Winterbringers by Gill Arbuthnott

toast. “You promised you’d explain about last night.”
    Rose turned briefly from frying bacon to give Callie what was meant to be a reassuring smile.
    “I didn’t want to worry you in the middle of the night.”
    Now we’re getting somewhere
, Callie thought.
    “You know there have been sightings of Big Cats between here and Cupar over the last few months?”
    Callie’s baffled expression was unfeigned. Of course she knew about that – there had even been a sighting outside the secondary school in Cupar last spring – but why was Rose bringing it up now?
    “I didn’t tell you, but George saw it just up the road last week. Luath went after it into the trees then came running out with his tail between his legs.” The bacon sizzled in the pan as Rose turned it. “From Luath’s reaction last night, I think that must have been what was outside. That’s why I didn’t want to open the door.
    Do you want some bacon?”
    Callie shook her head and ate a mouthful of toast to give herself time to think.
    Big Cats? What was all that about? Whatever she’d seen from her bedroom window certainly wasn’t a Big Cat.
    “You don’t think last night was something to do with all this weird weather then?” she asked.
    Rose turned round, frying pan in her hand, face expressionless. “I suppose it might be making the cat a bit … bolder. You know, if it’s having trouble finding food or something.”
    “That’s not what I meant. There was … I saw … oh, never mind.” Defeated, Callie returned to her toast.
    ***
    In the cave by the sea, a huddled figure lay on the floor, features glazed with ice, scarcely breathing, trying to will his strength across the miles, across the worlds, to Her.
    ***
    “This heating’s hopeless,” said Josh’s mum, putting her hand against a lukewarm radiator. “Feel that – it’s hardly warm at all.” She turned the oven on and opened the door. “Let’s see if that helps.”
    Josh buttered toast, saying nothing. As soon as he got up, he had looked out of his window for any sign of whatever had been there last night, for he was still sure there had been something – but the snow was a blank white sheet.
    “Put the TV on, will you?” Anna said as she made coffee.
    He took his toast over to the sofa, curled up and switched it on to a breakfast news programme. It was full of reports about the freak weather and far from being an isolated local event, it seemed that the area around St Andrews had so far been spared the worst. There was footage of snowploughs in Edinburgh and London, and pictures of the sea frozen off Newcastle.
    His mother sat down beside him. “Maybe we should gohome,” she said.
    “No! I mean … it looks worse there, not better. Anyway, it can’t last, can it? Not at this time of year, surely?”
    She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know, Josh. It shouldn’t be happening at all. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think anyone does, whatever they say.”
    There was a knock at the door and the owner of the cottages came in.
    “Morning. Just to let you know we’ve closed the swimming pool for the moment. We can’t get it to heat up at all in this weather and the last thing we want is to blow the wiring so that the heating in the houses goes off. Sorry, but I’ve never known anything like this. We’ll let you know as soon as things get back to normal.”
    He crunched off to the next cottage.
    “Well, that’s swimming out, unless you fancy breaking the ice. If you don’t want to go home, what are you going to do?”
    “I thought I’d go and see Callie for a bit.”
    His mother gave him an arch look. “You two seem to get on very well.”
    He sighed, trying not to show how annoyed he was. “It’s not like that. We do get on – as friends, that’s all.”
    “Okay, okay. Sorry I spoke.”
    He went into the bedroom to get dressed and when he came out she was already at work at the dining table, deep in a litter of papers.
    “I’ll be