[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]

“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."