She found a crack leading to the center of the earth.

Or rather, more than one. Here in the Frostbreath Steppe, crevices spider webbed across the plumes of ice and white, dark, deep blue lines, the largest stretching a width of near four horses, nose to hindquarters. It was a dance with death, every step to cross the treacherous snowscape. Below her cloven hooves, even the ground seemed to whisper and moan, creaking eerily in the stunning quiet of the frozen desert. Sheets of ice, narrowly covered by a light snow, kept the deathly place a secret, and yet prepared to send a horse slithering downwards towards one of the crevices that shot far down into the earth, so far one might just grow bored of the endless falling, before the blistering heat creeps over you. Or maybe you just hit a black floor and died, bones cracked and splintered, covered in red, red blood.

Snö reveled in the feeling of wisdom as she navigated the maze of quick and dragged out death, sensing that one wrong move could send her plummeting downwards, for her to disappear without a trace. Or would she? Was Tamlin not following her out here, to speak with her? How perfect had this dangerous place been, as if it had been built for her. It had taken several hours to prepare herself, to know every nook and cranny of this glacial place, knowing she was as safe as she could be with her mental map. No- she had no intention of killing him. Bullying him? Drawing him nearer to the edge, to swiftly throw her shoulder forward and make contact, only to save him at the last of seconds, indebt him to her? Here, he could prove his worth as son of Mauja and the FrostHeart and a slut. Maybe Snö could even grow to enjoy him company. As if. If she followed her father down his road paved with love from his followers and how he returned it, then maybe- her mother, than perhaps not so much.

It was the morning after Tamlin had returned, the sun a pale eye rising in the sky blanketed with thick, blank gray clouds impossible to make heads or tails of, never ending, heavy, drab, and constant everywhere. She had ventured out here, in the dim lighting, following her feet, to find herself skittering towards one of the hazardously deep chasms, finding her heartbeat thudding wildly as she leapt back from the edge, only just realizing the deadly playground she had entered.

But now... where was her little brother?

""