Winter Spire: Tiny Temptation

by Anya Merchant

  “Can you walk?” asked Stella.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll… go sleep on the couch.”

  “It’s probably for the best,” said Stella. “We wouldn’t want anything else to happen, would we?”

  The question sounded odd, as though she asked it in jest, but it came out for real. Felix shook his head and pulled on his boxers, carrying the rest of his clothing with him.

  He waited until Stella was safely under the blankets before opening the door to the living room. One of the lamps had been left on, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dani’s tiny figure slip back through the half open door to her room.

  CHAPTER 13

  Felix felt groggy when he awoke the next morning. He could hear what sounded like a very one sided argument coming from the kitchen, Stella’s voice dwarfing Dani in capacity.

  He pulled himself up, dipping into the bathroom to change into the last set of clean clothes he had left. Stella was wearing sweatpants and a pink t-shirt, and appeared to be in the process of packing nonperishable food into a backpack.

  “Good morning,” said Felix. He smiled at her, and their eyes met. The air in between them felt charged and loaded for a split second, and then Stella turned her attention back to what she was doing.

  “Morning, Felix,” she said.

  From the dining room table came a quiet, but still exaggerated clearing of a throat. Felix looked down and saw Dani, back to wearing her white dress, a few adjustments made to it for her comfort.

  “Felix,” said Dani. “Did you sleep well last night?”

  She enunciated each of the syllables in a deliberate way, crossing her arms and pouting a little as she looked at him. The intensity of her expression was out of proportion with her physical size, and Felix felt his face flush slightly as he struggled to answer.

  “Uh, yeah,” he said. “Well enough, I guess.”

  “I’ve already spoke to Dani about what happened last night,” said Stella. “We’re all adults here. And she knows as well as I do how lust magic works, and what the… applications of it occasionally require.”

  Stella smiled and slid a bowl of cheerios toward Felix. He took it gratefully and began to eat.

  “It looks like you’re packing for a trip,” he said, looking at the bag in Stella’s hands. She took a deep breath and nodded.

  “I’m packing for the two of you,” she said.

  “What?” asked Felix.

  Dani walked across the dining room table, sitting down next his cereal bowl and leaning back on her hands.

  “Mom found another possibility for me returning me back to full size, since the potion didn’t work,” said Dani. “We’re going to have to travel a bit to get to it, though.”

  Felix shook his head slightly.

  “Stella, we can’t just leave you here,” he said.

  “Felix, this isn’t up to you,” said Stella. “I need more time to recover my magic after last night. And if all three of us left the tower together, Jesamar would be able to run wild without any resistance.”

  Felix frowned. He ran a hand through his hair and met Stella’s eyes again. She looked strong, serious, and unyielding.

  “You sure you’ll be okay?” he asked.

  “Worry about yourselves,” said Stella. “This isn’t going to be an easy journey.”

  Felix turned his attention back down to his cereal and listened as Stella outlined her plan for them.

  “There are a couple of sources of focused magic in the nearby area that might be strong enough to restore Dani back to normal,” she said. “One would be the crystals from the Modrin Crystal Caves.”

  “That’s doable,” said Felix.

  “No, it isn’t,” said Stella. “There is a very good chance that the Ice Dancer still inhabits them. Sending the two of you in would be insane.”

  Felix shot a look at Dani, who seemed to agree with her mother on that point.

  “The next nearest source would also be dangerous to go after,” said Stella. “But… if your careful, it could work.”

  “Where?” asked Felix.

  “Up Mt. Kratos,” she said. “One of the nearby peaks. You may have noticed it already. It’s the one that is, technically, an active volcano.”

  Felix furrowed his brow.

  “And that’s less dangerous than the caves?”

  “Much,” said Stella. “You’ll still have to take care, but as far as I know, Mt. Kratos is supernaturally benign.”

  Felix shrugged.

  “Alright,” he said. “When do we leave?”

  Stella set the backpack down on the chair next to him. It was loaded to the brim with supplies, and Felix chewed his lip when he thought about its weight on his shoulders.

  “As soon as possible,” said Stella. “I’ve packed everything you need. There’s a sleeping bag in there rated for Alaskan weather, along with a thermal pad to put underneath it. There are emergency hand warmers, enough to last you for a couple of days, at least.”

  “And food?” asked Felix.

  “Plenty of food,” said Stella.

  Dani had been suspiciously quiet for the last few minutes, and Felix looked over at her expectantly. She stood to her feet and crossed her arms, watching him watch her.

  “Do you have any thoughts about this?” he asked.

  “I think…” Dani hesitated slightly, holding back a flash of frustration. “I think we should get moving as soon as we can. I’m sick of being small.”

  “Fair enough,” said Felix. “Alright then…”

  He scratched his head and mused on the situation. Something about it seemed a little off. Stella was practically pushing them out the door, and she looked tenser than usual.

  “Dani,” said Stella. “You’re going to need something special to keep warm, if you plan on moving about on your own.”

  “Just stick me in one of my old gloves,” said Dani. “That should be enough, right?”

  Stella shrugged. She had a far off look in her eyes, and shook her head after a few seconds.

  “Sure,” she said. “Alright. Please, Felix, I don’t mean to rush you, but the sooner you get moving, the better.”

  “Stella,” he said. “I’ll go, but promise me that you’ll be careful back here.”

  “I promise,” said Stella.

  Felix spent the next five minutes pulling on his thick winter clothing. Stella gave him a map of the local area and a small GPS device, in case he moved out of his phone’s reception area, which in the wilderness of Alaska was almost guaranteed.

  He was still borrowing Dani’s pink snow gloves, and pulled them on last. Stella had brought an old purple glove, probably from Dani’s younger days, out from one of the rooms, and the miniaturized girl climbed into it, letting her legs sink into the fingers.

  “There,” she said. “And then I’ll pull the top closed, and be all set.”

  “Are you planning on riding on my shoulder?” asked Felix. “I don’t see that working across the lumpier sections of snow.”

  “Just put me in your chest pocket,” said Dani.

  Felix lifted her up and slipped her inside. The top third of her body jutted out over the pocket, but she fit well enough, even with the glove around her body. He pulled on the backpack carefully and took a deep breath, preparing himself for what was to come.

  “Alright,” he said, nodding to Stella. “We’ll be back.”

  “If you keep a brisk pace, it shouldn’t take you more than three days,” said Stella. “One to hike out to the mountain, one to climb up and back down, and one to get back to North Spire.”

  “Three days,” repeated Felix. “Assuming I don’t freeze to death.”

  “Assuming you aren’t stupid, you won’t,” said Stella. “The weather has been on the warmer side as of late.”

  Felix frowned at her. He had a bad feeling about the situation, again sensing that there was something Stella was holding back from him. Dani kicked a foot against his chest impatiently after another moment of h
im hesitating.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s move already! I want to be normal sized again!”

  “Sure, sure,” said Felix. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

  He nodded once more to Stella. She wouldn’t meet his gaze, but came to the door of the apartment, closing it behind Felix as he walked outside into the hallway.

  CHAPTER 14

  Felix didn’t encounter anyone on his way downstairs and out of the tower. The sun hadn’t started to rise over the horizon yet, and probably wouldn’t for another few hours yet, given the shortness of days in Alaska. Luckily, Stella had packed a flashlight for him powerful enough to banish the darkness in his way.

  “Did your mom seem a little… off, to you?” asked Felix. He glanced down at Dani and saw that she already had chattering teeth, the cold finding its way around the lip of her protective glove.

  “I don’t know,” said Dani. “How did she seem last night?”

  Felix scowled.

  “I thought you and your mom already talked about that,” he said. “Look, Jesamar hit me with some kind of hex, or something. There was no other option.”

  Dani made an annoyed noise and shook her head.

  “She was practically excited about it,” she said. “I saw her when she brought you back inside last night.”

  “That’s the effect of… one of my abilities,” said Felix. “Beast blood, your mom calls it.”

  “Whatever,” said Dani. She let out an audible shiver and slid deeper into the glove.

  The first few minutes of the journey were relatively straightforward, most of the snow near the tower having been shoveled away or pact down. Felix made good enough time, though he paced himself, not wanting to break into a sweat and have to deal with what that meant for him in the cold.

  Dani fidgeted almost constantly, struggling to keep her body inside the glove in a way that allowed her to stay warm. Felix didn’t say anything for a while, but when it became apparent that the girl wasn’t managing to get proper cover, he let out a sigh.

  “Dani,” he said. “You should ride inside my jacket.”

  The tiny girl looked up at him. Felix expected her to look annoyed, but in reality, her lips were almost blue, and she was shivering too much to put up any real objection.

  “O-o-okay,” said Dani, the word cleaved up by her chattering teeth.

  Felix took her in his hand gently. He unzipped his jacket and slipped her into one of the inside pockets, frowning as he thought about what would happen if it got to hot inside, or worse, if the air went stale and unbreathable.

  “Just kick me in the chest if you need anything,” he said.

  “You… s-s-s-s…”

  “What?” Felix raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Y-you… smell… really bad,” said Dani.

  Felix rolled his eyes at her and zipped up his jacket. He stopped to check the map and then kept moving across the snows, his eyes already settling onto the shape of Mt. Kratos in the distance. A small plume of smoke, not large enough to suggest an approaching eruption, but still disconcerting, slowly trickled from the mountain’s peak.

  Felix felt Dani rustling around inside his jacket. He paused, moving to unzip it for her, but before he could, he felt her shift on her own, climbing onto his shoulder with tiny, tickling movements. She crawled through the upper sleeve of his jacket, poking her head out into his hood.

  “There,” said Dani. “Now, you’ll be able to hear me, and I’ll be able to stay warm. Just don’t lean over fast.”

  “Alright, whatever,” he said.

  A light dusting of snow began to fall over the next few hours, each flake drifting to the ground like tiny dust motes suspended in sunbeams. Felix stopped around noon to eat one of the granola bars Stella had packed for him, breaking off a tiny piece for Dani. She accepted it gratefully, making only small complaints about sugar and carbs before digging in.

  The snow slowly began to build into something more intense as the afternoon dragged on. White powder filled the air, falling in dense sheets. The snowflakes were frozen and hard, more like hail stones in the form of organized crystals than the type that a person might catch on their tongue.

  “We’ll have to stop for the day soon,” said Felix. “I was hoping we’d have covered more distance, but it is what it is.”

  “You did well,” said Dani. “Just by coming, you did well. A lot of people would have turned their nose up at doing something like this.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess I’m not a lot of people,” said Felix. He turned his head to the left to smile at Dani on his shoulder, and ended up catching a glimpse of something worrying.

  A shape moved through the curtain of snow to the west, headed straight for them. Felix tensed his body as he shifted to meet its approach. Slowly, the outline came into clarity, and he recognized the shape of a wolf.

  Felix paused, wondering if it was safe for him to make any assumptions. The wolf came within twenty feet of them, still mostly hidden by the snow, and then shifted in a blur of white wolf. Standing in its place was a girl in her mid-twenties with deep blue eyes and intense white hair, wearing white and pink winter outerwear.

  “Gwen,” said Felix, relieved.

  “Felix.” Gwen flashed an amused smile at him and flicked a strand of hair out of her face. “My beloved denbrother. It’s good to see you. Truly.”

  She was attractive, as all of the white wolves were. She’d saved Felix’s life a few days earlier, and he’d done the same for her in return. The two of them were not on bad terms, but he’d heard enough about the wolves from Stella to remain wary of them.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  Gwen frowned at him, her lips pouting slightly.

  “That’s kind of rude, you know,” she said. “You could at least ask me how I’m doing, first.”

  “Gwen…” Felix took a deep breath, keeping himself calm. “I’m not out here in the cold to play. I have places to be, things to do.”

  “I’m doing well, thanks,” said Gwen, sarcastically. “The drugs that you got for me probably saved my life.”

  “Don’t waste your time on her,” whispered Dani. “We need to get moving, Felix!”

  Felix sighed and nodded to Gwen.

  “Look, Gwen, it’s great seeing you, but I really must-“

  “Hold on!” Gwen bounded forward, coming within a few paces of him. “I came to bring you back to the den, silly. So we can reward you properly.”

  She said the last sentence in a flirtatious, sensual tone that made a sudden wave of heat flash up Felix’s body. He smiled, and then immediately felt a finger poke him in the neck.

  “He’s not interested!” shouted Dani, leaning her head further out of his shoulder sleeve to be heard. “He already told you that he’s in the middle of something, so if you don’t mind…”

  Gwen blinked and then squinted at Dani. Her smile broadened, and she let out a genuinely amused laugh.

  “Am I seeing things?” asked Gwen. “Is that… a tiny girl that you have in your hood?”

  “It’s a long story,” said Felix. “One that I’m trying to bring to a happy end.”

  Gwen let out a resounding and beautiful laugh. She took another step toward Felix, entering his personal space, the distance at where everything fun could happen.

  “Well, you can bring her, too,” said Gwen. “I’m sure the twins wouldn’t mind playing with her while the two of us… talk.”

  “I’m right here!” shouted Dani. “Don’t talk about me like I’m some kind of doll, you harlot!”

  Gwen glared at Dani and set her hands on her hips. She looked at Felix expectantly, but he just shrugged.

  “Look, I’m not going with you, Gwen,” he said. “It’s not happening.”

  Gwen frowned at him and shook her head.

  “Felix, you don’t understand,” she said. “We have a bit of an… approaching situation. The denmother needs you back.”

  Felix felt his annoyance boil over. He fixed Gwen with
a flat look and slowly shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “Felix…” Gwen took a step closer, pushing her chest out suggestively and flaunting her lips.

  “Gwen!” Felix stomped his foot and pulled his hand away from her as she tried to take it. “Knock it off!”

  Gwen flinched backward a step, looking genuinely surprised, and a little hurt by his reaction.

  “Felix…” she said, shaking her head. “Are you meaning this, right now?”

  “If you don’t get out of my way, you’re going to get hurt,” he said, keeping his eyes on hers.

  “You’re… a bastard,” said Gwen. “But, so be it…”

  She opened her mouth as though to say more and then shook her head, taking a step into the falling snow behind her and transforming back into wolf form. Felix watched her run off, noticed how she stopped again to look back at him before disappearing entirely into the wall of white.

  “She’s a psycho,” said Dani. “How the hell did you get involved with her?”

  “She’s not a psycho,” said Felix. “She’s just… singular minded.”

  “A psycho,” repeated Dani. “Please tell me that you and her didn’t…?”

  She trailed off and Felix kept silent, hoping that if he ignored her insinuation it would go away on its own.

  “Felix!” cried Dani. “You didn’t?”

  “You’re as bad as she is,” said Felix. “Please. No more drama for the day.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Felix managed another hours’ worth of travel through the snow before the sun began to set, and the two of them had no choice but to turn in for the night. He’d made it to the base of MT. Kratos, where sheer ice clung to steep rock cliffs. There was a small patch of shadow on one of them, and closer inspection revealed a tiny cave. Felix triple checked it for any signs of animal life before moving inside and claiming it for himself.

  He set up the thermal pad on the frozen ground, and the sleeping bag on top of it, hoping that the combination would be enough to see them warmly through the night. The snow continued falling just outside the cave, giving a strange ambience to the space that made him feel as though he was being sealed in.