It took several painstaking hours of climbing to get up the mainly-vertical ice wall. I kept purposefully gripping the ice until blood flowed just to make sure I could feel what I was holding. Going numb would make me fall several meters down.

But wasn't death what I was hoping for?

I glanced down, meeting the eyes of the boy below me. To either make sure I didn't fall or to use me as a prisoner of sorts, he had insisted that I should climb before him. He could climb a lot faster than me, and he seemed quite impatient with my sluggishness.

He jerked his chin up. 'Keep going.'

I turned my head back to the wall and forced myself a few more feet up. The sweat that clung to me quickly turned into frost on my skin, forcing shivers from me. Though this work-out was keeping me fairly warm, it was still painfully freezing.

Luckily, however, the entrance was only a few more yards up.

I pushed hard, ignoring the spots of dizziness that tried to claim my consciousness. Finally, finally, I pulled myself out of the hole. I sprawled over the snow a good meter away, panting.

The boy came up after me, hardly breathing hard and sitting cross-legged next to my huddled self. I curled up where I was, attempting to get warmer, and to block out the pain in my hands—which overshadowed the pain on my head. My body quaked with stress and unheard sobs.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

The boy, seeming to understand, patted the unscathed part of my head reassuringly. 'There, there,' he seemed to say, though what really came from his lips was rubbish to my ears.

A sob choked from my crusty lips, and I looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. He smiled down at me, barely masking a look of irritation. He's trying to cheer me up, I thought sadly. I licked my lips and swallowed dryly.

I tried for a smile also, to show him that I understood what he was trying for with that look.

He scooted closer, reaching over me and dragging me over to him. My smile faltered.

He opened his cloak and, though he was blood-covered, he wrapped it around me. He was so warm. I shivered violently, shuffling as close as I could get to him without suffocating myself. The boy wrapped his arms around me, his breath melting the ice in my hair.

My breath was quick and hasty. What was he trying with this? Could he have a knife to stab me with? My hands roamed over his hips. No belt. No weapons.

I forced myself to calm my breathing, inching my warmth-seeking hands higher. The boy shuddered. I laid my head on his chest, closing my eyes. He let me do this, though he was as stiff as a board. I was warm and comfortable in minutes.

How could he be this warm? I asked myself, though hardly really thinking about it. He was warm—that was enough for me. All I was against at the moment was the sleep that threatened to overtake me. I could feel the sun going down.

I forced my eyes open reluctantly. If we didn't start heading for the castle, we would be forced to find shelter before the cold of night hit.

He seemed to sense my change in mood, letting me go and allowing me to pull away. I stood up and bowed to him in thanks. With a skeptic look, he nodded.

I turned in the direction of the castle, sensing the boy stand up behind me.

I turned my head halfway to him, pointing in the castle's general direction. "Home," I insisted.

He cocked his head at me. "H…ome?" he struggled. With a large smile, I nodded, even though I already knew that he still didn't understand what the word meant. An idea struck me suddenly.

Moving my finger until it was directed at myself, I murmured slowly, "Fai."

The boy frowned. "Fai," he repeated, with his same questioning voice. He blinked his red eyes, and then, after some apparent thought, he seemed to understand. He pointed at himself. "Kuro—"

Trumpets blared in the distance. We both froze.

A parade of horses and men were barreling in our direction, far in the distance. The trumpets must have meant that they saw us. Mountains of snow trailed behind them, matching their speed. They'd reach us in minutes.

I cursed quietly. Ashura-O…

The boy—Kuro-something—must have had some negative thoughts about the people. He reached behind him, grasped at air, then looked down and said something that was probably a curse. I made a note to remember the word for later.

Kuro-san balled his fists, glaring at the approaching stampede. He wasn't going to try to run? I tilted my head to one side at him, radiating curiosity. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. Confusion washed over him, and his raised arms lowered just a bit.

'They aren't enemies?' he seemed to wonder.

I shook my head. I allowed myself a small look of annoyance at the rescue team, for Kuro-san's benefit, but I didn't imply anything that made these people seem like bad men. And when they finally made it to us, Kuro-san stayed exactly where he was. I shot him a grateful look.

But as they surrounded us, I changed my appearance. My face molded into my expressionless mask that I'd had so much practice on over the years.

Some of the palace wizards gave us horses to ride on, while the others stood around the hole in the ice, levitating their dead man and horses out of the drop. The living horses whinnied and pawed the snow anxiously. Red smeared the ice.

I watched the man and horses get wrapped up and strapped to some carrier horses. As I did this, another wizard threw a thick cloak over my shoulders, and I was hoisted up onto a mare that was as white as the snow, with a single black star on her nose. She snorted at the smell of death on my skin.

Kuro-san was offered a black horse with three parallel white stripes on his forehead. Instead of waiting to be lifted up by a waiting wizard, he snatched the reins from the man and jumped onto the horse with ease, as if he didn't have several wounds covering his body. His horse pranced around, nose lifted high and snorting mist. Kuro-san controlled him effortlessly.

With only one hand on the reins, Kuro-san strode up to me and my mare. My masked slipped into awe.

My mare gauged his stallion. They snorted at each other.

In return, Kuro-san gauged me. I looked away from the intensity of those eyes. He was obviously confused at why I had blocked my emotions around these men, and not him. If I was honest with myself, I knew it was stupid that I did. Showing my true self to a boy I just met was the same as showing it off to everyone in this world. I decided silently that I would put up my mask with Kuro-san, too, no matter what.

I couldn't afford any more mistakes.

He saw the change in my eyes, and it was clear that he wasn't happy with it. His eyes narrowed, as if threatening me to put away my mask or else. I watched him with seemingly indifferent eyes.

With an irritated sigh, Kuro-san jerked on his reins, leading the stallion away from me.

With his back turned, I couldn't help but slip a little. My gaze followed after him forlornly. What have I gotten myself into? I thought dejectedly, following after him with a snap of the reins. My mare lashed at me sharply with her tail before complying.

The rescue team was ironically quiet as they followed us back to the castle.