In Which It Gets Cold

By late summer, Pepper came running whenever Eirene called her name. She must be the fastest little lamb in the world, or maybe the hungriest. “Are you the fastest little lamb in the world?” Eirene often asked, petting Pepper’s soft wool. And Pepper’s tail always wagged in response.

The flock moved around quite a bit each day, but their white wool made them easy to spot from afar. The only problem was the long trek, but even that grew easier, as Eirene grew stronger from days spent walking rather than sitting at a desk.

There was another perk to her daily outings. Because she left at dawn and returned just before nightfall, she’d managed to avoid meeting anyone from town thus far. Lottie must not get many visitors.

Perhaps it was out of loneliness, but Lottie often tried to chat with Eirene, out of the blue. It spooked Eirene, the first few times she did it. What did the old woman want from her?

The conversations themselves were innocent enough. Through one such conversation, Eirene learned the name of the town, Starsend. The river running through Starsend was called the Starsend River. Not very creative.

“Look,” said Lottie one night, pointing out the window while they ate their soup. “You can see the Wrath Mountains from here. You had to cross them to get here, I should think.” And she shot Eirene a sideways look.

Stop trying to figure out where I’m from.

“I don’t remember much from... how I got here,” Eirene lied. She squinted out the window. In the darkness, illuminated only by those colorful stars, she could see a dark, jagged outline. “Why’re they called the Wrath Mountains?”

“Ask the mages; I certainly haven’t a clue. Perhaps one of them was very angry that day.” Lottie chuckled at her little joke. Eirene forced a smile, but her thoughts lay elsewhere.

Mages!

So this world had magic after all. Eirene’s heart beat faster.

I wonder, can I do magic?

“The mages...” she said to Lottie, hoping that the old woman would explain more.

“Of course.” And Lottie’s eyes went wide. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of them? Where are you from, child?”

Eirene’s palms sweated under the table, and she put on her sunniest smile. “No! No, I mean yes, of course I have.”

Stupid! She’d have to be less obvious about her lack of knowledge. Until then, it’d be better to avoid the topic altogether. She excused herself from the table, mumbling about being sleepy.

She could feel Lottie’s eyes watching her as she climbed into bed. Under the blanket, she heaved with panic. She had no money, no phone, nothing. Lottie’s cottage was the only home she had now. Whatever happened, she couldn’t lose it. How could she win back the old woman’s favor? Make food for her? Give—

Footsteps thumped towards the bed. Eirene closed her eyes, hoping Lottie would go away.

A hand fell on her blanket, and a moment later, Lottie sat down on the edge of the bed. Every muscle in Eirene’s body wanted to scrunch up like a shrimp.

“There’s a flower.”

What?

“Before he died, my husband used to bring me flowers from the plains. I don’t know where he got them from. He was always wandering about when he was supposed to be tending the sheep.”

Eirene turned slightly, watching Lottie speak out of the corner of her eye. The old woman was looking out the window, at the stars. Why was she talking about flowers all of a sudden?

“They were blue, and they glowed in the night. He’d put them... here and there. On the sill, on the table. I could never sleep when they were in the room.” Despite her words, Lottie’s eyes gleamed.

“...What were the flowers called?”

“He called them glowflowers, but stars know where he got that name from. He made it up, I should think.” Lottie cleared her throat. By the light of the candle, all her wrinkles were softened. “I haven’t seen glowflowers in many years, and at my age, my knees simply won’t let me walk very far.”

“I’ll bring you some, if I find any out on the plains,” Eirene said quickly. Flowers in exchange for a roof to live under? She could live with that deal.

Lottie was silent a moment. “Thank you, Eirene. You’re a kind girl.”

When the old woman finally walked away, Eirene released a breath. These days, it was warm even at night. She peeled off her blanket.

Butterflies were everywhere on the plains, feasting on the flowers that crowded the grass. But Eirene only ever saw flies buzzing around sheep carcasses.

She was inspecting one of the carcasses, clearly torn apart by a dragon, when she noticed something else around it: a sticky, glittering substance that coated the dead sheep, gluing its body to the grass around it. It should have been disgusting, but, shining in the sunlight, it was kind of pretty, like an iridescent shell.

She didn’t want to touch the carcass, so she used a rock to scrape off some of the glittering swathes and bring it back to the cottage, where Lottie was herding sheep with her dog.

“That’s flame-breath,” Lottie said, grabbing a sheep that had strayed too far. “From—a—dragon.” She heaved the sheep backwards, grunting with effort.

“Flame breath? The sheep didn’t look charred.”

“No, no.” Lottie released the stubborn sheep. “Flame-breath isn’t real flame, child. My goodness.”

“Then what is it?” Eirene asked, annoyed at Lottie’s chiding tone.

“I don’t know.” Lottie looked like she was about to say, Ask the mages. “I only know that it’s very hot, so you shouldn’t touch it till it’s hardened. And when dragons spit it, it looks a bit like flame, sparkling in the light.” She smiled. “Isn’t it pretty, though? Would you like to keep that rock?”

Eirene tossed the rock down into the grass. For all Lottie’s kindness, Eirene wished she wouldn’t treat her like a child.

Summer slipped by, bringing the first hints of frost to the windows.

Eirene prepared her usual basket—a carrot for Pepper and lunch for herself—and paused by the door, thinking to herself. Cold weather meant Pepper’s wool was getting thicker. The little lamb was growing bigger, too, and dared to venture farther away from her mother.

I think it’s time I made that cloak.

Eirene had never sheared a sheep before, but how hard could it be? It was just like cutting hair, wasn’t it?

“Shears? For what, a sheep? Eirene, spring is a long ways off,” Lottie said. “It’s best to wait till after the floods.”

Eirene insisted, though. Walking across the plains, her basket was heavier than usual. She called, “Pepper!” the way she always did.

The lamb came bounding over, bleating affectionately. Eirene rubbed Pepper’s ears, and Pepper laid her head on Eirene’s lap. Sometimes they played games, chasing each other through the grass, but today was a hot day, and Eirene didn’t feel like tossing bits of carrot for Pepper to chase.

She lifted the shears out of the basket. They looked like odd scissors.

“Hold still, Pepper,” Eirene said. Pepper squirmed and tried to escape, but Eirene held on tight while she carefully clipped away. It probably could have gone faster if she hadn’t been so unwieldy with the shears. Sheets of wool fell into her lap, and she stuffed them into the basket.

The sun was quite low in the sky when Eirene gave Pepper a gentle pat. “Okay, go. Back to Mama Sheep, whichever one she is.”

Pepper took a few shaky steps. She looked very pink and small in the sunlight. Her steps quickened, and she leaped into the grass to rejoin the flock.

Weaving was nothing like sewing, Eirene soon discovered. You had to scrub the wool to get all the dirt out, and that was only the easiest part. She found herself relying an embarrassing amount on Lottie, so it was a relief when the old woman pulled a spinning wheel from a dusty corner.

Finally, something she recognized!

Treading away at the spinning wheel, which twisted the fibers into a continuous strand, Eirene thought she could finally appreciate clothes. Forget magic; being able to order clothes online was the real magic!

But she did make progress, despite her aching feet and hands. The spinning wheel was shoved back into its corner, the loom dragged out, and a few days later, she had a misshapen black cloth.

I really can’t do this anymore.

Eirene wrapped the cloth around her shoulders, feeling like a little girl playing dress-up. But unlike a little girl playing dress-up, she did not feel beautiful at all. In its raw shape, the cloth looked ridiculous.

Groaning, she took up a sewing needle. It was made from bone, like many of Lottie’s tools. When she was finished, she had something much more wearable: a simple cloak that she could fasten at her neck.

“Lovely,” said Lottie, when she returned from tending the sheep. “That’ll be nice and warm for the fall.”

Wearing her new cloak, Eirene dared to venture past the sheep and finally, finally explore that odd white crystal formation. She marched over the plains with something like triumph in her chest.

She began to pass by dozens of crystals, translucent white and clustered together. From what Lottie had told her, they were fallen stars, crystallized upon hitting the earth. Or rather, it was all one big star that had splintered into many pieces, forming lots of little crystals all over the plains. Anthestos was its name, and it had fallen hundreds of years ago.

She could hear Lottie’s voice in her head: “As for how it got that name... ask the mages.”

Around this time, Eirene started sneezing. She seemed to have developed an unidentifiable allergy to something in her new world.

If I’m suddenly allergic to grass, I’ll kill myself.

One of the crystals had little bumps growing on its smooth surface. Eirene touched it and accidentally squashed a few insect eggs. Gross.

She kept walking, and the crystals around her were definitely bigger now. Perhaps she was close to the center of the star’s impact. The ever-present grass thinned out, replaced by clusters of blue-and-white flowers. They looked like hydrangeas, a flower she recognized from her old world. Here, her sneezing intensified, and she felt a tingling in her skin.

She’d felt this once before. Where?

That fateful day flashed back to her mind, that moment when the demon smashed into the barrier around this world. There had been a crackling in her skin then too.

What did it mean, though?

Eirene sneezed all throughout the next day. She sneezed so much that Lottie insisted that she stay home.

“You’ve caught a cold again!” Lottie fussed. “It’s all that walking on the cold plains, I should think. Young girls ought to be cautious.”

But it didn’t feel like a cold, and here in the cottage, the tingling on her skin was nearly gone. Eirene recovered by the next day. Still, perhaps Lottie had a point. She had plenty of time to explore the area around Anthestos tomorrow. Today, she’d spend some time with Pepper. She felt a bit bad; she hadn’t played with the lamb since she made her new cloak.

“Pepper!” Eirene called. “Pepp—”

The smell hit her before the realization did, a familiar rancid smell.

The other sheep skirted around the area, and Eirene ran, scattering crystalwing butterflies into the air and knowing that it was too late.

She stared at the small, pink shape in the grass. How many times had she seen the same scene? But this time was different. Pepper’s legs splayed awkwardly in a red pool. Claw marks, and jagged bite wounds—it had to be the dragon. And Pepper’s body was coated in swathes of sparkling flame-breath, as if she had tried to run, run like she always did, leaping over stones and away—

Who’s the fastest little lamb in the world?

Eirene threw up. The smell stung her eyes. She heaved into the grass, coughed and heaved some more. Her head was pounding. She had to run, get far away from Pepper’s body.

Lottie looked surprised when Eirene slammed the door open. “The sun’s still up. Did the sheep give you any trouble?”

“I—” Eirene couldn’t speak. She climbed numbly into bed, pulling her blanket around her.

“Hey, now.” Lottie watched her cautiously. “What’s wrong? Did a sheep die on you?”

Nod.

“Was it that dreadful dragon?” Lottie asked sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Eirene. That’s a real shame; it always is. But you can’t help it, can you? I’m sure you did all you could to take good care of it, and that’s what matters.”

Something bitter flooded Eirene’s mouth, and she had to swallow. Her eyes blurred, but she could still make out her black cloak, hanging on a chair across the room.

“Anyways. You’re doing just the right thing, taking a good rest. Are you... sure you’re alright?”

“Fine,” Eirene snapped. She hadn’t meant to, but if she said any more, her voice might betray her.

Lottie reached for a pot. “Well, dinner’s lentil soup. I’ll save you a bowl for when you wake up, if you don’t mind it being cold.”