"Thank you," Aithe called after Jack, holding the door ajar, and started as chill air blew in to pluck at her skirts, extending creeping fingers into the warm kitchen. Candles wavered and flickered.

She ushered her son over to the hearth fire and sat him down. "Were you helping Jack?"

"Mhm."

"Well, you make sure you're a help and not a nuisance. Lia, come and sit down."

She left Lia and Gavin by the fire, sharing a loaf of fresh-baked bread, and hurried back into the front room. The bell over the door of the tavern was steadily tinkling, as people rushed in from the cold.

"For you?" she asked, as a bescarfed man settled himself on one of the stools.

"Jus' an ale." He dropped a coin on the counter and flapped a hand at her.

As she went to get it, the door tinkled its alert once more, and chill wisps of wind blew in. A glance over the bar revealed people crowding through the door, skin raw red from the cold.

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Morgan shook her head, trying to clear it, and found Jenna's hands taking the tray from her. The pain lessened - a little. "I'm ... I'm fine," she said, more strongly than she felt. Looking around to make sure she hadn't caused yet another scene, she found that most customers hadn't noticed her little stutter ... and that Jack was staring at her from his position near the door. She tossed her head and moved on to the next table with a hand up, leaving Jenna trading polite remarks with the current table. Jack needed to grow up. That cow-eyed look wasn't going to get him anything, especially since he was basically her brother. Still, it was nice to know somebody thought she was interesting ... she wondered if her father knew.

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

Jack looked down with disapointment as Morgan turned away, giveing her attention to the new male customers. He hated that she was so flirtatiouse, but he wouldn't change her.
He hurried back into the kitchen pauseig only to tell a little Gavin "I'l be back in a few miniuts lad" before filling a pail with hot water and rushing back out into the now perishing cold. Back in the stables her closed the doors tightly and set about makeing a hot mash for all the horses. Haveing given a fair share to each animal he set about putting blankets acrose each one and bunching up the straw around them to keep them warm.
A faint ache began in his temples but he ignored it, thinking it just part of the ache brought on by the cold as he shivered in his light summer tunic his coat still wrapped around little Gavin. Finally he came to Hal's horse; Duchess, his faveorite.
"Now then lassie hows you a' doing then? Aye? Shhhh now lets get you warm" His words came out haltingly as his teeth chattered and Duchess nickered in ditress. "Shhhh its ok girl." Jack sat down next to her, huddeling into her side for warmth as the cold and pain in his head intensified.

(Can Gavin himself or someone he tells come looking for Jack when he dosen't return as he promised)

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Made by Lembas

Davyn stared with wide eyes around the rim of his tankard as he took another large gulp. It was unusual for him to be drinking this much so early, but then, it was also unusual for terrified men to come scrabbling in just before everything frosted over like the depths of winter. He took a very large gulp. Unfortunately, the flow of ale stopped before he wanted it to.

This would not normally be a problem, but out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the unconscious man and the frozen windows, and neither sight was something he enjoyed looking at. The inside of a full mug, he decided, was just the thing to soothe his eyes.

He waved his mug, upside down, to attract the attention of Hal's daughter to his plight. She looked a little snippy right now, but given the events of the last few minutes, likely no one would begrudge her for it. Not if it brought their minds back to the cause of her change in attitude.

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

Cavan and his friends at the table along with most of the crowd in the bar (save those few too drunk to notice thier surroundings) had gone eerily quite as the thick bar windows clouded with frost, and the air took on a frigid chill.
In the dead middle of summer?" The thought lurked uneasily in his mind. And just now, a man had fallen unconscious, seemingly choked on water. He glanced uneasily at his friends, a look that they returned. This was unnatural. Quickly he made the sign against evil on his chest, a habit he had picked up from his father. Just as the silence was becoming unbearable, thier drinks arrived. Cavan and his friend Blaidri had each ordered an ale, but thier other friend, Madol, with the height and width of two men, had ordered two. The waitress, carefully balancing all four drinks on one tray, seemed to stumble in pain. Cavan thought the drinks, along with the searving girl, were going to fall to the floor. But before she could drop the drinks, a second waitress caught the tray. She held them steady, but with her wild hair fighting to escape ts ties, and a deathly white palor, she hardly looked any more fit. Still, she doled out the drinks accordingly, seemingly well enough. Cavan and his friends thanked her, happy to get to thier drinks.

“Are you playing or not?”

Isaac pulled his attention away from the stranger collapsed on the floor to his friends sitting at the table, one of whom was tapping a pair of dice impatiently. “Yes, yes.” Isaac grabbed the dice and tossed them, sending them skittering across the tabletop. He didn’t care if it was a good roll or not, as long as his friends stopped bothering him. Closing his eyes, he rubbed his temples and tried to chase away the headache that had been pounding in his skull all day.

At the sound of shouts and a sudden buzz of voices, he opened his eyes to see what was going on. The windows were covered in ice, and the room felt strangely chill. He shivered and looked back over at the man sprawled on the floor. Maybe he wasn’t just a drunk, imagining things. Isaac stood, walked over to the man, and prodded him with a toe. No response. “Let’s get him out of the way, at least,” he said over his shoulder to Hal or anyone who was listening. Kneeling, he hooked his arms under the stranger’s shoulders and half-lifted him. “Where should I put him?”

Jack huddled closer into Duchess's flank. He should get the winter stove alit, stop the horses freezeing to death.
And me.
But he could hardly move, the cold seemed to push him down into the ice that was now the floor. The Horses shouln't be lieing down on the cold stone. He pulled himself to his feet but almost fell again at the sharp pain in his forhead increased three fold. Vision slightly blurry round the edges he staggered over to the stove and with shakeing hands started the fire.
Slowly that courner of the stables began to heat up and feeling returned to his outer limbs. He moved osme of the horses in to the stalls nearer the warmth.
He needed more wood.
Wrapping his arms around himself he stumbled out into the cold.
If it rained now it would rain iceicles not snow He throught with a wry humour. His vision had almost gone now, filled with a grey mist that thickned as the pain in his head intesified he collapsed by the wood pile, the cold turning his hands blue. A wimper escaped his purple lips as he realised he couldn't get up.

(I'm haveing the cold affect him more becuase he's outside and has been out in it alot longer)

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Made by Lembas

Jenna nodded to Cavan and the rest of the group watching Morgan with careful eyes. The woman was definitely on edge...well more so than usual. Jenna always found her to be a bit full of herself, but that was to be expected with all the men about making passes at her. Still, it would not do to have her faint, it would certainly put off Hal.

"My name's Jenna, just give a yell if you lot be needing anthying else," she said with a smile and another nod.

She tucked the tray back under her arm and frowned seeing Isaac trying to move the other man from the floor. She supposed that she ought to give the man a hand - it was part of her job after all.

"Hang on, lad," the red head responded bending down to take one of the man's arms. "Help me lift him over to bench in the back there," she gestured with her head. "He'll be out of the way then."

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Heavens no. Hell Yeah.


Set 1: Nurr | Set 2: Me

A mug waving in the air caught Morgan's eye. Recognizing the owner, she glided through the flood of entering customers, all shivering, and intercepted the vessel.

"Why Davyn," she smiled, making it extra sweet to compensate for her irritation with Jack, "fancy seeing you here!" She dangled the tankard teasingly under his nose. "Shall I take this away and wash it up? No? What'll you have, then?" He wasn't bad-looking, not really - not with those gorgeous blue eyes that made her heart want to melt. And he knew what it meant to be independent.

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

Aithe swept back into the kitchen, arms full of dishes, to find her son working on the latch of the door. She put the crockery down. "Gavin." Perhaps it was only the cold air that lent a brittle bite to her tone. "Leave the door. It's cold outside."

"Wha' bout Jack?" said the four-year-old, pushing his bottom lip out into a pout. "I wanna see him."

"Jack's working, love." Aithe felt cold seeping through the chinks and nipping at her bare skin, and made a concerted effort to soften the strain in her voice. "He'll be back soon."

The lip jutted out further. "No. I wan' Jack."

She couldn't leave Gavin there in the kitchen if he was going to insist upon working at the latch until it let him out into the bitter cold. Aithe left Lia at the fire and flung her coat on. The stable boy shouldn't be out in the cold anyway, and it was nearly time for dinner. "Stay here," she said, fixing Gavin with a warning eye, and stepped out to fasten the door behind her.

Bitter cold did not describe it. The frigid wind whipped Aithe's skirt about her legs and numbed her skin, bringing reflexive tears to her eyes and stinging in her chest. A charcoal sky mantled the little town and viciously twisted the bare branches of trees into strange, bent shapes. The oncoming twilight was ominous. "J-Jack," she stuttered through numb lips, squinting in the half-light at the stable door, which swung open on hinges.

They creaked a plaintive wail, moving with the wind. Aithe winced at the sound.

She swiveled, flinging her eyes hastily into corners of the yard, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. Nothing - nothing - by the woodpile, a huddled figure made her look twice.

"Ah, fates preserve us," Aithe chattered, chagrin warring with an edge of panic. She stumbled toward him and bent to seize the boy by the shoulders. "Jack! Wake up!"

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Isaac glanced up as one of the serving girls walked over to help him. He tried to remember her name. Jenny? Didn’t sound quite right. Jenna – that was it. She looked very pale and not in the best condition to be dragging stout men around, but he nodded and shifted as much of the man's weight as he could to himself. “Bench. Right.”

Together, they half-dragged, half-carried the man out of the way and deposited him unceremoniously on the bench. “There. Not the most comfortable spot, but people won’t be stepping on him now.” As he straightened, the pain in his head intensified. “Oh, and when you get a minute, I’ll take another ale.” He walked back to his table and slumped down in a chair, glad to see that his friends had left in favor of gawking at the frosty windows and talking with other patrons.

Jack’s eyelids fluttered;
“Jack! Wake up!”
It was too cold, his head hurt too much, he didn’t want to wake up. All he wanted to do was sink back into the warm darkness. Aithe shook him harder and a pair of groggy brown eyes looked up at her in a lost way.
“Wha’…wha’ happened?” His words came out slowly as if from a deep well. His eyes searched her face in confusion until they fell on the open door to the stables. If it was possible for someone as frozen and near hypothermic as Jack was to freeze again he did just that. The words came tumbling out of his mouth in a flood of panic;
“The horses, they’ll freeze, they’ll catch colds and die!” His fear was palpable on the icy air. He struggled to pull himself to his feet in an obvious effort to close the door and return to the stables but only succeeded in rolling onto his face and earning himself a nasty cut on his forehead.

His blood seeped into the frost that now thickly covered the stones. Its progress was slow and sluggish; as unmotivated as the same blood that flowed through his veins, his heart slowing to an irregular thump so long had he been out in the deathly cold. A whimper, a plea for help from the cold and pain trickled from his lips in a desperate attempt to quit his freezing body.

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Made by Lembas

Calanon turned back to the fire with a smile, 'Well...everythings normal now...at least...'

Aithe jerked away as the boy made a frenzied effort to rise, her eyes following his frantic rush at the stable door. She went to close and latch it, wincing at the plaintive screech of hinges on the howling wind, and turned to curl and uncurl her stiff fingers and stare helplessly across at his motionless form.

Blood trickled thinly into cracks between the frosted cobblestones. Aithe drew breath to cry for help, but the shrieks of the gale would have drowned her voice.

Jack was too heavy for her to carry, too heavy by far. Aithe looked from him to the closed door back into the kitchen, and made a mad dash back across the yard.

When she slammed the door behind her, Aithe firmly placed the questing Gavin back on his bench by the fire. "Stay there - no, Gavin, mama is not in the mood for this. Stay there."

Rubbing her frozen hands together, she hurried into the front room. A packed mob of people huddled at tables in the smoky, ale-smelling air. She swiveled. It would take at least two of them to drag Jack inside. There - one of the miners. Isaac?

Hardly caring what his name was and more concerned with the muscles he'd likely acquired in the mining profession, Aithe unwound the scarf from her mouth and nose and forced her way through the press of people. "Isaac, right?" she said, leaning heavily on the edge of the table. "There's a boy in the yard. He's hit his head, and he'll need bringing inside. Could I trouble you -?"

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Isaac looked up at the woman hurried over to his table. At her words and the concerned look on her face, he stood. “Of course. This isn’t a good day for anyone to be outside.”

He followed her across the room, out the door. The first gust of frigid wind left him gasping for breath and brought stinging tears to his eyes. Forcing himself not to rush back inside to the fire, he scanned the yard, spotting a huddled figure lying near the stable wall. He hurried towards the boy, stumbling a few times as his limbs started going numb.

Reaching Jack, he gently rolled him over, grimacing at the sight of his cut. The lad seemed barely conscious. “You get on his other side,” he told Aithe perfunctorily. Isaac started to lift Jack, pulling one of the boy’s arms over his shoulders. “Ready?” he asked the woman. They started to make their way back towards the inn, carrying Jack between them.