Sara shrugged when Sam told her that he liked the TV that she’d broken. He had other toys and frankly either of them could afford another TV when this was all over. Probably Sara. The danger room shifted around the two of them, and Sara found herself still not used to the ways that the x-men trained and the way the room smelled when it was trying to imitate the real world. A small smirk formed across her feline lips as she tipped the beer wrong side up. The contents of the bottle falling on the ground that popped up out of the floor, under her feet. Could Sam freeze Alchohol? Sara made a mental note to ask him later as she ducked the snowball that Sam threw at her.

”I had a mom Sara, you aren’t her.
“Lucky you.” She spat the words back at him. She never knew either of her parents. Nor did she know a parental figure. Though the part of what Sam had to say about watching his own back when he left a bar had Sara’s approval. She nodded. Her head tilted slightly when the house and its family, in the background of their scenario, disappeared. “Who were they?”

Sam shot shards of ice at Sara and her hands went into motion. The bottle was dropped onto the dirt that made up the danger room floor. She went into defense mode first, sending the shards of ice in different directions by smacking them aside.

”You’re paying for that TV!”

Her tail flicked. She caught the last shard of ice out of the air, and flung it back at Sam, aimed for his face, again. (See. Sam always provided plenty of objects to throw.) She started stalking in a circle around Sam, checking their seroundings. Sam knew this area. Sara was unfamiliar with it. “Only if I loose.” Ok… She was probably paying for it anyways but mocking was satisfying at the moment. “Care to make any other wagers?”

”Dam good question,” Sam said back as she swatted the shards of ice away like they were nothing. Good, he wanted a fight, one that would allow him to let off a little steam and a lot of frustration. ”When I find out I’ll let you know!” he tilted his head to the side as the shard of ice missed. He could have easily taken the hit and allowed the ice to form part of the armor that started growing over his body but he didn’t want to let Sara have the satisfaction of knowing that she hit him.

Watching her stalk around him he stopped turning to a point as he took control of the air around them, instantly she lit up like a Christmas tree as she circled him. His lone eye shut and he put his arms up in a guard. ”Yeah, you start wearing an X when we need you to!” Sam yelled. He knew Sara liked staying out of things but she really could make a difference if she fully supported him. He knew it would be a tempting offer, if only to keep an eye out for Sam when they were in the field. A bit manipulative on his part but he had been thinking about asking her to join for a while.

”You got any requests?” Sam stomped on the ground and behind him a angled spire shot out of the ground the target was Sara’s gut.

Sara’s tail swished back and forth behind her heals as she circled around to Sam’s back and his eyes no longer followed her. The air temperature dropped around them again and, again, when Sara breathed, she could see her breath. He was still tracking her. He wouldn’t just turn his back on her right now… Especially after his wager. Crape on toast. Sara and her big mouth.

“I’ll be sure to wear it proudly on my @$#.” Sara bowed, Mockingly. That was going too far, but for most of the time that Sara had been in New York City, there were individuals in the x-men, whom she just didn’t trust. Straightening, with the same motion, she picked up a long straight stick that she could use as a staff. “I win, and you… Help m knock down my warehouses.” Sara had new plans for her properties. Sam could knock them down safer and faster than she could, just using his ice.

She weighed the staff in her clawed hands for a moment. The only experience she had with a stick weapon was practicing with Luke’s cane, but it would do.

In a heart beat, she attacked. The staff spun back in her right hand. Her left shot forward to attack Sam’s back. Then a kick. Both of witch, she expected to be blocked with ice, but if Sam was following her heat, and if she worked to stay behind him, could he see the stick with no heat signature of it’s own? Well she’d have to find out when she used the staff to hook the side of his ankle and sweep his feet out from under him.

He felt the mocking bow and smirked as she and picked up a something off the ground. He couldn’t feel it but the way she used her hands his deduced it was a stick, one long enough where she could use it like a staff. ”X marks the spot I guess.” Sam said making a vague reference to a pirate as he pointed to his eye patch. It wasn’t really clever and it could be taken the wrong way but he still got a little laugh out of it. ”All you had to do was ask!” Sam said shrugging, ”I would have helped you take those buildings down anyways.” Sam said recalling a previous encounter with the warehouses that were used several times with human trafficking, they were an eyesore anyways.

Sadly for Sam when it came to speed and strength Sara out classed him greatly. He felt her body move and he only managed to turn halfway towards her managing to miss her first strike with her hand and catching the kick to his ribs. Luckily the ice took most of the attack but he could still feel it. He had a feeling Doc would be visiting him shortly after this. He didn’t have a healing factor like Sara. Holding his hands up towards his head he felt her go for a sweeping motion with the stick which sadly he couldn’t see due to his blind side facing her.

Falling back and turning the fall into a backwards summersault he used the ice under him to form a pillar into the air shooting him up and backwards his mutation still controlling the moisture around him. In the air he spotted Sara with his lone eye wielding that stupid stick. His attention focused on the ground around her and the ice near her feet erupted in spikes shooting diagonally around her attempting to trap her or get her off balance.

The second he landed on the ground ice started to form around his feet and it stretched out connecting the patch of ice were he was just attacked seconds before. Sam smirked and made a grand gesture with his arms to help direct the ice. More spikes erupted from the ground and shot towards Sara some impaling the ground between him as his other hand raised up forcing more ice around him.

“Pirates… Really?” Sara chuckled. Ok. Her tension was starting to ease more again. But that didn’t mean that she was ready to take it easy on Sam. In fact, she wasn’t going to hold back anymore right now. After all, bigger things were at stake. Like Sara having to wear an x-men’s uniform. Wait hadn’t this hole things starting about Sam being drunk?

Her fist missed, but that kick still found it’s mark and even if Sam was covered in his ice armor, she could brake through it. The rest of her attacks wouldn’t be aimed just to hit Sam, like she had in the past, but to go through him. Well… Him and that armor. Sam rolled away, and spikes of ice shot up around Sara making her jump and her upper lip tightened, pulling back into a silent snarl. She still hated closed spaces. “Well then, I’m sure that I could think of something else.”

Sam had managed to trap Sara for a moment, and get some distance between them. Not good in Sara’s case because without any ranged abilities, Sam would kick her tail side if she didn’t close that gap. She could take Sam’s ice two different ways. As it shot up out of the ground pointing in her direction she hesitated. This is why she hated fighting elementalists. They didn’t fight fare. When her, and Sam had first met, She would have been forced to give up in this situation… But now she had more strength then back then. More speed too. And more experience. “I’m surprised that you don’t use pirate pickup lines.” She called back to Sam.”

She kicked off of the ground reaching straight up so that she could grabbed the side of one of the large spikes, Her claws gripping into the ice and her feet swung straight up, through two spikes tips that crossed. They shattered and she was through an instant later. Perching on top of the criss-crossed pieces. “You know. Like Arrrrr.. You’re so charming, I’m digging your chest.” The stick spun in her hand and she let It slide so that she held the end instead of the center. Well. The second way that she could take things was to use Sam’s obstacles as her own jungle gym.

If Sam could clear the distance to make a pillar at his feet, then Sara could clear the distance to land on the pillar, so she did. Practically flying through the air, using the pillar as a stepping stone. Following Sam. “Or Arrr. I’m hooked on you!” She shrugged. “Because you know… Pirates have hooks.” Speaking of hooks. Sara still wanted to dig hers into Sam.

The top of the pillar made a decent enough spring board and Sara, herself, went flying through the air after him. Her body twisted in mid air, and she aimed to land, feet first against Sam’s middle.

She was making pirate comments now and suggesting he use them as pick up lines. Well she didn’t seem angry anymore. That was a start. Before she could make contact with his midsection the ice armor opened up behind him and he used his mutation to move the ice and snow under his feet sending him safely behind the ice armor as it was shattered. No need for golems yet he was just getting warmed up. The air around them continued to drop, he had no doubt that her fur would keep her warm enough. Could he end it by dropping the temperature to something even she couldn’t handle? Yes, but that wasn’t as fun. The fact that she moved so quickly put a strain on his mutation and it made him want him to work on his control all the more.

The last time he worked on strictly control was when he was in the artic and the results of his training paid off. He wouldn’t show what he had learned just yet. No for now he’d start to make it snow having the focus of the storm be centered on Sara. She could still smell him and still sense him but her cat like eyes wouldn’t be able to get a solid read unless he was close. Something he had no intention of doing anytime soon.

Using the snow and ice under him he willed some to crawl up his body again into his ice armor, this time far thicker than before. It might have been a little slower but even a flying kick like that last one wouldn’t shatter the armor. ”How do you think I landed my current girlfriend? She dug the pirate humor.” Sam said with a smirk that Sara wouldn’t be able to see unless she closed the distance. ”I tell her I love her booty all the time.” Sam yelled hoping the snow and his ice armor would muffle it enough to prevent her from figuring out what direction he was.

Sam started to slide backwards further away from her willing more ice and snow to form in the background where the woods and lake were. ”Your talents would definitely be of value on the team. I’d even fix it so you would have hardly any police interaction other than Shin!” Sam yelled.

The ice that had made up Sam’s armor, broke and shattered under her clawed feet, and Sara landed in a low crouched position. Tail whipping the ground with a heavy thump to help her keep on herself on her feet when she landed. There was a great deal of Ice and snow that she kicked up, when she landed, and for a moment she shielded her face protecting her eyes against the atmosphear that Sam was still creating. Speaking of Sam, he’d slipped away from her somewhere. A fact made evident as the air around herself getting colder, and the evidence that there was no squishy feeling between her toes. Just ice.

The snow around Sara persisted. And she found herself fighting the 6th sense part of her mutation. The more that the snow and cold affected her eyes, the more that she had trouble keeping them working, and keeping her sense of sight for the time. Sam knew what he was doing. Really, Sara’s 6th sense would be an advantage in this situation, but she still wasn’t comfortable with it. She purposefully hadn’t activated her 6th sense in a long time, and at the moment, she was dreading the disorienting feeling that her 6th sense always brought out when it first turned its self on. However, it was still stupid to stand still.

Sam had slid away from Sara but she thought she could still hear him. Faintly at first. He’d started traveling in the direction where, Sara swore that she heard and smelled water, earlier. Letting Sam get to the body of water would be stupid. She took off on two legs. Swaying the long stick back and forth in front of herself as she ran. Letting it thump against trees. To Sam, it probably looked odd, but there were two things that this did. She found the trees before running straight into them, and if her 6th sense did decide to trigger it’s self, she’d have a path that she could still move, without fear of running into a stationary object.

”How do you think I landed my current girlfriend? She dug the pirate humor. I tell her I love her booty all the time.”


“She sounds like a peach.” Sara shouted back. Her path readjusted now that she had more of an idea where he was, but she wasn’t headed straight for him. She was aiming to skirt around him and cup off his path to the lake.

”Your talents would definitely be of value on the team. I’d even fix it so you would have hardly any police interaction other than Shin!”

Sara shrugged, curving her path to put herself in Sam’s way. The long stick that she carried, swung wide in a circle around herself. She wasn’t aiming to hit Sam necessarily, but if his extra thick ice armor just happened to be in the stick’s way, it wasn’t her fault. Her ears pinning back as her fur had started to stand on end to keep her body warmer. “It’s not that… they’re cops. At least not anymore. It’s the uniforms.” Sara let herself open up a little. She had never liked uniforms and she’d never gotten past the memories of the men and women in uniforms, from her past.

When she made mention of the uniform Sam pushed himself out go the armor once again and slid backward as the stick hit the armor. He started to control the armor like a golem having his arm wrap around the stick that Sara had been using. He had watched her attempt to cut him off from the lake and the rest of the woods he didn’t try to go around her but instead slowed so she could in fact cut him off. ”I learned to look past the uniforms.” Sam replied knowing what she meant. He had a similar childhood and uniforms were something he had grown up seeing. ”Their uniforms mean something else, something other than what it meant when we were younger.” Sam said snow coating to his body once again forming another thick armor.

Sam continued to slowly move to the water making sure that Sara was still in earshot. Dancing between trees and buffering the furry mutant with snow and cold he continued to speak occasionally sending in another golem to add to the one she was already fighting. ”The difference is we will both be involved making sure S$$$ like that doesn’t happen to anyone else.” Sam knew his was broaching on a touchy subject with Sara but he knew she would understand his meaning.

”Think about it Sara, kids wouldn’t grow up being locked up and experimented on. X-Men represent something more than just mutants working with the police. We are working to a better future, one where kids wouldn’t have to go through the same s$$$ we did.” his back hit a hollow tree letting out a large ‘thunk’ Sam looked back away from where Sara was. He could still feel her body heat but he was distracted for a second. The snow buffering around her momentarily ceased.

(Permission granted to godmode the golems.)

With a thunk, Sara felt the long stick knock the ice of Sam’s armor… or what was formerly Sam’s armor… This was getting old. Chase, Smack, escape, chase again… Unless Sam made it to the lake, (Witch was looking very possible right now.) the fight could go on for an annoyingly long time. However if he did make it to the lake, then Sara was screwed. It wasn’t just Sam’s mutation, but Sara couldn’t swim. She sunk.

The ice golem’s arm wrapped around Sara’s stick and even if she wanted to follow Slick through the snow and cold that he was throwing at her, she had the golem standing in her way. The golem went to pull the stick away from her grip and she used the motion to pull herself at him. Her feet hooked into the ice of the golem’s arm, and she aimed to vault it’s shoulder and close the distance between herself and Sam. Unfortunately that’s as far as she got because when she went to kick off of the golem’s shoulder, the golem spun, back handing her legs out from under her.

She ended up landing hard on her hip, rolling to a kneeling position. Nothing was broken, but if she didn’t heal and have fur, she would have had a nasty bruise to show for the stunt.

”Their uniforms mean something else, something other than what it meant when we were younger.”

“I know, Slick!” Sara shouted back in annoyance. What was it with all the men in her life trying to make her better? Pluto. Luke. Sam… Hell, even Slate and Ayesac had gotten in on the action to a lesser degree. They might as well start a ’I tried to preach to a WereCat club!’

She pushed herself off of the ground, feeling stiff both where Sam’s golem had smacked, her, and where her hip had landed. Sam wasn’t giving her time to recover though. Why should he? After all. She did break his TV. The ice golem, behind her, crunched as it moved. The stick that Sara had been intending to use as a blind man’s cane swung down in it’s hand like golf club. She rolled to the side. Ice and snow kicking up in her wake adding to the rest of the snow storm that kept her from seeing very well.

Mean while, he’d continued talking about their past. Her past. How she could make a difference. Didn’t Sam ever shut up? “Again. I KNOW!” Sara shouted back at Sam through the hard cold wind that he was throwing at her.

The first golem that Sam had formed from his ice armor took another swing at Sara with the stick, and instinct took over making herself stumble backwards into a second golem, Sara hadn’t even seen through the snow. The second golem’s arm hooked around her shoulder, across her chest, and down at her waist. Trapping her when the first golem back handed her side across the right side of her ribs. The force of the hit shoving the air from her. She through her elbow back hard against the golem that was holding her still. That broke off a big enough piece and cracked it so that she slid free before the first one could connect with her again.

Somewhere to Sara’s right there was a hollow sound of something bumping into a tree and Sara’s eyes narrowed on it’s location as the snow cleared in the air a little. Ducking the Golems, she headed straight for Sam, fists raised. “But that S$$$ isn’t all that you focus on.” She was going for a basic front assault. First sending a fist aimed to collide with Sam’s midsection. “What if I’ve got my own focus?” She sent a right hook aimed for Sam’s face.

She was going through his golems like they weren’t much of a threat. Sadly to Sara, they weren’t she was faster mentally and physically even if they got a hit or two in her recovery time was a force to be reckoned with. His golems were large and slow, ‘maybe a smaller one?’ before he could think about creating one that was lighter and faster her body heat signature blurred and she was on him. His eye saw it first while he tried to focus on her body heat; the bump to the tree distracted him. It was a stupid mistake and one that will likely cost him.

The wind was knocked out of him and before he could even catch his breath the ice around his face shattered as he was knocked to the side and his back slammed a tree. Hard. Two holes were now visible in Sam’s armor, where she hit him on the check and the midsection. Sam smirked as air rushed back into his lungs. He could breath again. Slowly ice formed around the holes and his armor started to thicken as he readied for the next assault. His golems were already running to his aid ready to tackle Sara and pin her to a tree if she didn’t react in time.

Raising his hand up Sam willed some ice spikes to form in front and around him causing them to erupt quickly. It was sad, for every move she made Sam had to think a few steps ahead, keeping her distracted was the best way he could win. ”No, I try to look at the bigger picture, I failed to remember why I became an X-Man in the first place. Something that I am trying to correct.” Sam placed his back to the tree as he willed ice under his feet more frost formed over the trees and ground around him, ”What focus is that Sara?”

Both of Sara’s punches found their marks and Sam ended up getting knocked back into another tree. Reflexively, Sara’s fists went back up in a guard. Her right hand’s fingers flexed. She was pretty sure that was the first time that she’d punched Sam with her full force… and he was still standing and grinning at her… She shrugged back at him with her right shoulder. “You know. Stuff.”

There was a crunch of snow and ice from where Sara had left Sam’s golems and she spun, backing out of the way of the first Golem’s path. The golem collided with the tree that had first distracted Sam, and Sara leapt forward aiming to use the golem as a stepping stone on her way up the tree, and feeling the sharp tips of spices of ice rip across her jeans and waist. Leaving a smear of red across the sharp edge. Air sucked in response to the sharp pain. Bad mistake, but it was a smaller price to pay than getting pinned to a tree by an ice golem.

With a hop, skip, and a jump, Sara raised her arms above her head and grabbed a hold of a thick branch of a tree. The tree might not be the best place to perch, with Sam’s frost climbing up it’s bark, but Sara felt more in her element when she was striding across it’s branches. Even if there was a second golem on the ground, standing between herself and Sam, still holding her make shift staff. “A few years ago, I had a dream about the future. It was probably silly, but there was an idea in it that I really liked. There was a place for humans and mutants named PAX.” OK. So really there was a lot more to PAX than that, but that wasn’t quite the point that Sara was trying to get across as she strolled across the branch that she was on, and leapt to another one that was closer to the space above Sam’s head. His Golem still keeping it’s self between them. “I want to turn one of my properties into a community center with a garden.”

She was perched on a tree branch now with her stick in hand. When she started to talk about the future and having a dream Sam faltered for a moment and his minds raced back to Alexandra, his wife and their two kids. Sammy and Ayrin. All of them having far more power over him than any ‘dream’ should. Sam knew why, good chance Sara didn’t but if he could help it she wouldn’t find out. His death wasn’t the only thing she missed over the last few months.

Due to him being distracted once again he let his guard down for a moment dropping his hands and backing up behind another tree creating more distance between him and Sara. She could still be heard though and her talk about a community center with a garden seemed to get him thinking a little bit more on less painful subjects. He was quite for a second then started to laugh masking his previous feelings. A large cylinder of ice erupted under the tree where Sara was perched and rose up higher and higher in an attempt to knock Sara down, ”That’s all you want to focus on? Fine, I can give you a dozen community centers and a dozen gardens. Empty lots and old warehouses can be bought with ease and your looking at a one man wrecking crew.”

Raising his hands a few ice figures with the same body style of Sam rose from the frost covered ground, every step closer towards the lake a few more rose from his footsteps. Only one of them moved and launched itself at Sara with his arms outstretched hoping to grab her and throw her around. ”All you got to do is ask, just like I’m asking you to help me make the world a better place. You better than anyone knows about the snowball effect!” Sam said laughing and running towards the lake while the snowstorm continued.

Sara might have known why her words about the dream of the future affected Sam, if she’d ever talked to anyone else about it. It was a dream. It was terrible in the beginning of it, and in the end of it, but in the middle, it was heaven that to Sara, only her imagination had put there. Sam had moved to the place behind another tree, and it was quick work for Sara to leap to a different tree as she moved around the golem on the ground, and still tried to keep Sam in her line of sight. Just a little closer and if Sam didn’t watching out, She’d be coming down very shortly.

’That sly dog. He got her monologing.’

Sara checked herself when she heard Sam laugh. Her already crouched body braced itself slightly, triggered by the sound of his laugh that was a tell. When this was done, maybe she should challenge Sam to a poker match. In a hasty move, Sara launched herself off of the branch, straight for Sam’s golem that he’d had left, landing feet first, and heavily with her claws on the Golem’s shoulder and chest. Moving out of the way of Sam’s pillar just in the nick of time and only having it smack into her tail. The smack into her tail through her off balance, and now set into motion, she was off her course. Instead of going in Sam’s direction, she (And the golem) tumbled in the wrong direction. Sara’s staff landed a few feet away from her right as Sam took off still headed in the direction of the lake. “It’s all the focus I’ll tell you about.” She shouted after him. Pulling the make shift staff, that had landed a few feet away from herself in Sam’s snow, close to her side.

“No. You’re not asking for my help for anything. You’ve never actually asked for my help!” Sara, stubbornly, shouted the words after Sam as she glared at the snowmen that came out of the ground in his foot prints. It was true. The only things that he had asked her help for were things that she’d already been involved with. She’d pushed herself to her feet. “You’re asking me to be an x-men so you can ask for my help! Why?” Sara’s amber eyes narrowed on the new golem headed straight for her and she weighted the make shift staff in her hands. “Why not just skip past that part? You know. Cut to the chase.” Sara took off after Sam. However that single golem was going down first.

Sara swung the staff wide like a baseball bat. Her strike hit it’s mark crumbling the golem’s head and most of it’s right shoulder but it was still a golem. A head didn’t make a difference and it didn’t knock the rest of the snow making up the golem, off of its course. It’s arm and shoulder that still existed, wrapped around her waist and knocked her to the ground. Making her grunt as it knocked the air out of her lungs and her lips pulled back against her teeth in frustration. “Keep running and I’ll consider myself the winner.” Sara called after Sam. Her elbow came down on the golem making it crumble. Kicking the lower part away from herself with her double hinged feline like legs. The quickly made golem made short work for herself, but it still did it’s job in stalling her, and he’d made others even if he wasn't using them yet. With a kick, she was on her feet again, in pursuit. The staff held close to her head, then thrown like a spear, as Sara aimed to take out Sam’s left knee.

She didn’t want to share more and she was right, he wasn’t asking for her individual help, he just wanted her on the team. She did have a point. Though to be fair Sara on the X-Men wouldn’t just be her on the team watching his back. Sara always had his back, Sam knew that much and as annoying as she was sometimes she would be an asset to the team not just because of her skills or her mutations but because she was in fact annoying some times. He needed someone to keep him and the team in check. Her distrust and dislike of some of the ‘team’ meant she’d have no problem telling Sam or anyone else when they were out of line. Sam thought of saying when he was younger, ‘who watches the watchers?’

”You can consider yourself the winner but-“ Sam’s leg was clipped as he was running towards the lake with his back turned towards Sara. His knee gave out and Sam rolled a few feet before hitting a tree upside down. He didn’t say anything for a moment other than an uncomfortable gasp. ”Ow.” Sam said glad his armor protected him from the roll and the face plant. The knee was another story however. A sharp shooting pain erupted in his left knee and while he did have armor there it was still vulnerable, more so than anywhere else on his body.

Sam’s eye opened slowly as he tried to push past the pain, ”You know…” Sam said through gritted teeth, ”I just had that healed a few days ago….” he had both knees healed after some knives found their way into them when he was left for dead. It was painful and while this wasn’t a fraction of the pain he still found it very uncomfortable. Ice clones stopped moving for a few moments until Sam pushed past the pain and righted himself. Thicker armor formed on his body as he grew a three feet taller and a few feet wider. He was slower but the added armor would protect him if Sara attacked again.

”I know I can always ask for your help but I want you on the team for another reason!” Sam yelled as his ice covered fist struck a tree next to him and caused the bottom of the trunk to shatter from the extreme temperatures. Sam used his ice armor to take most of the weight as the medium sized tree fell on top of him. Sam grunted and moved within the ice armor and then the armor followed launching the tree in Sara’s direction.

Sara’s makeshift staff hit it’s mark. Sam went tumbling bottom over top into a tree, and Sara stood on the spot, for a moment, waging her index finger back and forth in the air at Sam. Ok. She hurt him, but he needed to get some sense knocked into him still. She fell into a four legged lope to clear the distance between them, again. The cold air making her weary. Trying to be careful but not wanting to waist too much of the time that she’d been given either. “Oh buck up.” Sara teased. However her teasing attitude sobered when Sam stood and the largest ice armor that she’d ever seen Sam use materialized around him.

”I know I can always ask for your help but I want you on the team for another reason!”

“And what’s that?” Sara asked. At least Sam was getting more to the point. Of course he was now taking an annoyingly long time to respond because he was using his ice abilities to chuck a tree at her. Sara’s grit teeth bared as she pushed herself off to the right, trying to roll out of the way of the tree, but the short run that she’d taken had put her close. Too close to fully dodge the outstretched branches of Sam’s thrown tree. A bow caught her across the face and upper arm. Its flash frozen leaves breaking free in a flurry of Sam’s storm. Sara tumbled. Shaking free from the broken tree’s debris. Her vision blurred as her sixth sense threatened to take away her sight, and for a moment, she was rooted to the spot, blinking, and brushing the broken leaves and splinters away from her eyes with the fur on the back of her wrist.