❆ ❆ ❆ Chapter Thirty Two ❆ ❆ ❆

A New Day

[Snow]

Snow awoke in a familiar place. The light that entered her eyes blurred her vision, supplemented with an unbelievable soreness all over her body. After a near minute of repeated squints, vision returned to her. A cooking stove laid across from her and the wooden walls looked freshly cut. She was in a new shack, this one was larger and spotless. Snow slowly sat up in disagreement to her body. All her bones felt like weights.

The front door opened. Aela entered and paused upon seeing her, then went back outside and re-entered. Upon Aela’s self imposed double check, her face slowly curved into a smile.

“Finally. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to care for someone in a coma?” Aela approached the side of the bed, “I'm not complaining but… headache.” Aela gave off the air of annoyance but her look contradicted the statement.

“Aela!” Snow gave her a hug.

“I'm glad you're alright, Snow.” Aela embraced her softly.

“How long was I out?”

The last thing Snow remembered was jumping into the furnace. Then the rest was just a blur of pain.

“Two years.” Aela said straightly.

“What, Two years!?” Snow nearly lost her mind.

Aela began laughing.

“I’m just pulling your leg. It was only a couple of days.”

“Phew, thank the- I guess I have to change my dialect now huh... How are the seals? Are they good? Did the plan work?”

“Yeah, your little goddess did us a favour actually, Laura discovered a more efficient formula, not only are the seals back, but they are stronger, and don't require me to check every damned tornado everyday. So great, actually.”

“You were really flying to those seals, Regalia was so pissed.”

“I've never ran faster in my life. I nearly broke my legs jumping off the top of the wolf gorge. I had to get Aliria to carry you. She's outside.”

Aela assisted her with putting on some clothes and walking her to the door. As soon as the door opened. Mina practically rushed into her.

“WOAH MINA, hold up there!” Aela strong-armed Mina away to prevent the knockdown. Mina calmed her affectionate aggression and gave Snow never ending licks.

“Hey girl, I'm glad you are okay.” Snow accepted Mina’s happy greeting.

“Aliria also helped with Mina. Mina was on death’s door from the amount of venomous stings she received.”

Aliria skittered up with some small spiders crawling over her back.

“You’d be surprised by the amount of natural cures there are to our venoms.” Aliria lowered herself to meet Snow at eye level, “Snow, I am glad you are recovered.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Aliria, how did the battle go in the riverbed?”

“I lost quite a few, a small price to pay, to save the whole.”

“Oh, I'm sorry about that.”

“Do not worry, Us spiders give less value to our younglings, since there are so many. I still love and care for them, but If I cried over every stomp. I would lose my mind.”

“A bit cold but, I get it.”

“Says the frostblood.” She gently laughed, in her spidery tone.

Aela sat Snow down on a newly crafted bench just in front of the house.

“Snow, we waited all week to show you this.”

Aela walked off to the field some ways away before casting a runic spell at the ground. A lightning bolt struck down from the sky, shattering the rune. Then, like magic, the entire area around the shack went from being coated in winter, to the middle of spring. Now that Snow looked around she was familiar with this area. This was the seal that she destroyed when she got here. This was the site of her golem battle.

“But Aela isn't that dangerous!” Snow said worryingly.

“No, Laura said that one seal wouldn't matter, considering the overwhelming strength of the others. Plus, it would give Regalia some relief, not that she deserves it though.”

Laura appeared, in her ghostly form.

“Laura, your plan was perfect.” Snow said.

“Why of course it was perfect, I'm the best seal researcher of this age! Another important thing. Aela and I, mostly I, researched how to send you back home. We got a portal working. There is a caveat though, it's just uh, geographically unreliable.”

“So… it will send me home, except it won't be home?”

“To be precise, somewhere on the Lucredian continent, but a very low chance of being the kingdom of Regalia.”

Snow shrugged, “I’ll take it.”

The wolves of the gorge began approaching the shack at the sight of Mina. They initially growled at Aliria until Aliria gave them a sharp hiss, calming them down. They approached the house but stood clear of the spider queen’s immediate vicinity. The pack began chasing each other and rolling in the grass.

“Snow there's one last thing, it's bad news though.” Aela said.

“What is it?”

“It's Icebreaker, I'm sorry but…”

“Oh no.” Snow was saddened. She was afraid to see the state of her closest companion this whole journey.

Aela held out a blanket of shards. It even had the shard that Aela used as a necklace to maintain communication.

“When we pulled you out from the seal system, Icebreaker was coating you, it fell apart right when we got hold of you.”

Snow looked down at the presented shards.

“Icebreaker, You came with me when I jumped in. You protected me until the end… Thank you…” Snow touched one of the shards. The shard began to tremble before a light shined inside of it. Then the light spread to all the pieces. They all vibrated and began putting themselves back together. Snow and Aela gasped at the same time.

Icebreaker reformed back into its original shape, but it wasn't done, something was being etched onto the handle guard.

It read:

~ Snow ~

Snow looked up at Aela staring at her face. Aela had a sense of wonder and shock in her eyes.“What? What is it? Aela?!”

“Your eyes, they’re blue!”

“Huh?!”

“I swear to everything, they are like, way better too, way different looking than a normal frostblood!”

Aliria lowered herself to look as well.

“Wow, so pretty. It's like a small galaxy.”

Aela crossed her arms.

“You had absolutely no right to complain whatsoever, miss oh, I cant activate my frostblood, I can't do this, I can't do that. That excuse is no longer available to you.”

Snow laughed as her eyes reverted back to silver.

“Okay, But I still don't know how to activate it, or cast anything with it!” She smiled, “If anything, it just taunted me. But you know what, I don't care. As long as I have Icebreaker, right icebreaker!” Icebreaker emitted a confident magical pitch. “See, Icebreaker agrees.”

Snow and Aliria laughed while Aela continued to complain about her complaining. The beauty of the surrounding field was increased by its now blooming flowers. Birds flocked over them and new animals were curiously entering from around. This area had become a beacon of life, filled with happiness and hope.