Search and Rescue

[Desideratus Lesley]

Desideratus Asce Lesley was being an incredibly naughty boy. The seven year old wished to walk faster than his sister would allow him. There was only one thing the young boy could do - run for the hills, or in this case, the shop across from the grocery store they were currently at. Why should he remain there? It was boring, and smelt of funny vegetables. He wanted to run around and play with the toys. It was a children's store, having everything from books to child-related bedspreads, to toys. That was all the young part-veela needed. As he ran from his sister's side and slid under the metal bars between him and freedom, he heard his sister yell out and attempt to chase him. Desislava was never really that fast, especially since she was carrying like, a gazillion bags. Desi would usually have helped her - since he liked being helpful, but today he wanted to play, and Slava said no. This would teach her.
Desideratus slipped into the shop when another family, though it was rather obvious he did not belong to them. He was blonde with blue eyes and pale, they were most certainly not. He quickly moved on to the toy section, find a large variety of muggle toys. He liked how they lit up and flashed around, and they made funny noises when he pressed their buttons. He ran his dainty fingers across all the signs, and made sure to press every button he saw. His objective was not to blend in or hide, it was to have fun. And this was a lot of fun. He grinned to himself and looked up at the top shelf. There was some sort of plastic thing up there, he was not entirely sure what sort of merchandise it was, but he wanted it. It had a nice, red button that must be pushed. He did look briefly for one of those giant ladders, but failed to find one. No matter, he could just climb it the old fashioned way.
Getting a (somewhat) steady grip on the second shelf, Desideratus hauled himself up, onto the third, and reached for the fourth. There were five shelves, he just had to reach a little further. He pulled one leg onto the third shelf, and then the second. Heights were nothing to be scared of! He was now standing tall on the fourth step, it was a rather tall distance, but he was leaning over the fifth shelf, so it was completely safe. Totally. As he reached for the toy, however, his sneaker slipped on the fourth step and he began scrambling for balance - which he found moments after losing control. He sighed with relief and looked at the ground. How was he supposed to get down now? He lent back slightly, toy under his arm, and attempted to climb down safely. However, he once again lost balance, and was this time in no position to save himself.
Desideratus dropped the toy and yelped as he fell - straight into a male workers arms. Breathing heavily, after seeing his rather young life flash before his eyes, he clung to the man like a baby koala to its mother and started at him with his eyes wider than a doe's in front of headlights. "Soeur!" he cried, calling for his sister in his native language, French. Now he wanted her, really badly.
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[Maxwell Stone]

Maxwell thought this was a rather unique career choice. His job itself was simple, stacking shelves, taking stocks, nothing out of the ordinary. The unique part was not so much the task, more so the location. His job was unique in the sense he never thought he'd be working in a New Zealand toy store. One of the many benefits to being a wizard was the ability to have many different jobs, in many different time zones. Thanks to apparition this hectic working lifestyle was made possible. Originally he'd only taken the job because he needed to, but over time Max had grown surprisingly fond of the place. It sounded weird, but the humble nature of the store made this his favorite job by far. Stacking shelves beat waiting on tables any day. Today had been slow, exactly what he expected. On most weekdays the store was next to empty, but when the weekend came the place was packed. For the better part of today the nineteen year old had been on break in the back room, attempting to catch some shut eye before his shift was over. Apparating so often to so many different places did take it's toll. Sometimes Maxwell got no sleep, other times he fell asleep on the job. However mostly he forgot what timezone he was in. It almost seemed fitting to bring a pillow next time. Maybe even his whole bed. Even with his arms for support, resting his head on a table was terribly uncomfortable. Usually he could fall asleep on the job no problem but today his body seemed to be having none of it. This was one of those rare days, the ones he felt too exhausted to even sleep. Maxwell hated when this happened.

Just as Max's eyelids fell shut, a loud noise startled him. He mumbled profanities under his breath as he walked in the store to investigate. Toys. Some kid had set off all the toys, filling the place with a mind numbing, deafening racket. Merlin's beard he was annoyed. Of course his co workers were nowhere to be found, so he had to deal with the situation himself. With a brief glance around the store Max found the culprit. The kid was climbing the shelves, and stuck out like a sore thumb. He'd worked in a toy store for months and until today had never dealt with a snotty kid. That was the parent's job. Why this kid was left alone long enough to get up to such mischief he had no idea. Ignoring the noise Maxwell made his way to the kid, getting there just in time to catch him. On second thought, the kid didn't seem snotty at all. More frightened than anything else. Was this caused by the fall? Max opened his mouth to speak, stopped in his tracks when the kid shouted in French. Among the racket and the few customers leaving, hearing his native tongue was the last thing Maxwell expected. "Are you hurt?" He asked the kid, making sure to speak French instead of English. He thought the best thing was to figure out if the kid hurt himself, before anything else. ​

 

[Desislava Lesley]

Desislava was about ready to die. Her mother would be rolling in her grave at this. The witch shook her head at the security guard, trying her best to remain using English, but her terrified state made it difficult. Perhaps it was not wise to blatantly run out of a store before paying for everything, but Desideratus had just left and she needed to find him. Merlin only knew what he could get himself into. This was a disaster. After apologising profusely, paying for the products, and listening to a rather lengthy lecture, the part-veela was out of the store like lightning. If she knew it would help, she would have been apparating around, but she was not sure where Desideratus had gone. He was such a quick boy, but so easily frightened. He could be anywhere. He could be doing anything. He could be dead for all she knew.
Okay, so the chances of him being dead were rather slim, but she was thinking the worst. Her baby brother, the boy she was sworn to protect along with the rest of her younger siblings, was gone. Poof - missing. And those terrible people had caused her to waste time. She was perfectly willing to just throw her wallet at the if it would have gotten her out of there sooner. She had to find Desideratus, she refused to return home without him and she was not going to leave until she found him.
Remembering what he had said about a toy store earlier, she went there first. The witch looked carefully at every family she passed - keeping an eye out for her blonde little brother. She was in a place of fury, confusing and despair. But she tried to keep herself together. She did not want to lose her temper here. She felt like crying. How could Desideratus do this to her? He could be anywhere, anything could have happened to him. She took several shaky breaths and decided to head to the front desk to ask for assistance. However, the sound of toys caught her attention and she was horrified to find her little brother falling from the top shelf. Without even thinking, she already had her wand in her hands to cast a spell, but froze when she saw a man catch him. Her heart ran from her throat back to its rightful place, and she quickly hid her wand. "Oh Merlin..." she muttered shakily, running up to the man and Desideratus.
She wiped her eyes and dropped her bags. She heard the man speak French, and she was so grateful, she was not sure she could muster the control to speak English. "T-thank you so much!" she cried to the man, before staring at Desideratus. She did not care if he was upset now. He had ran off from her and scared at least twenty years off of her. "Desideratus, why did you run off? I told you to stay with me. If you continue this I will leave you at home with Dwaide and Demeter. How would you like that?" And with her short-lived scold of Desideratus over, she looked back at the man that saved him. "I thank you so much. Is there anything I can do to repay you?" This guy had just saved her brother's life, well, that was how she saw it. Desideratus could have been hurt - especially if she did not cast the spell fast enough. If he had not been here, she did not want to think about what could have happened. "Oh, yes. Um, I am Desislava, by the way. You are currently holding my brother," she added.
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