Chapter 3:

For several moments, she stayed still. What was it? She'd never seen an animal like it. It slightly reminded her of a lizard, but she soon realized that it had wings. It was big, bigger than Sven (though definitely smaller than the Earth Giants), and covered in black scales. She saw that it also had a long tail, which ended in two black fins.

As she stared at the creature, Gale stirred up some of the snow it was sitting on. That's when she noticed the blood. She took a few steps closer, and saw where it was coming from. There was a gash in the creature's back right leg; a particularly nasty one. She looked at the creature, still asleep, and decided to get closer. Dangerous or not, it clearly needed help.

Gale stirred up a few leaves, making their chirp-like noise in encouragement. She took a few steps closer, trying not to wake the creature. Unfortunately, she managed to step on a twig.

The sound caused the creature to stir, then open its eyes. They were bright green, with dark ovals for pupils. Said pupils looked around for a moment, as if dazed, before settling on her. Then they narrowed to slits, and the creature growled.

She took a step back, startled, but didn't go any further. The creature still eyed her, but didn't growl again. She eyed it right back. Her instincts told her to run, or to freeze it to the ground before it could get up. But Gale had made no move to stop the creature, and she knew enough to trust them.

She took a slow step forward, keeping her hands where the creature could see them. It noticeably tensed, but it didn't growl this time. She eyed the gash in its leg, and had an idea. She needed to show this creature that she wasn't a threat. Maybe if she helped ease its pain…?

She took yet another step forward. The creature growled again, and tried to stand. It visibly winced in pain as it tried to put weight on the gashed leg.

"Don't do that." She told it, keeping her voice soft but firm. The creature looked at her, eyes still slits. She stared right back. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." She silently willed Gale to help her, and sent a small shower of snowflakes into the air. The creature let out another small growl, but it was out of surprise rather than malice. Gale caught the snowflakes, and directed them onto the creature's wound before it could get away.

Said creature was understandably startled by her magic, but then seemed to relax a little. Clearly the cold flakes helped ease the pain a bit. The creature looked at her again, but this time its pupils grew wider, and it let out a small warble.

"You're welcome." She told it, offering a small smile. Still, she was concerned. The gash was too severe for a simple handful of snow to fix. What's more, the creature hadn't moved much since she'd gotten there, even when it thought she was a threat. Was it weak from the crash? Hungry? If it was hungry, then she definitely needed to bring it food. While Gale seemed to think it was harmless, she had no evidence that it wouldn't try to hunt and eat the Northuldra.

"Gale, please stay with it. I'll be right back." The Wind Spirit chirped, making a few leaves bounce in the air. This was their way of saying that they agreed.

With that, she half-walked, half-ran back to last night's camp. She hadn't had time to take down her tent before Gale had whisked her away, and as such it was the only one still up. The only evidence that anyone had been there except for her were the slightly-smoky remains of the campfires.

She went into her tent, and found exactly what she needed. Yelena, once she'd realized that Elsa would spend most of her time with the Spirits, had insisted that she keep food and medicines with her throughout the day. Which is why, on that morning, there were three smoked fish, cloth bandages, and a small collection of herbs sitting in a basket on the floor of her tent. She picked it up quickly (considering herself lucky that she kept them all in the same place) and had her ice tent evaporate.

She was about to run back to Gale and the creature when she heard a squeak. She looked down to find Bruni staring up at her, curiously. She paused, remembering that the creature had been sitting in the snow…it must have been cold. Nothing that the Fire Spirit couldn't fix.

"Come on, Bruni." She gestured with her head. "There's someone who needs some warming up."