Episode 7

Autumn has climbed as high as he dare into the ruins of the cathedral. - The others are wondering what or indeed who lived and worked here before. - They patrol the area and try to keep their nerves in check. - Cerise has a good solution - She goes to sleep.

Mal and Iris get some sticks  and poke Sienna. When she is cross enough, they break out marshmallows, put them on the sticks and toast them.

  The others turn their attention to the floor of the building. The snow is not deep nor crisp, but it is even. In fact to Marigold’s inexperienced eyes it is perfect. To Autumn it is too perfect. He points it out to Little Bee, who notes expertly that there are no animal tracks. Not one. “Strange....” Autumn agrees. “Usually there are mammals or birds leaving tracks after a while - usually as soon as the snow stops falling.” Bee tells them. “I know because I studied hard in biology class.”

Treating it as suspicious, Autumn decides to clear some of the snow. He takes his shield off his back and uses it as an improvised show-shovel. - Having several times missed the fact that there were a couple of shovels leaning against the other side of the wall. The scraping noise echoes off the mountains and makes the others wish they’d brought ear-plugs or at least some hard cheese for their ears.

Once Autumn gets into a rhythm, it isn’t difficult to trundle up and down, putting lovely stripes in the cleared area. “Maybe you shouldn’t dig into the stonework quite so hard.” Mal tells him.

Underneath the snow, there are thousands of tiny tiles.

“Look at your lovely mosaic!” Lincoln tells Autumn.

“Thanks, I haven’t shaved for weeks!”

“Not moustache - stupid! A mosaic. - A picture made of tiny little tiles. -Usually laid on the floor.”

“Made up of tesserae.” Little Bee informs them. They all stop and look at her.

“I was paying attention in lore class.” She tells them, sticking out her tongue.

“Is there any class where you don’t pay attention?” Mal asks.

“Um....” Bee thinks. “General studies.”

“Why is that?”

“Just too specific.”

The others scratch their heads and think about this.

As the snow clears, Cerise is getting quite excited. “It looks like something that I saw the other day.”

“What does?”

“The pattern on the floor - look!”

They look at he section that is uncovered. “Two dots.... and a sharpened trunk....” Mal says.

“A Jackalope!” Mal insists.

“What’s that?” Lincoln asks.

“It’s a mutant type of animal -  a cross between the Jackson five- and an envelope.”

“I think it looks more like a Were-rabbix.”

I don’t want to know what that is. - Though is it something to do with werewolves and Weetabix.” Autumn says.

“Yup. You got it!”

In unison the girls all say, “Stupid boy!”

They look again with more snow cleared, it makes more sense. Depicted in the mosaic are humans lying down, apparently dead, and Grimm surrounding them.

This spurs Autumn on to clear the rest of the floor. The first panel is about a hunderd feet across and fifty wide. The second section is similar, but the humans are greater in number and armed:

The third shows the humans without weapons:

The last mosaic shows the human once again armed, but this time using some kind of magical effects. - Lincoln suggests that this might be representing Aura or Dust or both. He is also curious whether the Grimm are different between mosaics. - He takes a few pictures on his scroll and  compares them. -Apart from a few missing tiles - or indeed tesserae, and a few imperfections, there is no significant change.

“So they are not encroaching on the humans at least.”

“Nor are they retreating - even in the final stages.”

Sienna wanders over. “You know I could have melted the snow in about fifteen seconds....” She tells Autumn, who is resting on his shield. “Why didn’t you?” Has asks, mopping his brow from the exertion.

Sienna gets out a stick. “Marshmallows!” She says, holding it to his reddened face.

Marigold is shivering. They build the fire up and encourage her to wrap her coat around her even more tightly. Her chattering teeth are like a maracas.

“Castanets, surely?” Bee says, before adding something about studying hard in music class.

“C.c.c.c.c.c.....c.c.c.” Marigold’s teeth chatter.

“Cold? Iris suggests.

“Y....y.y.y.yy.yy...y.y.y.y.y.y.”

“You?” Sienna guesses.

“S.s.s.s.ss.ss.sssss..sssss.” Marigold continues.

“Shivering?” Iris asks. “Snow?”

“S.ss.ssss.sss.s.s.s.s.ss..ss.s.s..sss...ss”

“Snow?” Iris asks. “Or socks?”

“O.O.o.o.ooo.oo.o.o.oo.o.o.o.o..oooo.ooooo.o”

“One dog night?” Autumn suggests.

“M....mmmmm..m.m.m.mm.”

“Marshmallow?” Sienna offers. Marigold shakes her head.

“What then?” Mal says, starting to get impatient.

“T....t.t.t.ttt..tt.t.t.t.tt....t.t.t.t.t.t..t.t.t.t.”

“Two dog night?” Autumn suggests. The others look at him.

“A really gold night need two dogs to keep you warm.” He explains.

Iris has an idea. “She’s trying to say C.Y.S.S.O.M.T.”

They try to work it out. After about ten minutes, they still haven’t got it.

In the end Marigold summons the strength to stand up and yell. “CAN YOU STOP STANDING ON MY TAIL!”

“Oh. -Sorry!”

Marigold wraps her tail around her neck as a muffler.

“Maybe you should wrap it around your hands too.” Bee suggests.

“Yeah!” Autumn replies. “You can warm both hands with it. - like gloves. - And....” He says, thinking on his feet - which is a bit much for him, “You can stop yourself losing them be attaching a string that goes up one sleeve and down the other!”

Marigold has warmed sufficiently to reply.

“It’s attached to my butt!” Before adding the obligatory “-Stupid!”

They break out some glowsticks. Autumn sets them around the camp and down the stairs. Just like him, they aren’t very bright. -Iris goes around breaking them and shaking them. They give a nice glow after that. - Much better!

They settle down in their tents. Marigold sits with her back to the fire and looks out across the night sky. The others are rather nervous, and sleep does not come easily.

A few hours later, Marigold is about to wake the next person when a shadow passes across the starry sky.

Marigold shakes Bee awake.

“A b....A b......” She says.

“Don’t start that all over again!”

The shadow swops low over the ruined cathedral. The wingbeats scatter small flurries of snow over the recently cleared floor. A moment later, the creature wheels around for another, lower pass. By this time the rest of the camp are awake and readying weapons.

“Nevermore!” Cerise surmises, having not seen the creature. “Look out for the wing-feather arrows!” She warns.

But the creature has something else in mind entirely. Little Bee correctly identifies it as an Anslag bird- smaller than a Nevermore,- though only just- it is a native of the northern wastes.

The Anslag comes around for a third pass. With a mighty shriek, worse than that of scraping snow with a shield, it assaults their ears. As our heroes press their hands to their heads to stop the unholy noise, the Anslag gives a cough and the racket stops embarrassingly abruptly!

Our heroes try not to snigger. Marigold Launches Zing and Zang. – Unfortunately one of them ends up in the creature, which attempts to flap off to get a throat lozenge.

Not content to mess up its sonic weapon, the creature pulls up sharply, only to clip a beam in the ceiling, which comes crashing down- though luckily not on anyone. A second Anslag swoops in along the aisle of the building, where it is met with a volley of shots in several different colours. This one runs out of airspace, and crashes into the back wall. However, the wall is sturdier than the bird and a cascade of rubble and masonry rains down upon the tents.

More shots are hastily fired into the creature. Autumn leaps up and starts smashing at the creature’s neck with the shield. Another volley of shots pours into the thing. as Autumn gives the coup de grâce smash, the thing shudders and drops to the floor, pinning Iris and Mal beneath a mass of feathers.

Little Bee starts running for the other end of the building. Several creatures have closed in on the building and are starting to breach the walls. Among them are Beowolves, an Ursa and a creature that resembles a large feral cat.

“A Lynxis!” Little Bee shouts. - Without having to explain how she knows this.

The others take pot-shots at the other Anslag bird, keeping it at bay. Then they descend the stairs, and press forward to meet the enemy. Sienna and Mal go to the beam on the floor. A few seconds later, small flames start licking around it. Mal pumps in some augmentation and the fire roars into life. Bee has taken on a Beowolf. They trade blows. Lincoln starts firing methodically into the beasts - with his usual luck.

They make heavy weather of pushing the beasts back. But as they level with the burning beam, their task gets somewhat easier. Cerise is struggling to figure out why. - The others bring their brains into the mix and come up with nothing. Bee decides to tackle the Beowolves at the end of the building. Finding it considerable easier to attack and damage the creatures, she attacks with considerable skill and accuracy, felling several in short order.

Marigold has slipped into invisibility to press forward. Autumn is directed to go left. He goes right. They yell at him to go to the other left. In the end he confronts the Lynxis. It roars at him. He deftly skips along the burning beam, soaking up the damage. A moment later several smaller Beowolves are up level with him. He lifts the beam with both hands and starts charging them down. With them shepherded with a burning beam, they have little time to react. Even less time as the flames surge and the beam gets smashed into a wall.

Mal and Cerise are blasting away with shotgun and electrical discharges. They press forward. - And into the next section of mosaic. The Beowolves and the Ursa press their attacks but can’t land a paw or a claw on them. Emboldened by Bee’s progress, they attack back, but can’t land a hit. Finally it dawns on Cerise that the mosaics either grant extra power to their auras or diminish them. She roars at Lincoln, who has just reached the same conclusion. He steps forward to ‘power up’ and back to take the shot. Several Beowolves end up with exploding arrows in them. - But Lincoln’s inner strength is fading fast.

By now, Bee is running out of viable targets. The others are ‘recharging’ in the safe zone. Bee yells at them to “Come down my end.” Which for fourteen-year-olds is incredibly funny. There is little time to snigger, as the Lynxis closes. The Ursa roars. Autumn is caught in the middle. However, he is starting to get mad. His hair starts reflecting the flames of the beam. In a fit of controlled rage, he grapples the big cat. The Ursa claws at his back. With a deft move and an almighty heave, Autumn lifts the Lynxis and attempts to smash the Ursa with it. However his hands are slippery and he launches the Lynxis several hundred meters over the walls of the building and into the forest. He helps the others take down the Ursa, while Bee finished off the rest of the Beowolves.

The last Anslag bird swoops up to the top of a column. Autumn drops his shield and Bee hops on board. A second later Bee is on the back of the bird smashing down with a guitar case and using harsh language. Marigold is eager to reclaim Zing so follows in short order. Lincoln and the rest have made the endzone and instead of scoring a late touchdown, they start blasting the Bird. Autumn skips along the burning beam, now his hair and the fire are almost indistinguishable form one another. Marigold can see Zing in the birds side, and makes a leap for it. Catching the weapon, there is now nothing to stand on, but her weight, - slight though it might be-  is just enough to combine with Zing to slice a great gash in the Anslag’s ribcage. A dark mist erupts from the wound. A second or two later, the whole creature turns to the same dusty-mist. Bee suddenly has nowhere to perch. Autumn catches her as she descends. Marigold manages a deft roll down a column to the floor, landing on her feet. In the few seconds before the creature completely turns to dust, our heroes all pose for selfies with it.

A moment later, there is silence. A lone Beowolf slinks back into the darkness. The Lynxis is still trying to extricate itself from the forest. The teenagers are elated. Lincoln sits on the ‘recharge’ section.

“Phew! That was a close one.”

Cerise is excited. “I think I finally managed to work out the zones. Follow me.”

They walk along the building. Cerise expands on her theory.

“This mosaic here by the camp is the ‘dead’ mosaic. Here our powers are diminished. The next the figures are surrounded. So they’re diminished, but not so badly.” She strides forward.

“Here is a rest zone. We couldn’t attack effectively, nor could we be harmed.” The others spend some time here, recharging. Cerise stands on the last mosaic. “This shows power. Man’s ingenuity at using auras and Dust. -We felt a boost to our powers..... Which means that all Bee’s kills in the end-zone count nothing....”

Bee is offended. “That’s the last time I help you with your homework!”

Cerise backpedals. “I was only kidding. - Nice hustle Bee!”

“Yay!”

To celebrate their victory, they put the glowsticks into mounds of snow.