Playing with Fire [COMPLETED]

36 ~ cold and alone

My body hits the cold, snowy ground with such force that my bones creak. I gasp, my breath coming in short bursts of warm air in the cold night. As I sit up, I look around me. The sky isn't blood-red, like it typically is in Ruin's Court, and yet, it's so cold here that I feel like it must be his Court. I stand on shaking legs, walking through the knee-deep snow, I feel a pang of pain in my right leg, where the bug creature stabbed me. I hiss, bending over to look at my injury.

It's as I feared, it's become infected. I walk a little ways, before the snow pressing in on the wound in my leg hurts too much, and my leg becomes numb. I collapse in the snow, shivering. Trying to summon my fire, I curl up as I burrow into the snow like a very large rodent.

The air is so bitingly cold, I can't focus enough to summon my flames. My whole body shakes, I'm not wearing clothes that will help with the weather. I know I have to keep moving. If I want to survive, I've gotta keep going. But I just can't. I'm too cold. My leg hurts too much. And I just want to welcome whatever chilling end awaits me.

But then, I feel it. A strange pull that has me standing up again. A pull deep within me that forces one foot in front of the other, even as I limp my way towards it. I hold my arms against my chest, wrapping my wings around myself to try and add another barrier between me and the bitter winds.

And the pull gets stronger. The feelings in my heart build until I swear that they'll overwhelm me. I drag myself toward the other end of the field I'm in, and once I reach the trees, I hunker down again, my leg failing once more.

I'm not sure when I fall asleep, but I snap awake when I sense something shifting in the woods. A being is approaching where I'm hunkered down, and they're coming fast. I sit up, looking all over the small section of woods that I can still make out in this blackened sky with a sliver of moon in it.

Suddenly, a person steps from the trees. She's bundled up, and when she sees me, her eyes widen. I scramble back, but she holds up her gloved hands, surrendering.

"No, I'm not a threat," she says.  "I'm not, but the weather most certainly is! Can you walk?"

I shake my head.  "Why are you t- t - trying to help me?"

"Because, I want to," she says as she helps me stand up. "Come on, I'll take you to my cabin. You can warm up, and we can talk. Okay?"

The second I'm standing, pain overwhelms me and I cry out, then, I promptly faint.