Don't panic, don't panic...remember your training!
These sorts of quests were common for her people--a right of passage, of adulthood--and she had been prepared for it. But training for something, and doing it for real, were two very different things. It was that moment when you were truly alone and had to connect all the pieces on your own, or fail. Two years ago, she had succeeded in her Trial, the Trial all Tuathi faced at twenty-one years that marked their journey into adulthood, but it had been easy. There had been no storm. This quest, which was supposed to be a relatively simple exercise on her journey toward becoming a healer, had turned out quite the opposite with stunning speed.
But there was a reason they had their trial at twenty-one, to cross over into adulthood. It was supposed to prepare them for anything. Accidents happened, and it was vital to know how to survive on your own. This was just a giant case in point.
Working fast, fighting back the fear, she removed her travel pack to ease her burden and slipped the flower inside. And then she started to dig.
Stay in one place, she recalled. Don't go walking off or you could exhaust yourself and freeze. She had to make a shelter. That was crucial. She had no tools to dig with, but her gloved hands would suffice. It didn't need to be pretty, she just needed a burrow to curl up in. She could lay her blanket on the ground to keep her off the snow, cut a hole in the roof, and then...and then just hunker down until it passed, whenever that would be. She had some food with her. It would be okay.
It would be okay, so long as the storm only lasted a day or so.
After that...
Teidra swallowed and dug a little faster, pushing snow up to form walls. She couldn't deal in "what ifs". She could tackle that if it reared its head. For now, she had to focus on one thing at a time, one problem at a time, one--
Her ears twitched, flicking, registering the sound before her brain even did. A new, different sound carried over the howling of the wind. At first, she just thought it was her imagination; the wind could sound like different things, after all, and there were plenty of stories about folks hearing voices in it--and all those stories were cautionary tales, because only dark things lurked in the swirl of a blizzard, things with towering, twisted horns and bloody smiles that left only bones behind. Those who heeded the call never returned, and were found in pieces, if they were found at all. But no, it was real. A sound like laughter, deep and masculine.
A chill raced down Teidra's spine that had little to do with the cold, and she froze and held her breath to listen. And there it was again, a loud whoop, closer now. Coming closer to her.
Teidra went absolutely still, her eyes wide and ears flattened under her hood. Stay still. If she bolted in fear, it would catch her. It wanted to draw her out. She just had to stay where she was, quiet and still despite the crunch, crunch of the snow as that thing walked ever closer and--
A face suddenly swam into her vision, wreathed in billowing snow, a monstrous black face with curved horns and shaggy fur, and Teidra let out a piercing scream and fell backwards against her shelter, landing in a pile of snow.