Snow Dyed Red

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

“What’s wrong with you?” I nearly yell at Nicollo, only seconds away from slapping him and leaving a bright red hand print on his face. It’s after hours at the library and I doubt anyone would care.

“Nothing,” He says, with no other explanation.

I throw up my hands, “Nothing, we haven’t spoken in a week. What’s gotten into you? We’re friends aren’t we?” I step in front of him so that he has to look me strait in the eyes.

He raises his voice, “What’s wrong with you? You don’t seem bothered by the killing of your own kind. How can you continue life at such a time?” For the first time since I’ve met him he’s angry. To anyone who doesn’t know him he may seem calm, but beneath the surface he’s a burning flame.

“What can I do? I’m just a human.” I say as the one who has been defeated. “I don’t want to get killed.”

“Your weak,” he spits out at me.

“And what about you? What have you been doing this week that I haven’t,” I push him farther into the corner. “I don’t see you doing anything to stop this.” My heart beats faster and faster as a fire is lit under me as well. Does he think he can put all of the blame on me? I’m not the only one who can see the snow. He stays silent but doesn’t fail to glare at me. “Why do you care anyway? It doesn’t affect you or your people!”

He finally looks away. The stress of the last few days shows on his face. It hasn’t been easy for him either. “You’re wrong. I don’t know what is happening but the tree’s the flowers, the plants, they’re all dying, and I can’t do anything to stop it. It is hurting my people, more than you know it,” he sinks to the floor and rests his head between his knees. The sadness in his voice creates a heavy atmosphere that I couldn’t break if my life depended on it. “When’s the last time you’ve seen a Nymph here in school?” Nicollo asks me. I try to think back but I can’t remember.

“Not since I visited your class, but that was so long ago. What happened to them?” I sit on the ground next to him.

“They can’t come in. There sick, and dying, and I can’t do anything to help. The plants, Giselle, their life force is dying.”

Somehow this is bigger than the both of us, but were the ones that have to deal with it. I tap my hand against my leg. I’m not much of a problem solver, but I have to do something. What’s the one biggest question we have to answer before we move on? Who’s causing this? I know that much needs to be answered, but how do we answer that. Amelia doesn’t know.

Nicollo and I sit side by side in silence, trying to think up an answer, but neither of us can. Even though we haven’t talked, I know he’s trying at the same question I am. Were both coming up blank, at how to find these people and who they are. I’m just about to tell him that we should sleep on it when he says, “Processes of elimination.”

“I don’t understand,” I respond unclear of what he wants us to do. “Eliminate what?”

He stands up, his poster strait and his eyes clear. He grabs a book of the shelf and sits at one end of the table and I sit across from him. “We have to find out which race is doing this, then we have to narrow down our list,” he opens the large book to the first page.

This is ridiculous. There must be thousands of creatures there, maybe millions. Some of them don’t even exist any more they’re long dead. How are we supposed to find the ones were looking for?

Nicollo looks up at me, already half way through his page. I sigh and grab a book of my own, “I’ll start at the L’s.” I say and flip to the half way mark.

“La-bar-tu (Assyrian) - Disease demon

Labbu (Akkadian) - Sea snake

Lady midday (Slavic) - Sunstroke spirit

Ladon (Greek) - Dragon guarding the golden apples of the Hesperides

Laelaps (Greek) - Enchanted dog that always caught his prey

Laestrygonians (Greek) - Anthropophagic giants

Lakanica (Slavic) - Field spirit”

-Wikipedia

I don’t know what half of these things are, scratch that, I don’t know what any of these creatures are. How am I supposed to do this?

Think Giselle, they’re causing the winter. Now why would they want to do that? How are they connected to winter? It involves nature sure, but it has nothing to do with living creatures or things. It’s also entirely possible it could be a witch or any other magical being who happens to like the season.

I look back at the book and continue to drudge on. We sit there for hours. I manage to get through the letter L, but up next is M, the N and it just keeps on going. I have a piece of paper of to the side of potential candidates. The list isn’t long, but any race that has even the slightest possibility of being the culprit is on there, no matter how small the connection.

“I’m going to take a break,” I tell Nicollo. I get up to stretch my back and get a drink of water. It’s already dark out. I wonder if Amir is doing his job, and protecting Amelia. He seems to be doing it alright, but I haven’t seen either of them in a while. I hope he’s not hurting her. I haven’t known them for long, but they’re both my friends. I splash a bit of cold water in my face, and grab us both a coffee from the vending machine. I head back and hand one to Nicollo.

“Why don’t we go over the names we’ve collected?” I ask him desperate to for a change of pace. He agrees and we start to toss back and forth the different names we’ve found.

“What about a Tizheruk,” I say most definitely pronouncing the name wrong, “It’s a large snake found in cold areas. Its head is said to be over seven feet long.”

He turns that one down too, “The beasts like winter, but they have no means to cause it, and not skills with diplomacy to have others do it.” I sigh. I’m almost at the end of my list and not one of them is a possibility.

“What do you have then?”

“This is my last name before we have to go back to the books,” he grimaced. No need to wait. Just say it already. “Fey, the winter division to be more specific.”

“Is it the only viable answer right now?” I ask him and he nods yes. “Then let’s research deeper, but for tonight, I need rest.” I say and start to pack up my bag. I head to the front desk to check out the book, and take the last train home. I had better get to sleep quickly or tomorrow’s going to be hell. I’ve got another day of research ahead of me, and it won’t be easy.