//------------------------------//
// Something to Prove 
// Story: The Gift of Giving 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

It was a slow trip headed back home, the dead trees becoming sideliners to a lonely party. The cold’s severity turned out grating tonight, which was cause enough for all the reindeer’s teeth to clatter and shiver, hugging themselves to generate what little warmth they could: Alice held tight on to her tiny bow while Aurora let Bori share some of her ragged scarf.
It was also a silent trip. No questions were asked verbally; however, they might’ve asked those questions mentally (though they all hoped they hadn’t suddenly develop psychic powers between each other). No questions about why Bori had dozens of gems in her bag, no questions about what Austral and Thern might’ve thought about the ruckus they’d caused upstairs, no questions about whether they’d been spotted by anyone during that crazy flight or if they’d somehow kept their heads down all this time.
Such internal reflection did wonders in passing time and alleviating boredom. Before they knew it, they’d crossed over almost every bump and log and rock in the journey. Only twenty or so steps more and they’d be at Rennefer’s gate.
Nearing the town, they’d seen an unusual abundance lights and lanterns lined up on the walls. Figures and glimmers disturbed themselves, shifting restlessly along the walls’ towers and borders.
“Um, Alice?” Bori asked, keeping up her normal speed, “Did you anticipate this?”
Alice replied with a nervous laugh, kicking up some snow as a stress outlet. “Uh, I was meaning to tell you that…”
“And you didn’t tell us!” Bori whispered brashly.
The response was an audible gulp. “That’s not what I mean… I mean, I was m-meaning to say that I don’t know anything about this at all!”
Bori and Aurora gasped. “Why?” they asked together.
Alice shook her head, afraid that it might go loose if her hoof went away from it. “I don’t know! It’s like some kind of mental block... or I just didn’t know how to explain it...”
Bori grunted, turning the burden over to Aurora. “OK, do the guards ring a bell to your past-focused mind or whatever? What about the lights?”
Aurora squinted her eyes to see if she could get any past wisdom on the matter. She ended it with a sigh.
“Sadly, no,” Aurora said. “Not as far as I know of.”
Bori bulged her cheeks, holding her breath in. They almost turned red out of exhaustion before she exhaled tiredly.
“Let’s hope Pyrite wasn’t faking it,” she said, revealing teeth clamped together.
So they went up some more in the cold.
Closer, they heard the shuffling of hooves and the slight din of whispers mingled with the chink of armors banging slightly against one another. Nearer and a few more dips of hooves in the deep snow, they could clearly see the guards standing ready on the city walls, their eyes honed in on the approaching three.
A slight glimmer from the city walls twinkled differently from the others before it disappeared.
Alice whimpered, cowering from the stare of at least a hundred armed reindeer. “OK, we’re officially in trouble!”
“Just stay calm,” Bori said, attempting to calm her own voice down. “Let’s say we just got thrown really far away from a fight and a magic mishap. Don’t worry.”
“I might’ve not seen this before, but this had bad written all over it coming from experience,” Aurora remarked, nudging Bori on the withers afterwards.
“Just stay calm,” were Bori’s repeated words. “Just smile and stick with the plan.” She bit her lip after saying that.
One more bump overcome, they finally saw the gate in full.
A gate swarmed with guards. A gate swarmed with guards watching them, checking their every more. They had their spears, swords, and primed bows aimed at them. Not a welcoming smile was within their ranks; all they had were the standard stoic faces of straight eyes, closed mouth, and forward-facing head.
Aurora, Bori, Alice gulped together at this new danger.
“What’s going on?” Alice asked, shuddering behind Bori now. “A-Are we criminals?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” blathered Bori. “Perhaps they saw us and thought we were other creatures. That’s a reasonable enough explanation to me.”
“Then why do they still look mad at us?” Alice persisted.
“Don’t worry,” Bori reassured though her ears wilted. “Let’s just see, OK?”
Without waiting for Alice to nod, Bori kept walking and so did Aurora and Alice herself. They trotted up to the front of the gate where a line of guards stood, blocking entry into their beloved hometown and halted with one solitary meter between them and safe space.
The halt didn’t slacken the guards’ rigid composure. The weight of a hundred eyes and ears facing their way might’ve quickened their hearts, but Bori had a plan to stick to.
“Oh, uh, hi!” she said happily, waving a hoof at them. “If you may step aside and let us go on our way, we promise we won’t bother you, OK?”
The guards didn’t budge.
“Um... maybe you forgot who you’re talking to!” she continued, sustaining her smile. “I’m Bori, and these are my friends, Aurora and Alice. I’m sure you know—”
“Tell us how you got outside Rennefer’s realm,” ordered the guard directly in front of them, speaking in big baritone.
He stepped forward, bringing into better light his helmet which was shinier than the others; presumably, he was the captain.
Bori sweated in light of this pressure. Still, she continued despite the officialized browbeating: “Um... we got into a big fight back in Aurora’s place. We locked antlers, and before we could process anything else, a magic explosion happened, and we got sent flying out the window!”
“There were no booms heard,” the guard replied, face hardening like steel. “Your testimony conflicts with others.”
“Others?” said Bori, stepping back; in her voice, coolness ran away. “Who said those others?”
“Why, this upstanding citizen here.”
He stepped aside to reveal who’d been standing behind him.
It was Austral. She held a pair of glimmering binoculars and was escorted by two taciturn guards. Sorrow was spelled out on her face, this sorrow the kind that pitted her eyes into pink, halfway to a sickly red.
Bori and her friends gasped. “Austral?!”
Austral nodded, full of coughs blocking her throat. Her entourage leaned to her, whispering if she needed medicine or some water, but she frantically shook her head.
“I-I didn’t know,” she uttered in between sobbed wheezes, holding up her binoculars to cover her eyes on the verge of becoming waterfalls “D-Dad told me not to tell b-because i-i-it might’ve been an accident, but I h-heard wh-what you said upstairs while he wasn’t looking, s-s I went to the window…”
Brought her long mane in front of one eye, covering herself from the shame a million soldiers serving her twenty-four/seven could never suppress.
“I s-saw you… flying away… a-and Th-thern wouldn’t believe me or want me to tell or do anything with the g-guard… it just came out wh-when they kn-knocked, a-and I didn’t want to lie t-t-to the guards!”
Sniffling, she dared a look behind her and saw Thern with a tormented twist for a pout, glancing at her not with lingering disappointment but with horror that only deepened when he turned to see his grandmother on the other side of the law.
“You know full well that leaving Rennefer is highly unwise,” said the captain, stepping forward to conceal Austral from view, “for it is highly unsafe and we may never know what has befallen you.”
“It was an accident!” Bori yelled, all semblance of composure lost. Pointing at her friends beside her, “You ask any of us… we just randomly flew out of the window! We couldn’t control it at all!”
The captain responded by rubbing his metal-tipped spear. “Still, you have interacted with an outsider well beyond the bounds of what’s right, and that outsider was a dragon no less! Who is to say you are not being used as bait, perhaps ignorantly?”
“Well, I believe we’re not bait!” Aurora proclaimed, stomping on the ground, antlers glowing and prompting everyone to gasp at her unexpected blaze.
“Aurora, really?” said the captain, smiling but dripping with disbelief. “To think you’d be among the more respectable role models of this community.”
The elderly reindeer murmured something incoherent under her breath. Then, she spouted out, “Unlike you when you were too busy peeking at your gifts earlier tonight and said you wanted a sleigh instead of your ‘dinky decorated jars’!”
All gasped again, this time towards the accused captain. His entourage whispered fast, their mouths working strenuously by his ears long the lines of, “Is this true?”
Under all this public scrutiny, the captain twitched. “How did you know that?!”
“Uh—"
“It’s hard to explain,” Bori said, going right before Aurora in her defense. “You’ll have a hard time believing us when we say it, but—”
“Hoofdagent’s gonna sneeze three times in ten seconds!” Alice shouted in a jump, forelegs spread like a rainbow.
Captain Hoofdagent raised a brow. “... what?”
Now, all eyes were on this distinguished soldier and guard, the chilly wind breezing upon his brown coat and ruffling it.
Hoofdagent smirked confidently. “Hah, what’re you talking abou-choo!”
What came after was nothing but more breeze, a draft winding around his antlers.
He rubbed his runny nose, careful to hide the snot from public view. “OK, Alice, that’s a good call, but tha—choo!”
More silence. Agitated air was the only one to greet him with something audible. However, among the guards, they circulated suggestions and worries, whispers directed away from the captain’s ears.
“Alright, two times,” and Hoofdagent wagged a hoof at Alice. “I’m not that known for being quiet about my health, but I-choo!”
That was it: the third sneeze. The whispered worries blew up into aired concerns, soldiers talking to one another and eyeing both their captain and their supposed targets in the form of those outsider reindeer. One even yelped, “He sneezed three times after five seconds, just like what Alice said! I counted it with my hourglass here”
“Yeah, yeah, rub it in,” Hoofdagent said, willingly overlooking the finished hourglass held up for others to see. “I’ll let you know, cadet, that I shall sneeze four times instead of three: Ah-choo!”
Though the same silence reigned save for the icy wind, everyone knew that sneeze was staged.
“What?” he said, incredulity full in his tone. “Are you telling me Alice can predict the future just by sneezes? Remember: I sneezed four, not three times.”
“You know I meant three real sneezes,” said Alice, irritated by the captain’s attitude. “Any hack could predict their own sneezes.”
“Whatever!” he bellowed, belittling Alice’s ability. “Next thing I know, you’ll—”
“—interrupt your sentences and also tell you that someone would bring you your bow and arrow because you left it at home... all in half a minute!”
And Hoofdagent stopped talking. He observed Alice, tried to see if she was just spewing hot air around. His confident smile wavered after a while of more observation. His soldiers also expressed their concern not with sad faces but with paying all of their attention to this apparent future-teller.
“Alright,” Hoofdagent finally said. “I’ll take your word up for it, Alice. In the meantime,” leaning his head to see the other reindeer there, “you and Aurora are seers that way, hm?”
“It’s all three of us, actually” Bori added, raising her hoof.
“So we have a trio of seers now?” Hoofdagent replied, rubbing the goatee protruding from his chin. “Anyway, I don’t need to check Bori’s powers if two out of three can prove it… so let’s wait for Alice. It should be thirty seconds any moment now.”
So they waited the remaining time out.
A few seconds later, a soldier came running up to him. Exhausted and sweaty despite the arctic climate up here, he carried a bow and a quiver of bows with his mouth. With his bumbling pace, many reindeer stepped aside and made way for him; it was partly out of respect, but they also didn’t want to get hit by his freakishly long antlers.
“Ah!” Hoofdagent exclaimed as he received his weapon, bending his head back to not hurt himself with the antlers of his subordinate. “And where did you find this?”
“In the living room,” this cadet answered.
“Well, thank you—”
“I found it underneath the pyramid of dinky decorated jars you told me to dispose of for your new sleigh.”
“Thank you, cadet,” Hoofdagent said, half-growling. “I’d say that that’s too much detail, but I’ve already admitted that error, so off you go.”
Dismissed, this lowly cadet galloped away, his hoofsteps echoing throughout until they faded from earshot.
With the predicted bow and arrow present, the captain held it close, checking every nook and cranny on them.
He dropped them to the ground.
Bori and her friends opened their mouths in surprise. So did a good number of the guards.
“OK, I have no problem with you,” Hoofdagent said. “I wish I’ll never have problems with you. You’re really good citizens, really good reindeer. You’ve always seemed like reindeer I’d want to spend more time with well past the Carnival.”
A sigh came from his lips. The captain lowered his head but kept his stare on them.
“However, the law is the law, and you’ve clearly gone outside Rennefer. What’s more, something has infected you with these strange powers, and they could only portend doom.”
“Doom?” Alice repeated. “We never said anything about—”
Clack! and freezing sensations traveled from her legs.
“Wait, are you arresting us?!” Alice shouted at her apprehenders, looking back down on her chained legs.
She got her answer by checking herself and her friends: Aurora complained about how her legs were quite fragile and waved a balled up hoof, but no guard took her seriously as they detained her; Bori behaved submissively, but the obedient body betrayed a grieved face.
“As I’ve said… the law… is the law,” Hoofdagent said, his words cut with nasty lumps in his throat. “Hurts me to say it, but the law is also blind; no amount of pleading or good memories will sway me.” Giving one final sigh, his breath becoming frosty vapor. “I suppose the hope here would be seeking Cervidi’s wisdom.”
Alice desired to upbraid this stuffy and stiffy captain, but a shoulder prod from Bori made her hold her tongue.
The three remained silent when a cadre of armed and armored guards surrounded the prisoners. Hoofdagent took command by starting in front of them. With head and antlers held high, he shouted to the sky.
So began the miserable parade into Rennefer.
Passing by familiar old cabins and lodges, overtaken by fellow civilians pulling sleighs of passengers and gifts before they stopped to see what this fuss was all about: back in this not-so-cozy village, Aurora and Bori and Alice trudged around, bound in their chains and shackles. Lanterns both inside and out lit up their faces for everyone else to see, to behold, to mocked at even, yet no mocking occurred. What happened in its place was silence from the gathering crowds; the only sound to be heard, to be worth noticing, was the wind whistling with a sore throat, roping rapid snow into Rennefer with budding force. A few who’d stayed inside closed open windows, refusing the entrance of this annoying weather.
Past the houses and the stores, they entered the market. News had already spread about the arrest of those three alledgedly kind reindeer, but it took their genuine appearances in this bazaar to quell their chat by the stalls. The everyday smell of fruits and freshly cooked soup and stew wafted everywhere in these parts, but it did nothing to stir a smile in those reindeer, whether they were the observing onlookers or the observed outlaws. The guards themselves had eyes that never strayed from straight, always looking forward.
The public’s hall loomed ahead, its height and magnanimity warping into the outline of perl in the detainees’ minds; it appeared more a lair of evil than a resort for help, especially with the snowfall turning unusually aggressive tonight whipping more cold onto everyone outside.
However, Bori cracked a smile at Alice and Aurora who trailed not far behind. “Whatever happens, girls, we’ll make it together... right?”
Alice and Aurora said nothing. Only nods of assent.
A few guards galloped ahead, barely noticing the faintly taller layer of snow on the ground. They took the front doors’ handlebars which were as big as their bodies and pulled these stories-spanning doors open.
Looking inside, they saw the inside slightly refurbished. No dining table nor benches were found, nor did a smorgasbord of many dinners greet them to a hearty meal. Rather, ten steps away from them, sat the monarch Cervidi himself, occupying his throne of wood and stone.
Cervidi had his wrinkly old forehooves clasped, wriggling his wrists in self-generated suspense. The glasses perched on his snout weighed down on his face. What startled them, however, was the cow’s lack of jewelry and rings hanging from his antlers; without them, they appeared mundane though big nonetheless.
Bori and her friends held their breath. Jolts of fear tore through their bodily systems, yet a tingling sense of comfort pat their hearts.
The guards went on their knees, and the captain galloped up to the throne and doubled down on the respect by smacking his head to the ground.
“Oh, Wise One!” Hoofdagent thundered in his deep voice which echoed throughout the length of the hall. “We are terribly sorry to report of this travesty happening within—no, without this fair village. As you see,” gesturing towards the prisoners without making eye contact with them, “these three reindeer have been spotted outside Rennefer. They say it was an accidental, and that strange magic led them out.”
Cervidi replied with nothing for a while, humming raspily while stroking his beard. Seconds later, a servant came over and stroked the beard for him. Five or so strokes were done before Cervidi raised a hoof and the servant trotted away, having done his work for the moment. He looked back at the convicts in question.
“I see,” Cervidi muttered, stroking his beard once more.
Everyone else looked at him, watching every single muscle movement in his body for any sign of a response, of something positive or negative, of something implying a yes or no.
Cervidi knocked his own antlers, letting the knocks ring all over the building.
“Captain Hoofdagent, leave us be. I and the defendants shall talk solely with each other. You know these matters to be dreadfully important, that they are not to be trodden lightly.”
“As you wish,” Hoofdagent ended up whispering.
So, the guards stood up, and with Hoofdagent, they left through the small opening made by the half-opened front doors.
The doors closed with a resounding clung! which bounced off the ceiling and the walls.
When that died down, there the four reindeer sat and stood, the three fugitives alone with one Cervidi. The lack of words marked the escalating cry of the rampant wind outside. Muffled shouts could be heard, some vague orders to hunker down communicated not-so-clearly.
Cervidi stroked his hairy beard once more, blinking many times to set his vision aright even with his glasses.
“So... this is quite interesting,” he said. “A very interesting case. Such a shame our dear captain thought he had no time to explain thoroughly. He is a rash bull when all is said and done; letting him stay here would only taint this discussion.”
He clasped his forehooves again.
“With that said, let us do away with frivolities. I shall begin with this question,” so he raised his head, hoof tugging at his beard: “What exactly is this strange magic?”
Alice opened her mouth and sucked in a ton of breath, but she had second thoughts. Mouth still wide open, she looked at Aurora.
Aurora received the notice but shook her head. Instead, she poked Bori on the withers.
Bori didn’t have to turn her head. She raised it, hoped the antlers wouldn’t glow or that strange magic wouldn’t flare up at the worst possible time, and sucked in her own breath.
“Cervidi,” she began, “this will be... hard to believe. However, I believe we’re speaking the truth for we’ve experienced this ourselves, and if you think we’re lying, just ask the deer we’ve been with for the past few nights and they’ll back us up. For you see—“ she gulped another big breath “—we are seers.”
Cervidi raised a brow, humming softly in piqued interest. “Seers? As in, you can see into the past or into the future?”
“Both, actually,” Bori said. “Uh, sort of. Aurora here can see into the past, perhaps of someone’s life and background. Alice here cane see into the future of one’s life and foreground... whatever the opposite of someone’s background is.”
Cervidi now stroked the hoofrest of his throne. “That leaves you, Bori, as a mystery to me. If they see past and future, you must then see into the present.”
“That’s because... I think... I think I can see into someone’s heart, to what pleases and troubles them as we speak.” Bori paused, her head a little dizzy upon re-realizing she was talking to her leader and monarch. “I’m, yes, a present seer.”
Cervidi nodded. “Interesting. Very, very interesting...”
Alice cocked her head, her bow bending with her. “Aren’t you not, um, worried about your citizens suddenly becoming seers?”
“Quiet!” Aurora whispered, pulling Alice’s ear with enough force to make her recoil but not scream. “How dare you speak like that to Cervidi of all reindeer!”
“How did you receive these anomalous powers?” Cervidi asked, ignoring the verbal scuffle that’d went on before him.
Bori bowed her head. “I... I don’t know.”
Aurora grit her teeth, Alice bit her hoof. Both wondered how it’d go down now with this admission of ignorance.
Cervidi stared at Bori with his squinted eyes, his glasses showing they weren’t enough for tonight and were probably in need of replacing. Still, he persisted unfazed even as the outside wind squalled and beat itself down on the public hall’s exterior., even as the windows’ hefty curtains slowly swayed.
“I see that you speak the truth,” Cervidi said calmly, stretching a hoof towards her. “However, what is the context of your... powers? How have you gotten them? A frame can make or break a painting, after all, and I believe everyone outside would not want to think they are cursed by you.”
Bori nodded although her lips quivered at the thought of being outed as bad omens. “Well, I... I was busy cooking in your public hall for the nightly carnival feast two nights ago. I was about to take my break when my own antlers glowed out of nowhere! All of a sudden, I felt something telling me, almost pulling me, to go back home.”
The monarch leaned closer, his spine rippling with a crack or two.
“There, I felt this intense urge to get a spare wheel for Snow Goose. Next thing I knew, I was flying out of my house with the wheel, shot out of Rennefer, and... well, that’s when I crashed at the bottom. That’s also when we met a pony who had her wagon broken—“
Cervidi shot his head up with a loud Hmm! “You’ve met a pony, an outsider without the safety of our fair village?”
Bori stepped back, sweat returning in full form and threatening to drown her in dread.
“I knew this would happen!” Alice whispered to herself, shaking a fist against herself.
So Bori clammed up, grasping for what words to say to this wise one. “W-well, she wasn’t that bad! She was just a traveler who wanted to go home, not some army spy.”
“That’s what an army spy would want you to think,” Cervidi replied in a sharp tone. “Must I remind you of who we are?”
“We’re four-legged creatures just like that pony,” Bori replied, holding fast to the floor.
“We reindeer are also prey,” Cervidi reminded, pointing at himself and then at Bori and friends “Say what you will about ponies’ kindness and cleverness—I have perennially heard news of their ever-growing influence in the world stage, and it’s not stopping. Soon, there’ll be ample grounds for a pony takeover of our cherished home.”
“Why would they do that?” Bori argued, stepping forward and defying common courtesy towards the monarch. “That would be mean! And why would they do that when the news has always been their princess or another pony trying to solve things peacefully?”
“It takes a mastermind to win a war without fighting,” Cervidi said, calming his voice and clasping his forehooves again. “What Princess Celestia and her lackeys are doing is just that.”
Seething through her teeth, Bori scratched her head. She shot a glance at Aurora and Alice behind her, silently asking for assistance. They both shrugged and folded their lips in royal trepidation.
The wind beat upon the hall once again, this time agitating the curtains. This caught Cervidi’s eyes which filled not with anger but with horror.
“Wait,” said he, whipping his head towards the accused again. “How... how many times did you meet up with outsiders like this pony?”
“Two more times,” Bori answered, avoiding the monarch’s crazed eye roll. “We helped another traveler pony the next night, and then we helped a dragon solve his own pro—“
“You helped a dragon?!” Cervidi yelped in an almost shout, clutching his chest, about to have a heart attack perhaps. “Why would you—“
“We thought the same way,” Bori interrupted, much to Aurora’s and Alice’s fright with their spooked faces. “That was until... until my powers activated and I saw what was really going on: deep down, he was out in the snow with so much trouble and burden on his heart, so much spite for his home so far away.”
Bori slowly turned her head towards the huge window to her right, flapping curtains and unshakable winds coming back to focus.
“Let’s say... we helped him overcome that struggle of his,” she finished, smiling widely to soften the words for Cervidi.
That strategy didn’t work since Cervidi clutched both hoofrests on his throne, now his turn to bare his teeth in a mix of fury and fear. “Do you not know what you’ve done?!” Cervidi yelled, competing with the bad weather’s noises. “Do you not see the signs? Do you not know what you have wrought?”
“... what signs?” Alice asked, as deadpan as she could. “And what are we wrought-ing?”
“That you’ve been tainted by the outsiders, you fool!” Cervidi declared, pointing at Alice with his cheeks raised, his mouth twisted into something resembling wrath. “And what you’ve wrought is a horrible lot for Rennefer, for all us reindeer!”
“I don’t think helping helpless creatures taints us!” Bori replied, fighting back in volume. “And why should helping others lead to bad things down the road?”
“You helped them get closer to fulfilling their own interests!” Cervidi answered.”
“We helped with our fellow deer’s interests so many times before! Why not help the non-deer?”
“Because their interests are against ours!” Cervidi shouted.
He stood up, hooves striking the royal floor. An eep! later and he found his servant scurrying away from sight. Then, he took in the sweeping view of Aurora, Bori, and Alice; he took a step and lifted his head, desiring to look down upon them and impose his authority on this danger once and for all.
But he didn’t.
Cervidi was distracted by Bori’s antlers glowing. Aurora and Alice’s glowed, too.
Aurora and Alice gasped upon this realization, so they looked at Bori.
No determined face on her. Just a calm, serene face, smiling smoothly.
“... a-are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Alice asked Bori, tapping her antlers which warmed with the glow. “Because, I think I know because it’s telling me—“
“We know what it wants,” she replied. All edge and tension in her voice had vanished.
“It?!” Cervidi repeated, head shaking a little. “What is this it? Is it the strange magic in you?”
“Yes, it is,” Bori affirmed, brandishing her eyebrows but still staying calm. “In fact, what it wants us to do you’ll probably reject... but this awful treatment of outsiders—this whole idea that they should never be trusted—is... well, awful! We can’t isolate ourselves like this! It’ll just be us, us lonely reindeer against a big and bright world out there!”
“Tell your it that it is mistaken,” Cervidi said. “The world out there is cruel, unkind, and woefully merciless to us reindeer. We are either attacked with weapons or with words, no matter how nice the veneer of the other creature looks.”
“So you’ll still insist on that? Then I propose a deal.”
Cervidi chuckled. It was a loud chuckle since it had to overpower the storm going on outside, curtains extending like the stretching of forelegs after a good night’s sleep.
“What deal could you possibly make to remedy this situation?!” Cervidi said, almost daring.
Bori toned down her smile a notch. Her antlers glowed brighter than before, halfway to blinding him, and so glowed Aurora’s and Alice’s antlers.
“You open the gates to these outsiders,” Bori began, “so that we can help them and ourselves. It’ll lead to a better Rennefer, and it’ll help us become better reindeer... and if you refuse, we will leave Rennefer for good.”
Gasps flourished from everyone else. Aurora and Alice hugged each other wobbily, wishing that Bori wouldn’t be shouted at or, worse, be struck by the monarch’s pointy antlers. Cervidi left his jaw hanging, his old and aging teeth the tip of this outdated iceberg. Bori kept standing there, a confident smile on her face.
The storm kept blowing outside.