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Loved me back to life

Deviation Actions

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The ice on his left hand had gathered all the way up towards his shoulder. It was alarming because not a day had passed since Rond Kelfem collapsed. Better inspection now showed that it had taken a hold of his chest, frozen magical tendrils threatening to envelop him. Friends and family didn’t know how long they had. They had carefully removed the plate armor caring that the frozen skin wouldn’t attached itself to metal and leather, for not even the powerful and ancient enchantments placed on it could hold a curse of the soul back. Valthrun – the resident mage – had wasted no time to study the curse that afflicted his old friend, desperately searching for a counter-spell. It was common now to listen to his bursts of rage a few rooms away, when something frustrated him beyond measure.

But this room was deadly quiet.

The little crinkling sounds that the cruel ice made, warned the tiny Ostellian that the bear of a man was freezing underneath his furred clothes. Whatever was exposed of his skin felt cold to the touch. What little air puffed in ragged breathing from between blue lips and red nose, came out in mist that seemed to mock her. Was he not a son of the great silver dragons? Could he not control the temperature around him? On him? Was he not a Brother to the Wind? Couldn’t the ice and wind itself obey his command? His natural draconic whims? She knew he was yet to become a dragon himself, but he held some measure of power, didn’t he?

His body trembled, but with consciousness beyond his grip, it was more out of instinct than any wishful sign that he was awakening. Aiyana was glad of those shivers, though. Placing that gigantic blue coat he wore on her, he had explained that trembling against the cold was a natural reaction from the body to warm itself up, to fight against deadly cold.

“So fight, Ro…” Her voice was a whisper, her lips touching the ice-encased hand hoping that her warm breath would do anything. She noticed but the brief of changes, namely on his expression. His face – a mask of pain – melted into comfort, with eyes that would’ve glowed like the brightest emeralds were they opened to show his determination and confidence. But alas, they weren’t, and she had to set herself with the tightening of his jaw and his returning trembles as he fought on.

Aiyana touched both his cheeks and felt slim relief that Rond had some heat there still, but his sudden groan of pain made her withdraw like a frightened deer and gasp softly. She heard ice cracking and noticed the hand she was holding was curling in its ice encasement. The Ostellian could not help but smile as she murmured warmly and kept her hand on his.

“So you did ‘ear me.”

Rond ground his teeth in what seemed to be a response and his body shuddered while his breath became more labored.

Aiyana leaned over him to whisper in his ear, “Ze sun is warm today. Can you feel it on your skin?”  She shifted herself appropriately on the bed to nestle up to him as close as possible. But it wasn’t until she placed her head gently on his stomach that Rond visibly quieted.

A bit more confident now, Aiyana used soothing quiet tones to keep talking. “Ze air is crisp and clean. Feel it fill your lungs when you take a deep breath.

Rond did so, causing Aiyana’s brown and white tresses to spill around him like a puddled blanket.

“Zat means you can smell ze salt of ze earth too,” Aiyana gave a soft chuckle. “I ‘ear your heartbeat Ro’, you can’t fool me, it’s as strong and loud as zunder.”

Rond shuddered, so Aiyana slowly and carefully snuggled closer and was all but on him to hug him to provide any warmth she could provide.

“Ze mountain is beautiful zis time of year, it looks like an ice-cream sundae with green colored sprinkles zat escape ze ice-cream. ‘Ow about you open your eyes to see it wiz me?” But they wouldn’t open, though the subtle twitch around his eyes could be attempt to do so. Or perhaps it was more wishful thinking, and the twitching was part of the instinctual responses from his body. She denied to believe that, though.

A soft clearing of a throat nearby warned the Ostellian she was not alone. She turned her head without lifting it off of Rond. Tri-colored eyes let Grey know there was no improvement. The half-drow’s emerald eyes showed a mix of guilt, sadness and anger. The promise of death lingered there, as his eyes fell on the blonde human by the bed, his shoulder slumped and his expression turned bitterly regretful as if what was left of a possible better life was dying out on him. There lay his father, the proud Nerathi descendant, Knight Protector, dragon heir… There lay the man he had envied. There lay the man he admired. There he lay, freezing to death. He couldn’t die. People like him didn’t die! It just couldn’t happen! They lived and made great Empires and kingdoms that would be spoken of for centuries to come. Their deeds were recorded on books of lore that scholars laid their lives for. But why didn’t he get up?

Her hand immediately went to touch his arm to hide the frost there and that gaze became pained but resolute. “Go get some blankets Sam… night will be long.”

That gave him something to do, turning him away from childish expectations and back to harsh and cold reality. With a nod, he turned around and disappeared past the doorframe. When the half-drow left, Aiyana kept talking to Rond.

“But don’t you worry Ro, even at night zare is ze stars, sometimes ze moon… wiz zare light, ze snow will glow and zen ze night will be bright. And if ze temperature drops just right, snowflakes will fall in zare gentle dance to blanket ze ground in beautiful glittering white.”

Rond seemed to breathe easier and the frost on his shoulder started to melt. Her fingers felt numb, but she kept holding onto him. “I’ll ‘old you tight if you promise to come back to your family.”

She tilted her head slightly to rest her chin on his stomach while her lips drew to his heart beat and spoke to it. “Sam won’t approve of your dying”, she said with a small smile. “Valthrun will rage at your funeral. Abi…” Rond’s oldest, everyone knew how she’d feel. And she? How would Aiyana feel?

“Abi would cry… she loves ‘er papa!”  Aiyana kept her tone light and sweet as if explaining something happy because Rond did not need more guilt or pressure. He needed truth and good memories.

“Who will walk ‘er down ze aisle at ‘er wedding?” Aiyana giggled, “She’ll need you to interrogate ze man when she meets ‘im. She’ll expect it. She needs to know ‘er papa will look after ‘er.”

How would she feel? That thought crept up again. And Aiyana found herself studying his face again. The strong squarish jaw with that stubble. Wide lips that loved to smile. Green eyes would glow and crinkle upwards in a near squint.

She had come here to help Xull’rae cope with the loss of her baby, and she was… but thinking back on the two months she had been here… most of her time was actually around Rond. The captain often sought her company or advice from one leader to another.

But these past two weeks? She was cooking his meals personally and mending his coats and other old clothes. And their discussions had gotten much more personal. Aiyana still had the pansies he had picked for her to color up her room.

“First flowers o’ winter”, he had said, with a silly smile and ears burning a flushed pink.

Aiyana smiled just as silly at the memory and sighed softly feeling foolish. She was crushing on the man and it needed to stop. “No more pies or pastries for you,” she sulked, “unless you open your eyes for me?”

Soft and hopeful, but why did she say “for me?” It sounded selfish. Aiyana gave a worried frown and curled tiny delicate fingers around the block of ice that held his hand. Tri colored eyes closed, and Aiyana wished hard to melt the ice. She felt warm all over. From the soft thrum she heard she knew her streaks had lit up…

And then the room shifted around them, walls crumbling to nothing as a strong wind manifested itself. The sheets, the bed, and everything else around them disappeared under piles of freezing white snow or flew away with the raging wind never to be seen again. Even Rond had disappeared in the blinding blizzard. The wind howled over the great expanse of an open tundra, threatening to instantly freeze anything it touched. Down below, a figure struggled against the fury of Kord himself. Fur covering his body, he roared against the cold gathering around him a thunderous roar of defiance as well as agony. Trudging through the snow with no clear sense of direction, only the fact that his knees were buried in the snow accompanied with his sheer force of will, kept him standing. His struggling steps shifted from time to time, as silvery patches of scales threatened to manifest from underneath his skin, only to bury again, drawing frustrated shouts and curses from the bear of a man: the only thing visible in the great expanse.

“Aiyana”, he screamed as her voice echoed through the expanse, reaching his ears from so far away. The ostellian’s voice added color in the dark. Light blue streaked across the great white whirling expanse when she sounded disappointed in him. Shades of mint green shot out and burst into sparkles when she mentioned Grey. Lavender rained down on him when Valthrun was spoken of.

For many minutes a golden glow pulsed in the distance, showing him which way to go when Aiyana kept speaking of Abigail. It was as if the Ostellian’s voice had a color for each note she pitched with her tone.

But when she quieted, mocking laughter resounded on the wind from another voice distantly familiar to him. Why had she stopped?

He saw something above him, the blizzard was threatening to seal his eyes shut. He felt something feathery, and gasped. Did something flash? He couldn’t see, but whatever it was had no color or was white as the snow. Laboring to breathe, Rond tried pushing forward. Without weapons, he only had his bare fists to defend himself, and with the cold, his hands were akin and trembling so much, he doubted he’d be able to put them to great effect. He knew he was no dragon yet, but never in his life had he felt such terrible cold.

It took him a moment of struggle to notice that snow was not falling on him. He commanded his eyes to aid him silently, and his mind to make something out of this. Looking ahead and beside him he could see the angry gust of white. Whatever was above him was shielding him. A cooing sound. A bird… where?

A great flap of wings alerted him once more, and Rond ducked as much as he could without burying the rest of his body in the snow. He expected a dragon or griffon to make a meal out of him, but when that didn’t happen, he looked up once more. A screech almost made him falter again, but then he saw three bobbing lights through the whiteout, blue, brown, and green, and just as quickly they winked out.

Turning this way and that, the man tried his best to search for the creature, bringing trembling fists up even if he knew how useless that proved to be. His entire body shivered. He’d lose his legs, no doubt. His natural resistance to cold was gone, and silver scales failed to heed his command. He felt truly human. At least he’d die less of a freak.

Frustrated, Rond opened his arms wide, giving up on his pathetic excuse for defense.

“Come on! Finish it!” He roared his hoarse voice.

Tromp, tromp, tromp, he heard in the snow, and he just knew the bird was coming for him.

And a great white head peered at him with ice blue beady eyes. A great hooked beak  was golden brown, squawked at him sharply, then blinked twice before a long white neck mixed with brown feathers stretched out to chirp and coo at him. Rond blinked, gasped and took a step back despite himself losing his balance and falling back into the snow.

Big white wings outstretched toward him, and Kelfem raised his hands, closing his eyes shut without giving up a scream of terror. He’d die with honor and dignity. Darkness overshadowed him and thwump, he was pulled and thrust into the softest and warmest feathers he ever felt as he was literally smushed into the bird’s breast.

When he didn’t feel the beak plucking away skin and the shock of certain death subsided, Rond opened his eyes once more. Fluffy wings scooped together and wrapped around him, like a mother would her chick. She was not as massive as a dragon, but she was big enough to make him feel short, but not quite small.

She settled in the snow and whipped her plumage to fan out and curl around them as he stared wide-eyed at it.

As he got words in, that long swan like neck bent down and her beak nibbled his tousled hair and gently scraped at his cheek. The bird was trying to comfort him by preening him, but it still didn’t stop him from flinching away the first few times until he was certain of the meaning of her actions. The momentary reprieve from the cold allowed his mind to work once more as he searched his memories to figure out what she was. In all the time he’d been here, the gigantic bird had been the only thing he’d seen that wasn’t trying to eat him. Or so it seemed, and he hoped it would stay that way.

From the look of her, Rond would have guessed a giant swan, but the head reminded him something similar to a peahen, while the plumage of her extremely long three fanned tail was something he only heard of in stories. Though from all the tales… weren’t they supposed to be bigger, brighter, with more plumage? Maybe females were smaller and less colorful? The heat that she radiated in such inhospitable conditions was akin to the heat of a red-dragon, except of course that she wasn’t trying to burn him or melt his skin off. With those observations, Rond was certain of what he was looking at. He’d read about it in the books of the far Kara-Tur in the east. The good spirit of wind, friend and lover to the dragon.

“Phoenix”, he murmured one trembling hand moving to touch the white feathers of the fantastic bird.

The white bird chirped in a fashion that was complex and striking, it had a sound that was lyrical and pleasant to the human ear. Her small beak clicked as if to say yes.

At his touch, white feathers ruffled up and felt pillow-soft to him. He smiled, feeling warmth running through his body and stepped closer. When he retracted his hand, steam rose off his palm, proof she was indeed warming him. Rond wished it wasn’t snowing, he had a feeling she was giving off heat waves or perhaps she had a soft white nimbus around herself. As it was, he couldn’t appreciate it.

Her wing shifted to ease him back to the ground. Rond could feel she was ready to rise up and leave. His eyes widened in alarm.

“No. Ye can’t leave me here! I don’t even kno’ how I got here. I need tae get back tae Winterhaven. Me people are in danger. Do ye kno’ where it is? Please…”

The phoenix chirped and whistled at him, stood up, shook off snow and gave him her back. She took some steps forward. For a moment, he thought she would truly desert him, and froze thinking of how to forcibly climb on the back of the giant bird. But then she stopped and cooed at him.

The gentle bird was offering to go with him, but he had to find his own way.

She clawed the ground gently to show him, her feet were not in the snow. Squinting his eyes against the wind, he shook his head, not quite understanding. But then she clawed again drawing Kelfem’s eyes to the ground. She was walking on air…

His breathing stopped momentarily. “What in the Nine Hells…?”

She pecked again and the snow did not move. Blue eyes blinked at him, and at first he didn’t comprehend. Needless to say that the way she floated in nothing caught his attention. Was she trying to tell him this place wasn’t real?

“Ye mean this is some sort o’ illusion?” It was possible. A master illusionist could toy with the five senses of their targets, making even things as complicated as smell and taste seem real. The phoenix raised her head up and threw it back in a shrill scream as if to confirm his fear, but it was a call to inspire confidence.

He looked around, though, worry encasing his features in a frown. “What if it isn’t? Am I suppose tae lay down and wait fer it tae pass?” Rond had a point. Real or no, illusions could prove to be deadly if the target believed them to be, and the freezing cold didn’t allow much for his mind to think otherwise. He could barely make words!

The wind picked up its gusting, the freezing cold chilling him to the marrow making his argument seem all the more real. He tucked into himself as much as he could and groaned, looking at the thick pile of snow around his knees. Gods, they ached so much! He didn’t know how he was even walking.

“Accept it, Kelfem”, the wind spoke to him, its feminine voice seducing his senses. It was too sweet a voice not to pay attention to it. “You’re mine, and mine you will remain.”

“N-No”, Kelfem mumbled back to the chilling caress of death.

“The cold has always been a part of you, my dear silver; a part of your ancestors. Why then, running away from something that becomes you?” He didn’t reply, this time, too busy shivering, and his knees nearly collapsing under him.

“I am a part of you…”, it whispered into his ear for him to accept his fate.

Forcing himself to look around, the dragonheart’s eyes searched for the phoenix. He could barely make her form out, the snow swallowing her, the wind blinding him.

But beyond the howling laughter of the wind, and beyond the temptations of death, there was a whisper on the edges of hearing as something soft and warm brushed the skin of his ear.

Breath.

“You can do it…”

Words filled his mind, and the whispering seductions of the wind lost their clarity.

“Moments of weakness are foundations for strength and integrity to rise.” There was something soothing about the androgynous voice. It wasn’t tempting as the voice of the wind, but encouraging and reassuring. It was warm.

“See with your heart not with your eyes… feel with your soul, not your body. Remember who and what you fight for.”

Struggling against the instinct to curl up, the human pushed his arms away from his body. The whistling gust of wind, threatened to throw him back as he took a painful step forward. With a groan, he took another step, and another, until he was trudging through the snow, a fierce expression of defiance on his face. Every now and then, het let out a roar to silence the whisper of the wind and deny it its wishes, his eyes focused on the image of the phoenix as she became clearer with each step. Soon enough, he was walking easier, and then running over melting snow as his knees found the strength to sustain him. The wind still blew against him. His body still ached. He still felt cold. But with every step, he denied the nuances that they provoked on him.

Then he felt a shift in the very nature around him that nearly made him falter. He didn’t see what it was about until the piled snow started to change. A mound of white rose up left of him to try and smother him. He threw himself clear, landing in a roll. When his hand touched the ground under him, he noticed the green and brown of earth that had been hiding under snow. Hope reborn, Rond took up his charge again. He could see the phoenix clearly now; the beautiful creature promising freedom from a nightmare that felt so real.

The great bird took flight with a shrill scream that matched Rond's defiance. Soaring up in the air, the phoenix rode on the sharp air currents to do a spinning roll. Wings cut through the gray and white to show patches of blue sky.

Graceful and fast, Rond was mesmerized at the speed and fluidity in which the bird sundered through the gray storm to find shafts of light for him. The sun poked through, only to be swallowed by the storm once more.

An explosion sounded nearby. The phoenix gave a shrill of warning and stooped in a downward dive. Two mounds of snow rose up once more, as the wind took up a deathly shrill. They twisted and grew as they oriented themselves on him, and once they did, their shape was no longer amorphous. Standing at fifteen feet tall, muscular, blue-skinned blue-bearded giants rushed towards him, their steps shaking the very earth underneath Rond’s feet.

Rond knew the phoenix was closing in to assist him, but she seemed so far away… The dragonheart let out a cry, eyes wide as an unnatural fear gripped at his heart like a cold dagger. He’d never be out. He’d die here either by the hand of a giant, a dragon, the blasted snow itself or some unnatural way. He’d never tell his son how proud he truly was of him. He’d never ask Abi to forgive him for being such a poor excuse for a father. He’d never thank Valthrun, Krystid and Paldraig for being there. Never thank the dwarf, Thair Coalstriker for raising him as son. He’d never tell Aiyana how he felt…

As if answered in prayer the snow around him gathered and formed the faces of his loved ones. Grey gave him a knowing smirk. Then morphed into Abi, who smiled in admiration at him. The snow then swirled and danced as Rond ran, as if pulled by strings. Paldraig appeared with a hearty grin he used for laughing.

Warm air currents wafted over him gently in steady beats, like the gentle flap of a fan – or wings – a quick glance upward showed the white phoenix was hovered above him and not only keeping him warm, but melting snow beneath his feet. Yet her tail feathers were glittering and affecting the snowfall.

Was she forming the faces then?

Valthun's studious appeared, looking ready to give him a lecture. The puff of his smoke pipe made him melt while the vapors took shape, twirling and dancing in the long fluid shape of legs and skirts. The smithy dwarf appeared by the mage’s side alongside Krystid, both wearing proud expressions. Aiyana curtsied at him, before she exploded into mounds of snow as a block of ice smashed into her from one of the giants and whipped the end of the phoenix's tail feathers.

The white bird chirped and chittered before air and snow blasted her and knocked her back. She screeched in challenge and shot upward, being chased by the wind.

A roar erupted from deep within Rond; a draconic rumble that challenged his enemies. Magical fear discarded and discredited, Rond charged on using the moment that the phoenix had gained him by eliminating the charm spell from his mind. His green emerald eyes glowed brighter, his visible skin changed into bumpy and silvery scales, horns protruding from his head, claws from his hands. Speed increasing, the hybrid ran on until the giants were close.

One giant swung his club down in an arch, his grin under silvery-blue beard betraying his confidence that he’d secured his quarry. The strong wood met resistance, though, as the dragonborn’s claw held onto the weapon, digging deep. The surprised giant, tried pulling it back, but a swipe of silver claws caught his legs, chipping away skin and bone as surely as a sharp hatchet would take down a massive tree. He howled, jumped back, and disappeared in a puff of snow that soon enough mixed itself with the rest of the blizzard. Rond kept running.

He could hear the phoenix try to follow him, he felt the brush of warmth and sensed he was overshadowed by how dark it got and guessed she was gliding low to the ground to guard his back from the biting wind.

The other giant ran towards the dragonheart, decomposing itself into snow once more, to glide out of the ground in a more terrible shape.

An icy gust whipped at his back. Looking up in the sky revealed the phoenix was having her own aerial battle. She was using the warm air currents to her advantage to accelerate or decelerate her velocity. Whenever ice formed on her wing tips she'd soar higher and then stoop to come back toward him. Hover and spread her wings to shield him.

But watching her distracted him. The gliding form that had been a giant before, shifted into the one of a white dragon, charging across the snowy terrain with ease and prey in sights, whose silvery armor was subsiding as surely as his strength. As he tumbled and fell, the phoenix gave a piercing mournful cry while he rolled once or twice before he came to a stop at the claws of the great white bird as she landed softly right next to him. How dainty they looked. He was reminded of Aiyana's feet. So small and graceful. He saw them bare once when she was standing in mud. She didn't want her shoes dirty. They arched like the phoenix's talons whenever she walked. Rond reached with a weak – yet no longer trembling – hand for it to feel its warmth, to beg it to help him, but he was too exhausted to make words. The forced transformation had left dots of blood pouring from some of his pores, and had tired him beyond measure.

And in an instant he was plucked up and felt warm and lighter than air, drifting off to sleep from the soft flap of wings.

“ ‘Yana…”, he mumbled, his hand weakly reaching out for the talons around him, eyes half-lidded.

The phoenix cooed at him like a dove. The transformation had taken too much from him in a place where such thing was denied to him. But albeit the storm raging, his mind was clear enough to know it just had to be her.

He felt a tug and a sudden shift as he dangled just a bit more to the side, his hand slipping away from her claw. The snowy ground abandoned his sights in preference of the grayish skies but for a moment, before he was looking down at the ground once more. She had rolled, an evasive maneuver, he knew. Tired as he was, though, Rond tried to detect the reason for such maneuver. The white dragon had taken to the air, chasing after them, and the leftover blast of cold that had been his breath now clung onto some of the feathers of the phoenix. She had managed to evade most of the damage, but part of it still attached itself to her upper side, and he knew she’d done that to protect him.

He felt afraid once more.

“ ‘Yana…”

At the name, the talon clutched around him more protectively.

Why wouldn’t she run away? He wasn’t giving up, but the situation had turned dangerous. He wasn’t afraid for himself or what would be of him. He was afraid for her.

But the phoenix wouldn’t abandon him, and he felt yet another shift that nearly made him lose his bearings. The great white bird climbed higher and higher. It was difficult, because the gusting wind kept pushing her away – sometimes, unnaturally down. But instead of fighting it, she glided with it, using it to move upwards in a diagonal spiral, but with the white dragon having the wind at its back, he rose higher than the phoenix.

“Leave”, Rond managed to shout in command. Fear and adrenaline made him fully awake and notice the danger. “Please…” he begged, unable to swallow the desperation in his voice.

Too late. With a flap of his tattered wings, the white launched itself towards the great white bird. She screeched, but this time, her cry sounded different, and Rond noticed how the dragon passed just below them, certain that it had its enemy in its claws. Having befuddled their enemy with an illusion, the great phoenix continued her casting. When the white turned around from its plunge, it looked back up, but the phoenix was already preparing a spell. Rond wasn’t certain how the mythical birds casted their spells. One claw was moving in a fashion akin to the hands of a wizard in casting, and he assumed the cadence and tone of her cry indicated her intent. He certainly felt magic building around him alongside the metallic taste that accompanied it as if a bolt was about to be discharged.

The white dragon was undamaged, but Rond could no longer see himself, or the claw around his person though he knew it was still there. Invisibility. Confused, the dragon searched for them, and the phoenix didn’t spend a moment's rest before she flew away from the creature.

Except that it was no natural creature, and this was no natural place…

The wind became stronger and erratic, and despite Rond’s resistance to battle against it, his weakness reigned over and as if a spell had been laid on his person, he lost consciousness. The phoenix was left alone to battle against the wind.

The massive vague shape of elven features appeared as the blizzard gave shape to it, a silvery blue circlet dotting her forehead. Her cold dark eyes stared at the phoenix, her pretty angled features twisted to depict the hatred in her eyes. She moved her lips, and the wind carried her message with the same feminine voice it had used on Rond before, but this time, it wasn’t caring and sweet. It was chilling and terrible.

“Out of my knight’s head, bird.”

Let 'im go! The exchange was telepathic, clear and strong. The phoenix did not hide the fact she was female, the tone used was not only insistent, but absolute in its demand.

Invisibility dissipated at the talon holding Rond clenched and rose closer to her body. Something glowed a bright blue from Rond's forehead. So fast was that spell, that another was being casted.

Like swatting a fly away, the blizzard took the shape of a delicate but gigantic hand. The back of it slammed against the phoenix just as she finished her spell. The white bird gave a piercing screech. The crushing weight made her talon go slack.

When Rond opened his eyes, he didn’t feel the warmth of the claw around his person. He felt nothing, but cold breeze rushing to meet his back, his hair dancing wildly. He noticed he was falling and suddenly felt warm. Fire was around him, he looked at his hand but he was not burning. What spell had she cast?

Rond looked up just in time to see the phoenix fading amidst the blizzard. Fear and desperation gripped him, but somehow he knew the fall wouldn't kill him, just as surely as he knew he’d see her again

------------------------

Eyelids ripped open and she gasped for air, choking and sputtering.

"She's awake!" she heard a woman say. Xull'rae?

Aiyana tried to sit up but felt sluggish and dead? Where was her circulation?

"A-Ai A-" she chattered. She was shivering uncontrollably. Crinkling let her know she was freezing and had been frosting over.

A warm touch made her flinch, it burned her, but it was firm and familiar. "I am 'ere, my queen…" said a strong monotone voice.

Aidan. Aiyana tried to sigh in relief.

"Get zem more blankets, now," Aidan said calmly.

"Someone find Valthrun, NOW!" Xull'rae whipcracked a follow up.

"R-R-Ro-rooRonnnddd?" she wanted to ask so many things but her brother's hand on her forehead made her quiet and hold back her worry…

At least for now…
An excerpt from the story that will be coming of events concerning Winterhaven. :iconxullraezauviir: helped in writing Aiyana's parts with her busy schedule working on commissions and stuff, I'm thankful she managed to do this at least, because it the dialogue flowed much better.

EDIT: Decided to upload the whole chapter. The chapter on itself is but an excerpt of the story, so I hope you guys enjoy it and let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

The art above was commissioned by :iconxullraezauviir: as well and done by the wonderful :iconiara-art:
Commission: Rond and Aiyana by iara-art

Inspired by a song hand-picked by :iconxullraezauviir: "Loved me back to life" by Céline Dion
© 2014 - 2024 elDrow
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sha-arts's avatar
That was wonderful...:D