I was indeed snowing. Aelin huddled close her roaring blue fire, snow flaking through the makeshift shelter she had built. The wind was making the trees creak ominously and she realised just how alone she felt. She could die, curled up and frozen right here, and no one would ever find her, especially not with the snow falling the way it was. The silver, orb like moon in the velvety sky sent a slightly silver mist upon the woods around her, and her breath clouded in front of her face. She missed the warmth of Rowan's body next to her, the silvery lightness of Lysandra's laugh, the softness in Aedion's eyes when he looked at his cousin.
She huffed loudly and rummage through her bag for some dried venison she had brought. She chewed into the tough meat, the dried texture rough on her tongue. It remaindered her of Terrasen, where at Yulmas tons of the stuff was dotted around the castle in small glass jars for guests and family to feast on.
There was a rustle in the forest behind her, but her fingers were frozen stiff, so she wasn't inclined to go and find out what exactly had made it. So instead she pulled her wolfskin over her head and tried to get comfortable enough to sleep.
When she awoke, the sky was glowing a warm peachy colour, but Aelin couldn't appreciate it much. This was due to the fact that her head was throbbing with excruciating pain. A lump had appeared on the back of her head and she rubbed it with the palm of her hand, and squinted into the sunlight. She closed her eyes, trying to remember the events of the night before. She had awoken in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, her fae senses spiking with a ringing in her ears. That was when she had blacked out, with no explained reason.
Aelin groaned, sat up and took in her surroundings. There was a dark cave behind her. Ivy wound round the cave and concealed the entrance that was a jagged opening. There was no way she was going in there without being hurled in by a 20ft spider. She shuddered as a cold wind whipped through her hair. The trees were darker here, and more and more of them were covered in the same dusty cobwebs as before. She realised that she was in a small clearing, the now risen sun beating down on the back of her neck. Sitting up had made her head spin, so she lay back down on the warm clay ground.
She barely had time to register her ears pointing and the ringing in her ears, when there was a scuttling sound behind her and she was lifted by her ankle into the air.