The first thing I noted when I woke up was that I was freezing.
I blearily opened my eyes and saw a wall of white.
I blinked hard and saw Aiden standing, looking outside. "What's going on?" He turned around when I spoke. "There's been a development." "Don't tell me." I groaned.
"It's snowing."
"How could this happen?" I asked, standing up on the freezing floor. My feet were numb anyway, so I didn't feel much.
He shook his head and turned back to the storm. "All I know is that it's not natural."
"My mother?"
"Who else can it be?"
I was silent for a long time, my breath coming out in frosty clouds. "How can she manipulate the weather?" "Maybe she's learnt what we practice here, at least a little bit." "You can make it snow?" He shook his head. "Not me, of course. But when my dad rescued you, maybe she learnt that we can manipulate the Forest. And she's smart, you know, I bet she'd have guessed that we can manipulate everything belonging to the Forest- including it's water."
"So..."
"So, by extension, she might be able to make it snow."
"But it's only been a few days! How could she learn that in such little time?" He faced me again. "She's strong. And she must be close."
I shook my head, backing away a little. "Oh, no. No way. She cannot possibly know where we are." "She knew where the camp was." He pointed out.
This little fact sent doubt rushing through my feelings, soon followed by panic. "So what do we do?" He sighed. "What can we do? Unless you want to walk through this snow. In a wet dress." He had a point. Because of the snow and last night's rain, my dress was still damp.
I sighed. "So we just wait here. Possibly for her to catch us?" "We don't have any other option." he said. I nodded. "Fine."
But now I wasn't just trembling from the cold.
He noticed.
"Elvina, it's fine. Trust me, she won't catch us. As soon as this clears, we'll leave." Of course, he was just saying that to reassure me.
I just nodded and walked back to the wall and sat there. Aiden stood motionless at the entrance, waiting.