"All my plans were this close to going down the drain, and you stomp my foot?"

"Your plans are not so important that it warrants you to be so rude, Ro."

"It was all for their good! I'm trying to prevent them from dying!"

"Well, why didn't you whip out that handy dandy handkerchief of yours and call it a day?!"

"I wasn't going to take any chances. Filly, you know how much I've been working on this. I can't let it fail me now. And here you go, stomping my foot. Like a, like a barbarian."

"Mm... nope."

"Nope? Nope what?"

"Nope, I'm not apologizing for stomping your foot."

"Ha! Yeah? Yeah? Fine, then I'm not apologizing for taking your shawl!"

"Bwah?! That was you?!"

"That's right! It was me! I took it!"

"I've been looking for that for weeks! Rosa, you--!"

"Um," Becca cut in, tapping me on the elbow. Her eyes were innocent and wide.

I grit my teeth. "Yes, Becca."

"I, uh, I think you're scaring Ruth?" 

I glanced over at the youngest sibling and sighed, seeing her shrank back uncertainly, her eyes darting between me and Rosa. I smiled at her, though I felt like it was rather more a grimace. "We're just... talking," I assured her. "Loudly. Not because we're angry. No, no, not at all. Right, Rosa?"

She didn't answer.

My elbow shot out and jabbed her in the side.

"Ow! Yes, we're not fighting! We're super happy!" Rosa snapped, rubbing her side and glaring at me.

"See?" I smiled at Ruth, who looked mighty suspicious of us. We weren't doing a good job convincing her, so she was being pretty reasonable.

Roly tugged on my skirt, looking up at me. "Are we going to look for Ryan and Poly now?"

My heightened mood settled down a bit when I saw her, and the expression of my face softened. "Yes, Roly, we're looking for Poly now." It had been mad luck for us to find Ruth, safe and sound, but as angry as Rosa and I could get at each other, we were both also worried sick for Poly. 

And Ryan, of course. Wherever he was.

After bringing Ruth back to the sheriff's station, the stern look on Mother Lily's face had instantly melted into tears, and she had held Ruth for so long that it had brought me to tears again. Rosa had stopped being huffy enough to be empathetic, too, and the entire family had had a group hug that I watched with watery eyes. When Roly offered up her now completely cooled cup of stew to Ruth with those small hands of hers, I nearly wept. Then I remembered the skewers she'd given me for Poly, which I'd lost in the chase, and the sick worry had come back. And now, we were back to wandering through the marketplace, hoping for yet another miracle to find Poly.

Or Ryan, of course. Wherever he was.

I sighed as we trudged along. Mother Lily was back in the sheriff's station, in case anyone reported Poly (or Ryan) to her. "How long have we been out?" I asked, rubbing my eye.

"Mm, thirty minutes? It hasn't been that long, Filly, stop complaining."

I shot Rosa a sharp look but restrained from saying anything back. Ruth was already suspicious of us. Couldn't very much do to continue confirming the truth that we were, indeed, fighting with each other. If she happened to mention this to Mother Lily, and Mother Lily mentioned it to my mom... Oh boy, I really didn't need to see that.

I looked around us, where people were milling by. There was significantly less people now that the height of the festival was dying down, but it wasn't empty yet. "Rose," I said in a low voice, still glancing around. "We might need to split up again. The market is too huge..." I stopped, my eyes training into glimpses of a short figure of a boy. His face seemed familiar. His build seemed familiar. Why was he so familiar?

"You sure you just don't want to be around me?" Rosa was saying snarkily when I suddenly grabbed her in the arm. "Ow!"

"It's him," I hissed. "The, the guy."

She immediately tensed. "Who? Which one?" She gasped. "Don't tell me, Glitcherman?"

"No, it's-- it's--!" I ran my head through the names. What was his name again?

"Spit it out!"

I pointed at him in frustration, and the name blazed through my head. "Shrimp!" I cried out. "It's Shrimp!"

"Shrimp?" echoed Rosa.

"Shrimp?" Ruth copied, tilting her head.

"Shrimp?" Roly said, her high-pitched voice laced with skepticism. 

"Mm, shrimp!" Becca said, enthusiastically. "I love me some--"

"No! Shrimp!" I whirled around, my finger still pointed at the boy. "From when we were chased because of Idel!"

"Oh! Shrimp! Isn't he supposed to be in jail?"

"I guess not anymore," I said, furrowing my eyebrows. "Paul was right, they must have friends in high positions. They weren't supposed to be out for a year, Sheriff promised me."

"Wait, so there's no shrimp?" Becca asked.

I shook my head. "Not the eating kind, no." I kept an eye on him as he darted between people. "Should we do something about this?"

I saw Rosa give me a dubious look from my peripheral vision. "Like what? Chase him?"

"What if he ran out of jail? Like, escaped?" I watched him carefully. "Doesn't he seem super suspicious?"

She scoffed. "You're just thinking that because you know what he's done. He's enjoying the festival. Probably."

I narrowed my eyes, clutching her arm harder.

"Filly," she began, but I cut her off.

"I think he's tailing someone," I said in a loud whisper. "He keeps pausing and hiding behind people, and he's watching someone else."

"Not our problem, Filly. We're looking for my sister? Remember? And Ryan. And Fi, stop that! My arm hurts."

I ignored her, following the shrimp's piercing gaze to someone else who seemed familiar. Who--

"Look! It's Ryan!" Ruth squealed, and all our heads swiveled to the direction Ruth was pointing in. "Ryan!" she yelled, jumping up and down.

Over the heads of multiple people, I could barely see a mop of brown hair that screamed Ryan all the way here. "It is Ryan," I said. "Rose, call him out!"

She gave me a look but took a deep breath anyway.

"Rosa Shout incoming," I warned the sisters, and we all plugged our ears and braced ourselves.

At the end of five seconds of nothing but inhale, she held her breath for a brief, eternity-long second, then roared, "RyyyYAAANNN!!" so loudly that all the people in vicinity either scrambled off or yelped and fell to the ground. 

"The Rosa Bomb," Becca mouthed to Ruth, and Ruth nodded grimly in agreement. I silently agreed as well. 

Once people fell away from us, we could now see Ryan as clear as day, standing dumbfounded and in the middle of scratching his nose. I breathed a sigh of relief and let my hands fall from my ears.

"Ryan, where in the world were you?" Rosa charged at him. "You BEEP!"

He backed away, eyes widening. "Uh, Rosa?" he mumbled, his mouth twisting in panic. He bumped into someone behind him, but he didn't seem to register it. "I- I was, um..."

"Well?" Rosa demanded, hands on her hip. She leaned in so close to his face that their noses were almost touching. "I'm waiting," she hissed.

Ryan looked anywhere but Rosa, which was proving to be hard with Rosa right in his face. "U-uh, y'see, Rosa," he said, his voice cracking. He shrank back, his hands fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "I was, I was--"

"Oh, stop it, Ro," I snapped, taking grudging pity on the boy. "We need to find Poly. Just grab him and we'll hear his story while we're walking."

Rosa stayed silent for a long moment more, her eyes piercing into Ryan's. She relented only after I pulled her back, and even then she didn't stop shooting daggers in his direction.

Right. What about Shrimp? I turned around again to where he had been, but he was now gone. Oh well. When I shrugged it off and faced forward again, my eyes met Ryan's, who happened to be looking in the same direction as I was. He jumped at the eye contact, almost... guiltily.

I frowned and opened my mouth. "Ryan--"

"I know where Poly is!" he blurted out.

Rosa inhaled sharply. "You do?"

He nodded frantically, his eyes darting between the two of us. "Poly's at the fountain, playing with some other kids. I- I left her there."

"You left her there?! When?"

"I don't know! I was busy." When we only stared at him in surging horror, he shrugged, shrinking back into himself even more. "Maybe it's been an hour or two. I don't know," he mumbled.

"You what?" I exclaimed, recoiling.

"I mean, there are a lot of people. She should be fine. She's old enough to be safe. She's six!"

Roly, who'd been holding my hand until then, suddenly yanked her hand away, bolted to Ryan, and punched him in the stomach as hard as she could. Ryan stumbled backwards, half in surprise and half in pain. "Roly?" he croaked.

"You're the worst brother in the entire world!" she yelled. "I hate you!!" and then she ran to the direction of the fountain, screaming, "Poly!"

"Roly, stop!" Becca shouted, dashing after her. "You're going to get lost!"

"Becca!" Ruth cried, but I caught her before she ran off, too. I shook my head at her, and she went limp in my arms. "Aren't we going to go after them?" she said in a small voice.

"We are, but not right now." I looked over at Rosa, practically glowing red in steaming anger, and Ryan, who didn't seem to realize what situation he was in. "Ro," I called, and she barely acknowledged she heard me. "Ro, I'll talk to Ryan. You go after Becca and Roly."

She whipped her head around, seething. "What? No. I'll talk to Ryan, you go with Becca. If you think I'm going to let this BEEP BEEEEEEP BEEPing get away with this, you are so wrong."

"I know how you feel, Ro, but you have to go. You're only going make things worse." At this level of anger Rosa was in, I was kind of afraid Ryan would get really hurt. Rosa sometimes forgot her own strength. "You know I'm right," I said, not blinking.

"...argh!" she yelled, kicked the ground, then marched over to me, swept Ruth up, and sped off.

I watched her go for a while with Ruth in her arms before I looked at Ryan. He looked back at me, shoulders slumped and eyes guarded. "So, Ryan," I said, quietly, not moving a muscle. "What were you doing until now?"

He didn't answer, his eyes sliding off to the side. He hunched over.

I took a step forward and kept my voice quiet. "It's been five hours since we've last seen you. Five. Have you been with Poly the entire time?"

"Yes," he sulked.

Another step forward. "And you left her at the fountain two hours ago?"

Ryan lurched towards me so suddenly that I almost flinched. "I said I was busy!" he yelled. "Stop making me the babysitter! I have my own life to live, alright?"

"Have you not heard a single thing I've said?" I shot back tersely. "We've been worried sick to our minds for the past five hours and your excuse is that you have your own life to live? Ryan, you are fourteen! You should've known better than to leave Poly by herself for more than an hour! And babysitter?" I scoffed. "Have we asked you to go off on your own and take care of Poly? No! All we're asking is that you use some common sense and tell us if you're going to do something else! Bring Poly back to us and let us know! Live your own life, you said. Go on ahead! But don't kill your family by making them worry about you!"

"She's six, she'll manage," he grumbled.

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you really believe in that?"

"Of course I do," he lashed out, but I saw a flicker of guilt pass through his expression.

I crouched down to meet his downwards gaze, fixing my eyes on him until he met my eyes, too. "Look, Ryan," I said in a low voice. "I know Rosa's especially harsh on you sometimes, just because you're older than everyone else, but you have to stop acting like this. It's killing us all."

He didn't answer.

I continued. "When we get back to your mother, I want you to apologize to everyone, okay? And I want you to apologize especially to Poly for leaving her alone when you had the choice not to."

"But I-"

"No," I cut in. "You will take responsibility for your actions. And that is final."

Ryan gave me a look of silent protest, but I merely gave him a wan smile him. "Why, did you want to talk to Rosa instead?"

He shook his head so quickly that I chuckled. Straightening up, I looked in the direction that the rest of them had gone, and spotted the entourage coming back our way. I silently counted the number of heads I saw. Four. A rush of relief overcame me and tears spontaneously spilled out of my eyes. "You found her!" I shouted, my voice a bit wobbly.

"Filian!" came her little voice, and I held back a whimper, both from the overwhelming gratefulness I felt and from the sudden onset of exhaustion that burst into me. I crumbled to the ground, distantly hearing Ryan's cry of alarm. I ignored him.

"Thank goodness," I breathed to myself instead, as I heard the chatter of the little ones and the coming footsteps. "Thank goodness."

---

A/N: And thus this arc finally ends. FINALLy. This was such a slog to go through-- it felt like wading through swamp water, barely moving and taking way too much energy. But hey, we're here! It's done! And as Filly says, thank goodness!! And now for more fun times! :D