[Chapter Size: 2300 Words.]

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  élia woke up beside the frozehe same ke that had appeared in her dreams five years ago.

  When she regained sciousness, she realized that her father and Uncle Benjen were pletely gone. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remember what had happened before she lost sciousness.

  Shortly after the wind blew out the torches of her father and uncle, élia felt something strahe wall of the cave she had been leaning against suddenly became soft, as if it had lost its rigidity. Before she could react, she was sucked into it, and in the blink of an eye, everythi dark. Now, with no idea how she had ended up here, she found herself in an unknown pce.

  Refleg on the ret events, élia felt helpless. She knew her father and uncle would be worried about the worst. Although she didn’t believe she was in immediate dahe sudden way she had been brought here left her uneasy.

  During her journey north, a mysterious and indescribable feeling of trust had apanied her, but the worry about the whereabouts of her father and uncle was growing. Determio solve whatever was happening, she cluded that she o act quickly to find them.

  élia stood up from the ground and looked around. Everything was exactly as it had appeared in her dreams. This seemed to be the innermost part of the cave. A quice revealed that it was an almost entirely enclosed space.

  Although there were some small cracks in the walls, they didn’t seem wide enough to allow wind or snow iill, the ground was covered by a thick yer of snow, and even the cave walls showed traces of ice. Additionally, jutting stones emerged from the floor, and icicles hung from the cave’s ceiling like frozen bamboo shoots.

  This was, for élia, the most intriguing part of it all!

  Although it wasn’t stific, élia khat, throughout her journey, she had entered many inexplicable things. After a brief refle, she decided not to waste more time with jectures and focused on her goal: the frozen ke.

  The ke was the main reason for her journey north. From the moment she woke up, élia felt something different within herself. It was as if a great and growing force flowed through her body, powerful and majestic, like a river flowing into the sea. The iy of this power deeply impressed her.

  Her eyes were fixed on the frozehough still at some distance, she couldn’t take her eyes off the faint blue light glowing ier. The sight was mysterious and inexplicably alluring, as if something in the ke was calling to her.

  That blue light, which had appeared in her dreams for some time, always intrigued her. élia had imagined various possibilities about what it could be: a precious jewel? Or perhaps something even more enigmatid dangerous?

  She didn’t know.

  Now, however, the answer was right before her eyes. It would only take a siep to uhe truth, but this proximity made her heart race. The mystery before her was as fasating as it was frightening.

  élia took a deep breath, trying to calm the agitation inside her. After a few moments of hesitation, she slightly lifted the hem of her skirt and began walking toward the ke. With each step, she felt the power in her body increase, pulsating like the beats of her heart, almost getting out of trol.

  It didn’t take long before she was at the edge of the ke. Despite her sharp vision, the darkness at the bottom of the water made it impossible to identify the source of that blue light.

  After a few moments of indecision, élia stretched out her hand to touch the surface of the water, trying to uand what was in front of her. However, the frozen ke remained indifferent, no clues.

  Realizing that the only way to discover the truth was to veo the water, she stared into the bottomless darkness with determination. For a brief moment, she struggled internally against the fear, but finally, she took a resolute step into the ke.

  After taking only a few steps, élia noticed something surprising: the ke wasn’t as deep as it appeared. Evehe ter, the water barely reached her waist. Moreover, the crity of the water was remarkable, but still, she couldn’t distinguish what was at the bottom, even being only a few steps away from the source of the blue light.

  Determined, she kept moving forward. It didn’t take long before she got closer to what was glowing intensely. However, as she got nearer, élia noticed something peculiar: it didn’t seem accurate to say that this light was just a “blue light.” The thing at the bottom of the water resembled more of a fme.

  This thought made her smile briefly. Fire? In water? It was an absurd tradi. Yet, the more she looked, the more it seemed like a living, pulsating fme.

  élia bit her lip, ched her fists, and took a deep breath to prepare herself. Slowly, she extended her hand toward the bottom of the water. With every movement, her nervousness grew, and her heart seemed to echh the cave, its beats resonating like drums amplified by the surrounding silence.

  The glowing object was within her reach.

  Hesitant, élia finally grabbed the object. The moment her hand touched the blue fme, a sharp pain shot through her fingers, followed by an intense cold sensation that quickly spread through her palm and took over her entire body.

  The initial shock left her paralyzed.

  Even after years of having dreams and special abilities, she had never felt anything like this. Before her dreams had begun five years ago, élia could hold id snow with her hands without feeling any cold at all. However, the ess of this blue fme seemed to pee her very bones, burning from how cold it was.

  Her body began to shake untrolbly, but élia mao raise her hand to see what she had captured. She was vihat all the strangeness of this pce came from this object. However, before she could clearly see what she was holding, she was mesmerized by the blue-ice fmes dang in her hand.

  élia had been right!

  The blue light was, in fact, a fme. élia was shocked to realize that this fme could actually burn even in water. She could clearly see that her hand was still dripping, and the stant sound of drops echoed throughout the silent cave.

  Even with her hands wet, the fme kept burning, ued. Iingly, the fme did heat. On the trary, élia even suspected that the biting cold was ing from the fme itself.

  The pain she was feeling was so intehat she could barely breathe. Trembling, she tried to open her hand, but she saw the blue fmes that were once fio her palm beginning to spread up her arm. In the blink of an eye, her entire body was engulfed in those icy fmes.

  "Ah!"

  The pain was unbearable!

  Areme cold, apanied by excruciating pain, coursed through every part of her body. All she felt was cold, an icy chill so inte seemed to freeze her entire being.

  Her body became rigid and twisted in that ke. She no longer had the iion or ability to figure out what she was holding in her hands. The moment she lost sciousness again, she felt only relief.

  When the fmes pletely covered her body, élia had the sensation of dying once more.

  She wondered if, perhaps, she should never have e here.

  When élia woke up again, she realized she was lying down, and from time to time, there were some jolts. She guessed that someone was carrying her.

  Who could it be? Had her father and uncle found her?

  She wao open her eyes to see who it was, but she felt weak and cold. Since she came to this world, she had fotten what it felt like to be cold, but now she felt it fully.

  She didn’t uand what had happened. She thought that finding the frozen ke would solve all the mysteries. However, what happened was the opposite: the mystery seemed to only worsen.

  “Father? Uncle?” élia murmured weakly, gathering the little strength she had.

  “Lia, you’re awake? Are you okay?” Ned asked anxiously. He was carrying élia along the road. Upon hearing her voice, he stopped, relieved, aly id her down on the ground, leaning her against a tree. Benjen quickly approached to che her.

  After her sudden disappearahe two tinued searg in the cave, frantic. But the cave’s passage, straight and endless, seemed to have no end.

  Ned and Benjen’s worry was so great they almost lost their minds. They couldn’t imagine what kind of situation élia could be in. As they ran desperately, a bright light suddenly appeared ahead in the cave’s darkness. Following that blue light, they finally reached the deepest part of the cave.

  There was the frozen ke élia had mentioned. She was lying unscious at the water’s edge, her lower body submerged in the icy water and her head resting on a stone covered by a thin yer of ice.

  Ned’s heart almost stopped at that moment. He and Benjen moved quickly and, finally, could breathe a little easier upon realizing élia was still alive.

  But the tension didn’t disappear pletely. Five years ago, élia had had a nightmare, and the whole house had been covered by a thick yer of ice. However, at that time, her body showed no signs of cold. Her temperature was the same as everyone else’s; she was just sleeping deeply and wouldn’t wake up.

  Now, though, at the edge of the ke, Ned realized the situation was different. Not only was there i her body, but her face was blue-purple from the cold. Her entire body was as cold as aatue. If it weren’t for the faint movement of her chest, he would have believed she was dead.

  They had no choice but to élia in heavy clothes and leave the dangerous and mysterious cave during the night. Ned deeply regretted bringing élia here. If it hadn’t been for this, she wouldn’t be suffering so much.

  “Father, where are we… now? I’m… so cold…” élia murmured.

  She struggled for a long time to open her eyes, but all she saw was darkness. She k should be day, but the cold that had taken over her body was a cruel remihat everything had really happened.

  She was, in fact, starting to feel cold.

  This feeling was inexplicable ahe cold she had fotten for so many years had returned in full force. élia was sure she had never felt so cold, not even in her past life.

  “You were talking about the cold, and now I’m the one who’s unfortable,” Benjen grumbled sarcastically, but quickly took off his cloak and ed it carefully around élia. He regretted his behavior before, at the foot of the Wall.

  At that time, he used to joke that élia would never freeze to death like the other rangers. Now, he wished she would remain different from ordinary people, rather than seeing her shiver with cold, fragile and powerless as she was now.

  “You’ve been unscious for two days. We’ve already left the Snowy Vale and are heading to Nightfort. We’re never ing back here!” Ned said, watg élia still shivering from the cold.

  “What happeo you in there?” Ned asked, ed, as he looked at his daughter’s bruised cheeks. He wished élia would ti feeling the cold, as before. What if she was different from others? At least, back then, she had agility and vitality and wasn’t as fragile as she was now.

  He couldn’t uand why they risked their lives to reach the nd of eternal winter, beyond the Wall, at that time.

  “I really don’t uand. I just grabbed something from the bottom of the water, and then I felt very cold. There was a strange blue fme, and after that, I lost sciousness,” élia expined, furrowing her brow and shaking her head.

  In truth, she didn’t uand what had happened. Whehought about the thing she took from the bottom of the water, she suddenly felt her right hand ched tightly. There was something inside her palm.

  Was it round?

  She carefully touched the object. Indeed, it was a smooth, oval-shaped sphere, with a fwless surface. It wasn’t big and fit perfectly in her closed hand.

  “What… is this? It must be what I grabbed from the bottom of the water!” élia murmured, intrigued.

  élia slowly withdrew her hands from the cloak that covered her body. She stretched them out in front of her, showing the object to her father and Uncle Benjen. She k was what she had taken from the bottom of the ke. The thing ed in blue-ice fmes was also the purpose of the journey.

  Although she didn’t know whether their mission was a blessing or a curse.

  “A egg?”

  Ned and Benjen looked at the egg in élia’s hands and exged gnces. Had they e to the North for just an egg? It seemed absolutely ridiculous.

  Moreover, no matter how much they observed it, there seemed to be nothing special about it. Was it just an egg? And even smaller than a regur egg!

  “An egg?” élia felt a lump ihroat and eechless for a moment. She had always thought it was some sort of stone, like those in a stories that tained mysterious powers. But now, everything seemed a bit strange.

  Inexplicably, she tightened her fingers around the egg. It was so small it robably the size of a quail egg.

  So why had they e to this nd of eternal winter?

  Such a small and ordinary egg wouldn’t be able to satisfy hunger, even if it were cooked.

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