The Gilded Frame

4 - Returned

Madeleine and Snowfall are now outside of the storm again.

However, they are exactly where they started.

Snowfall is carrying Madeleine back to the nearest town. He's leaning forward with his arms loosely wrapped around their neck.

Madeleine has leaves, twigs, and mud in his hair. He groans, "Why did I think that was a good idea..."

One of his shields broke, while the others have various levels of damage. His armor is scratched up and dented from debris flying around in the storm.

Madeleine sighs, "Espresso will be disappointed.. If he ever finds out."

Snowfall nods.

Madeleine closes his eyes, "Well... We're never doing that again..." He soon passes out.

After a while, they're in the town. One of the villagers runs up to them, "Woah! You came back so soon! Are you ok?"

Madeleine mumbles something before sitting up. He rubs his eyes, "Huh..?"

"Are you ok, Ser Madeleine?"

"There's a healer here, right?"

The villager nods and runs away to get the healer.

Madeleine looks down at the ground, when something catches his eye. He looks at his left leg.

His leg has a broken section of a tree branch impaled in it.

He screams and jolts away, which makes him fall out of the saddle and crash to the ground.

Snowfall stares at him. He passes out again.

Well that doesn't seem too healthy now does it?

The healer rushes over.

*+*A week later*+*

Espresso is walking to the Wafflebot Hangar. The leaves on the trees are beginning to change colors, going from vibrant green to yellows and oranges.

He sips some of his coffee as a cool breeze rustles the leaves overhead.

Pancake Cookie is flying around, already searching for fresh acorn jellies.

Latte had to go back to the school, since she still teaches there. Espresso doesn't teach anymore so he can focus solely on his work.

Venti was sad to see her friend go, but now she hangs out with Espresso. Well, tries to. He's usually too busy or simply uninterested most of the time.

She's been befriending other cookies in the kingdom as well, so she's starting to focus on her other friends instead of Espresso.

She does check on him to make sure he's sleeping though, because Latte asked her to.

Espresso opens the door to the Wafflebot Hangar. Strawberry Crepe runs up to him, "Where's breakfast?!"

Espresso hands them their food. They giggle and press a button on the wall.

A table comes out of the wall while two chairs rise out of hatches in the floor.