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Kai attempted to murder Jay with his glare. Of course, it didn’t work, but he could imagine that it did.
“Oh, c’mon,” Jay teased, giggling. “It’s just snow.”
Kai growled. Just snow? Snow wasn’t only wet, snow was cold—it was the only thing that came close to being as bad as large amounts of water. The only reason it wasn’t actually worse was because snow stayed put.
At least, it did when somebody wasn’t throwing it at his face.
Kai shook his head, trying to dislodge the last pieces of snow before they melted any further. Cold streaks of water were already running down his neck.
“You’re not a dog, Kai. Just wipe it off,” Cole said, amused. Kai turned his glare on him. Wiping it off would get his hands cold too, no thank you.
Something moved in Kai’s peripheral vision. He ducked just in time to avoid another snowball.
“Really, Jay?” Kai exclaimed angrily, whirling to where he’d snuck around behind him.
Jay smirked, already packing another snowball.
Kai was debating whether or not he should just go back to the Bounty when something hit him in the back of the head. He staggered forward, his vision blurring for a moment.
Kai swore as snow started dripping down the back of his shirt, tactically sacrificing the warmth of his fingers—how had he forgotten to bring gloves—to scoop as much of it away as he could. He turned, glaring at Cole—who was laughing way more than the situation required.
“Seriously?” Kai snapped.
Cole grinned. “You have to admit, you make a great target.”
Kai sputtered indignantly, stomping past him. The trail they were following wasn’t exactly visible, thanks to the foot of snow, so Kai was honestly just guessing where it was. He glanced around, searching for their self-appointed guide.
“Where’s Zane?” Kai asked.
Kai squawked as snow showered down on him, diving to the side. As Jay and Cole burst into laughter behind him, he looked up to find Zane hanging by his knees from a tree branch—a branch that was now suspiciously empty of snow.
“My apologies, brother,” Zane said, looking down—up?—at him.
Kai squinted at him. “You did that on purpose!” he accused.
A smile played around the corners of Zane’s mouth. “Perhaps.”
Kai scowled at him as he flipped out of the tree, landing in a crouch in the snow. Unlike the rest of them, who were wearing full snow gear—coats, gloves, hats and the like—Zane was only wearing a thin jacket. Kai wasn’t sure if it was purely because of the fact that he was a nindroid that Zane seemed completely unaffected by the cold, or whether the fact that he was the Master of Ice also also had something to do with it—after all, didn’t computers not work in freezing temperatures? He thought he remembered Jay saying something about that at some point. Then again, Zane was a lot more complex than just a computer.
Cole and Jay were still laughing. Kai rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Can we just find this stupid pond already?”
“The Admian Falls do not possess any sort of intelligence, nor are they merely a pond—”
“Thanks, Zane,” Kai interrupted. He was really regretting agreeing to come on this hike, primarily because of the ice water dripping down his back. “Where’s the trail?”
Zane continued leading the way. The hike itself was supposed to be short—apparently it usually only took twenty minutes to reach the falls from the road. However, the snow made things a lot slower going . . . for those of them who weren’t a nindroid, anyway, although Zane would stop and wait whenever he got farther ahead. When Kai checked his phone, he found that they’d been hiking for three-quarters of an hour.
Apparently, the others were having similar thoughts.
“Are we almost there yet?” Jay asked, failing to keep all of the whine from his voice.
“We’ll get there when we get there,” Cole deadpanned.
“I estimate that we will reach our destination in approximately ten minutes.”
“That’s great, because I’m freezing,” Kai said. His toes had gone numb a while back, and his fingers were still numb from clearing the snow out of the back of his coat.
“You’re the Master of Fire, Kai,” Jay pointed out.
Kai sent him a no duh expression. “So?”
“I think he’s telling you to use your fire to warm yourself up,” Cole elaborated.
Oh.“I knew that,” Kai insisted. He cupped his hands in front of him and summoned a flame.
What formed was about the same size as the fire on a birthday candle. Kai frowned, concentrating on increasing the size. To his mild surprise, he couldn’t get the flame much larger than a golf ball.
Mentally, Kai shrugged. It was cold out, and he was pretty winded from hiking. He flipped his hands over, holding them above the flame to feel the heat. Pins and needles rushed across his fingers.
Zane started listing some facts about the type of trees they were walking through. Kai half-listened, splitting his attention between Zane’s words, maintaining his flame, and not face-planting in the snow with each step he took.
Eventually, they reached the falls, and Kai had to admit that the view was worth the hike. Three separate streams of water were frozen in incredible, twisting pillars up the side of a cliff that was taller than the Bounty. The basin at their bases was equally impressive, the water frozen in curling waves. All of the ice was a beautiful, glittering white that shone even with the sun hiding behind clouds.
“Wow,” Jay breathed.
Kai silently agreed.
They stared for a few minutes, then unanimously decided to take a break before heading back down. Cole and Jay flopped into the snow while Zane ventured out onto the ice, moving carefully so as to not damage it. Kai found a rock that was a nice height to sit on and out of range of Cole and Jay. He started using his fire to melt the snow off, but the already small flame quickly got smaller until it flickered out entirely. Kai frowned, flexing his fingers. They were getting numb again.
Kai brushed the rest of the snow off of the rock and took a seat, tucking his hands under his armpits. He watched Zane explore the ice, glancing at Cole and Jay only when Jay started shrieking because Cole had dumped snow on his face. Kai smirked.
After a little whole, Zane made his way back to them. “Shall we return to the Bounty now?”
“Sounds good to me,” Cole said, standing.
Jay snuck up behind him, dumping his snow-loaded beanie on the back of Cole’s neck. Cole yelped, reflexively twisting to punch Jay in the gut—Jay ducked out of the way, his leg sweeping out and sending Cole tumbling back into the snow.
Normally, Kai would have laughed at the exchange, but he felt oddly separated from it. It was almost like he was watching it through a tunnel.
“Perhaps we should call a truce?” Zane suggested as a red-faced Cole scrambled to his feet.
“Sounds good to me,” Jay parroted Cole from earlier, smiling smugly.
Cole glared at him. “Fine.”
It was at this point that Kai realized that he was supposed to join them. He pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly—his limbs were surprisingly stiff.
“This way,” Zane directed, leading them back down the trail.
Going down was just as hard as going up. Thankfully, the trail wasn’t very steep, but they still had snow to contend with. Kai paid careful attention to his footing, absently listening as Cole and Jay bantered back and forth, Zane chiming in with the occasional comment.
After a few minutes, Kai paused, shivering. His coat apparently wasn’t very high quality as the cold seemed to be getting in easily. His arms had started going numb—his legs were already mostly numb, as his jeans didn’t do much against the cold. It made it a lot harder to find his footing, but Kai forced himself to keep going. All he had to do was get back to the Bounty, and then he never had to go in the snow again.
Zane was explaining something to do with icicles when dark spots bloomed in Kai’s vision. He stumbled, reaching out to a nearby tree for support. It was only once he was no longer falling over that he realized that he couldn’t feel the tree he had grabbed. He looked up, trying to blink the spots from his vision.
Were his fingers . . . blue?
Zane’s voice had started to fade. Kai shook his head, pulling himself away from the tree. He needed to keep moving.
Kai only got a few steps in before he tripped. He landed in the snow with an oomf, his vision blacking out even more. He tried to push himself up, but his body was too heavy, so he sagged back into the snow.
It was really weird. Half of Kai’s face was more or less buried in the snow, but it didn’t feel cold at all.
Kai’s eyelids were really heavy, just like the rest of him. His blinking kept getting slower, until he could barely keep his eyes open.
That was okay. He’d just take a quick nap, regain his strength. Then he could catch up to the others.
Kai closed his eyes. It felt really nice . . .
“Kai?”
. . .
“KAI!”
*****
The first thing Kai noticed when he woke up that he was freezing—so much so that it hurt, like icicles had stabbed every inch of his body. He let out a whine, curling in on himself. It was kind of hard, both because he was so cold and because there was something wrapped around him, big and heavy and soft—blankets?
Yeah, blankets. He was wrapped up like a human burrito.
So why was he still so cold?
Kai started shivering. It didn’t really feel nice, so he let out another whine.
“Kai?” The voice sounded far away, and Kai couldn’t tell whose it was. Then there was a hand, pressing against Kai’s forehead. Kai couldn’t feel any temperature from it, just the pressure, and it disappeared as quickly as it had come.
There was a soft curse. “The others are building a fire,” the voice said. “Just hang on for a little longer.”
Fire. That sounded amazing—very, very warm.
Kai endured the cold for a while longer—he didn’t know exactly how long—and then someone was picking him up, blankets and all.
“C’mon, Kai,” a different voice—Cole?—murmured. Then they were moving.
When the air turned cold Kai hissed, but after a few seconds the cold went warm again—very warm.
Fire.
Kai felt himself get set down at the edge of the flame, and the person assisted him in wiggling out of the blankets so he could get even closer.
Warm, glorious heat washed over him, sinking into his body.
The cold started to fade away.