Sometime later, I blinked.
The world had settled, the colors were back to normal, and everything was quiet. I was grateful for the return to normality.
Well, not complete return. We were still lost in Elsewhere, I remembered. I turned my head enough to realize that I was in a room made of ice -- walls of ice, shelves of ice, and even the slab of the bed made of ice, but I was not cold. I felt magical warmth in the blankets wrapped around me.
A familiar weight held the blanket down at my side. I turned my head and saw Edmond's ears above a crease of the quilt. Five was there with him, so light a weight that I hadn't noticed her until her ears flicked.
With a shift of my head, I saw Maggie asleep in a huge rocking chair, and Lord Snow stretched out on the floor beside her.
George, I recalled. Yeti.
I could hear -- and smell -- him making breakfast. Pancakes and warm maple syrup? My stomach growled so loudly that Edmond sat up with a start, obviously thinking he was under attack. Five flopped over on her side and didn't even wake.
"Sorry," I said as my stomach growled again.
"No prob," Edmond mumbled as his head dropped back into the blankets.
Then the head came back up again, the eyes wide. "Breakfast," Edmond said.
Maggie and Lord Snow woke. Five took a bit longer, and I was slowly sitting up when George arrived at the doorway. He wore an apron and a chef's hat.
"Well, now, glad to see you all up and going, what?" George said and sounded entirely too happy. "Ready for a spot of breakfast?"
We ambled into the dining room with its ice table and ice shelves with plates and platters that were not made of ice. I could see the edge of the kitchen where a modern looking electric range was covered with various pots and pans.
I settled into the first chair I reached, still feeling too unsteady to walk any farther. Edmond and Five took the chair to my right and Maggie to the left. Lord Snow just put his paws on the table and looked at the array of food with very bright eyes.
It was impressive. Hotcakes, donuts, hash browns, eggs -- and George came back out of the kitchen with a platter of ham, sausage, and bacon.
"I didn't realize heaven would be so cold," Edmond said.
We all laughed. Despite all the troubles that were surely lurking not far outside this icy but beautiful little cottage, we relaxed and enjoyed the meal. I felt as though I was home again, especially the way Maggie kept insisting I eat a little bit more.
"I don't know how we can ever repay you for this kindness," Maggie said and dared a hand on George's arm as he started to stand to clear the table.
"It's not often I have guests who appreciate a fine breakfast," George said. "It was good to have you here. No, sit. I'll be back in a moment, and we can discuss where matters will go from here."
'Go' was a word I had started to dislike. Although this wasn't the warmest place that I had ever been, it was still comfortable. I'd even had a chance to sleep.
Or maybe I'd been unconscious more than sleeping, but I didn't care. I'd been lying down and still. And everyone had been safe. We'd had good food.
I wanted to say that we should stay for a while longer, but when George came back, I could tell by his face that it was not going to happen.
George took his chair across from me and sat with his hairy fingers laced together on the table.
"I wish you could stay," he said and sounded sincere. "But it is not safe. Far worse than the ice spiders will be coming this way now that the first big storm of winter has hit. The White Wolves will be waking, and as soon as they scent any of you, they'll wake the huntsman and begin the hunt."
"I thought that was just a myth to scare people out of the Winter Lands," Maggie said and sounded hopeful."
"I wish they were," George said.
"What about you?" Edmond asked.
"Kind of you to ask," George replied. "I'm quite safe enough from the hunt since this is my place. You and your friends, however, are outsiders. The storm is already starting to wind down. You'll want to leave before it ends and put some distance between here and the danger. If they are a bit slow to react -- it has happened in the past -- then you might even reach safety."
"Is there safety to be found?" Maggie asked with a shake of her head.
"Oh my, yes. You're no more than half a day from Lord Ice's lands, and since Lord Snow walks with you, then I must assume the dragon is your ally, too?"
"As close as a dragon can be," Lord Snow answered. "What direction?"
"I'll set the sleigh to head that way," George said.
"Sleigh?" I asked.
"Oh my, yes. I wouldn't send you off walking, my good man! The sleigh will go where I tell it and return home when you leave it. It should make the journey far more comfortable."
Maggie got up and gave the yeti a hug around the neck. "Thank you!"
"Oh. Well. Yes." He cleared his throat, obviously a bit uncertain. "Well, do get ready. I have a basket of food for you, too. We won't want to forget that. "I'll go out get the sleigh ready to go."
He got up and left abruptly.
And I found myself anxious to leave after all. Lord Ice's realm sat right on the edge of a part of Elsewhere that I knew. We'd be safely home soon.
You know, I even really believed that would happen.
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