the snow storm had come unannounced, and Ur had frowned at it from the safety of the grocery store for several minutes before she had shoved her purchases into a dimension bubble, wrapped her scarf closer around her neck and headed out. it was not supposed to snow, not around this time of the year. absentmindedly, she hoped that Solomon had picked up on the darkening skies before she had and that he had created a shield around her garden because otherwise, her gardening efforts would be ruined before she was back home.
around her, people rushed towards their houses, the mutterings in the air informing her that they, too, had not known of the storm’s coming and that they were glad their families were safely home. magic, then. not hers, not Solomon’s—she had never dabbled in spells that affected the weather and Solomon would not do this, either, which meant that somewhere out in the newly returned cold, there was some kind of troublemaker. Ur sighed quietly as she marched into the blizzard, trusting her feet to carry her home as she cast spell upon spell to keep the snow away from her as she fished her communication lacrima from her pocket to text her partner.
[ txt — 12:15 ; sent ] it’s a magic storm. can you take care of the origin?
[ txt — 12:17 ; received ] already on it, love. see if you spot any hikers?
[ txt — 12:17 ; sent ] gotcha. i’ll make some tea for you when i get home, babe.
he had made a good point, an excellent point even, she thought. there were never many tourists in Iris Town which had originally lured them to the area, but they had not counted on guild mages that seemed to have a tendency to pop up just about anywhere or on the kind of hiker that seemed to believe that the more dangerous a terrain was, the more worthy it was of their time. weird people, she mused as she stood still for a moment, ignoring the raging of the storm and instead listening for softer, calmer sounds—like footsteps, like breath. there were empty cabins all over the mountain range and she hoped that anyone out there had made it to one of them, but she knew how treacherous this sort of weather could be, how easy it was to walk in circles and never know. and ——
there. a person. she moved quickly, shoving the snow aside as she approached the stranger. she almost would have missed him, he felt so cold that he almost blended in with the frosty surroundings, but a dot of dark was still visible amidst the white. ‘‘ Hello there, ’’ she greeted hastily as she rummaged through her dimension bubbles to seek for something that would offer warmth, ‘‘ I got you. ’’
