Maquin's father let out a short bloodcurdling scream, before falling to the ground bleeding out in seconds. Maquin leapt at the demon, swinging his sword in a wide arc. The frostbite demon coiled to the side and leapt at him, planning to let this prey survive a little longer. It avoided biting down letting it's frosty scales scrape against his skin, leaving a line of small, thin cuts across his neck.

Maquin whirled on the snake, swinging the sword unprofessionally. He managed to scrape the beast, with a lucky stroke. The demon shot around a corner for a moment, attempting to hide and ambush him again. Maquin sprinted around the corner managing to accidentally dodge the demon's lunge with his unexpected speed. The demon let out a hiss and opened it's mouth a blast of frost-breath spewing out. Maquin dove back around the corner to avoid a frosty death. He heard a loud thud from nearby, and panicked on how the Frostbite demon had so quickly passed him. He ran at it blindly charging, and swinging hoping to catch it unprepared. His sword bounced back with a loud "clang" as metal struck metal. He looked up to see three soldiers in front of him, one's shield raised to block his blind strike.

-Wulfric's POV-

"Maquin, what happened here?" Wulfric asked.

"W-Wulfric... you're back! We had thought you died since you stopped writ-" Wulfric raised a hand to his face.

"MAQUIN, WHAT HAPPENED HERE?" He yelled at the younger boy standing in front of him.

A short scream from behind them answered his question quickly as one of the men was bit into by the demon. Within an instant, the second man spun on the snake, and waited patiently. The demon lunged at the man whose blade darted outward cutting the demon's frozen insides. Frost breath licked at the metal before the demon died out with a screech. A light-blue blood sprayed out of it's mouth as the man drew out his sword. Even in the dim blue light the man looked as if he were glowing, a shining armor with golden trimming.

-Maquin's POV, 3 hours later-

Maquin's eyes were sore from sobbing, he had laid his parents aside one another. 'But somehow, not everything was bad this night' he looked at Wulfric. "Hey Wulf, where have you been?" Maquin asked.

"I've been.. busy, occupied with other things in the world."

"But why did you never write back to us?"

Wulfric didn't answer.

"Then why bother even coming back?"

"A girl from the village told me a sudden blizzard kicked up, and that they worried for you."

Maquin laid down on his back. "Must have been Rose, she seems to be the only one in the village who cares. I've yet to figure out why.."

Wulfric shrugged it off. "Get up little brother, it's not safe here. We need to get to town."

Maquin sighed "They'll just point and laugh at us.. they always said this would happen."

Wulfric grunted and stood up walking off, leaving Maquin to follow or be left on his own.