Before we start I'd like to thank MysteriousSherlock for following and favouriting, given how much I love your work, that does mean a lot to me.

The crunch of snow seemed to echo through the deserted forest. It had survived for centuries, to my relief, I wouldn't have anywhere to practice otherwise.

I wasn't wearing as much as a normal person would at this time of year, but the cold didn't bother me really. I only wore enough to stop people freaking out. Most would be in three layers with ear muffs and a hat; I had a coat zipped all the way up, jeans and a pair of trainers.

A small smile spread across my face as I reached the frozen lake. It was surrounded by trees on all sides and a wall of rocks dominated the opposite side. This place held many horrors, both old and recent, but it was still a tranquil place, a perfect place for practice.

I walked up to the lake. The ice was probably too thin to support someone's weight, but that didn't stop me placing a confident foot on its surface, then the other.
The ice creaked beneath my feet, groaning from my weight and threatening to crack.

Without needing to think ice spread from my feet and deep into the water, freezing it solid.

I walked to the centre of the lake and raised my arms. Snow and icicles on either side quivered in response. I lowered them, which let the snow and ice drop before raising them again, triggering a more powerful response.

This repeated several times until the icicles had pulled themselves 180 degrees and the snow hung six feet off the ground.

I quickly began moving my arms in a well practiced fashion, almost in the manner of conducting an orchestra during an incredibly fast paced song. Around me the icicles detached themselves from the branches and began spiralling around me, quickly picking up speed. The snow joined the icicles and flurries flung themselves around at my command, to the point where I couldn't see beyond the snow.

The wind conjured by my movement of the snow and ice whipped around me, sending my long, dark brown hair flying in several directions, but never into the path of the flying snow and ice.

In one fluid movement the snow and ice were shoved to the sides. My arms were held outstretched as my breath clouded the air in front of me.

I flung my arms forward, sending the snow and ice flying. My arms moved quickly again, but not quite as frenzied. This time it was softer, more controlled movements. In a few minutes the snow had formed into tightly packed snowmen, snow forts and snow balls.

The icicles had joined with the snowmen to form noses and limbs, and some cases formed headwear.

My arms fell down by my sides as I stared at what I created. They were pretty good, but my practice wasn't over yet.

I let out long controlled breath and let a ball of ice form in the water vapour. I let it hang in the air, then began moving it without using my arms.

It wasn't easy, I could only get it to move a few inches in a given direction, but it was a start.

I let it become water vapour again and took a deep breath. I held out my arm and stared at the space above the palm, holding a picture of something in my head.

With encouragement from the movements of my other hand, ice began to form above my hand.
It grew upwards, thinning in some places and expanding in others. With one big expansion at the top, it was done.

An ice flower floated above my hand, a tulip to be precise.

I took hold of the icy stem with one hand, walked over to a small part of the lakeside and knelt down. I gently lowered the ice tulip into the snow, making sure the snow packed itself tightly around the fragile stem so that it would stand. Throughout these actions my fingers never felt the chill of the ice.

I let go of my control over the snow and stepped back.

It held well, although seemed to be a lonely figure, but it suited.

I rubbed my eyes beneath my glasses, certain that I could feel my eyes burning with tears.

"Ice cold powers, Ice cold heart"

I did my best to try not to feel too much. The last time my emotions had gotten out of control, well, it didn't end well.

Breathing calmly I pulled my hand back and began walking away from the lake, but the evidence of my practice remaining, but not many people came here, so it didn't really matter. Even if they did, it didn't mean anything.

The next day was another cold one apparently; however it was the Christmas holidays so I didn't have to face the day yet.

Or so I thought.

"Jackie!" called my mum up the stairs.

"Yes?" I called back, slightly more awake.

"Will you come downstairs please? We need to go Christmas shopping!"

I groaned; I really didn't want to go.

"Come on, otherwise Santa might skimp on the presents."

I hadn't believed in Santa Claus since I was seven, my mum knows this, but still pulls this thing every year.

"Alright, I'm coming!"

I kept my head down as I wandered through the shops, trying to find something for my parents. I didn't have much in the way of spending money, so I had to improvise.

With presents more or less decided and stored in my backpack I checked the time. I still had an hour until I had to meet mum, so I just wandered.

I edged my way against the crowd, a larger crowd than I had expected, past eager shoppers and into an empty space between two shops.

The large crowd had put me on edge, so I took deep breaths to calm myself. It couldn't happen here, not now.

I didn't like human contact. Due to my power my body temperature was lower than normal person. So someone just brushing against me was uncomfortably warm, not painful, just uncomfortable.

There was tickle in my nose, causing me to sneeze loudly. At the same time I sneezed there was a crashing noise behind me.

I spun around to see a settling dustbin lid rattling behind me.

"Hello?"

There wasn't an answer.

I didn't think it was a good idea, but at the same time I had an hour to kill, so I decided to go further.

As I walked along, I heard voices.

"Stupid sand, why do people have to sneeze at you?"

"Calm down Sally, you know freaking makes it worse."

"I am calm! It's just annoying that people always sneeze."

"Well at least you don't moult!"

There was soft laughter in response.

Sand? Moulting?

Either these people were crazy or...

Crazy was all could really think of.

Against my better judgement I crept forward as the voices retreated. I came across a doorway where the voices were coming from.

I adjusted the bag straps I walked in. As I took a step I heard a crackling sound from beneath me. Looking down I could see ice forming around my feet.

I was afraid.

Taking long, calming breaths and mentally chanting my little mantra allowed the ice to retreat, but it could come back if I wasn't careful. That shouldn't have happened, must have been the unusual situation.

I walked further in, following the voices.

It was dim, but the light grew as I got closer to the voices. The voices and the light reached its peak when I reached a pair of closed doors, the windows of which were blocked off by curtains.

The door was slightly ajar, so I could hear the voices fairly clearly.

Having decided that this was enough I made to leave when someone called for silence, causing me to freeze in place.

"Alright, alright, calm down. The meeting for HOG is now in progress."

A feminine voice that I'd heard earlier spoke up.

"Do we have to call it HOG? It sounds stupid, can't we just say-?"

"You know why we shorten it Tina, we've had this discussion before." The voice that spoke first said. I got the impression this was a large, gruff man.

"Ya gotta admit it's a little funny." asked someone with a thick Australian accent.

Tina seemed to huff and settled down.

"Okay, so, how's the search going?" asked the gruff voice.

This brought groans from everyone else.

"Are you serious? It's the same answer as always!" cried the Australian.

"No luck." Chimed Tina and the other voice I'd originally heard.

The gruff voice sighed. "I must admit I've had no luck either."

"See!" cried the Australian, "even Nigel can't find them! It would be better if we just moved on to find them."

"Not yet." Chimed the one I'll nickname Sneezy. "They'll probably really good at hiding it. You understand Tina. The care you took to hide them?"

Tina sighed. "Yes, but power's like that... What about you Nigel? Do you feel that they're here?"

"Hmmm." Went the gruff voice. "I think they are."

The Australian groaned. "Oh come on! How many times have we searched the city? We should have found them by now!"

"Then we need to step it up." Replied Nigel. "There are a lot of people in Burgess, we can't have encountered them all yet."

I managed to bring myself back to reality. I didn't know what these guys wanted, but I doubted that it would be good for them to find me out here.

I stood fully upright and turned, not noticing the large patch of ice I had formed beneath my feet.

"Aaahhhh!"

I yelled as I slipped on the ice and fell backwards. My hand reached for the door, but failed to grab it, knocking it open instead.

I crashed to the floor on my back and looked into the now upside down room. Inside it were four people, three sitting, one standing.

The standing man was dressed in rather festive colours and large. As in tall and very sturdily built, with a thin white beard and busy eyebrows.

I could easily pick out the Australian man, as he had tanned skin and seemed to be quite lithe as well as incredibly tall. His hair was dark blonde but his eyes seemed to be a dark brown.

The two women were very different from each other. One was tall and slim with black hair and the other was short with blonde, almost gold coloured hair.

The five of us stared for a few seconds before the dark haired woman got out of her seat and went towards me.

I scrambled to my feet and ran for it.

"Come back here!" I heard her screech.

Looking over my shoulder I saw her slip on my ice, but quickly recovered herself by leaning against the wall.

What I saw next would stay with me forever.

From her back sprung a pair of clear, insect like wings and a humming sound filled the air as she rose into the air and shot forward.

I shook myself out of my shock and kept running, but the humming got louder as she easily caught up.

In my panic ice was forming beneath my feet, so I decided to use it to my advantage.

I jumped and allowed it to wrap around my feet. The bottom quickly formed into a sharp blade, excellent for ice skating.

I landed and set off faster than I could run.

Now I had to consciously control the ice so it would form in front of me instead of beneath. I had to keep my hand in front of me to guide it, but as I sorted that I came across another problem.

I had no idea where I was going.

I had been following my ears on the way in, and I couldn't use the same method to get out, so all I could do was cross my fingers and hope that I was going in the right direction. What didn't help was that as I got further away from the meeting room, the darker it got.

The humming seemed to stay at the same volume, so it meant that I wasn't going to get caught any time soon.

A T junction corridor came up and I decided to go left at the last minute. I heard a loud crash in the gloom as my pursuer crashed into the wall.

I looked behind me to see her get up quickly and resume the chase, her face hidden in the gloom, but likely in a scowl.

That's when my ice stopped following the floor.

I rammed into the wall and cried out as pain exploded in my face and my hand was almost crushed between my body and the wall. There was an almost sickening crack as my glasses collided with the wall and snapped.

Before I could do anything a hand grabbed my shoulder and a panting voice said.

"Got you."