Moor Deep

Lucif sprang to attention, paws up on the bed. "There is no time," it said urgently. "We must leave now. Now!" Penny Rose jumped from the bed. "Will my aunt be all right?" Lucif made a sympathetic motion with its large head, "Oh my dear, it is you who are in danger." Penny Rose frowned, but nodded, put on her stoutest boots, a heavy dress over her nightgown, and surreptitiously picked up her favorite doll. Lucif looked at her, and shook its head. Sadly, Penny Rose sat Sarah back on the bed, tucking her under the blankets lovingly, and hoped fervently to be back soon.

She walked to the bedroom door. "Not that way," said Lucif, quietly. "My jacket," replied Penny Rose, "and my scarf and hat."

Lucif frowned, but silently followed, small claw-taps the only sign that it was lurking behind Penny's small form.

The house was dark and very still. The embers of the fireplace were banked in the parlor, and the kitchen was cold and empty, a very odd state for it indeed. But despite its eeriness, there was an angular normalcy to it. Lucif's very presence clashed mightily with such a scene. Penny Rose walked softly out, followed by this almost mythical creature, into the darkened space of everyday.

The anteroom of the house was colder still, all cobbled onto the edge of the house as it was. The darkened form of Lucif watched with its strange reflective gaze as Penny Rose went through the routine of coat and hat, scarf and gloves. The last vestiges of anything that was normal, except of course, it very much wasn't. There wasn't any time. The moment she had clumsily buttoned her last hole, Lucif was behind her, and with jaws very strong, had tossed her upon its back. Penny Rose shrieked ever so softly, and promptly made to tumble off. But Lucif went still and she soon found her balance. "Take a hold of my ruff, now, child," said the creature, and a few slow steps forward, Penny Rose reached to unlatch the door, they were out in the much colder night, and leaping along. Penny Rose cried, "we have not latched the door behind..." but they were already very far away, much farther than she could have imagined.

The stars were brighter. So bright in fact that they seemed to sear into Penny Rose's eyes. Or perhaps it was the tears that were swimming there: her stomach wrenched toward home, even as her heart beat in fear.

Lucif didn't notice, or if it did, it was quiet. It veritably flew over ground, running far, far toward the North, out of the village, far past farmland, into the wild of the dark green moors, clear and cold, misted in the black of night.

They didn't stop until Penny Rose, stiff and cold, could hold no longer and began to sway over Lucif's rippling back. The speed abated ever so little, until fixed points began to come back into focus besides the points of stars above. So tired she forgot to be unsure, Penny Rose asked calmly, "Where are we going?"

Lucif turned and blew hot breath over her hands. "We are going to the gates, my dear. We must find the Scribe and see what we can see."

"And how can we get there?"

"We must go through the moor-deep, and quickly before more sentinels arrive. You will need to be brave, child. The deep is no place for one so young."

Penny Rose wrankled slightly at that, but accepted that it might indeed be too much for her, wondering if she could be brave enough to not be left behind.

As the sun rose across the deep green of the endless, undulating harsh of plains that ran until what seemed infinity, Lucif and Penny Rose crested one last hill and came upon what seemed to be a deep, dark lake covered in mist. Lucif paused, as if steeling itself, and Penny Rose could feel the rigidity and stiffness of discomfort in its back. It didn't like this place, and it was exhausted. She slipped off to stand beside it, contemplating the oddly flat-looking water that seemed to drop into nothing. This was the Deep then, and she frowned in anxiety. The box was still glowing quietly in her hand, and gripping it a little harder, she reached out and nestled her fingers into Lucif's fur as well. The mirror eyes turned to her, and a soft smile, half happy, half sad, rested on its face. "This is not an easy journey, my little one," it remarked, "it is much longer than it would first appear... the way between two different lands."

"And... how do we do it?"

Lucif raised a brow, and cocked its head. "Why we simply walk, of course."

It started slowly toward the edge of the lake, Penny Rose hurrying to keep up with it. The sun was golden, but the moors still the bone-chill cold of predawn, belying the warmth of the light. Her eyes big, she followed Lucif toward the apparent shore. "It will be alright," she whispered nonsensically to the little box, and tucked it into the pocket of her dress over her heart.

Lucif paused at the edge of the dark pool. "Are you ready?" it asked her, solemnly. Penny Rose didn't nod or say a word, she simply put her hand in its ruff and looked straight forward, biting her lip. Lucif nodded in understanding, and began to wade in. The darkness covered paw and paw, and Penny Rose stepped after it.