Winter's Warrior

Chapter One

My breath came out in puffs of fog in the cool air as I stared out down the shaft of the arrow, silent and still. Slowly, I drew the arrow back, the buck's dark eyes seemingly meeting my own as he picked his head up from grazing, snow decorating his snout. Icicles hung from the trees, glittering in the early morning sun. The sun barely peeked above the snow-capped mountains, catching the snow and ice and making them sparkle. I could smell the crispness of the ice and pine trees with each breath.

I inhaled, drew the bow back and calculated the wind's effects into my aim, and then exhaled. I let loose the arrow, the string slamming into my leather arm guard, but the arrow never hit the deer. Instead, a shouting erupted from somewhere nearby, startling the creature and alerting it to danger right as I let go. It ran and my arrow was lost. The deer, however, was not.

I cursed, channeling the cold around me, gathering it up in my fist, drawing it in, and flinging my hand forward, releasing a sharp blast of icy power at the startled creature, freezing it to death it instantly. It collapsed mid-run, a large, heavy creature, and I briefly thought of how annoying it would be to heft the buck onto the sled that I pulled for this exact purpose. That could wait, however. Whoever almost just cost me my kill was next to die.

My grip was tight around my bow, knuckles turning white as I spun in a full circle, surveying the area for any movement and listening for more voices, any movement, really.

"Luke!" a deep, masculine voice with an edge to it cried from behind me. My blood froze and I stopped in my tracks at the undiluted fear in his voice. Had someone wandered off from the village and ran into trouble?

I whirled around, quickly and quietly maneuvering through some thicker underbrush, staying hidden within the trees as I surveyed the situation.

Several men stood in the snow, bundled up in furs, their stances set for battle. One was being held up by another, looking as if he was injured. Over them loomed a familiar beast, it's bear-like body covered in white, silver-tipped fur, it's long tail lashing as it lunged forward with surprising speed.

My powers surged, and I jumped to life without thought, shooting ice at the creature's maw. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of movement- heads turning. "Hey!" I shouted at the beast, trying to pull its attention to me as I dropped my bow, not even caring if the beautiful longbow and arrows got ruined by being tossed into the snow.

The beast's head turned, and all I could see was a flash of blue eyes before I was attacking, hurling blast after blast of ice.

It didn't take much. One good blast of pure ice to the heart and the large beast fell to the ground, frozen to death. I was too used to these creatures to be too fazed. What I didn't understand was why these men didn't merely avoid the nuisance.

Chest heaving from the use of the ice powers, I turned to the men that I had just saved, angry at their incompetence. My anger quickly ebbed, however, when I saw that one of them, the blond, lanky one, was injured. I rushed over to him and asked, "What happened?"

Looking closer at the group of men, I realized I didn't recognize any of them. They couldn't have been from the village. "Where are you headed?" I asked sharply. Now was not the time for formalities and pleasantries. If this man was to survive, then I needed to get him to the infirmary as soon as possible.

Their stunned expressions turned serious and they looked at each other, seemingly having a conversation with their eyes before the steel-eyed man answered finally, "We are on our way to the royal castle of Glacialis Regnum."

I nodded, a little surprised and caught off guard that they were heading there as well.

"I am on my way there too. I have a sled we can use to carry the injured one," I suggested, a little forlorn at the loss of my buck. However, this man's life was more important than meat.