[crow]

A little girl waited outside a pair of massive gates all alone.

It was the dead of winter, and she cut a particularly lonely figure standing out there in the snow by herself. She was wrapped up for the cold weather--- a long thick coat and a plush scarf wrapped around her, with a knitted cap covering the top of her head, and brightly colored mittens that she pulled off sometimes in favor of breathing onto her hands to warm them. Apparently, as snug as they looked, they weren't quite warm enough.

[Front Gate - 1]

[crow]

Surely exposing them to the cold air must have been worse... but then, breathing into the mittens didn't do much either, and sometimes she managed to convince herself that it would be worth the trade-off. Judging by the way she shivered though, she was probably wrong about that one.

But even though she seemed to be dressed appropriately, it was still pretty sad. Where were her parents? Why was she waiting out here by herself? And at such a strange place too. It was an easy enough landmark to describe, but it looked positively abandoned.

[Front Gate - 2]

[crow]

At first it might have looked grand to someone who gave it a passing glance, or perhaps someone who saw the thing from a distance... but the closer one looked, the shabbier it seemed, until the only thing impressive about it was the size.

Well, perhaps not quite. The icicles hanging from its wrought iron bars had their own kind of cold, austere beauty. But even then, these lent a certain air of abandonment to the place, which was only accentuated by the worn out sign and the dull look of the metal.

[Front Gate - 3]

[crow]

Against such a backdrop, a girl her age looked even more out of sorts, not the least of which because she didn't look particularly perturbed by it.

Fortunately she wasn't left alone for very long. The jingling of bells could be heard in the distance, at first only very faintly, and then growing in volume. She caught it early on--- much earlier than one might have expected, but then, the hearing of children was said to be more sensitive than that of older folk. As she registered the noise, she perked up, eyes brightening with recognition.

[Front Gate - 4]

[crow]

She didn't move to meet it though, staying rooted right where she was and merely waiting for it to come to her. Judging from her reaction, whatever it was, it was something she knew well, well enough to recognize it as no cause for alarm.

Eventually, some of the surrounding darkness on the horizon seemed to condense itself into a shape, which trotted forward on short legs. It paused every so often to shake off its feet before resuming its trek through the deep snow, into which its paws sank deeply.

[Front Gate - 5]

[crow]

Its shape hadn't been made for this type of weather, clearly, and it seemed rather displeased at the progress it was making. Nevertheless, it soldiered on until it had nearly reached the girl's side, before it was unceremoniously swept up in her arms--- a little Myu Reaper, black as a coal.

"Rhodes!" said the girl, immediately burying her face in its fur. The cat looked supremely undignified, held in an ungainly position and making a disgruntled expression, which only worsened as the girl rubbed her face on him and laughed into his coat.

[Front Gate - 6]

[crow]

"Miss," said the cat. "Please, put me down." What he didn't say was that she was almost certainly getting snot onto his fur, which he wasn't terribly enthused about. Not to mention the position he was in, which was uncomfortable both for physical and for reputational reasons.

The girl merely laughed again, but she wasn't stubborn, and complied with his wishes. It was only that her compliance was a little... abrupt, so that Rhodes' landing wasn't perfectly graceful either, and was inclined to be a little harder than he had hoped.

[Front Gate - 7]

[crow]

Still, it was freedom, and it was what he had asked for. He could hardly scold her or begrudge her for that. For all her agelessness, she still had all the clumsiness of a child, and Rhodes knew well that she didn't mean anything by what she had done.

"Will Sivvy be here soon?" she asked, looking off in the distance in the direction from which Rhodes had come. She couldn't make out anything though, between the darkness and the drifting snow, even when she went up on her toes to get a better look.

[Front Gate - 8]

[crow]

Not that height would have helped her plight very much, even so. There wasn't much of anything to see over. The area in front of the gate, at least, was clear, and beyond that it was more the darkness that hampered one's field of vision than anything else.

"How dreary," said Rhodes, and with a wave of his tail, a myriad of lights bloomed above them, each emitting a soft glow. The area immediately brightened, the lights themselves further enhanced in their luminescence by the reflection from the snow around them.

[Front Gate - 9]

[crow]

It didn't improve things very much as far as visibility range, but it did make their immediate surroundings less miserable. And if Suvi had been the type to get scared by this type of thing, it might have made her a little less frightened too, but she seemed to be doing just fine in that regard.

Instead, it provided a welcome distraction. Suvi looked up almost as soon as the lights appeared, gasping in shock at the sight of them. "Wow! Did you make those, Rhodes? They're so pretty!" she said.

[Front Gate - 10]

[crow]

Her hands were clasped together, and a delighted grin spread across her face. The question, of course, was rhetorical. She knew what Rhodes was, and had always known that he was capable of magic. He had, in fact, demonstrated this self-same spell on several other occasions. Suvi knew it as part of his repertoire, and so her exclamation was merely for the sake of exclamation, nothing more.

She clapped her mittened hands together in glee. "Can you make them change colors?" she said, pointing up at one. "Make this one green?"

[Front Gate - 11]

[crow]

"Very well," said Rhodes. It wasn't a particularly difficult request. He didn't even have to make any motions. He merely glowered at the light in question for a moment, and then the color changed to a soft mellow green, just as she had asked.

Suvi giggled, then immediately pointed to another one. "Make this one blue! And that one red, and this one orange..." She dictated colors for each of the lights one by one, and one by one Rhodes changed them to match her preference, though it was a little hard to keep up.

[Front Gate - 12]

[crow]

After all, it was much easier to point at a light than it was to change its color. It wasn't something that took a lot of effort, but it wasn't entirely effortless, and it did take a little time.

Eventually, however, Suvi managed to get him to assemble a full rainbow, and some more colors besides--- mostly pinks for the orbs that were left over after she had gotten a rainbow situated in them. She briefly contemplated a brown orb, 'like a chocolate ball'--- or so she'd said--- but then decided it hadn't looked nice after all.

[Front Gate - 13]

[crow]

Privately Rhodes was inclined to agree with her assessment on that. He had done it anyway, as he was only doing this at her whim and to entertain her, and it really wasn't something worth offering advice to a child over, but he had known even before he tried it that it probably wouldn't be pretty.

Not that lighting in more natural colors couldn't be pretty, of course, but usually gold was a much better option for that. He was gratified to see that she at least agreed with that sentiment, in the end.

[Front Gate - 14]

[crow]

In the end, he didn't need to answer her original question about Sivain. Their little game with the lights lasted long enough for him to show up before Rhodes could address it again. Rhodes was the one who noticed first, a movement of a darker and larger shape at the edge of his vision catching his attention. He turned to look, and Suvi, noticing him doing so, followed his gaze.

The dark shape resolved itself into one that they both knew well, though as of late Rhodes was more familiar with it than Suvi was anymore.

[Front Gate - 15]