Hilda ended up falling asleep in Alfur's coat for a few hours. When she awoke, the sun was a little higher on the horizon and Twig's big wet nose was right up against her face. She squeezes her eyes shut as he starts licking her- her hair was stuck in a bizarre-looking cowlick afterwards. She could hear Alfur and Raven laughing from behind her, so she starts pouting. It took her a few moments to wake herself up completely.

"Are you going to come out of there, or...?" Alfur's voice being so loud to Hilda caused her to jump as she realized she was still in his jacket, right beside him. She allows herself to slide out halfway until the nippy cold of the morning reached her, chilling her to her most likely nonexistent elven bones. She crawled back up without a second thought, clinging to Alfur.

"No," she answers quickly, making herself comfortable again, "warm..."

"Not quite the answer I wanted, but your reasoning is hard to refuse." Alfur sighs, walking with the little girl onto Raven's back.

"I wouldn't have expected her to be that heavy in that form," Raven comments.

"Ah, no, she's not heavy at all," the elf replies, "I just can't really... move my head."

Raven just laughs.

"I get it! She did that to me, too- as a human, though. But, she's got the right idea, considering where we're headed today..."

As Raven soared high into the clouds, the three little passengers looked down over the world below. Like being a human overlooking a whole city of elves. Alfur would wonder if somewhere out there an entire city like Trolberg existed, but populated by elves. Hilda stated that it would take a lot of work, especially regarding the fact that elves had no hands.

"Weather spirits and elves don't really have anything to do with each other," Raven tells them, "but since we need the snowflake from them, I'll explain to them the situation, and then you can talk, Hilda. Okay?"

"Mmhm!" Hilda almost squirms out of the coat again, thinking about how she dealt with the weather spirits last time, but her tiny feet sting upon making contact with chilly air, causing her to squeal as she hangs onto Alfur again, shivering. The elf rolls his eyes as he starts stroking her hair.

"Brings back some rough memories," Raven murmurs, "I really thought you had died back at the weather station. Wonder where that crazy lady went- I made her tell me everything, then I dropped her in the woods somewhere."

"Raven!" Alfur scolds, "why would you do that!?"

"She kidnapped the baby weather spirit Hilda let out."

"Oh, that's- I'd put her in jail, though, not in the woods!"

"With a hairdo like that, she blended in very well!" Raven joked.

Hilda laughs. The sleek black wings of the thunderbird crackled with electricity as they started heading for a nearby raining cloud bank. There was another argument going on, as expected, but a small, round and puffy little cloud spirit caught Hilda's eye. The baby weather spirit!

He looked nervous amidst the shouting, holding onto his father as if trying to drag him out of it, but was getting ignored.

Raven creates lightning to get the spirits' attention. Recognizing him, they slowly turn from grey to white, and start quietly talking amongst themselves. The father and baby duo were understandably the most interested, the latter starting to approach Raven. His father follows him, likely for security reasons. He wouldn't want to lose his child again.

"What brings you back here?" the father asks, his tone much calmer than it was before. This was, after all, one of the creatures that ended up helping to lead him back to his son, though it was the young human girl he had with him that set him free.

Raven takes the time to explain the circumstances of Hilda (describing her as "the blue haired girl" was all the spirits needed to know to remember her) and the spell that turned her into an invisible elf. The baby weather spirit waves playfully to the deerfox on Raven's back, giggling. He looks around for his rescuer, confused.

"She's invisible," Raven reiterates. The baby's face darkens and a few raindrops fall.

"But I'm here!" Hilda calls. The baby's mood takes another full 360 as he approaches the sound of Hilda's voice, curiously and happily cooing. This is enough for Hilda to finally shuffle her way out of Alfur's coat (giving him some well deserved relief) and hug the baby. She's small enough to float on the little cloud rather than fall through, which gives the baby the opportunity to hug her back even though he could not see her outright, laughing as her miniscule movements tickled him. He was soft and fluffy and absolutely adorable.

"I know you can't see me, but I'm here. And all I need is one snowflake. I understand if you can't, but if you can, please help me," Hilda looks towards the father weather spirit, though knowing he cannot look back at her, tried to convey her worry in her voice as much as possible, "by the way, I need you to know that I love this child and if anything happened to him-"

"I think," the father spirit says, "Styrmir should do the honors."

The other spirits smile.

"Styrmir?" Hilda asks.

The baby laughs as his father pats his head.

"After all, you're the very best at making snow, aren't you?"

The imaginary puzzle pieces in Hilda's head click together as she realizes. Her eyes brighten.

"Oh!"

"He's been looking for a way to repay his gratitude to you for saving him," the father spirit says, "I'd say he's been wanting to meet you again for a long time."

Alfur pulls a pair of microscope slides out of his satchel to keep and preserve the snowflake in.

"Always come prepared!"

Though the snowflake was much bigger than they had expected. Hilda could hold it with both arms, she was freezing, but it was such a lovely pattern: little heart shapes on the tips leading to a big heart shape in the center. It looked both cute and elegant.

"Awww!" Hilda smiles, her face flushing pink, "It's beautiful! Thank you, Styrmir!" She pats the baby spirit on the head, "but... it's too big to keep it with us without it melting. I don't want to ruin something so pretty, especially considering it's meant for me!"

"We'll hold onto it for you, then," the father spirit reassures her, "once you've gathered everything else you need, we'll give it back."

"Really?" Hilda blinks, "Thank you..."

Styrmir takes the snowflake back and it vanishes upon contact with the cloud. Hilda looks concerned for a moment. Styrmir, sensing the unease, recreates the snowflake in his little stubby cloud hands, taking it away and returning it again as it was, as a demonstration of power.

"Whoa, this kid is cool," Raven exclaims.

"It's the least we can do for what you did for us," the father spirit smiles, "when you're ready, come back!"

The four adventurers thank the weather spirits as they start to leave.

"Hilda?" a small voice calls.

The raven turns back around to see Styrmir. The baby spirit lifts one little stub and waves, beaming.

"Tank you! Bye-bye!"

Hilda's face was burning red as it took all of her restraint to not jump off of Raven to hug the child one more time.

"Bye-bye..."

"They're really nice when they're not arguing with each other," Alfur comments as they began their search for either a troll rock or Hilda's barghest friend- she got a few laughs out of the name "Jellybean"- only two more ingredients to go. Twig wanted to walk, so they travel by foot. It was still daylight, so they were at their leisure.

"Out of curiosity, do you think we need a lindworm for this, too?" Hilda asks.

"Why? Honestly, lindworms are usually mentioned as the way out of elven contracts because we want people who sign them to think there isn't a way out, considering how scarce and paperwork averse lindworms are," Alfur replies, "elf contracts are magically binding, they want them to think. No escape."

The girl looks up in shock, "why would they want that!? That's not very fair."

"Legal business is scary business, my dear. It boggles my mind, too. That's another reason why I'm so happy to be in Trolberg."

"Elves are weird," Raven says nonchalantly.

"You could have phrased that better, but I agree," the older elf nods.

Twig wanders ahead and stumbles on a few pebbles. He sniffs around, looks up and starts barking. The others follow and see a large troll rock.

"Good boy, Twig!" Hilda hugs his leg, "You found a troll rock! We should stay nearby so we don't lose track of it when the sun sets."

"I'm not sure how this is gonna turn out," Raven mutters to himself. Alfur's ears prick up at this.

"Hilda understands all kinds of creatures! If anyone can do it, she can," he assures him.

"You know what? You're right, little buddy." Raven watches the little human-turned-elf prancing around with the deerfox.

"It's only been a few months since we met and she saved me; but I can't help but feel like I've always known her and I feel so proud about everything she's done, y'know?"

"I do," Alfur answers, resting his head on the tip of his arm, "I've watched her since she was born, but never got to formally meet her until a few months ago, too. She was so cute when she was little."

"Her mom better have baby pictures."

"Oh! I hope she does! I'll ask when we go back to Trolberg!"

Hilda looks back at the two, unaware of what they were talking about. They seemed happy, though, so she was happy, too. She looks up at the towering troll rock.

"I have the feeling that this will be a chaotic experience."