Frostbound

I struggled to not let anything show on my face from her question but I failed miserably. I just couldn't keep my face unmoved when faced with a question like that. It wasn't something I wanted to get into yet, especially without Abigail, but I tried to stall anyway.

"We will discuss it when we get there. It's not a conversation I wish to get into now." My words did little to assuage my mom but it got her moving again, if a bit slowly.

The rest of the trip was silent. The last 30 minutes were only accompanied by the sounds of nature and the leaves blowing in the wind. Even Gabriel's curiosity about my powers got put on the back burner after that.

Part of me was relieved when the ramshackle walls came into view but another part felt dread. Dread at telling her that he was no longer with us.

Abigail came rushing out when she saw us and had much the same reunion as I had. Big hugs before wondering what happened to Gabriel, except she used a few healing skills to examine the extent of the damage.

There were smiles and happy faces for the first time in a while upon our return. It was proof that others had survived and people kindled hope at their loved ones being the same.

Leaving Abigail, Gabriel, and my Mother to get reacquainted, I searched out Hal and Austin to get an idea of what was around us. Both weren't hard to find and I could soon put levels and creatures on the map of our surroundings.

Their scouting surveyed a few miles in every direction and circled the camp we had thrown together. The hours I was gone gave them long enough to get pretty far out.

Austin was the faster of the two, but both had Agility as a focus. Hal's Wind Law helped him keep up with Austin's speed.

Upon my return, and the low-threat evaluation of the surroundings, it was Jonathan's turn to venture out to find what was left of his family along with a few others.

Of the 17 of us who returned, other than Abigail and I, four others had extended family they wished to gather. All of my father's family had gathered before the tutorial hit which put most of us together.

The only people that had family elsewhere were the in-laws. The people who had married into the family and had siblings or parents that they wished to gather.