“Wake up, my lady.”
Addie ignored the voice and turned around to sleep more.
“We’re almost out of magic.”
She barely paid the voice any mind, the words only half registering in her sleep-addled state.
Then, she was falling. At first, it felt like falling into a cloud. But then a sharp frigidness spiked into Addie, the shockingly cold temperature forcing her to sputter awake. She opened her eyes in a flash, but the surroundings were pitch black. She instinctively flailed, her movements coming even more hurried when she heard Nettal scream right next to her.
In a blind panic, Addie flailed her arms and legs all around to push the surprisingly heavy and cold cloud away from her. The next few moments were a rush of flailing, screaming, and discombobulation, but somehow she managed to stand up.
Breathing hard, standing knee-deep in the freezing cold cloud, Addie still couldn’t see anything. She scanned her surroundings with her spatial sense and realized she was surrounded by snow. Nettal and Lotty were just next to her standing on the left, and Squishy was sitting on his haunches, chortling.
Addie scrunched her face up in annoyance at his reaction.
“Addie!” Nettal shouted, “What happened! I can’t see!”
At her prompting, Addie summoned a soul-fireball in her right hand that illuminated the area.
The memories from the past day came rushing back to Addie. They were in a caldera, surrounded by cold snow. She must have fallen asleep in Realmspace, Addie realized. Now they were back, in reality, the Binary long set.
Addie huffed out a breath. “My magic ran out, and now we’re outside of Realmspace again.”
“Well, do you have more?” Nettal asked. “Let’s go back to Realmspace and get back to sleep!” Nettal’s eyes were red and irritated, bits of snow on her face.
Addie wondered if her face looked the same, after flailing and getting drenched in the cold wet snow like that.
“Don’t laugh you silly cat.” Addie scolded Squishy, who had once again started chortling. Then she turned her head back to Nettal, “I can send us back to Realmspace. Hold my hand.”
Once again, Addie and Squishy brought everyone back to Realmspace. They lay back down on the hard Realmstone, trying to go back to sleep. It was more difficult than she would have expected though. That earlier snow panic had gotten her blood rushing around, making her body way too jittery and awake to fall back asleep.
She thought about how earlier she had wanted to build a snow fort and sleep in that. Now, though, she just wanted to get back to sleep in the warm dark embrace of Realmspace.
“Let’s hold hands,” Nettal said just to Addie’s left.
Nettal blindly moved her arm against the ground, trying to find Addie’s hand. Addie easily made use of her spatial sense to find Nettal’s hand. The warmth of Nettal’s hand seemed to permeate through Addie’s hand, warming more than just her hand up. Holding Nettal’s hand comforted Addie, and with Squishy also pushing his warm-scaled body up against Addie’s other side, she was easily able to go back to sleep.
The next time Squishy woke Addie up she properly listened. She did not want cold snow. Squishy woke her up a few more times throughout the night. Each time, Addie pushed out more magic, extending everyone’s stay in Realmspace, until the night was over.
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When Addie woke up for the final time, her empty stomach protested the lack of food.
“Nettal?”
“Yeah?” Nettal replied, almost immediately. She must have been awake, too.
“Are you ready to go back?”
Addie’s magic was running near empty, anyway. She and Squishy had managed to keep everyone in Realmspace to sleep for all this time, after all.
“I guess.” Nettal sounded disappointed.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Addie asked in response, wondering why she wasn’t more excited to go try to find some food.
“I am, I’m just not ready to be cold again.”
At some point during the night, Nettal had given Addie her poncho back. She took a moment to pull her head and arms through the holes. She had just been using it as a blanket before. A moment later, after everyone was ready, Addie let go of her magic that had been keeping them in Realmspace.
Soon enough, the girls were trudging through knee-deep snow once again, walking side by side. Addie wouldn’t have expected it, but her thighs were really sore. Pushing aside all of the snow constantly like this was a lot of work. She glanced back at Squishy, who didn’t have to do nearly as much— he walked behind Addie so he didn’t have to push any snow around.
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Addie’s book floated just ahead of them, once again guiding them toward the castle-looking symbol on the map. Even though it was morning, Addie still couldn’t see the Binary yet. The skies were clear, if a bit darker than what she expected for morning time. The surroundings reminded Addie of being in the shade.
“Squishy and Lotty are lucky.”
“Why?” Nettal asked.
“Because they don’t have to trudge through the snow.”
Nettal stayed quiet for a moment with a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Addie?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a genius!” Nettal’s sudden declaration surprised Addie.
Taking another step through the snow Addie asked, “Why is that?”
Nettal came to a stop, making Addie want to stop, too.
“Because we don’t have to trudge through the snow either! Or at least we can take turns trudging through the snow. How about you walk behind me for a little bit, and later, I’ll walk behind you! That way only one of us has to walk through the snow at a time.”
Addie walked to Nettal and put her hands on her shoulders. “That’s a great idea! You’re right, I am a genius.” Addie agreed smugly.
Nettal snorted, then shook her head. “A silly genius maybe.”
“But, I can go first. I have another idea I want to try.” Addie suggested.
“Alright.” Nettal walked over to get behind Addie, Lotty following her from behind.
Now, at the head of the line, Addie kind of felt like some kind of military leader. All her friends were marching behind her. It felt right.
“Come on out, Ember.” Addie held her hand out, using her soul to urge Ember out. She exited from Addie’s outstretched hand with a curious tilt of her avian head.
“We’re gonna melt the snow in front of us!”
“Wait!” Nettal tried to say, but it was too late.
Addie released a thin stream of white soul flames, willing them to burn bright and hot. The snow in front of her melted rapidly, easily making a slushy walkway. Most importantly, Addie didn’t have to get snow on her ankles anymore! Addie noticed the book fly higher up into the air to avoid her flames.
Cackling madly, Addie ran forward through the now clear path, flames streaming out of her hands all the while. As she ran, more and more snow melted, clearing the path further with each running step forward.
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With her hands on her knees, Addie panted desperately to catch her breath. Ember had shied away back within the confines of Addie’s soul shell. Addie wished she had such a nice place to go when she wanted to take a rest. In hindsight, she may have overdone it.
Looking behind everyone, Addie saw muddy devastation. Addie stared at the wide trail of melted snow, exposed greenery, toppled snow piles, and wet muddy footprints while she tried to catch her breath. Lotty stopped here and there to munch on the exposed grasses. Addie wondered how he kept the mud out of his mouth, or if he just didn’t care.
Addie heard Nettal sigh.
Between breaths, Addie pointed forward, “It’s... your, your turn,” she managed.
“Alright.” Nettal walked around Addie to the front. “Try not to exhaust yourself so quickly next time, Addie. What if we need fire later?” She scolded.
“It was fun.” Addie smiled brightly.
“Yeah, it was pretty awesome to see all that fire. It would have been more awesome if you’d lasted longer than ten minutes.
Addie felt a tinge of embarrassment rush up her neck and run through her face. “You can have a short turn, too. I can do a more normal turn after.”
“Nettal is correct to worry, my lady. Traveling to the castle will be a long march, not a short sprint.” Squishy said through the bond.
Addie cringed. Squishy rarely scolded her. “I’ll take it slower next time,” Addie promised the two of them. “I was just excited to melt all the snow.”
Nettal was already trudging ahead through the snow. Addie followed close behind, the hunger pangs from earlier redoubling after her mad magical sprint.
“Squishy, can you and Ember go look for some food?” Addie asked silently.
They both sent her a non-verbal sense of agreement through the bond. Ember took off with a fast flap of her wings, soaring into the distance. Squishy did an admirable job following along behind her. They could communicate silently through the shared soul-bond with Addie, too. Acting as the bridge for that communication, Addie could feel how Ember scouted the area looking for animal tracks or edible plants. Squishy followed along behind her, inspecting, sniffing, or chasing anything that might be food.
“Ember and Squishy found some food, they’ll be back soon,” Addie told Nettal.
“Thanks.”
Each of Nettal’s footsteps crunched through the snow. She was at least wearing some proper pants, compared to Addie’s pajamas, so she could push the snow away easier than Addie, too.
With some of her last reserves of soul flames, Addie quickly ignited her legs on fire. She did that for just a moment, to see if she could. She extinguished the flames a moment later. Walking with fire on her legs would be a lot easier than trying to flamethrower all of the snow away. She nodded her head, happy to have a plan for when it was her turn to lead again.
Squishy and Ember returned just as the Binary finally started to peek out from over the tops of the surrounding mountains.
Addie and Nettal took a short breakfast break, Squishy, Nettal, and Addie all eating some kind of meat, cooked with Addie’s flames. Ember had found some kind of berries that she seemed happy to gobble down. Addie knew not to eat random berries out in the wild, but Ember seemed to know what she could safely eat. Addie still didn’t want to eat the unfamiliar berries, though, so she and Nettal just ate the game Squishy had found.
After breakfast, they kept marching onward. The girls had decided together that it was Addie’s turn to take the lead for a little while. On one hand, Addie was glad to give Nettal a break, but on the other hand, her bond needed more time to rest before she could summon more flames. Because of that, Addie had to go back to trudging through the snow the unfun way— snow once again scraping against her poor ankles.
“Before we go, can you give me some healing? My thighs are sore from pushing all the snow, and my ankles hurt from the snow.”
“Of course, Addie.” Nettal’s eyes glowed green briefly as she put her hand on Addie’s shoulder. Then, she gasped, “You’re ankles are more than just ‘hurt’, Addie! They feel awful!” Nettal frowned, “Tell me next time so I can heal them sooner!” She scolded.
“I didn’t think it was that bad. Still better than when Squishy and I were trying to get home from the forest.”
“Just tell me next time, okay?” Nettal repeated.
“Okay.” Addie smiled. She was really glad to have Nettal here with her. Though, she felt slightly guilty at the thought as she remembered that Nettal hadn’t wanted to come in the first place.
Echoing down from the mountain tops, Addie heard a blood-curdling roar infused with power. She could practically see the air shaking and reverberating.
Addie scanned the area with wide eyes, “What was that?”