Weihnachten 4.: Snowed In pt1

A shimmering slip of silver-blue light opened a few inches floating about the snow covered ground. The aperture opened quickly and slowed spitting out Aspen and Parvil. Both quickly sank in the powdery snow, Aspen nearly to her knees and Parvil to his mid-shin. A bone chilling burst of wind nearly knocked her off her balance but Parvil caught her and pulled her in spreading his cloak wide to block the whipping snow.

“What’s the plan!?” he shouted over the howling wind.

“This isn’t where we were supposed to land!” Aspen shouted back. “We need shelter.” she added.

Parvil looked around. “Where?” he asked, looking around “It's all snow.”

Aspen closed her eyes and when she opened them they were pure white, she did a small circle in place before pointing off in a direction vaguely westish, or that’s what Parvil expected it to be. But he couldn’t be sure.

“You’re going to have to walk slower than normal.” Aspen said, “I won’t be able to keep up.”

“Hmmm…” Parvil said, seeming to consider this more than he should. “You make a lot of good points.” He said. “Scoop.” he said, quickly taking her into a bridal carry before she could protest. “Now you don’t have to keep up,” he said.

“You don’t ha…” Aspen was cut off as Parvil took off in a high knee jog through the deep snow towards the spot she found to find some shelter.

After running for what felt like hours but was probably only about ten minutes something started to appear in front of him, taking shape through the wall of greyish white sheet of snow. A wall…no a cliff.

“There.” Aspen said pointing.

Parvil kept running until he was standing in front of it. “Where?” he asked.

“Your portable hole.” Aspen said.

“Right.” Parvil said, crouching and letting Aspen back on to her feet. “Hold this.” he said, handing her the pack so he could dig inside, watching her arms slump when she grabbed it.

“Bloody hell Parvil. Are you transporting rocks in this thing!?” Aspen asked.

Parvil shook his head. “Only one rock. And it’s barely noticeable but when you carry your life on your back stuff adds up. Found it.” he said, taking out the small folded object that looked like a square of black fabric. “Here,” he said, taking the pack back. “Hold it a second.” he said, giving her the square.

“Why?” Aspen asked. “You know this thing better that I do.” she said, adjusting against the wind.
“We need to put it higher than ground level.” he said his teeth clicking as the cold was starting to get to him. “Unfold it together, then I boost you up and he slap it on the cliff as the same time.”

Parvil knelt so Aspen could climb on his shoulders, and he lifted her to his full height, with a small grunt of effort of getting off his knee from kneeling. “3…2…1” he said and the black void circle snapped into place. He then turned his back to the wall and moved so Aspen could scoot in.

“I’m in.” Aspen called down.

“Okay.” Parvil said, jumping and hooking his elbow on the inner part of the hole and pulling himself up. He turned when he heard Aspen digging around in one of the storage drawers, before coming back with a piece of bog water colored chalk. Parvil watched her as she laid on her stomach near the edge of the hole and leaned out over the edge. He watched as she scribbled something. But when he saw she’d be a minute he made himself useful and started a fire in the small stove. Once the fire was popping and cracking, and filling the small space with gradual heat, he heard a woosh and metallic snap. As he turned to see what Aspen had done he noticed the slight shimmer outside the hole. It looked slightly like a soap bubble when you looked at the right angle.

Aspen pulled away from the edge and stood before pushing her glasses back up her nose. “There, now the warmth will stay in and the cold will stay out. And if the wind changes direction we don’t have to worry about getting buried.” she said, holding her hands over the little stove.

Parvil watched a moment before putting up his pointer and middle finger up and his thumb almost closed in a fist, rotating his wrist twice and murmuring “candens”. A fraction of a moment after speaking the spell a string of small glass bulbs filled with a green liquid around the interior lit up. Though the light they made was more like natural sunlight in color but dim to a degree that was comfortable.

“You’ve made some improvements I see.” Aspen said, looking around the inside, before plopping down on the bed to sit next to Parvil. She leaned back and tapped on one of the glass containers with a fingernail. “Did you come up with this yourself or did you have ‘help’?” she asked. Looking at Parvil through the corner of her eyes.

“On my own.” he said, “Proof of concept, still working on it.” he said, “Better than candles though. At least if I fall asleep with these on, my risk of dying goes down significantly.”

“It’s impressive, you’ll have to teach it to me sometime.” she said, leaning forward again, cocking her head to look outside again. “This might be bad.” she said. “I didn’t want to say it before because shelter was more important, but I couldn’t feel the end of the weather front.”

Parvil worked his jaw in thought. “And if you can’t see you can’t get us out of here.” he finished her thought. “So what do we do?”
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