12:11
They walked across the stone courtyard – Kim thought it was called a bailey – and then through the drawbridge and over the wide bridge that spanned the moat. They’d walked maybe a mero along the path leading away from the castle when Dan came to an abrupt halt and turned to look back. Pulled a book out of his vest. Flipped a page. Frowned.
Kim halted her forward movement and swiveled to look at what he was looking at. “What’s up?”
“The story changed.”
“How?”
“Gerda left the Prince and Princess’ castle in a carriage and was attacked by the bandits. Not kidnapped from the Prince and Princess’ castle.”
“Okay?”
“Should stick to the story.”
“Okay?”
“It isn’t right.”
“Did the story have bluegrass mice and computers, because that seems weird for a fairy tale? I mean maybe the mice and maybe bluegrass, but what fairy tale has computers?”
Dan mulled it over for a moment then grunted and went back to staring at the pages of his book. He flipped a page backwards. Ran his finger down it. Mumbled something inarticulate that was probably to himself and not an answer to Kim’s question.
“Maybe ARFA did it to push the story along?” Abe ventured.
Dan turned so fast to look at Abe it had to hurt his neck. “What?”
“You said the story has to be told but it seems like a really long, drawn-out story and maybe ARFA kind of edited it? “
Dan worked his toothpick to the left and then back to the right. “Pacing”
“Pacing?” Ivan asked.
“Abe’s right. The story is long and has a great deal of detail. It is possible it was edited, for pacing.”
Abe did the Abe thing where they nodded so hard their curls flopped down to cover their eyes. They swept them back with fast fingers then nodded again, undoing the fix. “Like Disney versions of the fairy tales. The Disney movies changed the stories a lot. A lot a lot.”
Dan grunted then narrowed his eyes on the horizon. “Disney has a lot to explain.”
“Well,” Gwen made a face, “I think he’s dead.”
“The machine lives on.”
This was a lot of words for Dan. He clearly had feelings about it.
Siobhan – always the voice of reason and the conductor keeping this train on track – interjected, “It makes sense. But is it relevant?”
Abe considered that a moment. “No. Maybe?” They shrugged big. “If more of the story is edited, can we depend on what Dan has in the book to guide us?”
Siobhan gave Abe a steady stare. “I suppose we can keep to it to an extent while understanding some things might change.”
“But if we can’t depend on the story to tell us where to go where does that leave us?” Dempsey asked.
“You know,” Siobhan said, “Life doesn’t come with a rulebook or a roadmap. Why do we insist on being given direction? Either from ARFA or a story? We should be able to figure things out without some sort of divine intervention.”
“I appreciate what you are saying,” Prairie offered in her soft voice, “but in this case we know that, or at least suspect that, Gia is following or being forced to follow a story. And that story is the Snow Queen. So we can determine, to an extent, what we need to do based upon that story.”
“Oh.” Siobhan blinked and looked down for a moment before meeting Prairie’s gaze once more. “I suppose that makes sense. I just, sometimes, think that we are being lead about by the nose whether it’s by ARFA or so other external force and that rubs at me.”
“Isn’t that sort of the essence of faith? Understanding there is something bigger than us and it is possible that bigger thing, which I prefer to think of as God, has a purpose for us and if we let go of our insistence on complete agency we will be directed towards where we are meant to be or what we are meant to do?” Siobhan startled comically and narrowed her eyes at Gwen who lifted her hands and flared her fingers. “What? I can think deep thoughts. I do a lot.”
“I know.” Siobhan scratched the back of her neck. “It’s just sometimes–”
“It’s easier to imagine me as you want me to be? Simpler?” Gwen poked her tongue into her cheek. “I know.”
Siobhan laid a soft hand on Gwen’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“And you are forgiven!”
That said Gwen turned and squinted into the bright sky, shifting her attention this way and that. Kim sidled up next to her, “What?”
Gwen held up a hand, finger raised in the universal “one mero” gesture, then hollered at the perfect clouds. “It would be great if we knew where we were going!”
Her gaze shifted left to right. When nothing happened after a few mikros, she pursed her lips and tilted her head then repeated in a louder voice, “Sure would be great to know where we were going!”
Again not a damned thing happened.
“Haven’t we already accepted ARFA isn’t going to help us this time?”
The words weren’t even out of Kim’s mouth when a black speck came from behind one of the perfect clouds and approached. It didn’t take more than a few mikros for it to resolve into the shape of a crow.
Brows raised and lips pursed Gwen gave Kim a ‘told you so’ look. Kim resisted the urge to flip her the bird then thought better of her restraint and held her middle finger up between them. She yanked her hand back fast when Gwen leaned forward and almost caught the finger in her mouth.
She leveled Gwen with a hurt look. “Really?”
Gwen snapped her teeth then settled back with a grin. “Don’t offer it if you don’t want it bit.”
“Noted.”
During their very short discourse the crow flew towards them. It landed on the ground near Patti’s feet then cocked its head and gave a “grok!”
Before Kim could state ‘we don’t speak bird,” Sass leaned forward on Patti’s shoulder and gave out a trill then a peep then another trill. The crow tilted its head and ‘grok’ed again.
“Patti?” Siobhan leveled their friend with a stare. “Translate.”
“No can. I don’t speak crow.”
Siobhan shifted her attention to the crow then back to Sass.
“Sass?”
Sass turned and waved at Siobhan then peeped again at the crow before pointing somewhere towards the open landscape to their left.
“We’re supposed to go that way?” Siobhan shifted her gaze between Sass and Patti, clearly hoping one of the two would answer.
Sass looked up at Patti then sang a little melody. Patti’s eyes narrowed and then she sang back the tune. Sass nodded emphatically and pointed again.
“Patti?”
Patti looked at Siobhan.
“That way?”
Patti shrugged. “I don’t know. Don’t speak mouse.”
Siobhan’s raised brows said it all but she still asked in a dry tone, “Really?”
Patti grinned. “I think that translated to ‘yes’.”
Siobhan turned her gaze on the crow that was following the conversation with black eyes. “Thank you.”
The crow nodded. They did not speak crow but clearly the crow could follow human well enough. Which, actually, Kim remembered reading about corvids. That they remembered people and how they were treated by them. And would give gifts if they liked you.
Before she could meander further down that path of thought, the crow ‘grok’ed again then took back to the air, flying in the direction Sass still pointed.
By general agreement the crew took off in the direction the crow flew. Kim wasn’t sure how long they traveled. Long enough she got a bit bored, not long enough her feet got cranky. She was almost at that place when a castle resolved on the horizon. It was easy to see as it was way up at the top of a cliff. Luckily for them there seemed to be a path weaving up the cliff.
“Dan?”
“Yes.”
“Castle?”
“Yes.”
“Bandits have castles?”
“Bandit Queen.”
Which Kim guessed was an answer. Good as ’because ARFA’. Probably better.
The crow flew down and did some fancy wing thing that kept it hovering in the air in front of them without alighting on the ground.
“Grok!”
Sass trilled and peeped. The crow tilted its head then ‘grok’ed again before taking back to its flight path and shooting off towards the castle. The cliff was no problem for it being it was a bird. It was going to be a bit more of a bitch for the rest of them without wings.
Siobhan turned to Dan. “What can we expect here?”
Dan paused to flip through several pages in one of his books. “Bandits.”
“You don’t say,” Ben quipped. “So glad you have that story.”
Dan just shifted his toothpick then closed the book and put it back into his vest pocket. “Queen’s daughter tells Gerda that only she and her mother remain. Their men left.”
“That’s good.”
“Yes. Queen gets drunk and the daughter let’s Gerda go after Gerda is told where to look for Kai by a pigeon.”
“More birds?” Gwen asked.
“Yes.”
“Weird.”
“Weirder than a bunch of mice playing bluegrass?” Kim asked.
“That was a dream. Mice in dreams sing.”
“Mice in ARFA talk to birds.” Kim shot Sass a look. “Nothing in ARFA is weird. Or everything is.”
“True that!”
“Can we focus?” Siobhan asked with a long-suffering sigh. The sound was so familiar Kim almost didn’t register it. It was often Siobhan’s response to she and Gwen’s verbal wandering. Honestly, not for the first time, Kim questioned why Siobhan was their friend. She was so– adult and they were often very much not. Although Siobhan did take inordinate glee in knocking folks around at the derby, which maybe wasn’t what a well-adjusted adult would do. Or–
Eh, brain wandering again. She forced herself to focus as Siobhan prompted.
“Is the pigeon relevant?” Siobhan asked Dan.
And Dan gave what was now the standard response of, “Unknown.”
“Fantastic!” Ben drawled. “Unknown.”
Dan gave Ben a steady stare then turned his attention back to his book.
“So,” Ivan asked, “we may just get there and Gia will be gone?” Dan opened his mouth to reply but Ivan beat him to the punch. “Let me guess. Unknown?”
“Unknown.”
Ben rubbed his hands together and then started towards the cliff without determining if the others were following. Kim shot Ivan a look which he returned with a shrug before heading off after his friend.
With no better insight or direction it wasn’t worth fighting the tide that was Ben, so Kim hurried to follow with Gwen trotting along at her side and Siobhan slightly behind her. The rest of the group fell in behind them as they climbed the path to the bandit’s castle.
This castle had no moat. Had no bridge leading up to it. And as they drew closer it was clear that the walls were cracked. Really cracked. Not just picturesque little fractures in the surface. Big cracks forming gaps and crevices in the walls ravens and crows flew in and out of. Their crow guide floated away from them to join the hustle, weaving its way into the wall and not coming back out.
There was a big wooden door sunk into the cracked stone wall. No windows. No fortifications. Just cracked walls and a single door. It almost didn’t even qualify as a castle in Kim’s estimation but it wasn’t really worth debating architectural definitions. The story said it was a castle. Who was she to argue?
Ben halted at the door and shot a look back over his shoulder. “We good?”
At the rumble of general agreement Ben turned back to the door and stooped to stare at the latch. Then he turned and looked over his shoulder again. “No lock.”
Kim frowned at the door, determining he certainly seemed to be right in that assessment. “They are bandits. You’d think they’d have a lot of locks.”
“You’d think.” Ben rubbed his hands together and gave the door a long look. “Probably protected by Magick.”
Ivan shouldered up next to Ben. “Let me.”
He made a big show of looking along the entire width and height of the door. Then he laid his hand on the wood and a look of concentration held his features very still. After a mikro he reached for the latch of the door and lifted it. The door swung open on silent hinges, revealing a dark interior, and Ivan turned to look at the group.
“No Magick.”
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” Patti muttered from somewhere behind Kim.
Ivan just shrugged. “We should prepare for something once we get inside. Maybe the defenses aren’t on this door.”
“It is the front door,” Kim stated the obvious.
“And?”
“They are bandits.”
“And?”
“What bandit doesn’t have defenses on their front entrance?”
“A potentially drunk one?” Ivan shot Dan a questioning look to which Dan replied with a nonchalant shrug. “Maybe they were drunk when they got here and left it unlocked?”
“I mean,” Ben drawled, “I may have done that before.” Kim gave him a hard look because that seemed very un-Ben to be that sloppy with his property. “Once. When I was young.”
Kim looked at Ivan who flared his hands. “He was young. Once. For a very short time.”
“I don’t recommend it,” Ben drawled.
Ivan stared at one of the many small gaps in the wall. “Maybe when the wall is this damaged a lock is redundant? If I was smaller I could probably get in through one of these holes.” He reached out to poke his hand into one but Dan grabbed his arm. When Ivan glared at Dan the other man offered, “Could be an illusion.”
“An illusion birds fly through?”
Siobhan rolled her eyes and pushed past Ivan to peer into the space beyond the door. Kim stepped up behind her and squinted to see any details but the area was super dark despite the cracks and holes and crevasses in the wall that really should have ambient light entering. But, no light. Not a ray of sun. Not even a single candle. Kind of supported the “they were drunk and stumbled in” argument. Maybe.
Siobhan slanted Kim a look. “Can you?” She swept her hand to encompass the dark area.
Kim nodded and called a flame to her hand. It materialized in the shape of a small bird. A firebird. Not a Firebird, like a phoenix, or anything. Just a little bird, maybe a sparrow, that sat neatly in her hand and turned its head to look at her with white-hot eyes.
She sent a query to it and it nodded then took off from her hand and flew into the dark where it paused a short distance in and expanded in size, taking on the shape of a hawk and then morphing into something more resembling a large eagle. Its wing-span was huge, sparks falling from the tips. It’s light fell on the source of the darkness – a thick miasma of smoke that hovered closer to the ceiling and floor while doing a more than passable job of obscuring most of what existed in the room. Fire flexed and the smoke dissipated, revealing stone walls and floor and not much else.
Kim’s gaze darted over the space and she tensed, preparing for the suspected Magickal defenses. It was possible they weren’t triggered by the entrance of Fire as it was a natural element that belonged within the world. They’d really only know once they stepped into the space.
Before Kim could debate entering, Ben bumped her aside and sauntered into the room. Again Kim tensed, preparing to react when the inevitable happened and Ben was pummeled by whatever awaited intruders.
When nothing happened after Ben walked all the way across the large room and approached the far wall and the door therein, she relaxed her stance and looked over at Siobhan.
“No boom.”
Siobhan nodded. “No boom.”
“We can probably enter?”
Siobhan eyed Ben who’d stopped and turned to shoot them a big grin.
“Let’s wait another mikro to make sure there isn’t a delay in the defenses.” She raised her voice to carry over to Ben, “Can you see anything?”
“Door.”
“Your observation skills are impressive,” Gwen said, pushing up next to Siobhan and Kim where they hovered in the doorway.
“Why, thank you.”
No one could say Ben lacked confidence. He rubbed his hands together again then turned back to look at the door in front of him.
“Are you coming?”
“Why don’t you try that door first?” Siobhan asked.
“Why do I feel like a canary in a coal mine?”
“We all have roles to fulfill,” Ivan drawled from where he stood hovering close enough to stare over Siobhan’s shoulder.
Next to him Prairie giggled then leaned around Siobhan so she could see Ben too.
Dempsey grumbled then said, “Could someone move so I can see?”
Gwen shot him a look over her shoulder. “No.”
“Okay.” Dempsey propped his shield against his legs and crossed his arms. Patti came to stand next to him while Abe and Dan clustered at his back.
Kim turned back to peer at Ben. “Any dia now?”
Ben grinned again then pushed the door open. Nothing exploded or he retained his feet so she guessed nothing was rushing at him from the other side of the door.
Kind of anticlimactic.
“It looks safe,” Siobhan said then stepped into the castle. Gwen followed close on her heels with Kim a few steps behind her.
Despite Siobhan’s assessment and Ben’s lack of exploding Kim still kept her vigilance as she walked across the room. The fire bird floated somewhere near the high ceiling, out of reach of even Ivan and Dempsey’s heads, and it drifted slowly forward as the group walked over to the door, casting a light that radiated outwards and partially into the area beyond where Ben stood.
The space was quiet. Not the unnatural silence of Francesca and Ned’s castle, but quiet. Kim couldn’t help feeling like it was holding its breath or was crouched in anticipation of an attack. It was just a feeling she had.
It shouldn’t be this quiet in a bandit’s hideaway. Or castle. Unless they were all gone like Dan had suggested.
Guess there was nothing to it but to proceed. With caution. That went unsaid.
Ivan paused before going through the door. “Let’s assume someone is home and be ready to defend.”
Prairie slid her daggers free and held them loose at her side. Patti hefted her shield and her cudgel. And Dempsey stepped forward to stand next to Ivan, shield also raised.
He looked over the group. “Standard formation. Shields at the front and back. Casters behind the front line. Ben, you–”
His voice tapered off as he saw that Ben was not where Ben should have been. Which was to say Ben had, surprise surprise, moved ahead. Like he did.
“I’m sure he cloaked himself,” Ivan muttered to Dempsey.
“Sure.” Dempsey heaved a small sigh then shifted his gaze over the group. “We good?”
When everyone made the appropriate noises he turned and walked through the door. The fire bird swept through the door slightly ahead of him and took up position near the ceiling again so the next space was cast in light.
By habit Kim did a head count. If she didn’t she knew they’d lose Ben at least fifty percent of the time. She was pretty sure Siobhan did the same. And probably Ivan. And Dan. And likely Dempsey. Maybe even Abe. Fact was there was a very small percentage of their group that would fluff the fluff off and it was important to adjust for that because that percentage was not going to change.
She frowned as she came up one short. Prairie? But Prairie was definitely not in that small percentage!
Clearing her throat to grab Siobhan’s attention, she gestured back to the original room they entered through before moving back that way. The smoke the fire bird had cleansed had built up again, making it difficult to see. The door frame cut of the fire bird’s flame and the space quickly became nearly pitch within a short distance from the entry point.
“A little help here?” She muttered to the darkness. A moment later MF burst into its chihuahua glory at her feet, cocking its head in question. She gestured into the dark and it took off at a slow trot, shedding light as it moved. Where it encountered smoke it opened its mouth and inhaled and the smoke disappeared down its throat. It seemed to use the smoke as fuel because the nimbus of light around it grew exponentially as it walked into the space. The very edge of it flowed over Prairie standing, back to Kim, staring at the fractured wall.
“Prairie?”
Prairie didn’t respond. She didn’t stop staring at the wall. Kim drew closer, approaching from the side rather than the back so as to lessen any startle response Prairie might have with someone suddenly looming from the dark behind her. She might as well have saved the effort as Prairie made zero indication she recognized Kim at her side. Instead she continued to stare at the wall and then she whispered, “So many dead.”
Kim shot a quick look around though intellectually she knew she wasn’t going to see what Prairie saw. She had to take a quick two step to the side as Prairie spun on her heel and headed towards the door into the other room, a look of determination transforming her features and matching the clipped rhythm of her stride.
You’d think the room wasn’t dark and smoke shrouded as Prairie didn’t hesitate at all as she moved. Her hands were balled and her arms moved with a cadence that could only be termed regimented. Like a metronome. Tick tock. Tick tock. Perfectly paced swings that drove her feet across the stone floor.
Prairie didn’t hesitate as she walked over the threshold. The measured pace of her steps and the swing of her fists didn’t alter at all. Kim had to hurry her steps to keep up. MF trotted along beside her, clearly not ready to be dismissed.
“Prairie?” Ivan’s voice reached Kim before she reached the door.
Kim had just cleared the threshhold when Prairie turned and looked at her. Her expression was equal parts determination and calm. It was an odd combination. “I know where we have to go.”
And with that she strode to the far wall of the room and laid her hand on what appeared to be solid wall. Only it wasn’t. It must have been some hidden entrance because the wall gave way under Prairie’s push, gliding back and revealing a dimly lighted hall beyond. Again Prairie didn’t hesitate and she definitely didn’t look to see if anyone was following. She just kept forward in that militaristic pace with fists tick-tock-ticking at her sides.
Kim shot a super quick look at Siobhan. Ivan’s gaze followed Prairie, his brows lowered.
“What’s going on?”
Kim looked back over her shoulder, already halfway across the room in Prairie’s wake. “I don’t know. But keep up!”
The sound of footsteps behind her suggested the rest followed but she didn’t have time to look as Prairie almost disappeared down the dim hall, her heels tick-tock-tapping the stone floor.
Gwen hurried up at Kim’s side as she stepped into the hall. “How does she know where she’s going?”
“Spirits?”
“Huh?”
“She said there were a lot of dead. I’m taking that as Spirits and I’m guessing they are telling her where to go.”
“Oh. Okay. Makes sense.”
The hall they moved down turned several times. The dark walls and low lighting didn’t help with spatial awareness and it wasn’t long before Kim had completely lost the ability to judge how far they’d gone or in what direction. Luckily Prairie didn’t seem to be affected as her determined steps kept churning her forward at a measured pace. They’d walked, well who knew how long, before a doorway loomed in front of them.
Prairie pressed her back to the wall next to the door and lifted a finger to her mouth. “Shh!”
The others piled to a stop behind Kim as she slid up next to Prairie, pressing her shoulders to the wall before glancing at Prairie’s profile.
“What?” was all she got out in a whisper before Prairie shh’d again. Kim got to shh-ing and kept her gaze steady on Prairie’s cheek.
Bright light poured in the hall from the open door. Prairie positioned herself in such a way that the light didn’t even touch the tip of her crocs. Then she lifted the hand closer to the door and flicked her finger several times, indicating the bright area. Kim tilted her head and then leaned slightly to the side to see around Prairie.
Just around the corner from the entrance two large men stood guard next to a door. They didn’t seem super alert. One was staring at the ceiling. The other was staring at their toes. Which was good as Kim was pretty sure her head was out way too far from the frame of the door and they should have caught her. But they didn’t. Still she yanked her head back very fast. So fast the back of it collided with Gwen’s face where she’d slid in close to look over Kim’s shoulder.
“Ow!” Her cry of pain was muffled by Prairie slapping her hand over her mouth.
Once more their friend whispered “shhh”, accompanying it with a sharp glare at Gwen. Gwen held up her hands and wide-eyed pressed her back to the wall next to Kim. Her movement made way for Ben who made a fast beeline for the open door, like he was either going to peer himself or maybe even move in to the hall. Whatever his intent was he wasn’t meant to succeed as Prairie stepped away from the wall and back, arm held up and at an angle and effectively clotheslined Ben.
He fell back, hand at his throat and eyes wide.
Kim goggled at the very un-Prairie-like action but before she do more than entertain the question, there was the sound of footsteps in the hall beyond their position. Kim craned again and watched a young woman in an old-timey dress with an apron over it approach the door the two men guarded. She had a tray with two bottles and some glasses held at shoulder height and as she stepped up to the door the guy who’d previously been perusing the ceiling shifted to stare at her and then he smiled.
“Well, hello, darlin’. That for me?”
“It’s for the queen, Sir.”
“Always gets the good stuff.”
“She is the queen.”
The guy who’d been studying his toes turned to the door. He ran his hand up it, stopping a short distance from the top, then moved it to the right until it hit the edge. Beneath his hand the door shifted and swung open. He stepped into the space beyond and took up position against the open door. The other guard walked in and stepped to the opposite side. Then the woman in the apron stepped in, ducking her head in acknowledgement to the two men.
“It’s warded,” Prairie whispered. Considering how soft her voice was usually Kim had to really strain to hear her lowered tone. “The code is changed daily.” She gave Ben a steady look where he still stood with a bit of a pout and his hand rubbing his throat. “We can’t just rush the guards. We won’t get passed the door.”
She poked her head out, shot a look to where the guards still stood inside the warded door, then stepped quickly out and pressed her back to the wall beside their door and then disappeared around the corner. A moment later she shimmied back into the dark hall. She ran her gaze over the group before stopping to point at Kim, “You and,” she turned, her gaze flitting again before settling on Siobhan, “You. Come with me.”
Without any more explanation, she slid back out the door and around the corner. Kim looked at Siobhan. Siobhan looked at Kim.
“That’s Prairie?” Kim whispered.
Siobhan’s expression said she was as confused as Kim. But there just wasn’t time to question more before the guards reset. So with a quick glance for the rest of the group they slid out, copying Prairie’s motions as they hustled around the corner with their backs against the wall.
Once they’d joined Prairie, backs to the wall, she darted across the hall and slapped her palm to the patterned surface. It swung open. Another hidden door.
Kim looked at Siobhan. Siobhan looked at Kim. Then rather than questioning more and risking detection they darted across the hall and into what looked like a dressing room. Aprons hung from hooks and a table held trays along with various bottles and glasses. Prairie was already tugging down an apron. She pulled it on then tilted her head to indicate that Kim and Siobhan should do the same with other aprons.
“Prairie,” Kim whispered. “How did you know this was here? Any of this?”
Prairie gave a slow smile while smoothing her hands down the front of her apron. “Spirits. There are many dead here. Too many. This stops today.”
Okay. That wasn’t creepy at all. Nope. Not creepy. Kim swore she felt her own spirit, or soul or whatever, surging against her skin from the outside, trying to get out. To flee from the eerie air Prairie projected with her measured motions, pliant smile, and hissed whisper.
It was probably just her Magick causing the flicker in her blue eyes. Just her Magick. Right? Right.
Not going to think about it. Job to do. Think after this is all done.
Prairie smoothed the loose hairs on her cheeks back into her high ponytail then squared her shoulders before grabbing a tray and placing several glasses on it. She looked at Kim and Siobhan then shifted her gaze to the other trays and glasses on the table.
“Grab something and we’ll go.”
Kim really wanted to ask what they were going to do once they had the trays and glasses and ostensibly got let past the warded door by the guards, but something held her back. Like maybe she really didn’t want to know the answer? Maybe she just needed to go with it and be ready for whatever. But, damn, she did like a good plan. A long hesitation to iron details out before enacting that plan. And an exit strategy for if that plan didn’t work.
And yet one more look into the manic gleam in Prairie’s eyes and she swallowed down her questions, picked up a tray and loaded some glasses on it. Siobhan stepped up next to her and did the same while shooting a look to her from the side of her eye. Kim bit her lip and nodded. Siobhan nodded back, curling her lips over her teeth then taking a deep breath before turning to Prairie with a wide smile.
“Ready!”
Enter The Woods 