Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice
- Robert Frost
Pronounciation:
Khyre: Kai (as in Kite)-yer (like Fire with a K)
Linder: Lin-der
Ember: Em-ber
Serra: Sarah
Hestia: Hest-tia
Cu Sith: Q- sith
Chapter 4-
The Song Behind the Wall
Three years passed; Hestia and Khyre were as close as embers and ashes, and every day, they were together. She even followed him out onto the ice, despite Smogg's constant complaints. After a while, however, Khyre worried about her health. The cold was taxing on her, and only enhancing her condition to the point of having a rather dim light. He finally promised to quit his training, and remain closer to home.
One day, Khyre was sitting beside Hestia, watching a fight between a shop keep and a rather picky customer, when he heard her gasp loudly. He looked down at her and saw she was holding her hand on her chest, eyes wide.
"What's wrong?" he said, worried.
"My necklace!" She rummaged through her clothes, "I lost it!"
"You mean that one made of--"
"Amber. It's really rare. Damn it!" She threw her hands to her side in defeat, "My mother gave me that stone! My father had to travel really far to get it! It's tree sap... Ancient tree sap! From trees!"
"...that is usually where sap comes from..."
"You don't get it!! He had to find a petrified forest to find that amber stone! A forest, let alone a petrified one, is nowhere near here!"
"...where do you think you dropped it?" Khyre looked around, knowing that it would'nt be much of a help, but was trying to look like an asset.
"...last time I had it was... on the ice..."
"Oh... well, I'll just go get it."
"But-"
"I know I promised, but I'll be able to get it back for you. I'll go alone, that way I'll be back in no time."
"... Promise?"
"I promise." Khyre smiled and kissed her on the cheek, before getting up and walking off.
He had to slip around the side of the buildings. The village was located on a red rock ridge in the middle of a vast desert. An un-natural phenomina made the border between the ice lands and the fire territory direct; the ice flowing, spilling onto the hot sands with a permanant curtain of steam. The hissing bridge; Smogg had dubbed it, was thick, and you needed to cover your ears, lest you'd emerge on the other side with your ear canals spewing blood.
Khyre walked onto the ice, pausing to reach into his pack. He pulled out some reddish brown fur and wrapped it around his top half, and covered his calves and arms with bands he made from the same fur. The pack now empty, he lay it out and stretched it to lay straight, using it as a second wrap around his waist. Though he was a creature of fire, ice still caused discomfort to him, and igniting an inner blaze would be idiotic, since the ice would melt and he'd fall through or not have a way to get back.
He combed the ice flows for the necklace, scratching himself by accident on the sharp craigs. He crawled along the ground, peeking inside holes and crevaces for any sign of the lost jewel.
He becamed quite absorbed in his search, so much so, that he hadn't noticed the time or his location.
He suddenly heard running water... and something else.
Khyre looked up, seeing a massive wall of ice before him. It normally wouldn't have bothered him, if it wasn't for the fact that it was perfectly vertical, and designs weren't cut into the side. Swirls and circles, diamonds and trapezodial shapes, all drawn into the side of the never ending wall in the middle of nowhere. Curious, he touched the ice wall.
Normal ice.
He chuckled to himself. He had almost expected to be sucked in. But the wall was doing as intended; keeping an idiot like himself outside.
He dragged his fingers along the wall, walking the length of it to the left. It just went on and on, and when he looked up, he saw that it was gradually staircasing downwards as he continued onwards.
Finally, the wall was shorter, and the sound of water was quite loud, as was the other sound; a song.
Sweet and melodious, it rose from the ice like wind against chimes. He closed his eyes, enchanted by the beautiful sound, mingling with the aquatic acoustics in an aria of dulcet tones.
Frustrated that there was no entrance to the voice, he placed his hands against the wall, focusing heat into his hands. To make his vision less suspious, he slowly melted through, though he made the ice into a thin pane of 'glass' instead of melting it completely away. His window was two bars, the glass, and etchings he had made himself to match the ones in the wall. He peeked through the glass, to the world beyond.
A blue and silver garden lay beyond. A winter wonderland with blue roses on black briar, white and black birch trees, and statues of silver, iron and ice strewn about. A large fountain lay in the back; spewing forth crystal water from a woman's silver pitcher as she held it on her shoulder, her black wrought iron wings filled with feathers of ice that barely touched the water's surface.
Sitting on the fountainside, was the center of Khyre's attention: a woman.
She was singing to herself as she dragged her fingertips over the water's surface, playfully making little floating ice designs that quickly melted.
"Koritaka..." he whispered, stepping away from the window, before he heard her stop her singing. Curious, and a little irritated that the beautiful sound had stopped so suddenly, he looked back though the window.
"Oh?" She held out her hand.
Another came into view; a man this time. He had semi-long hair, whitish-blue, and he was holding his arm out in front of him. Khyre narrowed his eyes, attempting to see what he had.
"I found this the other day on the ice flows, Serranade... I thought it was interesting..."
"It's pretty."
"That's Hestia's necklace!" Khyre gasped as he saw Serranade accept the golden stone from the man's grasp.
"It's not a gift," the man said, and she looked up at him with a sarcastic look.
"Not a gift, huh? Then take it back."
"I don't want it."
"Really?"
"I'm just saying 'you may have it since I don't want it. "
"Give it to someone else."
"Like whom?"
".... Fine... I'll keep the damn thing until you find somebody else to take it."
"Good, I'm happy you like it."
"Whatever, Mint."
"It's Linder, Serranade.... stop calling me that embarassing name, please?"
She began to laugh, and she continued to sing, only this time, including the word "mint" over and over.
Khyre tried not to laugh... but seeing the man and woman beyond the wall acting like such children forced him into rolls of laughter.
Unfortunately..... his ice window was too thin.
 Rozencard · Sat Dec 15, 2007 @ 09:20am · 1 Comments |
