A Flower Blooms - A Prologue To RtW

While they were all very enthusiastic about hunting down the bandits, circ.u.mstances soon chilled their aspirations, both figuratively and literally. It had only been midafternoon when they were forced to make camp as a sudden blizzard descended. The snow had started out small, but it had quickly accelerated to the point where it was clear that attempting to make further progress would be futile.

Zero was huddled in the tent with Rachel and Elaine as they ate some of the dry rations they had brought with them. With the blizzard outside, making a fire was impossible, and making a fire inside the tent was a terrible idea for obvious reasons. So, they just had to settle for cold food. Still, it was enough.

"We are going to be stuck in here for a while aren't we?" Elaine asked.

"It depends," Rachel said. "We don't know when the worst of the blizzard will be over. It could be a single day or many days. In any case, we won't be able to move until it is over. The biggest danger right now is if we are snowed in."

"Damn this storm," Elaine said. "The bandits are getting a lucky break."

"Not necessarily," Zero said. "They have to deal with the weather as well. And they certainly won't be moving after all of this with so much snow everywhere. That means that we have the chance to catch up, provided that we have the capability to move. Considering how we are a smaller group, it won't be as much of an issue. We can be stronger than them, put up with worse conditions and take the chance to catch up. This will be our chance."

"That's right," Rachel said. "This is only a minor obstacle, one that we will be able to overcome. But for now, we should rest and prepare for tomorrow."

Throughout the night it continued to snow. By morning, the snow had stopped though the edges of the tent were already sagging inward.

Opening up the side of the tent, it was soon clear that a large amount of snow had fallen, enough to make normal traversal of the land impossible. When Rachel looked out, she saw that the snow had piled up higher than her knees. The moment the tent opened, some of that snow tumbled in.

Rachel saw that Jane had already woken up and the other tent had been packed up. There was a patch of ground untouched by snow where the tent was. And that patch was expanding as Claire used her fire to melt more of the snow around them.

"Are we going to be moving today?" Rachel asked.

Jane shrugged. "Even if we weren't, we can't just let the snow pile up around the tent each day or else it would collapse. You two should pack up your tent too so Claire could melt the snow without the danger of setting the tent on fire."

Soon, they were standing around in what was basically a hole in the endless cover of snow. It was as though the area where the two tents had been was surrounded by a cliff of snow.

"Well, it doesn't look like we will be able to move from here right now. The snow is simply too high for us to walk through," Kelly said.

"Walking would be hard, but what if we had a sled?" Zero asked. "We could slide across the snow with Rachel using her power to move it."

"It might work," Jane mused. "But where would we find something like that."

"We could try to build something out of wood," Rachel suggested. "But I don't think it would move very well if it is roughly made."

Suddenly, there was a thud. "Ow," Elaine exclaimed.

Zero turned around and saw that Elaine had slipped on a patch of ice.

"I didn't see the ice here since it blended in with the ground," Elaine said. "I guess I wasn't being very careful."

"Sorry," Claire said. "I think the snow that I melted must have refrozen into ice on the ground. That is rather troublesome."

"Are you alright Elaine?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah it wasn't bad," Elaine replied.

Suddenly, Zero thought of an idea. "What if we made a sled out of ice?"

"How would that work?" Rachel asked.

"Well, we could probably cut out a mold in the ground and just fill it with water that we get from melting the snow," Zero said. "Then after it freezes we can flip it over and use the smooth surface on the top as the bottom of the sled."

"That might be possible," Jane said. "We don't have anything else to do so we might as well try it out."

It was around midday when the slab finished freezing. Rachel touched the ice and pushed her mark onto it. Then after scraping some dirt away from the sides, the slab rose up into the air and flipped over before coming to rest down on the snow a short distance away.

Jane went over and felt the surface of the slab. "The top has some dirt stuck to it and it's a bit rough, but it seems suitable enough for our purposes. If we pad the top with some snow it won't be an issue. And it does seem to be of adequate thickness."

They climbed on and Jane used her ability to determine the path that the bandits had taken. Then, the sled went off into the distance. Around them was a plain of white as far as the eye can see, with the b.a.r.e trunks of trees sticking out. The trees passed by in a blur as they moved forward down a hill.

"Traveling like this is rather fast," Zero remarked. "It's much better than walking or even riding in a carriage."

"Don't expect this too often," Rachel said. "It required very special circ.u.mstances to let me do this, and even now it is quite taxing to keep up this pace, even with the snow supporting some of the weight. I'll probably have to take a break after a while."

"Our rapid pace combined with the lack of footprints means that it is very easy to lose track of their trail," Jane said as she activated her ability again. "Hmmm, it looks like they took a turn to the right up ahead. We'll have to adjust our course."

By the time it was late afternoon, they decided that it was about time to settle down and rest for the day. Fortunately they found a small patch with little snow to put up the tents. It was a good thing that there hadn't been more snow during the day, otherwise it would have been a very hard journey for them. The night also passed without incident.

"It looks like the clouds have dropped all their snow in the big storm," Jane said. "It should hopefully be clear for the next few days. Before long the snow might start to melt. While that would make moving around easier, it also means that our targets would be able to move too. At least right now we still have some mobility while they are stuck."

"Then we should get going quickly shouldn't we?" Kelly said.

"Sure, but I will have to moderate our pace," Rachel said.

Sitting on a block of ice had lost most of its novelty after the first day, so by now most of the witches, except for Rachel, just laid down to rest.

Suddenly, Jane looked up in alarm. "Stop!"

Rachel let the ice slowly come to a halt so as to not throw anyone off. "What is it?"

"We've lost the trail," Jane said. "We are going to have to backtrack and find where we diverged."

This time, Rachel had them move back toward where they came, at a somewhat slower pace. Jane was repeatedly using her ability with short intervals in between as she looked for where the trail was. Finally, they spotted the original trail again. It seemed that the bandits had taken a sharp turn at a clearing.

"Okay, we are back on track," Jane said with a sigh of relief. "But let's take a break for now. I'm worn out from using my ability too many times and I am sure Rachel is too."

They took the time to eat for a little bit and then spent the early afternoon just sitting around and talking. Jane had a few more stories to tell, some of which were quite interesting.

Soon enough, it was time to get going again. It was much of the same thing, the same endlessly dull landscape. Only near the end of the day did they begin to approach a cliffside. From a distance, they could already see smoke rising out of the sky from that direction.

"Slow down Rachel, and take us just a bit closer," Jane said, using her ability once more to verify the trails went in that direction.

They crept closer and finally the campsite came into view. None of the people there seemed to notice the witches. Their clothes were dusted with snow which let them blend in with the background. Meanwhile, the group they were tracking was far more conspicuous. There was a large fire under the overhang where the unknown group had set up their camp. It seemed that the cliffside had protected them from the worst of the snowfall. However, there was still lots of snow surrounding them, so they were content to stay put. The witches were able to even hear the sounds of the loud revelry of those encamped under the cliff, though it wasn't possible to make out what they were saying.

Looking closer, Zero saw that the group of people was well armed and looked to be entirely male. It also seemed that they had a large amount of supplies, pulled by animals.

"Yeah I think we found them," Jane said. "There is no way they are an ordinary group of villagers just wandering around."

"Let's go attack them now then," Kelly said. "We've already been chasing them for so long."

"We should rest for the night first," Elaine said. "Can't you see that Rachel is exhausted."

"Have some patience Kelly," Jane said. "They won't be going anywhere soon. We'll attack tomorrow morning. We'll back out for now and set up camp out of sight. Tomorrow we will be ready."

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