The Briar Patch: Ch. 13 - By the Firelight

This wasn't good.

But Zeal told himself it was just fun and games. A way of passing Time until his wounds healed.

Time came and went.

Flesh mended.

But still they hadn't left.

Certainly, it was for good reason.

Their ascent up the mountainous range had been poorly Timed, with the harsh Winter looming ever on the horizon and in the howling winds that grew ever colder as they nipped at their heels, chasing them and hurrying them along.

They were stranded--at least for the Winter.

This Lockes would not yield on, and with a firm hand, demanded that they overwinter in the Alpione Ring.

"Do not underestimate the cold indifference of Winter." The Shol had stated with a grim smile.

Life came in a chorus, Death in silence.

Tragedy Winter buried in a peaceful calm. A most deceptive sense of tranquility, for in its sweet insidious embrace, did Life pass unto death. Never to wake againeven by Spring's urging calls.

They had a reason to stay, Zeal told himself.

But he couldn't deny that the thought of the storm still to come felt farther and farther away by the day, though it but drew ever closer, looming

Nor the pleasure he took in the evenings spent by the fire, brushing Vye's foliage, and awaiting the much anticipated moment when Lockes would return from their rounds to share that day's collection of foraged goods, tell yet another tale, and present them with a new Enigma should they have finished the previous one.

Days passed in merriment as they read the various Lockboxes, unlocking them and adding their own signature to the collective.

Not with a flourish of script, but with a bit of their aether, just as many of the Alpione Ring, and to Zeal's surprise, many outside of it, had before them.

Vye with a signature seed and Zeal with a clip of hair.

He inspected the plethora of mixed aetherically dense seeds, some doubtlessly from the tropics, and others clearly succulents.

The way Lockes had explained it, though Shols usually didn't stray far from their borders, wanderlust was commonplace in their kind. A norm, really.

He had to scoff here, for Shol territories in themselves, stretched for acres around the Fairy Ring.

They're most acutely attuned to the Heart's Song. They were also known to visit other Fairy Rings using their own as a portal.

But it wasn't just for the purpose of entertainment.

To their delight certain boxes extended to them a "branch" or so Lockes called it.

The Alpione Ring was heavily warded.

Subtle and camouflaged, for it followed the residual and natural flow of aether that coursed through the land, but not imperceptible, Zeal realized.

Not many were able to sense it, let alone enter, such a place.

As it were, reading certain Enigmas it seemed, were the keys that granted them passage through such wards.

Through this they found their way into the Alpione equivalent of what Zeal believed to be a pantry, a Vye a treasure trove. From an abundance of hoarded nuts, and dried fruits, mushrooms, preserves, vegetables, fruit leather, flour, and grains, to cooking oils and some strange yet delightful sauces that Lockes claimed to have been aged for centuries.

Another, a medicinal cabinet and store full of odd vials. This Lockes did not permit them to wander in for long, despite the lifted wards.

One particularly challenging lockbox was in itself a map mirroring the Alpione hollow. This one lead them to a hidden den whose entrance was concealed.

This Lockes barred their entry altogether. Though Vye did describe it as the Sholian equivalent of a treasury where therein lay perhaps the only material good that a Shol would covet so.

Curiosity piqued, certainly, but Lockes had made of point of making it very clear that none were to enter and he thought it best not to provoke the Bluepine's ire.

The cellar though, was perhaps the fondest discovery, for not only was there a plethora of drinks to wet his lips--it was admittedly a penchant, and he had been craving for a good bottle, of which he had seen but a dry spell since this journey started--but few liqueurs were as fine as that aged by the Alpione Ring.

It also doubled as he would find, a common ground to truly melt the icy vindication that Lockes on their own, could not have so easily drowned out, and the two could talk for hours on end, much to Vye's dismay, on the different cups, and their unique qualities.