October Lights Report

General Summary

It is the first Monday of October, and Roseland, Oregon, is enjoying the last gasps of summer. Unusually warm and sunny, the children are wearing shorts and t-shirts, while the teachers are wearing blouses and have their dress shirt sleeves rolled up as they attempt to stave off sweat. But that's the rub, isn't it? No child wants to be inside on such a lovely day - and that's certainly true of Mrs. Hutch's Seventh Grade Homeroom Class. As she drones on and on about Pre-Civil War history, Josh Bunderson looks out the open window, chewing his pencil in boredom, the young nocker notices something odd that catches his attention: a series of spikes of ice in the teacher parking lot, slowly dripping in the hot October sun.   A cold wind blows through the classroom, making everyone shudder and blowing papers off the desks. Mrs. Hutch takes a moment from her lecture to put on her own coat while asking Josh to close the window, which he does quickly.   As he sits back down, he turns, looking at Hilda Sigurdsson, sitting in the front row, and frowns. It makes sense that the ice queen herself may have something to do with the formations, but there was only one way to know for sure. He quickly scribbles out a note to the sidhe, and passes it forward.   When Hilda receives the note, she opens it up to read: "Are you doing the ice stuff?"   Hilda rolls her eyes and writes back, "No. Stop asking stupid questions."   As she hands it back, another member of the motley raises their hand slowly, waiting to be called upon by Mrs. Hutch. When she finally acknowledges them, Dante Summers asks plaintively, "When does class let out?"   Mrs. Hutch, clearly already sick and tired of her young charges, tells him that it lets out the same time it always does. Slumping in his seat, Dante begins to doodle distractedly, bored of being in the classroom.   It is at this time that Hilda takes advantage of her graceful and sweet nature, and asks Mrs. Hutch politely if she can go to the bathroom - a ploy to get a better look at the chimerical ice (indeed, all the changelings can tell that this ice is not visible to the adults or other kids not touched by the Dreaming). Mrs. Hutch agrees, handing Hilda the bathroom pass (a rubber duckie with a large tag reading "BATHROOM PASS" on it), and Hilda steps outside the classroom. She walks down the hall, stopping at the first empty classroom to get a better look at the ice formations. She realizes that they are in bursts that seem very much like footprints - like if a person were to walk around and every time their shoe touched the ground a bloom of frost would arise. But it's not a person, no. It's a large animal, she can tell. Something about the size of a motorcycle, with four legs.   Meanwhile, in class Josh has begun to spread the word about this rare occurrence, and after class the five children (Francisco Reyes being the last one and the only one to be totally focused on his education and George Callahan, who was too surly to do much but nod in acknowledgement of Josh's message) meet up. Hilda fills them in on what she saw and says that the tracks seem to be going in towards town. The motley discusses whether or not to ditch school to follow the footprints, but eventually decide against it. It's torture for all of them - especially Dante - but eventually the last bell rings and they all begin to bike up towards Downtown, where the footprints seem to be heading.   They track these spurts of ice into an alleyway, where they come upon a chimera: a stag made of pure ice, which they identify as a Herald of Winter, a chimera meant to not only represent but to change the seasons.   Since it's been so warm out until now, the children ask why such a creature would be out this early in the season, but it insists that winter is now. Josh recognizes that this chimera is perhaps confused or being twisted to the bidding of someone else, and tries to calm the stag, but it becomes even more confused and confrontational, charging the small motley, which dives out of the way - thankfully, no one is harmed as they watch the chimera running further down the street, trailing ice and frost behind it.

Character(s) interacted with

• Herald of Winter
• Mrs. Hutch