Ahhhh.

I'm so cold. In spite of the multiple layered clothes I'm wearing and the warm blanket laying on me, my entire body feels the insuferable icy air. It's the breath of the never-ending Ice Age.

Like a beast slowly closing its mouth on me, I'm being completely engulfed by the demonic snow.

The chilly air is making me tremble, it's covering my skin, it's going through my lungs. I feel like my insides are freezing by each breath I take.

And as if they were infinite fangs, flakes are attacking my head. I want to clear my face off but my hands are too small to reach anything. I can only cry, hoping someone will come to rescue me.

The "someone" reacts to my wailings and come to see me. I'm reassured but I'm still cold so I continue to sob. Unexcpectedly, this person with mauve hair does not do anything but smile. I move my hands in every direction, faster and faster while continuing to scream in order to let my feelings out and to make her notice my distress.

She takes my right hand into hers and bring her face close to me. Help me already!

"Rol. You must never forget what I'm going to say. From the moment you were born here, your fate was sealed. You were destined to suffer, crawl in your own excrements, eat the corpses of infected animals, sleep with a knot in the stomach knowing someone is trying to steal and kill you. You were destined to breathe in dirt and breathe out plagues, making others suffer as much as you in a ceaseless fight against nothing. The only fair thing that will ever happen to you is a miserable death to match with your miserable life.

That's what they decided for you based on the great history and lineage of magic. However, remember this: MAGIC IS IMAGINATION."

Thinking that nothing more needs to be added, she stands up and start walking away. No way! I try talking a hold to her finger with my hand but my grip is too weak.

The distance between me and her gets wider as I cry out at the top of my lungs. She doesn't turn back. Between the snow, my tears and my snot, my face is a real mess. I'm barely able to see her silouhette disappearing into the horizon blanketed in snow. The wind gets so strong that I can't hear my own screeches anymore.

She left me there, in this isolated place. She left me there helpless and terrified. She left me for dead, begging for her return.

This day, I lost my mother.

_

Lowa Rol. 6 years old.

I find myself in an awkward position, my right hand is hanging up in the air like it's trying to reach the ceiling. I probably had a bad dream.

I take a good look around me and realize there're other elements making this scene even more awkward. People are looking at me weird.

"What a fucking lunatic..." says one of the men before grumping and turning his head away.

Hey? Isn't that too rude? I just woke up from a bad dream, everyone experiences it once in a while. No, judging by the huge cut across his face and his terrible expression, it probably happen to him on a daily basis.

I raise my back and let my feets take support on the ground.

People around me turn their heads away, seemingly annoyed.

That's right, I know he didn't call me a lunatic simply because I made noise sleeping.

I re-arrange my hair and quickly leave the warm zone. I brace myself for the upcoming icy air. Everyone around here, including me, has growned accustomed to the extreme temperature but having to deal with the coldness right after relaxing in the warm zone is always a challenge.

I put my hoodie and tighten my vest before stepping out. You can observe the things putting the "warm" into the "zone" right at the entrance: the corpses of demons.

These emanate a certain mana that can be used in order to create heat. I doubt anyone actually know it's fiends' bodies besides me and the one who brought them here, though. Our benefactor desguised the carcasses to make them look like some sort of artefacts. Those are all around this emplacement.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

A loud buzzing sound appears from the skies. I look up to see an esquadron of crimson flies. This specie always travel in pack and make especially loud noise. I'm surprised I get to observe them. It was much more common to see them when I was baby. Just like humans, their number goes down and down by year.

If I were to take a look on the WZ (warm zone) with crimson flies' sight I'd see the remains of those devils disposed in a way that illustrate the sun symbol.

That's how magic is created. As someone told me long ago: "Magic is imagination". In longer terms: "Magic is turning something abstract into something concrete". How should I explain it?

flashback

The purple haired lady is walking around the living room, making a mess by searching an object. She's also delivering a long one sided speech to herself as she loves to.

"Mana is a non concrete thing. It resides within every living thing. Oh!" She stops mid sentence, realizing she used the word "thing" twice in only two sentences. She is trying to elevate the quality of her speeches.

"Anyways, magic is, on the other hand, completely concrete and its effects are real. Then, how are we possibly able to link the abstract with the concrete? Trough our imagination! We materialize something real out of something non existant with our minds! We are the ones making mana existant! You can't understand the depht of these words but later on you'll thank me for teaching you all of this. You have a head start in life!"

She always includes me at the end of her monologues but really, I feel like she's talking to herself.

end of flashback

So, yeah... magic comes from our creative power blah blah blah... The thing is that we still have to stimulate our imagination with something. It's not like we have full control over it, if we did, us humans would be unstoppable gods. A lot of our imagination goes through our unconsciousness. In order to stimulate it, we have to recreate symbols that make us picture mental images in our brains.

In this case, the sun is the symbol for heat. You infuse mana into the symbol and, through your imaginary linked with the symbol, it creates heat. Due to the sun's deep connection with light, it could also create light but there can only be one effect. The special thing about the WZ is that it uses a special intermediary to the symbol. The cadavers. If I wanted to produce heat, I would draw a flame on a paper and infuse mana into it. It's my canva to place the symbol. However, this guy somehow used the mana of the devils as a source of power AND as a symbol for him to create heat. The bodies aren't the symbol by themselves but as I said, they're placed in a way that imitates the symbol. He uses the mana of these things and they're also tools to create the symbol needeed. It covers the whole zone and it allows thé user not to waist too much mana.

Another thing to know is that he made it in a passive way. If I were to try what he did, I would have to actively concentrate on it but he doesn't even have to think about it all the time for it to work. Even I'm not sure how he does it. Well, he never execute it in front on anyone, I figured all of that by myself...

I continue my walk after admiring the WZ system.

In contrast to the people of this Land, magic fascinates me. I probably get it from this indigo freak but I feel like if you have all the right keys and a good mindset, nothing is impossible.

This place that was once a scene of murders, thefts and assaults became a functioning society because of our benefactor: Buffone the scarecrow. He ended battles and brung food, warmness plus safety with him. He's at the center of everything. He's the only reason they still haven't killed me.

Leaving my footprints into the snow, I enter the forest. Going through the woods rapidly, I don't feel the need to be careful. I know this place by heart. I could go from one point to another without losing myself, even blindfolded. Well, I may be exaggerating on that part.

Today is another opportunity to experience with magic! I'm not trusted enough to do any tasks with the others due to reputation but I can't waist a single day.

"DROP THE KNIFE"

Huh? I hear screamings from not so far away. I run to the voices and suprisingly enough, around 20 people are gathered. What's happening? I get around the crowd to see with my own eyes the source of discord.

"I'm telling you, we must kill this b*tch right now!" A man in his twenties is griping a girl by force and holding a knife to her throat. Even if she would try and struggle to flee she would be overpowered by the grown adult. Who is she? Where does she come from? All of these people have familiale faces but her. It's inconcevable I never noticed her in the camp.

"You stupid freak! Buffalone's number one rule is no killing! Is that how you repay him after all he's done for us?" yells a women. The crowd is getting closer and closer as the man is getting more and more fidgety.

"Buffalone? Ain't that the guy who hid this girl from us? From where the f*ck did she appear? Huh?"

"It doesn't matter! We'll ask him when he's here in per-

"DON'T YOU F*CKING GET IT?!"

His voice roars through the place. His face arbors a very complex facial expression. It's a mix of fear, hatred, hesitation and conviction. His knife is pressed against the girls throat to a point that blood starts to leak out. Some people in the crowd show horrified faces. Their greatest apprehension is to meet the sight of blood and suffering again.

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ONCE SCARECROW GETS HERE HE'S JUST GONNA F*CKING TALK HIS WAY OUT OF IT?"

"Please, realize that if you hurt that girl you're hurting everyone else here, I implore you, drop the weapon" says a man from the crowd. He steps in and gets on one knee.

"This is why...THIS IS WHY WE'RE ALL GETTING F*CKED BY THIS DUDE. None of you ever think! You don't even know why I'm trying to kill her"

"What did this poor girl ever did to you?"

"She is a demon pretending to be human!"

I don't know what do to. Should I try contacting Scarecrow? I don't know if leaving, with the situation being like this, is a good Idea but what else can I do?

"Are you mad?"

The face of the assaulter distorts.

"My mother died yesternight! You know what she said at her last moments? My dear boy I regret to tell you this but I must tell you that I... And she passed away!"

The people in the crowd look at each other.

"But you know what happened this morning? This cacodemon came outta nowhere telling me that the spirit of mother spoke to her and told her to complete the sentence: I'm not your mom!"

Too many informations. Things are really getting odd right now. How did she knew about the conversation between him and his mother or whatever? Was she listening somewhere? Unlikely. We're all crampes up in the WZ. How would she escape the sight of hundreds of people?

"I'm sorry for your mother, this girl might have played a prank on you. Scarecrow will deal wi-

"You still don't understand... I recognize how my mother talks. There's no way she could've faked that! She really did talk with the spirit of mom! Or wait... No...Maybe she killed mom! That's right she killed mom, ate her tongue and used it to LIE!!" he gets ready to stab her.

As I'm panicking I realize something disturbing. The girl isn't moving from an inch. She isn't defending herself nor making any scared expression. I had thought she didn't have enough space to move and that she was too scared to scream but she's just standing still despite being attacked. At the center of all the chaos. As if time stopped, I look at her eyes just to see pupils deader than the whole amount of carcasses all around the WZ. At this precise moment I have no doubts about her identity anymore. She's definitely a demon, I can almost see death emanating from her. Something dangerous is bound to happen if he stabs her. My eyes enlarge as I prepare to do something!

"Hey there. What's all this about?"

The newly-made orphan stops himself in his motion and look up at the center of the crowd.

Buffalone the scarecrow just appeared.

To be continued.