Pruina, also known as the World of Ice, was a large city which stretched far and wide. People from all over came to visit Pruina and gaze at the sculptures made by the ice building up over time known as Ice Wonders. Despite the cold, many people lived there as well, and learned to grow ice plants for food and hunt ice animals. It was an all around popular and exciting place. However, recently, an ice spell-caster came and cast an ice over the land which would never melt. The people ran in terror, but were soon entrapped by the ice giant made by the same spell-caster. That’s when our heros came upon the scene.
~*F*~
“Izo! You can’t be here. You’re
dead. I buried you myself, so you have to go back.” Carumati
stated.
The boy leaped down from his perch
on an ice wall, put his hand beneath Carumati’s chin and gave her a
brokenhearted look. “Could it be that my only love is wishing me
dead yet again? Could it be that my love is not happy to see I am
still alive? Or perhaps you think it is not really me? Take a good
look, Mati! It is I, your beloved! I will give you a kiss and then
you shall be certain.”
Carumati pushed him away and said,
“You sure act the same. But I wont fall for the trick. The Izo I
know didn’t know magic.”
“Ah, this? I was given this gift
as a reward for my faith in the one and only Ice King,” Izo
exclaimed.
“Ice King?” Carumati repeated
with disgust. “Just what do you think you’re plotting, joining up
with that man?”
“Mati, Mati! Don’t disrespect
the Ice King- he may be listening. After all, he is the one that came
and saved your hometown.”
“Saved? Saved!” Carumati
exploded with anger. “He destroyed it! He’s the one that was
poisoning the people and causing them to do strange things. He’s
the reason my mother has no sense and why both your parents are
dead.”
“Ah! Mati!... Mati!” Izo got on
his knees and clung to Carumati’s hand. “Don’t say such
wretched things! He was the one that iced over the land for several
days so that the evil disease would die!”
Carumati wrenched her hand away
from him. “Yeah, and killed off everyone who was sick!”
“To prevent the disease from
spreading again....”
“And it just so happened to be
all the members of the council which had just rejected him entry.”
“No, don’t say that!”
“Both of our dad’s were in that
council and my dad fled, leaving mom and me behind, while your dad
stayed and was killed.”
“No, stop!” the boy shouted,
covering his ears and closing his eyes.
“Then your mother threw herself
in the river, and rather than save her, the Ice King froze over the
river.”
“You’re wrong! You’re wrong!”
Izo cried. “The Ice King is kind and gentle. He helps people!”
“Get this delusion out of your
head! He’s an evil man!”
Suddenly, the boy seemed to calm
down, and stayed on his hands and knees, his head hanging down. The
others all felt a sudden evil presence and became alarmed. The boy
lifted his head. He had a wicked grin on his face and his eyes shown
and appeared hazy. Without warning, he lifted his hand and an ice
shell wrapped around Carumati.
“Carumati!” Ally, Ven and
Konrad exclaimed, rushing forward.
“Stop,” came Carumati’s
voice. The three saw her with her strange gun device as she walked
out of the half melted shell. “I’ll handle him myself.” At
this, she launched herself at Izo with what seemed like a little
knife in her hand. He continued to shoot ice at her, but she always
managed to dodge them all.
“Is it just me, or does Carumati
seem like a completely different person?” Konrad asked.
“It’s not just you. Who knew
she could look like that?” Ven wondered. For indeed, Carumati’s
eyebrows were furrowed and the usual spaciness had been replaced with
concentration.
“If I had known Carumati could
fight like that...” Konrad spoke.
“No, look. She’s only barely
hanging on. Rather, she’s calculating his every move beforehand and
evading it. She has no speed, but flexibility. Besides, so far she’s
only managed to avoid getting hit. She’s barely gotten any closer.”
“Whoa! She totally caught him by
surprise by shooting her gun at him and got right up next to him!”
Ven exclaimed.
“What’s she doing now?” Ally
asked. “I can’t see.”
“I think she just stabbed him.
But look, now she’s running away. What’s she doing behind that
Ice Wonder?” Konrad questioned.
“You can’t hide from me, Mati!”
Izo exclaimed. He walked around the corner and suddenly a strange
beam of light came out and barely missed him as he jumped back.
“Izo!” Carumati shouted.
“What was that?” Ven asked.
“It looks like she used the boy’s
blood on the knife to create a gun especially designed for hurting
him. It looks like she has a shield that counters his attacks now
too,” Ally explained.
“She’s gained the upper hand.
Izo is being forced back,” Konrad surmised. “Ah! Get down!” Kon
grabbed Ally and forced her down as one of the attacks hit the ice in
front of them, shattering it everywhere. “Everybody okay?”
Ven and Ally got back up and
nodded.
“Ah! What’s this? Izo is
pushing Carumati back all of a sudden? He’s got her pinned down!”
Ven exclaimed.
“It looks like Carumati’s gun
ran out of energy,” Konrad spoke.
“Carumati, get out of there!”
Ven shouted as Izo formed a sword out of the ice and swung it down at
her.
Carumati, being the genius she is,
realized what she absolutely had to do to stop him and grabbed his
shoulders, pulled herself up, and hugged him. Izo was so surprised
that he dropped his sword which dissolved into the air.
“Izo,” she spoke. “Please,
don’t do this. This isn’t you. We used to be friends. If you’re
still my friend, then please, stop fighting me. Join us. We’ll help
you.”
“Carumati,...” Izo whispered,
tears falling down his cheeks.
“Izo. I’m sorry.” At this,
Carumati used a needle to inject some sort of drug and he fell fast
asleep in her lap.
Ally, Konrad and Ven all ran up to
her and gazed down at her, unsure of what to say or do. Carumati just
glanced up at them. Her serious expression really made her seem like
a completely different person. Then she stood up and walked away.
“The Ice King must be somewhere in this vicinity. He’ll know
we’re coming, so there’s no need to hide.” The others just
looked at each other. “Well, come on. I’m going to need your
help, so you can’t just stand there all day.” Carumati continued
to walk on.
“Carumati.... Does she by any
chance have a split personality?” Ven asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m
certain that I never want to have to face her in battle while she’s
like this,” Konrad spoke.
“I don’t know what you guys are
talking about. It’s perfectly normal to have a split personality in
this field of work,” Ally said calmly.
“You only say that because you’re
weirder than she is!” Konrad shouted.
“Wait, she is?” Ven asked.
“Ah, um.... Never mind.”
“In any case,” Ally spoke, “It
seems that if we defeat this Ice King guy, then this place should go
back to normal, so lets just follow Carumati for now.”
“Carumati.... She has a much
darker past than we thought,” Ven spoke sadly.
“Well, that just means that she
fits in perfectly with GWANAN.”
No comments:
Post a Comment