Chilly nights

"Well, this wasn't the plan..."

An icy wind surges and twists between the rooftops. The only other sound is the encroaching frost; tiny crystals of ice forming on everything across the town, only held back by the small fires burning through the night in each fireplace, sustaining life until the next day.

In the darkness, atop one of the houses, sits a small creature, motionless, naked, staring into the darkness. Frost is forming across the creature's transparent wings, stiffening them. Suddenly the wings flutter to life, sending frozen crystal shards rattling down the rooftop. Then, the wings are still again and once more the frost begins to return.

"I had rather hoped to find more heroes, but I seem to be stuck with the funny rat man and the strange fire obsessed orphan thing."

"I had rather hoped they would at least have been good fighters, but it seems I have to spend most of my time protecting them, sometimes from themselves."

"I had rather hoped that they would have made up for their lack of combat skill with some intelligence, for a while I thought the goblin orphan had some, but now it talks more it has become clear that it just talks nonsense. As for the strange rat man, I am never listening to him again. He is bad and does not think properly. He made me do it. Tricked me."

"They didn't listen to Garret, didn't understand his offerings kept us safe. They wanted to stop the town from punishing the thief, even though the rules said they had to be punished. The rat man made me kill the beautiful thing."

"I need to make sure they understand what is right and wrong and I need to remember to trust my instincts and not listen to the rat man."

The small fairy remains motionless, deep in thought.

Sometime later, as if waking from a trance the fairy abruptly stands.

"Right, that'll do."

The fairy's wings forcefully begin to flutter, clearing themselves of ice and the naked creature flies down from the roof in a shower of frost to find his bed.