Otatso Wetlands I am begging, down on my knees

Truthfully, Anselm had never wandered far from where he’d seen Ezra last. He recanvased the boy’s tracks every day, revisiting until all that was left was wisps of dried clod among stale winter grass. 

He searched for two boys now, hoping in a fantastic twist of fate they’d somehow found one another. This hopeful thought tempered some of the creeping dread Anselm felt to have lost his son (a failure of a father!) to the winter months. 

He stopped perusing an old cache when he heard Etienne’s distance voice. Coming across him, the first thing he noticed was Etienne’s state of discomfiture. Alarm sank into his heart immediately — what if he’d found his boy or his nephew and they were dead? That first thought caused a lump to jut sharp against his throat. 

Before he could utter a gruff ‘Vhat has happened?’, Etienne launched into explanation. The inexplicable had happened; his matriarchal family had been seized. Anselm’s jaw parted as he processed this news, categorizing the budding questions in order of importance. Vho? And vhere? He asked immediately, ears pinned in a gesture of intense worry. Kidnapping women with child — even according to his own practical sensibilities, this was absolutely diabolical. What kind of enemies was Sapphique up against?