Frozen Flame

Chapter 67: The Short, The Long and The Painful

Surface

"We're back!"

Still bent over Geoira with his sleeping comrade beside him, Lucas looked up. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

Jared smiled, holding up a small open box wherein laid a folded sheet of browned paper. He placed the lid back on, sealing the paper inside once more. "Yep."

Beside him, Ceecee halted mid step, staring at Lucas with wide eyes and furrowed brows. "You cut your hair." Not a question, a statement. A fact.

Lucas froze, bracing himself for the full force of her rage. How dare had he gone against orders – how dare he ignore her will, how dare he move out of line, decide something like this on his own without at least telling her first. Now he would be different to Benjamin, now he wouldn't look the way she had specifically wanted when hiring them on, now they no longer looked like a duo but two separate entities with no relation to each other. Almost. He cocked his head, pursing his lips. "Now that you're here, I'm going down to the stream Larcens found before to try and wash some of this blue out of my hair."

She raised a brow. "It's permanent, you'll have a hard time."

He sighed. "I'll try. It's making me stand out a bit much, don't you think?"

She shrugged. "Sure, go ahead."

"You're not going to tell me I shouldn't?" He stood.

A smile sat on her lips. "I don't think you would listen to me if I told you otherwise..." her head tilted as she glanced at Benjamin. "That said, I don't want Benjamin cutting his hair... I made a promise to someone in the Criminal Corps that I would return him to them unmarried and, well, in their culture, cutting a boy's hair is a sign of marriage... I wouldn't want to send the wrong idea."

Lucas frowned. "But Benjamin's cut his hair before..."

She strode over to him, sitting down. "But they don't know that."

He nodded, turning towards the trees as he jogged off. "Understandable."

Ceecee turned her attention back to Benjamin, pressing a hand against his forehead. "He hasn't been out this long in a while... He must have needed the sleep." She looked up at Jared. "When should we head off?"

Shrugging, he indicated behind him. "As soon as possible would be best."

She smiled. "Great! Let's leave right now then!"

"Right now?" He frowned, swallowing. "Isn't it a bit... you know... too soon? We don't even know where we're going to meet up."

Her brows raised and she reached into her pocket, pulling out a small device with ice creeping out through tiny cracks, emanating from the centre where lay a red button. "I have a tracker on Benjamin. He always used to run off, so I just placed one on him a while back. No issue." Placing the device back in her pocket, she indicated towards Larcens. "We know we're meeting above Desolator's Kingdom and from what Larcens told me, he can track people's location with his ability."

Frowning, Jared turned his body slightly, closing Larcens off from their conversation. "He can only smell the path people have been and follow that, not tell people's location from a while away. He's of no use."

Tapping him on the shoulder, Larcens turned Jared slightly, including himself into the conversation. "Actually, I've been working on improving my ability a little bit more and now I can track people from about a kilometre away by freezing the air and studying the even fainter colours – because air is actually affected by all its surroundings, not just the direct ones. I will admit, it has been difficult without my teacher or any other around, but I've been able to develop my judging of ice a little bit more." He paused. "Also, I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I'm not a dog, Jared, I don't track people by smell."