Yo, Chill Out

All three of us were shocked, chilled to the bone. And it wasn't the growing blizzard outside, layering the town in snow. It was what we found inside the mechanic shop. A poor woman, no doubt going to get supplies for her desk job before something caught her unawares and froze her mid scream. Eyes wide in terror, mouth agape. Yet only met with silence. It was terrifying to see, and the sight did not help our current states. We were already freezing from the dropping temperature, or the tension weighing down on us. Now, we had burned into our memory.

I had made up with Émile, somewhat. But there was still a tension there. I still didn't forgive him for being so rude to the Muse and me. He still didn't believe that the gift of that sun blazed steed was given out of complete generosity. And Tetsu...poor kid, now he had to live with having seen a frozen person on top of everything else. Lucky as he might be, he couldn't catch a break. None of us could. I felt sorry for Tet, he got drawn into this same way I did. A prophecy.

My mind tracked back to the final line of the prophecy I had kept to myself. The man on fire haunted my dreams. And with what Émile had told me of the vision he saw in his mirror, how he had seen through to Yellowstone. The orange sky above the volcano. It made more sense, that one line...and that terrified me. The sense of the world coming ablaze by my own failure filled me with dread.

Why couldn't someone more important be sent on this quest, I thought to myself, clutching my knees close. A big hero. An army even!

Émile came out of the office. He had been using his mirror to peer through reflections through town; mirrors, windows, anything that cast a reflection. Everywhere was a blizzard, passing through opened buildings and abandoned streets. Now and then Émile could see a figure, frozen in the chill winds or appearing as a statue decoration in a shop.

"What kind of monster does this?" Tetsu asked, his voice shaking. "Don't like it...not at all. Everyone frozen like...like that."

"If it's a monster, it's not a monster I've ever heard of. I don't know of a beast that can control weather like this, or one that can freeze people solid in ice. Statues, that's a Gorgon. But these aren't...statues. I can't even tell if they're al-"

"We'll find out what did it, Tet. Don't worry. Together, we can take it."

I glared at Émile to make sure he did not continue. I knew what he was about to say, but Tetsu did not need to hear it. There was clear hesitation in Émile before he sighed, moving off to the car. He had been trying to get it working while he was not using the mirror, hoping it would offer an escape.

My idea had been to call the horse back, to get us out of here. The tape recorder remained in my hand, having finished a fifth playback. No horse came.

A clang sounded out through the garage, followed by a French curse.

"You good?" I asked.

He popped his head up from the opened hood, holding his hand. He wanted to curse again, to pin blame on either the Muse, the horse or me and my trust. Instead he held his tongue. Best that way, we had recently started to patch things up. Whatever this was between us, how he constantly annoyed me and whatever it was I was doing to him, we had started to get by.

I came to the front of the car, leaning in. The engine looked frozen as did the rest of the car. I didn't even know if Émile knew how to work on a car, but he was trying.

"Émile, it's not gonna-"

"It will. It has to. We have to get out of here before we end up like her" he glanced over at the closet where a frozen statue stood. It gave me chills thinking about her again.

"We are not going to end up like her, if we find another way-"

"What?!"

"You heard me. Working on this? It's frozen, broken. It's not going anywhere, at all. Can you not see that?" Èmile banged his hands on the hood, taking some short breaths. I cut myself off before saying anything more.

While Émile was right, the amount of time wasted on getting this car working was going to get us frozen. I looked to Tetsu, mulling it over while leaning against the side of the car. No, there had to be some other way out of here.

I left the car's side, leaving Émile to his work and walked to Tetsu. Kneeling by his side, I shared a light assuring smile to him.

"Hey...I'm going to go out there, find a way to get out. Or at least somewhere warmer."

Tetsu said nothing, but his eyes were plenty worried. I did not just want to leave the kid, but there had to be a better place. And anyway, I did not feel that cold. I didn't know if it was a power of Apollo children, but I still felt warm so I would be okay. That, and the son of Aphrodite was right about us needing to leave as soon as possible. Or otherwise, that volcano was going to explode. The world would be covered in ash. I pat him on his shoulder, before making my leave. Émile hadn't asked where I was going, so I had to guess that he was too busy with the frozen car. I doubted that he would care, either.

Scratch whatever idea I had. Inside the garage I felt warm with a light chill. As if the sun itself was still shining down on me on a midsummer day. But only a minute into my search and I was freezing already. I was hugging myself while pushing through the knee deep snow.

"Oh great idea, Helene. Go out into the blizzard, you'll be fine! Find a warm place, you thought! It would be a great idea, you thought!" Maybe Émile had a point after all. We weren't ready.

And I had left them alone at the garage. They would be way too worried once they realized where I had gone. I was too stubborn for my own good, wanting to prove myself. Well, what was this going to prove? That I was the dumbest person on Earth?

Not only had I walked out into a blizzard, but there was a monster out here. Part of me wanted to try and fight it, prove I could stand up for myself against a dangerous monster of myths and legends. It's amazing what a little bit of cold could do, to prove how irrational someone was. Only upside to this was that I could see. I hadn't found it strange how I could see through the blizzard so well. Then again, I had been remarked on my eye sight many times before.

I found an open car and looked inside, hoping for a blanket or a jumper. Nothing. Nothing.

I slammed the door, or at least tried to but it was frozen open. That only aggravated me even more, and it wasn't long before I went to kicking the door. Everything that had happened so far. An annoying handsome guy, monsters, a horse leaving us here, those twins stealing my wallet with my mother's photo!

I fell to my knees, back to the car then huddled next to it, crying. My tears would freeze to my face no doubt, but I didn't care. I understood nothing of this new world. I couldn't fight to save my life. I felt judged, as I always did. My first thought went to how I felt that everything had changed when I got to the camp. I felt like I belonged. I had siblings there, I had powers, people like me! But no. Of course that would not last long. Not even two days and I was sent out on a quest where I could die.

"This...isn't...fair!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I let it all out. The cold made my throat hoarse, my nose felt dripping and my eyes threatened to stay closed with my eyelids frozen. This isn't fair.

I huddled my knees closed to me again. In the back of my mind, there was a pull. Calling to me, telling me I had to be somewhere. But I felt tired. My legs wouldn't move. My blood felt cool in my own body, as if it might become frozen.

It's not fair. It's-

A sudden breeze went by. The chill was intense, driving my survival instincts to become aware. A shadow passed above, and I remained still. The monster. It had to be the monster. Just above the thick layer of snow rushing through the wind was a shape. Behind the shape it was flowing in the wind like...like hair...and a dress? And the figure, the monster looked like a person. And they were flying...realization was what I needed to give me a jumpstart.

"Oh no."

I rushed to my feet, running after it. Whatever it was, it was flying straight for Émile and Tetsu. The cold followed it, everywhere the figure went the air grew colder, nearly subzero.

I felt more and more stupid. I had left them without an extra fighting hand. Then it hit me with how much more insane my idea was; I hadn't brought a weapon. It's like I wanted to die! But I would berate myself later. Now was not the time to blame myself for going out unprepared, just because I was so annoyed and fed up with everything. My friends were in danger.

"Tetsu! Èmile!"

I called their names in the vain hope they would answer as I closed in on the garage. No one replied through the blizzard winds. The shape was long gone ahead by now, leaving on behind. By now my friends would be fighting it or...or worse...I felt responsible. That I should not have left. I pushed on, in the hopes I could save them.

Yet I stopped when I heard a familiar sound.

I turned away from the direction of the garage, instead heading towards the sound. I knew it anywhere, despite only hearing it once.

"Tet?"

I peered into the broken down van, and there he was. Among a couple of boxes he huddled, glancing up to see me. And he rushed out to me.

I caught him, holding him tight. What was I thinking, leaving him behind?

"I'm here, I'm here."

"I-I ran. I hid. Èmile, it...it-"

"Where is he? What was it? How did you get away?"

Tetsu was already in the verge of crying out of panic. My questions helped no one, only overwhelming the kid. So I shut up, holding him.

It wasn't safe out here. I knew that much, we had to get moving. Had to get back to Èmile. I noticed Tetsu had his sword with him, but he was shaking too much to use it. Taking the sword in hand, and pulling him behind me with the other I led the way through the blizzard to the garage, hoping the thing was gone. But that hope came with a nagging dread.

Trudging onward through the snow, the flickering light of the garage ahead. The snow piled high, blocking the front entrance in a small white mound.

"In there...it...it went in" Tetsu said, pointing. That made me feel worse in the pit of my stomach. If it went in there, where our friend was, and our friend didn't make it out...I tried not to think about it.

Pulling on the front door was no use. So I got to clearing the mound, digging away until there was just enough that I could pull the door open. I still struggled against the wind and snow, but in the end it swung open, almost pulling me with it.

Sword pointed forth, ready for anything we moved inside. The wind was as bad inside as it was outside, as if nothing had held the blizzard from getting in. The snow swirled through the mechanic shop. As we walked, I shakily sighed, my breath rising in front of my eyes.

"Tet...what was it? What did you see?" I asked calmly. There was a long pause.

"She was wearing a dress...like a wedding dress or...or...and her hair was black. But she was too...she was pale. When she was looking around, it was cold...her stare felt cold. But she did not see me...she didn't."

"She? So it wasn't a monster? It was a woman?" He nodded, hiding behind me as we approached.

Okay, so not a monster. At least did not look like a monster, she was a woman. How could a woman cause all of this? She must have had power like...like a god. The very thought chilled me to the bone. Èmile, he had told me that not all the gods were looking out for us demigods. So if there was one that could cause a blizzard, and aimed to harm us? How do you fight a god? No, it couldn't have been a god. No god up until this point had tried to hurt me. It had to be a monster.

"Tetsu? Stay here."

I pushed on forth, holding the sword out with the point forth.

The monster would no doubt still be inside. I hadn't seen it leave, and it was still so cold here. Coming closer to the garage, I stepped across the snow powdered floor, trying to remain quiet. Finally I stopped just before the garage. The door was closed.

Pushing against it I found that it was frozen shut, making the door all the more harder to get through. I shoulder charged the door. So much for being quiet, yet I heard nothing on the other end aside from rushing wind. I charged my shoulder again at the door, yet it held. One more time and it finally came loose, ice shattering on the other side. I fell through, hitting the floor hard.

I scrambled up, watching all around while trying to find Èmile or the monster. Instead I stopped and found myself speechless. Tetsu screamed, I turned finding him right behind me. We had found Èmile.

"No...no!"

I rushed to Èmile, tears welling up. I should not have left. The frozen statue stood in a fighting stance, dagger in hand and his sling on the floor. The monster got to him, and yet his face was contorted in a painful way. I could not imagine how it must have felt, getting frozen so suddenly.

"Èmile!" Tetsu yelled. There was nothing we could do to help at this point.

"I shouldn't have left...I should have stayed!"

I fell to my knees. Every time I hit the ground, I didn't feel any better. My hands ached. All of this anger, and it was all aimed at myself.

"I'm sorry! I'm...I'm sorry..."

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, glancing up to Tetsu. I moved one of my hands to hold his, holding it tight.

Émile was gone...frozen...an idea came to mind, maybe, just maybe...

"We have to find her. Whoever did this, they can unfreeze him. You with me, Tet?"

The younger demigod nodded. So we began to move, offering Émile a final bow of our head. He wasn't dead. I refused to believe that. We would find what did this, and we would make it bring Émile back to us.

I began searching for clues, scanning the area for anything that might help us out here. Besides all the snow inside, nothing was out of the ordinary. I began moving across the garage, stopping at the car. It was still frozen, tools scattered to the floor and toolbox. Obvious signs of a struggle with all the tools around; Émile had put up a fight.

"H-Helene" Tetsu called me over, still recovering from the sight of Émile.

I followed over to him to see his lucky find; footprints. I had seen the figure flying before, so the fact there were footprints I found odd. The pair of us followed the footprints through the garage. They paused and circled Émile, it made me shudder. We continued to trail them till they reached the garage door to outside. Out in the blizzard? Those tracks would be lost. But, it did mean that the woman had gone outside. I went out, finding clouds above had cleared partly to allow sunlight to pass through. It felt invigorating.

"I found this too."

I turned around to find in his grasp the cylinder that was the spear. Truthfully, I never got a good look at it till now. It appeared as a laser pointer with two buttons. I wondered briefly if one of the buttons worked as an actual laser. The bottom button I knew extended the spear. It felt warm in my grip, the color of the laser pointer being a shining bronze-gold.

Holding it out, I pressed the extend button. The spear shot out at both ends. It had a sharp point on one end, glowing in the sunlight. Was it just me or did it feel warmer? Hot, even? I put it back to it's compact form.

"We are going to search this town until we find that thing."

"But...H-Helene, the bl..blizzard" he said, teeth chattering behind me.

"Stick close to me."

I was hoping that as a child of the sun god I could feel as warm as the sun. I focused my energy, and I felt warmer in the snow. I was hoping that Tetsu who was now under my arm would also feel my warmth. Tetsu held his sword in hand, sling at his side while I held a hand out. I could see clearly through the blizzard now that the woman had gone, taking the powerful wind with her. That was the biggest clue I was looking for. An increase in the blizzard.

"Keep an eye out for a stronger part of the blizzard. That is where we'll find her. Once we do we...well, I'll try to talk to it. Keep it distracted. That sling, Émile's sling. Think you can use it with your luck?"

"Y-Yeah...maybe." He didn't sound too confident, but neither did I.

My plan was simple; keep the attention of whatever it was, monster or god, let Tetsu find a better angle and pray that his luck would pull through and strike it hard with one of those bronze balls. I hadn't seen Émile use the sling ever since this quest began.

After a few minutes of pushing through the blizzard, I found it was getting harder to see. The snow was getting thick in front of us.

Our enemy was here. I knew it was. The storm grew powerful around a bookstore, perfect for cover inside. Aisles of books to hide in should it prove too tough a fight. One way or another though, we were bringing it down.

I reached the door, finding it already open. The bell attached was going wild in the wind, dinging over and over.

Quietly I sent Tetsu to the right where there seemed to be plenty of cover behind the aisles. That left my part of the plan. Really, I was not nearly as prepared as I hoped I would be.

"All right Helene...you got this..."

I extended my spear, holding it up. Then I steeled myself...and I called out.

"HEY! Ice queen, or whoever or whatever you are! You missed one!"

There was no answer for what felt too long. Yet the wind did appear to still. All the snowflakes stopped moving. That seemed impossible, and I knew that whatever was doing this was immensely powerful. That was certain. I clutched the warm spear tight, allowing the feeling of heat to flow through me. And yet, I had not noticed until now that while holding it, I felt cold. There was no time to think about it.

"I said that you missed one! Pretty poor eyesight you must have, huh?!"

"You dare?! To insult my sight?!" A chill, shrill voice cut through the wind. The snowflakes moved violently, angrily as if with a life of their own. I knew I got it's attention.

"Oh, you mortals never know when to-"

A woman came into view past some aisles. In her hand was a blue book, I could barely read the title as Snow White. Her cool gaze settled upon me. Tetsu hadn't left much detail out. Her dress wasn't quite like a wedding dress, it was more similar to that of Terpsichore. Her hair was dark, yet her skin was pale as the snow around her. Her eyes were a deep brown which did not suit the cold glare they held. Truthfully, despite how angry I was at her for freezing my friend, I had to accept the fact that I was also enraptured by her cold beauty.

"Ah, now I understand" she said, her voice soothed a moment, yet her cold stare remained. A smirk curled at her lips. "A demigod. And here I thought there was only the one."

"You're...you're not a..."

"Not a what? Hm?"

I shook my head to clear it. She wasn't a monster. No, I could tell right away how she was dressed. She was a god. Which one, I didn't know. And the idea that a god would freeze over a town...no, there had to be a reason.

"My friend. Unfreeze him, now."

She seemed to be offended of such a demand, holding a hand to her chest.

"You ask of me to do the impossible! And you should mind that temper of yours, girl. Or I'll make sure to shatter you after I've frozen you, do you understand? And to think you demigods respect those above you. Also so much bravado, so 'I'm better than mortals, so I can fight you!'" She sighed in...disgust? Annoyance? I couldn't place it.

"Then I suppose you won't mind telling me why you froze him. And the town." I clutched my spear tight, glancing to my right for any movement. I couldn't see any sign of Tetsu just yet.

"Why...why you ask?" She closed the book in hand, froze it and tossed it aside. I heard it shatter. "Because they are dooming this world! Have you not felt it? How the sun feels warmer? How the weather has shifted? Those mortals poison our skies, my skies! They dare to thank Jack Frost for snow on that celebration they call Christmas, they dare to puff smoke into my clouds! And you ask me why?"

I knew I had struck a nerve. I got what she was saying, yet I had thought the sun was Apollo. He would have control over such things. I was confused, and she caught on...for the wrong reasons.

"You...oh, you don't know who I am, do you! Or you would have shown me some respect!" She cackled, the sound of her laugh shrill and chilling me to the bone.

"I'm...sorry, but I don't. I'm kind of new to all of this" I admitted. Tetsu, where are you? I thought to myself, glancing again.

"I am Khione! Goddess of Snow, daughter to Boreas. You had best learn this name, and learn it well! Maybe it will help you learn some respect." I sneered at the audacity of this...this...woman!

"Sorry, but I don't respect those who freeze my friends and make entire towns popsicles."

That struck another nerve. One too many. Her face changed so suddenly, like that of an evil witch about to turn me into a toad. She raised a hand as if to strike me from the other end of the aisle, her glare turning wild. Even her hair began to billow out behind her from wind I could not feel...not till it came howling down, threatening to bring me to my knees.

"You...will...learn respect! You'll just have to learn while being frozen for...perhaps two hundred years. I'll make sure you're well cared for as my knew decorat-"

Then the books all fell on her. I stood in shock, watching as a single hand stood from the fallen books. A groan followed as Tetsu stood up from the fallen aisle, dazed and confused.

"...Tetsu! What...what did you-"

"I went to use the sling. But, but I slipped! I hit the aisle and then...then-"

"Thank you" I said after tackling him in a hug. Now we had to find a way to keep the goddess pinned so we could convince her. Shouldn't be too hard at all, right?

How wrong I was. A scream pierced the air, books went flying. One thunked me in the head, I nearly fell over. There was a yell, a cold breeze shot over me. Yet I wasn't frozen, not entirely. Only my legs.

Khione's hairdo was messed up. Frizzed up, matching her wild look. Her gaze fixated on Tetsu, raising a hand towards him.

"Tetsu! Run!"

He didn't need to be told twice, using the sling to throw a bronze sphere at her face in hopes to stun her. It hit her square in the forehead, but it only made to enrage her further. She screamed, thrashing and tossing the pile of books all over the place. The snow vibrated in the air violently. Wind tossed my own hair all around in my face and in the air.

Rooted in place, I stabbed the spear at the ice at my feet. It cracked and chipped but it wasn't enough. I used all my strength, trying to break it apart. Soon enough I broke enough to free one foot, all the while Khione chased Tetsu through the aisles.

"Keep running!" I shouted, still trying to break myself out.

"I'm trying! Helene, he-"

I paused, glancing up to try and get Tetsu in my sight. He had suddenly cut off, and I feared the worst. The last of the ice shattered, freeing me. I charged around the aisles, ready to try and skewer a goddess. Instead I came face to face with a scared Tetsu, fearing for his life. The frozen statue had captured the look of terror perfectly. I heard a shuffling behind me, wind picking up.

"This will teach you about messing with a god!" I had no time to turn before I was hit by a sudden chill.