The Legends of Dawn ~ Book 1. Chained Ice

Chapter 11

Zion's eyes shot opened. He lied on the ground, all around him was ice and snow. Trees are frozen solid in the distance, gray clouds filled the sky. Zion sighed, "It wasn't a dream...."

Zion got up, his heavy body sinking into the deep snow under him. Snow floated down at a heavy rate around him. Ice continued to grow slowly around him and in small patches on his body. He'd start walking, slow steps, just following the wind, the sun, and the stars. As he walked, countless days and nights past. After a while, he felt sleep wasn't needed. He just kept walking all as time passed. Zion stops occasionally to sit, he'd break the patches of ice off his skin every so often. He'd hold his hand out and try focusing all the ice to his hand. After countless tries, after months of practice, Zion was able to focus his ice to a certain spot in his body. The air around him would warm up, the ice stopped growing, the snow stopped falling. The only problem with it was that Zion had to constantly concentrate the ice to a part of his body. Most of the time it was focused into a patch on his chest.

More than forty years passed, Zion looked not a tad bit older. Keeping his powers from going out of control became overwhelming, he felt the need to backtrack to the village he abandoned. What seemed like 30 years passed by before he reached the village once again. The village, still in a thick layer of ice, with the added snow. Zion stood on a hill looking at the village from a distance. He'd just stare at his once lovely home for a while until a flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder rung out. Zion frowned.

"Strange....." He'd start walking down to the village. He'd stand in front of his old home. A den carved into a large rocky hill. Zion tried to move the door with no luck. The large stone door was frozen solid in a thick layer of ice. He'd stare at the door and think for a moment before raising a fist.

"Grrrrrah!" He yelled as he drove his fist into the frozen door. It shattered into shards of ice, and small stone fragments.  He'd stand in the doorway taking in the sight of his old home. He'd take a step in within seconds an unidentifiable creature lunged at him. The creature bit into Zion's stomach and latched on. The creature was large, dirty brown, hairy and had a long thick tail. It had a flat snout with large teeth. After a few seconds, a large portion of the beast's mouth froze instantly. Zion pulled the creature off and threw the creature. It flew across the room hitting the rock hard wall creating a large dent. The creature slumped into a lifeless heap on the floor.

"I thought all living things froze over?  Some creatures must have been immune.....or avoided it somehow." Zion pondered. "Since that's a maune beast, it must be magical creatures that survive over regular creatures."

".....So I'm not the only thing alive then, that's a relief....i guess." After standing there around gathering this new found information a flash of multiple lightning strikes went off. A symphony of thunder followed after.

Zion walked over to the cave entrance. "What the hell is going on out there?"

Another large lightning strike flashed, and a loud bang followed almost immediately after. Zion saw where it was coming from, the old battlefield, where the meteor struck.

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Zion made his way to the field quickly, passing an old temple halfway frozen in frost. He'd continued at a faster pace until a large rock was in the distance. The lightning had long stop after a final two strikes that seemed to fade into the distance. He walked until he reached the hunk of rock. The color was that of a dark bluish iron. Zion touched the rock, a flash of memories went by, he'd close his eyes and remembered the meteor crashing into him and his brothers. He'd remember waking up next to the rock with minor scrapes, the despair that fell upon him realizing how his brothers must be dead. Zion opened his eyes to realize another strange feeling. He'd realized the concentrated ice on his back disappeared. Zion smiled slightly.