Disaster struck. Try as they could, but they didn't have the cohesion, preparation, or knowledge of the world in order to prepare for what was coming. The mage, who had been silent for only a brief moment, had seemed to make themselves an easy target. How wrong all of them were. That entire time, it had been casting whatever brutal incantation which allowed it to summon forth tendrils of ice. Maybe it was preparations coming into fruition, maybe it was the final will of an indomitable spirit. They had taken Gwyn and Matteo, freezing them over. Ettamri was also afflicted, with ice crawling up her leg.

It was an insurmountable wall. Every time Ash fought, she found the enemy to be obscene, yet still close. There bear was just that; a bear. One could fell a bear if they had the proper preparations. There were the goblins, which Ash had barely been able to fight on equal terms. Then, the toad. Ash did her duty of helping blind the beast and, with Ettamri, everything seemed possible. Ash had even managed to protect herself from the skeleton with a sword.

But this was on a different level.

Her patron god, Kur-Inuus, looked after the eternal cycle. What was Ash even thinking about now? Really, the fragrant disrespect for the cycles had reminded Ash of it. The beast-god that presided over all cycles. Drought and flood, summer and winter, but most important was that of life and death. For the skeleton to freely change seasons and to exist outside of the cycle of life and death was surely a great sin. It fragrantly disrespected everything about the natural order.

Her companions were frozen, battered, and fighting in order to stay alive, but Ash was only a regular human. She wasn't the favoured child of the beast-god. Favoured meal of the man-eating bear, maybe. The great silver wolf who had watched over them that night, but Ash hadn't seen the silver wolves since. Not that she was greedy for the god's favour. No, she simply wanted to live. Anything to live.

She ran and prayed, each step disoriented as the cold bit at her and her mind was unable to cope with the blood loss.

And for the first time, she cried.