Icebound

Chapter 6

It was morning now. Aiden had been out all night searching for Reginald in the forest. As he stayed on his horse, looking for his brother, Aiden called out Reginald's name a few times here and there. But the only response he kept getting was the howl of the wind coming from the forest. He was alone, and there was no sign of Reginald.

"Reggie! Reggie!" Aiden called out.

No one called back to him.

"Reggie, it's me! Your brother! I didn't mean to make you freeze the summer. It's all my fault!" Aiden called out.

Aiden's horse began to shake a bit, because the sound of a wolf howled from somewhere. Aiden gently petted his horse to calm him down.

"Shh... it's okay. It's okay. We're just going to find Reggie out here. Nothing will hurt you," he told his horse.

However, some snow fell off of a branch from a tree right in front of Aiden and his horse. The horse suddenly freaked out, kicking Aiden off of him.

"WAH!" cried Aiden.

He landed back first on the ground, but the snow made his fall soft. However, as he started to stand up, Aiden saw his horse turn around and run back the way they came from.

"Oh no! Come back! Wait!" Aiden called to his horse.

But his horse ignored him and ran out of sight. Aiden sighed sadly. He would've gone back after his horse, but he refused to go home until he had Reginald with him. He continued to walk onward without his horse.

"I'm not going home until I get Reggie to come back!" he said with a determined tone of voice.

Hours passed, and it was night time again. Aiden spent all day walking onward. The trek was hard enough without his horse, but having to keep going through the snow made it harder. The cold was too much for Aiden, especially since he wasn't dressed in winter gear, and the snow got a little too deep for him to easily walk on.

But despite this, he kept moving forward. He didn't want to stop until he found Reginald. The cold wasn't going to stop him from continuing, but it didn't stop him from complaining about it.

"Snow... it had to be snow! I wish he could've possessed some other powers. Like the power of..."

Aiden cut himself off because he could see some smoke in the distance. That meant that there was a campfire close by. Someone was out here.

"Smoke... That means a fire. Someone else is out here!" he said excitedly.

Suddenly, Aiden accidentally slipped and slid down a snowy hill. As he slid down, Aiden lost his winter cloak, and he landed in a river with icy cold water.

"Geez!" he muttered.

He quickly climbed out and started walking to where he saw the smoke. As he walked, he shivered even more. It was cold enough to walk in the snow, but now that his clothes were soaking wet, he shivered even more.

Aiden picked up the pace as he walked over to where he saw the smoke come from. To his surprise, it wasn't a campfire he found. There was no campsite. Instead, there was a cabin. But it was small, and judging by the sign outside, it was a trading post instead of a house.

"Slab's Trading Post," he said as he read the sign. "Hope there's someone inside who can give me supplies," he said.

Aiden walked up to the door and opened it. As soon as he stepped in, he could feel the warmth of the fire from inside the cabin. He sighed in relief and shut the door behind him.