Chapter 1

"What's got you so pissed Cayden? It's cold enough without the wind blowing 100 miles an hour." The girl with the yellow hair said, slightly teasing, and slightly annoyed. It was, indeed, extremely cold in the frost colored forest.

The sleet was falling sideways and the cold wind bit into the girls cheeks and stung her eyes, blowing her long hair behind her shoulders. Her yellow locks crackled with electricity as she trembled, trying not to let her teeth chatter.

The boy -Cayden- whom she had been affectionately poking fun at looked at his shoes, or, where his shoes would have been, had they not been under a few feet of snow. Personally, he wasn't the least bit cold, but he knew that his friend was probably on the brink of frostbite.

"It's not me, I wouldn't do that." Cayden sighed unhappily as a ghost of a smile crept over the girls face.

"Just messing with you, if you were actually doing this I would have killed you by now."
Another gust of wind knocked into the girl, sending her sprawled on her back. She blinked furiously, trying to get the snow out of her eyes. Her hair seemed to lighten, and there was a sound of sizzling as an unfortunate snowflake came into contact with a stray strand of the electricity that was bouncing off of her.

"Low, we need to find a warmer place, the snow's starting to stick to you."

Cayden stood abruptly, his movements subtle, and even a little graceful. He looked down at the girl with the lighting hair who couldn't stop herself from shivering as she sat up, fighting to stay upright as the wind harshly screamed.

"C-can't you d-d-o anything about the w-wind?" She asked, grinding her teeth as a fine tremor wreaked havoc on her body.

"If I could, I would have by now. This isn't normal wind, someone else is causing it and they're too powerful for me to stop them." Cayden held out a slightly tanned hand for her to grab onto.

Low looked at the boy as she grabbed his outstretched hand, hoisting herself up to a standing position. "That's some scary stuff, can you tell where it's coming from?"

The tree they had been settled under shuddered and a handfulls worth of snow came tumbling down, causing Low to jump out of the way and run into Cayden. The two of them fell over and Low landed to the right of him.

Cayden looked over at her after a moment, a bit amused.

"Scared of snow?"

Low's reddened even more, partly from cold and partly from embarrassment. "Not at all, now come on. The sooner we get out of the cold the happier the storm will be."

"Now you're talking in third person, that's one of the first signs of insanity you know."

Low through a glare back at him as they both stood up awkwardly, or, at least, it was awkward for Cayden. As they trudged sluggishly through the wintery wonderland of a forest, Cayden thought he could hear Low mutter something along the lines of, "I'll you show you insanity when I shove my foot where the sun doesn't shine."
The two headed out to the middle of nowhere, hopefully in search of a warm place.

******

Walking for roughly twenty minutes had managed to land the pair on the outskirts of a small storm seemed to lessen, the snow dropped less heavily, and the wind was quieter. For this, Low was thankful.

"Better?" Cayden asked, looking over at her. He wasn't as affected by the cold as her, he was a wizard that specialized in wind though. Low, was not.

"Much." Low said with a relieved breath. "We should probably find a place to sleep, do you have any money?"

Cayden sighed heavily and rummaged around in his pockets for a moment, managing to come up with a lint covered silver coin and a few bronze coins. "Only what was left from the last odd job I did. This will only be enough for a night. You have anything?"

Low frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. "Nothing, spent it all on food last week."

"Damn."

Low looked at him for a moment, she sighed unhappily as they walked through the near empty streets. With her eyes trained on the ground, Low sighed. "Maybe we should just try fighting separately. You can get into a nice guild then and-"

Cayden remained quiet and looked over at her, his disappointed expression made Low feel ashamed. "-and you would go back home to your parents and give up magic."

The idea of fighting separately itself was painful, they had been partners in magic for forever. Going back to her parents was, perhaps, the only worse punishment.

Low struggled to come up with a response to make Cayden feel better, but was unable to.

"Right, that's what I thought you were thinking. I can't let you do that Lowa. I wouldn't be able to use magic without you around anyway."

The two of them walked in an uncomfortable silence, neither really looked at the village as they passed by the shops.

It was quiet for a few moments, the snow fell and the wind that had been absent before blew. Cayden seethed quietly and Low had to move away from him to avoid being pelted with heavy gusts of wind.

Just as well, Low herself was having a hard time keeping her temper under control. Her hair had turned a dangerous yellow/light blue and crackled with unseen electricity. Her hands glowed yellow as the energy gathered, her eyes turning lighter.
Low looked up from the dirty ground to sneak a glance at Cayden, and saw that the black ink swirls around his face had turned a light grey. She had pissed him off more than she had originally thought.

A noise became painfully present at that moment. In the presence of light wind, the quiet sound of music, and the crunching of snow beneath feet, the groan of pain heard was obnoxiously loud in comparison.

Low stopped, and looked to her left, where a seemingly deserted alleyway stood, dark and foreboding. Low took a step inside, only to be thrust back out by a rough tug.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Cayden hissed furiously at her, taking a nervous glance into the blackness. "There could be anyone- anything in there. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Low shot him a fierce glare and flipped her hair, feeling the slightest satisfaction when she heard a stray hair make contact with her companions skin. "I'm a grown wizard love, I can handle myself."

Energy crackled in her palms as Low continued on, not caring that Cayden was slinking along, annoyed behind her, muttering something along the lines of, "Girls are so complicated." Or at least, that was all Low cared to hear.

The groan of pain was louder, and decidedly feminine as Low walked stealthily along the brick ground, wincing at every mucky puddle she squished in.

Light gathered in Low's hand and in one fluid motion, she had tossed a ball of it into the air.

A sudden burst of wind blew the ball of light forward, and a myriad of twinkling lights illuminated the alleyway.

The odd pair both hesitated in taking a step forward as the slumped form of a young girl lay against a trash bin in front of them.

"H-hello? You there, are you alright?"

The light seemed even more eerie in the darkness as the girl looked up.

White hair was tucked behind a pointed, elf like ear. The girls skin was pale, and her eyes were a shocking white. When she spoke, it was only to say a single sentence. "It's very cold, don't you think?"

Then the girl passed out in the alleyway, her long hair splaying over her face and becoming dirtied on the dark, dirty brick.