Then the blood flowing from her back gradually turned to ice along with the rest of her body. Soon her whole figure was nothing but a large ice statue that gradually turned to water and melted into the dark floor. The other ice sculptures in the room did the same thing, including the ice encasing Minki’s legs and chest. His limp body slowly fell to the ground as the ice turned into water. Dongho was right by his side, trying to straighten him out. Once the ice had melted around me and Jonghyun’s arms and legs, we too ran to their side, me getting their first.

“Minki?” I knelt down at the other side of Dongho, putting my hand on Minki’s shoulder. He didn’t respond in any way.

“He’s freezing cold.” Dongho said very quietly, staring at him with nothing but concern in his tired eyes.

“He must have gotten hypothermia.” Jonghyun said. “We need to make a fire immediately. Give him a lot of warmth.”

“We can make a fire at this cave that we keep reserve supplies in.” Dongho replied, pulling Minki up.

I nodded. “I know where it is. Minki showed me before.” I moved behind Dongho to help Minki link his arms around his neck and his legs under Dongho’s arms. Then we felt the ground shake slightly and looked around at the walls. They too had started to crumble and debris fell to the floor.

“T-this place is going to fall like the previous castle!” Jonghyun stood up. “We have to get out of here now!”

As we ran for the stairs, the ceiling suddenly caved in and large pieces were falling around us like bulky hail. Only suffering some stings, we ran down the long staircase fully and dashed for the cave opening, seeing the sunlight pouring in from a distance away. Then we were out from the entrance, catching our breath and looking back at the crumbling entrance. Soon the entire formation had fallen to the ground and had scattered into the wind, leaving only some traces of the witch’s burrow.

Looking around, I noticed the atmosphere had changed greatly. The air was much warmer and most of the snow had melted, showing off green, wet grass. It was as if winter was shut off by the switch of spring and it made us feel much more relaxed.

“What happened?” Jonghyun looked around surprised.

“…maybe it was a side effect of the witch’s power.” I suggested. “She could control snow after all.”

“We can admire the weather later.” Dongho set off to the side without waiting for us and we quickly moved to his side. I stayed close to Minki, trying to get him to speak to me. I wasn’t successful.

The moment we got back to the cave, Dongho placed Minki down in front of the burned out fire pit and proceeded to start making another fire. Me and Jonghyun worked on taking off the soaking wet clothes from his body until his arms were bare and his long, black hair was lifted from under his neck. Once the fire Dongho made started to grow bigger, we sat around Minki and simply waited.

The time went by very slowly and it made all of us very nervous. Minki didn’t appear to be breathing and if he was, it was very soft. My eyes never turned away from his face. I simply wouldn’t look away until I saw some kind of movement. Dongho slowly moved his hand over the main muscle on Minki’s neck, feeling for a pulse.

“…I can feel something.” Dongho breathed out in relief.

“Is it steady?” Jonghyun asked.

“Yes.” Dongho nodded. “It’s a little slow though.”

“That’s okay.” I said, also feeling very relieved. “It means he’s still alive. We should just wait a few minutes more.”

Those few minutes paid off. Soon we could see Minki’s closed eyes twitch and then squint open, blinking several times.

“Minki.” Dongho grinned, squeezing his hand.

Minki turned in the direction of Dongho’s voice. “Dongho…? Are you…okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” Dongho chuckled. “I certainly don’t want to follow that witch’s orders anymore. And don’t worry about her. She’s dead.”

“Good.” Minki breathed. His eyes rolled a little. “She was so annoying.”

“I’m happy you’re feeling better.” I smiled at him.

Minki turned to look at me. “…your speech.”

I looked at him questionably.

“You just said something that I could understand immediately.” He chuckled softly.

Jonghyun looked at me. “Could our way of talking also have been a side effect of the witch’s power?”

I nodded slowly. “That makes sense…”

“She was so strong.” Dongho mused quietly. “When I was her knight…I really couldn’t control myself. It felt like I was dreaming.”

“It felt like that to me too.” Jonghyun nodded. “I know we’re awake now, but before felt very dreamlike.”

I agreed then shrugged it off. “Whatever. We’re all safe now, so that’s what matters. But…” I slowly looked back at Minki. “I still have to do something to help you.”

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“We made a deal before, remember?” I grinned. “You helped me on my end, but Dongho was the one who ended up saving you. I still have to help you in some way or another.”

Minki grinned. “Good to know.”

We all shared a pleasant chuckle as the fire burned on.

“…The weather is a lot better outside now.” Jonghyun said. “Why don’t we all go out and get some fresh air.”

We agreed and Dongho moved to help Minki sit up. He had gotten a lot of his strength back and only needed to hold onto Dongho’s arm as we made our way to the cave opening.

Outside, the weather had taken on the atmosphere of prime spring. Flowers had grown in over the melted ice and the wind blew through our air, making our moods all the more pleasant. We were all at peace, and even if we lost a portion of our lives to the witch’s power, the thought wasn’t as depressing to us. With the help of the serene spring weather, we were ready to deal with anything else that came in our way, no matter how life-altering.