The speaker was one of the town's street children: a dirty, homely, naked, red-headed little boy who couldn't have been older than eight, nine, maybe ten years old. He looked at Mika and Audrey in anticipation.
Audrey just laughed. "What could a little kid like you possibly know about any of that? Get lost, twerp."
Mika was more suspicious, and asked, "How did you know about that? You weren't in the inn. Are you spying on us?"
Both Mika and Audrey glared at him, and the boy fidgeted uncomfortably. "No! I mean yes, but not really, but... look, I didn't always look like this, okay? I used to be an adventurer like you guys and I came here looking for the Stones, just like you! But they didn't want no one to find out, so they made me a dumb kid! And I was thinking like a dumb kid too until you guys came to town and I started to remember stuff again, so I sorta followed you! But you guys screwed up, talking about the Stones--they're gonna come after you and change you too, now!"
Mika took only a moment to feel vindicated about Audrey's recklessness before pressing for more information, "What do you mean, change us? How did they change you?"
Audrey, seemingly having picked up Mika's suspicion, demanded, "And how do we even know you're telling the truth, with such a crazy story?"
"The innkeeper has one of the Stones," the boy explained with all the excited impatience of a young child, "and he uses it to change out-of-towners who he thinks no one will miss or who make him mad into kids and animals and workers and all sorts of stuff! But I now I remember everything again so I know all about him and all the other people, and I can help you get the stone, and you can change me back! And I'm telling the truth because, because, uh..." He paused his mile-a-minute rambling to think of evidence, and from the time he took and the way he scrunched up his face it seemed like the thinking was a little hard for him. "...well, how would I know any of this if I weren't telling the truth? Come on, I can help! I know where to take you!"
Audrey and Mika looked at the boy and then exchanged a glance with each other, considering whether or not to trust him.