Chatper One: One Step Forward

Phoebes horseman found her in a particularly icy part of the hedge. it was cold, dark and reminded her far too much of the wretched maze she had finally escaped. Her mein was a mess of owl feathers in place of hair, as he pulled her from a snow bank. "You have found your way to Winter" he had told her, wrapping her tightly in a cloak of dark blue fur. Surely not from any animal that existed else where.
He led her through the snow, she remembers very little of any of it anyway. Just thatnhe whispered something about the beauty found in the darkest winters.

She stumbles through some brambles, her hair..no
feathers....fluffed and messy. Her eyes appear large and golden, exaggerated almost glam-rock eye makeup makes them larger and more pronounced.
Tired. so tired. her feet ache as she slumps to the dirt.

I barely recall from broken memories of many years ago how hedges are supposed to denote certain statuses. Families that have hedges, they're supposed to be extremely rich. Do these families hunt in their hedges like them do?

Hedges, hedges, hedges. I'm mentioning that word an awful lot.

Hedges hedges hedges.

Hm.

It starts to annoy you, doesn't it? You want to make it stop, as swiftly as you can. Stop what? The words? It's not simple, to stop words. But you can stop who are bringing them to life. That's what I was used for. Maybe a bit more.

I swear I'm not yet lost. I can articulate well enough. I can speak. I'm not crazy. It's just that - You have to keep your mind busy while traversing this place. Else it will become lost on its own.

My consciousness slowly brings me back to wherever we are, and the first thing I feel is my face, wet. An audible sigh escapes my lips as I refuse to move. Let's drift a bit more.

If there's one thing that has immediately improved since I escaped is my capability to retain memories. Everything from before my escape is... Misty. I remember my, what, fourth day? Yes, let's say that. My fourth day outside my keeper's watch. I had entered a small cave after escaping something that was running after me throughout a dense thicket of vines. The small cave weirdly led me to a mountain pass. It felt calming, for a small instant. The cold, the clarity. Then a snowstorm struck me. I walked and walked. And walked, and also walked. Eventually, my whole body felt numb. I kept walking, of course, but have you tried to walk with numbed legs? Well, imagine a whole numbed body. And now imagine yourself in a snowstorm.

Then, in a far away distance, I saw a horseman. He had a lantern, I remember. That shined, brightly. The light inside it, that is.

I remember following him, as fast as I could. He never waited for me. At some point, I thought he could be afraid. Maybe I screamed for him, begged for his help. I don't know, he just always kept his distance.

Following him did lead me down the mountain pass. He disappeared when I found a cabin. Of course, when I weakly opened the door, I succumbed on what was a rocky path - Yes, there was no cabin. I think I woke up afterward, and just kept walking.

What could have that been? Am I crazy? I haven't mentioned this to those that are similar to me, those that walk the same walk.

I can only assu - A sudden noise immediately provokes a reaction, and I jump to my two feet, my eyes now wide open. A swamp. We're a swamp. Charming. And that... What is that scaly thing? I immediately assume a defensive position and dare not look away. "Everyone" I whisper, loud enough for the presences around me to hear. "Ready yourselves"

Drip drip drip Edwina saw her blood fall to the soft earth as she leaned against a large stone to catch her breath. Her eyes drawn too it. Her hand absently moved to where the metal device had been that she had dug out of her own flesh. The cloth there was soaked in her own blood again.

Drip drip drip

Something different as her blood splattered the ground. Plants were rising up from where her blood fell, plants with little red flowers.

A voice came then like the warm sun breaking through the clouds, "They say hope springs eternal."

Edwina turned fearing her owner had found her but instead saw someone else, someone who introduced her to the court of spring. The two talking for a seemingly long time and producing the first genuine smile on Edwina's face for a long time.
Why would she find a place in a court when she was obviously fleeing from the horrid court of her mistress. It was a mystery she would try to unravel.

The encounter though lifted her spirits enough that she was able to continue through the hedge and find she was not alone in her pursuit of freedom. There were others and misery loves company.

The way they took grew more and more moist and outright boggy in places and she tried to keep off the ground as much as she could. When she heard the splash she turned looking off towards the sound of the disturbance.

"Oh, oh my, no no no." She looked to the others and gulped.

Slowly but surely wins the race...

Coleman trudges through the Brambles. Trods and Paths are too dangerous to travel... too open... so the Thorns it is. They cut and they cut, yet in ways that cannot be accurately encapsulated by human words like "cutting." He bleeds more than just blood. The Hedge is exacting a toll for his escape, but the price is more than just physical pain. Somewhere in the distance, he hears the baying of briarwolves and the shouts of hobgoblin huntmasters... or does he? Was it just his anxiety, made manifest by the psycho-reactive nature of the Brambles? The changeling stops and listens for a moment. Then he presses on. He’d come too far to be captured again by his Keeper. He’d die before that happens. Coleman looks around to some of the other changeling escapees in his company. A sorry lot, all of them: dirty, hungry, and exhausted. Their meins are more real than anything.

He thinks to himself, darkly. No need to be the fastest. Just don’t be the slowest.

Coleman’s tall, shadowy body is gaunt and gangly in a Jack Skelington-esque sort of way. He moves and glides like an ill-proportioned marionette, incessantly pulling and tugging against the grasp of the Thorns. His dark gentleman’s suit, part of his mein, is shredded and almost unrecognizable. Perhaps in response to his presence, the portion of the Hedge in his direct vicinity twists with crepuscular vines, buffeting and warring against the Hedge-warping effects of the other changelings around him.

Coleman thinks back to his brief but momentous encounter with the Autumn Horseman. It wasn’t an experience one would ever typically forget, but the Brambles have a way of ripping thoughts from one’s mind the same way briars rip at skin. The changeling ran through the memory over and over to keep it fresh. It was something to do, at least. Something he could use to steel himself against the misery of his current state.

The personage of Autumn was not so much a person as it was a ubiquitous force playing at person-like impressions. It was like seeing autumn leaves blown by a great gale, choosing to wear the masks of man and horse. If you could catch all the entropy and transitionality of the Fall season and put it into a leaf-swept roiling mass of a creature... well, that was The Autumn Horseman... all browns, oranges, and reds. All muscles and falling leaves, with a horse-skull face and antlered crown. Coleman didn’t know why, but it was instinct to drop to his knees in its presence. The entity didn’t so much speak as susurrate; didn’t so much move as rustle. He innately knew what it was; the knowledge was as instinctive to him as fear.

"Yes... yes..." he remembered saying, speaking aloud in response to the sound of leaves crackling. "I swear by oath. I’ll carry the mirror of lead... I’ll walk the court of ash... I’ll walk with you, forever and always... we have an accord."

He'd killed her anyway.

Shiv's grief burned like acid - and oh did she know that feeling well. She'd tried so hard to warn the girl, to caution her, to lay a false trail. All for naught. He had caught her, of course. His bloody hands had... No. Not now. She had to focus. Coursing through the Hedge as fast as she could; running so so so so hard. Like the flaming tears streaming down her face.

"Ring around the Rosie, Pocket full of posie"

His choral voice rang out across the hedge. She shuddered, unable to help but recall those words as...

Snick snack snip went his talons. Little Lillian spraying out across the nave - ears, eyes, nose, all torn out quick as a flash. Her throat next, crimson fountains everywhere as He sang. Somehow the screams persisted in that place. Even as Lillian tumbled down, her screams kept rising.

He'd smiled at Shiv then. Of course he had. The bastard.

"RUN"

She knew, then, that she'd gone to far. He was...

No. Focus.

The Thorns tore at her as she scampered through the Hedge. Her blood and tears flowed freely. And her heart within her burned with a hatred that was all consuming.

The Hedge writhed around her, suddenly. Wicked tendrils snaked about her feet, tripping her. They wrapped tighter, and whip-like snapped her about.

With hardly a thought she let the hatred out. A flaming nimbus exploded from her, reducing the thorns to ash.

"Teine is uinnsean
Màthair agus leanabh
taobh a-staigh is a-muigh

Leanabh de chreach
Tha mi gad fhaicinn. Tha mi eòlach ort
Tha samhradh a 'cur fàilte oirbh
Seall a-nis, agus faic
an t-slighe lasrach air thoiseach
Am bi thu a 'dannsa còmhla rinn? A bheil thu saor?"

Shiv rolled to her feet. Before her was... Brigid?! The old tongue from this flame haired... NO. A TRAP!

Well, two can play this game, thought Shiv.

"Chan eil tràill tuilleadh
Chan fhaigh neach-teagaisg mi
dè a th 'ann an seo?"

The rider smiled broadly, as she swung up onto her rowan mare. Behind her, a path opened in the Thorns.

"Well, lass. Get ye gone then. I seek no slave, and none who would bow to a master such has he. Go. I'll lead him a merry chase. But remember this well. You've found your spine again. Don't you bloody go loosing it out there." With that, she began to keen. The only word I can put on it. A sound to freeze your bones to the marrow. The Hedge recoiled all about her, and she hied herself off towards the chorus of my Keeper.

I was not one to waste a chance. Quick as a hare I bolted down the path she had opened for me.

We need to move

"There is likely something just as dangerous beneath the surface. We should just run. And keep running.

Edwina nods, "We all need to make it, I will help. Do you think maybe we could stir that thing up that slipped into the water ? So it might attack the hounds.

Nothing I can do will help here...anyone else?

"And here I was thinking that we might actually loose them," Magnus said as he heard the hounds.

"Stirring things up will only make things more difficult for us."

"Let's just continue moving, we shouldn't stay for too long, look around for a safest path and let's go."

He started looking around trying to find a path that they could traverse without too much trouble.

I stare at the other travelers with my head hanging half-low, expectingly, as they fail to take any decision. I dug my nails into my mount of venus as I hear the horn, and gulp down the driest of saliva. "If we fight, we lose. We gotta run. Either that or hide." I mutter to those that also travel with me.

I can't help but notice how expertly the one that calls herself Beckett seems to act while trying to find a way out. I move one, two or maybe even three steps in her direction, ready to bolt and follow if needed. Otherwise, my body is jittery, and the first signal of trouble may convince me to run regardless. I won't go back.

"Seems like the water it is, shall we move then ?

Edwina will move once the others decide if they will or not.

Clad in a writhing mass of darkness, Coleman begins trudging slowly into the water.

"Might as well go first..."

Edwina followed and felt the nervousness rise in her. Her hand kept going to the bleeding wound but it was in a thankful way. The absence of that damnable leash was a blessing. She was scared but it was an honest fear. No euphoria, no crippling pain.

Looking to the one leading them, "Thank you."

I hug my wings tightly against myself as I shiver in fear. "I agree, Claire. We must fly this place, and swiftly now. The Hunt is upon us, and we'd be fools to face it." With that, I dive into the murky waters of the swamp.

Shudders before dropping into the water

"Here goes nothing," Magnus says stepping into the water

I quickly glance at Siobhan and give her the smallest of nods as I watch everyone braving the muddled water. "Carefully, then." I say as I notice how a few of their movements are not as precise as maybe as we should try to make it be. If we run fast enough, we may escape the Hunt... But can we even outrun them like that? The water makes noise. It moves. It vibrates. Not to say that the creature, the entity, whatever we saw earlier, is around somewhere. The worst-case scenario is that we are caught by the two at the same time.

I click my tongue, dissatisfaction masking the cold despair I am feeling. I look behind us, breathing deeply, as I am the last one of us to dips into the deepness, carefully making my way.

Phoebe definitely looks out for fruit. they can always be useful....

Claire keeps braving the waters.

Edwina looks around as they swim.

Though he lacks eyes in the strictest sense, Coleman watches the surface of the water as he wades on. His movements are slow and purposeful. His breathing is shallow and tense. He feels around carefully with his foot in order to test the water’s depth; the changeling doesn’t want to be caught by surprise if the silty ground beneath him suddenly drops off...

Magnus follows the group trying not to disturb water too much.

If Edwina can talk ? with the other spiders she will try and find out where there might be fruit flies knowing that that should also help locate actual fruit.

Claire raises an eyebrow when she sees the one who calls herself Edwina potentially approaching... Well, spiders. She frowns, not understanding why someone would risk herself like that. Of course, maybe even the insects that inhabit the Hedge may keep valuable secrets. But at the same time, a Hedge spider cannot possibly be as "safe" as a normal spider.

"Careful, white-haired." I whisper to her with a concerned expression as I keep walking through the muddled water. I look at my other companions and sigh. Are we truly safe from the Hunt?

"Fleeing to anywhere may lead us to our demise." Says the demoness, to the group. "I understand the fear. The unconscious will to escape. But it may be wiser to find a hiding spot, so we won't explore whatever this place is as blindly as we are now."

Phoebe nodd. She knows well how blind exploration ends. There must be some kind of passage....

Edwina asks if she could have some of the webbing as it could be a salve to the many wounds they have. You must eat well here your chitin is quite lovely and healthy looking."

Edwina placed the spider on her shoulder to keep it above the water and gathered up the webbing to share with the others.

"What shall I call you ? My name is Edwina."

"White-haired." Says Claire, aloud, frowning at... Well, everything she had just witnessed. "We already face our own web of pain. What is that for?" She sighs, feeling helpless while walking through the water. She looks above, searching for anything that may help her and her companions slip through the Hunt.

"This can be used for bandaging our wounds. The hedge has taken its toll on all of us."

Coleman gets old school and starts looking for anything hollow and reed-like which he can use as a snorkel to hide under the water...

We should keep moving. If we hide THEY might find us.

Edwina agrees with Phoebe

Edwina bandages her wound hoping that helps throw off the hunt some.

Phoebe sighs heavily and begins looking for any sign of a path. Moving quickly is the only real option. Far too many dangers in the hedge. Far too many things that might drag her back....

She nods at Edwina, but don't do much other than that.

Claire sighs, unsure of her own idea. "I vehemently agree as well." She says, as she immediately starts to follow Beckett, who seems to have taken the lead into guiding us out of that mess. I can't help, however, but to look behind us from time to time. I shake my head, softly, as I regretfully express negativity. "... Can we flee?" I ask, uncertain. "From the Hunt? Right now? I'm not sure."

Coleman keeps trudging through the water, reeds in hand. He looks back over his shoulder.

"If we can’t shake our pursuers, we may need to consider other... options." The changeling’s voice is hollow and inhuman. "One of us may need to stay behind to buy the rest of us time. When the moment comes, we draw straws and let Fate decide..."

Edwina will bandage any of the others that asks.

"Well let's keep hope alive that it doesnt come to that." Edwina said harshly.

Sioban snarls, "If the bastards catch up to us, you can bet your ass that I'll be going down with my fists in their perfect bloody teeth." She continues carefully making her way though the swamp, silently praying to Brigid or whoever the hell else might be listening that she is never called upon to live up to that bit of bravado.

"Yet, the Faceless one rings true. His suggestion is sound." Says the black-haired woman, her words being like whispers carried by the wind, as she keeps trudging through the water., her face grim. "Death is part of the natural cycle. It's hardly ideal, but... If it comes to that, there's no reason for all of us to die."

"I think we should keep moving, we can't hide from them forever and they know the Hedge better than us, I've seen what happens to those who gets caught, and I would rather die." Magnus said, "We should be all ready to die, even if there will be only one of us who survives, the deaths of others woud not be in vain but we mus make sure that at leas one of us will make it through." He continued treading, as careful as he could, through the water. His face remained emotionless, only his eyes would brighten up, as if the embers his eyes resemble were heating up. "And we absolutely have to be ready to fight with everything we've got, right now, we are the animals that are being cornered, if we will go down we must take as many of those bastards as possible."

Phoebe gives a fierce nod, her feathers a bit ruffled, eyes bright.

"Did anyone find loose thorns or mayhaps something we could use as makeshift weapons if we have to fight."

Coleman coils up his newly-made whip of Hedge vine and pushes forward through the swamp. Regardless of the perils involved in night travel, the changeling knows that there are much worse things awaiting them if they stop moving.

"No rest for the wicked. I plan to keep going all night. I can sleep when I’m out of this place."

"We should keep moving until we either out of here or we can move no longer," Magnus says, "If we stop now, we will increase our chances of getting captured, we can rest when we are in relative safety and this place is never safe."

Edwina asked the spider if it wished to stay here or come with her to the mundane world.

Her limbs ached and she would have loved a nights rest. Still the others were most likely right.

"Alright, we go on. How good are peoples nightvision ?"

Desipute my appearance....I have no luck. she laughs.

Edwina smiled a bit. Phoebe's humor despite their situation was nice to see and bolstered her own spirits.

The trek leaves the demoness's face dripping with sweat. While she doesn't necessarily seem annoyed by it, it's a stretch to say that she isn't at least somewhat tired. She uses the sudden pause to take a good breath, her voice coming out off her lips a bit hoarse. "Honestly, it's not the prospect of a warm bed that makes me want to keep moving, but the thought that a hot shower is an ultimate reward. Especially after braving this place. " A small, nostalgic grins creeps in her face. "But I agree. We keep moving until our muscles give in."

Maybe, realistically, resting at least a bit would've been wiser. There's no use to us if we end collapsing of tiredness. Still, after a long time, Claire had tasted hope: It was tangible now, with everywhere around is looking more and more earthly. It was... Intoxicating. And like any drug, it's hard to think straight while on it. She keeps walking.

Starting Glamour.

Rolling

The trek becomes cold. The cold has never bothered me anyway, but my body says otherwise. Still, hope. We felt it. There's nothing that will stop us from reaching our objective, lest we die.

We eventually reach a strange, runic-filled doorway and everyone quickly gets to work. I sigh. My keeper never meant for me to understand, and so I'm completely oblivious to what they're doing. Still, I might as well pay attention and make myself useful. I stand behind them, making watch. Just in case.

also glamour

Coleman, knowing that he has a problem, immediately begins searching for some form of Hedge Bounty from which he could graze a tiny bit of Glamour. He starts searching for goblin fruit in the surrounding locale but always keeps the gateway within eyesight.

Magnus looked around for a way to activate the passage. He was trying to remember the stories he heard about those who escaped and was checking if there could be hints on how to open the door in to the material.

Siobhan carefully studies the runed passage, letting the flows of Glamour guide her as she seeks to sort out the passageway.

A burning halo of sorts encircled Siobhan's stunned face. Twining threads of gold and iron ran riot in Celtic knots about the halo - living things that ceaselessly writhed in at times unsettling patterns. The iron threads smoldered with an inner heat, and scattered amidst the writing knots were twelve razor sharp shards, perhaps the shattered remnants of a blade? Each was about an inch long and glittered with a cruel beauty, and occasionally with a wet crimson.

The whole halo burned with an intense golden light, as the noon day sun, and a palpable heat. Standing in that light you felt... exposed. Every secret laid bare, every sin called up for judgment. But there was also a call. Those judged worthy felt a swell of purpose and a triumphant passion; strength to snatch the fiercest of battles from the jaws of defeat and surge onward to victory.

Cold and dark, the crown seemd to be made of twisted onyx and lapis lazuli. Shards of obsidian dot the circlet, which pulses with a shadowy light. It feels glacial despite its dark facade, and if one were to look closely, a tiny blizzard rages between the twisted cords of stone. There are bits of white wothard branches among the obsidian, gray and white birch branches. Despite its beauty something about it is instantly forgetable, making one want to simply look past Phoebe, as if she had vanished.

Edwina looked around at all the crowns appearing on her fellow changelings a sense of awe coming across her.

Her own crown looked like dawn about to break. It was warm like the ending of winter and the coming spring. It was a Celtic knot of emerald and aquamarine and small stars of many colors glittered about it. If one drew close they would see the stars appeared to me small freshly bloomed flowers the largest morning glories. Occasional clouds of mist drifted over parts of the circlet. The whole gave one a sense that darker times were passing and new possibilities were open to one.

A crown that appeared over Magnus was a collection of half-burned candles connected to each other by a rusted circlet intertwined with dead twigs with decaying leafs and flowers. The flames of the candles, however, instead of burning and producing the light were black, cold and seemed as if they were consuming the light around them.

Coleman stumbles through the gateway. He takes a moment to stop and survey his surroundings. Part of him can't believe that he's actually done it and escaped to Earth. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if this were all an elaborate Gentry illusion, designed to toy with his hopes.

Then he feels... strange; something floats atop his head. He feels the weight of it, though the weight is not so much a physical thing. A crown of entwined ash boughs and blackthorn branchlets; a wreath of dessicated wood decorated in orange and brown leaves that blow in response to an autumn wind that isn't there. It sports a variety of autumn annuals, as well as what appears to be the pale white bones of small animals: birds, squirrels, foxes. It smells and sounds of old rustling leaves, of the death of summer and the coming of All Hallow's Eve.

Putridness. Fetidness. Our world... Tended to smell bad. Despite that, Claire can't help but offerit the smallest and sincerest of grins. The darkling lets a sigh that she didn't know she was holding out, as she subtly rests her back against the wall, clearly tired. She keeps her gaze on the floor, partly still shocked for having actually escaped, and partly, well, afraid of realizing that this is all an illusion. However, when a good instant passes and no one else says anything, the woman slowly raises her head, afraid of something having happened.

And something indeed happened. They're all sporting... Strange, almost alien headwears. She isn't sure why*. And indeed, maybe she doesn't want to know. Ignored by her, the thinnest of circlets also appeared around her head. Contrary to the rest, there's not too much that makes it special. It seems to be made of cheap aluminum. The edges that hide behind Claire's messy bob cut hair, however, are weirdly serrated, comfortably digging into her own skin. It doesn't hurt if it stays like that: In fact, she has yet to realize that she's wearing a crown herself. Yet, It should be a bit painful to take it off.

She stares at her companions for a few moments, and then her eyes go wide at a potential realization. She brings her stare to the floor, gulping down while trying to keep her fear in check, closing her eyes as she breaths that nostalgic smell of rain to come. Having gathered enough courage, she slowly walks to the ticket vendor and doesn't waste too much time. She had to know, after all. "Sir. I just came from a very long trip, and... My memories, they feel a bit jumbled. Could you tell me, please, what is today's, hm, full date? ... Thank you kindly." She looks him dead into the eye, but her stare is not intense nor overbearing. If anything, it feels distant.

How much time had passed since she disappeared?

Coleman takes a deep breath and examines his arms and legs; it’s been a long time... a long time since he’s seen himself look like anything other than a tall, gaunt faceless... thing. He looks for the closest reflective surface: a mirror, pool of still water, shiny floor tile, anything. He examines his reflection, running his fingers down his face and finally seeing a nose and eyes and mouth. Only the newly formed crown disturbs his Mask. Coleman, randomly and disturbingly, starts to laugh out loud. It’s a laugh without any actual joy to it; a laugh halfway between relief and losing one’s mind.

Magnus looks around, somewhat nervously, expecting for the Others to show up as soon as the group relaxes and lowers its guard. At this moment he noticed that each of them, including himself, now have crowns over their heads. That was new. Could it be that his companions had a similar encounter as he did? He decides not to dwell on that thought for too long and walks over to the bum.
"Hey, wake up, mate!" He gives him a nudge.

Coleman’s laughter dies down, and his head snaps to the side as he hears the startled reaction of the bum to which Magnus is speaking. The vagrant is... rattled... afraid, but for only the briefest of moments.

Sweet, sweet ephemeral fear. Such spare change. I need a meal...

He approaches Magnus and quietly listens while studying the changeling’s crown. Two for Autumn...

Coleman glances around and assesses the crowns of the others. Fear and Sorrow are dominant. As it should be...

Siobhan does her best to pick her jaw up off the floor. The lights and smells are overwhelming after the Hedge. She feels so *exposed* here. She casts about furtively. Has none one noticed how... strange she looks? You'd think the flaming wings would stand out.

She takes a deep breath and tries to calm her racing hear. Straightening, she moves towards Claire catching the tail end of the man in the glass booth's reply. 2009. Mary mother of God, how long has it been?

Edwina pets her fey spider.

"Im hungry and tired. Do any of you know how to hunt here ?"

We are in a city...we buy food

"We should find others like us. We may not be the only... escapees in this place..."

"Put that away before you hurt yourself," Magnus points at the knife, "Does the name 'Magnus Kessler' ring any bells?" he looks staright in the bum's eyes.

Coleman glances around the terminal. He feels to exposed... too out in the open.

"We shouldn’t linger here. Something may follow us from the Hedge. Best to relocate."

"Oh yes, time to move on, I agree but My parents must have long since forgotten about me."
Edwina set the spider on her shoulder and looked around sadly.

"Where too, are we sticking together ?"

It is as good a plan as any. Who knows how much things have changed?

Siobhan is visibly shaken. "When I was taken from this world, it was not yet 1900. I..." Flaming tears begin to form in the corner of her eyes and she chokes back a sob. "Everyone I have ever known or loved will be long since passed. If you'll have me, I'd be keen to stick together. I know nothing of this place."

"We should find a place to sleep. Either a shelter, or somewhere abandoned."

Coleman begins looking for anything in the terminal that might have a map.

"Don't worry Siobhan, you can stay with us. If nothing else I will stay with you."

Exactly, we are stronger together