Vaccuum of Ice

Mittel blinked and all was ice as his vision filled with the frozen vista. In that instant the ice shards ploughed into him. Slivers scritched past his cheek, stung his forehead, cut his hands. Straight on they came at first, some shearing sharply upwards as they ricochetted off buttons, buckles and any small resistance. Nicks appeared in number, kissing his face as he laboriously turned his head aside.

His skin burned red raw in the blizzard’s frozen wrath. Air turned frigid around him as the deluge increased in tempo. Heat steamed into the vacuum of ice as his body cooled at an alarming rate. Tiny tremors racked his limbs.

Heat! his mind screamed in response to the debilitating temperature. Heat. Heat. Heat. his body replied, steady as a heartbeat. A glimmer of warmth lit his depths and he anchored himself around it, dammed it against the subzero invasion.

The spreading cold halted, then receded as warmth flowed through his limbs. Icicles turned to snowmelt then droplets that sizzled in evaporation as his skin heated. A cocoon of warmth surrounded him, protecting him against the icy onslaught.

As suddenly as it began, the attack abated. He staggered, gasping in the fresh air, rubbing warmth back into his arms. Fadro laughed heartily in amusement.