Shadow in the Snow

The Tears of the Storm

    He was stuck. Something had struck the tent, something big, and knocked him off balance. His foot was tangled in something and he couldn't get it free. People were screaming.

    Smoke. He could smell smoke.

    Was that Crow? He looked down and tried to speak but the words were lost.

    His foot hurt.

    A loud sound of something screaming, then nothing.

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     Snow awoke with a gasp, sitting straight up and grasping the side of the couch in tightly fisted hands. He winced automatically, waiting for the pain in his foot to come rushing back to him -- but it didn't. He moved it a little. It felt completely normal.

    Frowning, he looked away from his foot and to the unfamiliar surroundings around him. This wasn't the tent he knew, nor was it the little wooden room on the cart in which he spent the rest of his time. This was somewhere he had never seen before. But as he looked around the room, he caught sight of something that was familiar and his eyes brightened.

    Crow.

     "Crow! I--"

    He never got the chance to finish his sentence for he found himself wrapped in a hug, so tightly it knocked all the wind out of him, and for a moment he froze. Surprised. But Crow rarely hugged him -- or anyone -- and it was nice, so he hugged him back. And then Crow just kept hugging him to the point where he was starting to get concerned and gently pulled himself free.

    "I don't understand what happened. Is something wrong? How did I get here? What happened earlier? Where's La?"

    'And why', he thought, though he didn't voice this, 'are your eyes so red?'

    Crow smiled at him and leaned over to ruffle his hand through Snow's hair, just like he used to do when they were younger. "We thought you were injured but I pulled you out of the tent just in time. You're fine, Snow, you're going to be all right. Do you hear? You'll be all right."

    Snow nodded silently but couldn't help wondering which one of them he was trying to convince with that last bit. Something was very wrong. But what?

    Crow paused. The smile faded. Then he spoke again and his voice sounded distant, like his thoughts were somewhere far away from here. "The Wyvern -- you remember when I told you about the Wyvern? The scaly beast that breathes fire and flies, you gotta remember that. It got out and it attacked. Dealt a lotta damage. Had to pull you outta the main tent when it attacked; took you here."

    Made sense. Mostly. "Where's 'here', exactly?"

    "We're in the Master's tent. He had me bring you here after the other tent 'bout collapsed."

    Snow nodded again and swung his legs over the side of the couch, getting up carefully to test his foot. But he was able to put pressure on it with no pain. It must not have been as bad of an injury as he'd originally thought, Snow decided, and put it out of his mind in order to explore the tent around him. Part of him warned against it -- this was the Master's tent, after all -- but he had seen the same tent and the same four walls all his life, and the intrigue of being somewhere new outweighed common sense.

    There were a lot of really weird things in here. Snow picked up a little figurine of a horse, mostly red with a blue saddle and decorated with several other bright colors. He smiled at it and set it down, careful to put it back in the exact position where he had picked it up. And then he remembered something and turned around to face Crow.