Warning for swearing.
Chapter 3: The Weather Report Is a Lie (Again)
"Alright, ya bunch of brine suckers and Sayo," The adult in the middle of the room said. He was a short man with brown hair, a beard, blue-gray eyes and a bit of a portly figure. He wore a beanie that was completely out of season, for one reason or another. This was one Ricard Ridinger - Ricky to his friends, Sayo's family among them - who was usually a teacher at Sayo's school. He was assigned to take care of the gathered group for the next two weeks, and wouldn't you know it, it was all of the kids who had been introduced as important to this story in some fashion or another. Tsukino Sayo, Keren Littenberg, Nicolai Petrov, Taiga and Kamishiro Yuugo had all been assigned to the same cabin.
Keren had been hiding away from everyone, having desperately hoped she could bunk with her brother, while Yuugo and Sayo were sitting on the sofa near him. Taiga and Niko were taking turns poking each other in the side while the other was distracted, sitting at the table in the kitchenette area. No one knew 'why' he referred to everyone as 'brine suckers' except for Sayo. She seemed amused by it.
"Rules of the house are simple." He continued, as if he hadn't said something possibly insulting. "No being out after dark, don't go into the forest past the markers, don't eat anything off the ground for the love of God and further more, no funny business. Funny business encompasses everything else. Ya get me?"
"Yeah, yeah..." Niko murmured distractedly, paying attention more to his Gameboy Color. (His Dad pulled off some favors to get it and some games a few months early! It paid to have a Dad in a video game making business, even if it was only part time. And the V-Pet really wasn't a 'video' game…)
"Yes, sir." Taiga replied gently. He poked Niko in the side again, to his annoyance. In her corner, Keren merely balled herself up tighter, hiding her face in her knees.
Sayo's lips twitched in a desperate attempt to control her smile. "Do we have a policy for the wildlife following me again, sir?" Her voice was soft, tinged with mirth, only making occasional pauses to look at their final group member, who seemed determined to become a human ball. If Yuugo wasn't here, she'd be in a similar position to be honest, but the twins practically required her to be social. How could they do such a thing?
Yuugo chuckled softly, arm resting on her shoulder as if in preparation to sleep there, which he probably was. It was that or fret over his sister being a cabin over and probably traumatizing people with her horde of snacks to share. "I doubt people are as accommodating of baby deer following you as we are." He followed her eyes towards Keren again and offered her a small smile. Separation anxiety. Ouch. He could sympathize a little. They would just have to make sure to get the siblings back in their group as often as possible in activities. It would make it easier. He glanced up at Sayo, who smiled back.
"Yeah, don't let them in the cabin." Ricard smirked at her, folding his arms. "No matter how much they beg. This ain't an animal orphanage, little lady. Plus it's really hard to get animal sh-" He slapped himself. "Cra-" He slapped himself again. "Poop out of the carpet. Believe me, I raised cats. They don't care where they go as long as they can."
"Hey, we're old enough, man. Don't censor yourself. I say shi-" Niko was cut off when a tennis ball bounced off his forehead. "OW! WHAT THE HELL!?"
"'Nother rule, no cursing." Ricard glowered at him. The expression actually made Niko gulp and sink into his seat. "If you do, ten dollars in the swear jar. You remembered to bring it, right Sayo?"
Sayo nodded, pulling it out of her bag, its label trying to slip off. Said jar had been emptied just before they had left, in order to spoil a pouty Yuki and pay Dougal for having to watch her. Not that that replaced camp in the slightest but it would help. "Right."
"Her siblings appreciate the contribution," Yuugo added with a roll of his eyes. "As does the school. All in the name of brightening young minds."
"So posh," Sayo mused under her breath. He snatched her hat in reply.
"Right. Good." Ricard nodded, before slinging his coat over his shoulder. "Well, now I leave you guys to get acquainted. I'm gonna go see if the other teachers got things settled with their kids because I don't trust the bloody lot of them. Don't do anything I wouldn't. That means prepubescent toga parties."
"What the hell is-" Another tennis ball met Niko's head. "OW!"
"Seriously man, stop asking for him to do that." Taiga took over playing the Gameboy. He seemed to be doing much better than Niko had been.
Sayo waved at him as he shut the door. "He has an endless supply of those," she murmured once Ricard was gone. "Probably somewhere in hammerspace."
"Probably." Yuugo pulled away from her as she began to move things around, and went over to Keren. His steps were careful. He didn't want to startle her into a panic attack. He'd dealt with that enough in his short life. "Excuse me," he began, keeping his voice soft. "Do you want something to drink?"
Keren squeezed her knees tighter. "Want my brother." Her reply could barely be heard, her voice too soft and muffled. "Was supposed to be in the same group…"
"Yeah well, our friend Rina was supposed to come with us but she had other plans. Shit happens." Niko snarked at her, making her curl up even more. Taiga punched him in the side now, sending him falling to the floor holding his kidney area. "Dude! The hell!?" He gagged.
"Gotta pay ten dollars now, along with friendship tax." Taiga smirked, attention still on the game. "You're not exactly helping, bro."
Yuugo smiled sympathetically, ignoring Niko. "I can understand that," he said, sitting next to her. "I was supposed to be with my sister. They might be in the next cabin over. We could go check when they're done making rounds, maybe talk to the teachers about it for you."
Sayo hid her mouth to avoid revealing her smile. "He's not a very empathic person, huh?" she asked, looking up at Taiga. She immediately looked away, reflexes kicking in as she nervously went to pick up the swear jar and put it on the table beside them.
Keren stirred a little, peeking out from behind her knees at him. Her amber eyes were glistening with unshed tears. "...I... I would like that..." She sniffled a little before hiding her face once more.
"Yeah, not really. He's a jerk but someone has to be, going by statistics." Taiga gave the younger girl a smile before reaching in and plucking Niko's wallet from his jeans pocket.
"Dude!" Niko whined.
"How much yen is an American dollar?" Taiga asked, leafing through it. "I'm guessing that's the currency he mentioned before. If no one knows I'll just stuff the entire thing in, he'll keep forgetting anyway."
"You are such a bitch!"
"Exactly my point."
Yuugo nodded. "Then it's settled," he said, offering her some space and ignoring the goings on around him. "Sayo, you can give him 'the eyes', can't you?" Poor girl, he wasn't sure if it would do anything, but it was better than nothing. And if her brother was in the same cabin as Yuuko, all the better. He probably needed to keep an eye on her anyway, with her tendency to wander off.
"For a good cause," she replied, offering Taiga the jar, giving a nervous smile in return. "It's about 124 yen," she said after a moment. "I had to remember it to make it easier on people. So it'd be about 1240, but he's done it twice now so your way... might be easier?"
"Very well then!" Taiga stuffed the entire thing into the jar, as he said, grinning all the while.
"Dude!" Niko finally got up and tackled the jar out of his hands, trying to fish the wallet out. Considering the space put in the jar's top only allowed some of his fingers to wiggle in, it was going to take a while to get it out this way, if at all. "Dude, you're such a bastard!"
"Might be," Taiga shrugged. "Neither of us will never be able to find out, though."
Sayo laughed softly and took the jar. "I'll get it out for you at the end," she said, putting it away. "It's probably easier not to have it. Who knows what ideas get into people's heads?"
"Bad ones," Yuugo supplied from where he was sitting on the couch. "Evil ones. Ones we cannot voice to the crowd."
Meanwhile, far beyond the limits of the markers, a small girl with purple hair sat on the stump of a tree. She stared up at the sky, not really seeing it. She inhaled and exhaled slowly. This was the right place then. She had come out here, after all. What was it that the research said? Shrines and holy areas were places of power? Well, when it came to the Digital World, that wasn't exactly a lie.
Two pups sat by her feet, one of whom was batting at her shoelaces like it had caused her a personal vendetta. Mirei was half-tempted to tell Ivy to behave herself but she wouldn't listen. So she ignored it, focusing once more on her breathing. She hadn't exactly done this in such an expansive space before. At least, not continuously.
On her next exhale, she saw her breath, a puff of cold in the summer air. ice curled harmlessly around her fingers and with a thought, melted to drip into ivy's fur, earning a pout.
Behind her, two men who wore odd clothing sat and began to sing a somber song, watching clouds began to gather above. An abnormal chill began to fill the air, making their thick fur clothes make sense. Both wore masks that covered their entire heads, one shaped to look like an acorn, the other shaped to look like some sort of odd seashell. They watched the first snowfall, unmoved by the shockingly not summer weather.
People looked up when they saw the first snowfall as well, genuinely distressed by this development. Unsurprisingly, as winds began to pick up as the girl somehow tapped into the leylines of the land to influence the weather of the world. Ricard urged people inside cabins before racing inside of one as well as soon as he noticed no one else was around him, hoping his kids were keeping safe and regretting leaving them behind.
The girl didn't even shift in her seat, singing soft harmony in unison with the two men. Her hair lifted in the wind and snow fell over her hair, but she ignored it, so intent on her task. She didn't need much more. Just enough to take the others in... to fulfill her promise.
Somehow, the men's song with her was stabilizing this odd change in the weather - and by stabilizing, it was actually intensifying it. Winds howled, thunder began to rumble in the sky and the snow fell harder, mixed with chunks of hail the size of golf balls.
Taiga walked over to one of the windows, staring outside of the cabin in surprise. Snow was falling hard outside of the cabin, coating the ground outside in white. "What in the blazes..." He breathed, bringing the attention of the rest of the inhabitants over to him.
Yuugo took Sayo's hand gently and guided her closer. "Well..." he managed. "That's a problem."
Sayo winced, touching her head. The news had been talking about this... strange, unusual weather patterns. This was probably just one of them, but something somehow, didn't seem right.
The world is more than what you can see.
"We need to get the windows sealed. All of them." Taiga immediately took charge, moving forward to close and lock the shutters of the window they'd been looking out of. With the weather getting this bad, the last thing they needed was a window breaking and letting the weather in. "Someone start the fire in the fireplace while the rest of us do this!"
"I'll take care of that, Dad taught me how." Niko immediately got to work, getting the matches and lighter fluid necessary as he began throwing firewood into the fireplace.
Yuugo went to Niko's side. "Careful how you throw it," he said, reorganizing it. "We don't want it to light the building." His voice was almost a whisper. "Are there any extra blankets? We can't risk any cold air coming in through the door."
Sayo moved to help Taiga, wincing at her significant lack of height. She knew how to compensate thankfully, using one of the chairs and shuttering another window. "They're in that dresser there..." She glanced at Keren. "Um... could you get that part?" She tried to smile but the cold shot over her skin and she quickly moved to another window.
Keren was watching them, alarmed by the growing sound of the blizzard and their own panic. At Sayo's request her eyes shook for a moment but ultimately she nodded and went to do as asked, going to the dresser and getting the extra blankets. She began to bunch some of them up at the door, covering the bottom groove.
"Yeah, I know. Thanks kid." Niko acknowledged, helping set the firewood up properly. "Get the lighter fluid, only need a couple squirts on this stuff to get it going, it's nice and dried out."
Taiga shuttered another window, sighing in relief. One more and they wouldn't have to worry on this end. Luckily there wasn't another floor to worry about. "I'll get the last one. Get the blankets off the beds, too, please. We'll need to all bunch together after this, if the chill still gets in despite everything."
Sayo went to gather the rest, pausing at the window. She went still. She swore she heard three voices singing out there, but that couldn't be. It was getting so terrible out there. Who would be out in this weather?
She shook herself and went to put pillows on the floor. No one would want to sit on the floor if it got cold. She set them carefully and placed the blankets on top. The sound came again to her ears, and she tried to tune it out. She had always had good hearing. It had been horrible when Yuki hadn't been able to sleep through the night as a baby. She ended up getting up and just quieting her if only so they all could sleep somewhat.
Yuugo handed Niko the lighter fluid and went to help Sayo and Keren. He offered Keren another smile and went to check for hot drinks. He then started to drip the faucets, just a little. Just enough that they wouldn't freeze.
Taiga shuttered the last window as Niko lit the fireplace, stepping back after threw the large match he'd struck against the brink of the mantle onto the dry firewood. The accelerant did its job and soon they had a happily roaring fireplace going, bringing heat back to the rapidly chilling room.
Keren shivered slightly, rubbing her arms for a moment. She hadn't noticed the chill until she'd started to work, goodness that was close. Managed to give Yuugo a smile as well before she claimed one of the spots for herself, wrapping up in an offered blanket after grabbing her bag. She knew she wanted her stuff close just in case.
Yuugo took his bag and Sayo's and put them by his feet. He sat down and picked up another blanket to wrap around himself. He lifted his head. "Sayo? Come on."
Sayo didn't turn immediately. She could still hear it. Someone was out there. But... she couldn't go look, not in this cold. Not when it could get the others hurt. If it came closer, they would know. They would hear it too. But who could have been out like this and sing so calmly? She went to sit with Yuugo, taking another blanket.
Taiga and Niko eventually came over as well, bringing their bags with them. They bundled up with the rest of the group, all of them wrapping blankets around themselves and huddling close. The shaking in the group wasn't just from the cold. Oh no. It was the realization the were all alone. The person of authority in this situation had left them - yes, before the weather had gotten this bad, but even still. They were alone. That brought more fear to them than anything else in this situation.
Mirei slowly stopped humming along, gradually returning to slow, deep breaths. She didn't feel the cold in the slightest, and when she opened her eyes once more, the snow had slowed, beginning to calm. She picked up her pups off the ground and held them, feeling both shiver and burrow into her. She pet them both on the head. "'S'over," she murmured, feeling somewhat tired.
The men behind Mirei shook the snow off of their furred capes and stood, brandishing spears made of ice they had pulled from the snow they had been about buried in. They walked up to Mirei, offering another fur for her to wrap her partners in. Their mournful song was finishing as well, for soon they joined her in silence.
Mirei smiled and took it, wrapping the pups in it. Then she made her way to hug one, expressing her gratitude as best as she could. Her expression sobered immediately after, and she picked up her bag.
"Time to wait then," she murmured. The storm clouds above them stopped their churning, lightened and then began to dissipate.
They waited an hour before any were brave enough to check on why the howl of the wind died down. What they found was most distressing.
"Four feet of snow." Taiga muttered, looking outside of the unshuttered window in shock. "We had a blizzard that covered the ground in four feet of snow. In August."
"Are we going to be able to open the door?" Yuugo asked in a low voice, beginning to look through supplies again. He kept one eye on Sayo, who hadn't made any noise in the past hour, not even to sneeze. Her focus was elsewhere clearly. He took her hand and gently guided her to help. She nodded and eventually looked around.
"D-Does anyone have a phone?" She didn't, not that they were great things to carry around anyway. Her mother was deadset against any of the children having them before high school, and what she wanted tended to be the reality. She concentrated on the sound again. It was fainter now, but she knew she had heard it. She hoped someone would find whoever it was.
"I do. It's in my bag, one sec." The world had to be ending, Taiga decided. Four feet of snow in August and Niko was being helpful now. As his blond friend began to dig through his bag, all of them otherwise paused when there was a set of knocks at the very door Yuugo asked if they would be able to open.
The kids looked at each other silently at that before Taiga took charge again and slowly watched up to the door and looked through the peep hole. He didn't see anyone out there, but it did look like the snow had been cleared from the door. There was another set of knocks, startling him away from it a little.
"No one's at the door. Who's making that sound?" Taiga asked the rest quietly.
"You don't think it might be a Yuki-onna, do you?" Niko asked, somewhat frightful. Keren shivered slightly at the idea.
"It's not night time, so I doubt it." Taiga frowned. Another set of knocks made a tic appear on Taiga's forehead. He debated opening up the door. What if it was someone was out there freezing to death? Ultimately he decided to open the door and instantly regretted it.
A huge man he should have seen in the peep hole was standing there, wearing lots of fur clothes and a seashell mask. A small girl with glasses, purple hair and eyes was standing by his side but he didn't really notice her because the man picked him up by the shirt and hauled him outside.
"WENDIGO!" Taiga screamed like a ninny just before the door closed.
For a moment, the cabin occupants just stared. That... that had seriously just happened right? Well, there wasn't any more screaming after that so what were they supposed to think? Also, did wendigo shut doors? Important question, right?
Finally, Sayo broke the silence. "Grab your things." Her eyes were watching the door like it would fly off its hinges and unleash all manners of hell. (She was probably right.) "We need to be ready to run." Yuugo bit his tongue on the other comment.
Mirei tilted her head. Well, that was one way to check, she guessed. The look on this person's face didn't say much, but she'd never known anyone to appreciate being dragged out by their shirt. She hefted her bag up and moved closer. "Uncle... that may have been a bit much." She looked him up and down and opened her bag, letting the devices inside search for themselves.
"Yes, well," The man sniffed slightly. "Cha-Cha can't have all the fun." Taiga hung limply in his grasp, completely in shock from both the rough handling and the sudden, extreme cold. "Is the device working? He won't survive long in the cold."
Mirei looked and pulled one out. It sparked and she nodded at them both. "It's this one then." She looked at the cabin. "And likely the others in there as well. We shouldn't waste time." she moved towards the door. "We're going to change their lives." Her voice turned tired, almost monotonous. "The least we can do is give them each other in the meantime." The warmth in her chest smoldered softly and she lifted the device out of her bag and took Taiga's hand, resting it there and curling his fingers around it. "I apologize," she said. "But fate sometimes works this way."
Notes
Yuki-onna* - snow woman is a literal translation, with many different legends surrounding her, such as being a spirit who perished in the snow.
wendigo* - A cannibal monster or evil spirit typically associated with the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of the United States and Canada. For more information please see google.
