YCH from the talented  Atarkadis!

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When I fell asleep, the forest had been vibrant and green. But I woke up in a blanket of white snow. The fallen ice was thick enough that it could have been falling for days. I shot up in alarm. Had I stumbled into some nefarious trap? Fallen into an enchanted slumber for weeks - even months?

I rummaged around in my pack. Everything was still there. My waterskin, a whetstone, even the little gold I carried. I'd taken a few pieces of fruit for the road from my latest stop. They were still there. Still ripe and unspoiled. No, weeks couldn't have passed by. Barely a night had.

So how had the land changed so radically in only a few hours?

I devoured the crisp apple in a few bites and dropped the core into the snow before heading on my way.

Glittering snowflakes flittered through the wind as I trekked through the forest. The sunlight caught on them, casting dazzling reflections in every direction. In another situation, it might have been called the beauty of nature. But this was anything but natural, and I intended to find the source of this aberration.

A low growl formed in my throat. I hadn't prepared for the cold, but at least my inner fire provided some measure of protection from the chill. A chill that was intensifying with every step I took. A few flakes soon became a veil of snow, and the light wind soon started to howl through the trees.

It didn't help that everything soon started to blur together. The landmarks I had memorised in the sunlight were completely changed by the whorl of snow, and everything was beginning to look the same. That tree was scratched just like the one I'd passed by yesterday. This circle of stones was just like the other three stone circles. That fallen apple core...

...that core was fresh. It hadn't yet even started to brown.

I growled in exasperation. I must have gotten turned around in the veil of blinding snow. I looked back down the path. The snowfall had already covered my tracks. Little help they would be. Growling, I slashed a mark in the trunk of the nearest tree. There. That would keep me on track.

I continued my trek through the blinding snow, one wing held before me to shield my eyes. So distracted was I by the snow - and my own disgruntled grumbling - that I didn't even see the protruding root that caught my foot. I stumbled, yelped, and fell, face first into the crystalline blanket that covered the land.

"I am getting mighty sick of this", I grumbled to no one. I gathered my hands beneath me and pushed myself back to my knees.

And looked down at the apple core in the snow beside me.

"Oh, come on!" I roared, looking over at the tree. Sure enough, my own claw mark etched its trunk. Again, the twists and turns of the eerie forest had spun me in circles and led me right back to where I had begun.

I pinned my first into the snow, roaring in frustration. But there, down the path, a glimmer of hope. Tracks! This time, the snow had not covered my footprints! I scrambled back to my feet and ran down the path. If I could find where I got turned around...

But something was wrong. Soon, my tracks branched off in three directions, all of them wrong. I crouched down to look at the tracks. They certainly looked like mine, but...

I stood and placed a foot over one of the tracks. Nope. My claws did not quite fit inside the print. It wasn't mine at all.

Through the howling wind, another noise drifted through the trees. Laughter? Mockery? Was this all some bizarre joke by some mischievous creature?

I drew my sword. "Come on!" I called to whatever was listening. "You've had your fun. Now either come out and face me, or stop these games!"

Silence, but for the howling wind.

I roared and charged ahead. With little care for direction, I cut through trees and pushed through snow. I turned and veered erratically. Whatever was toying with me, it would not be able to predict where I was going, what I was doing. That was the best way to beat a trap. If they didn't know where you were going, they couldn't throw the net. I darted between trees, leapt over roots, jumped between vines, and then...

...landed on an apple core.

"Argh!" I screamed. For sets of the tracks led from every corner of the snowy clearing to exactly where I was standing, and again that mocking laughter carried on the wind.

And rapid, crunching footsteps.

I turned and raised my shield just as the beast leapt at me. A reptilian creature, vaguely draconic but small and wingless, leapt from the curtain of snow and crashed into the wall of metal. It grabbed onto my shield, its rear claws scrabbling against the steel, its eyes wide and wild.

Three more of the creatures emerged from every direction, melting out of the veil of white. Each of them had the same magic grin. The laughter grew louder. Now I understood. It was not the mocking laughter of a playful spirit, but the predatory call of a wild beast, like a hyena. Or a pack of them.

I growled and pushed the monster away from me with my shield. Another leapt from behind me, but it fell to a quick swing of my sword. Then, pain shot through my shoulders as claws dug into my back. I roared and bashed the creature's snout with the hilt of my blade, knocking it off me.

Otherworldly monsters or no, they were nothing more than hungry predators. Dangerous, but simple.

I pressed my back to the tree to avoid any more attacks from behind. The three remaining creatures prowled around me, their infernal chittering laughter filling the clearing. As one, the three of them charged me. I stepped forward and unleashed a wave of fire. The flames engulfed the creatures, and mocking laughter turned to pained yelps. Smoke filled the air, and two of the beasts fell to the flames.

The third made one final, desperate leap. The creature, alight with my fire, reached its claws toward my throat.

I stepped aside and let it crash into the claw mark on the tree. It fell with a crunch into the snow, and with one final thrust of my sword, I ended its suffering.

As my blade bit through its skin, a burst of blue light filled the air. Growling, I shielded my face from the blinding light with my wing.

Seconds stretched into eternity.

Finally, I opened my eyes. The forest was still blanketed in snow. But the veil of white, the howling winds, the beasts... gone.

With a sigh of relief, I sheathed my sword. I kicked aside the browning apple core and continued through the forest.

The journey was quiet and peaceful. A pleasant breeze water through the trees, and birds tweeted happily in the trees. The snow crunched beneath my feet as I walked, pleasantly cool.

Finally, the mountain rose before me at the edge of the forest. I was out.

But still, I couldn't help but wonder. What were those creatures?