After the incident in the cave, Maggie, Garth, and even Maya couldn't shake off the fear from the duke's warning. Not to mention the image of the naked duke as well as his maid was imprinted deep into their minds.
"Wait, where are we?" Garth asked, looking at Maggie through the coachman's window.
With the reins of the horses in her hands, Maggie was daydreaming about the noises she had heard inside the duke's tent.
"Maggie! Stop the carriage!" Punching the side of the window to get her attention, Garth yelled out right next to her ears.
"Ahhh!" Jolted shocked, her hands reeled the reins inward. "By Atlas! Stop!"
Steered sideways from the path, the horses almost ran into a ditch, but at the very last moment, as they shifted trajectory, the carriage toppled in the opposite direction. Freed from the reins, the horses ran off into the distance, leaving the three behind in a mud-filled pit.
"What the hell?!" Woken from her sleep, Maya complained covered in mud and filth. "What happened?!"
With her clothes dirtied and the horses running off in the distance, her eyes were numb with tears. Annoyed by Maggie's carelessness, Garth pulled himself up grunting in frustration.
"Where the hell even are we?!" He asked, glaring at the culprit for the disaster.
The most disoriented of all, Maggie propped herself up while caressing the back of her head. Covering in filth, her clothes as well as her striking green hair were far from recognition.
"Stop screaming!" Bubbling in rage, she grabbed Garth by the collar and violently shook him. "You idiot! Why were you screaming in my ears?!"
Adding to the commotion, Maya began to cry out wailing. Hearing her cry, the two turned to Maya and realized their own flaws in the matter. With a single glance at each other, and letting off a tiring sigh, Maggie and Garth tried to calm down Maya.
"I'm sorry, Maya, we won't fight anymore," Maggie said, resting her hand on Maya's shoulder.
"Yeah, we should look for the horses and catch up with everyone else," Garth added, glancing up at the setting sun.
Wiping her tears, Maya began to finally calm down a little. But with the carriage now stuck in a ditch and one of its wheels broken off, the trio had no choice but to try and find the horses on foot. Making sure to get some of the dirt off of them with Maggie's wind magic, they began to make their way in the direction of the horses.
However, while on their way to catch up with the others, they ran into something, or rather someone who would prove far more helpful to them in their journey forward.
"Oi! Lost your horses, did ya? Ahaha!"
"Shut up brother!"
The voice from the skies had the trio perplexed for a moment.
***
"Move! I can't hold this thing much longer!" Haruki yelled, ordering the retreat.
The typhoon of icicles circling them, kept them insulated from the threats from the outside world. Seeing how nobody was moving a muscle, and the strain the spell was having on Haruki, Kane quickly decided to take charge of the battalion.
"Lucy, keep healing Lord Frost!" Taking a swift glance at everyone, he gestured them to follow him right behind him. "Helma, Mortar secure the duke from the back, I'll handle the front!"
With everyone in position, Kane was just about to move forward, but that's when the illusion of safety inside the storm shattered completely.
"Hellflame!" The boy yelled, and the storm turned into a flaming inferno.
To everyone's surprise, the flame quickly died down before burning so much as a single strand of hair. Perplexed by what had happened, Haruki looked up at the sky, trying to spy the source of the counterattack. This time, however, he saw two childlike figures with scaled wings flying up above them.
'They look human, but those wings…' Running low on mana, as well as having expended his health trying to keep the typhoon up, Haruki was on the verge of collapse.
"Lord Frost!" Called a familiar voice, rushing towards them from the direction of the camp.
Turning towards it with the last of his strength, he saw Maggie, Garth, and Maya running over to them as they shouted something while looking into the sky.
"Aghh! Fun's over, I'll get the Frost guy," Annoyance obviously hinting in his tone, the winged boy descended down to the earth. "Sis will heal, the girl, but don't act smart now."
The last of what Haruki heard him say, was directed not at him, but at the adventurers holding up their weapons. Blinded by exhaustion in the very next instance, Haruki's body flopped to the ground.
"Lucy…" Kane mumbled, hinting Lucy to use healing on the duke.
"I am trying to heal him, but it's not working!" Profusely sweating from the excess use of magic, Lucy was biting her nails unsure why her magic wasn't working.
Descending beside the winged boy, was a girl slightly shorter than him. In her hands, she held Jenna seemingly free from all injuries. Stroking his crimson red hair the boy grinned at the adventurers standing in front of him. Taking a step closer, he held his arms open as if inviting them into a fight.
"Enough!" Smacking her fist down on the boy's head, the little girl screamed directly into his ears.
"Ekkk! What the hell are you doing that hurts!" Stuffing some kind of fruit into his gaping mouth, she shut him up for good.
Bowing her head, she formally lifted the hem of her clear blue dress. It let out a wind so chilling, it failed the cold the adventurers had faced in the tundra.
"I apologize for my brother's boldness, he's a dunce," Letting go of the hem, she beamed a smile that could heal any wounds. "Please, don't complain about him to mother though, she would probably kill him."
"Finally!" Maggie cried as she stood behind the winged kids. "I told you not to leave us behind, that Dullahan was scary!"
Witnessing the whole thing playing out so unexpectedly, Kane and the others counted their blessings.