The Midnight Flare

Nytmerius

There were many ways to describe the little sled ride on a sled made of ice. But I'll make this short and simple. Trees.

After sledding down the mountain and stopping, I spit out the mouth full of pine needles. I look back at Demi and Blake. Blake's arm is still bleeding, but not as heavily as it was before. Demi has a couple small burns on her arms, but nothing serious. I turn back around to the village we're in.

It's a fairly large village. All the houses look mostly the same. Same size, same brick walls, same snow-topped roofs. The one thing that distinguished them all was the colors. Most were icy blue, but the rest were a variety of colors. Houses ranged from fiery orange to midnight blue to blood red to colors like lime green. It was beautiful compared to the bland, colorless buildings in Silmthyr.

"Ok, first thing's first: we need someone who can patch up that arm," I say as I look around at the many buildings. As soon as I say something, I see many doors open. They're all from icy blue houses. All except one. People start to peek their heads out, some children, some elderly, though most are all adults. There are only two who appear to be my age.

One of them steps forward and looks directly at me. She has fair, pale skin. She appears as if running is her best quality. Her hair is straight, a deep shade of green, and long enough to reach the middle of her back. Her eyes are chocolate brown.

"So, what brings you out of that hell?" She says as she points to the prison behind us. Her voice is serious, as if she's prepared for a fight.

"Well, people hate me and the guy who's bleeding out. We can do, um, things?" I say with a smirk. She raises an eyebrow at me.

"Ok. We'll get you a healer on one condition: you knock both of us down," She says, drawing a katana from its sheath at her side.

"Who's 'we'?" Blake asks. The other person the girl was with steps forward.

His skin is only a little darker than hers. He looks to be very agile, yet semi-muscular. His hair is bright red and shoots in many directions, though most of it points upward. His eyes are the same color as the girl's.

"Let me guess: siblings?" I say with an eye roll. "Please, just tell me the rules of this fight already."

The guy pulls out his own katana. "Only one rule kid: don't hold back," The guy says as they both ready.

I start to laugh maniacally. When I stop, I wipe the tears from my eyes. "Well, I have a rule for ya," I say as I make two swords of ice in my hands. "Don't call me kid."

I leap forward and dive down, feet first. The guy, surprised by my sudden movements, tries to jump back. I raise my legs and bounce off his chest, doing a backflip and landing on my feet. The guy lands on his back and bounces once. A groan escapes his throat as he drops his sword and sits up.

The girl starts to dash towards me, letting out a cry of anger. I quickly put up a wall of flame and start dashing to the side. She doesn't notice me until she looks behind her. I quickly extinguish the flames and swipe my leg at her ankles. She falls on her back.

"Heh," She starts. "Finally, someone who knows what they're doing. Haven't seen one of those in awhile." I hold out my hand to help her up. She takes it and I pull her up. "And one with manners apparently."

"So, where's that healer? I kinda just met this guy a couple days ago, and he's pretty cool, so I don't want him to bleed out. Please?" I say, putting on a smile.

"Oh, right," She turns back to one of the icy blue houses. "Hey! Someone get me Cecilia! We got injured!" She turns back to me and smiles. "Cecilia will heal him. You can leave him here. I'll take you two to the King and Queen. They should be pleased to see we have someone who can wield fire and ice. C'mon, I'll make sure to tell Cecilia to take your friend straight to the castle as soon as he's patched up." She motions for us to follow her. I turn around to see that Blake is already being rushed away by a blur. Demi looks at me with confusion. I just shrug and turn back.

"Lead the way."