Children Of Myths, Act One: Scotland

Terror from Loch Long

TRIGGER WARNING: Mention and Depiction of sexual harassment, racism, slurs

Within a few days the temperature and the landscape had changed radically, just as Mount Ben Macdui, so the area around Mount Ben Arthur had become a frozen wasteland as if it was December. The group had dressed in warm clothing and the children were covered in layers of woolen blankets, warmed also by the magical flames of Brigid's fairies, and by the thick fur of the animalistic fairies.

The soldiers took turns hunting, which wasn't easy given the scarcity of provisions and animals due to the hostile environment, which was particularly windy that day.

"Saraide!" Artica shouted from above the Elf's head "A storm is coming, we're trying twice as hard here, we won't be able to continue longer!"

The guard looked worriedly at the leaden sky, then at the rest of the completely exhausted squad, the shivering children...
They had been marching non-stop for two days, and although the sooner they arrived the better, without energy they could by no means win any battle. And so, she signaled to all the winged fairies to land and head towards the forest to try to build a shelter using both the ice magic of the half-blood and nature magic.

"Let's deviate in the thickest part!"

The wagons moved towards the interior of the woods of trees and plants almost completely bare but alive enough to be manipulated.

"Gather the wagons as close as possible. Come on, Head-On-Fire, It's your turn."

Artica cracked her knuckles and concentrated with her hands extended towards the frozen ground. It wasn't easy to reverse the process of creating snow and ice, she hadn't learned how to make it disappear completely, only to turn it into snow, for now.

Her eyes gleamed like the talisman inside the pendant, a deep breath and then she released its energy into the not completely dead ground.
It was a long and exhausting process, as the snow formed, it was swept away by the wind, uncovering the damp soil underneath.

"Can't you hurry up?" A fairy of Aengus' court ruffled her feathered wings, trembling. She received a glare from the redhead right after.

"It's not that I'm having fun here, I'm doing what I can" she snorted, getting back to work as best as possible, later they would have lit bonfires anyway so any frozen spot would be melted; therefore, that one there had to shut up.

It was the longest (and coldest) half hour of her life.

"That's it" she gasped once he had finished "I did my job, now the others can do their thing."

The Fairies of Brigid and Cerunnos stepped forward, their eyes lit up in white and green. The more human-shaped ones stretched out their arms towards each surrounding plant, the animal-like ones scratched the ground. Artica witnessed a new prodigy: the roots of the trees and bramble bushes grew and rose from the ground, tangling themselves, same did the lower branches to create a makeshift roof all around the caravan of soldiers.

Both she and the children had the same reaction: mouths and eyes wide open.

"...Every time I say that nothing surprises me anymore and I promptly change my mind."

The result was a kind of massive cocoon of brambles and branches intertwined with each other, flames were then lit which served both to heat and illuminate the darkness that had been created by covering everything.

Finally, the group was able to sit down, eat something and, above all, sleep.

"How much longer to get there?" Artica asked Saraide, chewing almost dry bread. She was so hungry that even stale bread was fine.