//------------------------------//
// 11: Loki 
// Story: Fimbulvetr 
// by Alkarasu 
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The office of the Prince of Elets was rather small and cramped. Most of it was taken by several rows of heavy wooden shelves, containing multiple folders with various official papers concerning the population of the fair town.  The rest was taken by a massive desk and a visitor chair. The chair that was occupied by quite unhappy-looking dirty-yellow unicorn. The owner of the office was sitting at the desk, squinting at some papers through thick round glasses. Anyone who knew Georgy outside of these walls was bound to a bout of disbelief, so much was the contrast between his usual fiery and uplifted attitude and the one he was showing at that moment. The room was scarcely lit, abiding to its owner's nocturnal physiology, and for that the unicorn was immensely grateful.

"So, they've left?" asked the Prince, glancing from the papers to his guest and wincing at his apparent misery.

"The... the moment I've went to Wemithi, it seems. Ravaged... the kitchen, quite gently, and disappeared. Into... into the blizzard. Took the... antler, too. Don't understand... the antler."

"Uncle, you know, your weekly 'parties' will kill you someday," sighed the large griffon, removing the glasses and pinching the top of his beak with the claws. "It's bad enough when I have to drag you home from a ditch, but now... where we'll find them in this weather? Would be there anything worth finding? It could kill an adult, and they're just cubs... strong, promising cubs, but cubs!"

"They'll be fine," the unicorn waved a hoof and winced once more from the movement. "They've managed to... fool me for a week! I thought the girl's a goner. Wemithi's stuff can make a dead healthy in a week, and she was looking nearly as bad as the first... day! You... my dear nephew, can't... can't fool me like that, and she did. The boy... heh, the boy is better. So... polite, well-mannered. Old speech without an accent. So... sorrow for his poor dying little sister, so natural. Hic! And all that time... he was timing me! Asked about my job. Should've alerted me. Your kind never... asks about my job. We've been... played, my dear nephew, like the fools we are!"

"Spies? Uncle, your drinks had finally made you mad. Who sends spies to spy on a hospital?  Your drinking schedule might be important to the family, but why send two cubs from Archive knows where to learn it?"

"That's a question you should answer yourself. I'm just... a doctor. Not a very good one, too," sighed Podorozhnik, finally feeling the effects of anti-hangover potion. "Good one would've found another solution..." Thankfully, Georgy was too deep in thoughts to hear the last whisper. He had a good excuse for it, though. With the spring coming closer, the blizzards got stronger, and he had two cubs to save from the winter. The cubs that had nearly a day of a head start on him due to his uncle noticing their absence only in afternoon.

That wasn't going to be fun.