Well hello there

Gabriel blinked into the light, still trying to digest the odd conversation he was having. Who had tied him up, and why did they care so much about his dog? 

To his ironically enormous surprise, several children stood before him. No, not children. Children couldn't do this. 

"You're halflings?" He asked, trying to conceal his shock. 

"What is your real purpose so far away from the human villages?" The nearest one glared into his face. 

"My real purpose?" Gabriel blinked. "Searching, I told you." 

"For Evey." Another one put in. 

The young man opened his mouth, about to answer, when a movement in the shadows caught his gaze. Was that–

"Victoria! Oh, Victoria, I'm so glad I found you!" He called. She stepped into the light. She wasn't tied up… so she wasn't a captive? She was here voluntarily, with these halflings who had bound him? 

Confusion burned through him. She didn't look happy to see him. She looked enraged somehow.

"What's happened?" He asked, trepidation in his belly, "Where are the others?" 

Grief rippled across her expression, and he swallowed his fear. What had gone on? Surely Gwen would have warned him if… but then, their conversation had been exceedingly short. Perhaps there hadn't been time to apprise him of whatever had happened here. 

"Our camp was attacked by bandits," Victoria glanced at the halflings. "Simone and I were kidnapped. They still have her. I don't know about the men." 

The way the halfling nearest to Gabriel was staring at Victoria, as if warning her not to say more, bothered him. They must have been involved somehow. Then was she being held against her will by threats, rather than by force? 

"Are you all right?" He asked, more softly. Pain flickered in her face before she hardened it. That was strange. He couldn't decipher her mood at all. 

"Aren't you more worried about Evey?" Her eyes narrowed, and he blinked at her. 

"Where is she? The way you talked about her, I thought she must be here…" He glanced around, not seeing the animal. 

"She is not here." The halfling answered. "Is she likely to come looking for you?" 

"I would say so," Gabriel nodded. "She always does, ever since I rescued her in Ceto." 

"You went to Ceto?" Victoria looked truly interested in what he had to say for the first time. 

He hesitated. "There was a disaster there. Evey was one of two survivors I found and helped heal. But I'm still confused, how do you know about her if she's not here?" 

"You talked of your mate in your sleep." The halfling provided. 

"My… what?" Gabriel stuttered. "I'm sorry, what are we talking about?" 

"Evey," Victoria tilted her head, with that odd, angry look in her eyes again. What was happening? 

"My dog?" Gabriel shook his head. "I'm so confused." 

Everyone around him froze and stared. 

"Evey is a dog?" Victoria asked after a moment of silence. 

"Yes, what did you all think she was?" Gabriel blinked, trying to think over how the conversation had started and how everything had been worded. His mind ground to a halt on the question about sharing his bed. That was… oh no! 

"Your mate," The darker-haired halfling answered the question. "But yes, that is different if only a dog is going to look for you and not a person." 

Gabriel wasn't sure how to take that. Were they more likely to kill him and get rid of him since no one was actively searching for him, specifically? That sounded like it might be the implication. 

"Victoria knows I don't have a mate," Gabriel turned accusing eyes on her. No wonder she was so red and angry-looking! From her perspective, she'd just heard him admit to taking a woman he obviously wasn't married to into his bed! 

A blush crept up his own neck now. How could she even think that of him? He was a gentleman! His mother had died when he was born, but Finn had raised him well! He would never… he glared, and Victoria dropped her gaze in shame before bringing her eyes back up to meet his. 

"We haven't seen each other in weeks, and you talked about looking for Evey in your sleep. How am I supposed to know that's a dog?" She visibly bristled. 

"Because I've been out here looking for you!" He cried in frustration, not caring what the halflings overheard. It was awkward yelling at Victoria while he was laying on the ground tied up, but he was tired from over a week in the saddle coming to try to save her and the others. 

And as soon as he found her, she was ready to accuse him of being overly familiar with a woman so new in his life that his closest friends hadn't even heard of her! 

"I've been riding like mad from Klain because we think we've figured out that the ground moves just before a portal opens, and that it might be proportional. And since you're out here looking for a giant change in topography in the scrubland…" He sighed. 

"...we could be in terrible danger because a giant portal might open over our heads and let who-knows-what into our world." Victoria's face paled. 

"The one Northwest of here?" One of the halflings asked. "That opened months ago. Wind and seeds came through, but no creatures that time. What you should be worried about is the mountain forming at the base of the range. It's been building tall enough to let an army through when it finally bursts a portal open." 

Gabriel turned to him, and Victoria cleared her throat. "Gabriel, this is Tom, and Bran. We were in the orphanage together." 

The man took a moment to absorb all the implications. He remembered the story of the halfling spies for the Void that had posed as children in the orphanage to infiltrate the city. As a child it had been alarming to think that adults could be walking amongst his peers unnoticed. 

And strange. To see these halflings now, that Victoria had known when she was yet smaller than they were, and likely looked identical to how they did then… he glanced up at her face. Her jaw was tensed, and her eyes a little tight, but she showed no other outward signs of stress. 

"It's very nice to meet you." He said brightly, knowing that halflings didn't show emotion. "Any friend of Victoria's is a friend of mine." 

He doubted they had been friends at all, but they were sharing information about the portals very freely. Either they were planning on killing him, so it didn't matter what he knew, or they saw him as a potential ally. He pressed into the latter option as he spoke kindly even while being tied up on the ground. 

Tom's lips pulled back from his teeth. What was he doing? Was he going to bite him? What was wrong?? 

"Doesn't Tom have a wonderful smile? Finn taught him how." Victoria put in meaningfully. He blinked twice. That off-putting grimace was meant to be a smile? 

"It sure makes me feel welcome," Gabriel replied. Maybe halflings didn't grow the right muscles needed for smiling? Sheesh, it was something to behold. "I would feel even more welcome if I were untied?" 

The words were a gamble. He didn't want to press his luck, but he was extremely uncomfortable on the ground. 

The halflings glanced at one another, the female's face darker than the others as an unspoken discussion took place. 

"I suppose we could move your hands to the front, for comfort," Tom allowed. 

"I would be grateful, thank you. Did you happen to grab my pack? I'm starving." Gabriel continued to behave as a cordial guest rather than a prisoner. Maybe they would start treating him as such. 

Tom gestured for Victoria to move forward and take care of the matter. She untied his wrists and helped him sit up. He leaned on her perhaps a little more than he needed to, to assure himself that she was there and all right. 

"I'm glad you're safe," He whispered. "Gwen scared me half to death telling me that you weren't with the others. I feared the worst." 

"You spoke with that Fae again?" She jumped slightly, both at the sound of his voice so close and at the unexpected news. 

"Briefly. She told me where to find you, but obviously I was found first," He added a little wryly.

Her lips twitched. "I don't think they mean any harm… well, not a lot, anyway." 

"Aren't you finished yet? Make sure the ropes are tight," Bran said loudly. While the humans were distracted, the halflings had huddled together for a whispered meeting once more. 

"Sorry to drag you into my mess," Victoria whispered as she wound the ropes around his wrists. They were chafed from being tied, but he allowed her to redo the bindings anyway. 

"I wasn't dragged, I came willingly."