He didn't quite know what to do with that.

“How did you arrive in my domain?“ She asked when he didn't say anything further.

Well that was a hell of a question wasn't it? He almost didn't remember. It was all a blur. There was cold, then he was hit by something and there was pain. Then there were voices. He couldn't remember what they said. Finally he remembered the water. Water and darkness.

“I think I drowned. They..." His memory was hazy. The figures in the dark. They did something. "...they threw me into a river. They hit me with their car and threw me into a freezing river."

The words weren't spoken with the anger that was rightfully his.

Instead there was simply shock and a sorrowful detachment from his fate. It hadn't been a nice way to die.

She watched him closely, her statuesque nudity showing no hint of modesty as she stood before him. His explanation met her ears and she considered it before her deep blue lips moved to speak again.

“There were once ways here from the worlds of men. Ways for the souls of the sinful to fall into my realm. Passages such as these were used long ago by wise men to sacrifice souls to me in the hopes I would spare their homes from the frost and the cold. I had thought all such passages were closed. Apparently I was wrong." Her steely gaze lowered over him.

Here he was stood next to her in all her naked glory and he was the one who felt self conscious. In the years since his wife had passed away he'd developed a small but notable belly that swelled out over the hem of his work jeans. A thick woollen sweater hid most of his physical inadequacies but her gaze still made him nervous.

“Who are you?" The question had been hanging on the tip of his tongue since he first Laid eyes upon her.

"I..." Her sapphire eyes locked back upon his. "...am the daughter of

Mother Nature and Old Father Time. You may call me Lady Winter."

William swallowed a dry mouthful of air. Oh boy.

“I don't know what I'm supposed to do." He finally admitted.

“I'm not sure what to do with you." The Lady conceded.

“Well, what did you use the souls that once came here for?" His eyes shifted slightly to look around the room for any sign of them.

“I shaped them into creatures more suited to my domain and set them to building my realm. But that was Long ago and they are Long since spent as my city has long since fallen.” She turned away from him and stepped over to her throne.

He watched the sinful sway of her hips and couldn't help but lower his eyes to the pleasing swell of her firm heart shaped bottom. Stifling the urge to lick his lips, he instead shut his eyes tightly and then opened them when he'd regained control of himself. The Lady was stood beside her throne regarding its shape as she ran her fingers over the long icicles that jutted outward in a mantle over the back of the great chair.

“Am I...er...are you going to shape me into one of these creatures?" He didn't particularly like the sound of that but not knowing what his fate was had begun to steadily gnaw at his sanity.

"I don't think so. My power here is dwindling. The ice that you shattered was my Last enchantment. It was made to slow down my decline and keep me preserved until the great winter came once more. Now I wilt wither here until the snows outside melt and my home crumbles into the nothingness from whence it came. There will be nothing left in all the realms but heat and fire." She didn't seem all that phased by the prospect of her apparent inevitable doom.