A Snowed-In Cave

Jullien

When we reached the lodge, I pushed the door open and waited for everyone to go through. Unsurprisingly, the teen attending the desk looked rather shocked to see someone coming in during this storm. His shaggy black hair fell in his face as he cocked it to the side, studying us with a bit of curiosity. He then shrugged off whatever he had been thinking, however, and glanced back down at the ledger on the desk.

"New arrivals or current guests?" he asked, his tone a mixture between boredom and curiosity- as strange a mix as that is.

"New!" McKenna answered immediately. "Well, I am, anyways!"

His eyes flickered towards her and lit up with surprise.

"... that's definitely new," he muttered under his breath, barely loud enough for me to hear, before speaking a bit louder. "And you two?"

Nike

"I'm new, too," I told him.

It was nice in here. So much warmer, too... I was glad to be out of that storm.

Jullien

The boy glanced between Nike and I, distracted from McKenna for a moment.

"Alright, will you be needing a room? I doubt you'll be going back out in this weather, so you'll be staying, right? Or are you planning on just joining him in his?" he asked.

There wasn't anything in his tone to indicate that he'd been trying to get a reaction with the question, but my face lit up none-the-less.

Nike

"Uh, no thanks," I said, trying to hide my embarrassment. "But no, I don't need a room, either."

Jullien

The boy shrugged, putting down a pen he'd begun to pick up.

"Alright, then you're just wanting to weather our the storm? There's a fireplace in the sitting room if you'd like to wait there."

McKenna perked up, looking towards an archway. It was pretty easy to guess the room must be through there from her reaction.

Nike

"Alright," I replied with a nod, "thank you."

I headed through the archway into the sitting room, where a fire crackled in the fireplace. I sat near it, grateful for the heat. This place was nice, and it had a peaceful, welcoming feel to it. It'd be good to spend time here for a while.

Then I felt energy in the distance.

Right away, I frowned. The energy signature didn't belong to anyone I recognized, which meant it was likely that this was a Sybek. Well...as long as I didn't use my powers and the Sybek didn't come here, I was sure it would be fine. Not a problem...

Jullien

I followed Nike in and glanced around the room, checking for any familiar faces. It didn't really surprise me, however, when I didn't come across anyone. The two witches in charge of the place had been arguing earlier in the day and were probably attempting to stay clear of each other.
"Well, this definitely better than the cave," I commented to Nike, not quite sure what else to say. Conversation wasn't exactly my strong suit.
Meanwhile, I could spot McKenna jumping down to the floor and making her way over to the fire. Much like she had done earlier, she stuck her hands in the flames. It was a wonder her dress didn't catch fire like that. Perhaps it was magic'd after all.

Nike

"Definitely," I replied with a slight smile. Then I paused for a moment. "Would it be easy for someone out near where we were to find their way here? How long do you think it would take?"

Jullien

I frowned thoughtfully as I dropped myself in one of the chairs. It was easy enough to pull up the map of the area in my mind as I'd done earlier.

"From what I know, probably. This lodge sits at the base of the run and the land gets pretty smooth from here on out, beyond a few minor hills here and there. Depending on how easily they could move through the snow, and how heavy it's falling out there, it'd probably be rather easy. I mentioned how heavy the snow was because if it's not bad then they'd be able to see the smoke from the fire. As for timing... if they're on the run I'd imagine anywhere from forty to ten, depending on what part they're on and what equipment they have with them. Anywhere else around here would probably be normal time as long as they don't have issues getting through the foot of snow, meaning it just depends on how fast the person would move."

It wasn't until after I'd rambled through all of the information that it occurred to me she must have had a reason for asking.

"Why?"

Nike

"I just sensed someone off near where we were," I answered. "Probably an enemy. At the very least, it's safer to assume they're an enemy. I guess the question now is whether or not they think I'd go take shelter in an obvious location. If they think I'd go somewhere more hidden, I'm probably fine."

Jullien

I frowned even more than before, turning my eyes towards the archway we'd just gone through.

"If you need, I could always go search for one of the witches that run this place. I don't know what they specialize in, magic wise, but there's always the chance that one of them could put up a cloaking spell if I told them that there was a problem."

Nike

"If that would also hide my life energy, then sure, that'd work. I already have it so that my life energy can't be traced, but if their soul saw me, it wouldn't matter whether I was physically invisible or not. Souls see in life energy, so they'd be able to spot me."

Jullien

I hesitated, then shook my head with a sheepish smile.

"I can't tell you if it would or wouldn't, seeing as you stuff isn't something I've encountered before," I said honestly. Who would have thought that me, a guy who spent a lot of time studying the creatures in our world, would say that? "Witches can conceal magic auras with their cloaking spells, however, so it might be worth a shot."

As I finished speaking, I stood, trying to decide which of the witches would be better to approach.

"Do you want to come with me?"

Nike

"Sure," I answered. "I'm just not sure it'll work... I don't use magic or have a magical aura."

Jullien

I hesitated once again, thinking the matter over. I then shrugged, deciding that no amount of thinking would do me any good. There was nothing in the books about a situation like this.

"I'm hoping that the thing you're talking about is similar enough," I replied, then glanced towards McKenna. "I'll assume you're staying here, McKenna?"

The elemental simply nodded, having sat down on the edge of the fireplace while dangling her feet over into the flames. Turning around, I lead the way out into the entry way and towards the stairs. Hopefully the witch I had in mind would do. When I'd located his room, I knocked before dropping my hands to cross my fingers behind my back.

"What the hell do you want now, Margie?" a voice demanded, then paused for a minute. "Oh... sorry!"

There was the sound of things being moved about behind the door before it slowly swung open. Standing in front of massive piles of junk behind the doorway was Trent, an older man who's once dark hair had begun to become more of a peppered gray. His blue eyes looked us over for a minute before he offered a toothy grin.

"Dessi said it wasn't her, and I apologized already for mistaking you. Whatcha need?" he asked, then turned his eyes from me to Nike. "She also said that your friend here was a human, how'd you manage that? Don't you normally have bad luck in those departments?"

I managed to keep from turning red at his comment and attempted to focus on the matter at hand.

"Can you do cloaking magic?"

Trent frowned, his gaze flickering between Nike and I.

"Perhaps. What reason?"

Nike

"Oh, I just have an enemy lurking about," I explained. "Probably won't cause any trouble for me, but it's just a precaution. I'd be appreciative if you could do some kind of spell to cover me up."

Jullien

Trent frowned, but it wasn't as much as a look of refusal as a thoughtful expression. He turned slightly, making me guess that he was probably talking with his familiar, wherever the creature was in the mess that made up his room.

"I'll see what I can do," he replied after a few minutes. "Dessi says that she knows a couple strong spells, she's the one with the stronger memory out of the two of us."

I didn't know the familiar as well as I knew him, and could probably count on one hand the number of times I'd actually caught sight of the cat. I did know, however, that he depended on her, so hopefully she'd be able to pull it off.

"How soon can you have it up?"

Trent turned once again, obviously asking Dessi. He shook his head, frowning for a moment, before facing us.

"She guesses about ten minutes. That good enough?"

Nike

"That should be plenty of time, thank you." I gave a smile.

Jullien

Trent nodded in response, turning his back to the two of us and making his way through the piles of stuff in his room without shutting the door.

"I don't care how many people there are," I heard him shout as I began to turn away from the room. "It'll work better if we go outside!"

He must have been frustrated to be talking aloud to his familiar, I mused. A second later a loud crash came from his room and I spun around.

"I'm fine!"

"That's what you get for never cleaning!" a female voice commented.

"You're the one who gathers all of this crap!"

"It's not crap, it's... it's... stuff!"

"Useless stuff!"

I turned towards Nike with a chuckle, deciding that there was no need to worry about the noise.

"We should probably head back down towards the fire," I suggested. "They'll start moving soon."

Nike

"Alright," I said, heading over.

Those two sounded funny. I liked their dynamic.

Jullien

On our way back, I glanced towards the desk, happy to see that the boy who'd been there when we arrived was still in place. If what I'd heard from others wasn't wrong, he was some sort of shifter. If trouble arrived, perhaps he'd be able to warn us? Although I wasn't certain what sort of trouble this problem would entail...

I wasn't all that suprised to find that McKenna was exactly where we left her. Once I'd sat down, I turned my mind back to the manner at hand.

"So, what will happen if they figure out you're here?" I asked. "They the type to cause trouble just to get to you, or the sort that would only hurt you?"

It was probably best to know what she was up against, I decided.

Nike

"They'd only try to hurt me," I answered. "Hurting civilians or civilian property would harm their reputation. Besides, they try to pass themselves off as the good guys, so they want to look as good as possible to everyone."

Jullien

"That's good at least," I commented, rolling the thought over in my mind. "So the people here are fine... anyway I can help, though? Not sure how much a lion can do against the abilities you showed, but it's better than nothing..."

Nike

"You can't do physical fighting with these people," I told him. "It all has to be with powers. If they touch you, you're gone."

Jullien

That took a minute to take in, but only about that long. When I thought about it, it was the textbook concern about fighting someone who could teleport, which while it was rare, it wasn't completely uncommon to find someone who could. I'd met witches who made a buisness out of creating metals to keep such people from just disappearing when they were children.

"So I guess that means I wouldn't be much help at all," I replied with a bit of guilt. "Sorry about that."