Autumn's Fall

XIII. A Race Against the Clock

The Minister of Winter quickly spread Angus' map on the ground before her. Sophia sat at her side, still sniffling and leaning against her for support. "Show me where you live."

Sophia pointed to her hometown on the map, "Here."

"Okay, we're not that far...But it'll take..." She pointed at the lake and traced the road going to their town. "...much longer than we have time to spare." Raising her head, she scanned the area around them. The leaf-children had floated off in what seemed to be the same direction as the children's town, the same direction of the pull—that had to be more than a coincidence.

The Minister lifted a hand to her heart with a grimace. The pull had nearly destroyed her the last two times she had awakened, she did not intend to let that happen again; if that meant traveling through the night then so be it. She was out of her water now anyway, if she was struck by that intense pain again she'd simply have to suffer through it. Not a pleasing thought.

A different-colored line caught her attention, "Sophia, do you recognize this river?"

Sophia wiped her eyes and looked closer, then nodded her head, "It runs through town, but it's too low to travel up this late in summer."

The Minister folded the map and stuffed it into her pack, drawing Sophia to her feet. "We'll see about that. Come on." They started a few steps forward, but poor Sophia had wept all her strength away and could barely stand, let alone keep up with the Minister's long strides. The Minister stopped and glanced behind her, "Oh child." Taking Sophia in her arms, the Minister quickly strode off the bridge and onto dry land.

A small tackle shop sat next to a nearby dock. Rushing over, she pounded on the locked door. No one answered. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she looked around for help, but the dock was just as abandoned as everywhere else. "That. Does. It." Running over to the dock the Minister set Sophia down in the nearest little boat, making sure the girl's mask was still snugly in place. "Stay here, I'll be right back."

Levitating a huge orb of water from the lake, she froze it solid and sent it through the front door, shattering wood and glass all over the place in a rather loud explosion. She didn't have time to care about how much trouble she'd get into. She was the Minister of Winter and she needed what the shop held inside.

Rushing in, she searched until she found a shelf holding a pile of folded blankets. Gathering as many as she could pile in her arms, she sprinted back outside and to the boat, dumping her armload next to Sophia. Spreading out a few, she made Sophia sit on them and proceeded to quickly wrap the remaining ones around her. Once Sophia was thoroughly wrapped, she untied the boat and pushed off as hard as she could from the dock. Starting up the motor, the Minister steered them out towards the sun setting over the lake.

"I'm getting warm," Sophia whined.

"I know, I'm sorry. Just hang on a while." Taking out the map, she pointed them in the direction of the main river and sped them along towards it, but Sophia had been right, the water was much too low for any boat to float up, no matter how small.

"Now what do we do? There's not enough water for us to float on."

The Minister of Winter stood with a smile, "Now, you see why I bundled you up."

Water began to rise beneath them, sliding up the edges of the boat but not splashing inside, until they sat upon a large mound of water, big enough to hold the tiny boat above the lake by a good few feet. Strings of water rose upward, interlacing with each other in a coordinated dance up the side of the boat, continuing upwards until a lattice of water rose over them. It quickly became so cold that Sophia's nose began to run. Slowly the tendrils stopped their dancing as they changed from water to icicles, woven so close together that even the smallest leaf couldn't squeeze through.