Ah now this, this was pure bliss. Reminds me of the first summers in the waste, before even they were taken by the frost. A shame to know that the same thing was happening here, but if you forget about the death and struggle of it all, it was quite beautiful.

Snow rained down like autumn leaves and all around me I was surrounded by woods, pines and birches mostly. If only the sun shone through, then it'd truly be magical. I still can't stop the comparison to Narnia however, I mean, how much more fairytale-like could it be?

"The fuck…" a muffled gruff voice said "why is there a brick back here?"

Oh… right.

"Perhaps it's a disguised holy hand grenade?" Another voice replied with a snicker.

Oh for fuck sake!

"Kids! Up here, look!" I exclaimed as two 'uugh' sounds were heard in response. Brats.

The creaking of two doors sounded from behind me as I put the reins of Adolphus on my lap and started forming my projectiles.

Mark and Helena poked their heads out from the cabin doors. "Yes, father? what is i-" their voices were cut off as a duo of snowballs merc'd their faces.

"So how're you two enjoying the ride so far, hm?" I asked with a smug smile as they wiped the snow from their faces.

"Can't you ask us that without flinging snow at us?" Helena asked. "I thought we left those activities when you launched your "winter crusade" at camp."

"Yes. I could." I answered as I retook the reins and let Adolphus continue on his merry way. "However I heard a Monty Python reference and I couldn't help myself." I finished with a laugh.

Helena pouted as Mark answered. "Well I've certainly been enjoying myself, having trouble making sense of the inventory. I mean… a brick? And that's not even the strangest thing I've found!" He said as he returned into the cabin, rummaging around before returning and tossing something at me.

Catching it and looking at the label of the can in my hand I couldn't hold back a snicker. "Pfft… hahahaha!"

"What's so funny?" Mark and Helena asked as I turned around.

"Fuckin… pigeon food for the pigeons." I said pointing at their wings whilst chuckling.

"Father!" Helena exclaimed with a gasp but with a disguised smile as Mark bellowed out in laughter.

"I kid, I kid!" I began as I toned down my laughter with a kind smile. "They're beautiful, just like your eyes, just like your soul." Making Helena blush and smile, whilst also making Mark smile, chuckling as he threw a snowball at my head.

Ruffling the snow out of my hair, I tossed the can back to mark as I again focused on the path ahead. "Well, if Helena manages to make some bird friends, we'll have plenty of food for them."

Helena hmm'd in response. "I suppose that's true… but I've always wanted a bird of prey, perhaps a peregrine falcon."

"Well perhaps one day. However, the angels never dispensed the knowledge of their whereabouts to me. Though if their escapades on earth are anything to go by, I'd imagine we'd find them eventually."

Mark perked up suddenly. "Do you think they have Harpy eagles? I've always wanted to see one personally ever since you read those stories to me as a kid. Had to beat a dozen of those German swordmasters merely to get a video of one. Radlads."

God, thank you for giving me these two LITERAL angels. "Well, on that note. I probably should inform you about some… peculiar fauna on this island."

…

About an hour has passed and since both my son and daughter had taken it upon themselves to act as my cushioning. Both of them sitting beside me, with the big ol fluff appendages wrapped around me. To anyone else it would look quite absurd I suppose, an absolute beast of an alabaster elk dragging a masterwork of woodcraft across a snowy meadow. Upon said masterwork, there sat two giants, with angel wings upon their backs, resting their heads on the shoulders of a titan of man.

With them nodding off though, I had to find another way of entertaining myself. As such, thinking of a tune I'd like, I remembered a particular piece that would fit the mood. So it was that I began humming to myself "the road goes ever on."

The sun was higher in the sky now, lighting up the meadow in front of me. Adolphus was still hard at work up front, occasionally blowing out a bunch of hot air out of his nostrils like a steam engine. Closing my eyes for a second I listened to the wind whistling it's own tune to mine as I hummed along, with the only other sound being the soft crunching of snow beneath the wheels of the carriage and the hooves of Adolphus.

However as I opened my eyes I discovered a problem, prompting me to tug on the reins to stop Adolphus. The blessing of the birch trees seemed to have come to an end and I was met with a wall of pines covering three quarters of the meadow. The only seemingly open bit was the way we came back from. Though as Adolphus came to a stop an even bigger problem came to my attention. For when the crunching of snow on our end stopped, a previously unknown crunching beyond the treeline continued before stopping as well.

Narrowing my eyes I tried spotting something out of the ordinary. I knew for a fact I heard something out there. Putting my hands on my children's heads, I ruffled their hair a bit to rouse them from their light slumber. Waking up they looked up at me, putting a finger to my mouth before they had the chance to speak, I signaled to them in sign language of what had happened. In return, Mark signalled that he'd fly up to try to spot them. With my approval, he took off and flew above the treeline before settling down amongst the trees.

The silence was palpable as Helena squeezed my hand in worry over what might lurk out there. Though just as I was about to stand up I heard Mark yell out "BOO!" and a crescendo of screams was let out before a trio of creatures crashed through the treeline, throwing up a cloud of snow as they did. Silence filled the air for a while before the tree of them finally gathered the courage to look up at us, letting out a gasp and trying to scramble away. Though not before the snow stuck in the pine above them crashed down and buried them in snow.

I was still stuck trying to process what the fuck just happened, however as a two neurons connected in my head and let out a "ding" sound, I finally got it. Letting out a humorous chuckle, I jogged over to the moving pile of snow and gently lifted each of the little creatures out. Finally getting a look at them, I recognized them as children of the indigenous populace, each one a different folk, which was quite odd as the three peoples were usually on very bad terms with one another.

Holding up the last one, a tiny little wolf pup, I nearly let out a very uncanny sound at how cute the creature was. Unlike his companions however, he was shivering from the snow and I took pity on the poor little guy. Brushing off the snow from him, I placed him in the opening of my coat, letting his head look out as he looked up at me with fearful yet curious eyes.

Taking my gaze off of him, I looked over to the others. Mark had returned and was seemingly mesmerised by the little things and Helena was busy coddling the drakar via scratching him behind his big ears. The little giffon however was glaring at me as I knelt down to get onto their eye level.

"Hello little ones," I began, drawing their eyes to me for a second as Mark elbowed Helena to stop her little cuddle fest. "Don't worry, we don't mean any harm. We are but simple travellers, looking for the griffon settlement of…" I paused in trying to remember the name. "Agathe, I believe the name is. My name is Elijah, these two are my travelling companions. This is Mark, my son and Helena, my daughter." I said whilst pointing to them respectively as the three kids swivelled their heads between each of us.

There was a pause before the drakar looked down at the smaller griffon before it stepped forth. "Hey mister Elijah, umm… you're not gonna eat us are you?" It asked.

I looked at it with a raised eyebrow before letting out a tiny snort as both of my children let out a suppressed chuckle. "No little one, we're not gonna eat you, we might be omnivorous but such an act is sacrilege. Worst you'll get from us is a tickle and perhaps a snowball from Mark over there." I added on. "So might you introduce yourselves? We haven't gotten your names yet."

At this the little drakar lit up as the griff softened her glare and let out a breath she had been keeping in. "Oh! Sorry, hehe. Well I'm Illarion," pointing to himself, "that's Lucia," pointing to her, I winced at her name. It wasn't an ugly name, far from it but… remembering that poor saint… thank god that her wounds had been healed in heaven but her for her experiences on earth, no wonder god punished us for such barbarity. "And the little guy in your clothes is Fiddie. We're siblings!" Pointing to the little pup in my coat, feeling his tail wiggle around on my chest as his name was called.

"Well aren't you all just adorable!" Helena let out as she knelt down next to the drakar and hugged his side, wrapping her wings around him simultaneously. "And you, little Illarion! You're so fluffy!" She cooed out as she began scratching the boy, making him lean into her as she continued.

Mark just looked on in embarrassment at his sister's childishness and walked up to the little griff. "Hey umm, sorry about scaring the three of you before, but let's be friends yeah? No hard feelings?" He said as scratched behind his head and stretched out his other hand. Goodness gracious, he can be adorable sometimes.

The griffon looked up in reluctance at first. However as she looked at Illarion having the time of his life and Fiddie nipping at my fingers whilst buried in warmth, she eased up. "It's alright, we didn't mean to sneak up on you guys either, we were just curious. We don't often meet others out here and the ones we do come across are really mean, so mother forbids us from going out like this." She said as gripped his hand and shook it.

This got my attention however as I looked at Lucia with a raised eyebrow and asked. "Wait if you're here then, where is your mother?"

This got her attention as she looked at me with wide eyes and opened her mouth to reply but she was cut short as a scream filled the air around us, coming from within the pine forest.

"MOM!?" The three siblings exclaimed.

Author's Note

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