Derina: The Frozen City

The City of Ice

Lora calmly followed nerel through the forest. She could finally stop and enjoy the mysterious world around her now that she was no longer burdened by the time spell. The forest was beautiful and peaceful, but she found herself more intrigued by nerel and who he was. He seemed to know everything about her, even things she didn't know, and yet she knew almost nothing about him. Suddenly she was reminded of her dream and she felt her face flush hot and her stomach clench. She shook her head, what a ridiculous way to react, it was just a dream, and he was a stranger. She stared at the ground in silence, pretending to examine every detail of the forest floor. Nerel would occasionally glance at her, almost as if he expected her to speak, but she pretended to not notice every time. It was easier this way, at least in her mind. To her, nothing could happen between them if she refused to acknowledge him. Instead she thought about her life back on earth. She wondered  what her mother was doing, if she knew what had happened to her. She missed her dearly, and though she now knew the woman that raised her was not her mother, she still thought of her as such. Lora continued to look down at the ground as she walked, her feet creating deep trenches in the snow, leaving streaks of dark earthy brown from the mud on her boots. She sighed, her heart aching for the simplicity of her life back home, a place with no magic or evil mages and daemon, where her only problems were math tests and boys. But, though she missed earth and all its underwhelming normality, she couldn't deny the fact that this place, foreign as it was, felt more like home then the human realm ever did. 

After a bit of the endless walking in silence, Lora got tired of it, so she decided to try and use a bit of her magic, practice what Nerel taught her. She looked around at all the snow surrounding her, though depressing as it seemed, Lora knew that snow could be used to have fun. She smiled mischievously, she extended her hand as she walked a bit behind Nerel. She willed the magic to flow, slowly and delicately,  she felt if rush through her arm and could almost see it as it reached towards the snow, pulling it together. After a moment she had created a small ball of snow, she let it hover in front of her before giving it a shove with her Magic. It flew a few feet before hitting Nerel square in the back of the head. he stopped dead in his tracks and reach a hand to the spot where bits of wet snow still clung to his hair. Lora quickly covered her mouth with her hand and attempted to stifle a laugh. He turned around slowly,  his face a stony mask, Lora's heart sank, fearing she had made him angry. "you know, I have magic as well." he said calmly. She swallowed a lump in her throat, scared of what he might do,  but then suddenly he smiled and his eyes sparkled playfully,  and before she had a chance to react a snowball was suddenly hurling at her,  hitting her in the face. Lora caught her breath and stepped back,  wiping the cold wet snow off her face. She stared at him shocked as he burst out laughing. She smiled and willed the snow around her to form multiple balls and send themselves flying at Nerel. Knowing he was much better at magic, as soon as they went flying she ran to duck behind a tree. But even then two hit her in the back, knocking the wind out of her. She heard a grunt behind her and she smiled,  for that meant one of her projectiles had hit him. She had just formed a pile of snowballs and was holding them in her arms,  preparing to send them at him when a strong gust of wind hit her,  knocking her off balance and forcing her to drop her ammo to catch herself as she fell to her knees. Before she had time to react, five snowballs hit her one after another. She let out a frustrated sigh and went to stand up,  but slipped in the wet mush under her.  She glared up at Nerel who was approaching clearly trying to suppress his laughter.  "that was cheating!" she yelled. Nerel faked a surprised look, "I had no idea it was against the rules! Besides you started it!" he extended a hand to help her up. She pretended to reach for it, but right before she grabbed it she sent a wave of snow at him from the side.  It caught him full on and it knocked him clean off his feet.  Lora burst out laughing as she rolled to her feet. She turned to him smiling brightly. "huh, guess it's more fun without rules." she watched him amused as he scrambled to his feet brushing off the snow covering him. "well that was actually quite fun, and good job with your magic." Lora kept smiling and shook her head. "ever the teacher." she said with a pointed look. 

"Alright, as fun as that was, we are close to the city, a few more minutes and you will be able to see it.  So we should continue on."

Thinking about the city terrified Lora, she had no idea to expect, I mean she was in an unknown world, she knew nothing of these people, in the forest she almost forgot there was more to this world. She nodded but said nothing.  After a moment,  in which he just stared at her,  he continued on. Nerel seemed to know that Lora had no desire to talk, for he said nothing as they walked, and Lora was perfectly fine with the silence. After only 20 minutes the trees seemed to thin, she looked up and saw the sky, slowly turning from the bright blue it had been all day, to a darker sapphire shade. Before she could comment on it, they reached the top of a ridge and the trees stopped abruptly, and so did Nerel. A huge valley spread out below them, glittering as the sun reflected off the snow coating the ground. Beyond the valley, a huge mountain towered over it, and at its base a beautiful city spread out toward where they stood. A marvelous castle stood above the city, set into the side of the mountain. Tall intricately designed towers filled the beautiful city, as white stone streets weaved their way through them. Everything glimmered in a million different colors. Lora had never seen such a sight, and yet somehow it felt familiar. She caught her breath, and her hand itched to paint the magnificent otherworldly beauty of the city. She looked at Nerel, barely able to hold back her excitement. He was watching her with a huge dazzling smile. “I knew you would like it.” Lora looked back to the city. “Yes, it's beautiful.” she said quietly and Nerel nodded. “I hope to see it one day when it's not trapped in the icy nightmare Safield has created." Lora's heart sank, She had forgotten the real reason she was here. Not to see the beauty of the world she was forced to leave at her birth. But to save it from a tyrant who was once her father's best friend. As she stared at the city, she realized exactly what Nerel meant. He was not referring to the endless snow and cold, no, he meant the actual ice that coated the entire city. Each tower was covered in a layer of ice that the sun was reflecting off of, that is what was creating the brilliant colors Lora was so desperate to capture. Her heart sank as she thought of all the innocent people who were now trapped in this endless cold nightmare, and suddenly she wanted to do anything she could do to help. She turned to him with a small smile. "then I will do everything I can to make that possible." Nerel stared at her for a moment, his eyes bright with hope. "And I will do everything I can to help you." he replies quietly before turning and heading towards the city. Lora stood there, silently glad she had met Nerel and that he didn't plan on leaving, then she turned and followed after him.

About an hour later, they stood in front of the city gates, tall and beautiful, some kind of silver metal had been twisted to make a beautiful design of flowers surrounding a strange looking deer head with flower covered horns, under it the words Las Narith were written in big elegant lettering. the gate was beautiful, unlike anything Lora had ever seen. Nerel smiled at her amazed reaction, "its a vitadele stag, they were very common before Safield took over. they were believed to be extremely lucky and one of the first magical creatures in Derina. no one has seen any since the first snow." Lora's heart ached for the beautiful creatures, she hoped that one day, maybe they could return. as they walked through the gates Lora thought of something. "Hey Nerel, why do you speak English? do elves not have their own language?" Nerel smiled at her, "well, we do have our own language, but no one has spoken it in a very long time. there was a time when Derina was very close to the humans, your ancient Latin language was largely influences by our language. many human myths and folklore are based on creatures of our world. when English became a common human language we adopted it, finding it easier to use while being so close to the humans, but after some time, humans and this world drifted apart, and no one from this world aside from those you know, have been to earth in a very long time, you would be hard pressed to find someone alive who has been there. Paxton teaches the people all he knows of humans though, in the schools and to those who want to learn." Lora thought about this, she found it strange that a world full of such beauty and magic would be interested in the human world. elves really were intriguing.

 they weaved through the pearl white streets of the city, glimmering building towering above them. snow coated everything, very few people could be seen walking quickly on the streets, their heads lowered, wearing cloaks and carrying bags, most people Lora saw had long pointed ears sticking out of their hair, but occasionally she would she a short and tough looking person that couldn't be more than four feet tall, she came to the conclusion that they must be dwarves. finally after many turns and strange looks from strangers, they came to a stop in front of a particularly beautiful set of connected towers, two smaller towers connected to the two bigger ones off set behind them by glistening bridges. nerel turned to her, "welcome to Paxton's home." he said, Lora's heart was pounding, she was about to finally meet her uncle. they stepped up the the beautiful marble step leading to the front door, and Lora instinctively grabbed Nerels hand, and he didn't pull away.

                                                                                ***

Even though james and Amanda were careful to counter the spell as best they could, it still felt like way to long by the time they reached the river. As soon as they got there, it became clear to them that Lora had made it to the river. The water she had melted had started to freeze over again, but the stone basin was obviously made by magic, and it became even more evident when they found a tree that had clearly been used to  transmute with. Though it was a relieve to see that Lora was alive and faring well, James soon found that among the tousled snow, there were two pair of foot prints. It was obvious that someone was with her. though neither of them said it, it was clear they were both thinking the same thing, if Nerel found her, she could be in a lot of danger. after examining the foot prints, james spoke up, "if Nerel is with her, why didn't we find foot prints before?" Amanda shook her head, "I'm not sure, maybe they were covered in snow, who knows how long ago she got here, it could have snowed covering up the other tracks, it seems like they spent bit of time here, or the spell had us  to disoriented to notice them. Of course Nerel could have covered them up if he was following her. once he found her I'm sure he thought he could move fast enough for the evidence not to matter." james said nothing to this, clearly to concerned to reply. "we will find her james." she said hoping to bring his spirit up, but he just gave her a tight lipped smiled and nodded before following the footprints.

not long after they came across a part of the woods that were oddly disturbed, snow lay in strange piles and the footprints were abnormal, much of the snow had been trampled into mush mixing with the dirt to make a muddy slush, it looked like a fight had occurred. james and Amanda looked at each other, fear filling their hearts, and without saying a word they broke into a run in the direction of the city, no longer caring about the footprints and hoping that their worst fears had not come true.