Spell of Awakening

Felicia did not seem very pleased at her gift as it involved actually having to earn it. She closed her eyes in thought, and then opened them suddenly at the stopping of the rain. Silence, she mused, was something you could actually hear. She took a wordless look around the room and then peered outside the window to see the events come into motion.

It was beautiful, she thought.

And then a more prophetic notion went though her mind as she saw the lake turn into ice with no intention of stopping. Am I going to die? she thought, almost immediately. It would not have been the first thing to pass through a normal person's mind, but something made her believe that she would be facing her end by seeing something the human eyes were never meant to see.

She turned towards her companions in the room and finally spoke up with that same, glassy voice she would've used in any other normal situation. "Will we go out and save that woman that fell from the sky?"

Then she retraced her words mentally and made a displeased sound. No, that didn't sound quite right. "Should we see what it is that made the lake turn into ice?" she said a second later in the same cool-blooded tone. To her, that sounded much more honest, but the two irresponsible questions shot out one after another might not have won her any friends.

She realized that, too, and went in the doorway to grab her coat. Felicia's alleged impending death did not bother her very much, and that observation bothered her to a certain degree.

Felicia wordlessly pushed down the door handle and walked outside at a bristling pace, and didn't look back once. It didn't matter if anybody was following or if they couldn't keep up because, after all, this was a matter between her and the ice oddity.

She breathed an audible sigh on her way there, and when she reached the frozen shores of the lake, she planted her two feet just at the edges, as if contemplating a complicated procedure. She blinked in determination and set her left foot on the riverbed.

Alice watched with rapt attention at the event taking place outside the house. It was definitely shocking, but almost surreal at the same time. The young woman had never before seen anything like this, and found herself mesmerized. She gasped as the water of the lake completely froze over, creating a beautiful, in her mind, still image. Alice briefly wondered what it would be like to reach out and touch the ice.

Her attention was diverted to three of the other people in the room as they left to go outside and investigate. Alice swallowed thickly and was about to call out to them when she stopped herself. She was indeed curious as to what was outside; any other human would be. However, her mind continued to work as she weighed the possible outcomes of going outside, as well as any possible threats. She glanced around and sunk into her chair, her slim fingers digging into the armrests.

Should she go? Should she stay?

Felicia held in her breath as she took careful steps on the ice. She could feel the vibrations of the delicate ice beneath her feet, which only gave her goosebumps. As she walked forward and saw Yrinai slip and slide forward towards the center, her eyes widened, almost in fright.

"Yrinai, I don't think that's a good--"

Felicia stopped herself mid-sentence. Her gaze darted along the source of the light, and she sighed.

"I never thought..."