changeling child"Where is it?"
Odilen bumped around in the wagon, startling BoCo as she threw assorted clothing and other objects around in her search. "My necklace... dammit, I'll never find another one like it again," the Ieldi grumbled as she shook out her bedclothes for the fifth time. Her only hope was that she'd dropped it in the wagon... if not, there was no way she'd find it again, she was sure. Not in the seemingly endless white that stretched around wagon, tree and river like a blinding sea.
Dawn on the second day had at last brought relief from the storm, and the sun, though it was still bitter cold. All the sun did was turn the snowdrifts into great mirrors, harshly reflecting the light, bringing sundazzle without any of the other benefits - like warmth.
"Oh... fiddlesticks," Odilen sighed, at last defeated. The necklace wasn't simply anywhere in her wagon. She settled down on her tangled blankets, and BoCo crawled meekly into her lap.
"Kweh?"
"Sorry about that," she muttered.
"Wark!" came a sudden squawk from the lean-to, followed by a few thumps as Kez shifted around outside. Odilen rolled her eyes, put BoCo on the bed and inched through the fresh mess over to the window panel that opened into the lean-to when it was set up. She slid the carved wood aside and found herself looking right into a large eyeball.
"Gah! Kez, what's wrong with you?"
"Wark!" The big chocobo stamped his feet uneasily, then turned to stare at the tied flaps of the lean-to. Odilen followed his gaze and saw... nothing. Bizzare...
Well, maybe he was just thirsty and the waterdish had frozen over in the night again. "Okay, okay, I'm coming... hang on." The Ieldi located her cloak and boots from within the mess, slipping them on quickly before shielding her eyes and stepping out into the blinding white.
For a moment, even despite her precautions, she couldn't see anything - only hear. The faint rustle of branches and lean-to stirring in the wind, the wagon-springs settling, Kez's feathers sliding and his faint, worried "wark"-ing, the quiet trickle of what running water remained free of ice in the river -
And, suddenly, another sound, quiet near. A soft squeak.
Odilen opened her eyes into the barest squint. What was that? A mouse? They'd better not get into her stores...
... wait, no. Mice most certainly didn't
giggle.
The Ieldi pulled the cloak over her face as much as she could to create shadow, then opened her eyes fully.
And there, tucked under the tree near her half-buried abandoned scarf, nestled in a beautifully-rendered cradle of snow, surrounded by tiny footprints - was a pale child wrapped in fur.
For one terrifying moment, Odilen was sure the child was dead - skin nearly bone-white with a blue tinge, surely it was frozen. She rushed over with her heart in her mouth, then blinked as the baby's glacier-blue eyes focused on her and one small hand waved curiously in her direction.
"Where did you come from?" Odilen murmured, crouching to pick up the child. She lightly stroked the baby's cheek with one finger - the skin felt cold, but certainly not dead. "Who would leave a baby out in the snow...?" The thought placed a tight, angry feeling in her stomach.
"Well, I don't know whose you are... or WHAT you are," Odilen added, noting the unicorn horn and pointed ears, "but you can't stay here."
But what was she going to do with a child?
Get it out of the cold, at least. Get it to Aekea, or Barton - she was better known in Barton, dropping a child in Aekea might well raise suspicions better left alone. Yes. Drop it at the Guild hall, with the guards, perhaps. They would know what to do with a foundling.
"All right... come on, then," the Ieldi said with a sigh. She quickly retreated to the wagon, the child held tightly in her arms.
Kez snorted inside the lean-to, then settled.
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