He nodded to her, and slipped out the door.
Outside, he noted how high the snow had gotten before it had stopped - very nearly two feet high. Perhaps he could do something with it later, but for now, he had to get it out of the way.
Gaelio raised his hands in front of him, placing his palms flat against one another. He focused a moment, and, unknown to him, the soft glow in his eyes increased as he concentrated on his magic.
With a grunt, he pulled his hands apart, and and the tall drifts of snow flew apart in a mirror of the movement, piling high on either side of a completely clear path.
Smiling slightly, he turned back to the cabin, and fished around in a snowbank for a moment, finally pulling out a leather cord.
He gave the cord a yank, and a wide sled came out of the snow. Whistling a little bit, he walked off into the dark, down the mountain to the trees below.
_____
Several minutes later, he found himself in a copse of trees. Time for some woodcutting. He walked to an old, stout pine, a couple years dead. He raised one bare hand to the old tree, placing his hand on the rough bark.
He closed his eyes, and felt his hand grow very cold - the bark and wood flash froze in a very narrow line, becoming very brittle.
He stepped back, admiring his handiwork with a small smile. Then, with a harsh gesture, he chopped his hand sideways.
The ice reacted, exploding into shards and separating the trunk of the tree from its stump. Gaelio stepped forward and gave it a shove. With a crash, the big pine fell to the ground.
He repeated the freeze and break technique several more times, until he had a large pile of split logs, and he piled as many of these as he could on the sled. He then turned towards the mountain, began to drag the sled towards the cabin again.
Another twenty minutes later, he came back to the cabin, and knocked. "Josephine, it's Gaelio. Is it safe to come in?" he said, giving her fair warning to cover herself if she were up moving around.
