronger noses can fully appreciate the magnitude of the mess you've made. Still, what's done is done. You made the mess, you clean it up." He began to work on a part of the floor himself. "That said, nice choice of attire, Aurelian" he added.

After sitting for the last nearly three hours, baking in the gentle heat that the walls of the manor retained, the smell in the cafeteria was enough to make a few of the orphans gag as they entered. Shoulders slumped as nearly a hundred pairs of eyes surveyed the scene once more where lunch had had a battle befitting the most brutal of wars. The mess looked far worse than a lot of them remembered.
It was going to be a long evening.
A few of the boys, much like Aurelian, had chosen to work with their shirts off. Many grumbled complaints filled the air as the orphans worked together, but none dared utter them in above a whisper. Though nearly all the windows on the main level had been opened, including those few on the outside-facing walls of the dining hall, the gentle breeze of the storm blowing in was outmatched by the number of sweaty bodies working hard. Had anyone bothered to pause and gaze out one of the windows, they would have been greeted with the fresh, crisp scent of rain as it began to fall, first only a drizzle then slowly intensifying into a downpour, the feel of electricity in the air and the dark, ominous clouds that prematurely blocked out the sun warned of far worse to come.
Even with some of the staff pitching in, by the time a long break was issued and dinner served, a quarter of the gut-wrenching lunch-purée still remained. It clung to the wood of the floors and walls defiantly, and quickly found its way into the hair and under scales of many of those cleaning. The glow of lanterns lit around the room cast their warm golden glow over the entire scene, the flames flickering their encouragement... or perhaps mockery at the situation the children had put themselves in.
At long last, as seven in the evening rolled around, the dining hall looked nearly as spotless as it had that morning.
Thayva, who had labored among those cleaning between doing rounds to be sure the children were all working between breaks, came to stand at the front of the room.
“Can I have your attention!” she shouted above the clatter of metal buckets and mops, and chatter of orphans and staff alike. When a quiet settled and most eyes turned to her, she continued. “You’ve all worked hard to clean up your mess. For that, I congratulate you. But let it be a lesson. If anything like this ever happens again, the consequences will be far direr than spending the night cleaning.” She looked over the weary faces of everyone in the room. “Your usual evening chores are to be halved tonight, consisting of only the necessities, to allot more time for bathing. Which, I’m sure you will all agree, is something every one of us here needs.” She looked them over once more. “You are all dismissed.”

Aurelian smiled as Thayva's words sank in. "Finally! We don't have much time before lights out, do we?"

"Not really. Maybe two and half hours" Jorn explained. "We still have to clean and do our regular chores, or half of them, as she said. If you have something you wanna do, now's the time. At least the place smells nicer."

"It looks nicer too!" Laura interjected, coming in just behind Jorn. Normally, this would have surprised him, but not now.

"Laura, it's late and I'm tired. And I don't think I have time to deal with your comments about my chest or whatever it is you like about me. It's just a crush."

"Hmmph. Sounds like someone's just grumpy tonight" she replied, storming off.

--------------

Ferdinand finished piling up the cleaning supplies, which were by now almost used up. "Thayva? Do you have a minute?"

“At least it’s only the necessities,” Nick said, stretching his back with a yawn as he approached the other two boys. Glanced behind them as he spotted Laura heading their way, thought about mentioning it to Jorn, but decided against it.
He glanced to a window as the gentle rumble of thunder whispered through the room, and Jorn had his exchange with Laura.
“C’mon, halfling.” Nick patted Jorn on the back as he headed toward the doors where the rest of the student body, including Kia and her friends, were dragging themselves to. “We should get going. We all probably smell like a herd of rhinos who just tramped through a patch of dragon dung.”


Thayva scraped off a piece of, well, she did not really know what, from the gold-colored cuff around her wrist, when she heard Ferdinand say her name.
“Hmm?” She turned toward him, a weary look on her face. “Yes. Yes, of course. What can I do for you?”

Ferdinand sighed, planting his clawed lizardfolk toes on the floor as he spoke. "We're very nearly out of cleaning materials. I'll be blunt, Madam. If the students make another mess like this again, we'll be unable to clean it up. At least in a way which would get it as clean as it was before the mess."

--------------

"Yeah. I think I'll visit the therapists one more time before turning in. How about it?" Aurelian said to Nick. They still had chores to do, but there was a bit of time to spare in-between. Maybe 45 minutes to an hour, at most. "I think I'll get some work done on my feet. Especially the toes and soles."

"I'm down for that!" Jorn chimed in, looking down at his large halfling feet.

Thayva sighed at the lizardman’s report, the cuff on her tail glittering in the light as it swished behind her. “Thank you for notifying me. I’ll be sure to add cleaning materials to the list of supplies to pick up. We need to make a trip to town soon, anyway.” She glanced out to the quickly dwindling body of orphans as they all filed out into the halls. “But if they do do something like this again,” Thayva continued in a mutter, crossing her arms, “I swear I’ll make them lick the mess up.” She offered Ferdinand a small smile. “Thanks for your help tonight.” She patted him on the shoulder. “I do have one more favor to ask, though. I need to speak with Serapis, so would you help spread the word to the faculty that there’s to be a conference tonight after the children are in bed?”


Nick raised an eyebrow at Aurelian’s suggestion. “We go there now, and we’ll probably get rejected!” In emphasis, he used part of his soiled shirt to try rubbing off what looked like it had once been some sort of fruit from Aurelian’s shoulder, but only managed to smear it over his skin. “I’m hitting the baths first.”

"Alright, I'll tell the rest of the staff." Ferdinand said, bowing to Thayva.

---------------

Aurelian felt embarrassed as Nick reminded him of that unpleasant fact. Not only were they drenched in sweat, but they were covered in the residue of dozens of foods.

"Oh. Right. Guess I just got too used to it. Quick bath first in that case. Lead the way, Nick!" Jorn followed them closely behind.

“Thank you.” Thayva nodded to his bow. With another quick glance to the students, she hurried out a side door and headed to the stairs leading to their chambers to find her husband and give him word of the cleaning’s completion, and their dwindling cleaning supplies. She paused only once, requesting the same of a dwarf as she had of Ferdinand, then hurried to the top floor.


Nick grinned at Jorn’s response. “Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one.” He turned and led the way first to their sleeping quarters to grab a clean set of clothes, then hurried to the boy’s bathing rooms, trying to get there before the rush of others eager to rid themselves of the mix of sweat and crusted foodstuffs.
Thankfully, they were among the first to arrive, and did not have long to wait. With the request to meet in the hall outside when finished, Nick eagerly entered.
Nick took the longest of his friends. When he finally came out, his dirty clothes under one arm, he nodded to his companions. “Let’s get rid of these,” he nodded to the clothes that, after spending a while in the clean scent of soap, smelt that much more rancid, “then get in line for a massage.”

Serapis finished organizing some books when he heard his wife come in. "Thayva? Is everything alright?" he asked, already suspecting that not all was well. She had that look. Maybe it was her pose? Her expression? A combination of factors? He couldn't quite put his claw on it, but he knew when she had bad news.

Arjun worked on a few of his chores, but he'd be done soon and be able to go back upstairs to his room.

------------------

Aurelian and Jorn cleaned up and joined Nick. They lined up for one more rubdown, but there was a line. Aurelian was wearing his shorts, as was Jorn. Being a halfling, he was not quite as strong as most of the other males. Normally it wasn't a problem, but now that he could see their muscles, it made him feel slightly intimidated. If this were a fight, he'd be in trouble.

"Should've suspected that it would take a while. We've all been working hard today" Aurelian said to Nick.

"I wonder what happened to Laura" Jorn said, a bit uneasy at the incident earlier today.

"Oh, so you do care about her after all" Aurelian replied, folding his arms and smiling.

"She... she thinks I'm cute, that's all!" he said, uneasily. He looked down at his feet, another sign of embarrassment.