Winter Camouflage

Bryson looked up into the sky in confusion. He looked around at the tall trees around him. Something weird had just happened, magically weird.

“Did you see something?” Florence said.

“More like a weird feeling.”

“Are you feeling unwell?” Florence said urgently moving towards Bryson.

“What? No. Like a gut feeling.” Bryson said in confusion.

“Something wrong with your digestive track?” She asked taking a step forward.

“What? No. I mean like an itch- I’m not sick.” Bryson said finally as it looked like Florence was about to give him a medical checkup right this minute. Her red eyes boring a hole into him.

“What’s wrong with you Florence?” He asked her, holding hand up between them.

“I apologize, I’m just worried.” Florence said taking a step backward and giving him some space.

“For me?”

“Your sister was suddenly cursed for no reason. I’m worried that it might happen to you.”

“Don’t concern yourself with me. We have more important issues right now.”

Florence gave a small hesitant nod in response as from further up ahead Lottie called out to them.

“Hey! I found something!”

“What is it?” Bryson asked as they reached Lottie.

“Footprints. Looks like they’re from adults.” Lottie said.

“The adults who would be here would be part of the search team. So at least we’re in the right place.” Bryson said.

“Great let’s keep going.” Lottie said bounding forward.

“Wait.” Bryson said grabbing a hold of Lottie.

“Hm?” Lottie turned her head tilting her head to the side in curiosity.

“Something happened off in the distance.” Bryson said pointing to the direction where he thinks his weird sense was directing him, “If the guards are in this area that means that something likely happened with the pixie there.”

“How do you know that?” Florence asked.

“I saw something or felt something. It’s hard to explain. But I’m pretty sure something magical happened over there.” Bryson explained.

“You can see magic?” Lottie asked.

“When? How long?” Florence said getting agitated.

“You don’t need to give me an eye exam.” Bryson said quickly when Florence took a step toward him, “It’s just a talent I’ve had… since… birth… I think.” Bryson said as he wondered just how exactly he had this talent. He was pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that he fell from the sky.

“That doesn’t matter.” Bryson said waving those thoughts away, “Are we going to investigate or not?” He said hoping to drop the conversation.

“Oh yeah! Let’s go!” Lottie said, forgetting the subject, “That way right?” She said pointing to where Bryson pointed.

“Yeah.” Bryson said, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief now that the subject was dropped.

“You know how far?”

“Sort off.”

“Then let’s hurry!” Lottie said bounding off.

“She has the memory of a goldfish.” Bryson muttered.

“But I don’t.” Florence said, she had been staring at Bryson unblinkingly the whole time.

“Yeah… well.” Bryson gave a small sigh looking at her face and unblinking red eyes, “I’ll try to answer what I can after this, okay?”

“Hey, come on!” Lottie called back to them.

Florence stared at Bryson for a moment before giving a begrudging nod of agreement and turning to follow after Lottie.

“That’s going to be an annoying conversation.” Bryson muttered as he trudged behind the two.

***

The trio continued to move forward for a while, however they now moved far more carefully and quietly as they were now in the same area as the royal guards were. Bryson tried his best to search for a hint of magic somewhere, but so far, he had nothing.

“How much further.” Lottie whispered.

“We’re basically there.”

“Hmm.” Lottie pondered as she approached the top of a small hill and looked down the slope, “Ah. Found the place.” She said indicating downwards.

Looking down the slope Bryson could see a large amount of disturbed snow at the bottom. There was a large circle of melted snow, several footprints surrounded the circle and seemed to lead off somewhere else.

“Okay, I’m guessing they found the pixie.” Bryson said.

“Yeah, but I don’t think they got it yet.” Lottie whispered.

“Why’s that.”

“Tire tracks and more footprints.” Lottie said pointing over to the side. Sure enough, there seemed to be tire tracks and several more footprints moving in and out of the area splitting off into different directions.

“See how they separate; it looks like they’re still searching. So the pixie probably escaped.” She explained.

“But where? Pixies fly, correct? You can’t look for footprints.” Florence said.

“That’s not the only way to track something.” Lottie said as she asked Bryson, “Can you sense anything?”

Bryson closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. It was strange he couldn’t see or sense anything in this area. As he continued to concentrate a small tug on his arm snapped him out of it.

“Company.” Florence whispered as Lottie began to guide them into a hiding spot in a tree hole. The three of them huddled inside and waited as they heard voices pass them by on the other side of the tree.

“Where the hell did that pixie go? Radars got nothing.”

“Just keep patrolling.”

“We’ve patrolled this area twice already! Nothing here we need to move on.”

“Radar has to have picked up something.”

“No, nothing. Not even a trace. The things not here.”

“Oh no.” Lottie suddenly whispered.

Bryson looked for the source of her alarm and spotted it. Another royal guard was heading in their direction. He was busy staring down at his radar and hadn’t noticed them yet, but if he were to simply look up, he would spot the three inside the tree.

Instinctively, Bryson waved his hand, and a wall of snow covered up the entrance to the hole. Bryson then cursed at himself as he realized that the radars would be able to pick up his spell.

A moment passed, then another, and he heard the footsteps move past the tree and towards the other two guards. Huh? Bryson wondered.

“You two found anything?”

“Nope. Scanners got nothing.”

“Then let’s move from here already.”

“This is going to take all day.”

Slowly they heard the three guards walk away from them. Bryson once he felt it was safe dropped the snow wall and the three crawled out.

“Something’s wrong.” Bryson said.

“What is?” Florence said.

“The guards are issued magic detectors when they need to hunt down magic creatures, it picks every type of magic, including spells.” Bryson said, “Yet when I moved that snow with magic, they didn’t notice.”

“Maybe the magic was too small to be picked up?”

“No these are very sensitive; they would’ve detected it.” Bryson said suddenly narrowing his eyes at Florence. He took a small step toward her squinting.

“Is something wrong?”

“I… can’t see any of the magic you usually emit.”

Florence blinked in surprise, “I emit magic?”

“Faintly, sensors don’t pick it up, I only noticed when you’re close to me.”

“And you can’t see anything anymore?”

“No, it was there while we were walking, but now I can’t see any on you.”

“But you can still use magic.” Lottie said.

“Yeah.”

“Hmmm.” Lottie pondered, “I think it’s the pixie.”

“What like a spell? It’s… possible hiding the presence of magic.” Bryson said while thinking inwardly; It takes quite the talent.

“You mentioned how you could see my magic fine before?” Florence asked Bryson.

“Yes.”

“So then there’s a radius for this spell.”

“That means the pixie is still somewhere here!” Lottie exclaimed.

“How so?” Bryson asked.

“The pixie was found earlier because of her magic, now she casted a spell in the area to hide her magic. She would only do so if she was still here. This also means that the pixie probably can’t get away from here safely so it chose to hide instead!” Lottie said proudly.

“That makes sense.” Bryson said slightly impressed with her deduction as he added his own information, “Well spells like these tend to cover a circle of area with the caster as the center point.”

“So we need to find the center.” Florence said.

“So we establish a perimeter while trying not to alert anyone.”

“That’s easy, the guards aren’t going to patrol this area anymore so no worries about that.” Lottie assured them before asking Bryson, “Hey Bry.”

“It’s Bryson.”

“Bry, since you can see magic from Florence let’s head back until you can see her magic again. That way we know how far this spell is.” Lottie said earning a glare from Bryson. She didn’t seem to notice though.

“It’s a good plan.” Florence said looking at Bryson to move this forward.

“Well let’s get this done while the sun’s still out.” Bryson grumbled as they began to backtrack.