The Ice Warrior

The giant stirred from its sleep at the sound of footsteps entering its cave, a cool wind blowing through the icy hall of the long dormant beast's cavern, reaching for its trusty battle-axe the beast studied the many mirrors to view the intruder and how best to... dispose of him without making too much of a mess as it would wake his wife, and he wouldn't hear the end of that.

Quaking Jeremiah stepped gingerly into the freezing cold caverns he didn't want to be there especially since no-one who had gone there had ever come out again but he needed the money for his wife and four children and he didn't want anyone to go hungry. Raising his small sword and shield for defence he moved forward. 'This isn't so bad' he thought to himself but suddenly he heard a large growl then he noticed a shining surface showing the most hideous thing he had ever seen. was bit a Yeti, a white bear or even the mythical snow imp then he noticed a bag of coins sitting by the mirror, he was torn if he grabbed some money he would almost certainly be captured and killed by the thing but if he ran and got away then his family would starve and he would most likely be driven to insanity with the hungry cries of his children. Jeremiah decided to take the risk he lunged forward to the bag and grabbed several handfuls of coins then in looking up saw his own face but no thing where was it. It couldn't have just disappeared! Deciding not to dwell on it Jeremiah turned to flee the cave where he saw the shiny blade of the axe just before it...

Angrily Sektahll had missed the thief who was now running out the gaping mouth of the cave with a face filled with fear angrily Sektahll chased after the thief who had helped himself to his sack of coins! With his long facial hair swinging from side to side Sektahll raced into the cold axe swing from side to side ever missing the skinny man running for his life in the thinning snow soon they came upon a village forcing Sektahll to turn back as if he were seen then he would certainly be hunted but as he was leaving the village he saw a group of children playing outside of the village boundary, out of sight easily catchable, deliciously bite sized. A smile wormed its way around Sektahll's face, a nice compromise in his opinion and if he were to get caught he still had his axe at the ready.

His face red with exhaustion and fear Jeremiah thanked the gods he wasn't hacked up on the snow and with a joyous grin entered his house to the loving embrace of his wife who in her joy kissed him 'till he ran out of breath "I'm so happy you're home Jeremiah!" she exclaimed "I was so anxious that you wouldn't return I even wrote you an elegy but I believe it won't be anymore." and when Jeremiah showed her the coins in his pockets pulled him onto the bed in a loving embrace as she began to unbutton her blouse.

As Sektahll devoured the children he had kidnapped he noticed one little girl with short brown hair and large blue eyes and couldn't bring himself to place her in his mouth once the rest of the children were in his he wiped his blood darkened mouth and studied the little girl but when he tried to speak the girl fainted so he tried to spell things on the wall but when the girl wrote back he could not comprehend the writing and although his love was almost completely funnelled into his wife he felt


that a small amount of that love was funnelling into this little girl and so decided to release the little girl back to the village the next day.

Jeremiah was pacing around his house with anxt in his head and on his face as his little girl Joanne had not returned from playing with her friends and now it was night time the entire village had started looking for the children but no one had found them so they had decided to go to the beasts cave to try and find their children but that hadn't settled Jeremiah's thoughts as he was afraid for his little daughter's safety but he could do no more and so settled down to an uneasy sleep.

The next morning Sektahll carried the girl to the village where she belonged and apologised to the villagers in their human tongue, who agreed to leave his cave alone and as he made the trip home he saw that drops of moisture were appearing on trees and the weather was getting warmer, spring was coming and hibernation was over.

Word Count:815