"Miss! Miss! Excuse me, miss!" Evvy stopped in her tracks as a squeaky voice repeatedly called out to her in a rather whiny, irritating tone. Sighing under her breath, the young woman turned around, plastering a friendly smile on her face. She did, however, allow a questioning look to come through in her facial expression-- with any luck, whoever was calling her in such a way would understand that they were to explain pronto why the girl had been stopped on her way to the guild hall.
"Miss, could you play tag with us? Pweeeease?" Apparently, these kids wanted the mage to play some sort of game with them. Tag, was it? Of course, Evvy had played it, but only a very long time ago. Nonetheless, the pleading faces of the kidlets prompted the girl to discard the awful memories she had of her home village's tag and roll up her sleeves to play with them.
Swiftly nodding to one another in a unanimous signal, the group immediately dropped to one knee and poked themselves in the noses. A chorus of,
"Nose goes!" echoed around the small, grassy field on the side of the road. The children had chosen a slightly dangerous spot to be goofing around; after all, a car could come and hit them. While Evvy was contemplating how to go about directing the kids to another, more secure area, she realized with a start that all of them had run off already. Clearly, she was IT, and the reasoning behind this fact was completely biased, in her opinion. Evvy bit her lip as she scanned the area briefly before catching sight of a small figure crouching behind a thick bush which was just beginning to enter the "blossoming heavily" stage. The girl silently tip-toed towards the spot until she deemed it near enough that he couldn't escape-- then, with a quick burst of speed, she gently tackled the little boy into the emerald grass, playfully saying,
"You're it!" It was soon apparent that Tag was a game to be taken very seriously; the children were not below playing dirty to win. Within moments of being tapped, the kid scrunched up is face and stuck out his tongue before swatting Evvy and yelling back as he ran away,
"You're it! Ya forgot to say, 'No Tagbacks!'"With a groan, the young mage sat up slowly, her expression back to its ordinary serious mask.
These little squirts think they're so clever, she realized.
But I know what I have to do. She gave a loud, fake yawn that was audible all throughout the play area; then, propping herself up against a nearby oak tree, she faked falling asleep after muttering 'to herself,'
"This game is too hard. I can't possibly win." Soon enough, the children began to regroup and surrounded her, scowling and kicking the grass as they all threw miniature fits. Once she percieved that the entire group was at their current location, she suddenly jumped up and swept two of the kids into her arms, therefore simultaneously tagging them both.
"You're it!" she decreed, before putting them down and running away before the lack of no tagbacks came to bite her in the butt.
+++ forty-five minutes later +++
Thanks a lot, big sis!" one of the little girls yelled, grinning, as Evvy continued to walk away. The game had ended a few minutes ago, so now the mage had decided it was about time she departed. After one last round of hugs and a few tearful sniffles, the girl walked out with much improved spirits, and a vow to win Tag someday-- for she had lost in the end, just like always before.
It's because I forget to say no tagbacks, she decided with a small smile and a short sigh.
