Guitar Strings and Flower Petals

The Cabin

Lightning streaked across the sky, crackling between the clouds, and the flash bounced against all of the settled snow, with enough force that it would blind anyone who witnessed it directly. A sharp, loud crack of thunder, boomed across the entirety of the Knee shortly after. An almost physical force followed it, like the sound itself was hitting those who heard it.

It was far more like an explosion to Luz - And in her surprise, she jumped at the noise and the flash.

"Whoa!" She yelped. She craned her head and looked around, searching for a source, before a second, smaller crackle made her realize that, at the very least, it wasn't an explosion. "That - What the heck's going on?! What's that noise?!" "

"Thundersnow." Bo said plainly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

"Thundersnow?" Luz's head jolted back towards Bo, eyebrow raised. "What, like a thunderstorm while it's snowing?"

"Yeah. Do... You not have thundersnow in the Human Realm?"

"Uh..." The Human blinked. "I... I feel like I've heard of it but... Not sure, honestly. Maybe? If we do, I never saw it."

"Huh." Bo blinked, then shrugged. "Well, they're common up here in the Knee. Get them in town sometimes in the winter too." As she spoke, Bo stepped underneath the branch of a pine tree, and looked back down at the map back to their ride. They were still on the right path. It wouldn't take them long now. "Thankfully, it sounded kinda far off. We should be okay, for now at least."

"Oh, good!" Luz exhaled a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Thank God for that, I, uh... I had enough trouble today in that... Dream Realm... Thing, whatever it was ." She shivered at the memory. "I already dealt with... That which will not be named . The last thing I wanna deal with after that is getting hit by a lightning bolt in a blizzard."

Bo nodded. "A-greed."

There was a brief moment of silence, before Luz spoke up. "Er, is any of this looking familiar to you? It all just looks like trees and ice and snow to me. You sure the map is taking us to the right place?"

"'Weather Warning - All students, return to the landing as it is located on your magical maps.'" Bo repeated the message that was emblazoned in red across the top of her map. "We're getting close, trust me. I think I recognise some of the trees here."

"I really hope you're right." The Human muttered, shivering again, this time at the cold. Snow began to fall as she shook, as if to punctuate the matter. "I really don't wanna be out here when that bad weather hits us."

Both of them carried on down the pathway, trying to pick up the pace to outrun the storm behind them. They ducked under branches and climbed over the rocks that were in their way. Their increased pace meant that just a few minuites later, they had gotten where they wanted to go.

"Aha! We're here!"

There it was - The clearing, and the longboat. A barrier of some kind was surrounding the entire clearing, though it was clearly more for keeping out weather since several students were walking inside. . From inside, the teachers were directing students onto the boat, while around it, other pairs of students filed in..

Laughter escaped Luz. "Haha! We made it!"

"See?" Bo smiled. "I told you I knew we were headed in the right direction!" Her smile was wiped off her face when a sharp gust of icy wind hit both of them from behind. Frigid chills ran throughout both of their entire bodies. Both of them clutched their waists to try to regain some lost heat. "Brrr! And we got here just in time, too. I think the storm is headed this way."