Upon reaching the pond Raine and Mia took off toward the water as their parents prepared the axe and rope to fall a tree small enough to fit in their cabin. With the birds gone for the winter the pond seemed still, the water like a sheet of glass.

"Are you ready Mia?" Raine asked pulling her little sister along by the hand until they reached the water's edge.

Reaching out for the surface of the water Mia could feel Raine holding her up so she could not touch the pond and disrupt the glassy surface. "Yeah!"

With a smile Raine pulled Mia back a little and stepped out onto the water, ice instantly spread over a small section of the pond, and pulling Mia with her the two ran across the pond laughing and giggling playfully until finally the entirety of the water had frozen solid beneath them. "So are we going to do better this year?"

"I can stand up by myself this time." Mia stated as she released Raine's hand and stood in her boots on the ice. With a few wobbly steps she finally gained her balance and began running around carefully. "I'm not a baby anymore, I'm just as big as you now."

Rolling her eyes Raine walked over before grabbing Mia's hand again and pulling her back to shore so she could help her with the skates. "Well let's skate then." Sitting on the ice with Mia she started to laugh as how cold her baby sister seemed to be when her butt hit the ice. "You can sit on my jacket if you're too cold."

Shedding her jacket she placed it on the ice and stood up on her skates and looked around. "The cold doesn't bother me." Skating off as fast as she closed her eyes, the cool breeze swirling all around her as she went. This feeling was the best, and opening her eyes she opened her hands and allowed a stream of snowflakes and ice to flow in ribbons behind her as she continued going around.

It was like watching a ribbon dancer at the New Year's festival, only instead of cloth the ribbons were made of the very essence of winter. "Wow…" Seeing that she was doing something she had never tried before Raine increased speed and moved her hands around, enjoying the different things she could do with different patterns of snow.

"How did you do that?" Mia asked standing up in her skates and falling over. When her sister did not answer she sat up on her knees and crawled out the center of the ice and laughed a little as Raine continued to be absorbed in the trick she was doing. "Raine, how are you doing that?" Asking again she grew a bit frustrated at not receiving a response.

However, she was a resourceful child, and having seen how her sister did her magic she looked down at her own hands. "I wanna try." Taking off her mittens she tossed them aside and clapped her hands a bit before getting a small spark of magic. For a mother few seconds the tried snapping and was finally rewarded with two small flames, one in the palm of each hand. "Look Raine! Look I can do it too!" Standing up as best she could she tried to clamber over to her older sibling but found her to still be wrapped up in her own abilities. "Raine!"

Sinking back to her knees after a few feet Mia began to feel ignored, and with a few sniffles allowed her hands to sink to her sides near the ice. Heat continued to spread through her hands though the fire was now out, and beneath her the ice began to melt.

Finally Raine snapped out of her concentrated daze and looked over to find Mia crying. "Mia, what's wrong?" She asked skating over slowly before hearing a massive crack in the ice. "Huh?" Looking up again she could see the ice thinning beneath her younger sister. "Mia…"

Before either child could react the ice beneath the place Mia had been sitting on her knees splintered before shattering. "Mia!" Reaching out without thinking Raine recovered the top of the pond with more ice, and kicking off her skates she ran over bare foot before beating on the surface. "Momma! Papa!"

Reaching over she picked up a skate and began to bash the ice, making little progress before their parents arrived at the edge of the bond. "Help!" Tears streamed down her face and jagged frost and ice began to spread on behind her as her heart grew distressed.

~~
Beneath the ice Mia kicked and did her best to swim up, but the skates on her feet made it nearly impossible to kick to the surface. Down and down she went until finally the sun's glimmer vanished behind the thick muck of the water that engulfed her.

Somehow the water did not seem as cold as it should have been, but that didn't matter as her air began to run low. 'Raine I'm scared…'

Sliding out to the center of the ice with Raine, Ellie grabbed Raine and dragged her off to the side as Daniel went to work with his axe. "Raine, what happened?!" Her mother asked frantically, holding her firmly by the shoulders. "How did she get under the ice?"

"I don't know..." she claimed before tears began to flow and she tried to get back to the place Mia had fallen through. "Please, I have to get her out of the pond!" With this attempt she was pulled onto the shore and held snuggly in her mother's grasp.

Daniel repeatedly swung the axe after he was certain Mia was no longer directly beneath the ice. It took only about 15 seconds to break through the new layer ice, and using his foot he widened the hole before pulling off his jacket and tossing his shoes and hat off to the side.

Finally he jumped in, and the world was silent and still. Fear hung thick in the air for what felt like hours, but was only a few seconds at most. Eventually Daniel burst through the cut hole in the ice and placed Mia on the edge before strategically lifting himself out of the water.

"Mia!" Raine screamed again before forcing herself out of her mother's grasp. The ice was still thick enough to walk on, and as she reached her baby sister she pulled her into her lap and shook her violently. "W-wake up Mia…please Mia, wake up." Tears flooded her vision as she continued to sob, until a cold hand pressed against her cheek and a cough greeted her.

"Raine…? What happened?" Mia shivered before curling into her sister, both girls being wrapped in Daniel's coat and lifted off the ground by their father.

Holding Mia close Raine nuzzled her forehead and looked down at her. "I don't know…" She could tell her sister was freezing, and the water couldn't have been making it any better. "Hey, why don't you make us warm like you always do?"

It took Mia a moment to respond before concentrating, her skin growing slightly warmer and her body temperature rising. It didn't last long however, and she was soon cold again. "Tired…"

"No no no…" Raine muttered in tears. "Papa-"

Daniel was already running before she could speak, and reaching the edge of the lake he looked over to see a strange man dressed in long blue robes sitting atop a blonde horse. "Sir please, I have to borrow that horse. My daughter she's fallen into the water, and-"

"Do not stand there, hand the child off to me." He rode forward and reached down for Mia. "I will not allow you to take my horse, but I will get the girl back to your homestead."

Looking back over to the path he knew it would take an hour on foot, and Mia would be sick if she did not make it home soon. "Please take both of my girls…" Handing then off to the rider he looked to Raine, nodding to her in reassurance before the stranger rode off with his girls.

He knew if either of them was in danger, Raine could make quick fork of the man and return home with her sister.

"Daniel, where are the girls going? Who was that man?" Ellie panicked as she took Daniel's hand and ran toward the path with him. All she wanted to do was get home to make sure her children were ok, and knowing Mia could get sick had her on edge.

"Don't worry, I don't know who he was, but what choice did I have? If Raine can lead him to our home he'll be there in 20 minutes. Mia has to get home…" Running briskly down the walkway he looked back to see the sled and hesitated before turning and leaving it behind.

There were currently more pressing matters to attend to.