Silver Umbrellas

Thirty-One-- Prophet

December 24th~

Morning came as a simple lightening of the sky, shifting its color palette from black to dull gray. Not a patch of blue sky could be seen anywhere, not even on the horizon. Tino and Lili roused from slumber slowly, breathing in deeply to try and wake up their sluggish senses.

"Gutten Morgen," she yawned, stretching an arm up over her head until her shoulder popped.

"Hyvää huomenta," he responded similarly.

"It's Christmas Eve," Lili said after a moment, and her green eyes widened with sudden delight. "Can ve go yet? Is it possible yet, Tino?"

"Ei, I'm afraid it isn't," he sighed in answer. "It's not here yet. Not until this evening."

"Aww... Alright, I suppose I can vait a little bit longer," she joked, and slid out of the sleeping bag. Others were already up, working on laying out Costco foods for a communal breakfast. Rather than take from their rations, Lili dug through their bag and pulled out some of the granola bars they had brought along for the expedition.

"What I wouldn't give for a cup of coffee right now," Finland sighed quietly as he was about to take a bite of his granola bar. 'I am so sick of these...'

"Entschuldigung," Lili giggled. "I have none to give you, but maybe the students over there do." (Sorry)

"Ei, that's alright. I don't really need it."

A few hours later~

"... Aright. Vhere the hell could he be?" Liechtenstein grumbled irritably when their searching hit the three-hour mark and they still had yet to discover anything useful. If there were tracks, the rain would have eroded them away from existence. If Tyson had another place to go, he definitely kept it well hidden. None of the other students knew of a secondary refuge-- they'd been too scared to pry into his other matters.

Tino widened his purplish eyes at her. "Lili, you swore!"

"Nein, that vasn't a svear. 'Scheiße' is a svear," she replied, and kicked at the bare dirt under her booted feet. "This isn't vorking out, Tino. Ve don't have much time to vaste on this."

"I know. You're absolutely right," he sighed over the sounds of heavy rainfall. He already had splashback burns on his legs thanks to the acid landing on his unprotected skin; he'd had to smear all kinds of mud and dirt there to alleviate the pain, which was still faint and constant despite his efforts. "We should probably just hurry back to the kids nowm and I can locate Tyson from the sleigh tonight."

"Ja, I like that plan," Lili agreed readily. "Let's do that instead."

~~~

Norway~

Racing heart, rapid breathing, wide eyes whose lids were imprinted with afterimages of the recurring dream.

Iceland sat up slowly and let out a tired breath. 'Why is this happening again? It's not making any sense to me at all!' This was the fourth time he'd had the dream of falling, and lights, and snow, and suddenly not falling anymore. That flash of silver in the corner of his field of view remained present in every single dream, too. 'What could it mean, if it's meant to mean anything at all?'

Without the need to get out of bed quite yet, Emil lay back with one arm behind his head and the other hand up in the air, tracing random little patterns here and there. Rainbow lights, sparks and wisps alike, trailed after his fingertips and lingered even as they drifted upward, toward the ceiling, and dissipated upon contact. It was an amusing passtime, to say the least, but it didn't really serve any other purpose.