Editing Hungry Choir (section)

=== Waifs ===
Small children with horrible teeth and bloody mouths. Often accompanied by a sourceless sound of children singing<ref name=":1">She saw a figure in the trees, moving through foliage faster than someone should be able to, given the slope and the undergrowth. Not much bigger than them.<br>[...]<br>
A child, a couple years younger than them. Despite the recent run, the boy didn’t heave for breath, and was almost motionless. He wore mismatched clothes that looked like they had been picked from the lost and found, and his mouth was hanging open, with blood smeared across his lower face. With the open mouth, his teeth were visible, half of them missing and the other half broken with black and brown at the edges of the breaks.<br><br>
There were others nearby, it seemed. Verona could hear distant singing.<br>
[...]<br>
There were a ''lot'' of kids in the woods, along with the occasional adult. Some had clothes that looked like outfits, others were mismatched. A couple were naked, smeared with mud or blood. Some had their mouths open, others had their mouths closed, but an awful lot of them had blood around their mouths.<br><br>
The singing was louder now, and Verona couldn’t see the source of it. Sing-song, playful, like a song that might get sung at the grade school, or a Christmas song with zero Christmas in it. She couldn’t make out the words. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/09 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.1]]</ref><ref name=":0" /> and/or humming.<ref>One of the children might have been humming or singing. It was hard to hear. [...] The damn children weren’t talking, weren’t playing. They just stood here and there. None of them matched in the clothes they wore or the groups they came from, none reminded her of locals she’d seen, and none moved their lips, though the singing and humming in the background persisted. The words of the song were indistinct. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/05 Excerpt] from [[Blood Run Cold 0.0]]</ref>

Immune to injury and superhumanly strong. After the ritual abandoned Kennet, they lost their super-strength, but were still essentially unkillable.<ref>Brie had said the kids were strong. They didn’t seem any stronger 
than ordinary nine to twelve year olds. [...]<br><br>But none of the children ''died''. Even the ones that Ms. Durocher’s creation was clawing at were getting back up. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/15 excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.z]]</ref> 

Superhumanly fast and don't tire.<ref name=":1" />

Anyone who fails the ritual is doomed to be devoured by them, and have their remains become another Waif.

Waifs can often be found hanging around in [[the Ruins]] when not manifesting in reality.<ref>“Who would go to the ruins? What Others are comfortable there?”<br><br>The two goblins talked over one another, Verona held up a hand, then pointed.<br><br>“The Choir has a bunch of kids there most of the time,” Gash said. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/30 Excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.7]]</ref>