Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.28 -The Second War

~Iara

Iceclaw looked very nice in my opinion. If only we could give him fire without melting him, now that would be cool. Dru came over and made a small snowball, then sent it randomly sailing behind him toward the camp. I heard a small yell, then Luke stood up, his head covered in snow. He made one then threw it back at Dru. Well, Dru ducked and it hit me instead!

"Luke!"

"Oh, sorry!"

"Sorry?! I have snow running down my shirt!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" He sounded so sarcastic..

"Alice make Luke do something!" I shrieked. Her head popped up.

"Why? Luke what did you do?"

"I didn't do crap! It's Dru's fault!" he yelled, pointing toward Dru. He held up his hands and feigned a surprised look on his face.

"What happened?" She asked while walking over here.

Iara, it's just snow. Grimm said. He sounded fairly annoyed. As if I was embarrassing him by complaining. Ha!

So?

Then why are you...oh.

She will never see it coming! I had a fairly large snowball hidden in my palm. Marumen could see it and he was biting his fist trying not to laugh, which would give it away. She had her arms crossed over her chest.

I drew my arm up and then launched it at her. It hit her square in the face, and slid down before landing with a plop on the ground. I giggled a bit, and that was all it took to send Marumen into an explosion of laughter. Alice blinked a couple times, before smiling and making a snowball of her own.

"Dru run!!" I shrieked. He clambered to his feet and took off in the direction of the dragons. I was hot on his heels. Marumen was behind me, and I could hear the smacking sounds as he was pelted by snowballs. The dragons snorted and got to their feet as we ran through them. Into a trap! Luna and Mikael had a huge mound of snowballs. I shrieked as we were pelted.

They just laughed. But where was Luke? I ran through the camp, looking. Luke was either on our side or theirs. I saw Eragon quietly talking with Arya and Murtagh, and he smiled as he saw what everyone was doing. I skipped up to them, bouncing when I was standing still.

"Do you know where Luke is?"

"He was with Verdana and Lothlorien last time I saw him."

"Okay thank you!" Then I ran back towards the camp, nearly screaming as someone pulled me down. It was Luke. He was hiding under Verdana and Loth.

"Shh! You can see everything from here!"

"We need to go help Dru and Marumen!"

"No we don't, we can just stay here where we wont get demolished by endless snowballs. I have this little wall going, we can build a whole fortress!"

"I'll build another wall, you finish this one!"

"Okay." he said. He began this huge mound of snow, making a wall and starting another that eventually joined up with the one that I had. we had a small caste, sort of, four walls and a mound of snowballs. Verdana snorted and moved away, exposing us. Loth just blinked a few times, some of the snow from our fort was blowing off in the breeze and into his eyes.

I heard a smack as a snowball thudded into Luke. At least he had a coat on, the snow didn't make him all wet. He slowly turned his head around, very suspenseful like, and then into the eyes of Mikael, who had another snowball. He was grinning and preparing to throw the other one.

"Take cover!" He dove down behind the wall, and the projectile floated over harmlessly. I heard the swish of a giant flurry of snow, and then a swirl of tiny flakes appeared in the air. A long black nose poked over the wall.

Grimm!

What?

You're scratching the top of the battlements!

Oh. My bad. Dru and Marumen are pinned in the trees by Alice and Luna. Marumen says hi.

Okay.

I bent back down and told Luke the news.

"Argh, we have to go rescue them now, dont we?"

"Of course we do!"

"Then at least grab enough ammo to keep us ready in case we're under fire again."

"You can throw, i'm bad at aiming."

"Alright. Lets go!" We paused for a moment, then Luke jumped over the wall and made a run for it.

"You'll never get away!" Mikael yelled as he fired at Luke. Once it seemed clear, I followed as fast as I could. Luke was waving me on, I also saw Marumen's head pop up. His mouth widened, and he pointed behind me. I felt a splat as a snowball hit my back. The breath whooshed out of me, and when I refilled my lungs it was in an effort to laugh.

I dove behind the barrier, and saw as several more snowballs sailed overhead. Marumen had his head down, while Luke and Dru were talking in the corner. I looked up myself, and saw that Alice, Luna and Mikael had taken all of the snowballs me and Luke left behind. Oh no, now they had an advantage!

"What are we going to do know?" Marumen said. Luna was bouncing a snowball in the air, debating whether to aim at him or Dru.

"Well DUH we have to retaliate! Now hand me a snowball!" Dru said. I gave him a fairly large one, and he slightly peeked over the wall. As he stood on his knees to throw it, a snowball came flying through the air and smacked him flat in the face. He fell down, on his back, looking quite stunned.

I looked at him....the way he was laying, with his limbs splayed out....like.....mom....I began to breathe harder, barely being able to breathe. Another flashback. I was barely aware of the fact that I had started screaming for mom to get up, for someone to help her. Dru had gotten up and embraced me in a warm hug, trying to calm me, but the process was too far along.

The sand again, the sands of the Hadarac desert. The clank of the chains around my ankles, and that of my siblings and mother. She seemed so....alive, memory didnt do her any justice. Her hair was to her top rib, light brown and wavy, like Alice's. Her eyes were blue like the sky, and she had a smile that could warm any heart. Her skin was a darker brown, because mom always spent time in the sun.

But slavers were the only ones without hearts. I dont know what they were even doing so far north....but they found us, and they had us. Mom had protested, gave us all of the food and water she was given. She was strong in her weakest moment. It began in an arguement, she pleaded with them to stop for a small rest because....Luke's feet had started bleeding.

The slavers said no. It escalated. Eventually, he unchained her. Dragged her off to the side. And slit her throat where all of us could see it. Dru had bent down and tried to hide me and Marumen inside of his chest. Marumen had been staring at a small butterfly. But I had seen.

I woke up, only briefly. I was tucked into some blankets by the fire, and I could see the not-shadow-black of Grimm's scaly head looming overtop of me. It wasnt real. I was safe. Safe and sound.