Both Al and I sat there panting for a short period of time as we stared down at the body of our fallen foe, too stunned to say anything for a while. Eventually, I looked over at him in genuine confusion and mustered up the air to ask:

“Why are you so tired looking? I’m the one who just did all the fighting.”

He looked back at me with a roguish grin, speaking in between heavy breathing:

“I got tired just watching you. Not to mention the running around I needed to do just to stay out of the way and avoid getting stabbed.”

I looked back down and shook my head slightly:

“If the girls name that thing ‘Fluffy Devil’ or something, I might just wish it had gutted me.”

“Well, it was pretty fluffy looking.”

After an impassive stare from me, he held up his hands in surrender:

“Alright, alright. You get most of the credit for killing it, so you get naming rights. Just call it ‘Blue Gremlin’ and be done with it.”

“Faceless Icewraith.”

“If you say so, boss.”

I ate two berries to heal my injuries, and we wordlessly decided to turn back. I felt a pang of regret in my stomach as we did, but there was no real discussion to be had. If we ran into even two or three of those things while trying to cross the mountains, casualties would be all but guaranteed. We probably wouldn’t survive a larger group. We didn’t know exactly how common they were, of course, but if there was a substantial population on these mountains, we had no business trying to cross them. This entire operation had been a waste.

I let the regret of this failure gnaw at me when darkness fell on the mountain range. Al volunteered for first watch, intending to let me have a longer rest. When I did get to sleep, my rest was shallow, and my dreams were filled with screaming enemy warriors and the long shadow of failure.

Ann

The days after the two boys went on their long camping trip were largely uneventful. I slept for a bit longer than usual the first night, but the next morning I was fully recovered and doing some regular exercises to stay strong. The other two ladies joined me, and we spent a productive morning going through the motions and getting stronger. Even baby Eithan managed to have fun observing, laughing, and clapping as Lynn held him up to help him watch.

In the afternoon, we settled down to a nice lunch. Julia and I lavished some pointers on Hope afterwards. I was as proud as a hen with six eggs as I watched the little lady visibly improving at a rate that was comparable even to Steve. She was beating up several invisible opponents as Julia and Eithan cheered her on. Victor was the only one who looked slightly lost without a book to distract him.

Later, Julia and I did some direct sparring. I was surprised and happy to see how much she had grown on this trip. She seemed to have taken a page out of Steve’s book in terms of craftiness, and she leveraged the length advantage of her spear with shocking skill. I still had the better of things, as I had a year of experience on her and slightly more raw talent as well, but she still would have beaten lots of the others her age were we still back home. If we still had our home.

Those intrusive thoughts caused me to call the practice rather early, and in a soured mood, but we had a pleasant rest that afternoon as we snuggled together in our little shelter. We talked for a long time about what the boys might be up to, what the land beyond the mountain might look like, and all the strange things we had seen and done so far.

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Reminiscing together about some of our difficulties together somehow made them easier to talk and think about, and I felt the darkness start to dispel from the back of my mind as Julia talked about how scary the swarm of Faelwyr had been back when we first visited the mines.

We eventually moved on to more idle conversation, chatting about how pretty the mountains were and how remarkable the world beyond the Mist seemed to be, even from this small taste. We muttered about how cute and strange the Ice Lights seemed to be and about how we were disappointed not to see any Faddle this far north, though Lynn swore she saw one skittering around in the mines.

We also made an effort to bring Victor into the conversation, asking him about the books he liked to read and about his favorite animals. One of the few good things all that reading seemed to have done for him is that he could tell us all about some of the strange animals he had read about, regaling us with a legend about a small and fuzzy creature with whiskers known as a ‘Cat’.

The next day was mostly more of the same, except in the afternoon Julia and I were forced to fend off a small raiding party of Ice Lights, though neither of us could bring ourselves to kill any more of them. After yet another uneventful day of resting and training, I was starting to be happy that I wasn’t suffering on the mountain with nothing but the midget for company.

The next morning, I was keeping last watch while resisting the urge to admire the sunrise. My breath misted in the early morning cold as I turned forced my attention off the sky and on the land around me. My eyes scanned the land slowly, but my mind was occupied with thoughts about when Steve and Al were coming back and what training I was going to put the other two through today. That was when I caught some movement just out of the corner of my eye.

It was a small thing, and I was lucky to catch it at all. I nearly wrote it off as an Ice Light scurrying around, but it was too unnatural for that. I stared at the spot around 70 yards away, trying to make out what had moved, and I began to make out a few strange shapes in the fledgling light of dawn. My eyes widened as I began to make out what they were, and I shouted and drew my sword…

Stephen

It took nearly as long to go down the trail as it did to go up. The ledge was harder to negotiate on a gentle downward slope and the wind picked back up again as we entered the final stretch of the journey. I had been trying to get us back within a day, but night had fallen and continuing to negotiate the snowy trail in the dark was too difficult. We would have to tell the rest the bad news in the morning.

We took as much shelter as we could in the nook of a mountain wall and got some shuteye. I was tempted to light a fire, but we could do that with the others in the morning.

When the first predawn rays snuck through the clouds above us, Al and I hit the trail for one last time. We walked in companionable silence as our journey neared its’ end, but Al broke that silence with a sharp exhale. Eyes wide, he tapped my shoulder and pointed down the path:

“You need to go. Now. The others are in danger.”

I didn’t waste time asking questions. I took off my pack and sprinted at dangerous speeds down the poorly lit icy slope. I just about flew down the path, knives of icy wind stabbing my eyes. Ignoring the pain, I kicked up a ton of snow behind me as I rounded the final bend and saw what was happening.

Julia, Ann, and Lynn had formed a perimeter surrounding the entrance to the cave, where Victor, Hope and Eithan were presumably huddling for safety. They were surrounded by four towering Neidyr warriors, white scales glinting in the red light of dawn. Lynn was standing slightly behind the other two and attempting to harass the attackers with flying snow, but it was obvious that she wasn’t making much of a difference. Three of the normal looking warriors were opposite Julia and were taking turns battering her around with contemptuous ease. She had seemingly managed to avoid a mortal wound, but it was clear that they were toying with her.

Ann was a whirlwind of blades, fighting one-on-one against the leader with the red marks. And she was losing. Just as I was taking in the situation and moving to help, she gave out a cry of pain, body flying back and saber falling out of her hands. I was running directly at her, but I knew with a sinking feeling that I wouldn’t make it as the Neidyr moved to finish her.

Time slowed as I ran forward, eyes glued to the obsidian blade that shone as it whistled through the air. It descended on Ann, preparing to behead her. The weight of helplessness crushed me as I was transported back to that day. Back to when I couldn’t stop the Narbacor from destroying the village. When I lost Mom, and Dad, and even Old Lady Corona. When I watched my friend disappear in a column of flame. When I couldn’t even comfort my siblings because I was just as scared as they were at what the future might hold. I saw that same scene happening again in my future right now.

I found my crushing sadness replaced by determination.

That determination coursed through my body like a river. My heart was beating a mile a minute and with every beat, I felt power and adrenaline coursing through my veins. My vision began to turn red as I stretched every fiber of my being to run faster. I was thirty feet away and the creature’s blade was already heading for Ann’s throat. I felt the fire shooting throughout my body begin to coalesce in my throat, the building pressure threatening to overwhelm me and growing stronger with each beat of my heart. With every pulse of my Gift.

Bloodshot eyes locked on my opponent, I roared.

And the world roared with me.

I watched the air ripple in front of me and heard an enormous boom that ripped the atmosphere all around me. That ripple travelled forward in a focused cylinder, striking the beast right in its’ side. It hit with enough force to stagger the fiend, sending its’ strike off target, but it didn’t even fall over. It turned its’ head toward me, and I saw with a shock that the snake’s yellow eyes had turned a dull, blood red.

It fell over, dead.