Boiling Isles: The Next Generation - Act I.

Chapter XV. - Hidden Abilities

Since Achoo joined the Noceda family, Lucia's life has become much happier. When she showed her parents the ice salamander for the first time, her mothers welcomed the little animal with remarkably great enthusiasm. Of course, Lucia knew where the wind was blowing from. Her parents felt guilty for not allowing her to have a griffin. The brunette girl was aware that she should be angry with her mothers for this, but she knew that it was thanks to their prohibition that she was able to meet Achoo. So she watched with a smile as her parents carefully pet the ice salamander.

Lucia was even more worried about how Snowball would react to Achoo. Although the snowbeast didn't really show violent behavior towards most witches, it was quite aggressive towards other beasts. That was why she was afraid to show Achoo to him, but the brunette girl knew very well that she had to solve this problem somehow.

So with some fear in her heart Lucia entered her room with Achoo hidden in her hair.

"Snowball, I'm here!"

At these words, Snowball stepped forward from the corner of the room and cheerfully ran towards his owner, but he stopped a meter away from Lucia and began to growl while constantly looking at the brunette girl's hair.

"Calm down, Snowball!" Lucia raised her hand. "I would like to introduce you to someone who is important to me! So please behave!"

Snowball stopped growling and sat down on the floor, cocking his head questioningly. Lucia took a deep breath and gently took Achoo out of her hair, then placed the ice salamander on her palm and directed it towards Snowball.

"Let me introduce you to the newest member of our family, Achoo."

Snowball got up from the floor and leaned closer to Achoo and began sniffing the ice salamander. Lucia felt Achoo's whole body shake as Snowball sniffed her. It must have been terrifying for Achoo to have such a large beast so close to her.

"It's okay, Achoo!" Lucia tried to calm the ice salamander. "Snowball won't hurt you!"

Achoo's trembling slowly subsided before Lucia sighed in relief. Snowball continued to sniff Achoo curiously, then suddenly licked Achoo all over. The ice salamander was startled by this move, and the next moment she ran over Lucia's body and went to hide under Lucia's bed, but Snowball deftly jumped after her and then carefully slammed her paw down in front of the ice salamander to stop her. Achoo was even more frightened by this and then sneezed before shooting small shards of ice straight at Snowball's head. Snowball growled angrily and brushed the shards of ice off his face with his paws then scraping the floor with his claws as he roared at Achoo.

Lucia was about to intervene when an unexpected event caused her feet to sink to the ground in shock. Achoo responded to Snowball's roar and she roared too. After that, ice shards grew on the small animal's body while her eyes glowed blue.

"Ach-Achoo?" said Lucia stuttering. She had no idea that Achoo was capable of such a thing. Of course, she was aware that older ice salamanders grew ice spikes over time, but Achoo was still so young. She never dreamed that her little ice salamander was capable of such a thing.

However, Lucia didn't have much time to be shocked, because as soon as Achoo and Snowball finished yelling at each other, they started staring at each other. In the next moment, both beasts moved at the same time. Snowball swung his front paw as Achoo opened her mouth to shoot larger shards of ice at the slitherbeast.

Lucia immediately ran between them, even though she knew it was extremely dangerous. However, she had to somehow stop this whole fight because she didn't want her loved ones to get hurt. Achoo and Snowball seemed like mere beasts to others, but to Lucia they were part of her family. That's also why she didn't want them to harm each other.