"Are we there yet?"
Jim gritted his teeth against a curse and kept up his steady pace, trudging with some difficulty through the ankle-deep ice and snow. Claire was shivering by his side, despite wearing a thick faux fur coat, fleece lined leggings, and heavy snow boots. A water repelling spell kept them dry, but it did nothing to protect them against the chilling winds and the sharp bite of ice in their lungs with each breath they took.
"Because I sincerely thought that we would be there by now."
"Okay," Not Enrique spoke up, poking his head up out of the neck of Claire's jacket. The imp looked up at Jim almost pleadingly. "Just say the word, and the wizard gets a dirty diaper down the back of his armor."
"I'll consider it," Jim replied, smirking in amusement.
"Get back down," Claire shivered, pulling her arms into her sleeves and tugging the little troll back down into her coat. "You're keeping Pumpkin warm."
Jim heard NotEnrique laugh from inside his sister's thick coat, followed by a faint purring sound. Jim half wished he could trade places with his brother-in-law. The imp had a pretty cozy ride, tucked in a cocoon of warmth, curled up on the peak of Claire's swollen belly. At 6 months pregnant, his mate's condition was now plainly obvious to anyone who looked at her — a fact that Jim took more pride in then he cared to admit aloud. Travel over the last few months had been rough, but thankfully uneventful. Jim's mother and Strickler visited every week or two, mostly so Barbara could monitor Claire, who had had few problems aside from her intense morning sickness, and that had thankfully passed two months prior. Their friends visited less often, but they spoke with Toby almost every night, and he would portal to them without a thought, if they asked him to. Claire's father had called her and Jim a handful of times since the disastrous revelation of their baby to her parents, and while Javier had taken to the news rather well, his wife was another story; despite his mother's attempts to get through to Ophelia, the woman had stubbornly refused to speak to or visit them. Claire's anger with her mother was almost tangible, but Jim could also feel her sadness; she was mourning the loss of her mother's love and support. Dagny, who had taken them under her wing, was a wonderful mother-figure and mentor, but he knew from experience that nothing could fill in the hole that was left from a parent's rejection.
"I thought you said that we were close."
"Merlin," Jim growled, shooting the wizard a hard glare, which the old man ignored with frustrating ease. He tightened his arm around Claire's waist when she shivered again. "We are close — close to the state. Keep in mind that we have no idea exactly where the Heartstone is, so even if we miraculously get to New Jersey within the next day — which is definitely not going to happen — we still have to find the thing, and that could take weeks."
Silence greeted Jim's ears, and he sighed in short-lived relief.
"...I don't understand how we can be close, but not close."
"Merlin!" several voices groaned out in exasperation, and the wizard looked around at Jim, Claire, and the surrounding trolls with a look of affront.
"We'll get there when we get there and not a second sooner!" Blinky interjected into the conversation, his voice hard as he grabbed the petulant wizard by the ear. "So, unless you have some spell that will take us directly where we need to go — which you've assured us a thousand times is not the case — then, please, shut your trap."
"...well, how close is 'clo—"
"Quiet!" Jim hissed, his ears twitching as he came to a sudden halt. The heavy crunch of packed snow and crushed ice echoed around them, trampled by hundreds of feet, but it was the odd creaking sound in the distance that had caught his attention.
