The cabin got small after rest time. The same air, the same walls, and the snow still falling.
"There's a village," Franz said. "Forty minutes from here. We could go for supplies."
"And to see something not snow," Arianne said. "That too."
The twins were dressed and at the door in under four minutes. Leo had both whales with him—the stuffed one zipped into his coat and the tablet in his hand. He was ready.
The road wound through mountain passes with snow-heavy pines pressing close on both sides. Frozen waterfalls were caught in the rock faces, and the mountains stood white against a pale sky that had run out of color without going dark yet.
Arianne watched it through the passenger window. In the back, the twins pressed their faces to the glass, pointing at shadows in the snow and at a crooked pine that Lily declared was definitely a witch tree.
Leo typed: Is it haunted?
"Everything up here is haunted," Lily said with authority. Franz didn't correct this.
