Calvin awoke not to the white light of heaven, or the fiery pits of hell, but to the icy pits of... wherever he was. His body was cold. Ice cold, frostbite cold. The cold of a hundred winter nights, the cold of a thousand years of nice. Yet... he was not uncomfortable. He did not feel as if he was freezing to death. He did not feel like he was slowly slipping into the great beyond. He felt... at home. Easy, relaxed, as if this was the natural state of the world and the natural state of a human body. Calvin decided that, since he was definitely dead, yet somehow still alive, he would keep moving. He stood up, shoving himself to his feet with some effort. But... that effort did not feel like muscles straining. He knew the feeling of a pushup, and what he just felt did not match. The energy to move was not coming from his body, it was coming from... something else. He didn't really understand but figured that if he wasn't dead or dying, he wouldn't worry about it.

  You see, Calvin didn't grow up in an environment conducive to rigidity. His father took him all across the world, to the wildest rivers and the tallest mountains. Now, these places aren't the most... conducive to human survival, especially the survival of a child, and Calvin's dad wasn't the most skilled athlete or responsible person. As indicated by the fact that he took his child to the wildest rivers and the tallest mountains. Calvin often had to deal with possibly lethal situations on his own, when his father had climbed too far up to help or was too far down the river to save him. This gave Calvin great adaptability. He had to save himself at least 40% of the time, so he had gotten quite good at it. If he wasn't dead yet, he wouldn't let himself die. It was an idea that many people might strive for, but it wasn't born of some great courage or heroism, it was simply what Calvin needed to do to survive his childhood.

  So, Calvin decided to simply continue his life. The 'energy' that was running him worked, so he would let it work until he was safe enough to analyze it. This ice cave... was not safe. Calvin stood and looked around. There was nothing but the icy walls, and the glowing orb. Ah, the glowing orb. That was probably important. Calvin approached the orb, inspecting it closely. From afar it looked like a blue light bulb, but up close... well it still looked like a blue light bulb, but it didn't have anything inside of it. It was just a blue, glowing orb. How curious.

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  Calvin tentatively poked the orb and instantly felt like he was being electrocuted. Except, that wasn't quite it. There was simply... too much energy inside of him. Too much of the unknown force that let him move and think. He thought it let him think. Anyway, there was too much of that energy. It exploded through his veins, running rampant throughout his body. He felt like an over shaken soda. His very being was overwhelmed by the force inside of him. He desperately tried to force the energy out, shaking his entire body and willing it to escape. Surprisingly, it did. From within him, a great force emerged, raw force shoving from within him, throwing him back away from the orb, and sliding him all the way down the hallway. As he slid, Calvin absentmindedly noticed something. There... wasn't any friction as he slid. He couldn't feel his skin rubbing against the ice. Heck, he couldn't feel his skin at all. Something to ponder later. Right now he had to ponder what the hell had just happened.

  He inspected his body. Then he inspected it again. There was something... very wrong. His skin was blue. But it wasn't opaque. He could see through his hand. Now, as previously stated, Calvin did fairly well under pressure, and he was adaptable. But this was just a little too much. Calvin began to freak out. This was not how his hands worked. How could he move?! What was the orb? Why had it snowed so much? WHERE WAS HIS DAD?!?! Calvin sat against the wall and began to shake. He didn't cry though, because he couldn't cry. His eyes were ice. His hands were ice. Calvin was ice. He was sentient ice animated by a strange force.

  A strange force. A strange force wouldn't animate ice. At this point, Calvin realized the single explanation for everything that had happened. Magic. Nobody knew the laws of magic, so nobody knew what was or wasn't possible. Maybe this was possible?