Halpra has been silently marching for hours. You can only imagine how she must be feeling, leaving her injured sister behind. You have entered an ancient forest. The massive branches of the trees arch and fuse above you like the ceiling of a cathedral. Light glints off their ice-coated limbs.
You are surprised to hear cheerful, upbeat chatter, floating like a song. You come upon a magpie energetically arranging a pile of shiny objects in a patch of sunlight, talking to herself. Delighted, she tilts her head back and forth before she picks up something in her beak and places it in a new place.
“So pretty pretty pretty! What do you think of my treasures?” she trills. Halpra halts but does not respond.
“Rude rude rude!” The magpie chitters. She cocks her head, and then rearranges her objects again.
“You’ll have to forgive her,” you say. “She’s lost her sister.”
The magpie’s quick black eye peers at you. “Not a good place to be lost,” she chatters. “There’s a fox fox fox in the woods today!”
“Have you seen it recently?” Roth asks urgently.
“Yes! That way is the bog,” the magpie replies, pointing to the left with her beak.
