Will stands by the tree in the center of the barracks, holding himself in a kind of strange thoughtful stillness ( Read more... )

Dave is sitting amidst the flowers along the amaranth stream this afternoon, staring into the water with his chin resting between his hands. He's particularly interested in a necklace sitting at the bottom of the stream, a bright opal set in silver on a linked chain, but he knows better than to attempt getting it. He's had that talk.

It shouldn't be ( Read more... )

As the sun starts to rise, a handful of people emerge from the trees, heading for the barracks gate. It's not another attack - for one thing, the group's a bit small and ragged-looking for that. For another, as they get closer to the gate those inside the barracks may recognize them, all friends or acquaintances who quietly went missing before the ( Read more... )

Juliet is about ready to tear her hair out. There's an air of tension and chaos in the air and she doesn't know if that little girl stirred something up or if she's missing something, but either way, her protective instincts are up and she thought being the last to know things was something three years gone ( Read more... )

There's a little girl outside of the barracks gates, looking up at the wall with an aggravated expression on her face. She's dressed for the weather in boots and a coat that are somehow hard to look at. Not that they're ugly - not that anyone would be able to tell. They just don't want to be seen ( Read more... )

It hadn't taken Will long to realize that his promise not to leave the Barracks rather severely limited his ability to distract himself from his own worries.  Over the past few days he had explored everywhere in the small enclosure he could reach.  He had spent a few days attempting to read through what there was in the library, but after a while ( Read more... )

Across the open lawn between the front of the castle proper and the white stone wall, the snow has been cleared away in large rings. At the center of each is a bonfire, roaring away without any apparent source of fuel. Hot drinks and small treats are available, as always, balanced on the trays of servants who wander the crowd. The walls themselves ( Read more... )

There's a magic book in the library. There's been a magic book in the library for a while now, of course, but just now, it's sitting open on the floor, in the middle of a circle made of salt. It's not the most intricate circle in the world, but that's what happens when you only have salt to work with instead of chalk or something actually meant for ( Read more... )

In the early evening, something starts to happen. Most of the inhabitants of the barracks won't notice, but for those who ate the odd green possibly-vegetables from the cornfield... it will be hard to ignore ( Read more... )

[It took Juliet a little bit longer than she really wanted to take to gather the right supplies. She had a basic medical kit now, but no sutures or a suture needle and tearing through the cabins hadn't gotten her anywhere- she'd eventually managed to coerce an otter- and that sounded bizarre even by her standards- into giving her a needle with a ( Read more... )