An Accidental power

Our worst nightmare

The deeper Heather went the cooler the air got, in her mind she expected some sort of tomb made of ice, or an area of the woods covered in a blanket of snow.

She felt as she took a breath her throat burn and the cooling of it hiss in her lungs, she held that breath to warm the air but cringed, it was the opposite as always, everything wet was like boiling water, and everything cold like sheer hot.

Not too long further Heather stopped, realizing for the first time since she met Charka she had to cover herself with her arms as shivers gripped her.

"I, thought you said I'd never feel the cold again?" She said through clattering teeth.

"I never said that, all I said was the heat is your allie, naturally the cold and wet will be your enemy"

"I can't stand this, I can feel the cold air burning and hissing my tract"

"This could be dangerous Heather, I suggest we turn around"

She swallowed holding another breath to warm the air inside her anguished lungs, then blew out creating a cloud of steam before her.

"Why is there only one path through these woods?" Heather asked and lift a finger, the little flame lit up and she quickly glanced the wall of trees but closed her hand for a fist and tucked it under her arm again.

"Maybe there are more paths, the trick is just to find them?" Charka asked.

"And shimmy through these trees only to get lost in its oblivion? I'm feeling claustrophobic already" Heather said and rolled her shoulders after receiving an rub from both hands.

"Then the choice is yours, head on to get to the source of this cold smell? Or forget about Katinka and head back?"

Heather realized it could be that Katinka is in trouble, she started walking again but like opening an oven she felt the cold burning her face on every step.

Then a mist started phasing through the trees and the cold brought her to a stop again "Sh-shit, it's t-too much"

"I admire your bravery Heather but I'm not in the correct state to offer you any help should Lithia be ahead of us, it could mean the end of our journey, but..."

"But w-what?"

"The energy we smell now, is old, its settled an crisp, meaning if it was Lithia she's not here anymore, fresh demon energy smells different"

"How different?"

"Raw and pungent, if Lithia was ahead of us we'd be on the ground now dying, especially since I'm so drained after that fireworks display earlier with the pixies"

Heather swallowed and walked on, step for step, forcing herself deeper into the biting cold mist, until the dark tunnel of trees opened vaguely to a clearing, but it was blessed with a thick layer of ice.

Heather stopped to look around, rocks, heaps, boulders, all frozen solid, almost like a ton of water was poured in here and instantly frozen.

"I don't mean to be the obvious demoness now my dear human, but all isn't wat it seems here"

Heather tried stopping her jaw from clattering and squinted to the area again "What, do you mean?"

"I believe we found the camp of the dark elves... Or what's left of it"

"What!?"

Heather walked in to one of the glaciers, but it wasn't that, it was a building made of wood frozen in two inches of ice.

"My God, this... is insane, all this ice?"

"It had to be Lithia, I haven't met a witch of ice capable of this much power, not even an ice giant from Jutenheim could freeze over an entire village like this, but..."