At first we had the element of surprise.

Not too far off in the tunnel stood a giant black horse, made completely of iron. My eyes widened, not quite believing what I was seeing. It was when I heard the horse speak that I was sure I was either crazy or had gone into shock. I nudged Puck in the side and then repeated the action towards Ash who was on my other side. "Do you see what I see? Or am I crazy?"

"Well I do see what you see…but I think you're crazy too."

I shot Puck a glare and was about to open my mouth to shoot back an insult, but Ash stopped me by speaking first. "We'll have to worry about this later. Right now we must focus on saving her."

"Not that it's completely obvious or anything." I muttered under my breath before shifting onto my other foot, eyes completely focused on Meghan. I glanced around the cave, searching for something to use as a distraction but it was all ice, all snow. I placed my hand on the cold ground, pushing past the snow covering it, then splayed my fingers across the floor.

I ignore the icy chill that travels up my arm from the cold and concentrate on the nature surrounding us. It might be covered in ice and snow, but it's still living. I closed my eyes, seeking what I was looking for.

Of course I should have expected Ash and Puck find some way to beat me to doing something because the next thing I know I hear a high-pitched whistle and Pucks shout, "Hey, ugly!" I instantly felt an annoyance at Puck as he continued on speaking. "Nice place you got here! Here's a thought though. Next time, try a hideous a little more resistant to fire than an ice cave!"

I was pissed off now, mostly because I couldn't get a good grip on what I was groping for with my magic. Whether it was the frozen winter land, or just my emotions, well who the hell knows. Either way somebody was going to get hurt.

My eyes snapped open, instantly focusing on the iron horse in the cave. My fingers dug into the cold, frozen ground and I pushed with my mind, forcing a large root to burst out of the ground just a few feet away from the iron horse. Puck kept the iron horse busy and I sent my root slithering towards the iron horse. The root wrapped around the iron horses legs and jerked as hard as I could.

The iron horse stumbled, but nothing more. I cursed out loud, jumping from my hiding spot and looking around for Meghan and Ash. I caught sight of them, Ash battling the iron horse and Puck rushing forward to try to convince Meghan to leave.

I rushed forward over to Meghan, watching as Ash clamped a hand over her mouth and said something to her. He wasn't going to run off with Meghan, he knew better than that. At least I was hoping he did.

"I have to find my brother-"

"Hesitate now, and Goodfellow will die…Besides I'm not giving you a choice."

Meghan's eyes sought out mine and our gazes locked for a moment as I drew closer. "Go with him." I said to her, jerking a hand towards the way we'd come through in the first place.

She hesitated, but Ash grabbed her hand and started to pull Meghan along the wall of the cavern. I heard Puck mocking the Ironhorse somewhere off behind me and whenever I glanced back I wished I hadn't.

It had caught Ash and Meghan trying to sneak off. And now he was mad.

The horse let out a loud bellow and started to barrel after Meghan and Ash. Ash attempted to fling a shower of ice shards at the monster, but it didn't really help.

I wasn't sure if I could pull a tree out of the ground, it'd been hard enough the first time, but I sure could try. So I threw my hand out, clenching my fingers tight against the palm of my hand and much to my relief a large root shot up from the ground, crashing right into the side of the iron beast, not enough to knock him off of his hooves, but definitely enough to cause him to stagger. Unfortunately while this was happening Ash somehow managed to get hurt.

Why was someone always getting hurt with Puck and Ash were around each other?

But luckily Puck saved Ash from being trampled on.

"I suggest we go," Puck said a little too cheerfully. "Prince, either keep up or get left behind. We're leaving."

So we ran. We navigated back through the caverns, Meghan slipping on ice and slush while trying her best to ignore the entire ruckus the beast thing was creating.

I ducked down past a falling icicle because I wasn't in the mood to be injured by ice. As we reached the mouth of the cave Grim showed up at one point, complaining to Puck about being an idiot because he'd started a fight with the 'horse thing' in his words. I sped up, bursting out of the cave entrance and making sure Meghan got out safely too.

"Collapse the cave idiot! Do it!" Grimalkin shouted as he bounded along out of the cave.

When Ash collapsed the cave he collapsed into the snow, and Meghan tried to rush forward only to be stopped by Puck. "Who, what are doing princess? Princeling here is the enemy. We don't help the enemy."

"He's hurt."

"Which is why we should leave now."

"He just saved-"

"Are you two really going to argue about this?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips and looking in-between the two of them.

Meghan nodded her head, a stubborn look entering her eyes. "I refuse to leave him to die."

"He's a Winter prince he's-" Puck started to say.

"You two shut up." I snapped, rolling my eyes as I turned my back on them and pinned my gaze on Ash who was now standing on his feet, one arm wrapped around his ribs. "Are you alright?" I demanded, taking a step towards the Winter prince.

"Fine." Ash answered, and then looked at Puck. "We can continue now."

Puck threw him a wicked grin, muttering something about "Being thrilled." because he was Puck and didn't really care if Ash was injured or not as long as he got a fight out of it. Then again I had to remember we were fey. We didn't necessarily fight fair.

"You're not fighting while you're injured! Puck, you should be ashamed for even agreeing to fight while he's hurt, so sit down and shut up!" Meghan's sharp voice cut through the icy air, both of the boys and even me slightly shocked at her outburst. I was even more surprised at the fact that they both lowered there weapons and listened to her.

Puck shrugged his shoulders and plopped down onto a log, crossing his arms and legs. I strolled over to him and flopped down on right next to him, elbowing him in the side.

"Get the pout look off your face." I smirked. "You're just mad because you got told what to do by a girl."

Puck rolled his eyes. "I will have you know I did not get told what to do."

"Yes you did." "Technically she's a princess so I have to listen to her." "Bullshit. You never listen to me, or Oberon and Titania for that matter."

"Your point?"

"You know what my point is Robin."

"Whatever you say Bryny."

At that I curled my hand into a fist and punched Puck right in the arm, grinning when he yelped. "I told you not to call me that." I placed my hands on the log, watching Meghan talk to Ash and at the same time wondering what they were talking about. "I keep wondering how this is going to turn out." I added.

"You're not the only one." Puck leaned forward and unfolded his legs out from underneath himself before resting his elbows on his knees.

"Puck! Come help."

"Oh, we're playing nice now?" Puck didn't move, otherwise I would have mocked him again for being told what to do and listening for once in his life.

"Puck!" Meghan sounded exasperated, and Puck probably wouldn't have listened if Ash wouldn't have decided to say something.

"Truce Goodfellow. The Chillsorrow manor is a few miles east of here, the lady of the house is away at court, so we'll be safe there. We might as well postpone our duel until we arrive and get the princess out of the cold. Unless you'd like to kill me now."

"No, no. We can kill each other later." Puck then hopped up off of the log, turning and holding his hands out to me, "Up you go Bryn." I placed my hands in his and he hauled me upwards. When I was standing I walked to stand near Ash, watching as Puck threw his arm around his shoulders. "Off we go! Are you coming Grimalkin?"

"I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"I bet you wouldn't." I grumbled under my breath as we started to trudge through the snow towards Chillsorrow manor. I was ready to get there already; at least that's what I thought at the moment. I never would have known I'd be thinking the exact opposite when we actually got there.

Then again I never would have guessed just who would be there waiting either.


A/N~ Call me a jerk. I'll agree. And then apologize a gazillion times. I'm really sorry for not updating though. And who is it that'll be waiting at Chillsorrow manor? O.o But I had hit writers block…then I was trying to figure out how I was going to change this up…and I realized how…and now I swear I'm gonna try and update sooner. I've recently been grounded from electronics during the school week, but I'm working on bringing my Chemistry and Algebra II grades up so I can get them back. Anyway this chapter was sort of rushed, at least half of it was. Plus it's 1:45 am so I'm sorry if it sucks.