Too Late To Save Time

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Walking back, I stumbled through the snow, curling and uncurling my toes to keep them warm. Alex looked fine, but Devon was shivering and falling every other step.

"How the hell aren't you freezing Alex?" I exclaimed, giving up and sitting down in the soft, wet snow.

"I am. I'm not fighting frostbite though because I know I can fight it off with my powers before it's too late." He said, putting out his hand to help me up. I shook my head.

"I'm tired, and cold, and I don't want to walk anymore." I said with a pout. Devon nodded.

"I can't take another step." Alex sighed at us.

"Let's go back to the first dimension and get our stuff." He said. I perked up and smiled.

"Really? I'll get to see Hunter again!" I squealed, remembering my brother. Alex had a grim look set on his face.

"You'll see him, but he won't see you. I've already been back to the first dimension after you came. It's so cold there. The type of magic Lucas uses to freeze time is nothing like this type. He slows down time considerably, but this magic actually freezes time. No one can think, they're basically unconscious. It's like everything is in a big ice block." He said. I deflated.

"Oh...wow. How do we save the frist dimension?" I asked. Devon answered.

"You can't. That type of magic only comes with a lot of Time magic using it, subconsciously because no one can have it stay like that for a long time without being exhausted. Subconscious spellcasting is the strongest and it takes no energy from you, but you can't use the same magic consciously at the same time. The only way to turn it off is to kill all the people using magic." Devon explained. I shook my head.

"This is really, really bad." I murmured.

"Well, we've got to get you two some winter clothes." Alex sighed. "So come on, Devon. Help me start a circle." Devon nodded and a ring of fire came up from the ground. Devon immediately clenched his fists in anxiety, and the flames grew. His eyes became wide and his hands started shaking, unclenching. The fire fought to go crazy. Alex shot a glance over at his brother. I put my hadn on Devon's shoulder

"Calm down. Alex is helping, and so will I." I soothed. Alex nodded to me and I pushed Devon's hands to his sides, massaging his shoulder with one hand. "You just focus on not using magic, we'll take care of this." I murmured, taking control of the wildly climbing fire.

"Sorry Dev, we just have to use the fire so that we get warm. Water would splash us, and that would be the opposite of productive in our situation. We all can't use wind. And I don't feel comfortable using electricity near Fog after what happened, and I know you were thinking the same." Alex yelled over the whirring of the fire as we spun it in a tornado. I had an idea, and closed my eyes, letting my magic enter the fire.

When I opened my eyes the fire was red-violet. Alex smiled over at me and closed his eyes. Out burst a spalsh of white, which turned the fire into a pinkish lavender. I pumped more blue into the mix, turning it purpler and purpler until the fire was a bright whirring tornado of light indigo. Alex retracted the white and the vividness of the flames nearly blew me away. I looked back at Devon, who was staring wide-eyed at the color show. Suddenly the fire was gone and we weren't in that forest, but standing at the top of Myers hill.

***

"It worked." I said, shivering in my uniform. Alex nodded.

"Stick close everyone. It might look sunny here but obviously it's freezing. We need to preserve our body heat and work on keeping ourselves from freezing in time. That means quick in, quick out." He ordered. I spotted my bike chained to the bike rack and started running towards it.