SWEET THING!

it was a heavy snow fall the day before, so she tucked her feet into her heavy boots, gathered her basket and tucked her ears into a warm hat, before setting off to one of the small lakes in the valley. cloud crocus were just beginning to bloom, so the sprouts would be added to the stew her mother was cooking for the next night. 

spring was coming, elvira could tell from the bird cries and the scent of rain. she gathered as many of the white buds as she could, her finger tips beginning to go numb. she snapped her basket shut and turned to follow the trail back up to her village. 

a large billowing cloud hung above the top of the endless pines, an omen to what elvira did not want to be true. she raced through the forest, feet light atop the heavy snow, but she knew she would be too late. the flickering fire, the arching flames that consumed house after house, and with them, the screams of the people within the kindling. 

she pressed her body against a large tree, hiding from the men, the men wearing raven insignias. rage bubbled through her body, filling her teeth and nails with heat, but it was not a fiery rage that filled her palm, but an icy promise of revenge. as snow and ice consumed the men who laughed at the death of her family, the cold metal of a vision flashed into existence in her palm.