picture_prompt_fun | Strange Journey (pic #9, #6, #8, #12, #1, #2, #14, #5, & #4) -- original

Title: Strange Journey
Fandom: original
Character: original
Length: 1027
Rating: G

"This way," said Hobert, lugging the baggage without even seeming to notice that it was three times as big as he was. Rose-Lily walked calmly after, her face a set mask. Elisabetta followed, into the railway station that looked as ordinary as could be, painted with red and blue, walls of cinderblock, railings of metal, even a graduate student in his purple sweater, and with his yellow backpack, except that she knew for a fact it had not stood here a day ago. And suspect it would not stand here in a day.
The soft susurration that came down the tracks made her frown and think of birds. Then the train glided down the track, marked with wings, and stopped in the station. The student looked up from his book and walked aboard. Hobert marched onto another car, and Rose-Lily and Elisabetta followed.
Rose-Lily looked about at the red upholstered seats as if they were somewhat strange to her. Elisabetta, feeling a little more confident, walked over to one, and sat. Rose-Lily took the one next to it. The train set out again. Moments later, it was out of the station and into the rain.
Elisabetta let her breath out. "So -- where is this place we are going to? In the letter."
"It's a school," said Rose-Lily, promptly. "But it's not where we're going. You stay. At your parents'." She blinked. "Or somewhere -- "
Elisabetta scowled. She looked out the window. The soft noises of the train did not make much of a difference to its path. A town stood to the side, with its buildings white-washed and set with arched windows and a few towers. She sighed. The sight of something she knew was not this close to her home was no longer enough to unnerve her. The train murmured its way on, and out into grassy fields, and past the rainstorm. Sunlight shone on the grass, and a rainbow arched its way down to the stand of trees at the top.
Minutes later, the train glided to a stop. This one was not even a station. There was a shed where one might find refuge from rain if the wind did not blow the wrong way, there was a stone wall behind it, and the train was already gliding off, and Hobert tramping down a path with their luggage.
Rose-Lily took her hand. Elisabetta did not know whether her not knowing what they faced made it more or less terrifying. But they followed.
A tunnel went under the wall. Most of it was filled with water from the rainstorm. A few jagged pieces of deadwood stuck from whatever had snagged them. And Hobert had already tramped half down down the path that ran by its side, inexplicably not tompling over from his burdens. Elisabetta's tongue touched her lips.
"I'll go first," she said. Rose-Lily nodded. They crept along the ledge, neither of them daring to look down, until finally Elisabetta jumped down on the packed earth of the other side. There was a ramshackle building there, its wood weathered until any paint had vanished, with vines overgrowing it, with its windows -- Elisabetta scowled -- bricked up.
Hobert had stacked their luggage on the ground and reached the doorway already. "Hurry up, sweethearts!" he called, and darted within. Rose-Lily rolled her eyes. Elisabetta followed.
And found it full of books. Shelf after shelf of books. With brightly colored or drab covers, with titles written on them, or none -- and a pair of paper-white people eying them both.
"These are the two who are going to Three Maidens Tower," said Hobert.
The man's face crinkled. "That's a disaster. You know there will always be a third, and that it will be something evil -- "
Hobert snorted. "You know that keeping the two out to prevent a third does not work. The disaster is already in the works before the first -- "
"Both of you know better than to talk about it in front of them," said the woman. Elisabetta realized, with a start, that she and Rose-Lily were holding hands. "The boat will be ready in the morning. You can stay in the tree house until then."
Minutes later, Hobert was climbing a weathered staircase to a weathered treehouse that did not look large enough to hold the luggage. He did not hesitate, and the girls climbed after. Somehow, the luggage had vanished when they reached the top; they saw only a room too large to fit in the treehouse, with shelf-like bunks about it. A woman and man there, dressed warmly, were holding steaming mugs, and a pug looked at the new arrivals.
"So these are the girls?" said the woman.
"O, yes," said Hobert.
The man sighed. "We'll make sure you wake up in time in the morning to get to the docks. In the meantime, have some soup."
It did not seem that much latter when they were both yawning, and tucked into bunks, and no time later at all when the woman was shaking them away and telling them to dress warmly. Elisabetta sat up, rubbing her eyes, and found the morning both dark and chilly; icy air rushed in on her, and she shivered as she pulled on clothes and found them as icy as the air. But as they clambered down the stairs, the light increased, and by the time they reached the docks, it was brilliantly opalscent, the sky's wispy clouds ablaze with blue and peach and pink and yellow, the lake sending the color back, and docks and boats themselves colored with the light.
Hobert dumped the luggage in one of the boats which, for once, did not swallow it up and leave space; it was full up. He undid the line that bound it to the dock, and tied to another. Then he untied that one, and bowed to the girls.
Elisabetta and Rose-Lily took their seats. Hobert hopped down, took up the oars, and started to row. The boat flowed serenely out to midst of the brilliant dawn.
"O look!" called Rose-Lily, and pointed. Two magnificent swans looked back at them.