The cool air whistled skillfully through the suspended branches, picking up dry leaves which soared for long distances.
The little town, covered in thin sheets of ice and massive piles of snow, lit up nevertheless as people strode gleefully down the decorated streets.
Creatures of different shapes and sizes blended effortlessly with the people as they shifted shapes when they emerged from the nearby forests.
Only the observant noticed the massive increase of the population during winter and as quickly as they came, the immediate disappearance of more than half of the original population during summer.
An extremely fortunate discovery was that this particular winter occurred once in every century.
An unfortunate tale for this century in particular, was the heroes who triumph over the monsters disappeared without a trace not too long ago.
Maybe they got tired of the charade?
Maybe they perished?
Or the unthinkable,
Maybe they joined the dark mages?
A cursed year-round winter. Fun isn't it?
New heroes were born two centuries ago, four elementalists with untamed powers which surpass their predecessors, I should know, I studied greatly on them.
History major here, just saying.
Being born a century and a half ago, I dedicated my time and effort into mastering my element, ice, one of the more advanced elements derived from the original element, water.
"The season of uncontrollably chaos has started..." I narrowed my eyes at the merry making audience.
"Time to go." Tyler placed a hand on my shoulder and snapped his fingers, a vacuum enveloped us for what seemed like forever before we were back to reality.
Next thing I knew, we were plummeting overhead a dense forest in my realm, the elementalist realm.
"Tyler!" I shrieked holding on to him, only to remember that transporting through such great lengths drained him.
"Ice doesn't make for a good landing but..." I muttered to myself before conjuring a slope of some sort.
It worked alright, but I may have bruised my entire body when I caught Tyler against a tree. The thud was unbelievable loud but I couldn't let him get hurt in his state.
I quickly broke the ice into tiny fragments, which glittered in the sky before beginning our journey.
During this Winter, it is a punishable offence to use elements of winter due to... obvious reasons.
Taking a long look around the thick forest I noticed a path I knew all too well before realizing. I then chuckled to myself, of course he'd remember here.
This is where I first met Tyler, he may not have been an elementalist, but his parents and mine were best friends so they often visited.
When I got well acquainted with him, I decided against my bitter judgement and shared my spot with him.
He was the very first person I showed my hideout to and to this day, I have never regretted it.
