The blizzard seemed to come from nowhere. The young man had seen snowstorms leap into existence before, but this was by far the worst one he had dealt with. Looking back, it was no wonder his dog Riley had went back home. He'd always been a smart dog. He trudged on as the snow and wind battered his body. It was cold, even through his fur coat and long johns.

Drake thought he was heading to his snug little cabin, but after an hour, he knew that he was lost. The freezing air and howling wind seemed to suck the heat from his body. By the second hour it felt like his bone marrow had been replaced with ice.

By the third he thought he heard his mother's voice on the wind. Just rest a bit, my little dragon, it seemed to say, using the pet name she had called him when she was alive. But Drake knew that if he were to curl up now and sleep, he would wake up in the afterlife.

By the fourth hour he was about to give in. However he saw something that snapped him awake. Lights! he thought. A cottage!

Ella rocked back and forth steadily as she read by the warm fire in the hearth. A year. A since she had run from that awful excuse of a prince and hidden herself in the forest. Her father's cabin was small but held everything she had needed to learn about how to live alone in the woods. The basement below was stocked well, something throughout the summer and fall Ella had continued to stock, and there was more than enough firewood to keep the small house warm. Her delicate hands had bled but were now calloused enough to keep up with her work. And a the scruffy practically wild cat that had lived in the woods, was now her constant companion in the lonely winter nights.

Looking up from her book, the small clock on her mantel chimed six. Six and it was already so dark out? A blizzard really much of set in over the course of the short day. Getting to her feet, the wild cat looked up, but quickly settled himself when he realized there was nothing to be alarmed about. Giving a small laugh, Ella went to the kitchen area and started to prepare the vegetables and meat for her dinner. A nice stew sounded good. The bones she had kept boil all day had surely made a nice broth by now. Humming to down out the moaning wind, the young woman continued her work without any notice of the dark nearly frozen figure trudging his way towards her cottage.

Drake didn't even knock on the front door of the cottage. His mind was confused and muddled, but one thing was clear: he needed warmth. The young man shut the door behind him, and although he didn't realize it, with the snow clinging to his clothes, and fur exposed on his hood, he looked like some kind of yeti. "S-S-So s-s-sorr-rr-rry ab-b-b-bout barging in," he managed to get out. "F-F-Freez-z-zing outside!" Without another word he moved in front of the fireplace to warm up.

Ella jumped and dropped her knife and the sudden thump of an opening and closing door. The frozen air blocked out a good portion of whatever the snow-covered beast in her house had hissed and she immediately reached for the closest thing to her. Hand grasping a thick iron-cast pan, she didn't even stop to think. She just moved. And smacked the wild beast thing right over the head. The wild cat hissed at their falling near-frozen intruder and Ella panted in sheer surprise at what had occurred in just the matter of minutes. One minute she had been making dinner, the next their was an unconscious snowy... thing laying before her hearth. What... Just what the heck was going on?!

Drake was happy to see the fire. Unfortunately that happiness was short lived as he was knocked unconscious. His mind drifted to happier times. He and his father fishing; his mother reading bedtime stories; family meals prepared by the cooks.

Then came the nightmare. Drake was little again. He was crying over his parents' corpses. They had been murdered in their sleep. He had come in after having a bad dream. And the man had nearly killed him.

But the murderer had let him go. He didn't know why, but he had let Drake live.