Ch10 - Journey to Yggdrasil
Sunna, Adiel, Ros, Ragnar, and Scottfard set off to talk to their mysterious talking fox benefactor. Although it is strangely hidden in a valley in the woods, they have no trouble finding Reynard's cottage. Several knocks on the door and an overabundance of patience yield no results. Either the fox is not home or not answering. Eventually the party's stares fall on Ragnar.
"What's everyone lookin' at me for?" Ragnar asks, but the answer dawns on him as soon as he asks. "Oh right. Find the fox."
The hunter circles the cottage a few times poking at snow, mud, old sticks, and mats of long fallen decaying leaves. He determines a set of tracks to be the freshest of many old sets and leads the party along it. Adiel and Sunna notice that Ragnar's tracking techniques vary wildly from Glumr's, but you accept whatever works.
For more than an hour, but less that two Ragnar leads you through the wet, cold woods. Scottfard summons up a calm, pleasant song that fits well with the spirit of the forest and makes your travels more pleasant. It even seems to help Ragnar focus.
"And here we are," he says. "End of the line."
Everyone looks around. You're still in the woods, but Reynard is nowhere to be seen, heard, or smelled.
"Tracks just end here. See?"
On close examination you can tell he's right.
"Did he hop into a tree? Do foxes even *do* that?" asks Ros.
Ragnar shrugs. "This is something about our fox friend. He does this. He's not so easy to follow. Does he fly or float? Does he turn into a ghost fox, or just disappear and reappear someplace else? Dunno."
"So what do we do?"
"Well, we can wait here, or someplace else for him to reappear."
You decide to go back to the cottage and wait for him inside where you'll be sheltered and can start a fire. This time you knock at the door more as a formality before entering than to see if Reynard is there, but to your surprise this time the fox answers, slipping out the special wooden flap you had made for him at the base of the door.
"Oh hello Ragnar, I see you found The Legends. Half of them, at least. Aren't you missing The Strong and The Wise?" says the fox in perfect if accented clan tongue.