There was no contrast worse than going from the warm, sunny, comfortable shore right into Glacier Valley. They swapped into thicker clothing, leaving as little exposed skin as possible. Matt wore a heavy fur coat that didn't restrict his movement too much, and Lance was now clad in his old black officer's uniform. Supposedly it was well lined with silk and even little patches of heating pads. Natalie just stayed in her frilly red dress since it was great for protecting her against elemental magic, including ice.

They had only traveled a little ways into Glacier Valley before the sneezing and sniffling started. Natalie started shivering and complaining about her soaked feet and soon after Lance joined in with an explosive sneeze. Matt silently pressed them forward. The truth was that he was actually pretty miserable too, though not as cold as the others. Nothing they had encountered in this valley had been an edible creature, and his rations had frozen over.

"I would say that my socks are frozen, but I don't even know anymore," Natalie continued, "I can't feel them since my feet are so numb. Hopefully we don't get out of here and I just melt since I think I've turned into a popsicle."

"It's getting darker and colder as we go deeper into the valley, you really think it won't get worse from here?" Lance argued. All of the creatures they had encountered had used some kind of ice magic or were pretty much made of snow and ice.

"If you two could stop complaining, you would see that we were almost to the bottom of the valley!" Matt exploded. He was tired of being the reasonable one in the group. That was supposed to be Natalie's job. "There's a small group of igloos at the bottom and I think we could take shelter in one. If not, we can at least raid a few supplies from it to camp out." Matt jabbed his finger down the trail they were following now towards a small trail of smoke climbing up into the air.

"Wait," Natalie interjected, "Do you mean that if they don't give us shelter you're going to steal from them?"

"Yeah. We need to restock soon and there isn't a transport stone anywhere around here. If there was, we wouldn't need to spend the night in this frozen valley. We are the main characters, and they're pretty much NPCs." Matt often referred to their group as the main characters thanks to his gaming habits and the importance of their mission.

Natalie was never sure if their mission actually justified all of the looting they did, but she also knew that Lance would agree with Matt and she would be out voted. As she puzzled over the morality of their plan, she noticed a pair of blue ears sticking up out of the back of Matt's coat.

"So that's why you've been so warm!" Natalie reached out to grab his collar and pull him back towards her. She could see that Nolegs was curled up over his shoulders as she yanked.

"Hey! He's not warming me up, I am keeping him warm!" Matt yelped. He turned quickly on his heel to keep her from snatching at his cat. By a turn of bad luck, he happened to be standing on a small patch of ice in the road and his foot maintained the momentum even after he started to turn.

As the pain exploded in his ankle, Matt fell in a heap to the ground. He let out a shout and the group's mood changed instantly from bored and miserable to alert and worried. It only took a minute and a bright glow of white magic before Matt was back on his feet.

"Does it still hurt?" Natalie fussed, "I can cast it again if it didn't fully heal. I'm sorry, this was my fault." She felt around the ankle, checking for any residual swelling or bruising that her Heal didn't catch.

"I'm okay, Natz. I just slipped and twisted it a bit. Those slimes hit harder. Hell, my grandma hits-"

"Quiet!" Lance hissed.

"Hey, don't inter-" Matt started before Lance shushed him again.

"Listen." He paused for a moment and crouched to the ground. He held a hand to his eye and a palm to the frozen ground. "Do you feel that?"

Neither of the others heard or felt anything, but they stood silent and still. After a few tense seconds, Natalie relaxed a little. Just as Lance stood and began lowering his weapon, the ground of the path just ahead of them exploded.

Lance's reaction was instant, though the other two were delayed. Two flame charged rounds slammed into the imposing figures that emerged from the ground. They seemed to splash across them and burst, having no effect. These shadows were two stone monoliths with carvings covering their surface.

As Matt charged and drew his weapon, one of the stones began to glow, the runes on it glowing a deep blue. A moment later, he was frozen where he stood, encased in chilling ice.

Natalie's instinct was the same as Lance's, blasting one of the stone monoliths with a fireball from her crimson staff. The blast erupted against it, but other than a little scorching, it didn't seem to affect it. The other obelisk glowed and a shower of spearing icicles towards her. They melted slightly as they slammed into her red dress, reducing the force and sharpness of their impact.

"Natalie, can you get Matt out of that ice?" Lance said before he noticed a white flash from one of the stones. He ducked for cover, but no attack came. Natalie's wide range healing spell Healmore freed Matt from the ice and helped her recover, but neither were prepared for what came next.

Just as Lance peaked out of cover, the stone blasted out an azure beam and covered each of them in an ancient, freezing energy.