No one would willingly go to Tanba. Either you are born there and die; born there and escaped, or some journalist or political figure who is being forced to go for the sake of someone else.
Despite all this, Tanba accepted people with open arms. Its borders are open to most. So long as they pass the strict security check, anyone can get into the frozen city.
"We go on foot from here," Fishy said as he stood on the border of a large cloud of snow that was throwing around rocks and large clumps of ice that would kill anyone who stepped in without focusing their breath.
"The lizards will just die if we take them in. Let's go."
Fishy led the others, creating a torch our of his finger. He kept lighting up fire magic at the tip and re-lit it whenever it would be blown out by the constant vortex. If he forgot to do so, not only would they freeze but they would lose track of each other.
As they pushed further in, hoping they'd come across whatever it is they were looking for, their throats kept cracking. The weather was cold enough to dry out their throats quickly, but water would only freeze as it came in contact with the air. The solution, as proposed by Clara, was to use water magic. Clara had been studying water magic alongside Fishy and was able to create a stream of water from her hand. However, this meant the only way she'd be able to give someone water is to cast the spell with her hand down their throat. When they weren't gagging from a hand in their throat, they were crying because of the awful solution they had to deal with.
"This is torture… how much longer…" Said Ziu as he wiped away the frozen teardrops that swarmed his eyes and remaining droplets of water around his mouth.
"Apparently the cities have magic that allows them to deal with this weather!" Fishy recited from a book he read before, trying to scream over the sound of the hysterical wind. "Don't know how it works but I guess it's like a thin barrier that stops snow from getting in!"
"Whatever is it, let's hope we find it soon."
The three of them continued dragging themselves through the tempest. Even with the heat that Fishy was creating, their bodies refused to stop shaking. Untrusting of the environment they were in.
They were reaching the end of their lives, unable to continue walking as their legs froze, about to snap at any moment. However, their fears of breaking apart in the ice would not come true, as Fishy walked into a wall.
"OW!" He cried as he fell back into the snow, causing the light to snuff out, leaving them all in a thick layer of blindness, unable to see each other.
"What was that?"
"I think it's a wall? Is this the capital?" Ziu said, facing the wrong way.
"Shouldn't be… we should come across one of the small villages before the capital."
Fishy sat up from the snow that had already covered his entire body. Even laying for a second caused him to drown in it. As if a thousand bugs had swarmed on top of their food, hiding every inch of it.
"I've got an idea." He crawled out of the flurry and held his hand above, creating a large comet of fire in the palm of his hand. The force was larger than the storm around them, pushing away the clouds above and almost burning himself along with his friends.
"Why didn't you do that earlier?"
"I was worried I'd lose control…"
But the storm wasn't going to move so easily, as the clouds quickly returned to their original positions. But within the time they were gone, Ziu and Clara had already memorized the area, watching the large concrete structures around them. Giant cuboid-like shapes scattered around the area with tiny glass windows that were almost as thick as the concrete walls.
"Houses?" Clara said as she barely was able to make out a building, touching the cold steel bomb shelter like door with her hands. "I think this must be a village."
Clara looked through the returned tempest at what she thought were the others but quickly felt a tug at her hood, snatching her inside the giant concrete slab, with the others only hearing a slam and watching her silhouette disappear.