I gathered my dwindling courage, forcing myself to get up from my chair and slowly walk past the desk's door. Carefully I made my way across the lobby, barely picking my feet off the floor with each step should I need to suddenly turn and run. I felt my shoulders stiffen the closer I advanced onto the front door, stopping to take a deep breath once I'd reached it.

"Someone here this late..." I whispered to myself, trying to collect my thoughts and anxieties.

I wrapped my small hand around the brass handle, another pang of nerves hitting my heart. I could barely breathe past my neck.

"...I've a bad feeling about this," I gulped. "...Please don't be--"

Before I could finish my thought I finally swallowed my feelings enough to pull the door open, dreading what might be on the other side. I looked past the doorway, my eyes wide.

"...H-Hello?--" was all I managed to choke out before a blur of rusty orange made itself known.

Before I could even think to react I was knocked off my feet, the orange smear in my vision having tackled me.

"Ack--"

I was quickly brought to the floor beneath me, my back and head slamming against the hard surface with a thud. My eyes pursed shut and my hair fell behind me in a messy pile. After a moment I slowly opened my eyes, blinking them if only out of sheer confusion for what just occurred.

"Ow..." I softly muttered.

...What just happened?

After my vision and sense both returned to me I looked down to the weight still on my front. From my awkward vantage point I could make out a messy mop of black hair, two long ears, and a thin body. Tilting my head a bit I could see their face, eyes pressed closed and snout twisted in a grimace as though preparing for the worst.

A carnivoran-- a new type.

It took a moment to digest this view.

A...new type child?

With a quick glance beyond the doorway I couldn't see anyone else. As far as I could tell this child had come here alone, nobody to accompany them. Though I'd lived in this area for some eight or so years I couldn't place them anywhere in my memory, their face entirely new to me. Either they were new to Huot or--

The child startled back awake, righting their head and firmly grasping me by the front of my shirt. Even if I wanted to move from this awkward position, well, I could no longer do so.

"P-Please don't turn me away!" they softly cried. "I'll do anything!"

Their deep red eyes were open, wide and terrified beyond the messy black hair that adorned their head.

...Deep red eyes? In this lighting I could just barely make out a set of narrow vertical pupils and the sclerae seemed dull.

...Corrupted?

Through their weight against my front I could feel them shake. While most might feel nervous in my position this child seemed to harbor no ill-intent toward my person. Rather, their corruption seemed to stem from something considerably more ive-- fear, perhaps loneliness given their over-the-top reaction to my opening the door. Were they hostile I'd have known by now.

I tried to sit upright, their taking the hint to allow me to do so. They got up off me, sitting back on their knees and waiting for me to right myself similarly. With a hand raised to the back of my head I rubbed where it had met the hard wood floor, the area smarting and sore.

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