Put That Kid Down

Chapter Sixteen

Nikki ambushed Max the moment he was within sight, taking them both down to the ground and babbling, "Max, you have to come see this; that bodyguard guy is frozen!"

"Frozen?" David echoed from above, sounding reassuringly like his usual self, if a bit weary.

"Just like the rabbit and the squirrel," Nikki confirmed, helping Max back to his feet and taking a few of David's fingers in her other hand in order to better drag them both in the correct direction. There was a small cloud of campers orbiting the area. Within the circle of people, Berstuk appeared to be entirely without ice or other adornments David would typically associate with being frozen.

At the epicenter, Gwen was futilely trying to tug at the man's arm, under Mr. Campbell's direction. According to Nikki's ongoing narrative, Campbell had been ready to leave, but since his bodyguard didn't return as planned, the departure had been delayed to find him. After a short search, he'd been discovered here, by the archery range, and no one had been able to make him budge from the spot since.

Nikki accompanied this with waggling fingers and spooky ghost noises.

David patted her on the head and waded through the gawking children.

"David, thank god," Gwen released the arm she'd had in a vice grip, making no noticeable difference to its placement, "Please try to move this man and prove to Mr. Campbell it can't be done."

"Now, Guinnevere, you know we can't just leave him out where anyone could see him," Campbell chuckled nervously, glancing at the kids and adding in an urgent whisper, "What if the olice-pay pay us a friendly visit and want to know what we've done with this poor man?"

"We all know pig latin," Neil called from where Nerris had a hold of his arm and was shaking him for answers the current DM should have.

There was no amount of leverage that would move Berstuk. He was.. Well, stuck. His limbs didn't bend, his eyes didn't blink, his head couldn't turn. "The kids are right," David summed up, taking his hands from poor Berstuk's person, "He's frozen in place."

"Davey, there has to be a way to hide this... mistake," Campbell waved at the frozen man, but didn't have a chance to expound on the idea, as Max had inserted himself into the conversation.

"Yeah, maybe you refrain from speaking directly to David." His hands went firmly into his pockets as he stood casually between them, eyes on Berstuk. Campbell exchanged a look with David over the kid's head, You want to handle this?

"It's, uh..."

Well, there was no way he'd convince Max without an awkward conversation that exposed far too much. Meanwhile, less than patiently, Gwen and Campbell were both waiting for his explanation, but...

"I got nothing," David admitted, because he was pretty damn exhausted at this point and making up a plausible lie was not within his scope. "Let's focus on our frozen buddy, alright? We can't move him, so we need to hide him." Mr. Campbell had made it pretty clear a suggestion of screw it, leave him was not an option. Even if it was looking pretty tempting right now.

A picnic blanket fluttered down over Berstuk from above. Space Kid, two steps ahead of them, gave them a thumbs up, releasing the branch he'd been clinging to and thusly falling to his doom. Or rather to David's arms after a hasty lunge.

It took a moment for Gwen to respond to this stunt. "You were going to jump," she emerged from where she'd been pinching the bridge of her nose to point between Space Kid and the blanket, "with that as a parachute, weren't you?"

"Nothing gets by you, Gwen!" Space Kid complimented guilelessly, hopping from David's arms to the ground.

"Well, with that blanket as a prop, I could vanish him," Harrison offered, barely getting the sentence out before he was shouted down by a group negative. "It was just a suggestion," he sulked.