Derina: The Frozen City

A Mysterious Land

Lora knew she was moving, and fast. But she didn't know where to. She couldn't breathe. She wanted to scream but she couldn't move her mouth. She felt like she was being crushed. She tried to look around but it was as if she was wrapped in unbreakable steal. Her head felt like it was going to explode. She wanted it to stop.

It felt like forever before she fell, gasping for air, on something cold and wet. Her skin prickled with the sensation of freezing cold wind. She opened her eyes and looked around. She knelt in a clearing, covered in white snow. Black trees surrounded the clearing encased in a blue ice. A Large indentation lay in the center of the snow covered clearing appearing to be what she could only assume, a frozen lake. In some places little clusters of huge black spikes stuck up out of the ground. One tree stood out from the others, dark black and charred, not covered in ice. something about the place somehow felt familiar to her, but she couldn't figure out why.

Lora stood up and noticed a hunched figure a few feet from her, a dark black pool surrounding it. It made weird gurgling and coughing noises, and it seemed to be in pain. Lora walked to it cautiously, scared of what it could do to her. As she got closer she recognized it. Derek. He rolled over onto his back and glared at her, As she watched him she realized what was wrong. A dagger stuck out of his lower stomach causing excessive bleeding. Lora knew, even though she was no doctor, that he was going to die.

"Where am I?!" she yelled at him as she knelt down at his side. "What have you done!" she glared at him as he gave an evil bloody grin.

   "What, you don't recognize it? Your finally home, don't tell me that nymph or your elven ‘friends’ never told you about this place?” he gave a gurgled laugh. “well Now that I'm going to die you will have no idea where to go, what a shame." he said, then started to cough, splattering blood all over his hand.

   "What are you talking about?!" she yelled at him. "you brought me here, you're going to give me a better answer than that!" and with that she pulled a dagger from his belt and knelt on one knee, pressing it up to his throat. He managed a gurgled chuckle. "Or what, you'll kill me? I wish you would, put me out of my misery, and I wouldn't have to deal with Safield’s wrath."

She laughed “I’ll just leave you to suffer then." she went to stand up but he stopped her, for a second she thought she could fear in his eyes, but things like Derek don't know fear. "Wait, if you want to know so badly, This clearing is the same place your father took you to get rid of you almost 17 human years ago." he gave her a bitter look. "You are standing in the exact spot that your dad died.” 

Lora glared at him in anger. “Your lying, my father was a human scientist, he died before I was born.”

 Derek looked at her with what almost looked like pity, “please, you don't really believe that, your father was an elven mage, and not a very good one at that. He didn't want you so he sent you away. he died right where you are standing. he was weak you know, and in the end, he knew it as well. if you don't believe me, just move the snow." he looked away coughing.

 something told her that Derek was telling her the truth about her fathers death, but she didn't believe that her father never wanted her. she brushed away the thick snow bellow her revealing a sheet of blue ice, and beneath that, the face of a beautiful elven man. Dark black hair spread around him like a halo, his sharp features were remarkably similar to her own. His face and arms were scraped and cut, and his purple cloak was shredded. He seemed to be suspended in a thick layer of ice and he looked like he was asleep, but Lora knew better. She did not want to believe it, but his resemblance to her was uncanny. He was her father.

   Lora stood up, anger boiling inside her. “Why am I here? Who am I?” she screamed. Derek sighed, to tired and in to much pain to sneer. “It's not my job to tell you that. Your here because Safield seems to think he needs you, I couldn't care less what happens to you.”

Lora let out a frustrated Yell. ”I'm guessing you wont tell me who this Safield person is either?" Derek just stared at her, saying nothing. "fine, I hope you die! Unfortunately I won't have the honor of doing the killing!" without thinking, she grabbed one of his arm and twisted it until it snapped, Derek screamed in agony. Fear filled his eyes as she moved to his other arm. She hesitated, even though she hated him, she despised hurting others, evil or not. But something told her that if he could use his arms, he would be on her trail much sooner than she could afford. She had to do it. “I'm sorry, I can't allow you to follow me.” she whispered, a tear falling down her cheek. 

He moaned in pain. “Just kill me!” 

 “I can't do that.” she mumbled. 

“Then your no better than me little mage.” he closed his eyes, his face a mask of pain and hatred.

Lora flinched at the harsh words, he was right, and she knew it. He may be evil and heartless, but no one deserved what she was doing to him. then she thought of her father, permanently stuck in the ice below her, she thought about how she would never meet him and how Derek seemed to think her pain was funny. a new wave of anger swept through her, and With that she broke his second arm, he cried out in pain, tears streaming down his face. She whirled around without another word, and took off running at full speed, going nowhere in particular, just trying to get away from Derek’s blood chilling screams.

                                                              * * *

James and Amanda ran down the street towards Lora's house. They both stuck out like a sore thumb in the human word, so they had to leave as soon as possible. As they came up to the house, the nymph, who was working in the garden, stood up and watched them approach.

"Why are you guys here? And why do you look like that! Humans are all over the place, someone could see you!” She said as she pulled them inside and made them sit.

"Something has happened we had to remove your spell, you will probably need to wipe the memories of most of the school,  but we cant stay, we need to get to Derina so we need to use the portal." James said.

"There’s no portal here, you should be already aware of that, you elves always have a way of finding them."

"That’s exactly how we know there’s one here, actually you have multiple. So please tell us, it’s important, Lora’s life depend on it." James said getting frustrated. He stood up and paced back and forth. 

"What do you mean Lora’s life could depend on it? What have you done to my daughter?” the nymph yelled.

  "well, first off she’s not your daughter, you’re just her protector..." James said in irritation.

The nymph turned on James, pain clear in her eyes, "I raised her! I’m her mother! Her real mothers dead! And if you have a problem with it, good luck without my help!"

"He didn't mean it like that. I’m sorry for his disrespect. But we do need your help. Lora has been kidn*pped by one of Safield's daemons. I managed to hit him, so he’s probably badly injured, but that still leaves her in an unknown world with no knowledge as to what to do or where to go." Amanda said, standing up.

"Well I wasn't lying when I said there is no portal. You can look all you want. I wish I could help more, but really, I never kept a portal here for fear that Lora might find it." Marlene said quietly.

"Well it feels like it’s upstairs, we'll go check it out just in case." then he turned to the stairs and gestured for Amanda to follow him. They went upstairs and stopped in front of Lora's room, they both looked at each other in confusion. They had been to Lora's room so many times while they were in the human world but they had concealed their powers when they disguised themselves as humans, rendering all their abilities useless. But they never imagined a portal could be in Lora's very own room. They cautiously entered, expecting a large shimmering portal, but were greeted instead with her spotless and blank purple room. the only thing that was different than usual was an easel in the corner of the room across from them, facing away from the door. it held a painting they assumed she had started that morning and had left to dry. Lora never let anyone see her paintings, no matter how many times they tried to get her to show them. 

They were always surprised with how neat Lora always kept things, but now it was almost creepy. They proceeded to the closet, where the magic was strongest. When they opened the door they were greeted by about a dozen beautiful pastel landscapes. They both let out a surprised gasp, for they knew that each painting was an exact copy of many different places in the magical realm, Derina. 

“How is this possible,” James whispered, ”she was brought here when she was a mere baby. How could she know any of these places?” 

Amanda shook her head, “she's a pure blood mage, who knows what her magic is capable of. I guess this explains why she never wanted anyone to see them. she may not have known what these places were but she a smart girl, she probably knew subconsciously that she should keep them secret.” She walked over to a landscape closer to the door and picked it up. It was a gorgeous white, black and blue piece of a clearing surrounded by black trees. A lake sat in the middle of the clearing with a weeping willow towering over it. The art was beautiful, and Amanda knew what this place was.

“oh my god!" Amanda said with a hand to her mouth. “This is the clearing where Marlene lived, and were Lora's father died when she was brought here.”

"And this is Las Narith." James said holding up an art piece of a frozen city. Huge towers covered in glittering ice, snow covering the streets. 

"But I still don't understand how..." Amanda said looking at the many art pieces of the world that Lora’s has never seen or heard of, except when she was only hours old.

"I think I know how," James said holding up another painting of a dark ominous castle surrounded by dark ice and twisted creatures. "I think that Lora was using her gift before she even knew she had it. I believe each one of these pictures is a one way portal to whatever place the picture represents."

Amanda looked confused. “Wait, even if that was possible, how would we find her? There’s got to be a little over a dozen oil arts in here, and if they are only one way, we can't get back. how would we know which one to use?"

“well if I was Derek, and I was to kidnap a person I hated, I would want to hurt them anyway I can without touching them, and the only way to do that is to bring her to the place of her father’s death." James said. He lifted the painting of the clearing in blue and brushed his hand over it. Suddenly a blue light started to glow, coming from the painting. "Ready?" he said right before he stepped into the light and disappeared.

"As ready as I’ll ever be." Amanda mumbled following James into the portal.