CHAPTER 14
I needed to go out and see for myself, how grave things had become. Trying to drive my car was impossible, so Seth and Oswald pulled out the sleigh and a couple of shape shifters turned into horses to pull it.
Dressed in various layers of clothes and a bag full of herbs, as well as my protection pouch, I set off, with Oswald, to the town nearby.
The air was so bitter; it felt like my blood was freezing inside my body. As soon as we turned on to the main road, the transformation was immediately evident. Firstly there were no cars, except for those that had been abandoned. The road had not been gritted or ploughed for days; probably because of the ferocity of the blizzards, and the amount of snowfall, but also we would not have been prepared for this, and we could have already run out of our stock of grit. The snow made it hard to see and, if it hadn’t been for the strength of the shape shifters, we would have been lost.
The noise of the wind was deafening and I pulled my hood tighter around my head. It only took us thirty minutes to get to the outskirts of the town; but it felt like hours had past. In normal conditions, a car would have taken about five minutes to complete the same journey. The sleigh eventually stopped, and I cautiously climbed out.
The snow was so deep; the townsfolk had given up trying to completely clear it, but had been ingenious in their methods to ease getting around. Shops had fitted long banister like structures to their outside walls to hold onto when walking. Outside each door was a copious amount of rock salt to keep the doorway clear and as the depth of the snow grew, small makeshift steps had been carved into the mounds. As I looked round I noticed some of those who were brave enough to venture out were also using sleighs or walking pulling sledges on which they had put their shopping bags. It seemed the muses had done their jobs well.
I entered a large supermarket and was surprised to see it was still quite well stocked, but some empty shelves showed that may not be the case for much longer. Bread and milk seemed to be in very poor supply and, as usual in severe situations, people had bought extra of these to stock up.
I spoke to the assistant and she said they were lucky, they lived above the shop and were trying to keep it open for as long as possible, but they had received no deliveries for a week now and didn’t know how long the stock they had, would last. Her father had been taking some of the stores to a small rest home nearby to help them out, but he had been taken ill with the flu. I thanked her and gave her some herbs, telling her to make a broth for her father and he would feel better. I said goodbye and left the shop, sprinkling my strongest mixture of herbs at the door to help ward off the evil spirits who wanted to do harm.
Some shops had closed altogether, and, as these were non essential shops, I was pleased they had been so wise. I struggled through the snow sprinkling my herb potions where I could. I came to a freezer shop, where a man was loading a sleigh with food. I stopped to talk to him. He told me it was his shop, and suddenly all the freezers had gone off. Several electricians had tried to fix them, but to no avail. He had decided to deliver the food to those who needed it and close his shop to be with his family. I offered our services, and for a while Oswald and I helped him. Every house we went to, I said a spell and sprinkled my herbs. At last we went with him to his home and he invited us in to get warm and have some tea with him. His family was as friendly as him, and made us feel so welcome. He had three children, two of them under five. As him and his wife were getting the tea, I hid herb sachets around the room, and said the strongest health spell I knew. This family deserved the best protection I could think of; to repay them for their kindness to us and their fellow man. At last it was time to leave. We said goodbye and we climbed back in to the sleigh and I asked to be taken back home.
I had seen the reason we had to win this war; through all the hardship, there are still those who would do their best for others, gaining nothing in return, and the least they deserved was to live in freedom and peace.