The Stillfrost came at them across the frozen grass.
It did not run. It did not need to. Its long white legs carried it forward in great, slow strides, and the cold came with it. Each step it took, the air grew colder. By the third step, Natalia could no longer feel her hands.
"Spread out!" Big D shouted. "Don't bunch up! Make it choose!"
They scattered across the white grass.
The Stillfrost stopped in the middle of them and lowered its long, eyeless head. It turned slowly, as if it was listening. Then one of its thin legs lifted, and stabbed down like a spear.
Rudra threw himself sideways. The leg drove into the ground where he had been standing. The frozen earth cracked around it in a white star.
"It can't see!" Natalia shouted. "It feels the warmth! It's going for whoever's warmest!"
"Then let it come for me," said Big D.
He walked straight toward it.
