Elements

Chapter 16

Utter silence. No sounds. Ira had just heard her parents rushing around the kitchen...doing the dishes, cleaning up, normal parent stuff. Ira slowly started towards the kitchen, her feet making no sound. For the first time, she felt cold. Not necessarily on the outside...it was as if something was clawing at her heart. Dread.

When she got to the kitchen, everything seemed normal. The kitchen looked cleaner than before, actually. The counters were shiny and clean, and the floor had been mopped. The only things missing were...her parents. Ira walked over to the living room.

Suddenly, Ira screamed. In the corner of the room, Ira's parents were frozen. They were stuck to the wall, frozen in motion. Their eyes were wide and frosted over, looking glassy.

"They can't see or hear you." Someone whispered.

Ira turned around and gasped. She was staring eye to eye with a scrawny fairy. Fredrick.

"I would just take you to the Destroyer myself." He smirked. "But no. He has different orders."

Ira started to back up, and her hands started to tingle.

"You see, Ira Thomson." Fredrick crooned, inching closer to Ira. "Your powers can be of great use. However, they can also be used for evil." He motioned towards Ira's parents. "Your family, for the past years, never seriously took your disappearance. And now, they expect you to help them defend the kingdom? The kingdom you never grew up in? The people you know nothing about?"

"Join us, and we'll reward you. You don't have to do the bidding of your so-called Mother Nature. She is only using you to defend her kingdom."

"No..." Ira's blood boiled, and she stepped a bit closer to Fredrick. This took Fredrick by surprise, and he stepped back. "I will never join forces. You took away the life of Willow, the brother of Greta, the coach that my siblings had loved. You weakened the Enchantress, just for your own good. I know better than to join you. I'm not a foolish child."

"Very well." Fredrick grinned wickedly. "Then I must kill you."

He pulled out a sword from behind his back, and before Ira knew what was happening, he stabbed her in the knee.

A sharp pain pierced through Ira, and her blood became ice cold. She collapsed on the ground, clutching her knee. She blinked back her tears and tried to get up.

"You think you can stop Mother," Ira groaned. "By killing me?"

Fredrick's eyes widened as Ira got to her feet. Her pupils held the same snowflakes, and she started to rise into the air.

"No..." He backed up, looking for something he could protect himself with.

"I am the goddess of snow and ice," Ira chanted, engulfing herself with snowflakes. They swirled around her, and when they disparted, she was wearing the most beautiful dress. It was dappled with snowflakes and blue, an ombre of white, blue, gray. "Descendant of Mother Nature, the second Khione. The descendant of Boreas. And today shall be your doom."

A ribbon of ice shot toward Fredrick, but he deflected it with his sword. He snickered, "Ice? Really? How lovely. We share the same powers."

He shot a ribbon of ice at Ira, but she dodged it and dived. She grabbed Fredrick and lifted him off the ground. He yelped and tried to kick himself free, but it was no use. Ira grabed the handle of the fridge, pulls it open, and stuffed Fredrick inside. She blasts a wall of ice, and just like that, Fredrick is the ugliest ice sculpture ever.

Ira slammed the door shut and dropped to the ground. The snowflakes left her eyes, and she gulps for air. She looked down at her dress, as white and pure as snow, sparkling with magic. Snowflake designs were falling on it, drifting to the bottom of her dress and swishing around, forming a pile. Her knee wound had disappeared...no blood, no pain. Just the silence that made her realize what she had done.

I just froze one of our enemies. Ira thought.

She noticed a pocket near the end of her dress and reaches inside. She pulls out the stone, etched with the frozen tree.

She pressed it, and she was gone.

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"You what?" Nick whispers.

"I froze one of our enemies, for the last time!" Ira says. "He could be useful! We could interrogate him for answers."

Mother Nature was sitting on her throne, her eyes flashing with rage.

"Foolish child." Mother Nature echoes. "You do understand, as this "servant" of the Destroyer also has ice powers, therefore knows how to defrost himself!?"

Ira gulped and replied, "I didn't-"

Mother Nature silenced her and got up. Her long green dress flowed behind her as she descended the stairs. Her eyes flashed with a memory.

"I had a secretary once," She began. "Had ice powers too. I had no idea I would eventually give birth to an ice goddess of my own."

"What was his name?" Ira asks.

Mother Nature sighs, "Fredrick. Fredrick Dankworth."

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"He's not back yet?" The Destroyer whispers darkly. The fairy shook his head.

The Destroyer's hand gingerly touched his scepter. "I knew he was too weak for the job. But he's loyal. He'll come back. Fredrick Dankworth has never failed me."