[ti]open[/ti]WILL-O-WISP

Cleo exhales shakily, blowing hair away from her face. Cold breath coils in the mist, blending until she cannot tell breath and mist apart. Her eyes dart this way and that, searching, and—

There! It bobs mockingly in the distance. A small ball of light, flashing on and off at an odd rhythm. Why is it flashing? A visual bug, maybe? Cleo tries to approach it to better study, but no matter how big her steps, she can't seem to close the distance. She ducks under a branch, squinting, trying to parse the blinking. Morse, maybe? "L…O… Ah, crap."

Another branch, another round of patterns disrupted, and why is it even further now? She quickens her pace, attention narrowed on this odd ball of light.

It ducks left, behind a tree.

"Wait!" Cleo's order echoes. She charges forward, pivoting hard at the tree. Her boot sinks deep into the soggy mud from the force, sticking just enough that she's tripping forward into her next obstacle: Finnegan Fjord, who happens to be on the other side of the tree.

She flails, crashing into his chest. Arms first, then nose and rest of smooshed face shortly after. Her head is immediately recoiling and swiveling.

"You!" She tries to peer around him, but the light is gone. "The light! Did you, I, there was… the one going bu-booo-bu-bu, booo-booo-booo… Like…." Her frantic search ends on his face, eyes wide. "Where'd it go?!"