Getting dressed up in the Tsuchigumo-silk bodysuit and grabbing herself a spare sword, Kiko, Ele, and a pair of guards went out to cover the Hunters. It was a broad cover since the Hunters were sneaky and subtle and hunting, so the four of them were just sort of in the area rather than directly on top of them. But, even still, they couldn’t miss the sight they got a good ten minutes from the camp. Suddenly, and abruptly, the grass and trees were covered in the frost of winter. The air was a little chill around the ice, but not really noticeable.
This unnatural spectacle was further reinforced when a dozen ice statues were slowly melting in the relative heat. Anything above zero was hot when it came to ice.
“I wouldn’t have picked this place for my ice sculptures” Ele commented, walking up to the Beast frozen in mid-pounce. It was not uncommon for the Hellhounds and Lupra to pick up packs of otherwise normal wolves. Feral minds worked together, after all.
“Bloody good sculptures though. Must have taken hours for this kind of detail” Kiko replied, stepping up to them herself. Stroking her hand across the tail of one of the ice wolves, it melted under her surprisingly warm touch and startled the life out of her. Not because it melted, but because there was actual fur underneath.
Drawing her sword immediately, Kiko glanced towards the perimeter with a frantic gaze.
“These aren’t statues, they are real!” she shouted. The panicked cry spread through the group and weapons were raised. Not really for much point, anything that could snap-freeze a whole pack like this weren’t going to bawk at the swords, anymore than they did at the claws.
Still, a few minutes into the vigil and nothing moved in the forest. Kiko had every sense primed, her magical sight as much as her physical one spread as far as she could. And yet, nothing. Only the sound of ice slowly melting and dropping off the animals behind them. Whatever had done this wasn’t sticking around, and so was apparently long gone. Exhaling, Kiko would shake her head and put her sword away.
“Well, no point standing here all day” she commented, looking to the wolves. “And no use wasting these either. Come on, let’s de-ice them and get them back to camp” she continued, giving one a light kick. She didn’t quite know how Magic felt, but she was pretty sure it didn’t feel like nothing, so these creatures were frozen solid in an instant by something other than magic. It put her in mind of…
“Ele. Your Yin, could it do something like this?” she asked, pointing to the ice.
“Huh? Ohh, err…probably? It’d need to be like a dozen times more powerful than what I have right now though, and would need some real precision as well. You see that spot?” Ele pointed out a small spot that seemed to lack any frost. It hadn’t just melted, because there was frost immediately around that spot still.”It was done from there. A sort of, dome of frost blasting out from them. Projection has nothing to do with power. That’s otherworldly skill compared to me”
Hearing that, Kiko stared at the spot, and then the wolves. Whoever this person was, they clearly weren’t one for being stopped. Even the minotaurs probably wouldn’t do much to this person. No signs of blood, no signs of struggle or a fight. The Beast frozen mid-pounce….this all happened in a single moment.
But there was no point thinking about it, no point dwelling on it, so Kiko just got to scraping the ice off as well as she could and carrying the wolves back to camp. As they arrived, Kiko was blessed with a sight she hadn’t seen since they set off. While looking weather-beaten and bedraggled, Yeni was there, finally. Kiko was starting to get a bit worried at her absence.
“We will be passing by a town around twilight tomorrow. We’ll break camp on the outskirts and then roll in in the morning. We are still in the central plains so currency should still be the same. Finances will be settled after trading, so we should have some free time the day after tomorrow to pick up some trappings of civilization” Yeni exclaimed. There were murmurs of appreciation for this, as much as the Kitsunes liked self-reliance and avoided living in the cities, there were conveniences to industry that one couldn’t find in the forests.
Letting her finish her public speaking and then go off into her tent, Kiko would follow, dragging Ele behind her.
“Hey, Mum. We just saw something awesome!” Kiko exclaimed, grinning broadly and jittering with energy.
“Hmmm?” Yeni cooed, an interested parent about to have a spirited conversation about a long worm or coloured toad their child had picked up.
“You are the Yin Woman, you explain it” Kiko prompted, nudging Ele, who just looked back with a frown.
“We are all Yin Women, Kiko. And just because I can use it doesn’t give me insight on all things cold and icy. You can explain it just as well as I can” Ele replied, giving Kiko a stare.
“This has to do with the frozen wolf corpses that came in, yes?” Yeni asked, looking back to the two young Kitsunes.
“Yea! They were awesome. One of them was frozen mid-jump! Like, just, boom. Frozen. And I thought about Ele. And then you because you seemed to know about Ele’s Yin thing” Kiko finally got to the point that she had come to see Yeni in the first place about. “I checked the place with my magic eyes and it wasn’t magic, so that’s the only thing it could have been. Do you know anyone who could freeze an entire wolf pack like that?”
While Kiko had been rapid-firing questions and bouncing with energy, Yeni had been sorting her tent out, gathering new things, and then looked like she was ready to head out again.
“I’ve heard tales of those kind of capabilities, but I have never seen it myself. I can ask the elders some more if you want, but I doubt they will be able to tell you much more than Ele did. One has to have great control and great femininity to pull off something like that” Yeni explained.
Looking over, Kiko could swear that Yeni seemed more….beautiful. More demure, graceful and elegant than before. Which was hilarious given how she looked like she had slept in a tree for a week and fell down three hills to get here, but still.
“Well, I guess Ele better triple down on her training then. If I get better Magic than she gets Yin…well, the balance of power will be shifted and I will wear the pants. In a manner of speaking” Kiko put in, giving a soft giggle, that Ele did not look happy to be on the receiving end of at all.
