I looked down at the sheet of paper again, then back up at the rocks I was facing. Alfred was starting what the Heads called 'workshops', where Descendants got together to practice their powers. Alfred had never hosted one, and all the Descendants of Frost were going to be there.

I hadn't seen them since the big HOG meeting in March, and it was now October. I wonder if they'd changed all that much.

I ran their names through my head. There was Alfred, Chris, Stephen and Mary, I'd seen them at the base and fought alongside the latter three. There were the twins James and Jacob, Graham, Alice and Rachel.

I looked at the sheet again, which just said to be by your nearest Tunnel opening at ten AM. We hadn't closed the Tunnels leading to the base, to be honest I think the Heads just didn't know what to do with it now, so it was just there.

I put the piece of paper in my jeans pocket and folded my arms, hearing the rustley, crackly noise of my raincoat. I flicked my arm up to look at my watch, it was right on ten.

I let out a breath and kicked at leaves in boredom, where were they?

As soon as that thought went through my mind, something thudded into my shoulder.

I let out a sigh through my nose and turned to see the twins, James and Jacob, standing behind me. The pair had the typical dark hair, dark eyes and pointed chin, however they had a more distinct, ski slope nose and high arching eyebrows. They were identical, like Nigel and Alec, but they seemed to more joined at the hip than the latter pair.

One of them had a snowball hovering above his hand and I rolled my eyes.

"Really?"

"Ah, come on. Lighten up!" said the one with the snowball. Without warning he flung it at me and I ducked underneath it, allowing it splatter against the tree behind me.

"Look, hadn't we better go, we're going to be late!"

"Alright." They chimed together in disappointment. One tapped his foot against the ground to form the Tunnel.

"Race you there!" They said at the same time and they shot down it on ice.

"Hey!" I called down, before racing after them.

I quickly caught up on my skates, much to their shock.

"You'll have to go faster than that!" I called as I shot past them.

I heard them conferring behind me and pretty soon they were level with me.

"See ya!" They called and shot past me. I poured my power into my skates and shot past them.

"See you indeed!"

The end of the Tunnel was coming up and I held out my hand to pass through it. We got out the other side, but the twins hadn't stopped. They went up on their ice paths and I followed them, trying to work out where they were going.

They shot through another Tunnel and once we were in I shot straight past them again. I was getting tired, so from there it became a neck and neck race to see who would get exhausted first.

We shot out of the Tunnel and skidded to a halt, panting.

"You, are, good." Panted one of the twins.

"Not, bad, yourselves." I looked up to see that we were out in the middle of nowhere. Pine trees towered above us and there were patches of snow on the ground. A lake stood behind the ten of us, flat calm and shining like a mirror. I couldn't even tell what country we were in, although since Alfred was Scottish I assumed we were in Scotland.

"Jackie!"

Before I could react I felt something small launch itself at my back and wrap their arms around my shoulders. Only the good natured laughter stopped my sending an ice blast back there.

"What the-?"

Giggling in my ear told me who was now clinging to my back.

"...Alice?"

"Yay!" She cried in a voice I'm sure she was just putting on for laughs. I felt her slip down a bit, and caught her legs before her arms could strangle me.

"Whoah, easy there."

I heard her mother, Rachel, still laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"I don't think I've seen her do that to anyone." Said Rachel between laughs.

"Mum!" Cried Alice indigently, while I sighed slightly, not sure whether to be annoyed or flattered.

"Now we're all here." I heard a familiar Scottish voice say. "How about we get started?"

I turned to see Alfred standing behind us, and my face split into a smile.

"Alfred!"

"Long time no see lass." He looked the same as ever. "So, let's get to training."

"No, I want to stay on Jackie." Declared Alice from my behind my head.

"You're not going to be able practice from my back." I said, trying to turn my head to face her, but failing.

"Come on monkey. We're not here to mess around." Said Rachel, finally taking Alice off my back. She tried clinging to my shoulders, even my hair, but Rachel expertly peeled off her fingers off.

"Mum!"

"We're here to practice ours powers, not make Jackie a human climbing frame."

"Okay..."

I heard sniggering and I sent a glare at almost everyone else in the room. Some shut up, but Mary, James and Jacob just laughed harder.

I think everyone except Stephen was here, which struck me as odd. I could understand if Rachel was here just to watch Alice, so maybe we weren't doing anything to do with wind today.

Alfred clapped his hands together, getting our attention. "Alright, now that we're done turning Jackie into a climbing frame. How about we get down to practice?"

Alfred crouched down and gestured to the snow around him.

"So, could any of ye tell me how recent this snow is? Or where we are based on the consistency?"

The other eight of us looked at each other with similar expressions of confusion, then one by one crouched down and poked the snow.

The overall consensus was, no idea.

Alfred poked the snow and said. "Well, I can tell you that this snow fell roughly two hours ago, and has a make up consistent with parts of Europe, specifically Germany."

We all nodded incomprehensively, which I found frustrating. At school I was the one with the answers, and here I was just as clueless as everyone else. I managed to force the frustration down to mild irritation, but I was still annoyed.

Alfred, not impressed by our efforts, spent the next few hours teaching us how to tell the age of snow and consistency for geography. I'd be lying if I said it was engaging, and I know the twins and Alice were bored, as they were acting up. Chris, Mary and Rachel were struggling to remain focused, it seemed that Graham and I were the only ones trying to pay attention.

"So, now I've managed to bore ye senseless." Said Alfred after what felt like an eternity. "I expect you to remember all of this for next time, and once you've proved ye can do it, then we'll move onto the interesting stuff."

So with a unanimous groan we were dismissed, each of us trying to retain the information we'd just been given.