Jesse had gotten very used to the vaguely hot temperatures in Narvid, and the generally pleasant temperatures of Hizelk, Jupin, and Enchantra.

They were not prepared for the blizzard that started to hit in Yurin.

The moment they started to stray towards the northern border of Hizelk, Maya stopped the whole group and bundled Jesse up in a large coat that made them look like a baby Inuit.

(Bob the horse snorted in disdain; as if wondering "why not entrust them to me? My mane is made of fire.")

Jesse figured out the reason why as they eventually meandered over the crest of the hill- and got hit in the face with tiny snowflakes.

They were very tiny, and not coming down particularly hard, but the amount of them that had seemed to appear out of thin air was more than a little surprising, to say the least.

Mevia grunted, tugging on a coat that was not nearly as thick as Jesse's. "Damn. I always hate getting near the northern border," she muttered.

Hadrian was pulling out coats and passing them out, ignoring the fact that he was now standing in a half-inch of snow without a coat or even a jacket other than his suit jacket. "Well, the snow is horrendous the minute you get within, like, half a mile of the border," he grumbled. "Don't understand how anyone wants to live there."

Lukas patted Jesse's knee- which was about as high as he could reach, considering how tall Bob was. "You stay on Bob until he decides he needs to leave 'cause it's too cold, okay? One of us can piggyback you then."

"I can walk..."

"Not when the snowdrift is fucking taller than you are," Aiden grumbled.

... well, to be fair, Jesse was short.

They really, really hoped Aiden was joking.


Aiden was not joking.

There was snow piled high around them now, only about two hours out from where they'd been. Bob had had to leave when he started steaming and the snow was up to his neck.

The moment he disappeared in a whipcrack and puff of smoke, Jesse's mark buzzing a little bit as if to alert them (like a phone notification, funnily enough), they immediately shivered and tugged their coat around themselves more. He'd been giving them quite a bit of extra warmth; without it- even in their huge Eskimo coat- they could immediately feel the cold seeping in.

Gill, who was wearing a slightly puffy coat, picked them up like a rag doll and sat them on his back in a piggyback ride. "Alright- we need to get there before we freeze."

Radar grimaced, holding his hand up to shield against a flurry of wind and snow that got at least a snowball's worth of snowflakes stuck in his black hair.

It looked a little like he had a horrendous case of dandruff.

"We're about to reach the border," he reported, "so Duomoon's gates should be up ahead soon."

"Duomoon's not as far as Champion City is from Sky City," Jesse commented meekly, from where they were bundled up on Gill's back.

Jack hummed, scratching his beard (which was full of powdery white snowflakes). "Distance-wise, no, but the blizzard comes and goes- we were a little late when we started out-"

Jesse could feel everyone's eyes immediately slide to Maya and Gill, who'd been arguing over who would carry the suitcase of clothes that the October Children shared (Aiden was keeping half the food, while Lukas was keeping ahold of extra supplies in case there was a crisis) for almost an hour longer than when they'd expected to leave.

They had the grace to look a little sheepish.

"- so you have to wait for the blizzard to pass, at least enough to continue travelling. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days."

Jesse's mouth opened.

"Harper already checked the forecast- the blizzard shouldn't last for any more than a night or so, which is about to be expected. Duomoon's been experimenting with a weather orb like Ivor's, since the baron- Cassie- has decently good weather magic affinity and could manage it. She's managed to temper the longest blizzards to only around a night, so this makes travel a lot more regular," Isa said, cutting in gently.

Jesse closed their mouth.

"Oi!"

Jesse looked over; there were two people jumping up and down at the gates. One was a guy with bright teal hair and goggles on his face- probably to keep snow from going in it- while there was also a girl with bubblegum pink hair.

"We're this way!"

Petra waved furiously at them. "Hey Lizzie! Hey Dan!" she practically bellowed across the way.

(Aiden looked like he was trying to hide a smile at that.)

The group managed to stomp through the snow over to the gates; as they drew nearer to the gates (iron bars curling in intricate patterns that reminded Jesse of constellations, with bright beautiful stained glass in some of the shapes), "Dan's" hair had turned white as snow.

Maybe they'd looked at it wrong?

Lizzie beamed when she saw the October Children. "Hey! It's good to see you guys. Joel's been griping about how all our plants hate this cold, but he knows I like guard duty here."

"Isn't he also in that cult here? Er, Jeremyism?"

Lizzie rolled bright blue eyes up to the sky. "He says it's not a cult, and it's a religion," she said, sardonically, but there was something warm in her eyes that made Jesse think she loved him and was probably just teasing him for it.

"Well, he would..." Dan looked the group over, then nodded. "Well, let me see your ID cards, please."

They went through the whole group, but it was when they reached Jesse that a boy in an orange hoodie with a cat on the hood and a girl wearing a thick, striped blue sweater came out, holding their staffs that marked them as on 'guard duty'.

"Hey, it's our shift- oh! There's, uh, a lot of people," the girl said, blinking green eyes. "Uh... hi."

"Hey, Stacy," Aiden said, making her shoulders relax all at once, even as she took in the three lords, Hadrian, Jack, Nurm, and Radar.

"Oh, it's just you lot. Passing through on your way to get to the Oasis, then?" Stacy asked, resting one hand on her hip as Lizzie finished approving Jesse's ID.

Lukas nodded. "The Hizelk lords agreed to let us into the party as their guests. We're there to help keep an eye on the keys."

Stacy nodded, humming as she took that in. "Well, I'm sure you'll all do a fantastic job, as per usual. Too bad you didn't come through last week, though, the storms were at an all time low."

Hadrian just grunted.

"Um... excuse me?"

Every eye in the group turned to Stampy- the young man (demon) had been rather quiet during the talk, eyes locked on Jesse.

Stampy's eyes sparkled a little as he leaned in to get a better look at Jesse. "You're a human, aren't you, mx? ... you look... delicious- ow!"

Gill had smacked him over the head- probably he was trying to be gentle, judging by the light expression on Gill's face, but Gill really packed a punch. "Don't scare 'em. They're with us."

He hiked them up on his back a little further.

Lizzie's eyebrows went up, her eyes flicking from the three lords back to Jesse. "Really? What's so important about them that they're not a contract but still alive?" she asked, surprise heavy on her tongue.

"Confidential," Milo responded simply.

The demons exchanged looks, but none of them pressed further- Jesse supposed that as 'subordinates' they weren't really allowed to know things unless it was told directly to them.

"Well, Cassie's is open if you need to stay temporarily," Dan said, giving Mevia a slight bow.

She jerked her head in acknowledgement.

Jack whistled quietly. "Dang. Good thing we got the lords with us- otherwise we'd be in who knows which odd inn or whatever."

"I think the Sky City inn is very lovely."

"Well, you would, Milo, you help run it."

Jesse supposed it made sense that having the lords along meant they'd stay in the baron's house- then they frowned. "On our way up to Hizelk, Stella let us stay in her house, but the lords didn't come along..."

"We actually helped Stella run a bunch of tasks once- on orders from Romeo. We ended up pretty friendly with her, and, well," Lukas shrugged. "Now she lets us stay in her house."

Lizzie hummed, brushing pink hair behind her ear. "Yeah, it's not particularly normal unless a lord comes along for people to stay with the baron- though most contracts could pull rank and do it anyway."

Petra stretched a little, the material around her shoulders tugging a bit as she did. "Yeah, inns are cool. They've got better drinks," she said, cheerfully. "A lot of human shit's really weak."

Jesse made the note to themselves to maybe not drink anything alcoholic in Cosmos.


The mansion was different from Stella's- a lot of polished dark oak, in comparison to the lighter hues of Champion City. It felt like a log cabin that you'd see in the woods- just a lot fancier. And bigger. It had a lot more log furniture- Lizzie blushed when her friends practically fell over themselves praising her for being able to make such nice furniture.

And as per usual Jesse's insomnia came kicking in at phenomenal speed, so now they were lying on their back in footie pajamas in the October Children's room staring up at the ceiling and trying to count the distant swirls in the wood and getting nowhere.

Usually, they got their own rooms- this time, since there were so many people, people had ended up clumping together. The three lords got a room, Radar ended up with Hadrian (Hadrian had given the longest sigh of his life at that but said nothing else), and Petra and Jesse had lumped together with the October Children.

Cassie had barely greeted them- polite enough, though a bit cool with Aiden (was there history between them? Jesse would be surprised if there was, since the October Children hadn't been in Cosmos for longer than a year as far as Jesse knew), slipping off to the side hallway to do whatever barons usually did.

The October Children, when lumped together, slept in what was practically a giant pile- Maya's head was on Aiden's chest, while Aiden was using Gill's back as a pillow (Gill slept facedown and he snored, which wasn't helping the insomnia very much) and Gill was borrowing Lukas as a teddy bear. Petra was lying on top of this pile but had her head kind of clonked against Aiden's- some of her hair had ended up on Lukas's blindfold.

It was actually a very cute pile, and Jesse had joined in the nest to see if it helped them get more sleep.

It did not, unfortunately, but at least Jesse felt warm.

The swirls were incomprehensible now so Jesse rolled off the bed, having to squirm out of Lukas's grip, and out of the pile and stood up. Reuben snuffled from where he was asleep on top of Aiden's stomach, but didn't move otherwise.

They eased over to the heavy door- it took them a whole minute to ease it open without creaking so loud that they woke up the entire town

Cassie Rose stood there mid-tiptoe past the room, stock still and looking comically surprised in her cat pajamas and slippers.


A/N: hi cassie how ya doing xD

pretty chill chapter, we're not near the part where stuff starts going down

yet

Responses to reviews!

Toni42: It's only fun when you're watching lolol / Hehe / He's not having a fun time / Heavy, heavy implication by accident

TheAmberShadow: Heeeee / Heavy implications / W e l l...

Bright: It is not the Erymanthian boar, but a good guess!

Happygoluckymegami: Hehe / Oh, no, she doesn't care, but everyone else in Yurin apparently does xD / Heavy implication haha / Heheee / xD

DubstepDragon14: Aww haha / Thanks :D

DarkbeastDend: Well, Jesse's shorter than five feet, while everyone's at least 5 feet tall... xD

ThePlayaJam765: I commend you for the binge xD / For once, yes, he's nice ish xD

x.X. A.L. X.x