Two week's journey into the mountains they had the worst weather yet. It started as a howling in the wind that went through their clothes and stung their skin. By midday the snow was coming down too thick to see anything, and Hetar quickly decided they would have to find somewhere to hide from the blizzard they all could sense coming.

While Garam and Ba'ka dug frantically in under a cliff projecting from the snow, the rest of the group broke of branches from the trees nearby, taking whatever that would possibly burn.

Cassandra stood watching the snow pummel down around them, and her heart was a cold stone in her chest.

"He will find us," Hetar comforted, placing her hand on Cassandra's shoulder. "He is the best hunter."

Cassandra nodded, still not taking her eyes from the white curtain, trying to spot a shape moving through it, but there was nothing.

He had not yet returned when they all crowded into the small cave the snow made under the cliff roof. They all knew all tracks would have snowed away by now, but nobody dared say it aloud.

As night fell the blizzard was roaring like a lion right outside the cave, making the small fire Lirlith had managed to get going flicker and threaten to die.

Without warning Cassandra jumped to her feet and ran out in the storm. The kneedeep snow slowed her down and Hetar grabbed her only a couple of meters away from the opening. As the female troll dragged her back to the others Cassandra screamed and tried hitting at her friend to make her let go.

"Hush," Hetar comforted while she and Ba'ka held the girl between them. "He is smart and will find shelter. You not find him running out in the snow and dying."

Cassandra cried herself into an uneasy sleep, waking from time to time to look around her only to find the long arms that held her belonged to the priest and not Jah'ren.

The weather was no better in the morning, but Garam and Mimisa dared a quick trip out to steal some more branches from the trees. Coming back they informed the others silently that they would have to save whatever firewood they had as it would be almost impossible to get more the way the blizzard was growing in strength.

Cassandra did not understand most of their words, but she got the meaning all the same and started crying again, because she could not find anything else to do. After watching her in though for a while Talandriel came over and whispered something to Hetar. The two of them talked quietly and from what little Cassandra heard she understood it was about Jah'ren.

"We will try to find him," Hetar told her in the end.

Cassandra shook her head at once, she knew it would be suicide for anyone to leave the cave right now.

"Not going out," the troll assured her. "We will use magic, Talandriel's magic, and Ba'ka and me can use old troll magic. You need to help."

"I'll do anything," Cassandra said, looking up at the worried faces around her. "I'll do anything if it can get him here."

There was a lot of ritual to the magic the two trolls prepared. Cassandra willingly let Hetar cut her hand and watched in sickened fascination as the blood ran into a bowl. Ba'ka healed the wound before using the blood to paint symbols on a crumpled parchment.

Then Cassandra was told to kneel by the fire, which Lirlith kept burning brightly. The warlock and priest chanted a lot and although Cassandra did not understand anything of it she could both see and feel it was doing something. The flames were burning with a blue hue, and a strange sound building up inside her, like the distant echo of drums.

Hetar placed her hands on Cassandra's shoulders, sitting behind her, and whispered:

"You find the right rhythm. Look at the flames and make them sing."

Cassandra had no idea what she was supposed to do, or how, but she stared into the flames, trying to listen to the beating of her heart and that strange sound in her mind.

When Ba'ka gave her a bowl of some dark, sticky liquid to drink she did, too worried about her lover out there in the snow to be afraid. The drink tasted strongly of blood with a hint of the liquorice-like flavour of the black stick and it almost made her throw up.

Swallowing again and again to get the syrupy fluid down she heard the priest ask for more power to be channelled into the flames. She did not really understand why the flames was so important, but when she looked up, her head beginning to spin a little, she knew exactly what to do.

The cave instantly was filled with a warmth that started melting through the thick layer of ice-crusted snow outside. A warmth overflowing with the slightly electric feeling of magic, sparks of pure power flying from the flames.

Cassandra stared at two figures dancing in the fire, one tall and scrawny with long arms which held the smaller figure close. She wondered if she was the only one who saw the shape the flames took, the only one who heard the deafening beat of the drums.

The strange warmth that radiated up from her stomach was filling her body with fire, making her feel strong and powerful. Closing her eyes she felt a part of her own being fall forward into the flames and take its place in the dance.

She felt the flames on her skin, the burning sensation of passion and need, and then, for a short moment, she heard a whisper and another rhythm join the beat.

Something cold as ice touched her face and she opened her eyes with a scream.

The fire screamed with her before dying down. Cassandra lay at the cold snow floor, panting and shivering.

No one spoke for a long time, but Hetar cradled the girl in her arms until the shivering went away.

"I think you reached him," she said eventually, looking at the walls of snow at the entrance, now almost blasted through by sheer power. "We could all feel it."

Everyone nodded and Cassandra blushed, embarrassed to have let them take part in that very personal part of her life. She smiled thankfully to the mage and warlock, who seemed to have used all their strength to control the wild magic she had let out.

Tired and hopeful they all huddled together in silence, all eyes looking out into the blinding white of the snow.

***

Hours passed slowly, the fire burning down to mere cinders when the mage no longer had strength to keep it going. Cassandra had forced her eyes away from the entrance to their shelter when they stared to water from looking into the storm. Her head was ringing with the aftershock of the magic and the strange drink. When she had asked the priest about the drink he had told her it was a secret.

"There was blood in it," Cassandra had said, feeling nauseous. "And it tasted like the black stick Jah'ren likes so well."

"Yea," the priest admitted. "Yo blood."

"The Black root help the brain open up to magic," Hetar explained. "Everything else is secret. Troll magic. Ancient magic."

"Voodoo." Cassandra shuddered.

The trolls did not comment on this, but they looked at each other and smiled sadly, both knowing they had broken a lot of rules and promises that day.

The endless whiteness outside had grown darker and suddenly there was a sound that made them all jump to their feet. Moments later they could see the shape of something at the entrance and Jah'ren stumbled in.

He was covered in snow from head to toes, and over his shoulders hung the carcass of a large deer.

"Kass," he smiled, falling down on his knees.

The deer fell from his grip as the little human threw herself into his embrace.

It felt like being hugged by a snowman. His hair was white from frost and snow and frozen so that it here and there hung in icicles around his face. His skin had a strange ice-white colour, being naturally blue and now covered by a thin layer of frozen snow. The arms holding her close was shaking and she could feel the tremble going through his entire body.

"Cold," he moaned through clattering teeth. "Me cold."

Cassandra got Garam and Ba'ka to help lift him over to the fire. The mage and warlock breathed new life into the embers while Hetar knelt beside her brother.

"Idiot," she said, rubbing the blood back into his hands.

"I bring food."

Every eye in the cave went to the frozen deer, every mind thinking the same thought and every face smiling.

"Idiot." This time it was Cassandra who said it. "You should have turned back when the blizzard began."

She was crushing the ice carefully out of his hair, one hand closed around the pointed part of his ear to warm it.

"I not find back," Jah'ren whispered, still shivering. "No more track. I hear Kass call, feel warm, I come."

He put his head in her lap and looked contently up into her face. There were tears on her cheeks and something soft in her gaze.

"I bring food," he said again, trying to make up for the distress he could see he had caused them.

"Yes, idiot," Cassandra said, placing her lips on his cold forehead. "You brought food."

*******

I wrote this yesterday and was uncertain if I wanted it to be a part of the story or not, since I could not decide if I really liked it. But then I read it to my man and he liked it, and today my wonderful friend KraeHi inspired me with her amazing art portraying Cass and Jah'ren (if you want to see, go to deviantart and check her gallery, she's very talented). So in the end I decided to upload this part too, but I really like the next chapter better, it is just not done yet. I'm working on it, and will be finished if Jah'ren and Cass stop making out in front of me for just one second.... :D