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“Where’s Nod?” Ronin demanded.
Private Arthur jumped and looked to the side, eyes widening when he realized the child was no longer beside him. He gave the general a panicked look.
“He was right here,” Arthur insisted, “I swear he was.”
Captain Finn had asked the general to come check on something in the armory, and rather than having to worry about a small child climbing all over the weapons racks, he had asked Arthur, who happened to be on guard duty outside the armory, to keep an eye on the boy. Arthur was sure the child had been standing right next to him only a minute ago. He had only turned his back on him for a few seconds.
“Kids move,” Captain Finn said unhelpfully.
“You lost him?” Ronin growled.
“I…um…” Arthur gulped.
“Ronin, you’re scaring the new recruits,” Finn said mildly, “plus, you did name him Nod for a reason.”
Ronin turned his scowl on Finn, who seemed completely unaffected by it.
“There are only two directions he could have gone and most of the doors in this area are locked,” Finn pointed out, “you take one direction, and I’ll take the other. He’s probably underneath something playing, or he found something shiny to look at.”
Ronin regarded both direction of the hallway. It turned a corner at both ends, one direction going farther back into the tree, the other eventually leading to outside, although that door was guarded, and hopefully the Leafman there would have enough sense to stop a seven year old from wandering away.
“I’ll take that way,” Ronin motioned to the way they had come from; Nod had been fascinated with the stellar moss on the wall, and Ronin had had to pull him along so he wouldn’t be late for a meeting.
“I’ll go the other way then,” Finn nodded, clearly not that worried yet.
Ronin turned the corner, and Finn turned to Arthur.
“I hope you guard doors better than seven year olds,” Finn smirked.
“Yes sir,” Arthur managed, shrinking behind his shield slightly.
Finn snorted and went to check with the guard at the door.
Three hours later, Finn was slightly more concerned, although he was nowhere near as panicked as Ronin. Nod had managed to survive in the forest alone for an unknown amount of time. Finn didn’t think he would come to much harm in Moonhaven, and he didn’t think he would leave Moonhaven.
Ronin was of a different opinion on both those things.
“We need to put together a search party and start looking in the forest,” Ronin paced.
They had met back up in one of the smaller side rookeries where they kept the sparrows and wrens their messengers sometimes used.
“I don’t think he’s in the forest Ronin,” Finn repeated, “I don’t think he’s going to go anywhere that doesn’t have a steady supply of honey brittle.”
Ronin scowled at him.
“We’re already alerted all the guards to keep an eye out for him, and Dag pulled one of his units off of training to look. Maybe you should try the apartment again…”
Finn stopped abruptly, hearing something besides bird coos and shifting feathers.
“…found shinny buckles and I like them because they’re pretty and I tied them all together with my shoelace so I could keep them...” a tiny voice was singing tunelessly from somewhere to the right of them.
Ronin’s eyes widened, and Finn pointed towards the nest the voice appeared to be coming from.
“…and that’s what shoelaces are good for ‘cause I don’t need shoes even though Ronin says I do…”
Ronin and Finn peered over the wall into the nest stall and spotted Nod laying on his back beside a wren. He was using Cheep-Cheep as a pillow and missing a shoe. He held a string with a dozen or so buckles on it over his head and admired them as he sung to himself.
“…and I like wrens because they’re nice to me and they have soft feathers and I like how they whistle and share their food…”
Finn would say this for the boy, he was good at entertaining himself.
“Nod!”
Nod jumped at his name and smiled upside down at Ronin when he spotted him.
“Ronin, I found more buckles!” he held them up excitedly for Ronin to see.
Ronin gapped at him. Finn ducked his head and covered his mouth, hoping to hide the amused look on his face, because Ronin was understandably not amused.
“Where have you been?” Ronin demanded.
Nod sat up, giving him a confused look, “are you angry?”
Ronin looked at the child in disbelief.
“There’s a right answer to that question,” Finn said helpfully.
“I’m not angry,” Ronin said, visibly trying to reign in his temper, “I was worried.”
“And that is not it,” Finn said under his breath.
“Why were you worried?” Nod’s brow creased as he tried to understand.
“Because you disappeared, and I didn’t know where you were,” Ronin said sharply.
“But I was here,” Nod gave him a bewildered look.
“But you were supposed to wait for me with Private Arthur,” Ronin told him none too gently.
“You are angry,” Nod concluded; his face fell and he scrambled to his feet, “don’t be angry. You can have the buckles I found. They’re good buckles, see.”
Nod had apparently found one of the bins they tossed broken tack buckles into and strung together as many of them as he could fit on his shoelace. He held them up to Ronin hopefully.
“Yes, I’m angry,” Ronin rubbed the bridge of his nose, “and I don’t want your buckles.”
“But they’re really good buckles,” the boy pleaded, tears starting to form in his eyes, “I don’t want you to be angry.”
“Nod,” Ronin sighed, dropping to one knee and catching the boy’s hands in his, “I’m angry because I didn’t know where you were, and if you had gotten into trouble I wouldn’t have been able to find you and help you.”
“But I wasn’t in trouble,” Nod shook his head, “so you don’t have to be angry.”
Ronin looked up at Finn for help, and Finn shrugged. Ronin had a better chance than he did of making Nod understand why he couldn’t just wander off whenever he wanted.
“Nod, I’m angry because it’s not safe for you to wander off,” Ronin tried to explain, “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Just because it didn’t today, doesn’t mean it couldn’t. It’s my job to keep you safe, and it makes me angry when I can’t do that.”
“Okay,” Nod looked down at the ground, digging the toes of his one bare foot into the soft nesting material, “if I stay with you, will you not be angry anymore?”
“I will do my best,” Ronin tugged him forward to kiss his forehead, then stood, scooping him up to carry.
There was no way he was going to risk him disappearing again today.
“Cheep-Cheep!” Nod lunged in the direction of the nest where his stuffed toy was still laying, reaching with both hands, and Ronin nearly dropped him.
“I’ve got him,” Finn reassured him with a snicker, picking up the bird and putting it in Nod’s arms, “where’s your other shoe?”
“I don’t need it,” Nod cuddled Cheep-Cheep to him, “I needed the shoelace so I could keep all my new buckles from getting lost, but then the shoe wouldn’t stay on, so I left it behind. Can I keep the buckles?”
Nod help up the string again, showing it to Finn.
“I don’t think…” Ronin started, shifting Nod to his hip in the hopes of it making him easier to hold with all his wiggling.
“Sure,” Finn shrugged, “it’s not like we need more broken buckles.”
“They’re not broken,” Nod shook his head, “see, they stay on the shoelace really good and I can hang them in the window and they’ll make nice sounds when the wind comes in and they’ll be shinny.”
“I stand corrected,” Finn grinned.
“Is that alright?” Nod asked Ronin, wrapping his arms around Ronin’s neck.
“Fine,” Ronin relented, “let’s get home before you find anything else to collect.”
“There were more buckles,” Nod said hopefully, “I could use my other shoelace to keep them from falling everywhere.”
“No,” Ronin shook his head, “Finn, if you see his other shoe…”
“I’ll send it over,” Finn laughed and waved them on their way.
“You can keep it,” Nod called over Ronin’s shoulder as they left, “I don’t need shoes.”
Ronin sighed. Buckles. He had to get Nod shoes with buckles.
Nod laid his head on Ronin’s shoulder and resumed his out of tune song about shinny buckles and wrens.