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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hbarsquared" data-source="post: 2383505" data-attributes="member: 4550">Chapter One, Part NineOOC – Slippin’ to page 3.  Got to do something about that.  ;-)Nothing.  Abrina had spoken with the schoolteacher, the gardener, the nurse, and even several of the children.  The most she was able to discover was a stilted description of a nightmare one of the children had the other night.  Something about an evil gnome with crooked teeth and a tattered cloak.  The other children quickly chimed in with their own dreams, covering the gamut of monsters lurking underneath their bed to fairies that came in the night.  Exasperated, Abrina left the playroom, prepared to leave empty-handed.Before reaching the door, a half-orc dressed in wrinkled, stained clothes and a patch over his left eye approached, a broom held tightly in both hands.  He said nothing, but stood in front of her with wide, pleading eyes.  Abrina had not seen him at the orphanage, but assumed this must have been the janitor of the institution and vaguely remembered Gretchyn referring to someone named “Patch.”  She assumed this was most likely him.“Yes?”The half-orc twisted his hands along the wooden handle of the broom as if to wring out any water it might have.  “I need . . .  I . . .  I . . .”  His voice petered out into a long sigh and the half-orc turned to leave.“Patch?” Abrina called to him.  Did he know something?  Why else would he approach her?  He turned at her voice, eyes still pleading, asking her to discover a secret he was not offering to tell.  “Patch?  Is it about the children?”Patch nodded, but did not elaborate and did not step toward her.“Do you know what has happened to them?”He shook his head and once again turned to leave.“Wait!” Abrina called.  “I’ve been sent by Jenya of the temple of Enlil to investigate the disappearance of the children.  I am trying to find them and bring them back home.  Can you help me?”Patch glanced around the room furtively, and seeing no one he stepped close to Abrina, the thick and acrid smells of sweat, oil and cleaning vinegar nearly overwhelming her.  “Please,” he said, “You can’t tell no one.”Abrina nodded.  “I won’t,” she said softly.  “What do you know?”“It was Revus.  He’s with the Last Laugh guild.  You know, them’s with the black and white faces.  He said I could make a better life for myself, if I kept an eye on Terrem.  I did, and now he’s gone!”Tears welled in the half-orc’s eyes as he gripped the handle to his broom and his breathing grew deep and heavy.  He tried to continue, with every other word punctuated by a wracking sob.“I . . . didn’t mean . . . to hurt . . . no one. . . .  The children . . .”“Patch, what do you mean?  Do you know where they are?  Are they hurt?”“I don’t know, I don’t know.I was just to watch out for Terrem.  I don’t know anything else about the kidnappings.”Uncomfortable and not quite sure what to do for the hulking janitor, Abrina reached out hesitatingly and patted Patch on the shoulder, withdrawing her hand quickly.  It did not seem that the sobbing half-orc noticed.“Don’t tell Gretchyn,” he asked longingly, wiping tears from his eyes as he began to regain his compusure.  “She’d be disappointed in me.”Abrina nodded noncommittally, but Patch seemed to take it as an affirmation.  Taking his broom he walked past her, sweeping the floor as if he had never stopped her in the first place.  With a bewildered shake of her head, she opened the front door of the orphanage and stepped out.</blockquote>

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