The rest of the walk was silent, aside from my heavy, pained panting. Marshal led us to a set of doors and knocked. After a few moments of silence, one of the doors creaked open, and a head with black hair slowly poked out. The air grew several degrees cooler. The entire vicinity became dimmer, and fog rolled out from the crack of the door.

“Oh, hello, Marshal. How are your ears?” a child-like voice answered.

“They are doing well, ma'am. I brought someone who needs your aid.”

The head cocked up in interest, allowing us to better see the wooden mask under the black mess of hair. The wooden mask had small, colorful flowers painted on top of its blank expression. It seemed like a bad attempt to make this person less creepy. If anything, it only made her more unsettling.

“I see. Bring the patients in.” The head moved out of the way, and the door fully opened.

In front of us stood a small child who had waist-length, thick black hair that messily covered her wooden mask and clung to her thin white robes embroidered with pink and silver flowers.

Marshal walked in. Melonie and I shared a look of concern before slowly following behind. The room was even colder than the hall, as frost climbed up the walls and our breath turned to smoke.

“Lady Yuka may seem intimidating at first, but she will take care of you,” Marshal whispered.

Intimidating? Maybe creepy—she’s too small to be intimidating.

“Please, come sit here,” Yuka motioned to a cot covered in a silk sheet.

I raised my eyebrows at Melonie. She shrugged in response and helped me to the bed.

“This is Melonie, and Felonie. Felonie is the one who needs assistance with her ankle,” Marshal explained.

Yuka leaned down and observed my foot. I only now realized that my foot was facing the complete wrong direction! A wave of dizziness hit me, and I started to fall over.

Melonie caught me just before my back hit the cot. “You okay?”

“My foot is facing the wrong direction… Does this look okay?” I responded weakly.

"It indeed looks bad. However, this is an easy fix." Yuka wrapped her cold, snow-white hands around my ankle. Her fingers were long and dainty, and her skin felt like cotton against my swollen ankle. Her ice-cold hands provided a moment of relief for my aching ankle. “I apologize, but this may hurt a bit.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Yuka flipped my foot around with one smooth motion. An unbelievable pain radiated from my ankle. Tears and snot streamed down my face while I clenched my teeth. Melonie squeezed my arm as Yuka began chanting. Yuka’s hands began to glow as my ankle started to heat up like an oven. I could feel the bones mending and the muscles fixing into place. There was a moment of agonizing, searing pain, heating up my whole body. My face flushed as I quietly panted in agony.

As quickly as the pain came, it was gone. Yuka’s hands stopped glowing, and she moved them away. I was a bit disappointed that the soothing chill from her hands was gone.

“Wha… How’d you do that?” I asked in astonishment as snot slowly rolled down my chin.

Yuka handed me a clean rag. “Oh, this little thing? It’s a spell that speeds up your cells. It heals them rapidly—so instead of taking a month, it takes mere seconds,” Yuka cheerfully explained.

“Amazing.”

“These are the humans summoned by our lord. The scepter has pointed to Melonie being Freya,” Marshal explained.

“Look, I don’t know who you think I am, but I am not this Freya person!” Melonie huffed as Yuka circled around her, observing every inch of Melonie.

“Is it safe for me to stand?”

“Oh, yes dear, you may get up!” Yuka floated over and watched me get off the bed. My ankle looked as though it hadn’t been facing the other direction just moments ago.

“This is amazing!” I whispered as I tested my newly fixed ankle.

“Do you not have healing magic in your world?” Yuka asked as her wooden face stared at me.

“We don’t even have magic.”

“Fascinating! Then how do you humans protect yourselves?”

“Guns, I guess. What do you mean by ‘you humans’? Are you not human?” I mean, I had a feeling, but I didn’t want to assume.

“Well no, I am a Snow-Forged, and our dear friend Marshal here is an elf.”

“Oh? What is a Snow-Forged?”

“I am a Snow-Forged…” Yuka responded in confusion.

“No, what is it?”

“It is me.”

Yuka’s wooden mask and I stared at each other for a moment.

“I think she wants to know how a Snow-Forged is different from a human. For example, elves have long pointy ears and are in tune with nature, but what is a Snow-Forged?” Melonie explained.

“Oh, you have elves in your world but not Snow-Forgeds?” Marshal asked.

“Nah, elves are just a common fantasy character in our world,” I explained.

“Fantasy…?”

“Well, we Snow-Forgeds come from the cold regions in the south. We are born from the deep emotions of those who expire in the cold. Some of us may even be created from the emotions of many different individuals. So if you come across another one of us, be cautious. Many of us are not friendly,” Yuka explained as she shuffled around in a cabinet.

Melonie sat down on the cot and crossed her arms. “So… who is Freya?”