"Ow!"

Maldore shook his head, standing over his seated patient. "For one so accustomed to pain, you're worse than Palluck at holding still."

The strange Namican held his jaw firm. "Accustomed to certain pains. Water on injuries still isn't a favorite."

"Well, we need to clean your injury before we can travel. But you just fell?"

The visitor gave a slight bob of his shoulders. "More or less. Why, you don't believe me?"

Maldore cocked an eyebrow. "It does look like an injury from a stone, and you don't strike me as a good liar. But withholding information isn't your best strength. If our parents are missing, what happened? Who took them?"

The strange Namican looked this way and that, his voice low. "Who told you anything about anyone taking others?"

Maldore took nearby dressing, starting to bind his guest's head wound. "Our parents wouldn't wander away like that, not willingly, not with our sister... Anyway, someone had to have taken them."

The stranger widened an eye. "Solid logic. Remind me never to get into a debate with you."

Maldore nodded. "It's too bad that I'm the only one equipped with experience. But our sister does need to be cleaned right away, and she's taken to Palluck more easily than me. That's why I am treating your wound. What do I call you, anyway?"

The visitor opened his mouth but then shut it again. "Just a sort of wanderer."

Maldore shook his head, finishing the dressing. "There you are with the injury. But I'm not calling you a Wanderer. One doesn't have a care where they go, and you seem to have too much focus. If anything, you're more a Traveler of sorts."

The guest bobbed his head, taking a mildly impressed expression. "I like that."

"Traveler it is, then. Do you not remember your name, or don't wish to give it?"

The Traveler made a slight wince. "It's complicated. In a few days, it might be safer to explain everything to you and your brother. But for now, we really need to get to the meeting place."

Maldore nodded, assisting the Traveler to his paws. "If you can't tell us who you are, then at least explain the Gole?"

The Traveler gave a slight shake of his head. "Complicated as well. Besides, it will stick deeper when you two aren't doubting what I say of your parents. Oh, here come your siblings now."

Palluck, supporting his sister, entered into the room. By now, she was draped in loose clothing left by their mother, her fur dry and neat. However, what drew the Traveler's and Maldore's attention was the look on the young male Namican's face.

"She just talked. She thinks I'm Mother!"