Beyond the Frozen Forest

**Beyond the Frozen Forest** is the first book of the Fantiverse. The POV is Zayn.

## Summary

In the peaceful Salamvalley, mysterious occurrences and rifts between friends force Zayn to confront himself.

## Plot

The book opens with Zayn struggling to sleep, apparently a regular thing with him. He ends up getting up, opting to write in his journal, which ends up going pretty far pretty quickly. He ultimately manages to sleep after venting out some strong emotions that he's trying his best to hide. The next morning, Zayn wakes up his sister, Sana, and the two of them have breakfast before going out to meet their friends — Rolo, Orris and Natasha. After some friendly banter and exchanges between them, they begin playing hide and seek, in which everything starts out well until Zayn notices that Natasha is crying while being seeker. When he tries to figure out what's wrong, Natasha simply brushes it off, and Zayn decides to return home to think about in, in which he has a conversation first with Orris and then his mother, Nazia. They discuss how everyone should eat, especially being out in the cold this much. Zayn then goes back to his group, in which, while trying to figure out what's going on with Natasha, accidentally gets her to lash out at him and leave. Zayn is left distraught at all this, but after his friends try to cheer him up and assure him that Natasha will probably be fine later, Zayn resolves to figure out what's wrong and fix it tomorrow.

That night, Zayn ends up confessing to Sana that he still feels bad about it, and wonders just what happened that Natasha got so upset over, concluding that it couldn't have just been everything he and his friends had said. Sana pushes him to sleep, and he does, and he ends up sharing his thoughts with Rolo, who tells him that if he just talks to her, things will likely go slightly smoother, also remarking that Natasha probably feels bad about this too. Later in the day, Zayn, bringing muffins with him, approaches Natasha and tries to talk with her, only getting a few things before it looks like there's about to be another fight. Fortunately, they are interrupted by Orris and Rolo, who say that there was something farther out in the forest. They walk there to see some mysterious cracks that Sana is quick to dismiss, and they all head back. Zayn, however, sees something rather troubling about it, but ignores it in favor of going back home. This ends up proving to be a slight mistake, as at night he ends up dreaming about it to the point that he decides to get up and investigate. After a brief conversation with Javier, his father, he goes to Orris' house to recruit them and they walk back to the edge of the forest, in which they find someone — Fyrinem — guarding the cracks. He ends up revealing to them and to Natasha (who'd followed them) that the cracks are an unformed portal that he made in order to bring forces from other worlds here, something he did because of his boredom. In spite of Zayn, Natasha and Orris all attempting to warn him about the potential dangers that portals might pose, he chooses to do so anyway, remarking that they'll all "see" before sending them back to their respective rooms, in which Zayn can only slightly process all that has happened.

The next morning, Zayn meets up with Rolo, Orris, Sana and Natasha to discuss what to do. While they almost enter a fight regarding Natasha's behavior, Zayn tries to push the group into talking about it later, knowing that this takes slightly more importance. They decide to try distracting Fyrinem the next time he attempts to tend to his portal while they get it to shut down. That night, Zayn has a conversation with Orris and then with Nazia both about his worries, and they both reassure him that things will turn out fine, although the implication is that his situation with Natasha will likely be more to stress about than anything to do with Fyrinem. Later on that night, Zayn leaves with Sana and meets Natasha, Orris and Rolo there, where they all wait. When Natasha tries to bring up the fight from before and try to end it, Zayn ends up finally emptying out all his feelings, expressing his frustration with Natasha for not telling them what was going on earlier, instead leaving them to figure it out themselves and make her feel worse to the point that she lashed out at them. He even briefly brings up Hari, remarking that since Natasha knew about what happened, she'd probably take advantage of the fact that she knew how Zayn would feel. During this fight, Fyrinem shows up and is amused by everything. The group immediately tries to distract him, but it only works for so long before he activates his portal, and they have to forcibly try to shut it down. This results in a brief fight until Fyrinem throws both himself and Zayn into limbo, where the two of them have a heart-to-heart conversation about how they can't push others to do what they want, in spite of how much Fyrinem wants for himself and others to have fun, or as much as Zayn wants things between him and his friends to remain the same. Ultimately, Fyrinem agrees to stop opening portals, and they leave, Fyrinem being stripped of his powers as he leaves. Sana reveals that Moonbeam actually shut down the portal during this time, establishing a friendship with them. After this, Fyrinem is also befriended by the group, and they all head home. Zayn has a brief conversation with Orris as they go home about how they feel about Natasha, Hari and Fyrinem, deciding that what's happening now isn't bad. The next morning, Natasha explains what happens, and it unfortunately isn't enough to mend the rift between them, and she leaves without saying goodbye. Zayn goes with his friends, satisfied with his social life, even if he's a bit disappointed with how things turned out with Natasha. That night, not being able to sleep again, he writes in his journal, more positively this time... and discovers that he can now utilize magic. Instead of worrying about it, though, he opts to go to sleep.

## Characters

Zayn

Orris

Natasha

Rolo

Sana

Fyrinem

Nazia

Moonbeam

Javier

## Music

**Crystal Forest by Vindsvept**

**Winter's Morning by Vindsvept**

**Distant by Vindsvept**

**Winter's Day by Vindsvept**

**Phantom's Dance by Vindsvept**

**Winter's Tale by Vindsvept**

**Apprehension by Kevin MacLeod**

**Lycanthropy by Vindsvept**

**Winter's Night by Vindsvept**

**Tending the Flames by Vindsvept**

**A World Divided by Vindsvept**

**Winter's Saga by Vindsvept**

**In Winter's Grasp by Vindsvept**

**Storm by Vindsvept**