Lost Boys (CTD)
The Lost Boys (both males and females) are those Childlings who run away from their mortal families to often live on the margins of both Changeling and Mundane societies.
Overview
Some childlings are simply unable to deal with the demand of their mortal families and lives, either because there are too many questions that the changelings would prefer not to answer, or because their home lives are too great a danger to life, limb, and spirit. Many of these childlings run away from home instead of facing their harsh and unyielding families. The Kithain call these young runaways “the Lost Boys” (although there are an equal number of girls, sometimes referred to as “Tinks” after Peter Pan’s Tinkerbelle), and do their best to look after and provide for them.
Some Lost Boys are supported by their own motley or oathcircle, who may help them run away. If the group contains some “adult” supervision (wilders or grumps) who can see to it that the childlings are cared for and protected, most nobles are content to leave the matter alone and let the group look after its own.
Some childlings are taken into the freehold of the local nobility and fostered to older changelings (usually grumps). Usually such fosterage is done to benefit both the childling and the guardian, but some nobles have been known to foist troublesome fledges off on others as a means of punishment (of the fledge, the guardian, or both) or to teach someone a lesson in humility.
The trouble with the Lost Boys comes when dealing with mortal society. Few mortal families ignore the disappearance of a child, and most assume that the child has been abducted. The disappearance is reported to the authorities, and the child’s known friends and acquaintances (such as members of a motley known to the childling’s family) may be questioned by the police or other authorities.
The Mists provide some protection from these intrusions, but a childling who is living with a guardian that is not approved of by their parents will be taken and returned to their mortal family. If the authorities can be convinced of danger to the child should they be returned to their family, they will most likely be put in the care of the state, which can often be as dangerous a fate for a childling as remaining with their mortal family.
In these cases, some childlings must be concealed through use of Glamour and judicious hiding in freeholds and other faerie realms where the eyes of the mortal authorities never look. Being on the run from their families and the authorities can be difficult on some childlings, while others think of it as a sophisticated game of hide-and-seek.
The greatest concern for other Kithain are those Lost Boys who slip through the cracks of changeling society. These childlings are often lost to Banality when they encounter some of the harsh realities of the outside world; they are hothouse flowers that quickly wither in the cold Autumn air.
Some of these Lost Boys join together with others to form motleys and bands composed entirely of childlings. Most of these groups become wild-child gangs of feral changelings who live on the fringes of both mortal and changeling society. Many of these motleys fall into Bedlam, abandoning the mortal world entirely. As one member passes into Bedlam, others are drawn in as well. Such wild groups of changelings are sometimes known as “Bedlam boys” (although the gangs often include girls as well, and all-girl motleys of childlings are known).
References
- CTD. The Enchanted, pp. 47-48,