“Gotcha,” Sally said, a burning stick in her hand as well. She split from Adam’s side and tried to get behind the creature. But the trees were too thick, so she only made it to his right side. The cold man’s head darted from side to side. Clearly it didn’t like the fire, yet it was willing to risk it to hold on to Watch. Every time Adam tried to make a stab at the thing with his torch, it blocked his way using Watch as a shield.

“What should I do?” Adam called to Watch.

“It’s so cold,” Watch moaned, his lips actually turning white, as if he were freezing to death. “Try threatening one of its partners.”

“I’m on that,” Cindy said, grabbing a particularly big burning branch and taking it over to another block of ice. She held it close to the ice and called back to the cold man. “Let him go or I fry this one!”

Once more the cold man concentrated its weird glowing eyes on Cindy. The blue light seemed to leap toward her. Before Cindy could even raise her torch to ward off the freezing beam, her arm grew numb. She tried to speak but only choked sounds came out. Adam thought she might freeze or suffocate in the next minute. Not having a chance to think of another plan, he threw his torch in the air, at the creature’s head. The torch landed behind it, and the cold man turned and was forced to withdraw its icy gaze. But this time it didn’t give them a chance to regroup.

Tightening its grip on Watch, it yanked him into the trees. It was very quick and out of sight before any of them could react.

In the shadows of the forest, they heard Watch scream.

Then there was nothing but silence. Horrible silence.

The cold man had taken their friend.

3

They put out the fire. The flames appeared to be their only defense, but they were afraid the heat might wake another of the creatures. Yet they kept their torches, and they went after Watch.

But it was hopeless from the start. The trees were so crowded that it took them half an hour to go a hundred yards. Plus the creature could move many times faster than they could. They trudged after their friend with heavy hearts, knowing they weren’t going to find him, not without help. As they paused to catch their breath beside a gurgling stream, Adam stared at the dying torches and shook his head.

“We have to go back to the path,” he said reluctantly. “We can’t face the cold man without fire, and these sticks will burn out in a few minutes.”

“But we can’t leave Watch,” Cindy cried. “Remember when we were trapped in the cave? He did everything he could to rescue us. We have to do the same for him.”