'It will not happen again! I won't let it.' The young girl sat in her loft, thinking about the past week. The bruises weren't fading, the ice wasn't helping. She waved her hand and the ice was gone. "Dammit! I will.. what can I do? He has the whole town under his thumb. My word against his... It would only get worse," She stood up and walked toward the window, staring at the rain, pouring down outside, "Why did you die, Mother? Why did you leave before I could know you?" Her tears turned to ice crystals before they hit the ground, shattering on contact. "Stop being weak! He can't hurt you if you don't do anything wrong... If your strong." She clennched her hands into fists at her sides and closed her eyes, willing away the tears. 'I hate him.' She heard him calling her name, she began climbing down the ladder from the loft to the ground floor of the barn. More than half-way down the ladder she felt a hand wrap around her ankle and relaxed her body in preparation for her collision with the ground. She released her grip on the sides of the ladder and allowed her body to fall. When she didn't hit the ground, but landed against a person, she opened her eyes. She didn't recognize the face she stared at. She jumped away, "Who are you? Why are you here?" He smiled, "I apologize for trespassing, I needed shelter. Can I stay here until the rain stops, at least?" She stared at the boy, he seemed close to her age. He was tall, hypnotically beautiful deep ocean-blue eyes, He looked thin, but when she had landed against him he had been solid, strong. He had pale silver hair hanging just past his shoulders, tied back loosely with a black leather thong. His face was pale, and she could see something hiding behind his smile. "Maybe. Do you need anything?" He shook his head, and she saw water dripping from his hair. "I can find a towel for you?" He shok his head again, "No thank you. I will be gone when the rain stops. I think I heard someone calling from the house." She shuddered, "Yes. Don't let anyone see you here, please!" He nodded and settled against a large pile of hay, "Thank you, miss?" She waved her hand and left, ignoring his question.

"It took you long enough," The familiar, threatening voice growled at her from the shadows of her dark house, "Were you ignoring me?" She shook her head quickly, "No! I didn't hear you at first. I promise it won't happen again! Please don't-" He cut her off and she heard him pick something up, "Don't lie to me! I saw that boy go into our barn! I saw you talking to him. You ignored me." His voice was low, dangerous. She backed into a wall, "No! Please! I didn't ignore you, I swear! Please don't do it, please don't-" She screamed as he threw her to the ground and whipped her with his belt, "Never ignore me again!" He stopped and kicked her once, "Get up. Go make dinner." He gripped her arm and threw her toward the kitchen. Then sat back in his chair and drank.

'Poison? No.. It hurts so much! What did I do wrong? Why do I deserve this?' She fought back sobs as she boiled water for soup. She sent cold into her wounds, numbing them temporarily. The heat of the fire under the pot made her uncomfortable, it always had. ' "No one will help you. You are worthless. Tell whoever you want, it's my word against yours." ' She remembered his words when she had threatened to tell someone, anyone. Then he had beaten her again, like he always did. She didn't have any way to defend herself against his drunken beatings. She had tried fighting back, and it had been worse. She gave up. She didn't know about his jealousy toward her, his hatred for her mothers death. She only knew that he would beat her whenever she did something 'wrong'. She dropped everything into the pot, careful not to splash, she had been beaten for that before, then waited. When it was finished, she served his first, another remembered beating, and only ate one serving, leaving the rest for him. The storm raged on outside and she remembered the boy in the barn. She realized how cold it had to be out there, she covered herself with a thick cloak and held a bundle of blankets close to her under the cloak. She ran quickly to the barn, keeping the blankets almost completely dry.

"Hello? Are you still here?" Her soft call was met with rustling and a yawn. "Yes, I'm still here." She tripped over his leg, and fell flat on the ground. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I couldn't see." He heard fear in her voice, confused, he helped her stand, "Why are you so scared? I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not like him," She winced at the mention of her father, "I could hear you. I'm so sorry you live with that. You know, you could always leave." She shook her head, brushing her long black hair from her face, "No I can't. He'll find me. It's my fault, I keep making him angry. I'm so-" He stopped her, "It is not your fault, you have done nothing wrong. Abusers like him will think of any excuse." She shook her head again, her icy blue eyes welling up with tears, "You don't understand! My mother died when I was born. It was my fault she died. This is my punishment for killing my own mother." He placed his hand on her cheek and stroked her face with his thumb, "None of this is your fault. You can make it stop." Her eyes lifted from the ground to meet his, "How?" He smiled, "He won't stop. You have to stop him. Lay on your stomach, let me see what he did." She took off the large clock and spread it on the ground. She lifted the back of her threadbare shirt and lay on her stomach. He touched one of the marks left by the belt and she tensed up, "Relax, I won't hurt you. I'm a healer. My name is Verryn." He placed his hands flat on her back, trying not to hurt her. She winced and whimpered at his touch, she felt tingling in the wounds and the skin surrounging them, then pain as the wounds healed at an accelerated rate. "I'm sorry, I haven't mastered the painless way yet. Stand up to him. It's the only way for you to be free. Keep the blankets. I'll be going." She sat up, "But what about the storm?" He smiled at her and waved, walking outside into the raging storm.

She awoke the next morning thinking about Verryns words. 'I promised myself I wouldn't let it happen again. This time... It won't.' She stood and dressed, tying her black hair back in a long braid. She considered her options, none of them sounding good. 'If I run away, he'll just find me and it will get worse. If I... kill him... then the people here will hunt me down.' Her train of thought was interrupted when she was grabbed roughly from behind, "Little wench, I saw you last night. Who was he? What did you do?" She winced at the stale alcohol on his breath, "Nothing! I gave him a blanket, I thought he would be cold." He slapped her, "Liar!" She felt the rage build up inside her, "Don't touch me!" Her skin became so cold he could not stand to hold her there anymore, "Demon! I'll kill you!" Before he could get close to her, her hand was over his heart. "I'm sorry." His eyes widened and he was struck by a cold, sharp pain. Sha backed away and he staggered backward, an icicle impaled through his heart. She felt surprisingly little regret. She left the house, running towards the edge of town.

She wasn't even past the barn when she was grabbed again, "Let me go!" She glared at, "Verryn! I killed him..." He looked surprised, "How?" She shook her head, "I don't know! I felt this.. this cold feeling.. And then he had a big chunk of ice through his heart." He smiled, "He hurt you. He shouldn't have. You are special, you know that? You have certain abilities. I want you to come with me, my mentor can help you learn to control it. Will you come?" She nodded, "I just need to do something before I come with you," He leaned against the barn, "Don't do that, you'll understand why soon." She ran back towards the house.

Once inside she started a fire and lit a torch. She started burning upstairs, then continued down quickly, well aware of the danger of fires. Once the inside was burning she ran across her property to the barn and lit the hay. 'I hope it's all detroyed. Even rain won't hurt the fire inside for a long time.' As if trying to prove her wrong, it began pouring rain as she stepped outside the barn. "If we hurry, they may think I'm in there. It's better if Cora dies here."

She was terrified, she had never met a sorcerer before. "Little one, I understand what has happened. Verryn explained your reasons. No one should ever strike a child the way your father did. It was savage and cruel and there is nothing you could have done to deserve that. I would like you to stay with us, to be trained to use your powers properly. So that you never end up in a situation like that again," He could see that she was stil terrified, "I understand that you may be nervous now, but I will never hurt you. Actually, I'm looking for others like you, other children with abilities similar to yours. You will not be alone, already you have Verryn here. To my knowledge, the others are close to your age." He smiled warmly, "You should sleep. We'll be leaving here tomorrow, so you'll want to get plenty of rest before we go." She smiled and nodded, "You said that Cora died in the fire. What do you want to be called?" She thought, "My power is ice?" He nodded, "Winter."