[For Sam] Snowglobe (Raj & Quentin)

[blindfoster]

Quentin isn't exactly new to being a tag-along in the Shadow Roads. He's been run through with Tybalt and Raj too many times to count by now, but they're never going to be somewhere he's comfortable. He's not Cait Sidhe. He's not meant to travel those roads. He trusts Raj, with his life among other things, so that makes it at least a little less terrifying.

It does not make it any less dark and cold, however, and as they run, Quentin holds his breath and keeps his eyes shut, trusting the hand he has gripped tightly in his as his lifeline and hoping it's a run that ends before his lungs start really protesting the lack of oxygen.

He's not expecting the sudden fall, like the bottom of whatever the ground exists beneath their feet in the Shadow Roads dropping away entirely. He lands hard, an unpleasant belly flop onto the ground. The impact knocks whatever air is left in his lungs out with an oof, and Quentin's eyes snap open.

It's still cold, but that's probably more to do with the snow covering everything. There's light here too, a moon soft twilight that bathes the whole place in an otherworldly dreamlike illumination. This is not Berkeley.

Raj's hand is still in his, and Quentin jerks his gaze sharply in that direction to check on his best friend. "Raj? What just happened? Are you okay?"

Comments

[risingshadow]

The other lump in the snow doesn’t answer right away. Raj is dazed from the way something ripped them off the roads. It felt ancient like the brush of something that had come long, long before them.

His hold on the roads had frayed and they had tumbled into the dark. “Something hit us.” He says with a a dazed and slightly offended air. He lifts his head out of the snow and says, “It felt old. Whatever it was...the roads opened up and we fell here.”

He glances around at the wise expanse of snow. He has no idea where they are. “I’m alright. I don’t think it wanted to hurt us.” Whatever it was.

[blindfoster]

Quentin -- who has genuinely missed the snow, and under better circumstances would be making snow angels right here right now on principle alone -- shivers. Between coming out of the cold and dark and landing in a snowstorm, well, the cold is a bit much even for his Canadian blood.

"So where's here?" That's the real question, right? He rises to his feet and holds a hand down to Raj.

He doesn't like the idea of something old and powerful enough to knock a prince of cats out of the Shadow Roads. Nope. Not a fan. "Maybe we should just get out of here." Back to the shadows?

[risingshadow]

Raj takes Quentin’s hand and rises slowly to his feet. He takes a breath and reaches for the shadows. The shadows try to part but it feels like an old door that has long since rusted shut.

Just as it seems like he can force them open the shadows that were enfolding them snap back into being shadows. The sky over their heads turns to a deep shade of blue and is littered with unfamiliar stars. “The shadows won’t open for me!” Raj hisses and tries again.

But the shadows again snap back. He isn’t a king yet and doesn’t yet have the kind of strength that is so easily called by his uncle. He tries one more time and just when it seems like they’ll get through they’re spat back out into the snow. Raj lays in the snow with a puzzled look on his face as his head feels fuzzy.

He closes his eyes. “It looks like we’ll have to wait for Toby and Uncle Tybalt. I can’t...I can’t open them.” He says but doesn’t sit up. He needs a moment to recover. “I don’t know where we are.”

[blindfoster]

Quentin takes a breath and braces for the shadows himself. But the shadows don't come, or at least, they don't stay.

When he finds himself on the ground in the snow once more, he tries to hide at least some of the beginnings of panic that want to sneak into his expression. No, not the time. It's fine. They're fine. They'll figure this out. And Raj is right. Toby and Tybalt will be looking for them. Whatever is going on, it'll be fine.

A breath to steady himself and he looks over to Raj, nodding. "We should find somewhere out of the snow." So Raj can recover too. Quentin is worried about the other boy, given the effort that must have taken. His gaze sweeps around. The landscape is tree-lined, eerie silhouettes against the night sky. And further on, something that looks like a building.

[risingshadow]

Raj slowly climbs to his feet and forces himself to stand tall. He will not sway. It would only worry Quentin more and serve no purpose. His eyes adjust to the night as he takes his time studying the landscape. It gives him time to recover too and that’s important.

“Over there, that looks like a building.” He opens his mouth to breathe in and shakes his head. “There are no scents here. If anyone has been here it has been so long that their scents are faded or gone.” He isn’t Toby but he say that with some confidence.

“No predators or prey either.” It doesn’t look like Blind Michael’s lands and as he strains to hear there isn’t any horns. There is only the hushed sounds of a forest in the middle of deep winter.

“It’s so cold.” He tries not to tremble. He is a Prince of cats, cold isn’t that terrible to him. Yet this cold is foreign. He doesn’t like it.

[blindfoster]

Quentin is already worrying about Raj --he's never known his friend to have any trouble with the Shadow Roads, after all. And more than that, they're trapped here, in this very cold place, surrounded by snow and little else. No other signs of life.

Well, maybe he's a little worried about himself too.

"At least there's nothing around to hunt us. I guess that's the bright side."

But Raj is right. It's very cold, and they're dressed for coastal California, not midwinter in who knows where. "It's freezing. So let's head for shelter. A building is better than nothing." Even if it's empty and cold. Maybe they can find something to start a fire.

He holds a hand out to Raj once more. It might be childish, but he thinks he'll feel better with the reassurance that Raj is there with him, that they haven't been separated in this strange, frigid place.

[risingshadow]

Maybe it is childish but, Raj takes Quentin’s hand and the comfort it brings. How could he ever refuse the hand of his best friend? “There are shadow roads here but they only seem to cross through and around this space. I can’t use them to leave.”

But if they need to escape a spot in a hurry it might just work. “I wonder what this place was and who ruled here.” Whatever had knocked them here hadn’t meant any harm. But that didn’t mean it hadn’t been laying a trap for his Uncle or October.

He shivers and starts towards the building in the distance. The snow is pure white and pristine as if it had never known the touch of anyone’s feet in far too long.

[blindfoster]

Quentin feels better about it anyway, having Raj's hand in his. He's had a fairly unpleasant experience of landing in strange realms of Faerie, and he knows Raj has as well. So far nothing is threatening them, but they're trapped. Trapped can't be good.

"Whoever it was, it looks like they left a long time ago." And that is worrying. Anoun had been similarly empty, and that was one of the deeper locked away realms. How would Toby ever find them there?

He continues walking, trudging through the snow. It's beautiful, really, lit by the moonlight above, pure pristine white interrupted by the shadows of trees spilling across the surface. By the time they get to the building though, he's eager to be out of the wind at least, even if it won't be all that much warmer until they get a fire going.

It's an old building, large and made of stone, windows mostly shuttered against the wind and the storm. It looks like it may have been a manor house of some kind once, but now it sits old and abandoned. Trying the first door he catches sight of, Quentin doesn't know if he should be surprised or not when it's unlocked.

[risingshadow]

"I don't like this," Raj announces as he keeps slightly to the right of the opening door. If there's anyone inside they'll see him first and his bleeding towards less human features. Being paranoid is the bane and requirement of Cait Sidhe rulers. But there's no one there and as he breathes in he can't find any scents at all.

He listens but there's nothing at all. The only sounds are their breathing and the wind blowing over the pure white snow. He can hear the distant rustle of the wind through the trees. It's enough to worry him.

Faerie isn't fair and there's too many broken places that were left behind when they fled for Summerlands. He'd been in far too many of them to ever forget that fact.

[blindfoster]

"Me neither," Quentin is quick to agree with Raj on that one. His hand drops to the knife he usually has stashed on his person -- thank you for that lesson, Toby -- but the door opens to nothing.

The blond frowns, looking from the doorway to Raj and then back. "I guess we go in." Because the alternative is freezing.

A deep breath and he steps inside, out of the wind at least. That's a good start for now. "Okay. This is officially creepy."

[risingshadow]

Raj says nothing this time. He breathes in but still no scents come to him. He ghosts across the wooden floor along the edges of the room. No traps spring. Nothing makes itself known to challenge him.

There’s one bed, a fire pit in the center of the floor, and what windows there are have been packed against the chill. A stack of wood lies neatly in a crate by the pit. He kneels down to inspect the edge of the crate. The crate is made of metal, enchanted silver. If nothing else it could be used as a weapon.

“Yes, this is creepy. It’s as if they just up and left.” He glances around and his eyes narrow, glinting in the dim light. “Why not take the wood? It would be useful.”

[blindfoster]

"Maybe they left in a hurry, and didn't have time to grab much of anything..." which is not a good sign at all, if Quentin has to guess. But at least they're out of the snow. Quentin drops to a knee beside the crate. "Anyway. We should get a fire going."

He stacks up a few pieces of wood to start a fire, casting about for something to spark a flame. Thankfully there's flint because his illusions are good but they're not warm, so real fire is probably the better idea here.

Sitting back as the flame takes, Quentin looks up to Raj and manages a smile -- it's a bit ruined by his teeth chattering, but hopefully the fire will warm things up quickly. Until then, he stands, making his way to the bed and grabbing up a blanket from it, shaking away time and dust before he wraps it around his shoulders. That done, he makes his way over to Raj and without any further preamble wraps his arms around his best friend's shoulders from behind, enveloping the Prince of Cats in the blanket and his arms at once.

[risingshadow]

Raj leans back into Quentin and the warmth he’s offering. He has trusted his best friend since their time in Blind Michael’s lands. Perfectly at ease he tucks the edges of the blanket in and says, “I don’t recognize this land even from tales told to me as I was growing up. Do you?”

Nothing his mother or father told him matches it. He hasn’t heard anything like it from Uncle Tybalt. But it does remind him of Blind Michael’s lands. It has that same quality of distance stretching into meaningless and the vast stretches of land. Even the forest.

And yet it isn’t. “There might be more clues where we are in this cabin or around it.” The warmth of the fire seeps into him and he relaxes against Quentin. For now. They need to survive and this is one step towards that.

[blindfoster]

It reminds Quentin of Blind Michael's lands too, and he's trying not to think on that, trying not to consider the being that may rule this strange empty place and what it may want bringing them here. Their time in Blind Michael's lands was terrible, with the sole exception of the fact that it was when Quentin met Raj for the first time.

But this place is not that place, he reminds himself. It isn't. And they're here together they can figure it out.

Between the blanket and Raj's body heat and the slowly building fire, he's starting to warm up, slowly. "I don't recognize it either." And he has been extensively schooled on all the deeper lands that were long ago closed off.

"You're right. We should look around, figure out what we're dealing with."

[risingshadow]

"Once, we're warm." Raj reminds him as he shamelessly tucks himself into the space his best friend provided. His friend is his friend and he isn't one to shy away from taking comfort. Not with someone who he will never rule over.

"Where ever this is it doesn't feel like the deeper lands. Remember how they felt almost like they were rejecting us?" They hadn't meant to be there. The lands had known that and while it needed them, their ancestors hadn't been born there.

It didn't feel like being called home. "It's likely an islet. But I don't remember much about them. Uncle Tybalt never told me anything about them except for that they exist."

[blindfoster]

"Once we're warm," Quentin agrees and tightens his arms around Raj, leaning his head against Raj's hair, maybe nuzzling just a bit but it's not his fault it's soft. And for the moment, he's taking the comfort from this that he can, and it's actually quite comforting.

"I think you're right about that though. It doesn't feel the same as Anoun anyway."

He frowns, trying to remember. "They're rare. It takes a lot of power to create one and hold it stable. Blind Michael's lands were held by two Firstborn." Even if Acacia had withdrawn from Blind Michael's side long ago, and the land had corrupted near completely. This place isn't corrupted, but it feels suspended, frozen in more than just temperature.

[risingshadow]

“Then we can be sure that this was made by a Firstborn but not which one or how many. To endure in such condition without anyone living here...” It makes him wonder. Had one of the three made this space?

If they had why would something want them here? The answer keeps stretching back to October. They both know her. They are both her squires even if his is unofficial. But he can’t deny this might be the reason. He sinks back into Quentin and bites back a thought that keeps rolling through his mind.

Who wants October to come here. Why? What is here that is important? “It feels suspended. Like it is frozen.” Quentin likely feels the same. “I can almost smell the magic but it’s too faint.”

[blindfoster]

One of the Firstborn or something older still. Terrifying. Quentin shivers again this time more out of unease than cold. This is fine. They'll figure it out, and they're here together. Toby will find them. He really does believe that. But maybe they can save themselves before she has to.

For now though, surviving is the first priority.

A little nod. "It does. Like we're stuck in a snow globe. I can't smell any magic either."

[risingshadow]

“If there are beasts that will be our first task. Even better if they are frozen too. Less energy wasted on the hunt.” The heat has seeped in just enough he slips a little closer to the fire.

That’s when he sees the edge of a trap door. He shifts slightly to the right and reaches out. His fingers are bright with claws as he bleeds closer to his feline nature. His claws match marks left by...other cait sidhe? It is difficult to tell. He presses in and lifts. Inside the small depression beneath it winter gear is tucked in.

“Well, it seems we have gear for our explorations. But look,” He lifts the trapdoor further to expose the claw marks. “Other Cait Sidhe have been here.”

[blindfoster]

The hunt. Leave it to the Cait Sidhe to speak of hunting like it isn't some monumental task. But then for them it probably isn't. Quentin's closest experience to hunting is the lunch hour rush at the local taco truck.

Letting the blanket fall from his shoulders, he's quick to join Raj in investigating the trap door. His eyebrows climb up his forehead as he watches Raj trace those gouges. "But they aren't here now. Or if they are, nowhere near by."

Quentin can't shake the eeriness of his empty place, the signs of other people who had been here once, but no indication of where they had gone or why they had left. "This place sure seems like it was lost." The sort of place that one would expect to wind up in the Court of Cats. But the way the shadows had rejected Raj makes that unlikely. Doesn't it?

[risingshadow]

“It is possible it has been lost so long even the roads have forgotten it. It felt like I was trying to force open a very old door.” Raj says as he leans over and checks over the winter gear. It’s in perfect condition.

That is worrying. He still pulls on the coat, adjustable gloves, and tucks a scarf around his neck. The boots are harder to pull on but fit just fine. “I just wish I knew why it was lost and who wants October to find it again.”

[blindfoster]

"If Toby is who they're after." Quentin can admit it's likely to be that. The two of them are very obviously important to Toby; his knight has made that clear given how often she has come after both of them when they were in trouble. But he can't pretend away the fact that they are also who they are -- the future King of Dreaming Cats and the future High King of the Westlands. Even if they're both still only heirs to those titles, there's no denying the value that certain people could see in that.

And the last thing he wants is to be the reason that Raj got caught up in all this.

Ransom could be tricky, but it could be a motive. Mostly everything is questions with no answers. But at least they have supplies. At least they'll be able to survive for now.

[risingshadow]

He looks up and a shadow passes across his face. Raj hasn't forgotten who they are and there's evidence that the Cait Sidhe have been here. "If," He says softly, "That's who they're after."

A blood worker king to be and a prince who will be king not yet anchoring the roads through himself? It is a potent combination. "There is a chance they want to wake this place and if this once belonged to the Cait Sidhe...the roads would anchor through me." Then he would be chained to this place until he could find one to replace him.

Uncle Tybalt would be locked to a throne he no longer wants. No. He breathes in and pulls out a coat that will fit his best friend. "We won't let that happen if that's the objective. We have thrones that await us as it is." He pulls out the gloves, the boots as he adds, "And this would be a place few would like visiting. I would be bored and that just won't do."

[blindfoster]

Anchor through Raj. Quentin hadn't considered the fact that the roads themselves could hold Raj in this place, and he doesn't like the sound of it. Not an option. There's no way he'd ever leave Raj in a place like this, trapped and alone. Maybe he's been hanging out with Toby too often, but he'd rather lay down his life than lose Raj like that. The other teen is too important to him. His best friend. He loves him and-- ah. That familiar and by now well-tread mental path. He doesn't need to retread it now.

Instead he takes the coat with a grateful bob of his head, shrugging into it. Warmer. Good.

Quentin allows the amused breath of a laugh to escape as he shakes his head. "Right yeah, boredom is definitely the reason. Can't abide it."

[risingshadow]

“And it would be dreadfully hard to get wifi, here.” No movies or games. It would be terrible. Raj hands over gloves and boots while listening out for anything making noise. But nothing breathes or makes a sound.

This world seems to be held suspended and he has a feeling things might begin to move only once they are moving.

Very well, they will move. And he will protect his beloved best friend. They will go home or at least, Quentin will if it ever comes to that. Once they’re both ready he straightens and shuts the trap door, noting how it makes no noise at all.

“Time to begin, I suppose.” He waits for Quentin then he steps over to the door and opens it, letting the cold wind blow in their faces. He lets himself feel it for a moment then steps out into the snow. Whatever the answers are, it is oddly nostalgic to walk where other Cait Sidhe did so very long ago.

[blindfoster]

"And no takeout places." That was a problem since cooking wasn't exactly his specialty. Eating? Sure, he was great at that, and fairly good at cleaning up, but not so skilled at the actually making food part. He shouldn't be expected to survive in a place without decent burritos.

Quentin finishes outfitting himself for heading back out into the cold before nodding his agreement. "Yeah, sooner we figure this place out, the sooner we can find a way back home." Hopefully. Maybe. Well, he'd try for optimism anyway.

He follows Raj back out into the snow, struck again by how eerily still the entire area is, except for the wind and the snow it stirs up as it passes. "Let's make sure we don't get separated though."

[risingshadow]

“Yes, that wouldn’t do either. I for one couldn’t do without burritos and milkshakes.” Raj says as he holds out his hand to Quentin. He breathes in and pauses, “I don’t smell any sort of prey. Nothing growing.”

Maybe smells are stilled just like magic. “But is this place once had Cait Sidhe as it so seems, looking in the forest for answers would be a good idea.” That would be where ancient Cait Sidhe hunted.

It might be the source of whatever seal is on the place.

[blindfoster]

"Nothing alive and nothing growing might mean no milkshakes is the least of our problems." Not eating will make their stay here a lot less pleasant. Quentin takes a breath. One step at a time. Raj is right. They need to look for answers, and the forest seems as good a place as any to begin.

He reaches for his best friend's hand, fingers gloved now but holding on tightly just the same.

"So let's go for a walk in the woods. In the snow. In the moonlight. Sounds super romantic, if you put aside all the kidnapping and trapped-in-another-realm bits."

[risingshadow]

"Indeed, it certainly fits all the tropes." Raj says as he squeezes Quentin's hand once. It's to reassure them both that this isn't a nightmare. Just a set back. Raj starts walking towards the forest. It looks like any forest in the depths of winter, some branches are bare and the evergreens are as lush and green as they will be all year long.

He sticks to the shadows cast by the trees under the silvery moon's light. Even a little shadow is cover even if he can't use them to travel the roads. The snow is thick enough to get up past his feet but not enough to impede them. October always says the lands are alive.

He had been in the deeper lands and felt how unwelcoming they were. This feels different. This lands seems to want people to walk it. "...this doesn't feel like the deeper lands did. Or even...the last inlet we were in. It's..." He struggles for the right words and settles on just being vague. "Nicer."

[blindfoster]

The silence and the stillness are still strange This place is so frozen, suspended and motionless. But slowly it seems to be changing. The wind blows, the branches of the trees stir, their footsteps crunch through the snow. He wonders if it's his imagination that bit by bit things do seem to be moving a bit more, the wind picking up.

His thoughts run similar to his friend's. This place wants them in it, wants to be filled with life. Wants to keep them.

He shifts closer to Raj without consciously thinking about it. "Yeah, it does. Though considering what Blind Michael's lands were like and how much Anoun sucked, that's kind of a low bar."

[risingshadow]

“I agree, the bar is so low we could trip over it and find better accommodations.” But the world around them is stirring like a sleeper shaking snow and dust from its back. “A little snow and cold is just the waiter actually seating us instead of leaving us to find a box to settle on.”

The wind blows through the forest and sends the branches rustling. The evergreen trees seem a little fuller. He pauses in mid step as the sound of cracking ice comes from up ahead. He proceeds a little more carefully. Who knows why that sound has started.

The cracking of ice always reminded him of breaking bones. “I used to be skeptical of October’s claim that the lands are alive. I’m starting to think we should take it more seriously than we ever did.”

[blindfoster]

Quentin laughs a little at that, shaking his head. Raj is... good at making him laugh, good at making him feel better. But the prince of cats is right too. This could be worse. They're supplied and sheltered, and they're not alone, and maybe they'll find something in their investigation.

He follows along, looking around and nodding his agreement. "Yeah. She has a really annoying habit of being right about things. And... this place feels like it's waking up. Like we woke it up."

And like it's not displeased by their presence.

[risingshadow]

He breathes in, his mouth parting to let the scents around him flow in. Melting snow, green growing things, and something else, something old that he can barely tell what it is. He heads deeper into the forest where the scent gets stronger. "I smell magic. It smells like...ancient growing things and spice. I can't discern more than that."

October would be able to tell everything. He doesn't measure himself by her abilities but he wishes he had that one himself. It would be quite useful. If only to make sure he knew exactly who was who. Not that it would make the demons in his memories go away.

As they get deeper in the forest he spots small green shoots and the faintest whisper of a river's waters comes to his ears. He can't hear any animals yet. "...We should be watchful. If things are waking up so quickly we might be dealing with Faerie's beasts soon." His fingers turn bright with claws as his feline nature bleeds through, his steps more of a glide.

Quentin is his friend and he will fight to his last to protect him. He will always fight to protect him. Even when they are both crowned and standing on opposite sides of a gap that is older than them, seemingly older than time itself.

[blindfoster]

"Great. That's always fun," Quentin mutters. He's had run ins with various beasts of faerie, and some are fine, and others are terrifying, and he's not sure he wants to find out how their luck is running like that.

He catches sight of the little peeks of green from beneath the snow and quickly darts towards a small cluster. "Spring is coming." That's exciting and terrifying at the same time, and he wonders at himself. But as he turns back to Raj, he notices the more feral and feline parts of his self visible. His eyes widen. Is Raj that worried?

Quentin may only have his knife on him, but that doesn't mean he won't fight to the death to protect the other boy as well. Raj is... what would he even do without Raj in his life?

What will he do, when their future fates inevitably separate them? That's a sobering thought, somehow even more upsetting than being stuck in a strange unknown realm. He forces himself to put those thoughts aside. "You okay?"

[risingshadow]

"I'm alright." He glances down at his claws and sighs. "I'm just...nervous. This is an inlet and our usual methods of defense are...absent." Blind Michael had taken more from him than he ever wants to admit. Raj sighs and he takes a slow path through the snow to kneel down by the path of green.

"I don't like this lack of answers. I like the way this place is waking up even less." That much had been obvious from the start but. It doesn't hurt to say it. "I just want us both to be prepared if we have to defend ourselves and these are, my weapons. But I am also afraid."

He pauses, listening to the land. "This land feels like it wants to welcome me. I can't be allowed to anchor here." Raj reaches out and brushes snow from the small green plant leaves. "...it might be best I don't pull us into the shadows until we know more."

[blindfoster]

Quentin is quiet while Raj lays it out, nodding faintly in agreement in parts of it. "Me too. I'm scared. But we'll be okay. Toby and Tybalt will look for us, and even if we're on our own, there's no one I'd rather have at my side. I've got your back, Raj." And he knows that Raj has his.

But oh no he doesn't like that last bit at all, and he sets a hand on Raj's shoulder, holding as tightly as he can with the winter clothing they're wearing. "Then no shadows. I'm not letting this place have you." Not even an option.

So they'll stay off the shadow roads and find a way out of here as soon as possible.

[risingshadow]

He smiles a thin wan smile and puts himself back in order. “And I will not let this place have either of us. I am glad if we have to be here it is you by my side.” As in called by that declaration the green shoots grow, spreading their tiny delicate white flowers. Snow melts and Raj sticks close to Quentin.

The urge to leap into the shadows is almost overwhelming. He swallows it down and rises to his feet. All around them branches shake off snow and look a little closer to alive. A pathway cuts itself in between the trees. “I believe it wants us to go that way.”

He doesn’t smile. The fear curls up inside and he forces it down. He is a Prince of Cats. One day he will be a king. This place will not claim the kings to be of two thrones. “Wouldn’t it be novel if we managed to solve this one by ourselves and leave without trouble?”

It’s a vain hope. He keeps it none the less.

[blindfoster]

Quentin looks at the flowers blooming before their eyes. Snowdrops. Spring is arriving, and it's coming quickly. It's fine. This is fine. He peers down the path that seems to have made its way explicitly for them.

"Unsettling. But I guess it's a direction." They have this. They don't have any other choice but to have this, but Quentin is trying to cling to whatever will stave off the growing uneasiness this place sets off in him.

He does crack a smile at that. "That would be new, wouldn't it? Let's aim for that. Home in time for dinner."

Not likely. But for now, he glances at Raj once more before starting down the path as the trees clear for them, as snow begins to melt and tiny early spring blossoms -- crocuses and more snowdrops, springing to life like they'd been holding their breath and waiting for this exact moment.

[risingshadow]

The King is the Land in Faerie. He has known this long before October walked into his life and became his knight in all but name. The fact the land is answering their desires is a warning.

Unease and worry are the bedfellows of a King of Cats who walk the shadows and viciously defend their courts. "Yes, home in time to give our orders to the massive house order for take out. It's chinese tonight. I want those eggrolls again, the ones with the shrimp."

He follows Quentin down the path as it opens wider for them, responding to both of them as if they had always meant to walk together. He doesn't let himself examine that. The trees whisper and groan as they shake snow from their branches and new leaves grow.

"It's not just responding to me." He says, the worry growing like claws sliding forth. "It's both of us." Why? There is only ever one King of a land. Why both of them? Is it just that the land is lonely? The land doesn't answer but the road continues winding through the forest as the trees move back and a clearing is visible in the distance.

Where are they? What was this before? Worry keeps growing in him. Is this really an islet?

[blindfoster]

Quentin's stomach growls. He could go for eggrolls too.

But a warning is right, a bright and vibrant beacon that's sending up alarm. It should make Quentin feel cold, shouldn't it? Like a chill crawling up and down his spine. And it does, but somehow, the way spring is dismantling the winter, the way the trees shift and the path moves for them, it feels like coming home.

He reaches out a hand, fingers touching a still snow-covered branch. The branch shivers, shaking free its snow as newly green leaves unfurl beneath his touch.

Quentin looks back when Raj speaks, looking around. "You're right. Maybe it's just been asleep so long, we're the first living people it's seen." But he's sure that isn't it, even as the words leave his lips. It's more than that. This place wants the two of them, and is bending around them like the land has decided it's theirs.

Turning from Raj so the other boy can't see sudden worry on his face, he steps into the clearing, taking a breath. Theirs. That's not a word he can usually use, is it? Given who he is, who Raj is. It's not the first time his mind has tried to run off down that particular path, and for just a moment he allows it to, the impossible idea of loving Raj the way his heart wants to. Just that moment and he reels his his thoughts back, but not before the ground around him suddenly finds itself in full bloom -- grass and wildflowers springing to life, racing straight towards Raj.

"At... at least we won't freeze to death? That seems like a bright side."