Frozen Flame

Epilogue: Prologue of War

Surface

Looking down, the first thing he saw was Eliza. She stared, gazing up at him with a giant smile. Lifting her hands above her head, she indicated her position – unknowing that he had pinpointed it the second he'd caught a glimpse of her.

She was beautiful – her gorgeous hair unkempt and unruly as it piled in a mass around her baggy, mismatched clothes. She'd been in such a rush to come out and wait for him, that she hadn't even dressed properly. And that made her all the more beautiful.

He tumbled towards her in dragon form, fiery heat raging over his ectoplasmic form as his children gripped onto the hardened lava and consolidated rock that surrounded him. Manoeuvring himself to land safely a few dozen metres from her, he waited for his children to climb off before descending back into his human state. Pulling himself onto his feet, he raced towards her, opening his arms as she sprinted towards him as well. His smile grew.

And she ran right past him, straight to her children.

She immediately wrapped Rav, Ebb and Alec in a hug, kissing their foreheads as tears poured down her cheeks. "You're okay! You're alright! You're alive! Oh... thank goodness!" A tighter hug. "I missed you all so much..." A soft smile and she glanced up. "I knew it... I knew he wouldn't do anything to you..." Her head started turning back down again. "I knew he would make sure to protect you from- Alec! What happened to you!?"

She knelt beside him, pressing her hands against his wounds and holding him stable as he smiled. "Hey mum... I missed you-" With a shudder, his body collapsed and Eliza caught him as he fell to the ground.

She turned around, staring at Thorn's fixated yet soft eyes on her whilst struggling to keep Alec off the ground. "What happened?"

Thorn grimaced and treaded carefully forward. "Well... I, ah... I tried to keep them out of trouble but... ah... when we were escaping, Alec ran into some guards and... ah... he defeated them actually, but one of them managed to use their ability before he knocked them out- Oh, no-one died, don't worry... He, ah..." Thorn's arms moved in strange motions as his foot came up behind him and scratched the back of his leg, he weight occasionally shifting in multiple directions. "He just grabbed them on the back of their... heads and, ah, just bonked them... like this." He attempted to imitate some awkward 'head-bonking' movement as he twisted his lips into visual sound-effects.

Eliza just stared at him, blinking a few times, studying his movements with a raised eyebrow. She carefully handed Alec to Rav who held his brother in a 'princess carry'. She placed her hands on her lips, walking forward. "Are you lying to me?"

He scratched his head, looking you the side. "Huh?"

She chuckled, stopping directly in front of him before her eyes turned to a pointed glare. "After over six turnovers away from me, are your first words going to be a lie?"

He laughed, dropping his arms and crossing them before realising they were crossed the wrong way and recrossing them. "What lie? I'm not lying. I don't know what you're talking about. A lie? Ha! Never heard of the thing..."

"Beaver-bear, you are a terrible liar."

"What!?" He drew back slightly. "I am not. I'm am... a great... liar- not that I'm lying!"

She poked his chest, walking forward. "Yes, you are! Your shoulders are up, you're shifting continuously, you've stumbled around your words several times now and you won't even look me in the eye! For a confident hunk who's more than comfortable kissing his wife in public, I think that's a little suspicious, don't you?"