Summer 1247:
Qiliaq Ahnah and Iluliaq and their friend Sif, have been on a playdate. Nanny Amma is taking them back to Sif’s parent’s place, and the children are behaving wonderfully! Everyone is playing nicely, there is lots of sharing and very few people are hitting other people.
Amma has finally given in to Iluliaq’s pestering and for the fist time they are going to see the edge of the settlement; they get to see a part of the big circular wall of ice with all the carvings on it.
They pass the pond and see the puffins, Ahnah even pots Puff the Magic Puffin flying very high in the sky! Then they see the goats and the vineyard with the warm statue. Ahnah worried everyone by questioning if they had had breakfast that day, but Amma reassured them that they had, but gave them some honey sweets to cheer them up. There was much discussion as to who might be able to drink wine and mead. Sif said that she often drank both, but Amma was not quite sure about that…
Finally they reached the edge. The wall was very high! And the carvings were quite thickly incised into the wall. Iluliaq rushed over to touch them, and Amma tried to restrain him.
And then all <redacted> broke loose. Fire started raining down from the sky, lightening coruscated around the wall crackling over the carvings, it started to snow heavily and Amma collapsed to the ground.
The children immediately swung into action. They knew that survival depended on them being at the peak of their abilities, so they raided Amma’s pockets for the sweets, so that they would have energy to think. Ahnah said not to give any to Amma as she might choke. This was considere wise advice.
Sif showed her mighty strength and managed to carry Amma, and they started to trudge away from the wall. Soon however they lost sight of the wall, and could not see anything in the whiteout.
They got very scared, and Qilaq was worried that they might be lost forever! Ahnah heard the sound of music. They all got very suspicious, but Sif reassured them that Fairies were not always bad, and got quite defensive about troll-slurs that were being bandied about. They followed the music and eventually found a glass flute floating in the air.
Qilaq decided to try and play it, and immediately Sif started to dance! The children played around making each other dance, promising solemnly that they would stop, and then immediately carrying on. What larks!
Eventually they realized that they could make Amma dance, which meant that Sif would not have to carry her!
With this they were able to make much better progress but still they had no way of knowing if they were going in the right direction. It was all quite stressful!
Weirdly the stress of worrying clarified something for Qilaq, she could suddenly ‘feel’ the stars and which way was north. They had no recollection of which way they should be going, but now at least they could go in a straight line. She also had a sense of a ‘fallen star’ not far, and so she lead them that way.
The snow got shallower, and the air slightly warmer, until they saw through the haze two trees (later identified by Amma as an ash and an Elm) with a glowing shining star floating between them.
Ahnah touched it an fell immediately asleep. They shook her awake, and then Qilaq was dared to touch it. She wasn’t burned either, but again was immediately put to sleep. Despite promising her that they would immediately wake her up, they debated just how funny it would be to leave her there.
Sif had the idea of climbing a tree to see further away, and while she did this Iluliaq had the idea that if they got Amma to touch the star, and get her to be sent to sleep, then they could wake her up afterwards.
Qilaq was woken to discuss this, and eventually Amma’s hand was forced onto the star. The plan worked! Amma woke up.
She immediately took charge, and got the children to relinquish the ‘supplies’ they had ‘foraged’ from her (including her knife). Once she found out that they had been making her dance with the flute THAT was confiscated as well.
Meanwhile Sif climbed to the top of the elm. From the ground it had looked very small, nowhere near as big as the Tree in the middle of the settlement, but when she climbed to the top she could see for *miles*! She could see the towers that the magi and lived in were “that way”. Shouting down to the group below they determined that “that way” was “East”, and they drew an arrow in the snow corresponding to Sif’s direction before Sif was convinced to climb down.
Amma collected the star in a cloak, and they started of “East”. The snow quickly faded away, and they were back home.
What an Awfully exciting adventure! The Children had whale blubber for tea and lots of hot drinks, while Amma went to find the Duty Magus.
Luckiy before she did, Vincent appeared and she was able to brief him, and turn over the artifacts. Uncle Vincent went to visit the children to see if they were OK, and gave them sweeties, They like Uncle Vincent!
And so to bed…