Sparrow woke in a cavern of ice. He was still naked, only now, he had the beginnings of a beard. He stood and stretched, His bones felt heavy and cold. And when he touched his skin it felt the same temperature as the ice around him.

Above him was a staircase made from ice. He inched towards it. Ice cracked from his limbs as he moved. One by one he climbed the stairs. At the end of the staircase in front of a wall of ice he found a candle.

The candle glowed like hope and home. And the closer he got the more he felt its warmth. His frozen feet clinked against the ice as he closed in on it, and the candle flickered lazily and invitingly.

He held his hands above it and warmth surged into his fingertips, melting away the ice that cloaked them. Even being close to the candle warmed his chest and slowly his eyes adjusted to the candle’s light and the cavern around him grew darker and colder.

Sparrow started to shiver.

This is a good sign. He told himself, this is a sign that my body is starting to work again.

But there was something off about the whole thing.

Why a candle? Sparrow thought.

He carried the candle around the cavern, searching for a way out. But there was nothing and every step hurt his thawing feet.

He circled back to the staircase. But in the dark he couldn’t find it. He found himself looping back over and over again to the spot where the candle had been standing.

Sparrow put the candle on the ground and held his feet above it. The warmth stung slightly, but it also felt like stepping into a warm bath. He felt himself grinning and laughing.

But his hands were getting cold. He held them over the flame and as he did his feet started to freeze again. It was ten times more painful now he’d had a taste of the warmth. He shivered. The shivers got more and more intense as they rocked his body. He pulled the candle close to his chest and felt the blessed warmth spread there.

I can’t keep this up. Sparrow thought as his feet and hands started to freeze over again. I’ve got to get out. I’ve got to get away from the cold.

He stared into the flame, then the darkness that had closed in around him. And then… slowly the realisation of what he had to do dawned on him.

This is gonna hurt.

He gently took the candle, held it in front of his lips, then blew.

The flame went out.

****

Outside the cabin the storm was getting worse. Drifts of snow smacked against the solid cedar door, rocking the building’s foundations.

Zoe paced in front of the fire. Its warmth hardly seemed to touch her bones.

‘How long is this storm going to last?’ she said.

Ernie touched the door with his hand and closed his eyes, ‘Hard to say, could be another day, could be another week.’

The creaking sounds grew louder and the candles that hung from the walls flickered.

‘Will it affect Sparrow?’

‘No… he’s dead, remember? He won’t even notice.’

‘But he’s not going to stay dead is he?’

Ernie just shrugged, ‘Maybe. Maybe not. Who’s to say.’

The door shook and cracked in half. Ernie carefully put his hand to the crack and welded it together with a string of ice.

‘Who’s to say?!’ Zoe’s voice was lower and angrier as she moved away from the fire and towards the little man, ‘You told him to go into that hole - you buried him - and you better bring him back alive, or else you’ll have me to answer to.’

Ernie looked up, ‘Zoe. I’m sorry. I’ve done everything I can for him. He has to walk the rest of the journey himself - remember, he wanted this.’

The wind and snow shook the house again and the fire sizzled as snowflakes fell on it.

‘Yeah, but he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. He didn’t know this storm was coming.’

Ernie moved away from the door, pulled a flint from the wall and lit a candle that had been blown out.

‘Look, Zoe… I’m more worried about you than I am Sparrow - he’s already dead.’ Ernie pointed to the cracks that bulged along the walls, ‘I don’t know how long before these walls cave.’

Zoe picked up her mandolin and held it to her chest, ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, usually my hut would’ve disintegrated by now. The snow would’ve claimed it and i’d be either hibernating under a snowdrift, or wandering the mountains.’

‘Are you telling me…’

‘I’m telling you that homes don’t last past the summer here. As the storms start they wipe out everything in their path.’ The little man shook his head, ‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t think Sparrow would be in the ground for so long.’

Zoe gritted her teeth and strummed at her mandolin, ‘Ernie, we’ve been fighting every day since we buried him. Why didn’t you tell me before about the storms?’

‘Because I didn’t want you to worry - and also I didn’t want to acknowledge it in my own head - you sleep better when you ignore things.’ Ernie sighed as plates fell from his tiny kitchen, ‘I’m sorry Zoe.’

‘What’s going to happen to me?’

‘Well… the storm will probably wipe out our hut over the next few days and I’ll do my best to make us a shelter.’

‘And?’

‘And I’ll do everything to protect you from the storm, but you have to understand… my heart’s already stopped. That means the cold can’t hurt me the way it can hurt you.’

Zoe wrinkled her nose.

‘You’re a cold little man you know?’

‘I know.’

Ernie sighed again and waved his hand along a gap in the roof. The wind shook out his repair almost as soon as he made it. He closed his eyes and focussed on the spot.

A large brick-like slab of ice appeared and dug into the wood, sealing the hole.

‘How about a song?’

Zoe laughed, ‘It’s too cold to sing.’

‘It’s too cold not to.’ Ernie said, ‘You’ve got a beautiful voice. Use it while you’ve got it.’

Zoe swallowed, ‘Right. Okay.’

She strummed at her mandolin, the cold had already changed its tuning. After adjusting the screws at the end of it she started strumming proper.

The wind.

The rain.

The snow.

The pain.

I didn’t know you were beneath it all.

Take a light.

Take a bow.

Take my name.

Show me how.

I didn’t know you were beneath it all.

The roof of the house lifted off and spun down the valley, crashed against a cliff and smashed into a thousand pieces.

The snow fell around Zoe, and her hands stuck to the mandolin.

‘What now!?’ she called out to Ernie. The wind was screaming above her.

Ernie scrambled through the snow and grabbed her hand, in his other hand he started pulling the cold from her, forming it into a snowball.

‘Shelter!’ Ernie yelled. For a moment he let go of her and used both of his hands to form a roof over them made from snow, shutting out the wind.

‘It’s so l-l-loud.’ Zoe said.

Ernie nodded, and took her hand again, drawing the cold from her bones, ‘That wind is what’ll kill you. We just have to stay out of-’

Ernie was cut off as the walls around them collapsed. Without support the roof of snow Ernie had created fell in on them, crushing Zoe.

Ernie moved through the snow, shifting it aside with frantic flicks of his hands. He spotted the mandolin and dug until he found her arm.

Ernie pulled Zoe from the snow, her face was white and lips purple. She’d stopped shivering, instead she just glanced around as though she was in a dream. Ernie’s arms shook as he formed a new roof. This one was low and thin. It was all he had in him after weeks of plugging gaps in the cabin.

The next gust swept it into oblivion.

Ernie fell on his back, he was still holding Zoe’s hand, forming a ball of snow in the other. Only, the snow kept getting blown away, and Zoe’s skin was starting to ice over.

Her lungs groaned as she heaved in each breath.

From above them there came a sound like ice cracking, only magnified a thousand times. A shadow passed overhead and the wind stopped.

When Ernie opened his eyes he saw a ceiling made of deep blue ice.

Ernie eased himself onto his stomach and there he saw the stairs descending down the valley towards him.

Walking down the stairs was Sparrow - cloaked in nothing but ice and snow, and unaware of it all as he moved.

The wind broke though one side of the cavern, sending a sharp piece of ice hurtling towards Sparrow.

The cultivator didn’t even look, he simply held up a hand and the ice disintegrated in the air in front of him. The hole sealed itself over and thick supports grew around the cavern.

At the bottom of the stairs Sparrow took Zoe’s hand and in the air next to him a snowball grew.

‘You did it.’ Ernie said.

Sparrow nodded slowly, ‘I paid… I paid big time.’

Ernie thumped his chest, ‘You can’t feel your heart anymore, can you?’

Sparrow’s eyes were dull, ‘No. I can’t feel my heart.’

‘That’s because it stopped. It’s never going to start again.’ Ernie said, ‘Every step you take closer to being immortal is a step away from feeling alive.’

Sparrow nodded at Zoe who was starting to move her head, ‘Every silver lining has its cloud.’

Zoe’s hands shook as she got to her feet.

‘Sparrow?’

‘I made it.’

Zoe threw her arms around him, and pushed her face against his chest.

‘Are you hugging me because you missed me, or because you’re cold?’

Her eyes met his, ‘A little bit of both.’

Sparrow laughed, it felt weird but weird-good.

‘I was about to join you.’ Zoe said.

‘I’m glad you didn’t.’

‘Me too.’ Zoe pulled Sparrow a little tighter and whispered, ‘Hey… next time… let’s go somewhere a little warmer - maybe the beach?’

Sparrow grinned, ‘You’re on. Perhaps I can cultivate the dao of the tanned skin.’

Zoe laughed, ‘We deserve it.’

Zoe grabbed her mandolin, and Sparrow lifted her into his arms and they sailed across the mountains down towards the plains beyond in search of a beach.