To Disturb the Harmony~Chapter 14

“I’m pretty sure ice isn’t one of the four Elementals,” I said as I turned to Aisling. The wind seemed to pick up after my comment and I held my arms as I slowly froze to death.

“Please don’t upset the large ice monster!” Aisling yelled over the wind as she held onto her hat that almost blew off her head.

“It isn’t one of the four, it is a lesser being made up of wind and water,” Kimi said as her coat flapped in the wind. “The Elementals sometimes clash with each other over territory, but this can cause lesser beings to form as a result. They normally stay quiet and sleep out of fear of the major four.”

“You dare call me a lesser being?” the ice giant asked in an angry tone. “I fear nothing. With Fire gone and the other elements fighting amongst themselves, I shall rise and take power!”

“Didn’t I just say not to upset the giant ice monster?!” Aisling repeated. She managed however to pull out her ax and held it in front of her. I managed to do the same with my sword, pulling the knife from my pocket and flicking it, causing the blade to grow to its’ full length.

“You believe you can fight me?” the ice giant said as he raised one of his eyebrows. Icicles fell from his cold brow and stuck into the frozen ground when they landed. The elemental must have been at least twenty feet tall with a body that looked to be made completely of ice. The edges were jagged with small spikes sticking out where his joints bent, like around the knees and elbows. His hands were also covered had long fingers that ended in sharp points. His face also looked nothing like a human face. His mouth looked more like a frozen muzzle, like a dog or a wolf and spikes grew from his head like hair.

“Not only will we fight you, we’ll kick your butt!” Aisling boasted as she waved her ax in his general direction and gave him an overconfident grin.

“I doubt you would even be able to fend off my warriors,” he howled as the wind blew around us. He extended his icy hand in front of him and the snow and ice seemed to mold to his hand. Five figures started to take shape as the snow seemed to fall away. The ice warriors stood at about seven feet tall, each carrying a type of weapon made from ice. “Go, kill them while I spread my influence.”

Just like that, the giant ice creature broke apart into individual flakes of snow and flew into the winds. The other ice beings glared at us and stared us down, raising their weapons at us. While Aisling and I also raised our weapons to defend ourselves, I noticed Kimi backing up and for the first time in awhile I remembered that she didn’t actually have anything that I knew about.

“Kimi, do you have anything to attack with?” I asked her.

“No, I don’t have any weapons,” she responded, taking another step back as the frost monsters moved forward another step. I tried to think of something she could use, but it wasn’t like I had an extra sword hidden away in my pocket or anything. It was then that I looked back at Kimi and got an idea.

“Kimi, check around in your pockets for something. That spirit managed to hold us off pretty well so see if you can find something that could help,” I told her and she started looking in her pockets. I thought I saw her whole arm enter a pocket as if she was reaching in a deep hole, but my focus was brought forward as one of the monsters charged me. I knocked his battle ax away with my sword and stabbed him in the chest. He backed away, taking a few steps backwards as he held his hand over the spot I had stabbed him. He took it away from the spot a few seconds later, revealing that the injury had healed, freezing back together as if drawing ice from the ground to fill in the gap my sword had caused.

“That could be a problem,” I said out load as the wound completely healed. I backed up as the monster camp at me ready to fight again. Two more advanced on Aisling as she went at them with quick deliberate strikes. I saw her dodge a strike from a large battle ax by shifting under the monsters are, then tripping him by looping her ax head around his ankle and pulling, a move I had seen her use against the trickster on the train. She then rolled onto her feet and slammed her ax right in-between the eyes of the second monster. However, when she pulled the ax from his head, it seemed to heal back up in almost no time at all. “We have to find a way to keep them from reforming.”

“I know, but it isn’t like I carry a snow blower around in my spare time,” Aisling protested as she jumped back from an incoming ice ball launched by one of the ice creatures that was hanging back, obviously a long range specialist as he had what looked like a large paint ball gun, only it shot ice balls. It was then that I noticed that one was missing, as I had been too distracted fighting off my own ice creature sword to sword. I quickly looked around and saw the last one chasing Kimi, who was currently pulling everything from her pockets she could get. Mouse traps fell to the ground, as well as rubber chickens, a full sized Nerf bat, and some kind of weird Hawaiian tiki doll, which I didn’t want to know what it was for. The ice creature just brushed off the endless supply of annoyances and advanced forward, raising his mace above his head.

“None of this stuff is helping at all!” Kimi yelled in frustration as she rolled out of the way of the mace strike into a nearby snow bank. “All I’m getting are these dumb prank toys.”

“Try to think of something useful!” I yelled back to her as I deflected anther sword strike. Kimi got up off the ground and started reaching deep into her pockets. Her eyes got wide as she seemed to have grabbed something that got stuck as she pulled at it. The ice monster advanced on her, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention as she pulled harder at her pocket.

“Kimi, look out!” Aisling yelled as the monster went in for a strike. Then, as if the jacket decided to release its’ grip on whatever it was holding, a long red object flew from the pocket and hit the ice creature right in the face. It fell back in pain as a large gash had appeared over his right eye, leaving a type of scar. The interesting thing however was that it didn’t look like it was healing, as water seemed to run from the crack.

“What is this?” Kimi said as she looked at some kind of long red bow. It didn’t appear to have a string on it, but that didn’t matter as it didn’t look like Kimi had any arrows. The Kimi’s eyes seemed to glaze over for just a second. She lifted the bow up into position and grabbed at an invisible string, as if just going through the motions of notching a bow. However, the bow seemed to come alive in her hands and a faint light began to glow in the shape of an arrow. She released the faint light and it flew two feet into the giant’s chest. He looked at it for a second before bursting into flames. He tried to roll around in the snow to put himself out, but before long he melted into a puddle.

“Fire kills them,” Aisling yelled as she too had witnessed the flaming snowman. The other ice monsters seemed to be backing away from Kimi now, as she pulled back on the invisible string and got ready to let loose another arrow. I thought about the idea of a flaming weapon, as Kimi’s was the only one that we had. Aisling ducked out of the way of another strike and hit one of them in the shoulder, causing his arm to fall to the ground, but a new one started forming in its’ place. Aisling looked over at me, but then a look of confusion spread on her face. “Ash, what’s up with your sword?”

I didn’t know what she was talking about until I raised my sword to block another strike. My sword was radiating blue fire that matched my own ability. The sword seemed to be reacting to my powers as I fought, so I thought of nothing but fire. My sword went from the familiar light blue flame to a dark reddish orange color. The enemy’s sword started to melt away before cracking in two and I used the opportunity to slash the ice warrior right down the middle.

“Good job, only three left,” Aisling said as she defended herself from another strike. Meanwhile I was trying to avoid the guy with the snowball gun trying to shoot us from a distance. Kimi let loose another arrow and hit one of the ice monsters attacking Aisling right in the back, causing him to burst into flames and melt. By now, the last two were starting to show signs of fear. The one monster with the ax tried to at least take down Aisling, whose own ax was much smaller in comparison. When they locked together, he let out a cold howl that knocked her hat off. “Hey, that hat is brand new and a gift from my mom!”

Aisling moved back quickly, causing the giant to fall forward slightly, not ready for the sudden lack of force against his weapon. Then in an instant, there was a flash of yellow light and the ice monster’s arms fell to the ground, as well as several smaller pieces that seemed to fall from his chest and head. Aisling ran over to grab her hat while I swooped in and stabbed the monster square in the chest, causing it to melt away into nothing. Aisling grabbed the velcro strap on the back of the hat and held it tightly in her hand. However, as I turned around, I saw the last ice monster with the snowball gun aim at Aisling and fire.

“Look out!” I yelled as I ran forward as fast as I could, in hopes I could maybe deflect it, but I wasn’t fast enough. Aisling raised her hand out of reflex as the ball of ice came shooting at her. The ice ball never hit her, as it bounced off a large circular shield that seemed to come out of nowhere. It had an image of an owl on the front and it had a faint silver color to it. Just then, another arrow went sailing into the barrel of the gun, causing it to backfire when he pulled the trigger again. The ice monster exploded in a mix of ice and fire. Aisling looked that the shield and smiled as she used her other hand to fiddle with something that I couldn’t see.

“That’s my grandma, always spoiling me,” Aisling said and a second later, the shield folded into itself and took the shape of a hat with an owl on it, Aisling’s new hat from her mom. I looked over at Kimi, who still had the bow positioned to attack. Her eyes looked somewhat unfocused, as if she was in some kind of dream and I wondered if she would attack if I moved toward her.

“Kimi, they’re gone,” I said in a soft voice. “Put the bow away.”

“What?” she said as she blinked a few times, her eyes going back into focus. She released her tight grip on the invisible bow string and the light faded back into nothingness, making the bow look like a normal stringless bow. “Oh right, we beat them.”

She placed the bow back into her pocket and I was amazed it slid back in so easily. There was a moment of silence as I thought about what had just come over her, but my thoughts were interrupted.

“Guys, we have to leave now if we want to catch the train in time!” Aisling yelled as she grabbed both out hands and pulled us back toward the train station.