The crystals of snow melted, turning the rest of the avalanche into a brown slush. As more and more ground opened, I heard some clicking cheers from the humans watching this. There were smiles on the faces of the fire-breathing Warrior Bees, too.
But then these smiles turned into gasps.
From the sludge were sprouting dozens of gnarled saplings, which already grew their first needle-covered branches. With each second, they grew half a centimetre—it was incredible, never-seen-before speed! This speed was even higher than what I've witnessed from the ice-hole trees before…
Rime covered the dirt sludge near the growing trees. It spread farther and farther away to the edges of the melted area. Closer to the lit bonfires, the rime slowed down, but didn't stop.
The fires began to flicker and grow dimmer instead! It was like the warmth was being sapped from them, too—no, not "as if"!
