Saria (2) - 12

"Young Master, what are your orders?"

"Give me some traveling clothes for this weather, and a large backpack filled with non-perishable foods."

"..."

"Young Master... You don't mean to go after her, do you?"

"I am, she needs someone with her right now."

"B-but..."

"This is an order Char, go do it."

Hearing my sharp tone, she bowed her head and left.

After all, she knew that I was the one best suited for the job of following Saria as I was the one who had trained directly under her for the past few months.

Char came back with the requested supplies and helped me change quickly, before I said goodbye and some orders for when I was gone, and then turned around to leave.

"Wait, Young Master, I have something that might help you."

Turning around, I saw an old fashioned rifle in her hands.

"It's been enchanted by a certified gunsmith in the capitol. It won't ever run out of ammo, so you only need to do the regular re-loading motions you would with a bolt-action rifle. Originally, the Lord gave this to me to protect you, but it seems like you need to protect someone else, so put it to good use."

'I guess I'm still that bastard's son after all...'

Running back, I grabbed the rifle by the forestock before flipping up the hood of my plain brown cloak and then running into the blizzard.

Seeing the never ending grayness, I knew that it was time to use my skill.

"Angel: All traces left by the snow elf, Saria, will be highlighted in my eyes." I muttered under my breath.

Seeing the highlighted parts of the snow, I quickly started following them whilst running at a full sprint, my feet not making any indication of my being there on the ground.

'Sari, I'm coming for you.'

...

By nightfall, I had reached the, "Garrison of the North", a huge wall spanning the entire northern border of the country, used to keep the demonic beasts out.

Touching the cold, ice covered stones that Sari had climbed up to get over the wall, I immediately realized that it was impossible for me to replicate her feat.

Instead, I used my powers for the second time.

"Angel: The place I point at will be what my body will define as "Down" for the next minute."

Right after saying this out loud, as my voice was lost in the howling wind, I pointed at the wall of the garrison and then started walking up it like it was the ground.

Using the specially made fur covered boots that Char had given me, I was able to walk up the ice covered stones without slipping.

Reaching the top, I pointed at the walkways on the walls before moving to the other side, and then pointing to the other side of the wall, running down it.

But, I guess I miscalculated, as, right when I was about to step back on the snow covered ground, the affect of my skill ended, and I fell face first into the snow.

'Shit!'

Immediately, alarms started resounding from the tops of the garrison as lights started switching on, zeroing in on my exact location.

You see, the Garrison had a 15 km wide magic array around it that told the people manning it whenever the snow around it was punctured and where exactly the snow was punctured.

Knowing this, I immediately got back up on the snow and started running.

'I guess I'm not skilled enough to adapt the snow walking technique to all parts of my body yet.'

Continuing to run, I couldn't help but smile as the searchlights were only able to find a boy shaped hole in the snow.

"See ya suckers!" I whooped, but of course, my childish shout was never heard.

...

I ran out of juice right in the middle of the dark snow covered forest.

Now that I couldn't see anything, and couldn't do anything about it, I was truly starting to worry.

But then, I saw a faint light in the distance.

Stumbling towards it with my arms in front of me, as to not get decked by any low laying branches, I slowly approached the light.

Seeing that it was radiating from a cave, I didn't hesitate to step in, as there was probably only one other person out here in the "Dead North" with me.

Proceeding deeper into the cave, I was met with a portrait of Sari lying on the cold stone floor next to a flickering fire that was close to burning out.

Seeing this, I immediately took out a blanket from the huge pack that I was wearing on my back and covered Sari with it.

Then, I sat down next to Sari's head and leaned against the wall, before stretching my feet out.

Lifting Sari's head gently, I positioned my soft child thighs under her head, and then let her head gently onto them, allowing her to use them as a pillow.

Slowly stroking her pale white hair, I stared into the darkness of the cave as the last embers of the fire were extinguished, listening to the sounds of the howling blizzard outside.

I stayed like that until morning.

...

I was broken out of my stupor as I felt Sari's head moving on my thighs.

Looking down, I realized that I had been slowly stroking Sari's head this entire time, and had completely messed up her hair by now.

Smoothing her hair down, I saw that her eyes were slowly fluttering as she opened her eyes.

I stared into her beautiful, ice cold, blue eyes for a second, before seeing them widen in surprise.

Continuing to smooth her hair, I held her head down by her chin with my other hand as she tried to get up quickly.

"Relax Sari, take your time."

Hearing this, and recognizing my voice, she reluctantly relaxed and closed her eyes as my hands started stroking her hair again.

"Why did you follow me Young Master?"

"You are a part of my family, so shouldn't I be there in your time of need?"

"B-but!..."

I placed my hand over her mouth.

"Shh... I'm here because I want to be, and that's all you need to know, so don't worry about it."

Taking all of my hand off her mouth except for one finger, I traced the edge of her lips with that finger before moving my hand down to her neck and resting it there.

"Are any of the others here?" She asked, almost in a whisper, flustered, as her cheeks grew pink in color by what a 10 year old boy had just done to her.

"No it's just me, so don't worry about time, just take as long as you want to complete what you came here to do."

Hearing this, she fell into a silence for a while, before she finally responded.

"Thank you, Young Master."

I smiled faintly, as I continued stroking her hair, feeling the warmth of her head on my lap.