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Thancred and Alphinaud heard strange noises from up ahead, and hastened their pace; they'd gotten separated from the Warrior of Light by one of the many traps littering this dungeon. They rounded a corner and burst into a large chamber, in the center of which was... a young, red-haired miqo'te kitten, sitting on the stone floor in clearly oversized (and oddly familiar-looking) clothing and staring up at a few wisps of aether dissipating in the air with a look of shocked confusion. The child turned towards them in surprise as they approached, backing up uncertainly.
"Eto…? N-nani ga okotte iru no? Okāsan wa doko e itta no?! Ana- anatahadare??" She said, in what sounded to Thancred like an eastern tongue, maybe Yanxian or Hingan.
The Scions glanced at each other uncertainly. "What in the name of...?" Thancred muttered. "Who let a kid in here?"
Alphinaud frowned, stepping cautiously towards the miqo'te, hands raised to show that he wasn't a threat. "...Hello there. Are you alright, miss?"
The girl just stared at him with the widest eyes he'd ever seen, bafflement and slight panic rising in her expression. "Nani...? Imi ga wakaranai… zenzen imi ga wakaranai! Ittai anata wa nanimonona no?? Dōshite kami ga shiroi no?!? Koko wa doko?? Boku ni naniwoshita no???"
Alphinaud really wished R'anashi was here to translate right about now.
...
...Wait.
Wait, hold on a second—
"...And you're certain he doesn't remember anything? Anything at all?"
Thancred shrugged. "He let us bring him back here, but my Hingan is a little too rusty to make heads or tails of what he's saying. Though from the way he's acting, I can't imagine he recalls much."
"I wonder if it's a regional dialect..." Alphinaud mused. "They've described their former tribe as being rather isolated in the past."
"Well, at least he let us get him into some more suitable clothes," Alisaie said, still staring at the tiny miqo'te child peeking suspiciously back at them from behind a bed at the far end of the room. They were wearing one of Tataru's old tunics, the only thing on hand that had any chance of fitting.
R'anashi(?!?) noticed her watching them and glowered. "Koko wa doko? Anatahadare?! Min'na doko e itta no?? Ima sugu ie ni tsuretette!!!" He demanded loudly.
Everyone glanced at each other blankly.
Just then, the door into Dawn's Respite opened.
"Apologies for the delay," Y'shtola said as she entered, Urianger close behind her. "Now, what sort of trouble has-"
There was a sudden burst of motion as a tiny red-and-pink blur scampered quickly across the room.
WHUMP!
"Oof-! What-?"
Y'shtola winced from the unexpected impact, and looked down to find herself being tightly hugged by a young miqo'te, to her bewildered surprise.
"O-okāsan..." The red-haired child mumbled in audible relief, the sound of their voice muffled slightly with their face buried in her robes.
"..."
She blinked, then smiled down at them.
"...Hello there, kitten. Now where did you come from?"
The task of getting the newly arrived members of the group up to speed was shortly interrupted by the arrival of more members, namely Tataru and G'raha.
"We came as soon as we could," G'raha panted. "Your message said something had happened to R'anashi?!"
"Indeed," Y'shtola said, gesturing down at the tiny Rana still clinging tightly to her with a level of trust hitherto unshown to anyone else thus far. "As you can see."
G'raha stared for a moment, his tail flicking as he processed this, then he grinned. "...Well now! I must confess, I was expecting far worse. At least they're all in one piece this time."
"A much smaller piece," Thancred remarked wryly, but G'raha paid him no mind, stepping towards Rana to assess the situation more closely. "How are you doing, my friend? I imagine this must be rather disorienting..."
"Ah, G'raha..." Alisaie started to say, all too late.
G'raha crouched down next to Y'shtola, and gave his fellow redhead a smile... And only then belatedly realized that the child's ears were flattened down towards their skull and their tiny bobtail was puffed out in obvious alarm. R'anashi was giving G'raha what was at once both the fiercest and the most visibly bravado-covering-terror-filled death glare they could possibly muster on their chubby little face, clinging tightly to the back of Y'shtola's robes as though using her as a shield.
G'raha's smile faded. "Rana...?"
The kitten flinched, glare intensifying. "Atchi e ike!! Nunh R'onan ni baretano? Sawaranaide! Boku no kangae janakattanoni! B-buttataku zo!!!"
G'raha looked utterly baffled for just a moment, and then wilted. "He... has no memory of his adult life, does he?"
Everyone shook their heads.
He sighed. "I suppose that does complicate things."
"Well, I for one think they're ADORABLE," Tataru said cheerfully. "I'm already getting so many lovely ideas for outfits~!"
"With any luck, we'll have him back to his normal self before that becomes necessary," Alphinaud frowned, but Tataru was undeterred, excitedly jotting down notes on a piece of parchment.
Distracted by this discussion, G'raha missed the moment R'anashi apparently decided G'raha had been too close to him for too long, and thus was caught completely off guard when the little Warrior of Light bravely attempted to kick him in the shins.
"What... Ack! Stop that- Anashi...!"
For some reason, this only seemed to motivate Rana to kick even harder.
