Aetherian(Part 1): A War Begins

Oscar

"Got you again," bragged Yazmin, as she knocked Oscar into the snow with a blunt, light sparring sword. She was a southerner, like him, with short, brown hair, and bright, blue eyes, but she came from a village in the mountainous Craglands.

"You tricked me," Oscar complained, as Yazmin pulled him to his feet. "Actually, I've never been that good with a blade."

"Your feet should be further apart, and you should be lower to the ground," Yazmin instructed. Oscar stood in a stance, with his side facing Yazmin, his feet spread apart, and his sword in both of his hands, pointing to her.

"Like this?" asked Oscar.

"Yeah," said Yazmin. "You're a much bigger threat if you stand your ground." She suddenly lunged at him with a swing of her sparring blade. It was a quick strike, but Oscar managed to block Yazmin's attack for the first time with a swing of his own blade. Oscar began to take steps back as Yazmin's swings kept coming, blocking a few of them, but dodging most of them. Oscar understood what he had to do. He waited for one of Yazmin's swings to leave her vulnerable, but she attacked so quickly that he could barely keep up with her movements. After the next swing, she began to slow down, and Oscar made a lunge with his sparring sword. Yazmin grabbed his arm and threw him behind herself, then spun around and knocked him off his feet, with her sparring blade bouncing off his green Guardian recruit armor.

When Yazmin reached her hand down to help him up, he said: "I'll stay down here for a while." Yazmin chuckled at that as she sat down beside him, with her green armor crunching the snow. It was the first time Oscar had seen snow in his entire life, and he loved the feel of the cold touching the back of his head and wetting his hair. The Guardian outpost of Ice Spear was on the far northern coast of Aetherian, where the frozen northern ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. A thick layer of ice kept everyone from seeing what was beneath the surface of the water, but there were rumors of why no one dared risk their lives to break the ice. That wasn't why the Guardians built their ancient northern fortress there, though. There were dozens of small islands that dotted the ice hundreds of miles north of the continent. Oscar shuddered at what he'd heard about what inhabits those islands. Yetis, ice serpents dozens of meters long, frost wraiths that appear as spirits of the dead that have passed on those islands, some having fought and died in the Dragon War. Monsters weren't the only things that lived on the islands, though. Hundreds of tribes of northern islanders dominated the small spots of land, sometimes raiding villages and small towns. Not all of them had many survivors, but the ones that did reported terrible things that they see happening to their fellow villagers. Skirmishes between the Guardians of Ice Spear and the tribesmen of the northern islands were common, with most of the tribesmen being wiped out, and the rest imprisoned.

Suddenly, a gruff, raspy voice called out to them "Are we sleeping, now? It's only midday." Oscar and Yazmin both quickly stood up as Major Helder approached them. "How are you two adjusting to this?"

"It's a bit colder than I'm used to, Major," said Oscar.

"I bet," agreed Helder, then he looked to Yazmin and asked, "Did he tell you where he grew up?"

"Uh, the south?" tried Yazmin.

"Six other regions make up the south, girl," said the Major, and Yazmin rolled her eyes.

"The Sandlands, right?" Yazmin asked, to Oscar, and he nodded his head.

"I've never seen snow before," added Oscar.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Yazmin, looking out from the courtyards of Ice Spear, and out into the endless fields of snow. There was always snow in the Snowlands, but Oscar preferred it over the arid deserts of the far south.