Crime and Punishment

“Pst, hey! Hey kid!”

Seven practically leapt out of his own skin when he heard the voice echo through the otherwise empty halls. It was one of the Den Mothers, wasn’t it? They found him! He needed to run!

He took off down the hallway, not even bothering to look back and see who the voice actually belonged to. He just had to get out of there. Now.

“H-hey, wait! Come back!” The voice called out again, loud footsteps following after Seven. “I need your help!”

Help? Seven thought. Since when would the Den Mothers ask for help?

…Come to think of it, the voice didn’t exactly sound like one of the mothers. Or any of their helpers.

Seven skidded to a stop and whipped around to face the voice, body still tensed and ready to run at a moment's notice.

The owner of the voice was a giant black and green Folk. They were fishy in appearance, with bright green gills and a long, finned tail. They had the weird ears that only Jarl’s had too. Weird.

Relief flitted across their face as they approached Seven. “Oh good, you stopped!” Seven backed up as the strange Folk stepped even closer.

“That’s close enough, thanks,” Seven said. He wanted to stay well out of this Folk’s reach.

“Oh yes, of course, I’ll just stay right here then,” the Folk replied. He made a big show of planting his rear right where Seven told him to. “See? Won’t get any closer.”

“Good. If you take another step towards me then I’ll run. And you won’t catch me!”

“Right right, yes, I won’t move.” The Folk waved his arm at Seven nonchalantly. “Now listen! Something bad is going to happen! Something very bad! I can just feel it!”

Seven crossed his arms. “Bad?” That couldn’t be right. Nothing bad happened at The Great Tree.

…Well, except for that time a bunch of kits, his sister included, woke up with strange mutations. Lots of Folk considered that to be pretty bad. And to make matters worse, so horrified were his parents by Six’s new features that they dropped her off at The Den and then they lied to his face about it.

So maybe bad things did happen.

“What kind of bad thing?” Seven asked, a little more intrigued now.

The strange Folk shook his head. “I don’t know what exactly! But I know it’s going to happen! And soon!”

“Uh-huh,” Seven replied uncertainly. “And you need my help with that because…?”

“Oh yes!” The strange Folk stood and made a move like he was going to step closer before remembering their deal. He quickly sat back down. “I need you to hide me! Just for a little while of course. It’s umm… very important that I don’t get found.”

“Uh, no?” Seven uncrossed his arms and pointed at the Folk. “I don’t know you. You could be dangerous!”

“Oh please,” the Folk replied, waving his hands dismissively. “Me, dangerous? That’s absolutely preposterous!” He started tapping his chin, brow furrowed like he was thinking really hard. He snapped his fingers as he got an idea. “I can make it worth your while! You guys use doubloons, right? I have sooooo many doubloons. As much as-” he paused and started counting on his fingers. “-At least 4 doubloons!” He held up 4 fingers and showed them to Seven. “You could be rich!”

“I don’t know what a doubloon is,” Seven replied, frowning. Whatever a doubloon was, 4 of them certainly didn’t sound like a lot.

“Uh uh… how about sand dollars?” The strange Folk asked.

Seven shook his head.

The Folk huffed. “Alright, fine then. What do you all use here?”

“We use acorns,” Seven replied. “I don’t have any on me though, in case you were thinking about robbing me.”

“Acorns? Really?” The Folk said. “I don’t have any acorns. Why would you all use acorns?”

“No acorns, huh? Guess you can’t make all of this worth my while then,” Seven replied. “I guess I’ll just be going then.” He turned away from the strange Folk, glad to be getting away from them.

“Wait, please!” The Folk wailed, crashing to the floor with a loud thud. Seven glanced back behind to look at him.

The Folk was stretched out along the hallway, face down. Seven fully turned to face him but didn’t walk back over to him. He lifted his head up just enough to peek an eye out. When they saw Seven still standing there, he perked up more.

“Oh good, it worked!” He sat back up. “Listen, I can still make this worth your while! I can think of something else!”

Seven said nothing. He was too busy mulling everything over.

The Folk clasped his claws together in a pleading motion and gave Seven the most pathetic nudibark eyes he could muster. “Please, just hid me for a little while! I won’t even take up much space. Watch!” The Folk scrunched himself up as small as he could go. Which didn’t really work, given how big he is. “See?”

Seven sighed. He didn’t know what this Folk was hiding from but his plight rang a chord with him. He knew what it was like to be chased down by someone. “Alright, fine,” he finally said. “I’ve got a few places in The Den we might be able to hide you in. Emphasis on might.”

“Oh yes, thank you thank you!” The Folk sprang to his feet. “You won’t regret this, I promise!”

“I’m already sort of regretting it,” he said. Hopefully whatever this Folk did wasn’t too bad. “Just keep your mouth shut and try not to attract too much attention. And listen to what I say!” Seven pointed to the Folk dramatically. “If you happen to get caught by one of the adults, I’m not going to help you! I’m on my own mission and can’t risk getting caught. Understood?”

The Folk nodded vigorously. “Yes, I understand!” He reached his hand out. “Shake on it?”

“No.”

“O-oh, okay.” He lowered his hand awkwardly. “Lead the way then, mean little kit.”

“Stick close to me. I can use your size to block myself from view.” He scratched the back of his head. “By the way, any chance you might’ve seen a kit walking around wearing a bright yellow raincoat?”