The Cold Gem

The Cold Gem:


‘Fight! Fight, you cowards!’
I heard the Commander's yell in the middle of the furious, yet icy cold war. In a hurry, I cut down the monsterous bear infront of me, pushed it's white cold body away and ran forward to help other warriors, almost slipping because of the frozen lake which we were fighting on.

‘Push them back to their caves! Pu...’ The Commander’s loud and heavy yell was suddenly cut off and it seemed as if our side stopped fighting. We all looked at the snow covered hill where he was standing, but he was gone.
‘Vanished in the thin freezing air!’ I heard several soldiers yell in fear, lightly gasping from the fight. They started to run away in fear of what terrible things other than the fight might happen to them.

‘Curses!’ I thought out loud, and quickly sounded the retreat through the wooden alarm horn.
‘Fall back! Retreat to the Fortress!’ I yelled out, hardly overcoming the horrendous sounds that the enemy’s monsters were making.

I ran as fast as I could, seeing as others that were running, spread out in front of me, were hunted down by the silver white wolves. Yells of caught men filled the air.
Sometimes the wolves even hide in the snow until you pass them. Who could make the difference? Their white fur is a perfect disguise.

Suddenly, there she stood, a little further, blocking our path. Alice, the Ice Queen: the enemy leader. I didn’t notice her at all, the only thing that gave her away was her long black hair waving softly in the wind, along with a scream from that direction from one of our soldiers and a little pool of frozen blood that grew in her direction.

‘Spread out!!!’ I screamed out, knowing there was less than zero chance of survival if you went closer than several meters to her, as I have witnessed more than what’s good for me. A gruesome sight to behold.
I ran to the right, hoping to distance myself from her even more, but a wolf overtook me and I fell face down in a huge pack of snow. My body heat was seeping out of me and I thought I would die, but the wolf who had supposedly tackled me, wasn’t near me anymore. Before I could get up, I passed out...

* * * * *

‘...p! ...ke up! Wake up!’ I opened my eyes to this little sweet, worried voice. I was looking at a stone ceiling, surrounded by stone walls, lying in a warm and comfortable bed.
I looked at the little girl sitting at the side, who, seeing that I woke up, started to cry out of happiness. It was hard to distinguish any words, but frequently you could hear parts of the sentence she kept repeating: ‘You finally woke up’. I pat her head.
‘It’s ok, Oriana, I’m fine. No monster can kill me that easily.’
I smiled, trying to show my daughter that I really was fine, but once again, I could not hide this deep sadness in my heart, which has been there ever since Ori’s mother, my wife, went away.

I figured I was in the recovery area of the Fortress. I slowly got up, and checked to see if I was healthy enough to work again. The Assault was a failure, but luckily the Queen decided not to retaliate and attack us.

I got up, seeing as I did not have any serious wounds and the small wounds were already bandaged. I took Oriana back to her school after comforting her a little more that I was fine.

‘Oh, Kyle, are you up already? You were only resting for two hours.’ An old friend of mine saw me dropping Ori off.

‘You know me, never able to rest.’ I answered, not in the mood to start a conversation after seeing my comrades in arms slain.

‘I know you all too well. Take care, and try not to overdo it today, ok?’ He said and went off.
He probably understood what I was feeling. After all, he is one of the fighters too.

* * * * *

I headed to the other side of the Fortress. I decided to walk there along the Wall. I took a minute to look out. It was the same old picturesque view as ever.
Mountains cold to the left and mountains white to the right. The only passage to the rest of the world is this opening between the two mountains, as the rest of the land is surrounded by cold water with treacherous ice and rocks. It was our duty to guard this passage, and to prevent any enemies to pass. The wind howled again, and I hastened forward to the next tower.

You wouldn’t guess it, but I was part-time teacher. I went to the school, which was build next to the second tower on the right. I entered the noisy classroom and it silenced down almost immediately. I guess they hoped they wouldn’t have any lessons from me right now. ‘What a great start of the new schoolyear.’ I thought, and sighed deeply.

‘Good morning everyone. I’m your part-time teacher Kyle Désinae. I’ll start with repeating some of the things you should know.’ The class seemed enthousiastic and was listening carefully. They were not that disappointed of me turning up. I wonder how long that will last.

‘First of all, the place where we live is called the Fortress. The Fortress exists of the great Wall, the 4 towers and the gate in the middle. Lately, the name also includes all civic buildings like this school, but also normal houses like yours and mine.

It seemed some of the children didn’t know this, which was quite surprising as it was taught and repeated every year to everyone living in the Fortress, and these kids were atleast ten years old. They must have moved in, but I don’t understand why someone would come to live here with their family. It's different if you're born here, but to move in?

‘Our enemies, called the Ice Forces, consist of ice wolves, oversized polar bears, blue frost giants, snow golems and other monsters, a truly frightening combination...’ I explained, leaving the kids to their imagination.

‘These monsters’ ,I continued,’ are all united under the command of one person which we call their Queen. Her name, carve it into your minds, is Alice. Were you ever to just see her, run for your life.’

The class gasped, imagining this huge ugly powerful witch with a long nose, casting her magic and freezing people from the inside.

I waited a minute to give them time to stop their imagination and started to talk again. ‘Their purpose is to eliminate us, and to advance to the rest of the world. It is OUR duty to not let that happen! We must fight for the peace of our friends and our beloved ones!’
I accidently inspired them. They let out a loud cheer that could be heard almost all over the school and the nearby tower.

* * * * *

Suddenly, the walls shook and a roar was heard all over. The alarm horns were being sound and people rushed to get armed and fight. The class's inspiration was replaced by fear.

‘Everyone! Stay calm and follow me! Do not take anything heavy with you, we need to leave immediately!’ I informed the children, getting ready myself.

I lead them to safety, just outside the school. I ran back, stopping only at an exterior barracks to arm myself and went on one of the towers to look what was happening.

‘The Queen! The Queen is attacking!’ The soldiers yelled all over the place

As soon as I heard that yell, I was frozen on my place. ‘She came to kill us all...’ my brains kept saying, and the thought bounced and bounced in my head, unable to leave through one of my ears.

Another quake was felt, but this time even heavier. I looked out and there were atleast five blue giants, taking huge amounts of snow from the ground, making them into giant snowballs and threw or rolled them at the Wall. The power of one such snowball is not to be underestimated. One snowball hit a tower, and it crumbled to half its size, leaving snow all around it.
Five other of these giants were smashing the wall in a synchronized manner. They took their distance and ran towards it, crashing their shoulders upon it. In only three tries, the Wall was broken.

‘They breached the Wall!’ I yelled, still surprised of this sheer strength they had, but while all the other soldiers were fighting the giants and incoming monsters, my attention was caught by the Queen, who used the distraction to secretly bypass the Wall and all the soldiers.
‘Alice!’
I ran to her, but she kept stepping further into the Fortress, eventually reaching the valley where the people who couldn’t fight and the children were.

They all gazed upon the newcomer, who to their surprise looked beautifully, yet cold as the touch of Death. Her face smiled as she looked to their scared faces.

There, an onslaught started. I arrived too late...

‘Alice! Stop this madness at once!’ I screamed, unable to stop her with fighting.

To everyone’s surprise, she stopped for a moment, and slowly turned to me, her eyes looking at me sadly, almost crying. My attention was fixed on her forehead. A black gem was there. The one gem that is rumoured to be possessed by an evil spirit who wanted the world for herself.
‘How could I have not seen this before? It must be her weak point.’ I thought silently, preparing to attack and end this.

‘Daddy?!’ The voice struck my heart, and an overwhelming fear took over my soul.

I quickly searched for Oriana in the crowd and found her. ‘Stay there Oriana! Do not come closer!’ I yelled to her desperately, but it was too late. She had caught the attention of the Queen, who started to slowly step in her direction with her black sword drawn. She left a trail of blood red snow behind her. It was coming from her sword. She fastened her pace with every passing step.

‘NO!!!’ I used every muscle in my body and sprinted as fast as I could and jumped between the two of them, getting struck in the left lung. I fell on the ground, coughed out a lot of blood and fainted. ‘Atleast...I hope.... she won’t kill... her own daughter...’ I thought, just before the red blackness came over my mind.

* * * * *

‘M... Mommy?...’ Oriana looked at Alice with big eyes, memories of her mother flashed through her mind, and she kept calling out to Alice. Tears started to come, and she approached Alice with her arms stretched, wanting to hug her mother, and never let her go anymore.

Sudden and unexpected tears flowed over Alice’s face, and her mouth said the name of her daughter silently. She fell on her knees, being powerless against this unknown emotion. The tears fell like it was a waterfall, and the gem broke by this sudden reaction of the controlled person.
Alice reached out to Oriana, both too emotionally to mind the dying Kyle.

But it was too late... The Fortress’s army had come after the gem’s curse was broken and the monsters fled. Seeing the (former) Queen, they stabbed her in the back, her arms almost completely surrounding her lonely child, who was now crying in the bliss of having found her mother at last, but she soon found out she died before she could hug her for the first time.

The war had ended... But at what cost?



The daughter who survived, made an everlasting statue of her mother and father, together with baby her in their arms, smiling, enjoying life.

Her family as it should have been...

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