Ciara smiled at the young boy, who seemed to have no hesitation in following her. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, maybe he feels a connection to trust her, or a bad thing, maybe Mallos wasn’t teaching him to have some fear of strangers, and he’d trust any nefarious person who might come up and try to lure him into a bad situation. For now, she was going to try to keep her head in the former emotion and not worry about the fact that, if this boy was her son, the one person she’d trusted to keep him safe and away from Shaman, let him wander into Shaman unaccompanied.

When she felt the resistance on her hand from the boy, Ciara stopped and turned to look at him, grateful that they were out of the thickest fighting and more in the crowd of spectators. She squatted down, trying to be at eye level with the boy, and reached out her own hand to shake Sir Hugs’ paw.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir Hugs,” she said, glancing back toward the knights as they continued their tirade against the would-be thieves. “You are very right. It isn’t honorable to leave a man behind. But it would be just as bad to make someone who isn’t trained to fight a knight’s battle, would it not?” she asked, looking between the boy and the bear. “A knight should protect people, but it is hard to concentrate on protecting innocents and also fighting bad guys? Someone has to keep people out of the danger? Maybe Sir Hugs can protect us both while his brothers-at-arms take the front lines in the fight?”

She pointed back toward the fighting, through the legs of people struggling to get a good vantage point without being in danger of a stray fist themselves. “Plus, our knight friends have armor and weapons. See the bad guys? They don’t have a lot of protection. And the bad guys don’t look like they know how to fight like knights do.”

Ciara stood up again, fighting the stiffness than squatting was causing in her legs, and hoping the little boy would see reason. When the child addressed Nalani, Ciara could feel her familiar’s feathers fluffing up in indignation at being shooed like some house fly instead of a regal falcon, and irritation at being called mister falcon.

“That’s Nalani,” Ciara told the boy as he pleaded with the familiar to do something, “she’s my familiar, and has the best eyes in all of Shaman.” Ciara glanced toward the tree, hoping the words would soothe some of the burnt ego in the bird. “What if you and me stay where the bad guys can’t get us so the knights don’t have to worry? Sir Hugs protects us from anyone who tries to get us, and Nalani watches the fight. If our friends need any back up or help, she’ll tell Sir Hugs and he can help.”

She nodded toward a calmer area of the town, with a bench and a sweets shop nearby.

“That way, we aren’t really leaving the other knights behind. Just helping them keep the common citizens safe? I am Ciara, by the way. Does your squire have a name, Sir Hugs?”