Firgures Up Ahead Moving Through the Trees

[kitchen_maid]

Amy knew when she married Perry that she was never going to have what you might call a surfeit of privacy.

On the other hand, this is the first time since she was a very small girl that she's tried to fall asleep with an audience keeping watch over her.

There's a faint sliver of light through the doorway that Amy keeps opening her eyes to watch. X, Parker, Meg, Scorpius, and Bruce are in the breakfast room, just on the other side of the ever-so-slightly ajar door. ("You do not have to worry. I will hear you," X had said, when Amy had expressed surprise at how little the door is open. "Heartbeats are difficult to muffle. It is okay.")

Amy rolls onto her other side, which at least means that she can't see the light through the doorway.

On the other hand, she can now see the side of the bed where her husband isn't. Perry has removed himself to the seventy-third best bedroom. He would much prefer to be here, but he found it quite impossible to refute the logic of Parker and X.

"Helloooo, you're the King," Parker had said.

X had been slightly more diplomatic. "We will bring her back. You know I do not lie. And people will need to know where to find you. If there is an emergency. While we are gone."

Perry probably isn't sleeping any better than she is, Amy supposes. On the other hand, Perry probably isn't even trying to sleep.

Amy sticks her head under the pillow, but there's not enough air.

She rolls over again, takes a deep breath, and starts counting backwards from one hundred.

Come on, Amethyst. Just fall asleep.

Comments

[kitchen_maid]

Amy keeps walking, occasionally turning, her pace completely constant and utterly consistent.

She doesn't react to any of the sounds following her through the woods -- the voices or the snap of the twig Meg broke or the click-whirr of the birds in the trees.

The woods around them begins to grow a bit denser, the trees themselves are getting larger, their leaves motionless but glittering in the sourceless light.

[alsoagreengrass]

Amy seems to know where she's going and the forest certainly welcomes her. Scorpius is starting to worry the forest might not be so welcoming to the group that follows after her.

Especially if they keep touching things.




Er. Not that Scorpius is a stickler for restraint and caution. He's actually the sort to push the big red button and the like, just to see what it does, even after being told what it does.

But - the birds? Are the birds following them? He thinks the birds might be following them.

"Uhm.

"I don't suppose anyone has any bird feed? Or spare parts? I don't know what mechanical birds eat."

Maybe they eat intruders.

[parkerlee]

"Nuts and bolts? Eyeballs? Got me."

Parker eyes up the birds with deep distrust. Oh, the things Alfred Hitchcock could have done with these guys.

"Maybe they're like surveillance? Or a warning system?"

"Of course, that begs the question of who or what they might be warning. Which is not exactly a 'happy-place' sort of thought."

She really should have grabbed a weapon. A mace is basically just a glorified baseball bat, right?

[noteful]

"No, it's really not, Parker."

It's not even kind of a happy-place sort of thought.

Meg casts a sidelong glance at the birds. There's a small, quiet, and a bit quasi-hysterical part of her brain wondering if they're going to start cuckooing the hour.

"Maybe if we ignore them, they'll ignore us?

"I mean, they don't seem to be bothering Amy. Maybe if we look like we belong here, they'll assume that we do."

[master_bruce]

'Or maybe they won't.'

Bruce is not all that comfortable with leaving it to guesswork. He pulls a couple of small, metal items from his pocket (all shaped like bats, but he's kind of hoping the others won't see that), and tosses them down on the ground as if they were food.

At least one of them takes a peck at it. Maybe they are just hungry.

'We could just destroy them, if it'd make you happier.'

[cutting_edgex23]

X looks back over her shoulder at that, head tilting fractionally as she studies the hovering birds.

Then --

"There is a way to distract them? That we could also use to destroy them."

Beat.

"If it is necessary."

Her voice is definitely not pitched to carry much beyond the distance between herself and Bruce.

There is no sense in warning the birds, if they are about to become problematic.

This pause is half as long.

"It will be more useful if it does not prevent us following Amy."

Does Bruce have a remote-triggered detonator? Does Scorpius have a spell for that?

These questions and more are the ones that X does not voice. Probably because words are difficult.

And 60% of her attention is on Amy -- and Amy's trail.

[alsoagreengrass]

Destroy?

Scorpius knows the birds are only made of bits and pieces, but -

Isn't everyone just sort of made up of bits and pieces?

(He killeddestroyed a broom once. An old broom. But - That's enough for him. These birds...)

"Er - We don't - That's not - I don't think, uhm - I know a spell!

"It could camouflage us. Maybe they won't see through it?"

[parkerlee]

"For all we know, they're just here for decoration, just like the trees."

Unless the trees are primed to attack, too. In which case, Parker's going to be a little more worried about them.

"If we can camouflage quickly, great. But we don't want to let Amy get too far ahead of us."

[noteful]

"I think I have to agree. They're not attacking us, and they ignored us until we threw something at them. If they're a warning system, then at this point the warning has almost assuredly already been given.

"And I'm quite sure that Laura still knows where Amy is, but we don't know what she's headed toward. She could go through something we won't be able to open or follow her through. We probably need to stay close.

"Camouflage and keep moving. That's my vote."

[master_bruce]

Bruce is somewhat bemused at everyone's level of care for clockwork creatures, but has to acknowledge that it's probably him that's the weird one in this group. Well. Him and X. So he just shrugs.

'We don't need to actually take a vote, right?'

He's a tad worried by Amy no longer being in sight.

'Let's just do it, and move along.'

[cutting_edgex23]

X flicks a quick glance in Bruce's direction. It is accompanied by a one-shouldered shrug.

Civilians are occasionally very strange, even when they are friends.

So it goes.

"Okay," she adds, after a moment.

And then, attention transferring to Scorpius --

"Quick is better."

[alsoagreengrass]

"Quick, right."

Scorpius snaps to attention and hurries his way down the line, muttering the spell and bopping everyone over the head with his wand.

(A bit like a fairy godmother might do, really.

If gifts from fairy godmothers felt like raw eggs being smashed on your head and going down the back of your shirt.)

"Done," he whispers, as everyone starts to slowly blend in with their surroundings.

But then he tosses out another spell or two. A spell to muffle their sounds from outside ears, especially. Because what good is a Disillusionment Charm if they can still be heard traipsing through the woods?

[parkerlee]

Parker shudders a bit at the thick cold feeling going down the back of her neck.

"Okay, let's go."

She's not too worried. She knows that Laura is a good tracker. But she'd really feel better if they were sticking close to Amy.

Parker squints a little, peering over the heads in front of her.

"Is it just me, or are the trees starting to thin out a little bit up ahead?"

[noteful]

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.

"I think they might be."

It's kind of hard to tell.

The lighting here is . . . odd.

[master_bruce]

OK, that feeling from the spell is weird. But hey, he's no stranger to camouflage.

'Maybe.'

He's keeping more of an eye on the rear, really. He knows X has the front. This place is eerie; beautiful, but altogether too quiet. And the light reflected off the gold and silver leaves is alien enough to make him double-check what would normally be instinctive reactions.

'Lets step it up.'

His turn to glance to X.

[cutting_edgex23]

X would react to the feel of the spell, but there are worse things than feeling an egg smash on the back of your head.

She will remember for next time, though. If there is a next time.

Then she meets Bruce's gaze, holding it for a second before she turns and starts moving again, following the scent trail that Amy left behind her.

"It will be more relevant when we are certain. The light."

And if people thought she moved quietly before, it's got nothing on how quietly she's moving now.

And that may be why, as she moves past him, she says to Scorpius, "Thank you."

Or maybe it's just because they don't have to worry about the birds anymore.

[kitchen_maid]

The trees are thinning out, though only temporarily. The path has brought them to a large cleaning, perhaps fifty or so yards across.

They will arrive just in time to see Amy vanish back into the trees on the far side it it.

At the center of the clearing is a single massive tree with golden leaves.

While the rest of the trees in these woods are utterly still, the leaves of this one are moving faintly, as if it is caught in a breeze no one else can feel.

[alsoagreengrass]

Now that is a rather big tree.

Scorpius pauses, not thinking about falling behind or keeping up with Amy at the moment, to blink at it.

It's just rather pretty? In the clearing, with its leaves moving like that. A bit hypnotic, really.

(Think of what could be done with a tree like that!)



Scorpius shuffles forward, toward it.

[parkerlee]

"Oh, shit."

No way can that vaguely mesmerized expression be a good thing.

Parker makes a grab for the back of Scorpius' shirt. (She really doesn't want to have to explain to.....someone that she took him to Ambergeldar for a short holiday and then allowed him to get eaten by a tree.)

"Guys, I think maybe we shouldn't look directly at the....whoa."

The moving branches are kind of pretty, aren't they?

[noteful]

Meg isn't directly looking at anything; she has her eyes closed.

Granted, that probably isn't going to work as a permanent solution, since she's not remotely wild about the idea of trying to move though these woods without seeing where she's going.

And even with her eyes closed, she's improbably aware of that tree.

Meg puts her left hand over the bracelets on her right wrist and focuses on the feel of them.

And still . . .

"That tree really wants to be looked at."

It's very tempting to do so.

[master_bruce]

...this can't be good. He feels his gaze drawn towards the thing, and drags it away. Nothing that exerts influence like that is to be trusted.

'Come on, everyone. Just keep walking. Watch the ground.'

He wants to go over and see what it's doing, and how. If it's sending off some kind of pheromone, it could be useful to make into a serum. He takes a couple of steps towards it, before shaking his head and pulling himself back.

'If you feel it getting stronger, start to run.'

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not sigh.

Her eyes have been closed since Parker's warning. And X has some practice in saying 'no' despite overwhelming habit. And instinct.

But just to be sure --

snikt

"This will be more efficient."

Beat.

"Probably."

Everyone can give up one strip of shirt to the cause, right?

Because X can tie a mean blindfold.

"I can lead. It will be safe. Comparatively."

[alsoagreengrass]

What, now?

Scorpius has no idea what the others are talking about.

And honestly? He doesn't care much right now what they're saying. He's going to climb the tree.

As soon as he shrugs Parker off of him.

"You lot go on ahead. I'll catch up.

"I think it's singing to me, anyway."

[parkerlee]

Shrugging Parker off might be easier said than done. She's been told she has a hell of a grip.

Of course, she can't quite make herself turn away from the tree either, so at present they are forming what is effectively a very short conga line.

"Yeah. It's sort of like....slow dance beat combined with Barry White."

Presumably, other people might hear different.

"Meg?" Parker sounds slightly desperate. "If I ask nicely will you slap me?"

[noteful]

Meg opens one eye just enough to get a blurry-through-her-eyelashes orienting view.

And then she takes two steps toward Parker and slaps her, not hard, but hard enough.

"You're welcome," she says, and closes her eyes again.

Okay, so they've got a hypnotizing, singing tree to deal with. Maybe if they try to block that out . . .

"It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog," Meg sings.

Well, sings is a very generous word. Meg is tone deaf, and she couldn't carry a tune if someone gave it handles. And as she's very aware of that fact, the first line is a little hesitant.

But, hey, there's nothing to counteract the silent siren song of an ominous tree like an off-key rendition of a Beatles classic, right?

It's worth a try, anyway.

"It's been a hard day's night, I should sleeping like a log."