onwards to adventure! | Glowfic Constellation

dontbelieveinfairies

Harin lets up and holds the requisite hands, bindle strapped to his back. "I was going to let go at some point."

first-and-final

"Check inventory, Nior," says Mir. "You come last, Arlen goes first." He therefore holds hands with Nior and Harin.

unmarred

"Got everything. Arlen, do please lead us into your mysterious wall of vanishment."

sonofsnow

"Got it."

He leads them through. It is cold now.

unmarred

"Well," says Nior. "Snow. Pine trees. Now what?"

first-and-final

"Don't drop hands until we're a little farther in," says Mir, "just in case."

sonofsnow

"Now... kill the witch, maybe? Bring back Christmas?"

dontbelieveinfairies

"Find your goat friend and make sure he hasn't been petrified?"

first-and-final

"We can start with Ari's goat friend, yeah."

Miraen looks back at their tracks in the snow and decides they've come in far enough to let go of each other without risking anyone wandering back into the cave. He does that.

"Can you find the way to his house, Ari?"

sonofsnow

"He's a faun. And... if his tracks haven't been buried, I can track him, but my sense of direction is shit."

unmarred

"Let's look for his tracks, then," says Nior.

sonofsnow

Arlen starts tracking industriously!

It's snowed over most of the actual tracks themselves, but there's still signs that an experienced hunter can find. Arlen isn't an experienced hunter, but he's well trained. He picks up enough of a trail to work with, for the most part.

unmarred

Nior has less direct experience with hunting and tracking, but an exceptionally sharp eye. He helps.

And thus do they eventually find their way to Tumnus's cozy little cave.

It has become markedly less cozy.

The door lies in the snow some distance from the cave entrance, torn from its hinges and then casually flung aside. Signs indicate that a boots-wearing person of about Harin's height strode up to the door, accomplished this feat, dragged the house's struggling occupant bodily away through the snow, and then returned to carve a large stylized snowflake into the door where it lay. It is unclear how the gouges that make up the snowflake came to be filled with glittering ice.

Next to the snowflake, there is a note pinned to the door.

The former occupant of these premises, the Faun Tumnus, is under arrest and awaiting trial on a charge of High Treason against her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands. Appeals and inquiries will be denied.

By the hand of her Majesty's most loyal servant – Eternal Winter

sonofsnow

"Well, that sucks."

unmarred

"Somebody has a talent for public intimidation," says Nior. "Shit."

dontbelieveinfairies

"On the bright side, I can think of worse things than being turned to stone. Unless it's, like, conscious stone. That'd be awful."

sonofsnow

"S'what I said! Just staring out, not being able to move, and what if you had an itch-"

He stops and clears his throat. "Sorry."

unmarred

Nior approaches the door and crouches down to examine the note.

"'Eternal Winter'. How appropriate."

first-and-final

"Are you feeling like we should get out of here? Because I'm feeling a lot like we should get out of here," says Mir.

dontbelieveinfairies

"I'm not. I'm feeling like there's some people in this place who need killing, and we seem to be the only people willing to do anything about it."

first-and-final

"Granted, absolutely, but right here seems like a really bad place to be standing around discussing that, who knows what kinds of traps they've set up or when they'll come back for another look. Let's at least try to find ourselves a slightly more anonymous patch of forest."

dontbelieveinfairies

"Oh. Yeah, probably."

unmarred

"Agreed," says Nior. "Also, that bird is staring at us."

That bird is a robin, perched on a tree branch. It waits until everyone is looking at it, then departs its perch and flies to another branch some distance away.

"Who wants to follow the bird?"

dontbelieveinfairies