Let's keep this between us

[waits_at_the_maze]

Who: Kernan & Jack
When: Some time after they establish themselves in the warehouse.
What: Kernan decides a young ice lad needs a bit more scope to training grounds.

Kernan scratched one of the hounds under her silken chin and watched the children from under his hood. Today was a good day, fewer nightmares among the group and general good spirits over breakfast. They were even taking math lessons well, led by Khemrys and Raistlin both since two pairs of eyes and minds helped keep the others in line.

Perhaps it helped that there were a mere few days left before the Ren Faire up the coast in Oregon. It was a treat and one they felt safe in attending. Khemrys had been working for some time with fabric from the rag bins and remnant stores to make appropriate costumes for everyone. That would let them attend and camp and live with the group for some time and in the case of Sette he was pretty sure the girl was looking forward to robbing tourists silly.

Yes, that would put people in a good mood.

For the most part.

"Jack," he noted softly to the pup. The hound would be sure to get the lad's attention after the class. He could sense the prickly restlessness so it was time for his own brand of oversight.

After he did his own maths anyway.

It was something like a few hours later, after classes and after lunch, before the hound came wiggling back happily crunching a pigeon bone and trailing the lad. Ah, yes, restlessness. "You'll want to come with me," he noted simply. "Now."

Portals were easy. Giving him time to go off and sulk elsewhere would be quite silly.

The paths were never straight, they slipped between realms and the only thing they had in common was the fact that each glimpse of a reality got colder. "Our new home is rather warm," he noted over his shoulder as they moved. "I believed you may wish to see where the hounds enjoy playing..."

His hounds liked snow as much as any other element after all. They could be quite silly things, and for that he blamed Khemrys most days. She was something of a softening influence. Regardless, the plain they tumbled on to eventually was pristine, meters deep in snow and with cliffs and evergreens poking up through the whiteness. His hounds didn't sink in the least. Kernan on the other hand, well, he sank a few inches upon arrival. "Duck," he suggested, given the fact that the hounds were now going to try to tackle everyone in to the drifts.

Comments

[justanexpression]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that warning fell on deaf ears.

Prickly restlessness had been about right, but then, summer did that to him. The weather was slower to listen to him in the heat, he felt half-melted all the time, and the sun hurt his eyes, not to mention the inevitable rounds of sunburn. He just... didn't much care for it. Maybe if they'd settled somewhere in Canada instead of California, but they hadn't, so there it was.

This, though... This more than made up for it, and in the split second between stepping through the portal and flying through the air on a hound-powered trip, all he could do was stare. If there were anything in his short memory that Jack would have wanted to call beautiful, it would be this.

But then he was face-down in a snow drift and the moment was broken. He came up coughing and shaking his head to get rid of the packed flakes, already reaching for a handful to pack into a ball. He didn't - quite - dare to throw it at Kernan, but any of the hounds would be fair game.