A Match of Monsters

Chapter Nineteen

Elain's mind had never been like that of most of the other girls her age. For she did not confuse or forget. Everything that happened to her, whether it be wonderful or embarrassing or just downright forgettable, she was able to remember.

Sometimes, after a particularly deep or lengthy rest, it would take a moment or two to recall what had happened last, but never very long. Sleep, drink and distraction all failed to flaw her recollection of the very recent history.

That was why, when Elain opened her eyes, she was not surprised.

She expected the kit in her arms, the heavy pack pressed into her spine, the tightly wrapped cloak, and the storm of snow that pressed against her. She still knew the risks her Ladyship took for her clutch, and the betrayal of Manasseh. She could still feel the rocky tunnel expanding around her body where it should have crushed her. But most of all, she could still remember the freeze invading her flesh and forcing her to unconsciousness.

Elain should not have awoken from that. Her body should have cooled and hardened with death, her skin alternation between shades of blue and white as her blood froze beneath it. At the least, if she had survived, her fingers, toes, and many other areas of her body should have been so thoroughly frostbitten that they would need amputation so as not to poison the rest of her form. She should have been a stumbling, shattered mass; a broken body that would never recover from the freezing incident, and that would never be an any way truly useful to her people for the rest of what shambled life she had. If she had lived to draw breath in the morning, if should have been as a fractured survivor, bitter and twisted, leaching of the livelihoods of her fellow citizens without the ability to work for herself.

But that was not how Elain awoke, her cloak just barely protecting her from the winter morning's harshest bite.

Elain could still sense the cold mountain air flowing through and around her. She could still see the blinding white snow billow like fine powder in the breeze, rising off of the surface and dancing through the currents just to settle back down again a few feet away. She could still hear the wind as it carved itself around the boulders in a haunted echo.

Elain could still feel.

The pain and the cold, but also the compact heat of the hatchling she had protectively curled her body around. She knew her lips were blue and her nose was running, but it was nothing compared to what she had expected. Fingers were not so stiff and brittle that their blackened tips should have snapped off at the lightest breeze, toes could still be wiggled, and other than the discomfort from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position, she could fee no aches and kinks in her body. Elain was still somehow unbelievably alive, and even more amazing than that, she was in fine health and one piece.

If she had ever opened her eyes again, she would have expected to see many tiny bits and pieces of herself spread all around where she lay, darkened to a vivid purple by frozen blood.

A sound was ringing through the air, and the longer Elain spent ignoring it to muse over the health of what should have been her dead body, the more difficult it became to resist. Her teeth chattered loudly behind her lips as they clashed against each other in the cold, the freeze piercing like a thousand needles into them every time she drew breath, but the pain was not enough to keep her distracted any longer.

Echoing from all around came a deep thrum as stones struck and slid against themselves. The heavy vibrations they caused distorting the atmosphere enough that Elain's weak and mortal ears were unable to detect the direction they came from. The noise was too important to ignore, something in the back of her mind pressed, and she just knew that she had to find out what ever it was – even if she didn't quite know why yet. For a reason unknown, this information would be vital to the survival of her and her shivering charge, and instrumental deciding factor in what would happen next.