A/N: Chapter Two came faster than I expected! And another exciting animal name came with it.
As evening fell over the forest, the children were beginning to feel quite worn out from all the walking.
"Are we going to be going much farther?" Stephan yawned, thinking almost longingly of his bed, perhaps for the first time in his life.
The hedgehog merrily waved his hand for them to keep on walking. "Don't give up yet," he called, "We're nearly there."
They kept on in silence, blinking every now and then as the light continued to dim. Then a speck of light appeared in the distance.
"Do the fireflies talk?" Carolyn wondered sleepily.
Hedgequill did not answer, and a moment later the light grew bigger and they saw it came from the window of a lodge.
As they approached, the door opened and a large, antlered creature stepped outside. The light from inside reflected on its eyes, making them shine, and for a moment Carolyn realized what Hedgequill had meant by seeing the intelligence in a Talking Beat's eyes.
"Why, it's a moose!" Stephan exclaimed, for a moose it was.
At Stephan's words, the moose nodded jovially and said in a loud, foghorn sort of voice, "Come in, come in. The king will be here by morning, but I daresay you need some sleep before then. Hurry up, in you go!"
Hastened by the large animal's words, the children scrambled through the door, where they paused, blinking in the sudden light. As the spots began to fade from their eyes, they saw that the room they stood in was quite large, and appeared to be a grand entrance hall. There was a coat stand and beside it an umbrella stand; a mirror was hung on the opposite wall, with a chair placed on an angle in the corner beside it. There were three doors - two on the right and one on the left, and all closed - and at the end of the hall was a staircase leading up, which felt very grand, despite the lack of ornamental railings.
"Is – is this the king's castle?" Carolyn asked, feeling a little intimidated by the splendour of the hall, despite the homey feeling.
Hedgequill laughed. "My, no! Cair Paravel is on the Eastern coast, a good seven day's walk from here. This is the king's hunting lodge."
The moose stepped inside again behind them and pulled the door shut with his mouth. "Welcome to Moss Hall," he told them, "I am Monaster Moosewell, keeper of the lodge."
The moose's name struck Stephan as quite funny, and he was forced to turn an unexpected laugh into a cough. Even Carolyn smiled at the name, and she lifted her hand as though scratching her face in order to hide this.
"If you'll just follow me, I shall lead you to your rooms," Monaster continued, and if there was anything more funny than his name, it was watching the moose climb the stairs.
"I understand how he's able to go up," Stephan whispered to his sister as they reached the top of the staircase to find themselves in another hallway, this one much longer and with many more doors than the hall below. "But how on earth does he manage to get back down?"
Carolyn had no time to answer – not that she had one – for Monaster had stopped ahead of them, and lifted a hoof to push the door open. "This shall be your room, young master," he said and moving on the next door, "and this shall be yours, little mistress. I do hope you find everything to your liking. If there is anything you should need, ring the silver bell on the table and someone will come to tend your needs."
With that, the moose walked off down the hall – in the direction opposite the staircase, Carolyn note. She wondered where Hedgequill had gone, for she certainly had not noticed him leave, but realised she hadn't seen him come up the stairs with them and deduced he had gone elsewhere.
Turning to speak to her brother, Carolyn found that he had already gone into his room and closed the door, so she knocked timidly. She listened for Stephan's footsteps as he came to the door, but the carpet must have been thick for she heard none. It startled her when the door opened a crack and Stephan's smiling face appeared.
"Didn't you hear?" he asked cheekily. "You have your own room."
"I know that," Carolyn replied, and pushed the door farther open. "I wanted to talk to you before going to bed."
"Bed!" Stephan exclaimed. 'Don't you get it? We don't have to go to bed at all! We can do whatever we like here. No one is about to send us to bed. Do you see Mother here?"
As he finished talking, Stephan's face froze in an expression of shock and horror, an expression mirrored on Carolyn's own face.
"Mother," they whispered, and wondered how they had managed to forget her for so long.
"Oh, we must go back at once!" Carolyn exclaimed. "She'll be so worried."
Stephan looked down at his feet, wiggling his toes in the thick carpet. "Do we know the way back? We've been walking all day."
Carolyn scrunched her face, certain that there must be some way to remember their route, but realized instead that they had followed no path all the long afternoon. "What can we do?" she cried, and Stephan opened his door wider, tilting his head to let her know it was all right to come in. Carolyn ran past him, barely noticing the fine room or the large fireplace. Instead she sank into a chair and held her head in her hands.
"It's too late to go back tonight," Stephan muttered, thinking aloud as he made his way to stand at the large, ornate window overlooking the dark forest. "But in the morning we could ask Hedgequill if he would take us home."
"Hedgequill won't," Carolyn moaned, her voice muffled by her hands. "He wants us to meet the king."
"Well,' said Stephan slowly, "we could ask Monaster. Or I'm sure there are plenty of other servants here that could take us. Or-" he paused and turned to look at Carolyn, not at all sure how she would take the idea, 'we could wait until the king comes, and ask him to take us back."
Carolyn lifted her face, revealing red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. "Would he want us to leave?" she asked uncertainly. "Because – because, we're supposed to be his... his airs. What are king's airs?"
Stephan shrugged. "The winds that blow around a king? Maybe we're supposed to fan him on hot days, with palm fronds or something."
Carolyn knew what Stephan was referring to – there had been a picture in their children's Bible that had shown a king, and behind him stood three girls with palm fronds. Stephan had always been fascinated with the idea of hiring a servant to fan him if he got hot. "I – I think you may be right," she murmured, "but if the king wants us to wave air at him, he may not like letting us go home."
"Well, he is the king," Stephan replied sensibly, "and surely he must have a sense of – of fairness, or something."
Carolyn clung to this hope, curling herself up in the chair she was seated in. "At least let's try to find our way back tomorrow," she yawned, and felt her eyelids drop. The flames in the fire swirled before her, casting haunting shadows in red and gold around the room, until the black of sleep replaced them all.
Afraid that was a little shorter than the first chapter, but at least you got to see a moose walk up stairs. If only he could get down again.
And don't forget that right now the 2009 NFFR Awards are running. I have been nominated for Best New Author, and my story Fantasies has been nominated for Best One-Shot. There's a link on my profile - please come and vote. A lot of amazing people have been nominated this year (making me feel JUST a bit unworthy...). Thanks again to everyone who nomed me!