As we moved on through the Woods in the middle of the night, all the large trees that I thought I knew so well suddenly looked very frightful with their monstrous shapes. In fact, it seemed like an altogether different place. But it wasn't just the night that did it, because as we got closer to the castle the air kept growing colder. Pancas and Wullter, who were still wet after their swim in the River, complained about it the whole time and demanded that my cousin stop and make a fire, but he wouldn't listen to them. He called them a pair of whimpering city-dwellers, and guided us on towards the castle along a half-hidden track. However, soon even he had to admit that something strange was going on. By then, our breath had already turned white, and a bit later the leaves on the ground began to crunch under our feet, as if they were frozen. After that the trees became covered with frost and it wasn't long before we saw the first snow. Now, bear in mind that we were only halfway through the Penultimate Harvester, and it never snowed in the Woods before the Last. My cousin muttered that he'd never seen anything like it, and I could do nothing but agree. Pancas and Wullter's teeth were chattering so much that they couldn't give their opinion, but it seemed fairly obvious that they hadn't changed their minds about the fire. Eventually my cousin was forced to admit that the only reasonable thing to do was to retrace our steps back towards the River and think things over.