A few moments later, Hood and Hy-Jinx are sitting, curtains closed, feeling the slow sway of the cabin, accompanied by a slight incline in the cabin’s orientation as if they are making their way up hill. The Rise of The King’s Way, Hood surmises, as he sits in silence, still clutching Hy-Jinx’s hand. The simple sensation of holding her hand in his and feeling its warmth is enough to partially unlock all of the emotions that he has held at bay since the night of the Library - a whirling cocktail of feelings threatening to engulf him, passing through his chest, tightening his throat and causing one or two tears to well in his eyes. Hood breathes out, a long sigh of stress, guilt, impotency, and rage, and as these emotions flood through his being, the emptiness that they leave leaves him feeling utterly exhausted. Leaves him feeling what he has not realised has been lying at the core of his being, a feeling of utter loneliness, of being left, bereft of companionship. Hood wants to curl up and either fall asleep or simply drop through existence, let his entire reality disintegrate to leave him as nothing, floating nowhere, without body, without thought, simply at peace. But it is a wish that is not forthcoming and he is simply left sad, tired and holding on to Hy-Jinx’s hand.

“Well this is nice.” says Hy-Jinx, her head moving slowly from side to side, her glazed over ice-blue eyes staring at nothing. In the silence that continues, the patter of falling rain becomes heavier - the patter turning more to a slapping on the roof of the cabin. Hy-Jinx begins to giggle. “So this is what a blind date feels like!” she laughs, “Well, aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

Hood reaches across and places his other hand affectionately on top of Hy-Jinx’s forearm.

“Careful now, you don’t want to give a girl the wrong idea.” she says, a smile still playing across her features.

“Mischief,” rasps Hood softly, watching as Hy-Jinx’s features change, her face widening into a beam of a smile, lighting up with enthusiasm and,,,well the potential for mischief!

“Oh! It’s my favourite silent person!” says Hy-Jinx jubilantly, squeezing Hood’s hand and excitedly bouncing up and down on the seat next to him, before freeing herself from his grasp and gleefully clapping her hands together in a sequence of quick successive claps. “I spent sooo long wondering what had happened to you,” she exclaims. Clearly unable to contain herself, she stands, bumping her head on the cabin’s roof, before turning and attempting to clasp Hood’s head in both hands, which she basically achieves with the exception of a misplaced thumb in Hood’s right eye. Holding Hood’s head thus, she leans forward to plant a kiss on Hood’s forehead, instead clashing her forehead into his nose. Hood let’s out an urgh and an oww as this happens but this sudden sequence of movements, however, has clearly not been anticipated by the liverymen, and the palanquin lurches somewhat, causing Hood to roll sideways clutching his face, in line with Madeleine’s tumbling mask on the couch opposite, and Hy-Jinx to almost fall backwards, her hands reaching out to where-she-knows-not in an attempt to steady herself. One hand pushes up against the roof of the cabin, the other grabs hold of a burning hot lamp.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow,” squeals Hy-Jinks, pulling her burnt hand sharply back and initially thrusting her finger ends into her mouth, before removing them, since it was her palm that she burnt, and shaking her hand vigorously, hopping from one foot to the other. “Both and bothery!” she shouts.

The palanquin lurches again, before being righted, but Hood is no longer concerned about his face, instead he stares in horror at the sight before him. Hy-Jinx suddenly stops, sniffing the air. “Hood? What’s that smell?” before sensing a burning sensation in the seat of her britches. “Wait, is my bum on…”

“Fire!” rasps Hood, his innate animal instincts beginning to cause a rising sense of panic within him, as the curtains woomph into flames, immediately catching onto the paper lined interior of the wooden cabin and spreading to the fabric of both couches. Being unbalanced and in a state of rising terror, Hood has not the wherewithal to contemplate magical solutions (and it is doubtful that he actually has any at his disposal even if he did). Instead he chooses the most immediate solution which is to sling his backpack quickly over one shoulder, grab Hy-Jinx’s hand in one hand, and Madeleine’s mask in the other, and jump against the door.

Half way up the King’s Way, a ball of limbs, shouting and spluttering, splinters through the side of a palanquin, along with billows of black acrid smoke. Balling onto the middle of the rain soaked thoroughfare, Hood and Hy-Jinx land with a dull oomph, upon wet and slippery cobbles. Hood landing on his satchel, Hy-Jinx landing on Hood - with Madeleine’s mask being held safely to one side - and the rain landing on all, in heavy but equal measure. For Hy-Jinx, at least, the heavy rain is a godsend, as the now only smouldering seat of her britches can testify. The same is not true, however, for the bearers of the palanquin from which they have just fallen from. For as the bearers wrestle with the two long side poles in an attempt to maintain their balance amidst the shifting forces of their desperately kiltering load, scrabbling and scrambling, their feet slip on the smooth wet cobbles, and the burning cabin pitches with a fiery crash onto the road. Sparks and flames rise.

In the now worsening rain, the slow graceful procession of ornately carved wooden cabins that flows in both directions upon the Rise, hesitantly stutters in its motion as liverymen try to compensate for the interruption in the traffic’s flow, and attempt to navigate firstly around a pair of entwined figures, who for some reason are writhing on the ground, one of whom it appears has smoke coming from her bottom, and secondly around the roaring inferno of what was once a beautifully decorated work of high end craftsmanship. These deviations in course cause ripples up and down the Rise and what, for the liverymen close to the scene, are tantamount to nothing but small adjustments, for others become large manoeuvres, and like boats on a heaving swell, while some simply ride the waves, others clash and clatter, the currents forcing them together. Thus what was initially a slowing and slight sway of the moving thoroughfare turns into seemingly random instances of collisions. These, coupled with the now precarious conditions of the road, combine to form a perfect storm. So within less than a minute every vehicle has ground to a halt either by decision or by accident. Some are held steady, some placed to the ground, some are dropped, or pitched forward, others topple. And as this commotion unfolds amidst the now lashing rain, the rising sounds of gasps, frustrated consternation, and calamitous screams and yells abound, along with the shrill toots of wooden whistles…

Peeeeeep peeeeeeeep!

“Clear the way, clear the way!”

Peeeeeep peeeeeeeep!

…as the evening patrols that carefully observe the streets of Kera-Bur become involved.

Hy-Jinx eventually manages to untangle herself from Hood and slowly with arms outstretched before her - makes to stand, unsure of her surroundings and confused not only by the shock of being dragged and falling from the palanquin but also finding herself in a burgeoning chaotic soundscape.

Thus as a group of guards arrive on the scene Hy-Jinx looks like a bewildered fox drenched and desperately cornered but not knowing which way to run. Hood on the other hand looks like road-kill. And as the guards lanterns are brought to bear, and attentions turn from the fiery wreck to the two shadowy figures, Hy-Jinx’s illuminated features suddenly spark recognition.

“Here, that’s that’s…what’s ‘er face! The Belle lady.! Truth to power and all that.” one of the guards shouts.

“Hood? Hood?! We have to go,” Hy-Jinx says urgently, searching her darkness for the physical sensation of her friend, eventually finding a soggy shoulder, as Hood painfully scrapes himself off the road, and doggedly rises to his feet.

“What, the Periwinkle woman who shoved it to Mupert?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

Hearing the urgency in Hy-Jinx’s voice, and the brief exclamations of the guard, Hood puts two and two together and grabbing Hy-Jinx’s hand in his, even though his limbs are screaming at him, does his best to flee, dragging Hy-Jinx behind him.

“Stop! You there! Halt!” the shout goes up, as too does a multitude of shrill whistling peeeeeps!