A dream:

You are sitting next to a small campfire, a ring of stones and a small pit dug in the center, coals still smoke in the center of it. The sun appears to be coming up, just the very fringes of light peak through the treetops that surround you. You sit a good 10 feet or so from the fire itself. There is another figure wrapped in a blanket on the other side of the fire. It is only 5 feet or so from the edge of the pit and appears to be laying facing the other way. You look around you and you can see a forest seems to spread out in all directions from this clearing that you appear to be occupying. Green grass and trees surround you and small batches of flowers and bushes scattered in amongst them. You can hear birds singing in the trees above as well as small animals rushing around in the brush nearby. Closer to you the grass is brown and covered in a thin sheet of shimmering frost. Closer still and there appears to be a fine powdering of sleet or snow covering the ground. You reach over next to you to grab a small stick, breaking it in your hands and moving towards the fire. As you grip it the thin layer of crystal ice forms on the surface. It breaks cleanly and you move toward the embers of the fire. As you move closer to them they seem to shift from their dusky grey to a shimmering red and yellow. You drop the broken stick onto the fire and move back to where you were before. As you do the feathered crystals on the surface recede and the stick catches light in a few seconds. You reach for another couple of sticks and in the same manner break them into smaller pieces. As you do you notice the pale blue flesh of your skin, with blackened fingertips. With these few in the same way to take them to the small flickering flame that seems to shrink as you approach, and drop the broken pieces with some direction in a small stack on top of the flame. As you back away the flame one again seems to spring back to its normal self and with all sincerity starts to light the other sticks aflame. With the gradual addition of more wood in larger pieces the once embers now stand a full flame crackling and flickering.

The figure on the other side of the ring of stones has not moved or responded at all to your actions. You stand up and begin to move away from the fire. As you take each step the place where your bare feet land turns a sickly brown and quickly after a sheen of small white crystals forms there. You move through this forest with some level of familiarity, not slowing or stopping to look around. You move with purpose and direction at a determined pace but nothing that would be mistaken for anything other than a quick walk. You reach out your hand to steady a certain step, and your hand grasps the trunk of a small tree. In the same manner as the other things it responds to the touch of your blackened fingertips with spreading lines of crystal ice. As you step away from it and look back, the ice quickly receding until it disappears.

A few more steps and then you stop, you close our eyes and hold them shut for a moment, you can feel your arms lightly hanging at your side. You open your eyes once again and a shard of ice begins to form in front of you, it is pointed at one end and grows longer and wider at the other end it seems to gather for a second or two. Then without word or movement from you this pointed shard flies off to your left with incredible speed, the wind whipping and it moves quickly through it. You hear bit of rustling and then a wet slick crunch as the impromptu spear embedded itself in something. You turn in the direction that it went and walk slowly that way, the air now filled with a creature’s screams of pain. You walk carefully through the bushes in which the creature was undoubtedly hiding in. There just beyond the bushes in the place the the flying shard of ice threw it into is a wild boar. Its thick fur and hide pierced by the long iced impalement, it is sticking out just behind the things shoulder, its legs flailing in an attempt to find purchase on the ground. You stand quite a few feet from it, not moving. Slowly from the point of impact the animals fur begins to turn a grey white. The skin underneath turning a light blue color, this change slowly spreading, creeping across the shoulder of the beast. Its struggles begin to slow and its breathing gets more frantic in a matter of moments all motion ceases. You now approach and almost thoughtlessly you reach out a hand in front of you and thin crystals of ice start to from in your hand and quickly grow unto the shape of a knife. In less than a second this blade appears in your hand and you move as if that is the way it should be and close your fist around the handle. In that same moment the implement that had impaled the animal seems to disperse into the air. You begin cutting up and breaking down the flesh of the boar, removing the organs and opening up the creatures neck that the blood can pour out. You wave you hand and a spire of ice forms from the ground lifting the carcass by the rear feet, it hangs there for a couple minutes as you continue your work. Once it is cleaned and broken down you begin to walk away from the creature and as you look over your shoulder you see the spire of ice disappear and in its place a flat sheet of ice forms under the large chunks of flesh and bone. As you start to walk this sheet floats above the ground staying just a few feet behind you. You quickly make your way back to camp, as you approach the camp the platform carrying the meat goes around ahead of you and disappears and the chunks of meat drop to the ground with a thud. As it does the figure on the other side of the fire begins to stir and rolls over and looks in your direction. You quietly utter a few words, “breakfast will be ready soon, time to get up.”

A bleary eyed young man wipes the back of his hand across his eyes. Looks around and then quickly throws his blanket back over his head.

“Just a few more minutes, sister. Please”

You wake.