Discord Isles: Black Ice Island

Ch 2. Underestimated

Oliver fell to the ground with a 'whumf', the thick, fluffy snow crunching beneath his weight.

"Sorry Olli!" Taube laughed, his pink and black striped scarf fluttering in the wind as he did a few loops. His freshly healed wings glistened, glimmering in the refreshing whiteness of the cold snow.

"No you aren't!" Oliver exclaimed, sitting up.

"You're right! I'm not!" The fairy laughed and flew into the air.

Maya helped Oliver up then balled a snowball up in her hands with fingerless gloves. The snowball illuminated red and gently hovered over to him and rested in his hands. Maya tilted her head towards Taube, urging Oliver to throw it. The bug elemental nodded with a look of determination then ran after the fairy.

"See Max? It's perfectly fine." Maya spun around, crossing her arms with a smirk. Black fluffy earmuffs held her snow white hair out of her face.

Max was huddled underneath the vine-draped patio cover, wrapped up in a yellow scarf. She shook her head stubbornly.

"No! It's scary!" She said. She spoke to Maya but her eyes were glued behind the Psychic. Oliver was laughing hysterically, clutching his sides. Taube was flying as fast as his wings could carry him, the snowball with the vibrant red aura was hot on his tail; the two left a trail of pink sparkles combined with crisp snowflakes and an alluring red dust.

Max hadn't noticed that Maya had grabbed her hand and was slowly leading her out into the snow.

Then she felt something soft and cold touch her nose. She gently lifted her eyepatch. Max went crosseyed, eyes glowing at the wonder of the fluffy snow on her nose. Then she looked up at Maya, before flipping her white eyepatch back down.

"So..? What do you think?" The Psychic asked with a grin.

Max was smirking now.

"Uh...Wh-?!" Maya was cut off with a sharp sensation on the back of her head. Then she was face-down in snow. When she sat up, Max was grinning wildly, snowballs with a golden aura surrounding her.

"Why you little-!" Maya was laughing as she created a red shield to block Max's snowball attacks. Then Max ran towards Taube, who threw her up in the air so she could shoot an asteroid belt of snowballs at Oliver and Maya.

"Of course they're teaming up!" Oliver shouted over the hail of snowballs.

Maya locked eyes with Oliver, and after a moment, nodded. The bug elemental smiled and lifted his hand, vines shot out of the ground and towards Taube.

The Psychic jumped onto the sturdy vines and ran towards the fairy, lifting her arm, crimson snowballs forming in every direction. She brought her arm down and snowballs flew towards the fairy and wind elemental. The ground shook. Maya's eyes went wide as her foot slipped out from beneath her and she went toppling towards the ground, along with her hail of snowballs shattering in the snow.

In a flash of pink, she was on the ground safely with Taube by her side. "You good?" Taube laughed. Maya looked at him for a moment, before shoving snow in his face. The fairy stumbled backwards, screeching.

"You got it up my nose, Maya! Ow!!"

Maya chuckled. "Sorry! Sorry! You deserved-"

The ground shook again.

Those who were standing there fell until everyone was on their knees in the snow.

"What was that?" Max asked, looking around.

The earth grew calm for a moment. The snow fell through the crisp air, breaths came out in a warm steam against the stillness.

"That- That just must've been my vines under the soil. Sorry!" Oliver said sheepishly, standing up.

Then it happened again, accompanied by a loud 'boom!'

Oliver stumbled over the fairy and they both collapsed in the snow once more.

A wave of heat hit the group and they all let out an array of shouts, shielding their eyes as a bright light overtook the island.

"Look!" Maya exclaimed, pointing to the sky. "Pure Towers is under attack!"

"Pure Towers?" Max echoed, eyes widening for a moment as a memory suddenly flooded into her head. '"Maximilian Ascil, wake up." Golden eyes. "There's a fairy outside." "What do they demand?" "You."'

Another loud boom, and the towers were crumbling down. The group seemed to be frozen, on their knees in the snow, staring up at the tower's collapsing before them.

The back door opened and Lily appeared on the porch. "Everyone get inside!" She shouted.

The group scrambled to the back door where Lily slid it shut and locked it.

"What's going on?!" Taube asked.

"Why is pure towers under attack?!" Maya exclaimed.

"What if we're next?!" Oliver cried out.

"Everybody shut up!" Lily hissed, "Why are you asking me these questions? You think I have some secret intel or something? I don't know why the towers are being attacked!" She stopped for a moment, sighing.

"All I know is that it's safer to stay inside. I made dinner. Eat your food before it gets cold, I'm gonna go to my superior to see if he has any news of the attacks."

Lily swung a coat around her arms then opened the door, a burst of cold air whipped through the room before she closed it again, leaving the group in stunned silence.

The group stood. The smell of mouthwatering herbs and smoke cut a homely feel through the anxious air. Everyone's hearts were pounding.

They were a wanted group of criminals who had toppled the society that was Pure Towers. They had been kidnapped, tortured, became murderers and lost memories to get where they were. Pure Towers seemed to be a resemblance of the entire experience they'd been through together, and hearing the sound of it collapsing was anxiety inducing to say the least.

The fire crackled and that was the only noise in the house.

Then Maya spoke.

"I'm sure it'll be ok. It's probably just another brawl between the wind elementals and water elementals. It'll be over in no time."

The ground shook again, accompanied by another 'boom!'

"Maya, I-I don't think so." Oliver said. Everyone turned to look at him. "The water elementals don't use explosives....th-the only elementals that do are-"

"Time Elementals!" Taube exclaimed.

"What? How did y-you know that?" Oliver tilted his head.

Taube gazed at Oliver through slanted eyes. "What? Did you think I wasn't smart enough to do some research of my own?" His lisp thickened as he crossed his arms, "After our adventure I thought I'd be smarter and keep a better eye out for myself by learning about my enemies!"

Everyone gazed at the fairy with visible skepticism.

"...also those Time guards tried to blow me up when we went to get Max out of the asylum..."

Everyone nodded in understanding.

"Ok? But why are they attacking Pure Towers? The Wind elementals outnumber the time elementals ten to one!" Maya exclaimed.

"Yeah that's dumb." Max said, "The time elementals are gonna get themselves killed! They should only attack if they know they can win, right?"

"Th-they should only attack if they know they can win. S-s-so...what if they are? What if the time elementals a-are being underestimated by us?

"I don't know what that word means."

"What if the time elementals are more powerful than everyone thinks?" Taube said, then fluttered to the glass door, gazing up at the crumbling towers through the vines on the overhang.

"I think they are."