It was cold, but she was colder.
The thin red sweater and fur lined jeans only softening the bite of the unforgiving wind. Snow and ice whipped around her, a cold blue layer whispering, begging her to move, to dance with them. Her bag prodded at her back, a soft purple stone in the small of her back. Her best friend Azuki is sprawled across the snow next to her, unmoving, lips blue and sallow. The fluffy purple hoodie that Azuki always loved was draped across her shoulders like a mourning shawl. Sydney moved her arm ignoring the sting of tired and bruised muscles and pressing two fingers to her neck, feeling for a pulse.
There was none.
Heat rose from her friends exposed neck and tickled her fingers like octopus tentacles.
Surprise and fear raced through her limbs, shocking them into motion. Her heart beating like a jackhammer in her chest, clawing its way to her throat. She retched, the feeling uncomfortable and stifling.
'Come on. Control. The ability to feel gets hampered by frostbite.' Sydney looked at her hands, the nails already blue with cold. 'More like frost-nip.'
Sydney rolled over, nearly crying out loud at the stabbing pain in her ribs. Before using her arms to push her chest off the ground. Taking a few moments to control her breathing, gasping like her life depended on it. Maybe it did. She took a knee, trying to stand up properly but it wobbled violently, something split open, spilling red. She leaned back, sitting on her knees.
'This isn't feasible right now.'
Sydney reached into a pocket in the pack and pulled out a bandana along with a short roll of yellow bandages. Another pocket held a thumb sized knife. Trembling fingers sawed at the cloth of her pants. The blade lightly nicked at her leg, sending a stinging pain down her limbs. Her vision blurred as the memory flashed across her vision like mischievous ghouls.
.o.0.o.
She was walking with her friend, steps light and airy. "So, what do you think'll happen if we suddenly somehow have all the powers possible?"
Azuki looked up, staring at a cloud, eyes glazing over. "They will certainly have all that power go to their brains."
Sydney grinned, "Then they'll try to take over the world. Mwahahaha!"
With that Azuki shook her head in exasperation and amusement, "Or they could try to use the powers to help people."
Sydney nodded, walking down the sidewalk. Suddenly, the ground shook as if a small earthquake had just rumbled though. Concrete groaned as if they are in pain as a chasm ripped across the city. Buildings tipped, then slowly fell in as its foundations are ripped away. She grabbed her friend close so that their shoulders are pressed together.
"What in stars is happening?"
.o.0.o.
Those memories are soon banished with shaky breath. It pulsed, caked blood and grime broke apart, causing blood to ooze out in a sickly flow. She pressed the bandana onto the cut, hissing when the skin around the cut pulled and stretched. The grime on the cut fell off in a yellow and orange clump. Blood flowed out in a crimson river and dripped onto the snow, decorating it in strips and polka-dots. The bandana was quickly soaked in the red tide. Sydney shook the cloth and wrung it, causing the gathered blood to pool out in a metallic red puddle. She folded the bandana around the cut, wrapping it in layers and layers of gauze. Sydney ruffled though the bag, snatching up a pen. She wrapped it into the bandages, a makeshift splint.
It is tied together with a stiff knot.
A finality.
She stretched out a hand and focused on all the ice and snow. They whispered at her, begging her to touch them. This time she answered. Frosty cold welled up in her heart, travelled down her stomach and spine. It gathered arounds her hands and snapped at the snow and ice like an angry dragon, demanding them to gather and take shape. The vague shape of a staff etched itself on the ground. Then the ice and snow responded and gathered in the shape, cloudy and full of little ice burrs. Sydney flicked at them, magic running over the shape like an icy wave. The crutches solidified and smoothed over, becoming clear and as solid and glittery as freshly cut diamond. She slipped her hand into the loop at the top and grabbed the hand hold, waving a hand at the loop coaxing it to tighten around her arm. With a stomp, or rather a jump and a flop as she tripped crashed unceremoniously on the snow. It has worked, a weak snowbank had risen, lifting Azuki off the ground. Sydney limped forward, gingerly slipping an arm into the snow. The edges of the pile flaked off and gave way, and Azuki fell through the snow pile, the weight nearly dragging her down again. She fumbled with the weight and with a jump and an awkward heave, she positioned her friend around her shoulders.
.o.0.o.
Walking in knee deep snow with and injured leg, completely occupied hands, and something heavy hanging around her shoulders proved to be more difficult than it looks. Each step means a possible fall, another way to get more injured, to lose precious blood and heat. The snow was falling so rapidly that as soon as she cleared a step using her magic, the path behind her have filled up, ripping away her trail. The sun was only a tiny bright dot in the grey stormy skies. It crawled over her head, signaling midday, mocking her for her slowness. A trembling knee took one more step forward, her footing sliding from the ice underneath the snow. Blood has soaked though the bandages, staining them sickly dark. Yellow dripped past the bandages, leaving a cloying river on top the bed rock of dried blood.
Infected for sure.
Sydney stumbled to a stop. Chest and ribs aching, breaths a shallow wheeze. The frivolous sun seems to take a petty pity on Sydney and illuminated a small path ahead. The snow swirled around her, turning the air white with their sparkles, but through the veil she saw large structures, angular and familiar. Hope hatched in her heart, as bright as the ice underneath her feet. She took one step forward.
And slipped.
Sydney nearly dropped her friend and her crutch as the ground underneath gave way. A shout ripped from her throat as she felt herself tilting to the side. She tugged at the snow, calling them to soften her fall. The snow billowed under her, playfully leaving behind little sled like track. She fell, sending the snow fluttering around her. The snow, whispered and tickled her ear, telling her of a large city of ice. They then slid impishly down the slope, fleeing from her grasp in a tigerlike roar. Ice exposed from the avalanche glittered in the light.
Thankfully, they didn't slide with the snow.
She managed to maneuver her friend so that her head doesn't scrape on the ice, manipulating her crutch so that it acts like an icy seatbelt, tying Azuki to her back, giving her limp rider a piggyback ride. Sydney waved her hands, calling the ice and snow to solidify under her. A twist of her feet and the ice snaked around her boots. A good-sized crack appeared in front of her. She focused on it, pulling it, asking it to draw itself in the hard slippery surface. With a sweeping motion of her hands, the platform came free. Another swinging motion and a ramp of ice and snow manifested. Sydney then focused on the small pocket of snow in front of her and traced an arch in the air. The ice wobbled and slithered into a shape resembling a handle.
Another forceful motion sent a rod of ice into the back of the sled, sending it sliding down the slope in neck breaking speed, chasing the snow ahead. The snow and the bone chilling wind flayed her face, nipping her ears and ripped at her hair. The snow pounding ahead leaped around like dolphins jumping out of the water, gleeful and carefree. Sydney made motions analogous of rowing on a boat, calling the makeshift sled to travel faster, chasing the snow drift abandon of all reason.
Azuki had gotten colder.
The next rowing caught the lip of the rapidly moving snow, the little fluttery crystals laughed and pulled the sled to the middle of the wave, throwing the sled multiple times in the air. The snow stopped in a puddle. The sled, still sliding around from the inertia glided around on the surface of that snow puddle. Little ice crystals reached up and pulled the front of the sled into the snow nearly throwing Sydney and an unconscious Azuki off it. They didn't though because Sydney called at the snow to pull them towards the earth. Another wave and the makeshift sled disintegrated to a wayward puff of ice crystals that soon fled away in the shivering air. She maneuvered her friend so that she's lying peacefully on her back. Azuki's head lolling around like a bowling ball attached to thin wires. Sydney turned around.
Two warriors stood; weapons clutched in their fur-covered hands. Wolf skull helmets grinned on their heads, its teeth hiding the soldiers' eyes from view. They towered over her, the fur coats making their muscular bulk appear more demon than human. They pointed their spears, the bone tip glinting cruelly in the dying light. It pointed towards her neck. He, or at least Sydney assumed the warrior was male, said something but she can't catch the words. The sounds coming out of his mouth sounding like the warbling of water interspaced with guttural sounds like the groaning of a glacier. Out the corner of her eye, she could see the other warrior pulling his hand back. Her heart pounded violently in her chest, the throbbing roaring in her ears. She reached violently at the snow, demanding, no, begging them to respond. Time slowed. The spear soared.
Sydney dived for her friend. Another voice in her head whispered, 'Sister'. She ignored it, instead covering her friend with her body, waiting for the sting of the spear through her heart. Eyes screwed shut.
It never came.