onepassingnight | Hansel and Lethel

The twists and turns of the forest are long, secretive, and closed. But in this one small clearing, there is a house made entirely of sweets. Gingerbread forms the walls, adorned with enormous pieces of candy. The pillars and lampposts outside are peppermint, while the bushes grow marshmallows and slices of pie and cake. Even the paving stones of the pathway are rock candy. A river of pure dark chocolate flows lazily alongside the house, hot enough to be molten.

It's clearly a haven for children. In fact, a girl with pink hair and wearing a soft dress sits comfortably amid the wafer candy grass and nibbles at a handful. She looks up and smiles at the newcomer. Something about the smile is a bit too cold for her greeting, but with so much candy nearby, there's plenty to distract from the expression.

"Come over and try some," she invites. "You can eat enough to have a full stomach." This is a rare and precious thing, in a poor kingdom like this one. "Don't worry, I live here with my sister."

(ooc: story can be looked up here. Lethe is working for the witch to lure travelers in return for herself and Mnemosyne not being eaten.)

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Alice herself had no taste for sweets and never had. She had liked the looks of Petit Fours as a child, delicate spider's web fine frosted concoctions in brilliant colors, but with the Kingdom's recent financial difficulties and her mother's own callous sugestion that the starving citizins eat cake had turned her off even that small pleasure.

"I'm not hungry, thank you." She said kindly to the odd girl. "Actually, I'm here because I've been investigating the recent disappearance of some child," against the express wishes of her father, "and I was wondering if you had perhaps heard anything that could hel?"

That could be very troublesome. Such a richly-dressed girl would be missed, not like the peasants that normally came by here.

"It's just me and my sister here," she said again. "We don't usually see strangers so far away from the village. But if you want to come inside, we can talk about it."

There'd be trouble if she didn't get the stranger inside before she could go any further.

"It's such a nice day today, don't you think?" Alice asked, still smiling pleasantly at the girl as she made surruptious movements to ascertain that her father's hunting dagger was still tucked discreatly against her back under her riding cloak. Something about this whole situation was prickling her nerves something fierce.

"Why don't we continue the conversation out here, under the sun?"

The girl smiled back, as though this hadn't upset her plans and wasn't an obstacle in her way. "Alright," she agreed easily enough, though the sun was starting to feel warm, an odd heat that would only grow greater until thirst might overcome common sense.

"Would you like to eat something? It's delicious." Anything to keep her here a little longer.

"Oh, no thank you." Alice shook her head and held a hand up in light dismissal. "I'm afraid I've no head for sweets, myself." She told the girl, failing to add that, as she had no want for food herself back home, she would have been loathe to take even the smallest scrap from those who did, even if it had been something she desired.

"It's unusual for people to be in the woods this far out," Lethe said conversationally. "Why were you out walking here?"

As the offer of food had been refused, she had no excuse to cook any - or rather, no excuse to light the fires of the oven.

Alice nodded and tipped her head back to look up at the sky visible through the trees, recalling her long journey.

"Yes." She said. "I told you before, of course, that I've been searching for some missing children from the village. Several corroborating witnesses report last seeing some of the children enter this forest."

Lethe knew it, but needed to know more. "I wish I could be more help," she lied, the veneer of the helpful stranger still in place.

"Can you tell me anything else that could help?"

"The last one went missing just two days ago." Alice told her, recalling all of the facts that she had gathered earlier. "A little girl, only ten years old. Her name was Cassie. She would have passed by this way sometimes yesterday afternoon."

Lethe remembered it. Cassie hadn't lasted long, one in a vast line of sacrifices to the witch's appetite for fear and horror.

She needed this girl to forget it, an easy enough feat with her powers as she began to ask questions.

"What did she look like? Was she tall or short?" Somehow, the questions had the effect of pointing out the details were quite possibly starting to slip through Alice's grasp by now.

"She..." Alice froze as her memory of the girl began to grow hazy. She had spent the better part of a day talking with Cassie's mother, every detail should be crisp in her mind but it was slipping. What color was her hair again...?

Frowning worriedly, Alice pulled out the small parchment she had taken from her home before visiting the local townspeople, and upon which she had taken thin, spidering notes about each of the missing children. Now to find the girl in question on there, what was her name? Something with a C... "Ah." Alice said triumphantly as she located the girl on her list.

"Cassie is probably no taller than my waist, and she has dark brown hair." She told the other girl.

"Cassie, then. Is she your friend, perhaps? A kinswoman?" The question was entirely reasonable, of course; and while the fact the answer was no might make it easier to recall with certainty, she was leading somewhere with it.

"What?" Alice startled. "No, I don't know her, she's just a lost little girl who's parents I am trying to help find her."

"If she's just a girl, isn't it really nothing you need to worry about? Eventually, she'll get into trouble of her own, and you'll only be upsetting yourself by becoming involved."

These are the words of someone who ran away, once.

Hansel and Lethel

I apologize for the French Rev undertones but I couldn't resist

/squeee~! no apologies needed! XD

/wanders off to go listen to Edith Piaf

enjoy! <3

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