Excerpt: Ember of Ice

Wild Fox had a notion that she shouldn’t speak, but she gathered all of her confidence to say, “Who are you?”
The snake opened its mouth, and it talk in a hoarse, thin voice;“I go by many names.”
Wild Fox closed her eyes tightly, but she still could see the glare of the snake’s eyes, bright but blinding and cold. She spoke again before she even began to think about what to do besides lie down and hope that the evil creature would go away on its own.
“Like what?” Wild Fox’s voice was so quiet that she was surprised that the snake could hear it when she was speaking so quietly that she hardly knew what she herself was saying.
“They call me by many names; some of which I don’t think I should tell you, Wild Fox.” The snake’s voice had changed; it now sounded like Tring’s. But how could Tring… Wild Fox didn’t even bother to finish the sentence that had entered her thoughts.
Wild Fox gulped, hoping that the snake hadn’t sensed her fear that was growing larger and larger every second. “H-h-how did you know my name?”
“I have known you ever since you were born. In fact, I’ve known you far before that. Very far before that, indeed.” The snake bowed its head.
Wild Fox’s blood turned to ice. The snake was now speaking in Gray Snow’s voice. But what is its true identity? Wild Fox didn’t even dare to ask again.
“I know what you are thinking without even having to try hard. I can do it with many creatures,” the snake said, in the harsh, rasping voice that it had spoken in earlier.
Wild Fox gulped. She could not keep the words in her head to stay in her head for much longer. She took a couple of deep breaths and finally said, “Who are you?”
The snake suddenly began to shed its skin. It only took about a couple of seconds, and when the snake was finished it began to shed again. It did this for a while, until there was a pile of skins that the snake had suddenly disappeared in.
A squirrel stepped out of the skins in place of the snake, chin to the ground. It was Sleeping Wind.
Sleeping Wind looked defiantly at Wild Fox, some sort of determination burning in his eyes. “I am everything and everyone you know and don’t know,” the squirrel said in the voice of the old snake, the voice of Tring, and the voice of Gray Snow.
Wild Fox turned to stone at those words.
“And remember that.” By now Sleeping Wind’s eyes were the bright orange of the snake.