13 Rescue Ryan

The cold wind hit their faces, freezing the skin where it's exposed.

Who ever said cold burns fiercer than heat couldn't be more correct.

What little skin they have exposed felt like there were little needles stabbing into it.

The only reason they have not frozen toe to hair tips, is due to the heat emanating from Moon Snow.

Jaejoon flew beside Sasha in his astral form.

Sasha directed the dragon using Jaejoon's directions.

However, the only time she looked back , she was shocked.

It was white in front.

White in back.

White in right.

White on the left.

Sasha's dread increased.

This entire place is like a winter mirage.

At some places, the snow melted and the ice formed.

The form of the moon snow is reflected in the mirrors below, as if mocking sasha, for not being able to tell which is real, and which is mirage.

Had she not spent that time locked in the monochrome torture world, Sasha would have been compleetely at loss.

However, she did spend that much time in the monochrome world.

If you want a blizzard, burn a bonfire.

It's winter specific knowledge written by a peasant in wintertown.

An archmage from the mage tower has written a treatise on the phenomena.

If a simple bonfire could create such a mark, what would a dragon's breath do ?

Sasha ordered Moon snow to burn a set of trees in their path.

Moon snow burned a patch of land every five miles.

The water melted this fast will get frozen over with a clean surface ice, like a mirror.

Even if there is a blizzard, these patches will reflect light, forming a series of dots, indicating their path.

In case of flying above the clouds, there will be a subtle reflection, indicating the path back.

As much as Sasha wanted to save her brother, rushing headlong into an unknown situation in an unknown land will not do.

She could only hope Ryan could hold on for that long.

Jaejoon rushed Sasha with growing dread on his face.

'Found him! '

Sasha thought in surprise and jubilation as she looked at the gigantic man pulling a sled with a youth on it.

Even from this distance, Sasha could clearly recognize the man as Dudley, their stable boy, and Ryan Winterchild, her little brother.

Ryan has become crippled in a surprise hiking accident.

He used to climb walls of their castle. There is no one who is as sure of his foot as Ryan is on a scarily tall vertical wall.

He fell down from the second floor window, and landed upon a pitchfork, severing his spine nerves.

Winterchild's family feared for his very life. Ryan's life was kept in the end, at the cost of his legs.

Sasha has not seen her brother in more than seven years.

She has grown from an snooty, airheaded girl to warden of winterland, while Ryan has grown from cheerful and ruddy youngman to a sombre and pale young man.

Sasha hugged the dragon spine in front of her, and cast her mind out into the nearest snow shrike.

She kept going forward, until she neared Ryan, and was able to see him up close.

The snow shrike flew down, and landed on the sled handle.

Sasha lifted her head to coo at her brother, only to be shocked back into her real body by a skull about to bite off Dudley.

Moonsnow, the dragon is flying in a circle right above Ryan's location.

Dan had already jumped down, and he was engaged in a fight with what seemed to be moving dead bodies.

She is not on weed, she has not taken too many drinks.

There is really a walking, biting and stabbing skeleton army that's aiming for Ryan's life.

Moonsnow rumbled, and with that, Sasha concentrated back on her dragon.

The dragon is fearful, and it is extremely fearful of the dead bodies.

It did not like the smell of them, much less the sight.

The dragon flew up, straight through the clouds to above the clouds before Sasha could even control her emotions.

Above the clouds, they have felt the first rays of warmth since entering this blasted realm.

Sasha firmed up her mind, and consoled Moonsnow.

'We must break through,'' she conveyed to the dragon.

'It is kill them or die ! Sasha taught the reluctant dragon.

Thus, she dove back from the clouds, and burned all the area around Ryan to ashes.

The fire was so hot, in but a moment, all the accumulated snow melted and evaporated from the clothes of men in the eye of the firestorm.

As sasha burned through the undead, she felt an extremely bad premonition from behind her.

'Roll' Sasha ordered, and Moonsnow obeyed.

An extremely sharp looking icy spear with no blade, and an extremely sharp point on both ends, with an 'S' shaped curve.

The spear would have split MoonSnow's belly just right had she not evaded it.

It's as if the entire world is in slow motion.

The tilt caused by her command made the spear miss Moon snow, but it's a hairsbreadth miss.

Frost cracks appeared in MoonSnow's scales right underneath the spear that's passing over by them with the gap of an inch.

The spear flew out of their visibility range.

Sasha's heart beat ever so slowly, her fingers almost freezing over the reins binding herself to the dragon's spine.

It's as if the very time froze as the spear moved towards them.

Sasha absolutely did not want to be in the way of such a spear ever again.

Thus, as the dragon rolled over, she had it descend, not quite landing but gliding in the air with Dan and Ryan as the center.

She threw down a rope towards them.

Sunshine, Ryan's wolf, ran with all it's might and jumped in the air, catching the rope, then sliding back to its owner.

The entire battle field is still full of the dead.

Sasha herself has no battle capacity whatsoever.

It must be said the scare made her mind go into overdrive, turning on her magic ever so strongly.

Sasha thought of building a ramp for Ryan, and as she glided with her brothers as center, a snow ramp rose up from the middle of the circle, like a twisted blade of an exhaust fan.

The dead are all around them, moving in to kill them from all directions.

Sasha ordered Moonsnow to spew dragon breath once more towards the outside.

The dragon bent it's head, and sprayed the dragon breath in a fanlike formation.

Even as the dragon breath burned thousands of them, the undead only ever moved forward, like leaves in a tornado flying towards the center.

"Dudley! Take Ryan and run ! " Dan ordered, his sword ever changing directions as he sliced his way through the dead towards the helix ramp Sasha built.

Dudley is as strong as ten men, and he swung around an upside down tree beating the dead away, like people did critters.

The undead who were swept away broke their heads, broke their limbs, and fell apart in many ways.

Yet, they never backed off, but made their way steadily back towards the living.

If not for Dan, they would have died long since.

The blade in Dan's hand is sorcerer's steel.

As long as the sword cut them, the undead stayed dead.

However, Dan is but one man, and the army of the dead is in thousands.

Thankfully, the ice ramp Sasha built has little support on either side for anybody to hang on.

Dudley moved at full speed, carrying Ryan in piggy back style, sunshine bounded up behind them as fast as her masters.

Dan brought up the very rear.

Sasha opened her magic sense to the extreme.

She could feel the sliver of control that pulled strings on the undead at times, at times, she was overwhelmed by the magic in the air.

That is how the ramp formed.

Sasha used the magic already available in nature, through her control skill.

Yet, now, all of her magic sense is drowned with an evil light forming somewhere in the distant north.

Sasha knew without a doubt this is one more ice spear like the one they missed.

She had a vague premonition that this time, she would never be able to escape this ice spear, as long as it was released.

'Please, Hurry ' She begged her brothers.

Dudley stood at the very edge, and looked extremely scared to jump.

Sasha could but do one more round.

With every second that passed, Sasha could feel the evil power of the weapon in the north increase.

This time around, Sunshine pushed Dudley, making him fall on the dragon's back.

Dudley immediately grabbed the dragon's spine, and pulled himself up.

Sunshine jumped on to the dragon's back next, running over with a preternatural grace, and burrowing itself on to the dragon's back using its claws.

Only, Sasha couldn't wait any more.

One moment more, MoonSnow would die.

Her premonitions are never wrong when she feels like this.

Thus, she ordered the dragon to increase it's altitude and fly away.

Dan was left alone, still fighting the undead in the bitter cold.