[Indigo]

Marcus drove past the gate twice looking for the place, the result of getting his directions third-hand, and also of being distracted by the stuttering of the radio. Even this far past the holiday a woeful number of stations were still playing 24-hour Christmas music, and the only one he'd been able to pick up without it kept randomly dropping out of range. On the third pass, fortunately, the signal remained stable and he managed to look the right way at the right time, and parked as close to the gate as he could manage before grabbing his mug and disembarking.

He had not, himself, been the recipient of the flyer; that honor had gone to Dr. Ale Flores, who he would normally consider an acquaintance rather than a friend, if not for the fact that anyone whose name Ale knew was her friend whether they liked it or not. Which was not to say that he didn't like Ale—he did, very much—but rather that the two of them had only met about three times. That she should have asked him to join her in visiting this whatever-it-was had confused him since he'd first opened her email.

But he was here anyway, albeit a bit later than originally intended. Attempts to clear his schedule for winter break had been derailed by some sort of miniature plague that had struck down all the students in his lab who'd agreed to work through the holidays. Today was only his second day off in the whole month of December, and the first one, about halfway through, had mostly been spent asleep.

They hadn't talked much about where to meet once here. He didn't see any other cars, or much in the way of signs of life, other than the chimney smoke on the horizon. He stood leaning lightly against the gate for a few moments, the steam from his mug mixing with his breath in the frozen air, and when Ale failed to appear from behind something he pushed the gate open far enough to slip through, and started across the empty expanse of snow. At least movement would keep him a little warmer.

Section 1 - 1 - 360 words

[Indigo]

As it happened, he didn't make it far before the world's loudest motorcycle pulled onto the street behind him and, from the sound of it, bonked against the gate as it swerved through the space he'd left. Marcus didn't turn around, but he did stop walking, bracing himself. Ale was a fast runner, and it was mere moments before she slammed into him from behind and spun him around in a hug like they'd known each other for years. She'd started doing this at their second meeting—to be fair, she'd asked first—and he occasionally wondered about the health hazards of long-term friendship, but now wasn't the time.

"I can't believe you held onto your drink through that," she said, when she'd caught her breath. "You must have been practicing."

"Not really," he said, "but I had a run-in with a rolling cart last week that taught me a valuable lesson. Never again will I venture out of the house with a cup that doesn't have a lid and a handle."

Ale laughed obligingly. She was not, in Marcus's opinion, dressed for the weather, but Marcus could only have been persuaded to wear a leather jacket like that under extreme duress and inebriation, so he would concede that he wasn't in a position to judge. He thought he saw the pale green end of a new tattoo creeping up the back of one of her hands. He himself was wearing three layers and gloves and was probably colder than she was. Some people said she was actually impervious to weather.

"So why me?" Marcus asked as they crunched off in the direction of the barn. He wasn't sure if Ale had made any effort to secure her motorcycle, but presumably she was capable of making her own decisions about that. "It's good to see you, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't think I'd be your first choice to invite out here." He took a long drink of his coffee, which was finally cool enough to drink, if only just.

"Oh, you know, Giles was busy and my girlfriend had a family thing come up and—no, I can't do it, you look so sad. You seemed like someone I'd like to get to know better, that's all, and it's better to spend time with people you don't really know when there's also something specific to do. That way if you end up hating each other the day isn't ruined," Ale explained. "I think that's a principle people recommend for dates? But it works for this too. This isn't a date. In case the girlfriend thing didn't clue you in."

"Once you know me a little better you'll think it's funny that you bothered to specify that."

"That's a really weird way of saying you're gay."

"But you knew what I meant, so it was also a successful one."

"Anyway," Ale said, "you study magic lizard genetics, so I figured you probably have something interesting going on, personality-wise."

"That's a theory," Marcus said. It was also nice to hear. He didn't tend to devote a huge amount of thought to how interesting his personality might be to other people, because it wasn't as if he could do much about it if it were boring, but from what other people said the main impression he seemed to give off was one of...niceness. And perhaps mildness. And there was nothing wrong with those things, but he did sometimes wonder whether anyone might ever describe him with words that couldn't also be applied to a block of cheese.

Section 1 - 2 - 592 words

[Indigo]

They only made it a few steps into the forest before Ale came to an abrupt halt, crouching down to inspect one of the frozen flowers. She didn't quite touch it—no gloves—but her hands hovered around it, separated from it by only a few millimeters at times, like she couldn't quite restrain herself even though she knew better. "This is...strange," she said, finally.

"Do you think someone would flash freeze a whole forest just as a tourist attraction?" Marcus said. He looked back the way they'd come; it was mostly obscured by trees already, but he could see well enough that there was no fence or barrier of any kind that he'd somehow failed to notice on the way in. "Would that even be possible?"

"With magic, maybe," Ale said. "But I don't know why. It's a waste of energy and a waste of a forest, if that's an appropriate term. It doesn't work as a tourist attraction, because most people who travel to forests are only interested in their being alive, and it doesn't work as, say, a preservation technique, because it'll all thaw come the spring and then you'll just have a huge mess to clean up. And there's the environmental impact itself to consider, of course, but I'd expect someone who did this to draw people in to be most concerned with the bottom line here, and it just doesn't add up."

"I'm working on an alternate theory," Marcus said. "But it's not a very pleasant one."

"Well, you keep working on yours, and I'll work on mine, and maybe if we put them together we'll get to the truth." She held out a hand toward the flower, and what Marcus could only think to describe as a gust of light came from her fingers and touched the plant. The ice crusting it melted, and though for a moment it wilted, almost at once it came alive again, petals full and bright. Ale picked it carefully and tucked it into her pocket, then stood up. "This place is a lot weirder than I thought it would be. Come on, let's keep going."

Section 2 - 1 - 354 words