Free Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) by Heath Pfaff Page A

and the clothes on their backs, they didn't really have supplies. Haley stopped in her tracks.
    "The masks!" She said with a sudden realization. Kassa just looked at her numbly, the blanket with the valuable masks slung over her shoulder with indifference. "If we put the masks on, you can use the blanket to try and keep warm." Haley explained. Realization settled on Kassa's face, and in a moment she was working at the knot in the blanket where the ends were tied together. Her fingers moved stiffly in the cold, and after a few seconds of watching her struggle Haley took the blanket from her and untied the knot herself. Her fingers weren't suffering the effects of the chill nearly as badly. The blanket came open and even before Haley could remove the two boxes within Kassa had tossed them to the ground and wrapped herself in the newly liberated blanket. It wasn't a winter weight blanket, but it was far warmer than the light shirt she'd been wearing. Kassa managed to wrap it entirely around herself twice, using part of it to create a hood. She was still shivering badly.
    Haley was looking to the boxes that had been haphazardly tossed on the ground. Each box was of plain wooden construction with a single word etched across the front. One said ‘wolf’ and the other said ‘fox.’ Her hands sought out the container with the word ‘fox’ on the front, and she removed the lid carefully. The inside of the box was lined with a fabric that was so soft on her fingers it felt as though she couldn't even tell it was made of individual threads. Sitting in the middle of the pile of cloth was what looked like a hand carved animal mask in the guise of a fox.
    The mask had clearly been designed to cover the entire face. It even seemed to have some kind of mechanism built in to allow the jaw to move freely, though it was quite difficult to determine exactly how it all worked. The structure was made of some type of wood, but the styling was very lifelike. Haley picked it up and turned it over. The inside looked as though it had been layered in the same soft fabric that lay inside the box. The edges of the mask would wrap all the way around her ears, but there was no clear indication of how it would all fasten on the back of her head. Out of curiosity Haley pushed the mask to her face so she could get an idea of what it would be like to wear it.
    Haley gave a sharp shriek as the mask seemed to grab hold of her face and pull itself against her skin. It moved of its own accord, seeming to shift, stretch, and twist against her flesh. For a moment she struggled to try and pull it free to no avail.
    "What's wrong?" Kassa called, moving around Haley to get a better angle on what the younger woman was doing.
    "The mask just grabbed me!" Haley shouted, but her panic was quickly dwindling. Shawl wouldn't have given them anything that would hurt them. She knew that. Still, that had been a shock. "I'm alright. It just scared me." She explained as rationality took over. As her fear fled, it was replaced by a sense of wonder. She knew she was wearing the mask, but it didn't feel the least bit uncomfortable. After its initial adjusting it seemed to fit perfectly, and when she spoke, the bottom jaw on the mask moved with her face as though they were one.
    "Wow, that mask is amazing." Kassa said, her voice still shaking badly despite the added protection of the blanket. "I can see all the expressions of your face through it. If I didn't know better, I might think you really were a fox dressed up like a human."
    Haley smiled and pointed to the other box. "You get to be the wolf. I'd recommend putting it on. It seems to keep the wind off your face."
    With that endorsement Kassa was clawing into the box in no time. She picked up the mask and slid it onto her face. Despite Haley's warning that the initial moments of putting on the mask were strange, Kassa gave a little gasp as the mask adjusted to her features. Haley wanted to see what her own face looked like