Part Three

 Part Three

It was dark when Shard opened her eyes. The fire was completely out and there was no light in the room. Shard sat up with a wince, thick blankets still holding her down. She shoved the heavy fabrics off only to be met with a wave of cold air. She shivered and rubbed her arms. A fresh set of clothes was laid out on the chair beside the couch. Shard quickly changed into the new clothes and stuffed her black, ragged tunic into the empty fireplace. While the cotton long sleeve shirt and pants didn't fit perfectly, they were better than what she had previously. Pulling on wool socks and leather boots, Shard stood and looked for anything else lying around the room she could use. The door to the adjacent room was closed and Nathalia was nowhere to be seen. Shard rummaged through a few boxes and containers sitting on the shelves and benches. In the end, she found a loaf of bread and a few old apples. She shoved them in a wicker basket and snatched a heavy cloak from a peg by the door. Stopping to think about it, Shard also grabbed one of the lighter blankets from the couch and shoved it over the food in her basket. The little music box on the couch caught her eye. Debating about it for a moment, Shard decided to take it with her. She moved quickly and quietly, assuming Nathalia to be asleep in the room behind the closed door. When Shard thought herself sufficiently prepared, she moved to the outside door and pressed her hand against it. The door was cold. Leaning her ear to it, she could hear the wind howling outside. 

Shard frowned. Storm or not, I’m not staying here, Shard thought, opening the door. A blast of icy, cold wind and snow hit her. She grabbed the door and pulled it shut behind her as she left the little house. Pulling her cloak tight, Shard trudged forward into the storm. It didn’t matter what direction she went as long as she kept moving. The wind stung and the snow pulled at her feet, but she had to keep moving. Clumps of snow stuck to the bottom of her cloak. Her nose and ears started to go numb, but she had to keep moving. Shard pulled the cloak as tight as she could and gripped the basket as though her life depended on it. She kept moving. Each breath of cold air hurt her throat and lungs. Each step forward was met with resistance. Still, she moved forward. She didn’t see the dark forest in front of her until she was nearly under its shelter. It wasn’t much, but it was better than being out in the open. 

Shard moved from one tree to the next, still moving forward. The wool socks helped, but it wasn’t long before Shard’s feet started to feel cold and numb. She didn’t dare stop, even when the wind screamed in her ears and whipped against her face. Even when the cold seeped into her bones. Even when she had no idea where she was going. She had to keep going. Shard stumbled over an object buried in the ice and fell. Bare hands full of snow, Shard lifted herself from the ground, grabbed the basket and kept moving. As tightly as she wrapped the cloak, she could not stop shaking. The trees thinned, but Shard still could not see anything in the storm raging all around her. Had she gone straight through the forest? Was it another clearing? Had she accidentally doubled back? She couldn’t tell. She pressed forward into the open storm. 

Shard fell again. Her clothes were wet and frozen. She couldn’t feel her hands, arms, feet, legs, or face. She clenched her jaw shut to keep her teeth from chattering. She tried to grab the fallen basket again, but her hands didn’t work as she wanted them to. She slammed both fists into the frozen ground. “NO!” Shard screamed, though her voice disappeared in the storm. “I’m not dying here!” Shard struggled to her feet and left the basket behind. She didn’t make it two steps before falling again. She curled into a ball in the snow and started crying. “No. Please,” she begged to no one in particular. “Please, I can’t die here… Please...” For all the willpower she had, she could not make her limbs move. Yet, she could not stop shaking either. The wind howled. The snow swallowed her. Was there ever going to be an end to this storm? What she wouldn’t give for a wall between her and the elements. “PLEASE JUST STOP!” Shard screamed. She felt a surge of energy leave her. Instantly, the howling and the snow stopped. All was quiet. Shard opened her eyes and sat up. She found herself sitting inside an icy dome, a shelter that sprang up from the ground to cover and protect her. A shield from the elements. Shard blinked at the icy wall in confusion. Where did it come from? The swirls and frosty pattern on the ice held a strange beauty. Shard reached out to touch the ice, but faltered. Her head felt light and her ears rang. Shard collapsed into unconsciousness inside the globe. Outside the ball of ice, the storm raged on. An old, gray wolf watched from the tree line. 

*********************

Nathalia threw a log into the fire before sitting on a wooden chair. The lump on the couch under a bundle of blankets did not move. Taking a whetstone from her pocket, Nathalia started sharpening one of the many daggers she kept on her person. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. The bundle wiggled a little, but Nathalia didn’t see it. Instead, she heard a muffled groan as Shard woke up. Shard’s bleary eyes opened slowly, her vision returning. She stared at the mountain of blankets covering her with hazy incomprehension. Shard was back in Nathalia’s house, back on the couch. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. The sound helped Shard out of the fog she was in. “What happened? How did you find me?” Shard asked. 

“You didn’t make it very far,” Nathalia answered. “You’re going to have problems if you continue to run headlong into danger like that.” Nathalia set the tools down and turned in Shard’s direction. “If you want to survive this world, you need to start using your head. Ambition and stubbornness won’t save you.” Shard glanced away. Nathalia resumed sharpening her dagger. “That’s twice now I rescued you,” Nathalia said with a smirk. “But who’s counting?” 

“Apparently, you are,” Shard muttered with an eye roll. 

“That was a nice trick you pulled with the ice dome,” Nathalia said. Shard looked back with wide eyes as Nathalia continued. “It took me a while to chisel you out. I thought you might suffocate before I got to you. Had you used a little forethought, you could have made a nice setup in the woods.” 

“That was real? You mean, I…” Shard stared at the woman, not quite convinced. “I made the ice wall appear?” 

“Of course. I did say you have a gift.” Nathalia smiled at her. “And that was without study or training. Must be nice, being naturally tuned to the elements from the get go. Maybe Thorae likes you.” 

Shard frowned. “The blizzard didn’t seem to care.” 

Nathalia shrugged. “Once you learn how to control your ability, maybe you’ll be the one making blizzards.” Nathalia put away the tools and stood up. “You’ve got a nasty rebellious streak though. I hope you grow out of it. Where were you planning to go anyway?” Nathalia asked. 

“Anywhere,” Shard said quietly. 

In truth, Shard had nowhere to go. Outside the storm, she didn’t know what was beyond the house and the trees. Were there towns or cities close by? Were there other people who could help her? What creatures should she expect along the way? Were they dangerous? She didn’t know. She didn’t care. She only knew that she had to get away. Something about Nathalia screamed at Shard to run, to escape, though she did not know why. Aside from the incident with the knife, which could be chalked up to paranoia and extreme safety measures, Nathalia hadn’t really done anything. Sure, she was mean and harsh, but Shard was free to leave at any point. Right? Nathalia provided shelter, food, clothes, and safety. Nathalia provided information, something Shard was desperately lacking. How much of the information was true could not be determined. Maybe she was still on Earth. Then Shard thought about her Original. No. This was real. Wherever she was, it was far, far, away from the land she grew up knowing. Still, Nathalia provided for Shard and saved Shard’s life. Twice. She wasn’t exactly nice, but she wasn’t unkind either. She couldn’t be all bad, right? She was blind, after all. How much of a threat could she really be? The only reason Nathalia got the jump on Shard in the first place was because her hands were tied. If it came down to a real fight, Shard was sure she could overpower the blind woman. So the narrative in Shard’s head started. Shard pushed aside the instinctive warning in her gut. Nathalia helped her. Nathalia was spiteful, but she wasn’t a threat. Shard owed her, right? At least stay long enough to repay your debt, then you can leave, Shard thought. 

“You won’t be going anywhere for a while,” Nathalia said, interrupting her thoughts. “Not with that storm outside, anyway. When it clears, we can see about getting you some proper winter clothes and restocking our food supply. You are free to leave, but at least try not to get yourself lost in the blizzard until we get you settled, okay?”

Shard suddenly thought about the basket she took. She sat up and looked around the room. She was surprised to see the basket sitting on the floor beside the couch. Strange. Maybe I held on to it after all. Shard dug into the basket and pulled out the wooden box. “This music box belongs to you,” Shard said while handing it out toward the woman. “I’m sorry for taking it. That was wrong and selfish of me. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” 

“Keep it.” Nathalia smiled and stood up. “Let the music remind you of what does and doesn’t belong to you.” Shard blinked at the woman, suddenly feeling threatened again without concrete reason. Nathalia continued, “Get some rest. Eat if you need to. You’ve spent a lot of unnecessary energy and your body needs time to recover. We can talk again when you feel better.” Nathalia walked into the other room and closed the door behind her.