Frosted Ranger: Time's Illusion

Chapter 5: Unexpected Meetings

Daximus storms into the war room with the two other leaders sitting down at the table already in a discussion.

The girl of reddish brown hair, an eye patch over her left eye and dark colored armor is known as Lara. The Strategist of the Frostguard and a worshipper of the Fire Titan, Corus.

Sitting beside her in chat is a dark skin male, almost no hair at all atop his head. Oddly colored armored and a worshipper of the Storm Titan, Cain. This is Marcon, the Negotiator of the Frostguard.

Lara and Marcon look up to Daximus storming into the room with his doubled sword gripped in both hands. His face furious about what just transpired moments ago.

"I defend this stronghold every day." Daximus takes his seat and laying the weapon against the table. Lara and Marcon give each other odd looks, but after years of serving together, they knew Daximus is about to blow any second.

"Yes, you do, Dax." Marcon leans back in his chair and raises his feet to the table to take in the venting at the best form of ease. Lara rolls her one visible eye at Marcon.

"Dirty up the table, i'll cut your feet off." Lara lowers her hand to the sword at her side. Marcon grins as he places his hand on the warhammer beside him. "You are the smart one. Want to try and take me again?" He asks with a cocky smile.

"Enough!" Daximus slams his fist into the table. Marcon and Lara turn their attention again to Daximus. "Melina Seipora is being targeted." He soothes his voice trying to be as calm as he can. Marcon takes his feet off the table and Lara raises her hands back onto the table.

"Targeted in this very stronghold. She fainted in front of me and Dr. Twigs says she's being cursed by someone or something here in the stronghold."

"What do we do about it?" Lara asks. "Interrogate all the guard members in a zone of truth spell? Detect curses on everything this stronghold carries over one girl?"

"The lady is right, Dax." The lady comment has Lara grinding her teeth together. "It would take too long. We have troops coming and going everyday. We have troops in Venamir and Xirilus still from Saren's failure."

"I defend the stronghold." Daximus grabs his double bladed sword. "I need to do more. I will not let my men and women die from outside forces. I won't let my soldiers die from cowards!"

"Dax! Calm down." Marcon stands up from his seat. "What do you want to do about it?"

Lara listens carefully to the discussion of Marcon and Daximus. During the time she had been planning her own investigation. "You men yell out your plans. I'll speak to Dr. Twigs."

Marcon and Daximus stop talking and watch as Lara leaves the war room. Marcon gives a concerned look to Daximus. He could feel how much Daximus is concerned about this.

"I'll wake up Dayton." Marcon leaves the war room and Daximus still gripping his weapon lifts and slams it into the stone ground a few times to let out his anger.

Hours later and miles away Melina catches herself falling asleep again with the snow falling around her in the dead of night.

She yawns and closes her eyes off the snowy path. She felt herself slipping from the horse and manages to save herself from passing out in the snow with her weapons and horse riding away from her.

"Should be... almost there.." she yawns again. The slow trot of the horse made the night feel longer than it really was. She kept replaying the last conversation with Dayton in her head over and over again and each time she got to the end, she didn't have an answer each time.

In the distance she catches the lights from the clan she has been traveling too. Clan Undreldin. A feeling of relief takes over her, then it quickly fades as an arrow lands in the snow just a few feet ahead of the horse.

Melina stops the horse and slowly climbs off. "I come peacefully.." Melina steps ahead of the horse with her hands up.

A red cloaked man in leather armor approaches Melina with a bow in hand and an arrow ready to fire. "Explain yourself, Frostguard. What brings you here?"

"I'm trying to reach The Bronze Fortress..." Melina yawns again. Her stomach begins to ache. She had been holding in her bladder all day, refusing to eat.

The man looks her over with confusion. "Traveling at this time? You look pale and tired. You need rest, but i'll have to search the horse first."

Melina gestures him to do so. "Whatever gets me to The Bronze Fortress."

The man starts to inspect the bags on the horse, the weapons. "I'm Kywin, by the way." He looks over to Melina whose face planted into the snow by the time he says his name.

"Umm. You are going to need a lot of help." Kywin lifts Melina up and places her on the horse. He grabs the reigns of the horse and pulls it into the clan.

Not looking much different from Rovmar, Kywin leads the horse to his personal house and carries Melina inside. Lays her on his bed and just looks at his situation. A passed out soldier in his bed and she doesn't appear to be taking care of herself. Pale skin shows sickness. Dried lips shows lack of hydration and the stomach growls show signs of hunger.

"I know." He says randomly. "No, the problem here is that she's not taking care of herself."

Kywin looks her over some more and her stomach growls to break his concentration. He begins pacing around the room and stops for a moment. "Where am I sleeping then?"

Without a second thought Kywin grabs some extra cloth from a crate and lays it out on the table by the fireplace. Lays a pillow down on one end, looks it over a moment. "Perfect."