[crow]

In fact, it looked as though it had been painted yesterday, or two days ago at most. It didn't smell as though it had been painted yesterday, but then maybe the cold made it harder for odors to travel...

Maybe it was just how typical it looked. There were no identifying quirks, no signs of individuality whatsoever to this barn. It was as though someone had taken a child's imagined ideal of a barn and rendered it into life, and this had been the result.

[Barn - 3]

[crow]

... Hold that thought. What if that was what this entire place was? It would certainly have explained a great deal about this place, framed in that regard.

The perfectly smooth mirror lake with its shimmering fish... And more importantly, that strange forest with no tracks, not even the ones they had left on their own. The strange flowers that were frozen in perfect stasis, buried under the snow or jutting up through it. These were all things that would have made perfect sense to a child's imagination.

[Barn - 4]

[crow]

The premise of a treasure hunt made sense in that context too. It was the sort of thing that kids found fun to plan and to participate in.

In fact, it was just the sort of thing he would have expected Suvi to come up with on a lazy day in front of the fire back at the estate. She had drawn fantasy maps of pirates and tropical islands with a similar premise before. Why not a winter wonderland filled with strange attractions such as this?

[Barn - 5]

[crow]

But even with that theory in mind, there was no way for Rhodes to confirm that truth right now. What could he have looked for? Signs of giant crayons? A name signed onto the snow somewhere on the premises?

If that was the case, he hadn't seen any, and he doubted he was going to see any even if they searched. More to the point, there was still no explanation as to how it had happened, even if his theory was correct.

[Barn - 6]

[crow]

What sort of magic could create a place like this from nothing more than pure imagination? All the magic that Rhodes knew certainly wasn't up to such a task.

He knew even as the thought occurred to him that he was probably going to have to accept the fact that he would never get any real answers. Well, it wouldn't be the first time, he supposed. He wasn't so young and foolish as to devote his time and energy to solving every single mystery that occurred in his presence.

[Barn - 7]

[crow]

Nor was he the type to insist that life should be fair, and that such things should be revealed to people. Sometimes life just happened in a certain way, and there wasn't much he could do about any of it.

"Hey," said Suvi. "Rhodes, look. There's two of you!"

Suvi's comment caught Rhodes off guard for several reasons. One of these was merely the fact that Rhodes had been lost in thought until now, consumed with the new possibility that he had thought of mere moments ago.

[Barn - 8]

[crow]

That one he would freely own to--- that was on him, and he could take responsibility for that without qualms. Perhaps he ought to have been paying better attention, no matter how interesting an idea he'd had, especially considering the fact that the idea had been nothing more than conjecture in the end.

The other reason was the contents of her speech, though, and he didn't know if he had anything to do with that one. What did she mean two of him?

[Barn - 9]

[crow]

"I beg your pardon?" said Rhodes. It was the only thing that occurred to him to say, after hearing something like that. He knew he had to respond, but on such short notice, and with such a strange prompt, that was all he could manage.

Fortunately, Suvi was all too happy to explain what she meant, since he didn't get it. "Look over there!" she said, more insistently this time, pointing at what looked to be a bale of hay outside the door of the barn.

[Barn - 10]

[crow]

Or rather, he supposed she was pointing at the black shape on top of the bale of hay, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a Myu Reaper. That must have been what she meant by her comment.

Rhodes blinked, caught off guard by this too, before the full implications of what she had said set in and he sighed, suddenly feeling tired.

The other cat looked... well, he couldn't say nothing like himself, but the resemblance really wasn't that strong if you asked him.

[Barn - 11]

[crow]

It had the signature white stripes of a typical Myu Reaper, rather than the solid black breed that Rhodes belonged to, and he was willing to bet that if it opened its eyes, they would be gold. Its black fur was glossy and well groomed, to be sure, but it wasn't as sleek as Rhodes himself, and the black on it wasn't quite as dark as Rhodes' coat either.

It was also a somewhat bigger cat, wearing a bell collar, which Rhodes wouldn't be caught dead in if given the choice.

[Barn - 12]

[crow]

And which, given his frequent occupation on war territory, might well have been a death sentence in the wrong situation anyway.

He knew she was merely a child, and she had meant it innocently, but he really didn't think she was joking. He wasn't sure if it would have been better if she were, since he wasn't sure it was a joke he wanted to hear either. At least if it were a joke, he would know that she knew better, and didn't really think all black cats looked alike...

[Barn - 13]

[crow]

But then it wouldn't have been coming from a place of sincerity either.

But he was also left at a loss as to how to explain the issue. How was he supposed to begin to address the fact that this wasn't something you were supposed to say to people--- or to cats?

"I don't think the resemblance is very strong myself," said Rhodes finally. It wasn't the statement he would have hoped to make, but he couldn't come up with anything better.

[Barn - 14]

[crow]

He didn't know if Suvi picked up on his discomfort, or if she was merely revising her initial statement now that she had a closer look at the other cat, but to his surprise, she was nodding slowly in agreement. "Oh, huh... Now that I look at it, you're right. You don't have all those white bits, and you're not that fluffy either," she said.

"No," said Rhodes, and left it at that. He wasn't sure what else there was to be said on the matter.

[Barn - 15]

[crow]

He was glad that she realized, he supposed, but at this point he would much rather just move on than dwell on the topic any further.

"... Hey, do you think that Myu Reaper would get mad if I try to pet it?" said Suvi. Well, that was one way to close the topic and move on, Rhodes supposed. And that had been what he had wanted out of the situation, so he didn't know if it was his place to complain about something like this.

[Barn - 16]

[crow]

But as for the practical answer to her question, he was afraid he had some bad news for Suvi. The odds of the cat letting her pet it were fairly low. In fact, the odds of success for any stranger who tried to approach a sleeping cat, hoping to pet it, were pretty much slim to none.

What was much more likely was that Suvi would earn a few scratches for her troubles, and that wouldn't be a pleasant experience for any of them.

[Barn - 17]