Frostfire

A Sister?

As I've said in the description, this is horrible and unedited and written five years ago, so please understand. It is also discontinued, but you can read what's here even if it's not much. Check out Into the Void, a shared project on a shared account @StarCatching. It's one of the best and longest things I've written so far, approaching fifty thousand words! The length of a novel! *Baits you with a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie.* It's home made...

I must have looked truly stunned, because Red broke out into gales of laughter when he saw the expression on my face.

"I thought you'd be unimaginably happy, but instead you look..."

"Mortified? Maybe because I don't believe you, and I want proof!" I shouted. "Maybe because I know that I have no family, because they all died at my hand!" I sniffled a bit for effect, but it wasn't really fake. "Maybe because..." I paused for a moment, wondering whether or not I should tell him."Because I do know you, and I think I know her, and I can't deny that we look alike. But I've seen how you've manipulated people before and I'm not falling for it."

"You want proof?" Red's eyes sparkled mischievously and I could have sworn he was enjoying my reaction just a little. "I have something you've probably never seen before." He waited, building up the suspense until finally I couldn't take it anymore. I drew back my hand but just as I was about to bring it forward again...

"Alright, alright, don't smack!" he threw up his hands in a surrender position."Let's go ride a dragon!"

~€~

"Are you really sure you're in the condition to ride a dragon?" I asked skeptically.

"I have to confess, I was really anticipating more surprise on your part!" he joked, and I did my best to glare daggers at him under the circumstances, though I really didn't want him any more injured then he already was.

"C'mon," I said. "You should at least clean the wounds first. You look like you've lost a lot of blood."

"I'll be fine," he assured me insistently, but he was a character that I was coming to like, and I wouldn't hear of any 'dragon riding' until he was in better condition. Maybe I didn't trust Red anymore than I thought that that girl in my dream was my sister, since I'd just met him, but I knew that he was my only hope of finding her, and finding out the truth. That boy was growing on me.

Three hours and twenty five sponges of blood later, Red was looking like he was about to faint. His face was a pale, ghostly white, and his skin was freezing, covered in a thin layer of frost.

"What the hell!" I said finally, the quiet crackling sound becoming quite disturbing when I was trying to calm my stomach; healing was a sickening process, and I was seeing a lot of blood, and even sometimes the unmistakable shine of white against deep red - bone against blood. These cuts were deep. Deeper then I'd ever seen, and my mother was a healer.

"What?" he managed to croak out, opening his eyes a slit, and staring at me weakly.

"Well why, in Hades' name, do you have a second skin of ice?" I demanded, hands on my hips. "And also, where did you get the horrid gashes? They're almost too deep to recover from!" I told him, shuddering visibly. He shook his dark hair out of his face, freshly washed and cleaned of blood, and nodded reluctantly.

"I thought you'd want to know sometime or other,"he said with a frown. "I guess I was just putting it off. I don't really want to tell you."
This almost seemed like a moment where a girl gets her first kiss. I know, I know, fifteen and first kiss. but really, you think after I burn a building down anyone's gonna wanna kiss this freak? The room was quiet, there were no adults around, and never would be at my house, for I lived alone, a vow I took out of guilt for all of the innocent people that were now dead, and he was looking at me intensely with his big blue eyes. I leaned forwards, not noticing what I was doing until our faces were less than an inch apart. I pulled away, blushing to the roots of my hair. Why, in this dire situation, could I not think of anything else but the feeling of his lips on mine.

"No don't pull away," Red whispered weakly, his voice so quiet I could hardly hear that one small sentence. I looked at him questioningly and he answered obligingly: "I'm cold."

"You think I'm not?" I snorted with laughter. " I always get cold, for some odd reason."

"Well you were deliciously hot right then," he said, winking, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Fine." I crawled onto the narrow, uncomfortably hard table beside him, curling up and reluctantly letting myself enjoy this moment. I turned towards him expectantly. He sighed.

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you where I got these nasty... Cuts." We both laughed a little, needing a break from the tension. "Well," he said, finally rolling over, with much effort, to face me.
"You and your sister possess a very rare gift that few in the world have - you use the power of fire, and she the power of cold. " I gasped as he told me my power, wondering if he could possibly know what had happened that fateful night. As if reading my mind, he continued.
"I wasn't told the details, but the gift of fire is more rare than cold. I myself have cold, as does your sister. The two races have been at peace for centuries now, after the Great Battle. But you and your sister... Well, it's kinda hard to tell you this but... you're twins. And twin magic is often tied together. So, by some one-in-a-million chance, your power, fire, has been merged with your sister's, frost. Some of the citizens in both the Cold Kingdom and the Fire Kingdom are grumbling, actually, almost all of them are. And we just about never agree on anything. So I was sent by the King of Ice to find both you and your sister and... Bring you back to the palace to live your lives in harmony."
He said the last few words too quickly, so I was inclined to wonder. Doubt prickled in the back of my mind, but I pushed it away. I didn't want to ruin this.

"So. Go on,"I prodded, irritated that he had stopped.

"Well, your sister -"

"Would you stop calling her my damn sister?" I practically shouted."I don't believe that she is my sister, even if you tell me so!"

"Well she is your sister, so you'd better get used to it," he snapped. "But if it makes you feel any better, Quinne has amazing combat skills. She can wield a blade just as well as she can use her magic, and her magic is the strongest I have ever seen -" he said it with a hint of admiration in his voice, and I felt a pang of jealousy as I realized that I wanted Red for myself, not for this... this Quinne. I spat out her name in my mind like it was a bad after taste. I got the hint. She had wounded him, he liked her.

"Yeah?" I challenged. "Well has this Quinne ever burnt down a building with her emotions?" I thought maybe he'd get up, snap back a quick "don't say that about my girlfriend" quirk, and leave, slamming the damned door behind him.

But then suddenly he was pulling me to him, and I was crying into his chest. His smell wasn't distinctly manly, like my father's used to be. But it smelled almost like winter, if winter has a smell. He sat up on the table, pulling me with him, and we sat there for a moment before he turned to me, saw the tears on my face, and cupped my chin in his hands.

"The past is the past, Vivian," he told me. "there is nothing you can do." Then, in one fluid motion, he was leaning forwards, and I felt his lips brush mine. We stayed like that for a moment, his hands on my hair, faces pressed together, my tears fresh and warm on his fevered lips. But something just didn't feel right, so I was the first to break away.

"Are you feeling healed?" I asked, the corners of my mouth turning up a little at the corners.

"A little better," Red replied awkwardly, and together we stood, colour rushing back into his pale face as his feet made contact with the floor again.

"Ready for that dragon ride?" He quipped, and we made our way to the door, the thin crack of light expanding as I turned the handle. It was blinding for a second before my eyes adjusted to the light that was bouncing off of the glistening snow, and when the glare died down, an astonishing sight met my eyes.