Klaus dropped the firewood.

Smoke curled into the sky like black serpents. 

The wind carried the scent of burning timber 

and something else, something bitter. 

The crackle of flames echoed through the village. Then came the bell. 

Sharp, heavy. 

The warning bell.

Klaus's eyes widened.

He ran.

His boots slammed against the snow-packed earth. The wind whipped at his face. 

The trees blurred past as the firelight grew nearer.

Then he saw it.

His home.

Burning.

Flames clawed up the wooden walls, 

licking the roof until it collapsed in a spray of sparks. The small hut at the village edge, 

the only place that had ever felt warm, 

was being consumed by fire.

Around it, villagers stood in a circle.

Torches in their hands.

Blank faces turned toward the blaze.

Klaus froze.

His body trembled.

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came.

Then a voice rang out, sharp, cruel, and deafening.

"The witch has harbored a Kono Beast. Her soul is cursed. Let the flames take the taint!"

The head shaman. His cloak dragged in the snow, and the wolf skull on his staff glowed with a faint violet sheen.

Klaus's legs moved before his mind could catch up.

He pushed through the crowd.

Smoke stung his eyes.

The heat cracked the air.

"Mother!"

He saw her.

Trapped inside the doorway.

Her face bloodied, her arms burned, but still, alive. She held a kitchen knife in one hand, 

her back against the inner wall. 

Behind her, Siva growled low, 

fur bristling, eyes burning with frost.

Their eyes met.

She smiled, just barely.

"Klaus," she mouthed. "Run."

The shamans raised their hands.

No.

The cold inside Klaus surged.

His vision swam.

Everything slowed.

He raised both hands.

The snow around him lifted, spiraling upward like dust in a gale.

A villager grabbed his shoulder. "No! Boy, don't—!"

Klaus turned.

Ice burst from his feet, slamming the man backward. A jagged trail of frost spread out beneath him, freezing the torches of three others. 

The crowd screamed, stumbling away. 

The shamans began to chant.

Klaus ran.

He dove into the fire.

Siva yelped as he crashed through the door, 

skidding across the burning floor. 

His arms wrapped around his mother.

"We're leaving," he said, choking on smoke.

She coughed, pushing him back.

"No, you take her. You take the fox and go. Do you hear me?"

"I'm not—"

"You're not dying here!" she roared. "Not like this!"

The roof cracked above them. Sparks showered down.

"Listen to me," she said. Her hands shook. Her voice was failing. "You're not cursed, Klaus. You never were. He was like you... your father. He could feel the cold, too. He could shape it. He, he knew you'd be different. Special."

Klaus's breath caught.

"Go," she whispered. "Live."

The fire swallowed her then.

Klaus screamed.

Siva lunged beside him, pushing him out.

He stumbled into the snow, clutching the fox.

The crowd turned.

The flames behind him roared into the sky.

Klaus ran.

He didn't look back.

The shouts faded.

The village vanished behind white and smoke.

He ran until his legs gave out.

He fell in the snow, clutching Siva, both shaking.

The storm swallowed them whole.

Snow lashed his face like shards of glass.

Klaus pushed forward, 

one foot after the other, 

dragging himself through the deepening drifts. 

His arms ached from cradling Siva beneath his cloak. The fox trembled faintly against his chest, 

but she was alive. That was all that mattered.

The forest was gone. 

Nothing but white now. 

Sky and earth blending 

into one endless, howling void. 

Each gust stole the breath from his lungs. 

Each step felt like it might be his last.

His lips moved before he realized he was speaking.

"Why did it have to happen like this?"

His voice cracked, more from grief than cold.

"I was fine. I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't want power. I just wanted... peace."

His words were snatched by the wind, unheard by anyone but Siva and the shattered sky above.

"I was happy," he muttered. "For once. Just for a moment. I had her. I had you."

Tears burned in his eyes but froze before they could fall.

"She wasn't afraid of me. She held me. Even when I made the snow fall in the middle of summer, she just smiled. She said it meant I was special."

His legs buckled, and he fell to his knees in the snow.

Siva whimpered, shifting in his arms. Her nose nudged his chin, soft and cold.

He looked down at her.

"You should've run too. But you stayed."

He laughed, a hollow sound that vanished into the storm.

"I don't even know where I'm going. Maybe there's nowhere. Maybe that's the point."

The sky above cracked with a distant rumble, like thunder made of ice.

Klaus looked up through frostbitten lashes.

The stars shimmered behind the shattered sky.

And for a moment, he wondered if his mother could see him.

"I'm not strong," he whispered.

"But I'll survive. I'll live. Because you told me to."

He rose again, clutching Siva close.

The wind howled.

And Klaus kept walking.