The Majors, Cold Fury (Book 2)

Chapter 8: Shrub POV

I was stuck.

I thought after Xornoth was defeated, maybe I'd find a way home. Back to my people. I've spent months pacing the spot I had come in, but nothing. I kept revisiting my destroyed village in my dreams. It was absolute torture.

The wolf pup I had adopted had grown in the past few months to be larger than my normal ones. And she was still growing. I had named her Zodiac. I thought it was pretty.

I needed to find a way home though, I still don't know what had happened to everyone. I was petting Zodiac and thinking at my desk in my mushroom palace when I heard someone at the door. That someone was Fwhip.

"Oh, hi Fwhip!" I said, forcing a cheery smile to my face. My fake persona fell as soon as I saw the grim and suspicious manner Fwhip was holding.

"Hi," he said, and looked around as if expecting someone to pop out of the mushrooms. "I need to talk to you about something, can we go inside?"

"Uh, sure." I said slowly. We both climbed the ladder up the mushroom's stalk and into the first cap. "Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've come to inform you of a recent, eh... predicament." He said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Scott and Erin froze Gem."

My eyes widened. "What?" I shrieked. "Like- like in a block of ice or-"

"No. She's cold all of the time. Cold and weak and slowly freezing to death. And to top it all off we have no way to cure her." He spat angrily.

I realized my mouth was hanging opened and I closed it. "Where are they? Did they apologize? Can they-"

"It's been two weeks since anyone's seen them. They've just disappeared." Fwhip said and played with the strap on his fingerless gloves.

I stared at him in absolute shock.

"Why don't you come see Rivendale." He said, again in that slow, suspicious tone. "So you can see the damage yourself."

One rocky plane ride later over the Elven Mountain Range, we were in Rivendale.

The temperature was well below freezing, even without Scott there. Snow and ice were everywhere. Some of the buildings were unrecognizable.

"What happened here...?" I asked, spinning around in circles. I should have brought a coat.

"Scott. Scott did." Fwhip growled. "Follow me. Just eh, avoid the Grimlands embassy and don't go through the front door of the palace."

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"I might have rigged the embassy to blow and trapped the front door." He said, running a hand through his hair. I made sure to avoid both buildings.

He led me to the secret meeting room we had used during Xornoth's reign of terror. Icicles hung from the ceiling of the room.

"He left it here." Fwhip said and gestured to the Xornoth crystal

My eyes widened. Scott left the crystal? Why would he... "If Scott's gone rouge, I should probably take this." I said and grabbed the crystal out of its slow rotation. I felt it pulse in my hand, almost like a heartbeat, sending goosebumps down my arms and legs. "We don't know what he'll do with it. I mean, they are family..."

Fwhip nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking." He said. "Keep it safe. We don't need him coming back on top of this ice age."

I stared into the shifting light of the crystal. "Yeah...we don't." I could have just been imagining it, but I thought I heard a slow raspy whisper issue from the crystal before I slid it into my overall pocket.

But better off with me than with Scott.