Curled Horns

20. Snow

The step through the portal felt odd. Travelling the realms between the Fiery Lands and the Human Earth was akin to getting one's guts pulled from your body entirely and then stuffed back inside all wrong. When Mingi's hooves hit a soft surface, he took a moment of clutching his stomach to regain his bearings.

Yunho had settled a hand on his shoulder, wordlessly stabilising Mingi in case he lost balance.

"I apologise for the discomfort. Our brains are not wired for magic, so whenever we transgress the portal, it sends warning signals through our bodies. Are you alright?"

Mingi wiped some drool from his lip after a moment of wheezing. When he stood back up and blinked his eyes open, the stark white surroundings momentarily blinded him. Pained, he clenched his eyes shut again. His agitated yelp alerted Yunho.

"Ah, wait," Yunho said in a panic and rustled around in his bag. When the soft touch of fabric touched Mingi's cheek, he flinched, but Yunho didn't halt as he tied the strip around Mingi's head. Carefully, he adjusted it behind his ears.

"There, try again."

Nervous, Mingi opened his eyes once more. Yunho had put a sheer black blindfold on him that took away the overwhelming brightness of their location without obscuring his sight to blindness. Surprised, Mingi blinked once more into the vast whiteness. Finally, he could make out shadings among it. He spotted trees, tall and thin with needles instead of leaves. They were dark green and dusted by a thick layer of snow. The forest as well, although the snow was soft and crunched under their hooves.

It wasn't as cold as Mingi had read about, but demons had thick skin after all.

Awed, he turned to Yunho. In the light of the human world, the demon looked ethereal, not like a sinister creature born from fire and ashes. His usual grin tugged on his lips. Momentarily, their earlier tension was forgotten.

"The human sun reflects on the snow and makes it too bright for us to bear. You can take the blindfold off as it gets darker," Yunho explained patiently. Fascinated, Mingi searched the skies to find the flaming star he had read about. Even through the blindfold, the sight of the sky made his eyes throb, and he had to look away quickly. No sun in sight.

Despite the shock and the pain that this realm had brought so far, Mingi was awed by its beauty that was so different from theirs. Overjoyed, he crouched to scoop up some snow in his hands to see it melt within seconds. He experimented with it, forming it into shapes that stayed in constructs in a way that ashes wouldn't.

Mingi created funny figures, trying to replicate both his and Yunho's horns only to fail when the snow broke apart since the mass was too thin. For a while, Mingi had the time of his life just playing with it and sitting there while the snow made him wet.

Yunho indulged in watching him play and listening to Mingi's occasional giggles or awed sounds. Mostly, he kept in the background, still wary to intrude after their strained two days. Yet, he seemed glad to have taken him. In the chilly air of the human realm, both of them could unwind and momentarily forget about the struggle they had left behind in the palace.

When Mingi stood after he had his fill to tug his wet pants off his legs, Yunho also pushed off the tree he had been leaning on. The shiver that travelled through its stem at the shove had some snow raining at them in a spectacle of dusty white flocks. Impressed, Mingi watched them fall.

"It will snow later. Those clouds in the sky are an indicator. Want to take a walk?"

Mingi nodded, cheerful. He had read so much about the weather phenomena here, but actually seeing those grey clouds in the sky, how they moved with the wind dazzled and intimidated him at the same time.