“Hey there,” said the captain in a soft voice to the child in front of the fire, “Are you okay?”

The child didn’t say anything in response and just continued to sit in front of the fire, hugging its legs close to its chest. The captain moved closer to the child while Chase stood near the door, ready in case this was a trap. When the captain reached the child she knelt down behind it and asked it was okay a second time. The child responded to the captain this time by turning its head towards her. The child was quietly crying, which was evident in the tears running down its face and its red eyes that suggested that it had been crying for a while. Due to the hood, the child was wearing, Chase was unable to tell if the child was a boy or a girl.

After a few seconds, the child spoke to them, “He killed everyone” the child said with a sniffle.

“Who did?” asked the captain as gently as Chase has ever seen her do.

“A...a man came into the village yesterday, uncle Justin went to talk to him, and then he killed him,” the child finished, breaking down in tears and putting its face into its legs to cry into.

The captain put her hand on the child’s shoulder and attempted to comfort it saying, “It's okay, it's okay, we’re here now, nothing will hurt you now.” The child stopped crying into its knees and asked the captain if she was sure, “I’m one hundred percent sure, but before go, I need you to tell me where that man went, because if we go in the same direction as him we could run into him, and that wouldn’t be any good.”

As the captain was speaking, both Boomer and Cloud returned from where Cloud and Chase had found the dead body when they approached the door, Chase saw that Boomer was about to yell something at the building, probably to ask or tell the captain something, but before he could Chase had the foresight to walk up to him when he was approaching the building and covering his mouth, motioning with his other hand to be quiet.

As Chase re-entered the room the child was telling the captain a story, after listening for a moment Chase figured out that it was the events the had happened up until now for the child.

“We tried to run, me and mama, but we ran into a wall,” the child paused momentarily to sniffle, then continued, “mama picked me up and told me to run to Frost shroom village and not look back, and then she teleported me through the wall with her ability, but I...but I,” the child broke down into tears again, the captain tried to comfort the child once more.

“I’ve been to Frost shroom village,” Cloud said from the door, “before the great altering they used to grow and use a Frost shrooms to make goods that they would sell to travelers and neighboring settlements. But one of the things that made the shrooms so valuable to the point where everyone in their village was dedicated to growing them, was because they naturally grew with magic in them that made whoever ate them resistant to harsh temperatures, but because of the altering the only magic still around is that which is connected to every living thing life force and weapons that have the strongest of enchantments, meaning that they don’t sell magic items anymore, last I heard they weren’t doing that good though.

That’ll be some useful information if anyone’s still alive when we get there, right Boomer,” there was a pause as Chase didn’t get a response.

Chase tried to ask Boomer again but Boomer shushed him, “Shush, she got the kid to continue.”

“After I was sent through the wall, I tried to run like mama said, but I couldn’t leave him, when I turned around I forgot about the wall, so I waited and tried to climb over, but I never got very high. Eventually, though, the wall shattered into pieces on its own, and mama...mama was dead. After I cried over it I tried my best to bring her back here, back home, when people die in the village we cremate them and their ashes become one with the snow, which is what my father told me, but I didn’t know how to do that, so I put her into her bed and left her with some flowers,” the child said as fresh tears ran down its face, although it didn’t try to hide in its knees this time.

“One last thing...uh, what was your name buddy?” the captain asked, trying not to sound harsh or uncaring of what had happened to it.

“Its Fanari.”

“Okay Fanari, we’re going to head to a safe place, but before we do, I need you to tell me if you have any idea where the man went.” asked the captain.

“When I came back into town it looked like his tracks were heading towards what I think was Frost Shroom village.”

“Alright, thanks Fanari, are you okay with coming with us right now to a safer place?” the captain asked in a soft voice, Fanari nodded and then the captain got up offering Fanari her hand, which the child took and held onto after it was up.

As the captain started walking towards the door she announced, “to Northguard men!”

As their group left the building Cloud pulled out a map and led them in the right direction to Northguard.

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As Rusty and Lawrence followed the tracks that they had discovered they found that they went into the temple.

“Forge, when we go it, there’s a chance that it’s not Webs, so stay as quiet as you can and stay at the front door,” he told Rusty as his hands disappeared into his body, “I have blood with each member of the team I’m telling Pause what’s happening though sign language right now, I’d tell Taste but he doesn’t know sign language, so I’ll have to teleport my head to him, so don’t go in just yet, got it?” Lawrence asked, but before Rusty could answer him affirmatively, his head disappeared into his body leaving just a torso and legs with the head and arms looking like stubs. After his head disappeared his remaining body sat down on the ground in wait.

After a minute or so of nothing happening, Rusty was starting to get worried when suddenly Lawrence's remaining body jumped up to its feet and then collapsed in on itself until only a single drop of Lawrence’s blood fell into the snow. When this happened Rusty panicked, unsure of what he should do and then suddenly Rusty was stunned as the left of the two massive temple doors shut off its hinges and crashed into a house that was across the street from the temple, behind the door was a giant perfectly square iceberg that was almost as big as the door itself. Rusty ran to where the door used to be to see Lawrence and Taste standing on opposite sides of the door, looking to have only narrowly avoided the iceberg.

“What the hell was that?!” Rusty asked the two.

“Nevermind that Forge! Tactical retreat! We need to leave, NOW!” Lawrence yelled at him.

“It's too late for that,” said a voice that belonged to a figure father down the hallway in the direction of the shrine in the middle of the temple. The man that approached them was wearing a dark blue cloak, which hid most of his appearance, he also had dark brown hair and eyes with his cloak moved aside on his left side to reveal the scabbard of the sword that he currently wielded in his right hand, “You think you can escape the Northguard you barbarians?!” The man shouted as icicles formed around the man.

“Forge! Shield! Now!” Shouted Lawrence, as he grabbed Taste, who was currently in the form of a kid Rusty’s age with dark skin and short afro, and ran towards Rusty, “Make it as tough as you can, if you don’t were dead.”

Rusty reached for his bottle but then remembered that he had made a gauntlet out of his blood. As the icicles in front of the man down the hallway shot at the three of them at an intense speed, Rusty barely had a second to put up a wall in front of them. Luckily for Rusty and his comrades, the density of Rusty’s blood was as high as it had ever been thanks to trying donors blood earlier, it was so dense to the point as to where the icicles didn’t even leave a mark on the wall Rusty had put into place.

“The ice was surprisingly weak for its speed,” Rusty said aloud.

“No, that’s not it, earlier it knocked down the buildings from the door, there’s no way it's weak,” Lawrence replied, “Wait, what are we doing,” Lawrence said, grabbing the boys, “Let’s go! It's not safe!”

As they headed out the door Rusty recalled his blood wall back into his glove. After it was recalled Rusty saw the man that attacked them begin coming after them, although he didn’t run, he simply walked after them.

“Watch out!” Lawrence shouted as he pulled the boys back moments before a giant wall of ice fell the sky in front of them with enough force to crush the sides of the houses on either side of the road.

“We have no other options,” Lawrence said in an angry yet defeated tone, “We have to fight him”

As the group turned to face their enemy, the man who was after they stepped outside of the temple and smiled, for he knew their group was about to attempt and knew of his future satisfactory as he achieved his revenge that he was certain he was destined to accomplish.