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Kafkalina was crossing through the Misty Mountains again from the north, she had done this only enough times to remember that they were not very ent friendly. As long as she took her time, and planned out her path, she would be fine. For awhile, this worked, until she reached an open path between the mountains, and a sharp wind came from the northwest. It was not alone, and carried plentiful supplies of snow. Soon, the ent was plowing through the side of the mountain, and becoming quite too frozen for comfort.
Rah tum! I can take the wind, water and earth, but this snow was never meant for ents! I cannot get out of the wind's current without losing my path and going south or back east. Ho hmmm, to ride out this storm would not be too much to ask of myself, but what to make it out of?
She had to think a bit more quickly, as the snow was building up around her. Looking at the slope of the mountain, she found a large enough rock jutting out of the face. Walking as best as she could, she soon reached the shade, but was still being blasted by the wind and snow. Whilst standing in concentration, she noticed that the sides of the rock, and her, were building up a wall. Soon, the entmaiden came up with a plan.
Ro tom la tum, maybe I cannot surpass the snow's skill in collected effort, but I can learn a bit from it. If not to fight it, there is no difficulty working with it...
With that, the ent shook off some of the ice starting to form from her branches, and began building up walls around and under the rock. Soon, the snow in the wind began to howl past, and stick to the walls. Kafkalina peeked out of her shelter to see the walls were several lengths thick, and very well insulated.
Retunring back inside, with a very large smile, she sat down to wait out the storm and drink some of her ent-draught, even though it was slightly iced over. Within a few hours, the wind was now clear and carried no more snow. It seemed to slow down as well, and was safe to travel in again, except for that the side of the mountain was quite deep now.
Kafkalina stepped out carefully and sank into the snow, gradually, the ent pulled herself back and found the problem. Her roots were too narrow, and were formed and conditioned to walking upon flat earth. Spreading and testing them on the snow, she found with the added surface area came a better resistance to the snow. Curling and forming her roots into shape, she began to travel again. A bit wobbly at first, but she soon was taking careful strides across the mountains again.
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