Unfortunately, for all of the good luck she initially had collecting the first four Time Pieces, her search turned stale for a while after that. Moonjumper didn't get any news and Hat Kid's attempts to ask around on her own were fruitless.
Initially, it felt weird, since there didn't appear to be many places to hide the hourglasses. For as small as area this part of the Horizon seemed to initially take up though, Hat Kid was taken aback by just how expansive it truly was. Her explorations sent her roaming around the town, meeting all types of ghosts from across the planet; through the depths of the vivid forest; to the field where the electric sprites still buzzed around; across the mountain passages; and along cliffsides overlooking the wastelands. And this was just the section that Moonjumper and the Dwellers had claimed for themselves. There could've been countless other locations beyond the Horizon's never-ending void and the impossibility of her chances with that in mind made her head reel.
She couldn't give up though. Which brought her to the forest once again. Blending in with the maze of shimmering flora, it was the easiest place for a Time Piece to go missing. By then, she'd already trekked down nearly every path at least once, looking over them with a fine-toothed comb. The Magnetic Fields were a dead end. The wastelands were just as empty as always—although one of the Dwellers told her that, in the cold months, many nature spirits would flood the location and transform it into an oasis filled with a bounty of new, etheric 'life.' Where else did that leave her to go?
Hat Kid paused for a moment to recollect her bearings and take a sip of water from her canteen. For the second time that day, she checked her handheld device to see if it had somehow gone off without her notice, but the screen remained blank. There had t be something she was missing. Or maybe whatever spirits took the Time Pieces remaining had already gone somewhere else—maybe they weren't even in the Horizon anymore. But her gut told her that wasn't the case: She just needed to keep looking.
All at once, there was singing. The child stopped in her tracks, a brow raised in wonder at the sound. It took her a second to remember that she'd heard it once before. She wasn't far from the crossroad where she'd heard it the first time—only then, her mission had kept her from investigating it. The noise was too faint to make anything out, but the more it continued the more her curiosity grew.
She'd been warned about the risk of running into dangerous spirits by both Moonjumper and his subjects. She couldn't help herself: Intrigue won over caution and her search was fruitless as it was. After a reluctant moment of thought, Hat Kid followed the sound.
Gradually, as she walked along the forbidden trail, she noticed that the plants around her began to look more and more withered. Not with decay—she wasn't entirely sure that they could die, not in the normal sense—but with a dimmed, dry look that gave them all a worn, dangerous edge until they all but thinned completely. Even the canopy of branches above has eased into a series of cold monoliths with jagged points surrounding her.
She wasn't exactly surprised, given the various areas she'd already stumbled into while exploring the Horizon, but in no way was she prepared for the sudden drop in temperature that soon followed. All at once, her flesh stung from a bitter cold that had latched onto her from nowhere. She tried bundling herself up with her cape, brows furrowed at the coil of air that wisped in front of her face as she breathed. Then she saw her first snowflake, drifting lazily before her eyes until it came to rest on the crisp earth near her feet.
A hardened knot formed in her gut. This felt too familiar. This felt like when she'd ventured through the frozen part of Subcon caught under Vanessa's magic.
Vanessa wasn't here, she knew that, but what was this? Was this just another one of the Horizon's strange environments or was there some other ghost just like the ice queen lingering nearby? The thought alone gripped Hat Kid with fear, to the point where she didn't know she'd stopped moving through a steady build of snow until the singing she'd been following suddenly grew much louder. She did the only thing she could: She hid, curling around her own body to make herself as small as possible among the large, gnarled roots of a bare tree.
The words were so much clearer now. Voices sung in an almost breathy soprano; each note met with a haunting sense of control:
"Tale of a place, a deep forest dark with grace,
"There he lives
"Blooming inside, a wild field of big eyes,
"And there he lives
"Skin so blue, his eyes shot red,
"The moon, the sky, tell him only lies,
"He doesn't know, she waits inside,
"She lost her mind, many years gone by!"
Peeking out from her hiding place, she counted two of them. At first glance, it would've been easy to mistake them for humans, or ghosts that had materialized in human form. She could only describe them as snow women. Both were exceptionally beautiful, with long, flowing hair and mist-like robes that cascaded around them in graceful, billowing movements when they moved. They danced barefoot in the snow, each step as fluid as water and never leaving a single print in the soft powder.
However, the longer Hat Kid stared at them, the more evident the chill coursing down her spine became. Lovely as they were, there was something terrifying about their beauty. Their flesh was deathly pale, tinted with an icy tone and laced with fine, delicate patterns like frost against glass. Their eyes were a clouded, faint blue, and there was no regard for whatever fell in their line of sight: Instead, their coy gazes seemed to leech from anything they set upon. They carried an aura that that almost vampiric.
It was too late to sneak away: They were meters from Hat Kid, so she waited for them to pass by. She had no idea what kind of spirits they were beyond their obvious ties to the ice as elementals. For all she knew, they may have once even been human at some point. Whatever the case though, she didn't think she wanted to get close to them.
As the duo repeated their song, the alien couldn't help finding a certain cruelty to it. Despite the tragedy behind the lyrics, they smiled as the words poured from their lips. It was a story they couldn't get tired of hearing, a ballad of despair without an end. The snow women relished it, as if they were privy to some kind of twisted joke to its character's grim fates.
If she had the time to consider the song's words more in-depth herself, it may have struck an even heavier cord in her mind. Escape, however, was more pressing a concern. Hat Kid noticed her own footprints leading back the way she came. Would the snow women see them? If they did, they'd find her immediately. Her only choice was to run when their backs were turned and hopefully reach safety before they caught up to her.
Slowly, as quietly as possible, she eased away from the roots. Then a pair of nimble, frightfully cold hands clasped her shoulders from behind. Her heart leapt into her throat.
"Sisters, look!" exclaimed a soft, feminine voice behind her ear, "It seems our song has attracted a little mouse! Don't be shy, dear; there's nothing to be afraid of!"
Dread dug through her skin even more than the snow woman's icy touch did. The other two abruptly silenced themselves at the third's call, eyes widening in surprise when they came to rest on the young alien. She tried shaking the first off to run only to instead back away further within the spirit's arms as the others drew closer. They enclosed around her, gushing over her like children that stumbled across a lost puppy.
"A little girl! This is a surprise!" a second mused aloud, taking her by the hand and spreading her much smaller fingers within the palm of her own to examine them. Her touch was just as cold as the first's, as if it meant to absorb every ounce of warmth in her body. "I can't remember the last time we saw one, can you?"
"Aren't we lucky!" giggled the third, running her own fingers through one of loose tresses of Hat Kid's hair, "Such a small, pretty thing… I think I'd like to keep her."
"Yes!" answered the other, but in a much more jeering tone, "Would you like to stay with us, little girl? Have you come to play in the snow? We could have so much fun together!"
Hat Kid was shivering, both in distress and from the chill that had begun to settle in through her flesh. Her muscles had stiffened, her feet felt frozen in place. She might've answered the circling snow women, but they just continued to talk over her to one another. She might've fought to escape, but although the first's grip wasn't painful it felt piercing all the same, like icicles pinching her through the fabric of her tunic.
That touch drew her in closer, the snow woman drifting her arms around Hat Kid to pull her into a nuzzling embrace from behind. Long coils of hair drenched a midnight blue cascaded over her as the other moved, and she swiftly grabbed one arm as it looped near her neck. The frost-like etchings on the spirit's flesh were more prominent now, glistening sharply. As disturbing as the other two, this one wasn't quite as severe. "I had always wanted a child," she cooed, "We can't have any on our own, you know. It's so very unfair."
Mistaking Hat Kid's panic for confusion, the third explained, "A baby rarely thrives within our ice. Either the warmth of new life is too quickly snuffed out or it burns us through. Often both, if the first is not extinguished soon."
"Fate is too cruel…"
Yet they spoke all of this with the same, placid pleasure they carried in their song. The trio seemed to find greater satisfaction in the idea of taking life rather than giving it. At last, Hat Kid wriggled to break free only to be met with laughter at her attempt. She tried to raise her umbrella to fight back, but the arms encased around her kept her from raising her own.
"What's the matter, poor dear? Just stay with us a while," the first grinned, "We won't harm you! If we did, we might upset our darling Moon. Though how you managed to trickle away from his sight is beyond me."
She grimaced as the grip around her quickly turned sharp before the snow woman at her back abruptly released her with a weary sigh. "Nevermind Moon," she said with a pout in her voice, "She's already been marked by those horrid fire spirits."
At once, the disturbing adoration from seconds ago turned to disgust in their eyes. They retreated from her, each maintaining their circle, but with an averse, scrutinizing eye now. Whatever they thought of her, she actually felt relieved from the change. She just didn't know what they meant. She steadied herself as she gripped her chest with her free hand, now free to speak as they looked at her in wary silence, "What are you talking about?"
The thought of being 'marked' by anything didn't settle well for her. Although she hadn't come across any fire spirits in the Horizon, she'd met plenty back in Subcon. She'd even gone deep within their own domain, the Firelands, and might've been a prisoner there were it not for her quick-thinking and an insane amount of luck. If that adventure had upset the foxes enough to target her, then she might have trouble the next time she ever visited the forest.
However, their answer was a far-cry from those particular worries. One of the snow women folded her arms across her chest. "They've marked you as theirs, so that they can keep you in their awful home of fire and smoke," Hat Kid almost begun to search herself before she continued, "We can see it down to your soul, and only the spirits that made the mark can remove it."
A mark on the soul… No wonder she'd never noticed a thing like that: It was probably something that only spirits could find by feel—as a way of warning other supernatural beings whenever they saw a mortal creature as 'theirs.' She'd heard that before…
Now though, a part of her wondered if that was how she'd managed to stumble across the Horizon when she did. The Firelands were one thing: It was a place ruled by the fire spirits and they'd lured her into it. However, all types of spirits made their home here. If it could be accessed by any of them, then maybe anyone 'marked' by them could enter as well—even if they weren't ghosts.
"Get them to remove it or run along, back to dear Moon," the second snow woman waved a hand at the alien dismissively, "We don't want any fiery sorts here."
The trio started to leave. For a moment, Hat Kid just watched them, and then she eyed her frozen-over surroundings. This was their territory. Maybe there was a Time Piece here, but if she wanted to find it—as much as she recoiled the thought—she'd probably need their help. She took a few steps after them, "Wait, I'm looking for hourglasses! Have you seen any?"
They barely paused to cast her a sidelong glance, "What if we have?"
Since it had worked at least once before, and since they raved so much about him, she decided to press the phantom's authority. "Moonjumper said I could get them: He's been showing me where to find them. If you like him so much, then help me look for one."
To her surprise, however, they just laughed. It was both a lovely and ugly sound; a warble like a bubbling spring tainted with poison. "Oh, we adore Moon!" one of them exclaimed.
"He just doesn't like us very much!" chuckled another, "What a shame, really. We'd love for him to come and play sometime."
The third leveled her eyes half-mast at the child, a hand raised to her mouth in thought. "Tell you what, little girl: How about we make a trade? Moon doesn't like it when we visit him, but he seems to let you go where you please. Fetch us a memento of our dear Moon from inside his palace and we'll tell you where to find your hourglass."
Hat Kid's brows furrowed. They wanted her to steal from him? Why? Surely Moonjumper would be angry with all of them if she did. How could she anyway, after how much he had done to help her? Maybe she could just find the Time Piece on her own, but from their smug smiles, she doubted it would be easy. Even if she wasn't already desperate, she got the feeling that if she didn't agree they'd just make her search that much harder out of spite. Of course, she could just tell Moonjumper, but then she wasn't even supposed to be in this part of the forest, meeting them, either. She picked at her fingers nervously.
"Anything at all will do," the second encouraged, "but if you try to trick us, we'll know!"
She did have half of that spyglass that she found in the caves. She didn't think they'd take the broken device though. Besides that, the goblins had already entrusted her with it—the only reason she hadn't already given it back to Moonjumper was because she wanted to try to find the other piece and fix it.
Hat Kid drew a fist at her side, saying nothing and darting off back the way she came to the sound of their laughter behind her. She wouldn't give them an answer. If possible, she'd come back later, find a way to sneak around the snow women, and get the Time Piece on her own. So long as they weren't lying about there even being one anyway…
The child wiped her nose with her sleeve as it started to run. Maybe having ice powers is some kind of sign, she thought with dismay. It's like anyone who has them is a cold-hearted weirdo! First Vanessa, then these three. She'd rather face any of the other spirits and ghosts she'd already met several times over before running into them again. She just hoped she had the choice.
Meeting the snow women actually ruffled her a bit. Beyond the panic of the moment, she didn't like their superior, jeering attitudes. The more she thought on it, the more heated she got and the more she regretted not raising her umbrella against them when she had the chance. She rubbed at her face, somewhat relieved when she crossed back over into the thriving portion of the forest. It was good to be away from them and begin to thaw out of the cold that had settled over her body.
She'd just been thinking about how to warm herself up when a strange flash of red appeared ahead of her along the trail. The child had come across them before, but never for more than second and so she was never able to tell what they were. Her extended stay in the Horizon kept her on edge though, and the day's events made her more vigilant than ever. This time, as the brilliant red light appeared before her, Hat Kid almost instinctively dove behind one of the trees out of panic.
Again though, her curiosity got the better of her the moment she calmed down. This one's glow lasted longer than the others. Carefully, she peeped out to see a strange, ovular shape manifesting from the light. It was hard for her to tell what she was seeing, and she crawled on her stomach to move over to a nearby bush for a better vantage point.
By the time she got up on her knees to take a second look, she'd nearly missed it. It looked like an eye, but unlike any creature's that she had ever seen. It was a solid, vivid red with a black iris fidgeting around in a frantic search, set within the bark of another tree before blinking out of existence.
Hat Kid didn't know if she was just seeing things again or if there really was someone or something watching the Horizon. After it was gone, she just ran back to the castle.
