"There is quite a lot we would like you to ward, in fact. Buildings, tools, sacred artifacts... I'm sure we could keep you working all day."

Sounds like a perfectly good use of his time, at least until Claree has his clothes ready.

A small child runs up to him, hits him on the leg, yells "Tag, you're it!" and runs away!

That might be some kind of game. Valanda isn't sure how to respond. He watches to see if the child seems to be hitting any other people and shouting at them, or if it's just him.

The kid turns around and looks at him. "Don't wanna play? 'Kay. I'm it again. Bye..."

"What's 'it'? What game is this?"

"...Tag?"

"I think I might have heard of something like that once but I've never played. What do you do?"

"Everyone's gotta run away from whoever's 'it'. If it touches someone, the someone's it. Guess I should've asked if you wanted to play. Sorry for hitting you..."

"That sounds like fun. You said you were 'it' again? Should I run?"

"You do wanna play? Oh, I tagged you, so you're it now. Milo's playing too!" He points to where another kid is watching a short ways away.

Both the kids bolt.

This is going to end really badly and "I was just doing what that kid told me to" is not going to work as an excuse but fuck it. Valanda goes after whichever of them seems to be slower.

The unnamed one who touched him is slower! And Valanda does catch up, but the kid knows tricks and shortcuts.

Yeah, that's why you hunt in one place for years and spy on prey instead of doing whatever this is.

He looks for ways to herd either kid into an open area where longer legs are more of an advantage than knowing the town.

They seem reluctant to actually leave the village (a rule they forgot to tell him?) so skirting the border eventually forces them into a main street where Val can catch Milo, who as the new 'it' immediately tries to reach back towards Valanda!

Onlookers seem amused, mostly. Kids!

Oh, that's really good, maybe this isn't going to end badly for him.

He doesn't exactly stand still when he tags Milo, but not knowing the terrain is a pretty big disadvantage, he can't run forever.

Milo goes for unnamed kid and gets him, and then unnamed kid comes after Valanda and somehow manages to appear around the corner of a house (probably by cutting through someone's garden) and tag him.

These little kids will play tag for as long as Valanda will, or else until one of their parents calls them in for chores.

He calls it quits after not too long.

"That was fun, thanks for showing me how to play!"

"Yeah, it was fun! Bye bye, tall girl!"

Not worth it, he's spent too much on this already lately.

Maybe it's time to see if Claree is done yet. He visits her shop.

Claree looks kind of tired. In fact, she's napping on the store counter when he comes in.

He's not going to disturb her. He walks back out as quietly as he can.

"Did she fall asleep again?" The street caller asks. She sticks her head in the door and shouts. "CLAREEEE! CUSTOMER!"

She looks back to Val. "...Don't worry, she asked me to do that."

He's really not sure how to react now but Claree will probably get ready to face people as fast as possible. He waits a few moments outside before entering again.

"Hi!! You're back!! Sorry I fell asleep on you I worked late to finish it I was just so excited! Come on come -" Yawn. "Back room, I'll show you, it's ready and I bet you'll love it!"