The wind howled outside the cave and blew the snow around like grains of sand in a dust storm. Within its rocky walls, four frozen mages huddled around a fire.
"We end this tomorrow," growled Laxus.
All three members of his personal guard cheered despite their obvious fatigue, and smiling faces peeked out from under the blankets around their shoulders.
The job was easy enough for such a strong team of wizards, but the working conditions were proving to be less than pleasant. The request was from a small village at the bottom of a mountain, of course, in winter. It was obviously going to be a little bit uncomfortable, but the Thunder Legion wouldn't be frightened off by a little bad weather. It wasn't until they'd arrived that they had realized just what they were in for.
At first, they'd planned on finding an inn to stay at. Much to their dismay, there hadn't been one, or a room for rent, or even a floor they'd be permitted to crash on. That alone might not have been too bad, but it had only been the start of their rotten luck, and everything after that had just snowballed.
Some snow blew into the cave and dangerously close to the dwindling fire. Laxus grunted and tried to tend to the dying flame before it could go out completely. The smiles disappeared.
"You're really sure you can't do anything?" asked Evergreen, driving a sharp elbow into Freed's side. She seemed almost angry.
"Can you?" he shot back, brushing away her arm and pulling his blanket tighter.
She pouted and elbowed him again. "Well you were talking about how those temperature runes or whatever-"
He interrupted her, "Don't work, Ever. They don't work. And it's not like I didn't still write them!"
While Freed and Evergreen bickered, Laxus' efforts with the fire were beginning to pay off. It started to grow again, started to reach for some new wood, started to catch and recover, and then- Fwoosh. Almost out again.
He swore and grabbed some more kindling from a soggy pile of sticks that he and Bixlow had collected earlier. It made no sense to him how anyone survived outside in this weather, let alone a few knuckleheaded amateur mages- from a city, nonetheless.
That was, perhaps, the most confusing detail in the job description. A dark guild, "nearby", had been attacked and destroyed by another wizard team recently, but local sources claimed a few members had escaped and were hiding out on the mountain causing trouble. The job was to catch them. As they'd later learned, the guild had been much closer to a minor city the Thunder Legion had passed through on their way to the town, where people had seemed to firmly believe that this area was nothing but rocks and ice. The entire thing just seemed suspicious.
Time passed slowly as the Thunder Legion and their beloved leader waited for the storm to pass. Useless chattering, groans and complaints, and the occasional suggestion to try to improve the situation all mixed into a lethargic blur with each passing hour. It wasn't long before they were all snoring by the fireside. Well, almost all of them.
Freed laid curled up on the cave's icy floor close to Evergreen and Bixlow and tried not to shiver. If he couldn't keep himself at least somewhat still, he doubted he'd be able to sleep, but if he was too still, he'd be too cold to sleep. He wished they'd decided to huddle, or that the fire could've been bigger, or that his seemingly useless runes would suddenly kick in and warm the whole cave like a heater, but the reality didn't change. It was cold, he was stuck in a cave, and in the morning he would be the only one who hadn't slept since before they entered the town.
On the other side of the campfire, Laxus was almost as loud as the thunder he caused with his magic, but the snores still seemed to waver, as if he was shivering. That was just an additional complication- the most powerful wizard for miles, cold and grumpy, and from years of experience, Freed had learned to be afraid of his teammate in such situations. The sooner this was over, the better.