The incessant shivering wasn't from the cold. In fact, trying to forge a path through waist deep snow-drifts was making her sweat, but the sub-zero temperate causing the droplets to freeze and crack on her skin.
Several times she almost turned back, telling herself that it was too much work. If she returned home she'd have a warm apartment, a job and some certainty, even if it was just the fact that every day she'd do the same, boring drudgery.
Another gust of wind blew the fine, powdery snow in her face and she tried to blink the flakes out of her eyes. The only thing she was sure of on her current path was that she sincerely wished the Lin Kuei had built their headquarters somewhere in the Carribean.
She glanced around at the barren, snow-covered plain with cliffs in the distance. In a way it reminded her of the frozen village in Outworld. The bitter cold also kept out unwelcome visitors just as well. Maybe it was some sort of ancestral memory that made Sub-Zero insist on building in the middle of nowhere.
Am I an unwelcome visitor? she thought to herself. She shivered again, hard. There was some comfort to be found in the fact that she hadn't been hunted down and slaughtered in her own home, but she hadn't exactly received an invitation back either. They might not even care what happened to her.
A sudden thought flickered in her mind. One of the far-ranging scouts must have spotted her, yet no one approached to either eliminate or escort her. A mistake as big as hers would have made her infamous, and just the fact she was on foot would have given her identity away in moments to any veteran clan member.
Momentary panic seized her. Maybe they moved the headquarters. Maybe she was struggling through a blizzard to an abandoned fortress.
Maybe you should shut up, she told the panicking part of her brain. There would be no ranged scouts in a blizzard; the teams would have taken refuge as soon as the weather looked to turn dangerous. In fact, the only member who would have been sent out in such extreme conditions was trudging her way towards headquarters.
Another glance at the mountain range in the distance did not find them noticeably closer. It was slow going at best, and the blizzard would probably run its course before she got within range of the temple.
On one hand, they would know she was coming and could drive her away. On the other hand, did she really want to surprise a potentially hostile enclave of highly trained warriors?
"This is the last time I listen to Kenshi or Min," she grumbled, pushing forward through another drift.
No one in their right mind would attempt to scale the ice-coated cliffs protecting the Frozen Temple. Then again, it took a special kind of crazy to voluntarily join a warrior clan. To Frost, however, the ice was a boon, not an obstacle.
Her bare fingertips dug into a tiny crevice in the rock-face. A thin film of ice on her skin adhered to the frozen stone, then broke off as she pulled away to reach for another handhold.
One mistake would be fatal, but she climbed with single-minded determination, purposely keeping her face to the sky and not the sharp stone fragments and ice shards littering the ground below.
She had been climbing all day, and with the sunset she was only now within reach of the peak. Each muscle shrieked at her to stop, but there was no rest to be had until she reached the flat ground before the climb down.
When she finally scrambled over the final ledge, she didn't have the strength to do anything but lay flat on her back and pant. Her thigh muscle twitched visibly whenever she attempted to sit up, so she contented herself with the thought that anyone who managed to climb up would be too tired to attack her. In any case, the visibility was still so bad that they would likely trip over her prone body before seeing it.
Her eyes felt as heavy as lead, and she contemplated the pros and cons of getting some sleep. Her body quickly overruled her rational decision making and she was asleep before she finished deciding it would be a bad idea.
She actually spotted the scout before he caught sight of her. He was actually just a blotch of color against the still falling snow, but when he stopped suddenly and retreated just as quickly, she knew he had gone to sound the alarm.
The angry muscles in her legs protested as she struggled up from her perch on the tiny ledge, but she didn't want to be trapped if she was decided to be an intruder. Her precautions weren't necessary, because when her feet touched solid ground again, she was still in solitude.
The temple and its grounds loomed before her and despite her relief at finally arriving, she couldn't bring herself to take even another step forward.
No one was out on the practice fields, all of the clan were holed up inside for the durations of what turned out to be an unusually long blizzard. Nothing lay between her and the Lin Kuei but several hundred yards of snow and ice.
Climbing back over the cliffs began to have a certain appeal. The shivering started again.
"I have to do this," she said to the empty, frigid air.
She took a tentative step forward, suddenly unsure of her own footing on the ice. "I have to do this," she repeated, moving forward again.
Trembling too much to hide anymore, she finally came face to face with the fantastically carved, double doors. She wondered briefly, and a little hysterically, if she should knock.
A few minutes later she began to entertain the thought in earnest. They had to know she was there, right?
The minutes rolled by in monotony, and finally she gave in and banged on one of the doors with her fists.
There was no response. Now there was no doubt that they knew she was there. They were ignoring her.
Between the shivering, she fumed. Of all the scenarios she imagined, including several worst cases, this was not one of them. Logically, she knew she should just be disappointed and perhaps sad, but instead she was almost unreasonably angry. She had, after all, just trudged for miles and miles in a blizzard. The least they could do was tell her to go the hell away.
She beat on the door again. "Hey, answer me, you fuckers!"
Silence again. "I'm not leaving here until one of you assholes answers." She crossed her arms and waited.
And waited.
It was long past midnight before she finally heard a slight creaking coming from the door hinges.
