It was the the eve of the eve of Christmas Eve, and all good little hobbits were fast asleep with dreams of sugar plums, barrels of ale and obscenely hairy feet. While little bad hobbits were obviously left to rot in the little hobbit jail. The festivities had ended a few hours ago, everyone started partying earlier to make certain Santa wouldn't disembowel them if they caught him at the midnight hour. He was a ninja after all, ninjas can't be seen without the witness dying painfully.

However there were two people bustling about, not mice nor Santa and his helpers. They were quite interested in Santa however, especially his gift-producing bags and famous title which could cause for a hefty ransom to be paid for the jolly fat man.

It was cold in this moonless night, snow drifting down in thick sheets and covering both of them with the pure white. A mask of innocence over wickedness. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Triella looked over at Robyn with an honest smile as her eyes flickered towards the hardly lit-village.

"Ready to find Santa dear?"

Robyn-rin looked all around. There was so much cuteness in the air that even she, Robyn-rin and daughter dearest of Poppa Bear and Alice-Mommy felt that she could be a cute leetle daughter dearest for the two of them as well as a Santa-finder. This wasn't a game like other games... it was a serious game. An adult game. Many a time, Alice had told her that they had to be veeeery, veeeeery quiet. Like quiet children but even quieter! Quieter than even micey-mice and mousey-mouses! Quieter than even Mr. Fluffington who could run from side of the room to the other without Robyn hearing a thing!

They were hunting for Santa-ninja!

She had seen Santa-ninja once, in a library in a biiiiiiiig city filled with lots an' lots an' lots o' people. He had been big, just like the books said he'd be and had been reading an odd leetle book that said something about making moneh. Robyn didn't know how to make moneh but apparently moneh was very important to Alice-Mommy and Alice-Mommy needed lots an' lots o' moneh in order to do things that involved eating faces or somesuch. Robyn was always confused on that point, did Alice-Mommy need to moneh to 'buy' these faces? Robyn-rin would get some for her! Robyn-rin was a good gurl! Robyn-rin shared all her toysies! And Robyn-rin wanted Alice-Mommy to meet Santa too!

“Robyn-rin is ready to find Santa!” Robyn-rin affirmed.

Triella extended her hand to Robyn to lead her over to a one-floor house partially in the ground. An extra-wide chimney was covered up by a latch. Odd that they'd make it so easy for Santa to come in, it'd be the death of them.

Plowing through the snow with her fur-lined boots, they trudged up the snow-covered knoll before stopping next to the chimney. They'd pulled a length of hair that Robyn had spent some time tying and knotting together, from their satchel. Bracing themselves against the chimney they lifted up the hatch and put in the hair-chain. Robyn was much lighter than her and could crawl down the hair without it ripping. Triella would shimmy her way down since this thing was wide enough for the fat-guy to go down.

"Remember, we're trying to question these ones first. So we have to find out where each of them is sleeping, then take each down quickly and quietly to gather them for a question-game."

Robyn stared wide-eyed and nodded at Alice-Mommy's wise words. Alice-Mommy really knew how to play the game well! She was wise and cool and bad and all the good stuff. Robyn-rin luffed and luffed her Alice-Mommy. Grabbing onto the hair chain thing she draped a foot onto it and then it grabbed it with both her hands. Then she nodded her head at the hair and it actually grew stronger. Whether it was her imagination or the dark magicks pulsing from her very core it was difficult to say. Many believed that hair, dead flesh when it exited the living body, could be helped to grow by magicks that were undead. Who knew the truth? It certainly couldn't hurt.

Then Robyn started climbing down. One hand. Then one foot. Then one hand. Then one foot. Then another hand. Then another foot. Then... on and on it went. On and on and on and on and... oh wait. What was this? Something had snagged her dressy-dress! Robyn-rin didn't see how it was possible,, the chimney thing was so wide! She looked again. The chimney wasn't smooth as she had first thought, it had lots and lots and lots of edgy bits. Lots of them. She reached and reached and tried to reach some more but realized it was futile. Robyn could not reach her dressy-dress that was stuck on the edgy part of the chimney.

Robyn-rin wanted to whisper to Alice-mommy but she knew that Alice-Mommy wanted her to be quiet? What was Robyn-rin to do?

There came a tearing sound as Robyn tore the fabric with her teeth and then continued on her merry descent.

There a slight noise from the chimney. Robyn had fumbled slightly or something, but it was a quiet noise that wouldn't wake them from their drunken stupor. Once she felt the weight lfit itself from the hair-length, she anchored it the chimney and braced her legs against one side and pressed her back against the opposite wall.

The hair would serve as a make-shift safety rope in case she slipped. Otherwise they would shift one foot at a time down before pressing their back off the side with their hands and sliding down further. The little edges felt great, especially when pressing into her rear end. Mouthing silently to themselves, they swore to grind at least one of the hobbits into the chimney wall for such crappy architecture.

They made it down though with just a few light scraps and bruises on their forearms. A bit of dust too, but nothing serious. Looking down at the front of the fireplace, she grabbed up a pair of wolf pelts on the floor. Laying down one, she'd step onto it, the pelt muffling her footsteps to near silence. then lay down a second one and step onto that and leap-frog.

Robyn was shoeless though seeing as she was undead. Seemed like not-living had quite a few advantages. and draw backs like wandering off. Where'd she go!?

“Doggies!” Robyn crooned. Her voice seemed to echo back at her and she hurriedly covered her mouth. How had she forgotten Alice-Mommy's words of wisdom? How? She thumped her head a few times with her fist and tried to get the words to stick. No misc... misce... miscellaneous noises. Or had she said that? Robyn didn't remember. Her eyes spun a few times in their sockets as she conferred with Momma Bear but Momma Bear hadn't been paying attention at all and just yawned and went back to sleep like the grump she was. So then, being really, really, reeaaaaaly sneaky, Robyn grabbed one of the doggies and then realized something was... off.

Not off... but the doggy had no bonsies. Or bloodsies. She knew, she had a moutful of hair. Alice-Mommy was coming down! Not wanting to look like she had just done an oopsie, Robyn-rin ran to find the watering well that the hobbitsies surely had (everyone had access to water... well, except for Robyn-rin who had access to other thingies like blood and all that good stuff) so off she went, with one of the doggies tucked under her arm and the let the rest sleep ever so peacefully.

“Let's go find some water Mr. Doggy,” she said silentiously. Which was a word, she was pretty sure, meant 'full of silence' and not some other weird term that she wasn't familiar with. The Chef was offering to tell her what she meant but she silenced him with an imperious look. Or so she hoped it was imperious. She didn't quite know what imperious looks looked like but...

Robyn-rin realized she was lost.

Well...there wasn't any screaming, so Triella knew that Robyn hadn't started eating their faces. Yet at least. Leapfrogging the pelts down the stairs, she entered into the warren. Hobbits always seemed to live downstairs than upstairs. Which was probably where Robyn was at the moment.

Looking around she seen one fat one sound asleep in a hammock, an empty mug still clutched in his swinging hand. Pausing Triella crouched to the floor and touched it, noticing she was now on actual earth. so she didn't need the rugs anymore! Discarding them by the entrance, they crept to an open doorway and peered in.

Obviously the loud snoring meant the husband and wife were asleep. It was always useful to check though. they almost stepped inside when they noticed something moving. A pair of glowing circles.

It approached, cautiously, and as they reached out it arched up its furry back and hissed. With a slight scowl her hands shot out and grabbed it before it could yowl. The cat struggled from her death grip before a snapping noise could be heard. It was almost entirely lost from the snoring, and you'd have missed it if you weren't listening for it.

Letting go of the dead cat, she placed it's corpse off to the side. With the sentry eliminated, Robyn...hopefully upstairs, she could take this family hostage and find out where Santa was hiding.

“Where are we Mr. Doggy?” Robyn asked tremulously her eyes wide. She was staring at the biggest array of sharpy-sharps that she had ever seen. There were long ones and short ones, small ones and big ones, fat ones and thin ones. Never had she seen so many of them in the same place. It even rivaled the big stinky dugeon-place where the walls weeped blood and people screamed and friend-friends seemed to -not- like it at all. No, not at all. Friend-friends hated it. They called it a 'Tor'-'ture' 'chamber.' And Robyn-rin considered. Was this a 'tor-ture chamber?' It could be. It had lots of sharp-sharps. And stuff.

She sniffed.

Was that a foodsy smell she smelled? Nah... it couldn't be. Could it? She looked around, sniffing. Yes, it -was- a foodsy smell. A very foodsy, foodsy smell. A foodsy, foodsy smell. She looked around, sniffing like Mr. Doggy should be but wasn't. Robyn-rin had heard of such things... she thought. She probably had heard of such things.

The Chef bonked her on the head.

“It's a bloody kitchen.” He groused.

Robyn looked up at him in surprise. “You're here?” She whispered.

He put a finger to his lips that hid his long, sharp teeth.

“Soon.” He whispered. Then he was gone again. As if he had never been.

Robyn hmpfed. Some people just never knew when to... then she heard her stomach gurgle. She preferred her meals... what had the Chef called them... rare? Yes, she preferred her meals extra rare but if she found something that wasn't she wouldn't be against it either. Ambling around the room, Robyn went looking for food, her game-game forgotten.

Robyn would've been helpful right about now. so of course fate dictated she be no where in sight or sound. The lone hobbit was easy, the other two...they'd have to kill one and disable the other. Theoretically...

They went back to standing over the hobbit in the hammock before taking some of the spare rope lying around and gently looping it around him. The coils were snug, but not tight. He could writhe out if given time, but wouldn't be able to dash off.

Drawing her shadow dagger she pressed the blade against the throat while covering his mouth. Her soft voice whispered into his ear, "wake up dear...but be quiet. I don't want to kill you, but if you make a loud noise I will..."

His eyes sleepily opened for a second before snapping wide-open. He writhed for a second until the ropes caught him and he looked around panicked. She quietly "shhhhh"-ed at him until she got a frightened nod that he'd be quiet. Pulling back her hand she brushed his curls out of his face. He was attractive, for a halfing. Wonder if he had a lover. Maybe the two would reunite in Robyn's stomach...

“This is pie one. This is pie two.”

Robyn had a pie in each hand. She had even named them. One, she was sure, was purple. It was hard to see in this light, but she was fairly certain that it was a purple pie. Could it have... blueberries? Could it have... purple apples? Could it be convered with paint? Robyn didn't know! And knowing was half the... half the... half the something or another. Robyn had no idea what the other half-something was but knew it was important.

“Battle.” Poppa Bear, for once and surprisingly, supplied. Robyn went to go look for him but he had already disappeared down whatever hole Poppa Bear used to disappear down into. Poppa Bear did that quite often- just disappear for no apparent reason whatsoever. 'Poof' went the Poppa bear. It was always so disastrously unpleasant.

But yes... Pie one and Pie two. She couldn't tell what the second pie's color was. It might have been golden brown, or turquoise, or pink for all she knew. She just couldn't tell. It was too light. And in the night, bright colors were muted. Pastels turned a uniform grey where the dark colors turned even more distinct. Or less, it usually depended on the moon.

“So Pie one... how do you feel about Pie two?” She asked the pies. “Pie two said that she saw you kill Kenith. That's not a nice thing to say about a friend now is it? But then again, the two of you aren't friends, are you?”

She heard a funny noise just then, and cocked her head. There was a smell of... ambling away with the two pies in hand she went looking for the noise.

"Now I'm going to go get Mommy and Daddy in there, just make certain not to move or something bad is going to happen to them."

They pulled away from the terrified child and entered the parents room. they went in closer on the left side to the wife. She was sleeping far lighter than her husband. Slowly and deliberately they lifted up the arm that was around his wife protectively. Gently she laid it across his pot-belly, only making him snort once before falling back into his regular snoring-pattern.

Their hands drifted closer to the hobbit-wife, and just like the cat their hands snaked out, one covering her mouth, the other wrapping around her small form and dragging her off the bed and onto the cold floor. She fell roughly, making a light "thud" noise. Her cries were muffled under Triella's palm and they slid the dagger up to its hilt into her throat. The mumbled cries soon changed into a gurgling, her hands started losing their strength.

they watched as that little glimmer of life left her eyes and knew she wasn't here with the living anymore. Leaning in closer like a lover would to give her a kiss, they pulled out the dagger and licked at the blood on the blade, savoring the taste. Junior would be a bit worried, but Mommy is fine, just knocked out. Poppa was still fast asleep, completely unaware of the earlier departure of his wife...

The Chef was cranky. Or her tummy was cranky. Robyn wasn't sure which was which though... but one of them was growling. Probably because Pie One had been, in the end, far more persuasive than pie two.It was amazing really what a Pie could say when it was starting to feel pressure. Now she had a proudly errant pie that was busy trying to figure out how to be... well, how to live. Or something. It was horribly, horribly complicated and she was sure that this was going to be a rather difficult for her to understand even every second word that the her newest bestest, bestest friend was going to say now that he knew that he was not going to be eaten at all at all. Perhaps she should eat him. Perhaps Robyn should at least -threaten- to eae him. She wouldn't really eat him, not in hostile territory where a game-game was being played... but maybe... just maybe... just to scare him? It would be fun! Really it would. Her conscience frowned though. It didn't like the thought of that for some reason.

Oh well, such was life.

Wait, she had a conscience?

"I haven't seen you in so long!" She trilled. Her conscience answered back,

"I'm not your bloody conscience. Poor fool died during the resurrection- good thing too, he'd never last in this bloody wasteland. Now go find Alice-Mommy, you're missing all the fun."

Alice Mommy was having fun without Robyn-rin? Inconceivable. Robyn ran, her need for caution gone in indignation. Alice-Mommy was having fun without Robyn-rin?! That wasn't being fair!!

The first room didn't have Alice-Mommy but the second room-

"Mommy!" She whispered. Or thought she whispered. She was pretty sure she had whispered. "You're having fun without me!"

Triella rose up slowly and pressed the blade against her lips like a finger before softly shushing Robyn. She hadn't been THAT loud, but nip it in the bud is better than letting her think that talking a bit too loudly was okay. Motioning for her to come closer Triella spoke in a quiet tone.

"I'm sorry Robyn, I figured you went to have fun upstairs. But don't worry, I only played with one. There's a little boy over there I'd like you to play with, please try and find out if he knows where Santa is. If he goes to make a loud noise, rip his throat out. Okay?"

Triella was rising up to crawl into bed next to Pappa. They wanted to slit him ear to ear and watch him gurgle and writhe. But not yet, first they had to glean whatever information was to be had. Slowly, her hands drifted closer towards his mouth and throat...

Alice-Mommy proved how much she luffed and luffed Robyn-rin by apologizing and Robyn-rin knew how hard it was for adults to properly apologize. Why adults were the worst apologizer-ers she had ever seen or heard of! Then again, she could count the number of times someone had apologized to her on the fingers of one hand.

Or maybe with the hand itself.

In any case, it was definite and certain and irrevocable proof that Alice-Mommy did indeed love Robyn-rin and for that Robyn-rin was vereh, vereh, veeeereh happy. And she'd be even happier knowing that Alice-Mommy had saved her a friend-friend! It wasn't always easy, some of the friend-friends were so eager to play with her that they just went off and died. Poor things. So happy they could die. Robyn-rin shook her head and earnestly promised herself to never be that happy. Happiness killed after all, she had seen it happen. And Robyn-rin did not want to die.

“Hi little Hobbitsy friend-friend!” She whispered all mousiness and quietliness-ess. “Alice-Mommy and Robyn-rin are playing a game!”

Hobbitsy friend-friend seemed delightfully thoughtful and was nodding vigorously. Good, he understood! Robyn-rin was somewhat scared that there would be the lang-gage barrier. She had met it before and it had been a meanie-pooh!

“We want to find Santa! We tracked him down to this hobbitsy village and Alice-Mommy is going to ask all of ye where he is- or rather,” her eyes turned hard (or she thought they did, she was looking at her nose, which was hard and therefore her eyes were turning quite hard) “where you've hidden him.”

She did the now-familiar routine of pressing a blade against their throat while covering the mouth. she actually had to shake him a bit and cut him a little before he woke up. He wasn't fully conscious or capable of thought, but a slight pressing of the blade stopped his drunken mumbling.

"Now, I'll take the blade away. But unless you want junior out there or your unconscious piece of ass to die violently and painfully, you'll tell me what I want to know quietly, okay?"

The quiet, sleep-addled nod was good enough and she pulled her hand away before leaning in a little closer. The alcohol probably rendered this one useless, but perhaps she'd learn otherwise. They fought back a retching noise and wrinkled face, the pungent smell of booze seemed to pour out from his mouth.

"So where is the fat-man...?" The sooner he answered, the sooner he could die and stop that foul stench from exiting his face. Maybe Robyn would want to play with his stomach...

Hobbitsy friend-friend let out a 'Wuh?' It was an understandable if undesirable reaction. He loooked fearfully towards his Poppa and then fearfully back at Robyn and then did it a few more times, eyes jerking to and fro so fast that he addled himself and looked like he was about to faint. Robyn lost track of his pupils and had to jerk him a bit to get him to stop doing the fainting thing even as her own eyes tried to copy his and she lost her sight for a few moments. It would be annoying if she go her eyeballs stuck again. She had lost track of the keetchen and didn't want to go find water again.

Now that she thought about it, she probably had fur still stuck in her mouth. She considered this fact by rubbing her tongue across her gums and teeth. Yup, doggy stuff still there. She must look terribly odd. Perhaps he thought she was a Santa-ninja thief? That she had come to steal Christmas herself?

Nah. He was a meanie-pooh even if he was a Hobbitsy Friend-friend.

“You've hidden him!” She whispered brutally. “Stolen Christmas!”

“No...” Hobbitsy friend-friend said pitifully. “No we haven't... that would be naughty... and what's... what's she doing to Pappy? And Momma? We're good hobbits, only good hobbits would bake cookies for Santa and prepare his favorite grog and-”

Robyn considered this. It was true that only good leetle children prepared such things for Santa. She called out to Alice-Mommy who seemed to be speaking to the 'Pappy'.

“Alice-Mommy... Hobbitsy Friend-Friend said they prepared Santa grog and cookies. Maybe Robyn-rin and Alice-Mommy got the wrong house-house?”

"Er...wha? Me? Where's marg-" His word scut off in a splutter as she jammed the dagger up through his flabby jowels and into the upper portions of his skull. His breath was too foul, she didn't want to tolerate it much logner. They felt sick already and wanted to hurl up their last meal. stumbling away from the dead hobbit she gasped in clean air a few times before leaning against the doorway, drops of crimson falling from the shadow-dagger.

"No dear...if they don't know, we can't let such wicked and ignorant hobbits live, now can we? so them the bliss of death is the best thing for us to do..."

They watched Robyn with a slightly curious light, wondering just how'd Robyn do it with silence being the focus. Would she tear out his throat? snap his neck? Smother him to death? Perhaps give him a kiss full of spiders? Children were always wondrous and terrible...

Hobbitsy friend-friend started screaming. Robyn smothered him with a hand, going 'shhhhhh!', 'shhhhhh!' really loudly but he didn't seem to want to listen to reason or to her shhhhhing and was flailing about like there was no tomorrow. (Poppa bear snickered) He was making lots and lots of eye-water for apparently no reason at all and Robyn was getting kind of irri-tated. Irritated. Yeah, irritated. And there was green stuff coming out of his nose too! It was slimy! And tasted...

Robyn just realized she had bitten off the Hobbitsy-friend-friends nose when she realized that the green gooey stuff was salty and kind of tasty-ish but by then it was too late and there was a rather large wound in the middle of Hobbitsy friend-friend's face and he didn't seem like he wanted to play anymore. In fact, he didn't seem like he wanted to do anything anymore and was... slumping? Slouching? Praying? He didn't want to play! How dare he not want to play! This was... this was...

"Inconceivable?" The Chef asked airily. "You probably wouldn't want to either. Not with a wound the size of a small-"

"Oh shut up." Momma Bear groused loudly.

Well, in any case, he was making a messy-mess on the floor.

Robyn tried to resist but it was such a beautiful messy-mess and... and... Robyn had to try. Just a little bite. Just one little...

Robyn started feeding.

Pulling up a stool next to Robyn, Triella ran their hand through her hair. It'd gotten a bit dirty since after the party, but it wasn't as tangled as the first time. Humming an airy tune to them, they started to carve meaningless doodles in the skin. They liked making art for Robyn. Usually Robyn ate it, but Triella liked to think that she had a little stash of the carved-flesh somewhere that she saved. Or kept for a later-snack.

This house was fairly useless, maybe the festival was a bad thing. They knew they weren't going to be as subtle now for other houses. Not enough time for that. Just break in, murder people if they fail to respond correctly, move on. Simple, easy, fast.

What if there was a militia?

Then they'd deal with it. Besides, right now even the militia would be fast asleep in a snug bed than wandering the bone-chilling outside.

Robyn felt bloated. Even small hobbits seemed to have lots and lots and lots of fleshy bits. His face had been properly cleaned off and the respectable brainy bits completely consumed in a firey motion that had ripped half his spinal cord out too but now that she was gnawing on a fat, hairy footsy, Robyn realized that she was starting to get full. She wanted to eat Alice-Mommy's carvings but...

She burped. In the quiet of the night it echoed like a rooster's mating call and Robyn winced. Or some part of her winced. The other was curiously examining the floor. So many pwetty combinations... and all that red did go well with the something or another that simply and fantastically fixed this and that faster than one said snappity-snap.

Yeah, that part wasn't vereh vereh self-aware.

“Alice-Mommy... I don't think I could eat... another bite...” She coughed once. Then again. And then hacked out a vertebrae that had lodged the wrong way down going down her throat. She crunched it into splinters and then swallowed. Momma Bear had said that bones were good for her, she might need the extra mineral whonuts and whatnots in the future. Choking down the bony fragments she gulped and swallowed and then sighed. She never wanted to haf to chew her food! It made her teethies feel all funneh! And not a good funneh either! More like a funneh that was hurty-ful!

Triella patted Robyn's back softly, like one would burp a baby (XD). It always seemed like the undead were vast, bottomless pits of flesh eating. Maybe it's just because they usually went so long without food they gorged themselves whenever they could. It was amusing to watch her have the jaw-strength capable of destroying bone. If Triella ever had to fend off Robyn, grappling with the small-child would be the equivalent to death, or at least a few broken limbs.

"Okay, are you sure you want to move fast? You won't need to anymore if you don't want to, just help Alice-Mommy keep the hobbits quiet."

Maybe they'd become a bit more aggressive. Cut out the hobbits tongues so all they could do was moan. Nosies easily lsot in the howling of the winds. Then they could have a merry little hobbit-hunt. Certainly that'd help Robyn. Could she vomit? That'd be a spectacularly disgusting mess...

"But..." yes, but. Those bodies... the other two... looked so compelling. So vereh, vereh compelling. Their heads, Robyn-rin imagined she could smell eet. Smell their wonderful, wonderful brains just waiting there in their little corner ready to be broken into, ready to be eaten, ready to be made into munchies and munchables and... MMmmmm.... she would eat and eat much. She would eat so much that there wouldn't be... Mmmm... she could eat and eat some more. She would never have to worry about food again.

All she needed were brains. And she had already had one today. Maybe she could have another? It wasn't like her friend-friends needed them anymore. They weren't moving about and as every good daughter dearest knew the sleepers got their shinies taken from them! Even if their shines weren't so much shiny as kinda pinkish and gray-ish and ever so savorful.

She salivated.

V.V.V.V.V

"Why's she thinking like that?" The Chef grumped. "I know *I* didn't put that thought there."

"I'unno. We're trying to fix the problem. Give me a hand with this bloodeh thought here... Gotta get her off the warpath."

V.V.V.V.V

Inserting fingers into unseeing orbs she made them pop and then started wrenching. Heaving with all her might Robyn finally made the prison cells break and watched as the top of Poppa Hobbitsy's head went flying... away.... and then poof'd. She grabbed a handful and then shoved it in her mouthy-mouth.

Mmmmmm...

"Okay Robyn...but only eat the brains okay? I really don't want you getting a tummy ache. If you do you might not be able to catch any hobbits who start running away! But if you want to exercise or rest for a little bit, we can do that too."

Triella went over and pressed the long sword blade into a portion of Marge's skull before pressing down on it. The force to break it cracked the skull open like a nut, sending a small splotch of blood and bone fragments onto her left boot.

Dark blood that hadn't been oxygenated welled up out of the wound like oil. Working the blade to the left, then the right, it cracked the skull further until she peeled it back with her heel. ribbons of flesh and grey-matter stuck to it and clung to her boot. She wiped it off on the dead hobbit.

"Thank ye, Alice-Mommy," Robyn said, her mouth bloody and her teeth shining like small red, but pointy, pearls as she looked up from where she was busily feeding and eating and then tore another rejuvenating bite out of the hobbits brain. And then she stopped. The brain tasted... funny. Was this a drunk brain? Ick. Robyn wasn't usually terribly picky but there was something about certain brains that just didn't feel quite right...

V.V.V.V.V

"Get her to stop eating the blasted thing!"

"It's not that simple, we have to re-route all the tendencies we've put Into her and-"

"Just do it! I'm not sharing a bloody second with that geezer. He's not getting into Our Host. Not without a fight!"

"It doesn't matter. We can't kill each other. We have to prevent him from taking shape. No telling what such a weird presence will do to poor Robyn-"

"Poor? A beast like that will drive me insane! And I'm the one who tells little girls that it's alright eat leetle hobbit children! Get him out!"

"Alright alright, we'll just get her to think that-"

V.V.V.V.V

"Ick," Robyn said, spitting out some brain matter. She padded off towards Alice-Mommy. "His brain smells funneh." She told Alice-Mommy. "Like someone made sick-sick in his head when he was a child and it stayed there."

She looked to the other brain but it seemed equally unsavory.

"Let's go get exercice, yea?"

So alcohol has an unsavory effect. Hopefully it wouldn';t affect Robyn's reactions and such, a drunk undead girl...was...a bit frightening. Makes since that the alcohol would affect her though...in a way. Does this mean certain drugs will make brains unappealing? Triella was wondering if maybe adopting a mild-drug could be used as anti-robyn-brain-eating repellent. Or it might make it smell and taste too damn good. Better to stick with what you have right now.

"You want to exercise? Right? Or would you rather take everything a bit slowly until you felt better?"

Triella was walking at a normal pace now, no more need to keep entirely quiet inside a dead home. Reaching the front door she swung open the heavy-wooden circle, gritting ehr teeth at the blast of cold air. Hobbit homes were pretty cozy, maybe she should contract some and set up her own little hobbit-hole somewhere. Use it as a home-while-avoiding-LaPlace or something.

"I think Robyn would like to exercise." Robyn said after a moment of profound thought that furrowed her brow until she felt like all the brain matter she had recently consumed would come flying right back out. She didn't want that to happen, it would be icky and gross and most importantly, the brain-treats had already started sticking to her system and if they came out her system would come out and that would be baaaaaad. Poppa Bear said it would be bad and she trusted him. Poppa Bear was the bestest Poppa Bear anyone could ask for after all and if anyone knew anything about brains-treats and systems it would be him.

V.V.V.V.V

"What are you telling that little girl?" The Chef asked angry and... scared. The host was not to be contaminated! Poppa Bear smiled.

"You're not the only one who shall be re-born." Poppa Bear promised.

V.V.V.V.V

Can Robyn-rin go find the next housy-house?

It was only after the words came out that Robyn realized she hadn't said them out loud and then repeated them. It was odd, but happened every now and then. She wasn't quite sure why- maybe a reflex of a past life. That was what Momma Bear said anyways.

Then the door opened and a blast of frigid air hit Robyn, doing absolutely nothing to her except slow her down. Not even feeling the air she automatically took place in front of Alice-Mommy, Alice-Mommy didn't like the wind so Robyn-rin had to protect Alice-Mommy from the evil wind! Evil! Ebilebilebilebilebil!

She stuck her tongue out at it. Stupid wind. Making Alice-Mommy all mad-mad. Oh she'd show that wind, she'd punch eet and keel it and destroy eet. She'd show the wind who was boss!

Triella paused for a second and blinked a few times in surprise. Was Robyn muttering eath-threats to the...wind? Probably just imagining it. But it was nice of her to serve as a wind-breaker, either on-purpose or accident. A sincere smile crossed her faced as she placed her arm around the back of Robyn's head and rested on her shoulder before pulling up the hood on her cloak.

"Thanks, but I'm fine. And...are you okay? You didn't look to good back there a few moments ago? If you want to go home it's okay, the fat-man will be back next year."

Triella wanted to try a few more houses first, but it wouldn't be any good to push robyn to death-death. Maybe they'd stop on some houses on the way out in a sort of compromise to leaving, while cracking a few more skulls.

The wind apparently wasn't impressed by her actions and was howling even more loudly as Robyn pushed and prodded at it and even growled at it. It shoved, prodded and growled right back at her but it was weak, like the weak pansy that the wind had always been... but then again Robyn wasn't exactly strong either. She was only a leetle gurl after all and the wind was big and powerful and-

Robyn slapped her face a few times. Was Robyn-rin one to give up? No! Robyn-rin did not give up! Robyn-rin played to win! Because only winners were worth anything... or something like that. She wasn't sure how the exact saying went but was fairly certain it was along those lines of thought that the saying traveled upon.

Then Robyn got all confuzzled because Alice-Mommy had told Robyn-rin that it was 'okay'. What was okay? Was something not okay before? Thoughts and ideas did free-floating cartwheels in her head and she got steadily and steadily more confuzzled. If something... if something *hadn't* been okay before than Robyn-rin should have been trying to fix eet. Fix eet up good so that it wouldn't be bad anymore. That's what Robyn-rin thought anyways.

Then the cartwheels went away. Awwww, Alice-Mommy was trying to take care of Robyn-rin like a real Mommy would. Warmth blazed in Robyn-rin's cold, dead little heart and, because she was ever so excited, a steady thud-thud of dark, necrotic energies got it to beat again so as to better mimic life and produce the necessary emotions for affection and attachment.

"Awww, that's okay Alice-Mommy! Robyn-rin is strong-strong!" She held up a thin, almost bony arm to prove it to Alice-Mommy.

Triella gave her a goofy grin and held up her arm, mimicing her pose.

"Keep it up and you'll be as strong as Alice-Mommy soon! Maybe stronger!"

she held out her hand to lead Robyn behind in her boot tracks. even though Robyn didn't care about freezing ehr feet anymore, Triella couldn't get voer it entirely and at least liked making a primitive foot-path for her to walk in.

So she trudged through the snow a little slower, with deliberate steps to expand the "path". Stopping when she seen the dark outline of another hobbit-hole entrance she looked back at Robyn.

"Sure you want to keep going? Or do you want to head home?"

Robyn seemed to be getting a little more confused than normal, which could be a side effect of the alcohol. So Triella wasn't certain if they could depend on Robyn, not that they could in the first hand. But now it could be dangerous to do so actually.

Robyn answered the goofy grin with one of her own and flexed her biiiiiig muscles. Alice-Mommy had acknowledged Robyn's toughness and Robyn's strength! Robyn felt a burning pride in her chest. Or maybe that was just her heart freezing in the chill and then popping. She wasn't sure and it didn't matter since leetle girls like herself didn't need such silly things as 'vital organs' and 'important fluids' and whatnot. Just some good ol' fashioned munchies and treatsies. Well, maybe not *that* old fashioned but by the dims they were good!

("Dims?")

And then Robyn-rin started slapping her face again. Alice-Mommy was busy *not* doing what Alice-Mommy should be doing and was fighting against the wind herself even though Robyn-rin knew that Alice-Mommy *hated* fighting against the windy-wind. Why was Alice-Mommy taking such a risk? Everyone needed Alice-Mommy, Robyn-rin was expend-able. Or rather, Robyn-rin was 'resistant' to the cold and she didn't need to worry about such silly things as 'frostbite' and 'hypothermia,' which, she understood, to be rather nasty things that other friend-friends did not like.

"Sure you want to keep going? Or do you want to head home?"

Robyn considered Alice-Mommy's words and then the wind and the way Alice-Mommy seemed to be blazing new trails in the harsh and unforgiving ground and then at the prospect of yet more foodsies. Then she scrunched up her face and started thinking. Some thinking later she came to the conclusion that:

"Only if Alice-Mommy thinks its best-best for Alice-Mommy and Robyn-rin to back home."

That was an issue she hadn't thought about. what if they caught frostbite or something in this weather? Maybe they really SHOULD get home sooner than later. To waste such an opportunity though irritated them. Just one more house, that's it.

Stopping in front of the hobbit-hole she ahd seen earlier she went to approach the front, "We'll just see if this family knows, if not we'll go home. Want to bring some treats with us? I'm certain they have a sack or something to stuff it in."

Done with subtlety, she shoved the door wide open and stood, silhouetted in the doorway, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim-lighting inside and the white-snow outside. Maybe they WOULD hit the jackpot here...that would be a bit amusing to LaPlace when she told him about this little adventure. Or he'd chastise her for doing something fruitless if they failed.

The door opened creakily. Rusty hinges, Robyn decided though she wasn't sure what a 'hinge' was nor what 'rust' entailed. It was one of those thoughts that kind of just appeared in her brain like magick. They were interesting thoughts for the most part but every once in a while she saw full-blown illusions that kinda/sorta/mighta/maybe were fake. The wind blew and howled as it had before, blowing snow clear into the hobbit-hole and no doubt chilling its sleepy occupants. There was almost no light now, the clouds ate up the moon and the stars and it had probably been a wonder that Alice-Mommy and Robyn-rin had made it into the hobbit-cave at all.

Robyn-rin took a step forward and then yelped in surprise as the wind sort of... eddied, spinning tiny tornadoes with nothing blood snow. Some got into her eyes, the rest covered her body in a fine layer of fluff that didn't quite disintegrate. Her body temperature was rather low and the stuff that passed for blood in her body was starting to freeze solid. Ideal, no? Reality, yes. Robyn painstakingly pushed ahead, she would manage, forever and forever, to do what she did best...

What did she do best again?

Inside the Hobbit-hole was warmth. Ahhh... beautiful warmth. Robyn didn't know why she felt it, she didn't really feel 'cold' and 'warm' like she had before (she ever so slightly remembered the feeling) but all she knew was that she did.

"Let's make this quick, Alice-Mommy." Robyn whispered.

Triella nodded, her face becoming a bit emotionless. If Robyn was asking to hurry, something was wrong. Her motions seemed a little stiffer. Was it possible Robyn could actually freeze up like an icicle? She'd make Robyn where a couple furs or something. She couldn't generate heat, but it'd help a little. At lest Robyn moving would generate friction and make enough heat to stop freezing.

Walking in, her boots echoed loudly in the empty rooms. Thudding upstairs she heard the whisper of uneven-footsteps and a yawn. A sleepy voice asked, "What's gonn' on?"

As his eyes started to open up in a bit of realization that Triella didn't belong here, she had already grabbed his hair and smashed it into her knee. Breaking his nsoe and front teeth before shoving him back, slamming him into the wall.

He cried out in pain and clutched his broken face, eyes flowing with tears. It was sickening that he didn't even try to resist, much less run away.

Robyn-rin saw Alice-Mommy get to work but wasn't paying much attention anymore. She remembered, vaguely remembered anyways, a time when she had been cold enough to worry only about dying- really dying- and had shivered her way back to life. She wasn't shivering now- why wasn't she? She felt so cold... she should be shivering. Shivering would be a good way to bring up her internal body temp-er-ature and that would be a good thing because temp-per-perature was a thing that needed to be re-gulated by he proper authorities like herself.

Walking towards Alice-Mommy, Robyn-rin tried to keep up but apparently that last show of strength had exhausted her reserves somehow. She felt cold. She felt frightened- no not frightened. Robyn-rin wasn't a scaredey cat and a pansy! Robyn-rin was a Robyn-rin! A true trooper, true until the vereh, vereh end. When the end would claim her she did not know, did not claim to know... could not know, in fact. Yeah, she had no clue. No clue at all. Because she was trying so desperately hard to stay awake and there was that... there was that elf person dude standing right there... no it was a small child... no a hobbit... no... n-n-n-

Robyn lost sight in right eye first. She had no idea why but wasn't thinking anymore. Her brain had frozen solid somehow. These were old lands, old lands of Light and were Not friendly to those of darker origins, especially to susceptible ones like Robyn-rin and Robyn-rin knew this because...

Robyn-rin didn't know it. Robyn-rin hit the ground, cold and sleepy. Yes... sleep would be good. So good...

Triella has plunged her longsword deep into the hobbit's chest, not even wanting to spend the time to question him or any others. This operation was a bit under planned as it was. She needed to rpepare for Santa next year, and ready they would be. With many axes and spells and monsters. Oh yes they'd be waiting and ready for the fat-man...

there was a loud thud, and she felt an icy feeling grip her innards. Looking back slowly, she felt her eyes tighten in a masked worry. robyn had fallen and wasn't moving. Obviously she wasn't dead, but something had gone wrong.

All of a sudden the door in front of her burst open and she raised her hand in time only for it to get smashed aside by a stout club. snarling at the older hobbit she swung her sword upward and split his piece of wood in half, as well as cutting open his stomach and face.

Stepping over the corpse she looked coldly on a cowering daughter and wife. Raising her sword to side she brought it in a swing and severed their ehads. They never seen the death-stroke, having clsoed their eyes and silently cried before the end.

Walking back into the hallway, they'd dropped their sword next to Robyn and picked up the little girl in the arms after sitting on the floor on her knees. Cradling her as best they could, she held the undead child close to her, trying to warm her up while rocking slowly back and forth.

They didn't know any nursery ryhmes, only the tunes. So she hummed one that if she remembered right was about a baby in a cradle or some such.

Wake up...

Cold, Robyn felt so very, very cold. Colder than she should feel since she hardly felt anything anymore. Was she dreaming now? Did leetle gurls like herself dream? Were they allowed to dream? She didn't know, she couldn't tell. It was hard to tell, anyways. Always hard t-to tell. There was stuff that needed doing, that's right, Santa! They had to... they had to... find Santa. Yeah. Find Santa. Where was Robyn-rin anyways? Looking around, all Robyn-rin saw were vast stretches of white. Ice and snow for as far as the eyes could see and Robyn-rin, despite having had the eyes she always had, could see fairly far away. A goodly distance as many were apt to tell her and as she was apt to tell them back, she could see all the way to the land of Far, Far Away.

Did she tell people that? It certianly didn't sound like her. Maybe she just happened to be dreaming sweet dreams and this wasn't real. She bit herself and watched as the flesh flaked away.

Oh that was right, she didn't feel pain to begin-

"Owch."

She muttered, almost surprised that she had felt that. So this *was* a dream. How odd. And interesting. And odd. Why was she thinking so fast? Where had her dreams taken her? Why was it so cold? She could hear a voice though... a voice humming something... a song, a nursery rhyme... a plea. Robyn wanted to respond, Robyn so wanted to respond and yet, and yet... she couldn't. She was stuck here.

Triella stroked Robyn's hair a few times, like her mother sued to when she was having a bad dream. Whether or not Robyn was dreaming or just frozen-solid was still debatable. But they had to get moving. Now.

She wrapped Robyn's legs around her waist and put her arms over her shoulders. Almost like a reverse piggy-back ride. The reason being was so she could make sure Robyn stayed covered up, and took in most of the heat that Triella was giving off.

She had used the hair-chain to tie a belt around her and Robyn, securing a good fur-blanket as well that she wrapped Robyn, and part of herself, in. It'd be a bit heavy journey, but they weren't carrying much as it was.

And all the while she was humming the same lyrics, hoping to entertain and soothe whatever part of Robyn that might still be conscious.

Stuck here. Yes, she was stuck. More stuck than stuck-stucks were stuck on their stuckies. And it was very white. And very morose. And very boring. Where was everybody? Why did she feel pain? Why did eet hurtz? Robyn didn't like the hurtz at all at all. Hurtz were bad. Hurtz were icky. Hurtz hurted and that was not a nice thing at all. Whoever had invented this dream had been a meanie-pooh. She wished she could tell that person that they were a meanie-pooh but she didn't know who to tell because she didn't know who it was. A thought struck her. Maybe it was Robyn-rin who had done this! Maybe it was herself! A terrifying thought. She discounted its veracity immediately. Why would she make herself hurtz? That was just silly.

"WHOEVER SENT ROBYN-RIN THIS DREAM IS A MEANIE-POOH!" She shouted into the white expanse of nothing. "A BIG, BIG, BIIIIIIIIIG MEANIE-POOH!!"

There was no echo.

With nothing else to do, the small leetle gurl trudged forwards. Snow and ice and cold, that was all she felt. And then there was wind- such powerful gusting blows of ice and snow. Ridiculous. Ridonkulous. She had defeated the wind before! She could do so now!

...but it was hard. Harder than before. When the wind cut and the icy chill froze flesh and she felt the flesh freeze the pain threatened to cut her in two. Hurty hurt, hurt, hurt hurt! It hurt! And it was un-fun! Where was the fun-fun? Where was the not hurty-hurts?

Gathering all her strength, Robyn continued trudging. This was... this was almost boring! Where was that voice she had heard? If only she concentrated on that voice... if only she tried listening to its whispering ways... if only... if only-

A gasp. A breath of air. And then Robyn opened her eyes.

"Hello Alice-Mommy."

Robyn had yet to move, speak or do anything. Was it possible she was just hibernating? Or had her magical re-aniamtion finally given out for some obscure reason? No...she'd been through too much as it was to fall her and now to the cold. She'd wake up, they'd go back to Lomeador, harass LaPlace and things would be normal again.

The damned winter had set in sooner than they'd planned, no their troops were in full rout as the denizens of this norther territory worked together to drive away the invaders. Making clever use of camouflage and hit-and-run tactics, the heavier and bulky troops of her daemonic battalion were being whittled away from the enemy and the weather.

Things had gotten really bad for the command section. They'd taken to actually carrying the only remaining member, besides themselves, back. The girl had been enchanted with a particularly powerful weapon, but she was needed alive so Xoco could extract it safely. Whether she'd survive the wounds from arrows she'd been forced to remove and treat with the few supplies they had lying around was highly questionable, all they could do was trudge forward.

Then there was that quiet voice. Just a whisper of a greeting. In that single line it lifted such a burden from Triella's shoulders. She sighed a bit too loudly and paused for a second to crouch and lift up the flap to look at Robyn's head, or face if she was looking up.

"You made Alice-mommy very worried Dear! Just hold onto me and we'll head home, I don't want you falling asleep again in this weather, all right?"