Prologue: The Children's Journey

"Good thing I'm fast." he hollers as he runs to his secret hiding spot in the attic. He spends a lot of time up here meditating like his mom taught him. Everyone knows it's, "his bedroom". It's not a big attic just 6' x 10' but it's the only place he calls his. there's two windows and a door, all of which he can lock, now. Last winter some kid broke into the room and stole his rapier. So, he worked with one of the men in guild to put good locks on the doors and windows. Then he created a secret compartment in the floor under his rug for any would be thieves to find. He kept a few coins and some odds and ends in it and he pretended to be hiding stuff once when one of the older kids came up to see him. His real secret compartment, where he kept the good stuff was in a hard to reach, harder to see little space just big enough to hold a coin pouch, a small dirk, and now this necklace. 'The big kids aren't getting this', he thought.

After meditating for a while, Woody headed out. He mostly stayed in the alleys. He knew almost every inch of this town from when he had to sneak into town at night and steal food just to survive the winters. Now he just tried not to be noticed by normal people at all. A few shopkeepers, his guild brothers, and that man he's going to kill someday (the one that beat him so badly he almost died}, yeah they knew who he was. Most people though, they never would.

After getting a ,2 copper, piece of almost stale bread at the baker's shop Woody sat at "The Wounded Dragon" tavern. With a crisp cider on the table and the bread to eat, it was a great day. He sat there watching people and listening to gossip until the sun started to go down and the place started to fill up. Then he high tailed it to the orphanage to meet up with Jocko and the gang.

"Sure thing Jocko, I'll make a screech owl sound, I can do that one real good and it's really loud." Woody splits off from the group and heads for a dark alley to hide in. His elven night vision gives him an advantage these humans don't have. There he waits until about 10 till 10 and he starts walking down the street and around the orphanage keeping lookout.

A ten-year-old boy wakes. He has a dark complexion, long dark messy curly hair. He is thin but agile. The clothes he gets into are worn and simple. The first thing he does after getting dressed is put on his tool belt. It just has simple tools in it but one never knows when one’s gonna have to takes things apart. The belt is comforting to him. It’s really the only thing in these orphanage walls that is anymore, with his closest friends gone now.

The name he was ‘given’—maybe by his parents who he doesn’t think he can remember, since he’s been here from the age of three—is Atrius. The boy lets out a long sigh as he wakes up more and remembers it's a red day and what the Baroness has him do on red days. Besides scrubbing the floor in the common room, stacking the fire wood in her reading room, stoking the fire in her bed chamber, and preparing the hot water for her evening bath, the baroness makes him strip the children’s beds and wash all the bed sheets. To get the job done he’ll have to fetch gallons of water many times. And all the while that cat…everytime you turn around, it seems like it’s always there, and it never takes its eyes off you. He tries to ignore it.

He shakes the sleep off himself and makes his bed. He examines it, pushing up and down on the mattress. He is pleased and proud of himself that, because of his clever modifications, his bed’s box spring doesn’t make noise like the rest of the children’s beds, AND he built a hidden compartment in it where he can store things that nobody will find. Because his bed is so quiet, he can silently sneak at night and slip out to old Carlin Dimble’s shack at the back of the orphanage grounds. The shack is more like a workshop with a cot in the corner.

An odd man who keeps the orphanage grounds, Carlin was actually the one who first called Atrius ‘Tink’. He came up with the name after seeing how interested the boy was in all the curious gadgets and designs in the workshop. When he finally let the boy tinker on his own in the workshop, the old man told Atrius that it was clear that he had natural aptitude and started calling him Tink when he would come visit. This makes Atrius happy.

Atrius…or Tink…likes the nickname very much. Only a few other kids have called him by that name, his friends Flora and Ollie. But devastatingly, Flora–like other children here–went missing the other night, and Ollie–fortunately for him–got adopted. But that sadly makes Tink alone in this dreadful place…again. It took a while to make those friends and build the kind of trust they developed.

The Baroness, on the other hand, always calls him Atrius…in that shrill cold tone of hers. He hates to hear her voice. BUT he won’t have to tonight. He knows this is the night she likes to settle into her bath and get lost in her drink and she already called out harshly to everyone that she doesn’t want to be disturbed this evening. SO…tonight Tink doesn’t have to wait until after bedtime to sneak out to Carlin’s shack. Soon after the baroness slams her door and settles into her room, he’ll be able to head to Carlin’s. He is excited to be able to spend so much time there tonight.

At dinner...

Tink replies to Mariah, "What!?" He realizes his voice was just very loud for the dining hall and tries to contains his fear and shock. Not wanting the Baroness, the cat, or any of kids that the Baroness gets to spy for her to notice the conversation, he continues with a more subdued tone. "Baba Yaga? No! That must be who took Flora, " he intensely whispers. "I can't let that happen to Flora. There's got to be a way to help her!" He thinks to himself that he will ask Carlin later if he knows how to find Flora and help get her safe from that hag. From what he's heard about her...she eats children!

He responds to Darius, "Yeah I'm definitely gonna go see Mr. Carlin. I wonder if he knows any thing about Baba Yaga. It's scary to know the witch could just show up here and take any of us. Hey, don't say anything, though, okay? Don't want the Baroness to give Carlin any trouble or have her make me disappear like the Goodwin twins." He looks back at Mariah as he says sarcastically, "She's doing a good job running the place...right."

Tink eats his food quickly and heads to Carlin's shack as soon as it's clear the Baroness is absorbed in herself for the night and no longer is paying any attention to the kids.

At Carlins...

"That's amazing!" Tink says about the music box, examining it closely as it spins. "So intricate, and the tiny parts are timed perfectly to the music too."

When Carlin mentions the Goblin King, Tink's mood quickly changes from memorized happiness to serious fear and concern .

"Carlin, Mariah said earlier that Baba Yaga took Flora and I wanted to ask you how to find that hag so I can help Flora. But now everything is even worse. No one is safe if the Baroness is giving kids to the Goblin King. I got to get out of here and find people to stop her! All I have is some money and a dagger in my bed. I left the dagger but took "

"...but took some money, in case you wanted me to run into town for supplies. I wanted to get another small screwdriver and some different gear sizes. But now I just want to get out of here! It's not safe for any of us."

Initially Tink stands in shock over the devastating event he just witnessed. Shock fades to deep sadness when the unforeseen sudden lose of Carlin hits him. Standing in the dark for a moment with the fallen bookcase blocking his way back to the workshop and the lifeless body of his mentor that he never imagined he would have to live without, a sense of urgency comes over him.

Flora, Grandmother Sophie!!...she can help stop the Baroness and save the kids. He does the only thing he can do: push forward and follow the last advice he'll ever get from his friend Carlin Dimble. He puts a hand in his tool belt around a tool for comfort, thinking about how Carlin taught him to infuse mundane objects with the magical ability to project light. He investigates the area looking for any object he can work on with his tools. He plans to find something, work on it, and then use it to press on in the dark tunnel.

Not liking early mornings, Ollie wakes up groggily and drags himself over to large mirror and stares at it blankely….Not really in the mood, but wanting to please his new father he begins his daily exercises…Practicing faces.

Tired…groggy…that’s an easy face…How about sad…that not too far from groggy right? Happy face…that’s a hard one. Ollie stares…tears welling up and a flush coming over him, fighting back the emotion he tries switching to his mean face. Grinding his teeth and clenching his little fists he swallows his tears and puts up a confident…lie…

Ollies eyes light up for a moment and then dim just as quickly, "The Wounded Dragon? Their flat cakes are too fluffy and the syrup is too sweet."

Turning around to hide the sly smile beginning to form, Ollie continues the charade with a yawn,

"I just want to go back to bed."

Ollies turns pointing and laughing at the King of Thieves, "I GOT YOU! I GOT YOU! I HAD YOU GOING! That was my false face! I’ve been practicing! You really believed me! Hahaha!!!

Ollie is already out the door with big smile on his face….fooled father Ha!

"Lets go I’m starving!"