Put back together

67. Descent into the unknown

Princey did not end up killing him.

Virgil couldn't decide whether to be relieved or mad at that. He wasn't sure whether he was in pain either so maybe he should just wait until he wasn't high anymore to decide.

The nice part of being alive was that he got to watch Princey climb up the sleigh and get Rapunzel, Goldilocks and the other guy out.

Other-guy had passed out at some point during the ride and neither Rapunzel nor Goldilocks had woken up, but from what he could make out of what Princey told him they hadn't gotten hurt.
Virgil wanted to ask Princey if he was blind - other-guy clearly had just stopped bleeding from that wound on his head- but all that came out was a small noise.

He squinted trying to figure out if he was just seeing things shake again or if Princey was actually shaking.

He probably was.

The gossiping ladies he was listening to would probably be shaking too if he told them about November 2020. Even if he limited it to the first week.

To Princey the sudden world jumps had probably been just as confusing. Or maybe he'd touched a vein in the in-between. Virgil had done his best to keep them in worlds but it wasn't impossible.
If he had touched a vein it couldn't have been a big one or Princey would be about as useful as Virgil was right now.

But he wasn't.

Now that no one was in the sleigh leftovers anymore he began collecting fire wood and lit it after a bit of struggle, as Virgil watched and tried to focus to keep himself from drifting off completely.

He saw Princey speak but all he could hear was the Victorian party.

He was also pretty sure that he was supposed to feel his winter coat and cold air in his face instead of a tight laced but still comfortable corset and the warm air filled with perfume to cover up the smell of sweat from dancing.

As much as he liked the Victorian era of world #47h149s58ofw^π - it was kinda fun - he also still had shit to get done in his own world and time.

Princey began digging through one of the bags and pulled out a bread, wrapped in cloth. He cut a few slices and roasted them over the fire a little before handing two to Virgil, keeping the others to himself.

Virgil tried to say "Thanks" but he couldn't hear himself so he wasn't sure if he succeeded or not.

The dragon crawled out of a different bag. It was about the size of a lamb now and it's scales had dulled from the strong forest green they had had at first to more of a matte olive green.
It looked nice on them.

They stayed on the bag for a moment before carefully touching the snow with one foot and pulling it back immediately, eyes going wide.

Virgil was pretty sure he chuckled.

Ellie looked over at him and tilted their head to the side similarly to how Goldilocks did.
They opened their mouth a few times - Virgil guessed they could talk by now - and waited. Probably for an answer.

Too bad that Virgil couldn't lipread dragons. He already sucked at reading humans lips - dragons could pterodactyl screech or have a deep philosophical discussion about the implications of Sallerowan royalty wearing gloves and the different types of gloves expected from the different kinds of royalty and Virgil would guess that they were ordering Champagne at a flute shop either way.

So he just stared back at Ellie and tried to synchronise his blinking with theirs.

After a while they apperently grew bored of staring at him and turned to attend to more important matters - namely the weird cold white stuff surrounding them.

They pressed their foot into it again, deeper this time until their leg was encased and some of the snow touched their stomach.

Startled they jumped back like a cat at a cucumber behind them and landed on their stomach in the snow.

Now Virgil was sure that he was snickering and they were making terrified noises, jumping around but always landing in the snow again until Princey caught them out of the air and cradled them to his chest, saying something.
Maybe he was explaining what snow was.

Ellie tried touching it again and slowly lowered themself into it. They walked a bit, flicked the snow with their tail making a few flakes fly up and looked delighted.
They began to flick up more and jumped around in it.

Virgil saw Princey laugh.

Ellie tumbled over their own tail and landed at Virgil's feet, shaking off the snow that had fallen onto their head.

Virgil managed to get their attention and scooped up a handful of snow.

They watched intently as he moulded it into a ball.

He showed it to them, they looked at him confused and Virgil grinned. He glanced up at Princey who was still watching them but looked slightly confused as well.
Unsuspecting.
Good.

Virgil threw the snowball and it hit Princey square in the face.

He sputtered and stared at Virgil flabbergasted for a moment. Then his eyes narrowed, he said something and grabbed a handful of snow.

It fell apart a few times in his hands because he was still wearing gloves and when he finally got it to stick together it was clumpy and awkward but he didn't let it stop him and threw.

Virgil felt it faintly as the snow hit him in the face.

Ellie jumped excitedly and began scraping snow together.

They ended up winning by climbing up into a tree and shaking the snow off the twigs onto them.

Then Princey lit the fire again and Virgil managed to use just enough magic to suck the water out of their clothes.

He jumped as Ellie climbed in his lap and curled up there.

Princey searched through his bag until he found a paper and a pen, scribbled down something and held it up.

Wake them and you're dead

Virgil nodded and pat Ellie's head gently.

-~-

They moved on after a few hours of neither Logan, Patton nor Emile waking up, using the rests of the sleigh to carry them, by pulling it along behind them. It was heavy and didn't move well thanks to the damage their ride had caused but it worked.

Roman kept glancing over to Virgil, just to make sure that he didn't pass out suddenly.

Elliott had tired themselves out and was sleeping on the coach box, unbothered by the cold.

"Sorry," Roman heard himself saying, "for stabbing you. I was mad but it was uncalled for. I hope it'll heal well. And that you can forgive me."

He knew that Virgil couldn't hear him. But he wasn't sure if he'd be able to say it if he could.

Following an impulse he grabbed Virgil's arm, marks lighting up on both of them, and pulled it over his shoulder to support him.

"Merci," Virgil grinned lopsidedly.

"Mer-what?"

Virgil didn't react.

The marks on his skin were deep purple and he had half circles just under his eyes, sparkling. It looked nice on him.
He looked less tired and less weary like this.

Slowly they wandered down hill towards what Roman hoped was the end of the Pondé mountains.

He wanted to ask Virgil if he knew where they were but he didn't seem to be aware of much so Roman probably wouldn't get a real answer.

I really hope I'll be able to finish the next chapter quickly because soon this story will be a year old!
I'm so excited about this!

Fun fact: By this point about half (or more) of the story (including this chapter) has been written while I was in class without getting caught once.

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!