Simonne sat exhaustedly on the ground while Marshall Lee continued to speed around energetically. His blue bear, who he had named Sid, was lying on Simonne's backpack. Marshall ran up to a smaller tree and, hooking his fingers around the trunk, began running in swift circles around it.

"Marshall!" Simonne called, laughing tiredly. "You're making me dizzy just by watching you!"

"Aww..." Marshall's disappointment at not being able to run around the tree was short lived. He brightened up as he noticed one of the branches was low over his head. He jumped up and, grasping the branch tightly, easily pulled himself into the tree.

Simonne was about to call out for him to be careful, but she found herself staring wonderingly as Marshall quickly scaled the tree. His slender arms were a blue, his hands grasping each branch in little fingers with the utmost trust. His feet never slipped or swung, but found each branch they needed to step on as though they were guiding themselves.

"Adorable, isn't it?"

Simonne glared at the tiara on her belt, but didn't answer it.

"Oh, come on. You can't possibly think you can ignore me forever," it whispered.

"Maybe not, but I can d*** well try," Simonne muttered through her teeth.

"Hmm," she looked at the crown warily. "Is the little boy distracting you? Perhaps I should get rid of him too..."

Simonne gasped. "You-! You leave Marshall alone!" She shouted, scowling at the cursed artifact. Then she heard a shout.

Marshall, who had been listening to Simonne when he heard her yelling, had stopped paying attention to his climbing and had grabbed a dead branch. The branch splintered when he pulled on it, and as a result he lost his balance and, shouting, began to fall down the tree. Simonne looked up, wide-eyed in shock, in time to watch Marshall fall. To Simonne, he seemed to hit every branch, his head twisting for the impacts and arms flailing to grab a branch. Finally he fell through the final layer of leaves and hit the ground with a sickening thud. Simonne leapt to her feet and raced over to Marshall. The six-year-old was lying terribly still, and Simonne crouched by his side, horrified.

"Pity," the tiara whispered mockingly in her head. "The boy fell."

"STOP!" Simonne shrieked, not realizing she was only screaming in her mind. "This is your fault!" she shivered and felt sick. "Get out of my head!"

"It's time you listened to me, the ice and snow!" It's terrible voice filled her head, and Simonne fell to her side, clutching her horribly aching head as voices whirled around her mind and visions swam before her eyes.

Marshall Lee opened his eyes, recovering from the stun of his fall. He took after his mother in several ways, and one was that it was hard for him to get too hurt. He sat up, slowly and painfully, and whimpered as he saw Simonne curled up on the ground, babbling fearfully and incoherently. He watched fearfully as her hand drifted to the tiara strapped to her belt.

"Get away from me," Simonne whimpered at the spirits. To Marshall, though, she just seemed to be having a terrible nightmare.

"Simonne," Marshall whispered, putting his hand on her arm in an attempt to soothe her.

Simonne flinched. "Oh god, no, they can touch me..." she shook off his hand, eyes still squeezed shut. "Please, leave me alone!"

"Simonne!" Marshall shouted, frightened and wanting Simonne to wake up. Simonne finally opened her eyes, and looked up at Marshall.

"Huh? Wha-" Simonne sat up slowly, confused, and with no memory of what just happened. "How did..." she remembered one thing, though. "Oh, Marshall, are you okay?" She asked, turning to him worriedly.

"Y-yeah," Marshall was confused now. "Just a couple bruises.. are you okay?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" She saw his worried face and it dawned on her what had happened. "Oh no, what did I say?" She looked him over, watching for signs of ice.

"No," Marshall shook his head. "You just seemed... really scared..."

"Oh, Marshall," She hugged him tightly, for they had grown close in the two weeks of travelling together. "I'm so sorry. I hope I didn't scare you," She sat for a moment with little Marshall in her arms. "I just... want you to know that, if I start acting weird in any way, please forgive me for whatever I do. I don't mean it.

Marshall looked at her with his bright red eyes brimming with questions. "Okay," he conceded.

There was something else she had to tell him. "Marshall, if I act scared or confused, please, try to help me. Talk to me or something. If I seem the slightest bit hurt or angry, I want you run away as fast as you can and hide from me until I'm calm."

Marshall looked her, worried by her warnings. "But why?"

"It's a little hard to explain, sweety, but please, remember what I've told you." Simonne leaned back and looked into his eyes. "Okay?"

"Okay, Simonne," Marshall leaned onto her so that he was sitting in her lap. "Hey, Simonne, you wanna know something?"

"What is it?"

"You sound just like my mom, when she's nice." He hugged her again. "It's nice to have a mom who's not mean most of the time."

"But Marshall, I'm not your mom," Simonne said, looking down at the top of his little head.

"Sometimes I like to pretend," he nearly whispered, and Simonne and Marshall sat there hugging for awhile.

Simonne couldn't help thinking about Ben, and how things might have been like this in the future if it weren't for her tiara. But then, Marshall would have been alone. She looked at the little grey figure in her arms, the faint bruises on his body marking both his fall and his resilience. she smiled slightly as she realized he had fallen asleep. Simonne stood up, carefully carrying Marshall over to her backpack. Pulling off the sleeping bag, she tucked Marshall Lee in, and kissed him gently on the head, like a mother to her son. She sat by him and pulled out a book to read by the evening sunlight.

"Goodnight, Marshall," she whispered.