Short Stories Volume 1

Fire and Ice

Two things can be polar opposites and clash together like two hungry wolves until one eventually destroys the other. Or they can bring balance, perfectly coexisting among each other. It all depends on their intensity, understanding of one another and complete trust in the other not to destroy you.

This was the case of the Paradise that was torn in two. On one side, the land was of pure and untamed flame. This was the land of Fire. You can say their motto was the hotter the better. The fire people lived perfectly happy in the flames that their land provided. They prospered and were generous to other lands that traveled to the Paradise to ask them for some flame. They were the ones who showed humans how to make flame.

Granted, it wasn't as warm or as ever lasting as their flame. But it was enough for them to get through what they needed so that they wouldn't have to risk the perilous journey to their land. Nor wait at the borders since they couldn't step foot inside without perishing.

On the other side, the land was of majestic crystal that was the unforgiving frost. This was the land of Ice. For them you can say that their motto was only the worthy survive. They too lived happily in the glaciers that their land provided. They prospered but many were afraid of them. Unlike the fire people, they didn't trade with many other lands. Now it's not to say that they were cruel or evil race.

But they didn't see how they could provide anything of value to them. And unlike the fire people, not all were immune to their land. Their motto of only the worthy survive became so when some of them died due to the very low temperatures. No one spoke as to why this would happen, so they just assumed their land to be so merciless that it took the lives of their own people. So people avoided them because of it.

The ice people, although they admitted that they wished people wouldn't start rumors on things they knew nothing about and wouldn't fear them, they also valued their privacy. Just like the fire people, they had everything they could ever want right there in their home. They didn't need any traders or outsiders.

In the Paradise, the lands of fire and ice lived alongside each other for as long as the sea and suns have existed. Half of that time, it wasn't like how it is now. There was a time when both were at war with one another. At first it was simple land disputes. Flame would get too close to Ice's border and some of it would melt. As retaliation, Ice began freezing their fire crops. Making them lose deals with some traders.

But it all escalated when two children were playing. Both fire and ice. It wasn't until nightfall that they were both found dead. They could see that each had used the gifts granted to them by their home. Naturally they assumed that they had used them on each other. Both put the blame on the other for the death of one of their own.

So any chance they got, they would attack and kill. Their battles could be heard from across the seas and on far away lands. At night, the skies were lit up in dangerous light show of red and blue.

The Paradise was becoming a wasteland. Since both races were so concerned with fighting each other, they forgot to cultivate their lands. As a result, the fire people were slowly losing their flame. Without it, they began to freeze and with nothing growing they starved. The ice people had their glaciers breaking and melting. Because they lost their shelter some drowned, while others were dying of heatstroke.

Realizing that if they wanted to stay alive, they had to set aside their differences and focus on tending to their homes once more. That was when they asked foreigners to help create the barrier. It wasn't an actual barrier like a cage. But more a land barrier. One that prevented the flame from melting the frost and the frost from freezing the flame. The strip of land in between was the neutral.

There, if they wished it, both races can visit another. It was peace and it was understood that neither must harm the other. If one did, then the barrier would come crumbling down, forcing the two lands to come into contact again and the war would resume.

Although the lightshow from the war at night was undoubtedly beautiful, every land prayed to never see blue and red again unless it came from the sky during the day or sunsets and sunrises. They were terrified if the day would come when it they would flash in the sky.

This was the land of Paradise. Where two races of flame and frost lived. Those of fire and ice.