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I stare before me at the crystalized, sharp bristles curtaining the cave. There's a reason these are there. A waterfall doesn't fall into itself or into nothingness.

Oooh burtles.

I stop halfway to the cataract. Looking down on the snowfall, I lift my boot and let it drop on my footprint. The ground beneath me vibrates in waves. My heart skips a beat as terror grips the hollow at my chest. I've been running over a frozen, Gahnem-knows-how-deep, pond, and I don’t know how to swim.

Quickly, I seek out a way to safety. It may be that the ice is steady enough for me to keep running, but I can't count on blind faith right now. It's best to walk on solid ground. The problem is that I can't see anything under the snow. I bite my lip in worry, finding it dry, cracked, and hurting.

The foot of the mountains should be all soil, or rock, at the very least. That's where I need to go.

The ground shivers. My brow furrows. I haven't moved.

Darting slow looks from one side of me to the other, I watch my surroundings, guarded.

The ice below shudders again.

Dread shoots up my spine. In sluggish motions, I turn around. There's nothing here. No one, just me. How can--

A harsher tremor follows my thoughts, this time directly beneath my feet. Breath caught, I start running for the rocky base of the mountain to my left.

A loud crack of dense ice erupts behind me and I whirl about.

Terror overruns as my sight falls on the harrowing creature rising from the fracture on the ice. Its iridescent red, segmented body slithers up and out of the crevice, the five long antennae on its head moving fiercely as the massive worm's stretched, sharp mandibles open like a hand ready to grab its prey. My mouth opens and closes, no sound coming out of it, when its head twists in my direction.

The creature finds me. It lifts an earsplitting whine lifts into the air and plummets recklessly towards me. My brain says I should scream, but my vocal chords don't agree with the command. My legs, on the other hand, are acting out of their own volition, running for the cave.

I shoot a terrified look behind my shoulder, only to find the monster crawling through the ice with its million, tiny red legs, its outstretched mouth chomping at the air. Tears stick to my skin in rime. I push my legs to a faster run.

Just when the waterfall's prison-like entrance is within reach, I feel the ground clunk and convulse. The sound of something sliding fast --sliding my way --follows.

I turn my head again. The creature's body is skating in my direction in such a way that it appears to have been swung across the ice. Its gaping jaws expose a cavernous hole where a thousand minuscule, razor-sharp teeth spin in whirlwind motion. Finally able to emit a sound, I scream and leap forward, hoping to catch the root of one of the ice stalactites hanging from the mouth of the grotto.

My hands grip the frozen column, but it's too late to slip inside the cave. I swing left, just in time for the beast to crash against the grotto's opening, its body slamming onto the rocky walls outside the cave. I jump back down onto the ice a heartbeat before an avalanche of snow drops on the creature's upper appendages, leaving it momentary trapped. Panting fiercely, I race back towards the hill.

Another piercing howl fills the air. The beast is creeping out of the snow, clearly not pleased with the fact that I haven't been an easy catch. With a mighty flail from its tail, it smashes through the iced floor of the pond, making it rattle. A hollow shattering is heard, and I watch in dismay as the upper build of the frozen pond starts to crack open beneath my feet, fissures extending all through its form.

I stop and turn around, panting, staring at the creature who stares back at me with unseen eyes.

Please, don't move. Please... Don't move.

The beast plunges back into the pond.

Rippling waters shift the ice, causing the surface to rupture into so many pieces, so fast, I am forced to jump unto one of them, to keep from falling through the rifts into a cold, liquid death. The chunk of ice I'm standing on now is dangerously small, which creates a huge problem: instability.

The worm lunges out onto the surface again and lets out another hungry shriek. It is a mere twenty feet away from where I'm trying to stand. The water churns furiously, the ice caps flail. I try to balance, but my boot slips. My heart wrenches as I trip rearward.

I heave a last gasp, knowing there is no coming back from the chilly arms of the watery deathbed that awaits. In a moment's breath, fear engulfs me, and, as though I had known this was how it would end all along, I close my eyes and give in to fate.

#

The feel of hands behind my back startles me. My eyes fling open, and I look up with a confused frown at the mess of red hair cascading down a round face. The blue-violet eyes that stare at me are unfamiliar but fierce. "Get up!" she cries and boosts me forward. The motion is fast and I fall on my knees, but she grabs on to my coat and pulls me back to my feet. "Run!" she screams, taking my hand, dragging me.

I try to yell back at her that there's nowhere to run, but stop myself when I realize there is an icy, narrow path before us. Somehow --somehow --some of the ice caps have melded together to form a channel leading towards the grotto. Hope renewed, I force my legs to go faster, too fast for the girl to keep up with me. I try to drag her along, but the second I get in the lead she draws me back with a harsh jerk.

"No!" she commands.

"I'm faster!" I argue, panting. "I can get us--"

"Killed!" she rows. "You'll get yourself killed!"

I ignore her remark and grab hold of her waist, lifting her, running even faster. She fights me with words my ears cannot hear. We are nearing the cave's mouth, and I can almost taste safety.

A crack sounds under my feet. The ice rifts open below us and we fall together. I roll on the ice, slipping waist-down into the water. Hands seeking desperately to grab unto the surface of the ice block, I yell out at the feel of lulling fire on my lower limbs.

The girl grabs hold of my forearms and tugs at me. I push up as we both grunt --she with the force, I in pain --until I've pulled out of the pond. We land beside each other on the bed of ice, puffing and wheezing clouds out of our mouths and noses. The pain on my legs is numbing, and I can't move them, but I'm grateful to be alive.

"Thank yo--"

The creature screeches into the air. We both look back. The giant worm's body drives into a surf towards us.

"Come on!" she jumps up on the ice and yanks at my arm.

"I can't!"

"What?"

"I can't move my legs!"

A twinge of hesitation shows as she bites her lip nervously and kneels in front of me, placing each of her hands over my thighs. My eyes open wide at the intimacy with which her fingers wrap around my legs. The tingle of her gift moves from the outer layer of my skin into my pores, dashing through my blood vessels. Pain shoots down my calves until it reaches my toes. I howl in agony.

"Can you move now?"

"It hurts!"

"You need to try!"

I do, though it's excruciating, and I stand up, but it's too late. The worm's body is rising above us, swaying rhythmically with the ripple of icy water underneath us.

Helpless, I stare up at the face of doom and cry, knowing now all the stories Gugg told me were true, and that my father was right all along. If this was the creature the wall was built for, the Council was wrong to believe it was dead. It wasn't, but we will be.

The beast flings its colossal head towards us, mandible ready to take the game. I cry out my mother's name, not knowing why.

Another sound suddenly takes the atmosphere --a wailing stronger than my voice, than the monster's yowl; a sound I heard for the first time in the Gorgam Forest, not too long ago. The silvery white body of a feathered being shoots across the sky.

The white bird flaps its magnificent wings above the worm. A blaze of incandescent orange light blasts along its body, pushing downward in electrifying white, striking the pond beast's crown. With a short, dying screech, the giant worm's body shakes violently and plummets to the cradle of the waters below.

The crash sends waves across the pond. The girl and I tumble onto the ice again. I try to sit up, but my entire body is cramped, and my legs feel like they're burning on the inside after the girl did--whatever it was she did. There's also this horrible buzzing in my head that I can't explain.

The mass of ice is transported by the movement of the water to the foot of the grotto. When we've collapsed with the skirts of the mountain, I force my arms to shift --something they're having trouble doing on their own --and my legs to shuffle --which they don't seem to want to do now. My breath is coming in short; every stride pushed forward is heavy and dragged. There is an emotionless gap closing between the force I am vaguely remitting and the increasing desire to lie down.

"Don't fall asleep!" I hear her urge me, but I do not mind her words. Letting my body merge with the snow below me is all that matters now; surrendering to the noble wonder of an endless slumber.

Unable to hold my crawl, I fall forward. Hands sprawled at the sides, the bits of ice jagging like spines on the skin of my face, I welcome sleep in the arms of what's left of the storm.