Disclaimer: I did not create and do not own Digimon.

House of Cold

"I've never had to walk so far in snow," Gatomon whined. "My paws are numb."

Only slowing slightly, Ken scooped the cat digimon into his arms. The wind bombarded them with microscopic specks of ice. All around was a smooth grey glare. They had been walking for several hours and had yet to find another door. In spite of the biting cold, Ken was reminded of a hot, sandy, windy desert long ago. The memory was not pleasant, and Ken was beginning to entertain thoughts that they would never get back and he would never see Wormmon and the others again.

A billow of snow blown up by the wind temporarily blocked their view. When the flurry settled, Ken saw a break in the landscape's monotony.

"Gatomon," he asked, "Do you happen to know who that digimon is?"

Gatomon shifted from her relatively warm balled-up position. "No, I've never seen her before."

The digimon was humanoid, clad in a white dress trimmed in dark blue fur with a large aquamarine gem pendant hanging from a sash around her waist. She had light blue skin and even lighter blue hair, which served to give an overall impression of a being chiseled entirely from glacial ice, as did her sharp features. She stood perfectly still, staring at them. Her breath didn't condense in the cold, the way the human's and feline digimon's did.

When the ice digimon continued to not move, Ken put Gatomon down and walked towards her. "Hello," he said formally. "My name is..."

"Cryocicle!" The digimon's long, thin hand suddenly held an icicle, which she hurled in Ken's direction. He ducked and rolled as a second icicle exploded next to him. He leaped to his feet and began to run. Gatomon was right behind him. Their escape was halted by a wall of ice that suddenly appeared in front of them. They turned. The blue digimon shot a couple more cryocicles at them. They lunged in opposite directions.

Ken couldn't see Gatomon. He paused and looked around before another icy explosion sent him running again. He realized the attacks were focused on him, and wondered how she kept managing to miss.

"Why are you attacking us!" he shouted. A frightening possible answer briefly played in his head, but he was fairly certain he had, indeed, never met this digimon before.

"Cryocicle!"

Ken put on a burst of speed to avoid the attack. "What did we do to yo-aahhh!" He slipped on a patch of snow-covered ice, lost his balance, and crashed flat.

"Cryocicle!" An explosion directly in front of him gave Ken an instant of sheer terror, followed by a revelation: she was missing on purpose.

"Why are you attacking us?" he asked again. "Who are you?"

Gatomon sped towards him. "Uh, Ken? I would hate to interrupt yourinterrogation, but we've got trouble."

A party of skelemon was running in their direction.

"Oh great. Look." Gatomon pointed past the blue ice digimon. "The door. We're trapped."

"I don't think so," Ken picked up Gatomon and started running toward the ice digimon.

"Ken, what are you doing!"

As he expected, the ice woman didn't attack. Her sharp features showed hints of confusion and surprise, and perhaps a tiny bit of admiration as they ran right past her.

Gatomon sighed with relief, then looked back over Ken's shoulder. "Ken, I'd hate to rain on your parade, but the skelemon are gaining on us."

"Almost there," he huffed as he forced his soccer-trained muscles as fast as they could carry him through the door. Then he stumbled as he tried to stop too fast after seeing what awaited them on the other side.