Coldsnap: Storm's Call

Chapter 7: That's A Wrap

We last read Chapter 6, which involved the Water Sect---but mostly their leader, Keena---suffering immense backlash from the rest of the Mage Aspects following the torrential storm caused by the Storm Sect that swept through the Grand Terminus and killed a large number of mages; her friends tried to defend her, but had no success until Coldsnap came along. With Coldsnap backing her up, Keena pledged to the rest of the Mage Aspects that she would start an investigation to find out who was truly responsible for the flood, with Coldsnap and Firebird at her side. This time, with Commander Windsor Galeforce, Typhoon, and the Storm Sect already plotting their next move on Earth, we join the three girls as they begin their search, starting with a single vital clue.

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Keena, Coldsnap, and Firebird all rode on the back of Coldsnap's ice dragon, making their way to the same rooftops where Coldsnap initially had a brief chase with Typhoon.....though the Ice Sect Leader didn't know the storm ninja's identity yet at this point.

"You sure this is the place?" Keena asked concernedly.

Coldsnap nodded. "I'm sure."

"Should we split up?" Firebird suggested. "Maybe one of us can check the ground while the other two check the air? Or something like that?"

Both Keena and Coldsnap looked at her expectantly, and Firebird immediately regretted putting forth her proposal. "Sometimes I don't even know why I try....."

"I think this is your stop!" Coldsnap said humorously, gesturing for Firebird to get off the dragon's back as the beast briefly landed on the ground. With a frown, Firebird got off the mount, grasping her fire spirit cage in one hand and one of her lit flame daggers—for increased light—in the other. Then, she began searching the bases of the buildings while Keena and Coldsnap returned to the skies and kept surveying the site from above.

Firebird turned her head to the left, then to the right, then to the left again. The passageway which she had entered was quite dark, even in the daytime, and stacks of crates that were no taller than she was littered the sides of the area. There wasn't really much to speak of, besides a few wooden packages, some broken bottles here and there, pipes which provided the adjacent buildings with sufficient plumbing, and numerous cobwebs every so often along the walls.

Darn..... she thought to herself. We really don't pay attention to this part of the capital.....

Just then, she saw something lying in the middle of the alley that caught her eye; something that hadn't been there before. Sitting on the ground was a strip of light-blue cloth that was clearly frayed at the edges, as if it had been torn off in a hurry. Interested, Firebird took a knee next to her discovery, set her cage and her dagger down, and picked up the torn cloth in both of her hands. One of the fire spirits almost leapt out of the cage and right onto the cloth—which would have burned it—but without even looking, Firebird casually caught it in one hand and placed it back in the cage before turning her attention back to the cloth.

Both the Water Sect and the Ice Sect used light-blue in their color motifs, but on closer examination, this shade was unlike any that either of those two factions had used. She had been around the water mages and the ice mages for a long time, but this cloth just looked.....different.

It was.....foreign.

Still holding the cloth in both hands, Firebird rose to a standing position. However, right when she was about to flag down Keena and Coldsnap to alert them of her findings, a random mouse skittered over, snatched the cloth straight out of her hands with its mouth, and attempted to run away, much to the fire mage's dismay.