Immersive Ink

No sign of the moose. At its previous trajectory and rate of speed, it should have already crested the hill by now.

Willie easily recovers his lost teeth (the blood is easy to see against the snow).

And just like that, Frederick is standing next to you. How did he get here so quickly?!? He's not even winded from the long climb.

"Hi everybody! Did you see my jump?? What's in the blanket?"

Kiplyn watch Fredrick approach wide eyed and only after he speaks does he realize about the body in the blanket. "Something not right about this hill you brought us to Fredrick."

"It's Ursa," Dame Simonetta replies to Frederick. "Frozen stiff. Goodness knows how she got here, but we're taking her back with us."

Willie straightens up from having found the last tooth and stares in shock on hearing Dame S's announcement.

"Urtha! Oh no!" he murmurs, aghatht -- eh-hem -- that is, aghast.

Frederick looks puzzled. "Ursa?!? She's supposed to be in the Caves. Why, I visited her down there just a few nights ago. She was in good spirits and happy about her research. If she is out of the dungeon why didn't she come see me and say hi?? She would have exited through the pancake house; we would have seen her come up the ladder. Did she say anything? Don't wrap her so tight in that blanket! So she can breathe. Let's get her home and get her warmed up. Come on follow me!"

Frederick leads the way up the hill. He is always a few paces ahead of the others, leaping from stone to stone like a faun. Our heroes surmise that Frederick is consciously reminding himself to slow down so the others can keep up with him. He seems to be defying gravity, almost like he's climbing a different, easier hill. "Did she say anything? Was she holding anything in her hands? Were there any animals with her? When you said she was 'frozen' did you mean frozen in ice or frozen in time? Listen to me babble on. Let's get some coffee in the poor girl first, before we ask her twenty questions. Ursa baby pancakes, yeah yeah yeah. Jazz hands!" He rests for a moment, improv-dancing atop a boulder to keep warm, while the others catch up.

Our heroes eventually reach the top of Hornpipe Hill. Looking back down the way they came, they realize they didn't climb so far as they thought; it's just a gentle, rolling New England hillside. And from this perspective, the Goose Chute Sluice looks more like a playground slide than a steep and terrifying deathtrap.

In the snow the Hobbets find the empty, trampled remains of their picnic basket, and a set of moose prints leading back into the forest.

Do you stop a while to track the moose, or continue back to the House of Pancakes with haste?

Once you get back inside, do any of you wish in any way to poke, prod, examine, or search Ursa for clues (be specific)? Do you prepare her for burial? Do you discourage or restrain Frederick from viewing the body, or do you let him act unhindered?

When they reach the top of the Hill and look back, Willie gives a start and shakes his head, hard, one more time, trying to clear it. He says loudly in a rush:

"Stop, stop! Everybody stop! Begging your pardon Mr. Frederick, but there's some very odd things going on here & I can't make head nor tail of it!

"Why is the Hill so small, when it was so tall?

"When the Moose pulled us up the trail, why did time get all wibbly-wobbly?

"And Ms Dame S, when you said that about Ms Ursa I thought you meant she was frozen dead, but Mr Frederick's talking like she's just frozen ... frozen! Well which is it?

"I'm all out of my reckoning & I need a bit of an explainer before we leave the Hill! A cup of something hot wouldn't do no harm, of course, but it looks like Mr. Moose has taken care of that -- now where did he get off to, speaking of?"

The young burglar seems quite flustered, but also determined, and he plants his feet in the snow & crosses his arms.

Dougal scrunches his face and looks over at Ms. Ursa covered by the blanket. "You mean she ain't dead? Frederick, what are you going on about?"

"You don't think she's d-d-d-d..." Frederick's voice trails off and he suddenly looks very worried. "There is Magic in this place, and it only happens once a year, on New Year's Day. The people of Long Ago bent the rules of time and space, to make logging the forest easier. Now there is but a faint echo of that magic. By tradition we Hobbets use it for our holiday entertainment. It was all supposed to be fun and games. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. I'm so sorry! Oh, Ursa, why did you have to go sledding without me?? You always go so fast, no fear! I can't believe she's gone. I don't believe you. Let me look into her eyes. I want to see for myself."

Frederick brushes you out of the way and begins to unwrap the blanket covering Ursa's face. Do you try to stop him?

Kiplyn scratches his head as tries figure out what is going on. "We should still get her back, ain't right to be out here with out any clothes in the cold."