[backdated to sometime during the fall because Titania's hiding from oncoming winter and Cernunnos is pretty much in his prime]

Autumn was heavy in the Sleeping Woods, and the cool was creeping in. For the second year in a row, there was a cold snap to the air that hadn't been there prior to Mabb's arrival in the world. Titania felt sure that this shift was permanent, a stronger balance between the warmth of the summers and the cold winters that should have existed in the woods to begin with. When Oberon was king, was still present and ruling his fey, there was still no true winter in the warmth of the woods. Titania took it as a sign that the woods were more suited to spring and summer than fall and winter.

Or maybe it was a sign that Oberon's power wasn't as well accepted in these woods as it had been in their former home. Either way, true winter had only existed since Mabb had come. the balance between herself and her sister had been reestablished.

Titania wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.

To that end, she had returned to her bower, the only place in the woods that stayed warm, even throughout the winter. Dressed in dark clothing, she stepped inside, doffing the dress she wore to don a rather see-through dressing gown in the same pattern. She wasn't expecting company, not even Peaseblossom, as she moved through her bower.

The conversation with Arthur Pendragon left Hunter a little unsettled. It had been quite some time since he'd seen Goodfellow last, and he wondered if it was indeed the same little green fey that had spoken to Arthur. Not only that, he was interested in seeing the preparations for war himself, as if to be certain it would not stray south, nor be too detrimental to his trading.

He spent the night with Scheherazade, wrapping her in his large warm body, as he'd begun to grow accustomed to doing, but the next morning, he dressed, and set out his seven league boots. After a conversation with the queen, assuring her he'd be back by evening, by the next day at the latest, he set out, taking only the few steps necessary to reach first the Sleeping Woods. It would be harder to find one lone fey than to see the city, so he thought he'd start looking for Goodfellow first.

His nose twitched at the smells in the woods. The smell of magic was a little darker, richer, than during spring or summer. But that wasn't all he smelled. There was an overpowering scent of nature itself, of the woods, but whatever it was wasn't just to woods. It was living, breathing, moving. Hunter took off his seven-league boots and tucked them away. Curious, and with his nose twitching, he set out to find the source of the scent. Goodfellow could wait.

When Titania returned to her bower, it was blessedly empty. She indulged in her own sleep, trying to ignore the fact that the bed was still slightly warm, and smelled...well certainly not like her. It was a deep, woodsy, and masculine scent she begrudgingly attributed to Cernunnos. It would be gone soon enough though, when the plants finally released the memory of him. They drooped just a bit in his absence, but gentle words and and a tender touch had them blooming brightly again. The greenery may have responded to him better, but, despite her often unpredictable personality, nature was something she truly respected.

Ironically had she and Cernunnos gotten off to a better start, that was something they could have shared.

In a far better mood now though, Titania walked through the woods, barefoot, fingers trailing along the plants. She was clothed in another flowing gown, this one a rich summer green. It complimented her hair, and made her eyes stand out - she made certain of that. A simple crown of flowers adorned her hair, not the high-faluting golden crown she usually wore in her season.

She had a destination: the pool Mabb had blasted nearly six months ago. There was no way then Titania could have repaired the damage to the glen then - it had been left a ring of blackened and dead grass. The small pond had thawed on its own, but the ground was too damaged to renew with spring.

Until now. In the glen, standing in it center, toes planted in the earth, Titania closed her eyes and sent her power through her fingertips and through her toes. All around her the grass grew in again, flowers blooming, slowly but surely until the entire glen was restored to its former beauty. Titania opened her eyes and surveyed her work.

Titania had found her woods plagued visited by strange magic for months on end. Through most of last year she found growing pockets of magic, ones that she learned were tied to Mabb. Then there were the strange green leaves that were continuing to surface everywhere, especially places she frequented. Most recently came the sword Excalibur, in her own pool, which she'd given to its rightful owner. Everything was accounted for.

Except those leaves. The faces in them were compelling, to say the least. She wondered what exactly was behind them. Was it wild magic? Or was it someone's direct power? Neither made her entirely comfortable when she thought about the fact they'd appeared in her very bower. It was supposed to be that no one but who she deemed could enter it. She certainly hadn't given permission to whatever these things were, and yet they came in her woods, willy-nilly.

She was returning from her bathing pool now, going back to her bower. She didn't want any company, and even those she frequently invited to her bower would find it inaccessible at the moment. So why was it that she she grew closer, she felt another strong warm magic coming from the private place, one not her own. One that felt like a stronger version of those leaf-pockets she'd been seeing.

Someone was in there. She quickened her pace and entered, ready to rage at whoever had intruded upon her privacy.