He shook his head,not sure. He stayed following though as the small male creature shifted again to a small Shade,darker blue ice tendrils seeming to cling to the little dragon...like black magic. Shade hadn't lost his sanity to nothing. He'd lost it to poison that had pushed him to dark magic. The opposite of what normal multi wings and half multi wings had. Due to the white contrast of Jason's dragon scales,no one could see the white swirls all over his body. Only when they glow teal would someone be able to see them.

And there they stood, across an ice-slick foyer. The double doors, with their laughing face and snarling face, seeming to mock and threaten at the same time. Would they be able to get back in, once they were out? Beyond the palace was the twisted, frightening city of the Winter Fey.

An excited whoop rang out. The redcaps had seen them.

"Yep,shouldn't be out here." He groaned,smacking his forehead as the little Shade scuttled up his shoulder,one to the other. "This isn't okay!" He told her,not knowing her name. He didn't yell but packed a lot into his faintly dragon toned voice.

"Just run!" She bolted for the door. A pencil-thin butler in a black suit watched them impassively as Jason approached, his lank gray hair falling to his shoulders. Huge round eyes, like shiny mirrors, stared at him, unblinking.

He sighed,knowing he was so gonna get himself shoved back into the shattering process,yet he still bolted after her,his tail bouncing behind him. He shivered at the unblinking gaze of the butler but took long,pained strides.

"Going outside?" the butler asked, tilting his smooth, egg-shaped head.


"Just for a while," the phouka snapped, straining at the door, which, infuriatingly, started laughing at them.

He dashed over and skidded to halt. "Dang it" He pushed as well,thrusting with a cracking sound from his legs as hard as he could. He flapped a wing to help along.

"We'll be right back." She heard the jeering laughter of the redcaps, mingling with the howling of the door, and gave it a resounding kick. "Open up, you stupid thing!"

"Still." He pulled back and growled,flapping till he was about 4 feet in the air. He then thrust himself at the door,shoving it open as far as his body could. He snapped his jaws shut to stop from crying out as his shoulder cracked past it's bindings,small pieces of fragile class falling out from his hoodie sleeve to the ground. The female ice creature came out from under his wing and hopped onto his head,helping,somewhat,to hold the door open.

The door just laughed harder. The butler sighed. "You are assaulting the wrong door." He reached over and pulled open the snarling door, which scowled at them as it creaked on its hinges. "Please be careful in your excursion outside," the butler said primly. "Her Majesty would be most displeased if you ran away. Not that you would, I'm sure. Her protection is all that keeps you from being frozen, or devoured." He said that last part to Jason.


A blast of frigid air blew into the foyer. The land beyond was dark and cold. Glancing behind at the redcaps, who watched them from the shadows with bright, pointy grins, Tiaothin stepped out into the snow.