Not Gonna Die (A Skybrine Fanfic)

|Chapter 7| Signatures

          "No point in delaying longer than we have to," Ty reasoned. "Let's make it two days not including today, so we can have enough time to get everyone organised before heading off."

          "We can head out the day after tomorrow if you want," Ian said. "We've kind of already set everyone up."

          "Alright then, day after tomorrow." There was silence for a few moments then a few of them started drifting off in ones and twos out the door and into the castle beyond. Ty followed Seto out the door and walked beside him.

          "Hey, I think that the Snow Strikers have a sorcerer as well," he said. Seto frowned in a question and Ty elaborated. "They had a building like your alchemy one and the old guy out the front made me feel like he knew what I was thinking, like you do sometimes."

          "I don't do that," Seto told him with a frown.

           "Yeah," Ty insisted, "you sometimes do and it's freaky."

           The sorcerer rolled his eyes. "Either way, it's good timing. I need to get some ingredients that you can only get from the snow country and if this guy is a sorcerer, it'd be good to compare notes."

           And so, 36 hours later, Seto had his thick spell book packed securely in a saddlebag and the group of friends, along with their escort, rode out of their castle base and turned north-east towards the snow country. It took several hours hard riding to reach the fringes of the snow country and a few more hours to reach where they had been found by the Snow Strikers. As the snow grew around them, Adam found it harder and harder to keep warm. At night he huddled next to the fire with his jacket wrapped around him but even then, his fingers stubbornly refused to be warm. He tried to keep his complaining to a minimum for the others' sake.

          The snow had been gently falling since the middle of the night and it slowly became heavier as the day wore on. It gathered itself in clumps and Mitch had to brush it off of his shoulders every few minutes. Visibility was decreasing rapidly as well and the temperature was dropping as a storm rolled in.

          "Ty, we're going to have to turn around soon and go back to that cave, otherwise we're going to get lost in this snowstorm," Mitch warned.

          "I know, I know," Ty said back, raising his voice to be heard. "But who knows how long this storm is going to last, we might be stranded for days."

          "Guys, something's coming up behind us."

          Everyone turned at Jerome's warning and they saw several blurred figures coming towards them. They were human in shape but apart from that, they seemed to be moving snow. It wasn't until the figures had almost reached them and one had started speaking that they recognised who they were.

          "Welcome back," the female voice said, pulling down the cloth which covered her mouth with a gloved hand. "We need to move fast otherwise we're going to get caught in this storm."

          "Queen Anne!" Jason said, the relief evident in her voice.

          Through the heavy snow, they saw her smile and wave them forward. "Come on, this way, quick."

          They rode their horses at a light trot, the Snow Strikers sprinting to keep pace. The wind started howling and Mitch didn't realise how close they were to the Kingdom until the snowfall briefly stopped as they rode under the gate which shut with a loud hush of moving snow. Queen Anne broke off from the group and went off somewhere, disappearing almost instantly into the falling snow with her greyish-white clothes. The mountains that closed around the base blocked out a portion of the wind but it still hummed angrily amid the houses and the snow fell heavily down. The streets were almost completely deserted and they went straight to the stables which had two large doors at the front to keep the warmth inside. They unsaddled and rubbed down their horses with some help from the warriors and then dashed up to the large house with some difficulty as the wind grew stronger. The flames in the fire pits spluttered as the door opened and closed and they all released a collective sigh, shaking the snow from their clothes and hanging up their thick jackets on the rack.