Ivy Olivia and the one winged tower

Chapter one - snow wars

I just wanted to say that all three versions go into the same direction.
Enjoy!

Chapter one
Snow wars

         Big, fluffy, cotton ball sized snowflakes blew into my hair and hit me in my flushed cheeks. It was cold, cold enough that my nostrils were starting to feel frozen and my mouth couldn’t stop chattering.  But as I looked up across the sky and saw the big dark snow clouds that were rolling in, I knew that it was only going to get worse.  I sighed, and so would this snow war.
         It was a war with all the children, and was also a tradition.  All the children in the village split in teams of two. Males versus females and always happened the first week of September – right before the harvesting festival in October. Whichever team won had the privilege to ask the other team to the dance on October 31st.
         I flicked my long dark hair back behind me and crouched behind the small snow wall my team made. My team had to win, because truthfully, I didn’t want to be asked to the dance, I didn’t even want to go.
         I looked back at my team to see if they were ready. I was the oldest here, 18 years old, so that made me captain of the female team. The captain of the male team was my best friend Bradley who was also 18.  From the other side of the field I saw him grin and wink at me. I knew I’d be his first target.
         I nodded to the girls behind me, all aged from 12 to 18. Then I saw Bradley give me thumbs up.
         “Let’s do this!” I cheered to the girls behind me, who cheered back.  I hovered my hand above my ammo – a group of snowballs I had made before now.  Onside of the field were a few spectators like children to young and sister Angela- the lady who ran St. Amos’s orphanage (the place where Bradley and I lived).
         That’s why Bradley and I were so close. We had grown up with each other in St. Amos’s orphanage and we both had no idea whom our parents are.  That gave us a strong bond, and we truly did love each other. Just as friends of course!
         A whistle blew from offside the field. ‘We’re in business’ I thought to myself. I picked up two snow balls from the pile and sent them flying hitting two boys running together.          
         One thing I forgot to tell you. When someone is hit by a snowball they are cast with a spell that means they can’t play anymore.  It keeps people from cheating and gives the game boundaries. 
         I got out from my snow wall and moved to the center of the field, dodging snow balls and ice.  My own personal game plan was that I was going to find Bradley before he had found me. I wasn’t going to lose to him, epically after the bet we had made each other.  The bet was that whoever hit who first, got a favor from the loser. Any favor. And I sure wasn’t up for cleaning his room or doing his dishes for a week. So I had to find him.
         Ahead of me, I saw a kid named Benji (one of the villagers son who was 13) take aim for our youngest girl Wendy who was only a few feet from me. As she screamed and ducked I bent down to grab a handful of snow. Benji saw what I was doing and changed his target from her to me. With quick reflexes I dodged out of the path of the flying ice ball and threw my own snow ball hitting him straight in the stomach.
         “Yes!” I shouted as I hit the ground with a soft thud. I looked at Wendy to give her a nod but she was already running across the field and got pelted not once, but twice by snow balls.
         That’s when I saw something odd. There was a small escarpment that wrapped around our small village.  And in the distance, I saw four horsemen perched on the hill. I stood up and walked closer to see if I could make out any faces. But villagers didn’t have any horses and people that have left the village rarely returned. So the horsemen had to be strangers.
         I could make out a large dog that sat beside them. But I couldn’t see any faces or features. I turned to go get sister Angela when a big ice ball hit me square in the face.
         I fell back and landed right on my butt with a big “uuughh!” I put my hand on my face and felt a warm drizzle of blood from my cheek which started to throb with pain.
         “Livy!” Uh I thought. Bradley won.  He came running over then stopped  in front of me to pull me up on my feet. “Are you okay?”
         I removed my hand from my cheek and let the blood drip down my face. Bradley’s eyes widened and he pulled me close.
         “Oh gosh Livy I didn’t mean to hurt you!” He said sincerely and pulled me into a embrace.
         “I’m okay, it’s okay.” I whispered because I could feel my face beginning to swell.
         “No its not okay! Here let’s get off to the side so you don’t get hit again” He picked me up and even though I protested, carried me away from the flying snow balls. 
         He placed me down on the snowy ground and kneeled before me. Some of the kids around us started to stare. Bradley turned his head to Tommy (a 16 year old that also lived at St. Amos’s).
         “Can you get Sister Angela please?” Bradley was always so polite and calm. It made me smile and wished I was more like him in everyway.
         He was to charming and sweet. He was so handsome with wild blond hair and bright brown eyes. He was tall, built, and had a boyish face that always made me nervous, even though we were best friends. All the younger girls dreamed of him, and a lot of the older girls tried to seduce him. I often joked around with him saying he was gay because he had never even kissed a girl but had more than enough chances too. He would just joke back and say “I’m waiting for you to get kissed first so you don’t feel bad”, that’s when I would hit him playfully and change the subject. Myself on the other hand, I wasn’t bad looking. I think I was normal looking for a girl. I had long dark brown hair that just swung across my shoulder blades and I had an unnatural green eye that was the same colour of emeralds. I was just a little shorter from Bradley and I had a ‘cute little button nose’ adults would say. 
         I looked up at Bradley who was dabbing my cut with a piece of linen from one of his shirts (he layered it up today).
         “What we’re you looking at.” He asked curiously “when I hit you?”
         I quickly remembered the four horse men and the dog. I looked up at the escarpment to see if they were still there but they had vanished. That’s when St. Angela rushed over and practically pushed Bradley out of the way.
         “Olivia, are you okay?” Sister Angela asked looking worried. I nodded and she scowled “You are always getting hurt or getting into trouble. You are so clumsy sometimes. Do you want me to have a heart attack?”
         I shook my head no. Sister Angela has always been a mother to me. She was old, wise and loving. She had grey hair that she always wore down and had bright grey eyes like the colour of snow clouds. 
         “I saw people on the escarpment” I explained to her and Bradley. “That’s why I wasn’t paying any attention.”
         “Oh Olivia your head is full of day dreams.” Her eyes flickered towards the escarpment and she shivered. “There was no one on the escarpment.”
         “No I did actually see people, it wasn’t a day dream.” She was right though, I would often drift off into a day dream and think I saw things that weren’t actually there but there was nothing wrong with a over active imagination.  But the whole clumsy ordeal, I couldn’t argue with that. I had a bad sense of balance and was always walking into something. 
         I once was playing man hunt in the forest with Bradley and the other kids. I was being chased by a boy named Lucas and accidently ran into a branch. It cut open my forehead and my cheek.  Bradley had to carry me the whole way home and I had to sit threw a hour of lecture from sister Angela talking about how I should watch where I walk, or learn how to walk properly while she stitched my face back together. It healed nicely though, I just had a trace of a scar on the right side of my temple.
         The other time I really hurt myself because of my clumsiness was when I fell down two flights of stairs. I putting on my nice moccasin boots above the stairs and lost my balance. I tumbled down the stairs and even knocked poor Sister Angela down half a flight of stairs. Bradley chased after me then tripped over our mangled bodies at the bottom step. Sister Angela was not happy. Even though I had broken my arm and had a minor concisions Sister Angela managed to yell at me and lecture me about staying away from the stairs while doing up my boots. She was actually considering banning me from the stairs completely and just moving my bedroom down stairs.
         “Just watch yourself okay Olivia?” Sister Angela asked. “I don’t want people thinking you’re a mental case.”
         I gasped and started to pout. “I actually did see them; there were four people on horses! And a dog! And I’m not a mental case.”
         Sister Angela shook her head and her eyes flickered again to the escarpment. “Bradley, will you take her back to the orphanage please. She needs a nap.” 
         I rolled my eyes just before Bradley scooped me up and started to walk away. I didn’t need a nap and I sure could walk by myself. I wiggled free and fell bum first onto the snow.
         “Ol-iv-ia!” He shouted at me and helped me back to my feet. He didn’t pick me up this time, because I think he got the hint, but he did take my hand into his and continued walking.
         Taking my hand had startled me, he had never grabbed my hand before unless he was ether pulling me to keep up, or we we’re having an arm wrestle. He had never even held my hand when I was being stitched up by Sister Angela.  I look at him with a face of confusion and then glanced down at our hands so he knew I had been confused about it. He just gave me a shrug then looked away. He skimmed my hand with his thumb and that’s when I knew, he was acting totally different.
         “What’s with you?” I asked. Instead of Bradley being totally goofy about the hand holding, he had gotten more serious. And that was not a Bradley thing to do.
         “I’ll tell you when we get back.” He started to blush and started to rub his stomach, something he only did when he was extremely nervous. “Okay?”
         I muttered an okay and let him guild me back to the orphanage. He knew I hated surprises and even more than that, hated waiting.
         “Noir” was the name of our village. It was founded twenty years ago by the mayor ‘Mayor Stitch’ and his three sons.  The villagers came from Cayden (where the humans used to live until a evil man named Cael used his army to kill all the humans).  They all came to Noir because it was really just a small island of ice and snow, and Cael probably won’t come here because his army wouldn’t survive because of the harsh coldness.
         His army wasn’t a human army. They we’re called dark draggers and they were not of the human species. They had came from the tropical island called Lilo and looked a tad like primates.  Standing up they were 7 feet high, but they often walked on all fours. They were bald except for the thick pads of fur on their paws and had point ears that looked like needles. They we’re called dark draggers because they would come out at night and steal women from the villages then drag them into the darkness, never to be seen again.
         I sighed. At least nothing like that ever happened here. The only scare noir has ever has was when a bunch of wolves started to move in, but with Mrs. Jenkins magic, they had all went else place.
         I looked over to Bradley to try and read his expression to see if he was still nervous about something and that answer was yes. He had now turned a pale grey colour and was breathing in a rhythm that was too deep to be his regular breathing.  When I asked if he was okay he just nodded and lead me up the steps of the orphanage.
         I was getting worried about him, I had never seen him this nervous about anything, even when he picked a fight with the Roofer brothers, which he had taken both on in the end, and won victoriously.
         But knowing Bradley, this was probably something silly like he had seen poor old sister Angela naked or something. Stuff like that always bugged him and made him feel sick. So I gently squeezed his hand and gave him a comforting smile.
         He opened the front door of the orphanage for me and we walked into the empty house.  All 9 children we’re at the snow war so it left the house completely empty. He lead me to our kitchen and sat me down on one of the chairs then started to pace.
         “So the boys obviously won right?” He asked looking at me still pacing back and forth.
         “This whole thing is about the snow wars?” If he was getting all nervous about some stupid game I was going to kick him in the shins.
         “Kind of” He said now standing still right in front of my chair. “But we won right?”
         I nodded, the girls we’re obviously going to lose now that I was gone. And plus we we’re out numbered beforehand. “Yes you guys won.”
         “Good! So I can ask any girl I want to the dance now and she has to say yes!” He said to himself and lifting a hand in victory.
         “We’ll congratulations then Bradley” I said standing up until Bradley gently pushed me back down.
         “I want to ask you something first”
         “Okay?” Gosh he was acting so weird I thought to myself.
         Bradley straightened up and took a deep breath. “Will you please go to the dance with me on October 31st?”
         I started at him feeling sick to my stomach. Bradley had just asked me on a date. MY BESTFRIEND Bradley had just asked me to a dance. At those dances dates always end up touching and kissing, and oh my sweet god- boys always put their arms around the girl and it touched their bums!
         “Uhh” I started, not looking at him directly in the face. “As friends?”
         “Olivia no!” Bradley walked around to the other table and put his head in his hands. I think I hurt his ego a wee bit.
         I reached my hand across the table and put it gently on his. I knew this was hard for Bradley to ask me, epically if it was a more then friend’s kind of date, but he was the best thing I had in my life and I couldn’t hurt him.
         “I’ll go with you okay?” I gently rubbed his hands. “Just tell me why you asked.”
         “I don’t know, maybe because I love you?” He was looking at me deeply in the eyes, I didn’t look away ether or flinch when he said he loved me because we had already said it to each other. “You’ve been there for me for years and years. Now I want to take you out as a woman and treat you like a woman should be treated? I don’t know Livy but my feelings have changed a bit for you. They are stronger than they once were.”
         I blinked at him in disbelief. Did he just say what I thought he just said? Something about feelings being stronger and treating me like a real woman? Out of the 17 years I’ve known him, he’s never said anything like this or even acted the way he is now. Oh the joys of being a 18 year old teenager.
         I grumbled and stood up. “That just confused me.”
         “I know. I’m sorry.”
         I looked at him and cocked my head to the left. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Bradley at this particular time. His eyes looked hurt and embarrassed. I could see his mind racing and thinking of what he could say to make things less awkward. 
         “We can just go as friends if you want to Liv, I’m sorry about this whole thing.” Like a switch suddenly went off in Bradley’s head he now turned into the goofy Bradley that I had always known.  He sat there with a wide grin on his face and put his clammy hands behind his head to stretch. “You should go to bed though Livy.”
         “K boss” I rolled my eyes and walked up the two flights of stairs into my room. Bradley followed very closely probably in case I fell. He was always there to catch me. Sometimes.
         I stopped in front of my door to say goodbye because boys weren’t allowed into girls rooms. Bradley leaned against the wall and pulled me close. I was getting ready for a raspberry on my forehead (something he always does when I’m upset) but instead he brought his lips to mine.
         It was my very first kiss. Wow. It was warm and sweet. His lips moved around and I closed my eyes, not sure if it was because I was frightened or because I was enjoying it. This kiss was more then I had ever dreamed a kiss would be like. I started to kiss back not knowing if I was doing it right I wasn’t sure. But when this kiss ended I had to admit that I wanted more.
         He pulled away and started to smile. “That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Anyways I’ll see you later Olivia. Have a good sleep” And just like that he walked away.
         I growled in frustration and felt dizzy from the kiss. I turned around to walk into my room, letting the door slam hard enough for Bradley to hear.  He’s never acted so stupid before, what’s his deal? I took off my soaked clothes and put them by the little fire place in my room, then took of my dry clothes and crawled into bed. Good thing to, because my head was starting to throb with pain.
         I closed my eyes and thought about the events that just happened. The four horsemen and their disappearance disturbed me. What did they want here? Where did they disappear to? And most of all who were they? I sighed and rolled over to snuggle with my pillow.
         Today was just such an odd day, with the big snow storm coming, Bradley, the strangers. Bradley shouldn’t of kissed me though, I thought to myself. He knows I get frazzled easily, and he knows I get very emotional. That was probably his intention though; he probably wanted me to get emotional because I’d be vulnerable to him. He’s probably turning into a little pervert. Well I’ll be.
         Sister Angela told me all boys become perverts, but I guess secretly I thought Bradley was gay.  That made me insanely giggly.  I rolled over on my belly and snuggled up with my warm cover, still giggling.
         Anxiety always lasted only a few minutes with me.  Thank goodness because I’m such a spaz and I’m very emotional. So if I didn’t get over things easily I would be a wreck.
         I put my hand on my face and felt the dry scabby blood on my skin. Ew grouse I said rolling out of bed and running over to my night stand but stopped to look out the window.
         The sun was just starting to set and it was gorgeous but was also the calm before the storm. Orange light burst out from behind the white snow covered mountains.  A pale golden shadow shone in my room that made my almost naked body feel warm and tingly. I sighed like a big loser because it felt a little magical and it made me feel good.
         I walked closer to the window and pressed my face against the window, the clouds we’re moving in again and the snow was starting to fall again blowing big white fluffy flakes against my window.  Just below the escarpment I could see a big group of people, probably finishing up from the snow war. A small group of girls we’re walking back with a few boys chasing at their heels. I giggled and shook my head.
         I inhaled deeply and thought of Bradley.  In my mind his beautiful face was beaming of me. I tried to think of him as a boyfriend, would we hold hands in public; would he kiss me every day? I exhaled. I didn’t want Bradley as a boyfriend, we we’re too good of friends for that nonsense.
         Just as I was about to turn around to wash my face a figure caught my eye. They were standing outside my window, with a big, pointy ear, red dog that looked more like a over grown fox.  It was two males, I could tell by the huskiness. One was facing me and the other was facing the sun.
         The one facing me had red shaggy hair and was wearing a dark green robe. He was mounted on a horse and was looking around. I knew he was looking around because he looked left, from right, and then up to me.  Dark green eyes looked up to me and his lips turned up into a boyish grin. As he threw me a wink I shrieked and ran backwards, not to mention covering my body.
         I felt my shirt “magically” (*cough cough*) wrap around my feet and I stumbled backwards. A sharp pain hit me in the back of my head and just like that, the lights went out.