April Short Story [The Respect of Winter] Frith Chronicles

Hey peeps!

Here is a short story about Fain and the fenris wolf! I'll also be doing a short-short story about Calisto bonding to [spoilers] the typhon beast (as seen from his perspective). That should be up tomorrow or the next day! Just a bonus thing.

Hope you enjoy!

The Respect of Winter

“Moonbeam, look at this,” I said as I knelt to touch a small flower.

The white petals practically glowed in the moonlight. Since when did flowers bloom in the dead of night? I wasn’t an expert on flora, so I wasn’t sure if this was strange behavior that needed to be reported, but it seemed odd enough to mention to someone.

Adelgis walked over and stared at the flower. His smooth face, and dark eyes, were hard to read. For anyone. And I found it hard to interrupt the mood of most people, so I never really knew with him.

He had the standard Moonbeam Expression.

“Fain,” he said.

It sent a shiver down my spine. Adelgis didn’t usually say my name. I stood and brushed myself off, a little out of sorts. “Yeah?”

“I think this is from the world serpent.”

“Yeah?” I glanced back at the pale flower. It didn’t seem that special. “How so?”

“Haven’t you been noticing things lately? Changes?”

The evening winds whipped across Regal Height, carrying bits of rock and sand. The red, black, and gold stones around Hydra’s Gorge shimmered under the faint light of the stars. We had been here a few weeks already, but I hadn’t noticed many changes. The place felt awkward and difficult. Nothing here made much sense to me. Everyone here seemed impressed by my frostbitten fingers and ears, like they were trophies.

I didn’t share their enthusiasm.

For that reason, I typically stayed out of town.

“I haven’t noticed much,” I eventually said. “Are the flowers new?”

“Oh, yes. Definitely.” Adelgis crouched and gently touched the petals.

His robes matched the same pale white of the flower. His long black hair, secured as a ponytail with a ribbon, still fluttered when the wind picked up. Although he seemed fragile, I knew it wasn’t the case. The man had been through a lot.

“Should we, uh, report this?” I asked. “I can send Wraith into the city to get someone.”

“No. That won’t be necessary.”

For some reason, Adelgis always seemed concerned with magicand mystical creatures. Not just the things happening around us, but the larger picture. He always spoke about greater implications. I admired him for it—his mind dwelled on things mine didn’t—but sometimes I felt left out of the loop.

“The world serpent seems to be the heart of magic,” Adelgis said as he stood. With a smile, he added, “A heart of magic. I suspect the fenris wolf will start to alter things as well.”

“In a good way?” I asked.

“Well, more in a nature way. And nature is neither good nor bad. A tree doesn’t sprout in the middle of a sidewalk because it wants to spite those who built it. A tree just wants to grow. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah. I guess. So the flower doesn’t give a damn about anything? It’s gonna grow here because the world serpent is close? And that’ll keep happening?”

Adelgis chuckled. It was light and refreshing. He didn’t do it often. “Yes,” he said with mirth. “The flower doesn’t give a damn.”

“Heh.”

“Will you watch it for a moment?”

“The flower?”

“I want to get a pot and store the flower within, so that I may look at later in my room.”

With a sigh, I replied, “All right.”

Adelgis turned and headed toward Regal Heights. The lights of the fortress homes twinkled in the distance. We were perhaps half a mile beyond the borders. Running back and then returning wouldn’t take longer than thirty minutes. It might take Adelgis longer, though. He wasn’t built to run.

He waved to me as he went. I didn’t know why, but I waved back. Did people around here always do that? Pirates wouldn’t even tell each other where they were going most of the time. They just went to port and came back before we shoved off.

A chill whipped over the rocky terrain.

There weren’t many trees or bushes around. The sole flower was alone in the sandy dirt. Could flowers grow in sand? I didn’t think so. Perhaps Adelgis was right. Perhaps this flower was very special.

The sharp sting of ice caught me by surprise. Regal Heights wasn’t cold enough for such temperatures.

“Wraith?” I whispered. “Is that you?”

My eldrin rubbed himself against the side of my leg. His invisibility was rather impressive.

“It’s not me,” Wraith muttered.

I tensed as I glanced around. A bank of fog rolled over the area. Actual icy mist. That wasn’t normal. This was magic—I knew. It had to be. But whose? Who else had control of frost and could summon it at will?

The fog grew thick and frosty. I shivered, my breath visible. Then I turned my attention to the flower, and how dew crystals appeared on its petals. Adelgis had asked that I watch it… So I knelt and brushed off the rime. But that wasn’t going to save the plant. What could I do?

A voice rumbled out of the mist, wafting over to me with a threatening growl at the edge of its words. “Poor, lonely hunter.”

I had come to recognize the cadence of the god-creatures. This was the fenris wolf, Vjorn. I should’ve known. It had the magic of ice and winter. I had seen that man, Zaxis, evoke it plenty of times.

Was Zaxis here as well? We never got along…

Perhaps now he was coming to kill me, out in the middle of nowhere, behind a veil of mist so that no one would see.

Wraith dropped his invisibility, showing his true form—a black wolf with a skull mask. He used to have antlers, but not anymore. He was thin, emaciated, and gangly. His piercing eyes practically glittered with the night, and he flashed his fangs at the mist, growling.

“A tiny wolf is no match for a primordial beast.”

“Vjorn,” I said, my voice rough. I turned on my heel, trying to see through the fog, but it was too dark. “Is there a reason you’re out this far from the city?”

“There is always a hunt.”

I held my breath as I squinted into the mists. The beast didn’t need to eat, did it? Volke had said they feasted on ambient magic. What could he be hunting?

“I think you should move on,” I said.

“Why is that?”

“I need to watch this, uh…” I glanced down at the wilting petals. “I need to watch this flower. Your winter winds will kill it.”

“You are a creature of ice and death. Keep it safe while I hunt.”

The statement gave me pause. I could evoke ice, true, but I couldn’t manipulate it. The drop in temperature would kill the flower no matter what I did.

Wraith continued to growl, his hackles raised.

The fenris wolf shifted through the icy mist, his giant form slightly visible whenever he shifted positions. I stepped away, my gait stiff. Wraith always took a position between me and the god-creature.

“Your magic is weak,” Vjorn growled.

“Leave us alone,” Wraith shouted. “We want nothing to do with you.”

“I saw you instructing my arcanist. Your ice… Nothing you do is worth respect.”

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. What did this wolf want? For me to fight him? I wasn’t going to that, obviously.

The flower…

Adelgis had wanted it. Now it was being assaulted by the mists.

What would Volke do?

“Can you… help me?” I called out into the night. “With my ice?”

The fenris wolf responded with a low growl. I didn’t know how to interpret that.

“Volke said you created winter winds in your lair. I… want to evoke powerful blasts of ice.”

“Chill is the heart of death. Everything that dies eventually runs cold.”

I stared down at my black, frostbitten fingers. I knew about death. I had seen it… The night I went out to bond with the wendigo. Death had almost taken me. And it had been so, so cold.

But that wouldn’t help me save the flower.

Determined to do something, I knelt and evoked ice. Instead of evoking it on the flower, I evoked the ice around the flower, trying to encase it in a box of crystal frost. Perhaps I could shield it from the mist until Adelgis returned?

“You fight against your nature.”

My evocation eventually created a little dome of ice. It was difficult—normally I didn’t have much control, but I focused and concentrated, trying to remember all the lessons Volke had given me over the years. With calm breaths, I created a shield around the flower.

“Why not embrace death as an ally? That is the true meaning of the wendigo.”

“I don’t want to embrace it,” I said as I placed my hands on the icy barrier around the flower. “I just want…” But I didn’t know how to finish that statement.

“Your ice will always be weak until your eldrin reaches its telos.”

The statement bothered me. For a long time, I knew that was the answer. My magic would be weak unless I somehow achieved true form with Wraith. But wendigo were creatures of death and cannibalism. I would have to forsake life and humanity to know the true meaning of his magic.

And Adelgis…

He wouldn’t like that.

Perhaps if I were still a pirate, in Calisto’s crew, that would’ve been easier. That was what Calisto wanted, after all. He tried to help me achieve true form with my eldrin. He knew—he was pretty good with mystical creatures, after all.

“I can’t.” I rubbed at my eyes, my fingers growing stiff from the cold. “Is there any other way? Can’t I train, or improve?”

“Perhaps. One day. If the arcane plague is shifted from corruption, into… something else…”

That wasn’t going to help me at the moment. Determined to save the damn flower, despite how ridiculous my task was, I dug my black fingers into the ground and dug around it. The flower couldn’t stay here, not even with my icy shield. I would have to move it—take it into town, even without a pot. Adelgis could save it then. Or perhaps another arcanist would have magic to soothe the injuries of flora.

Couldn’t the world serpent do something similar?

Wraith stopped growling and glanced back at me, his ears erect. “What’re you doing?”

“Help me get this plant out of the ground.”

Wraith leapt to my side and sniffed at the ground. The cold winds whipped around us. They didn’t bother Wraith. Wendigo didn’t mind the weather. He could shoulder-deep in snow and he’d never feel the difference.

With sharp claws, Wraith dug into the ground around the flower. Together, we completely scooped away the dirt surrounding the small roots. Then I broke my ice barrier and lifted the flower—and some of the soil—straight into my arms.

“Protecting life will not help you develop magic,”Vjorn said with a growl.

“I don’t care,” I barked back. “If I have to be a cannibal to improve my magic from this point, I guess it won’t happen.” Then I jogged into the mist—hoping I was heading in the direction of Regal Heights.

My eldrin ran at my side, his padded feet quiet. My run was equally as quiet. A benefit of being a wendigo arcanist.

The fog stayed with us, swirling around as though it wanted to strangle me.

“The magic of ice and death is powerful. Everyone fears the creature at the top of the food chain.”

Vjorn’s statements made sense. They did. But I held the flower close to my chest as I ran. My brother… He had felt the same way. He wanted to be powerful enough to change his life—to change everything.

But then he died. Killed by… the knightmare.

I closed my eyes as I ran, trying to push the thoughts out of my mind. If I controlled death, I would be unstoppable. I could do whatever I wanted, and who would stop me? But that was a pirate’s mentality. It was Calisto’s mantra, and the laws of the bloody tides.

Volke didn’t adhere to those laws, and yet he was the most powerful arcanist here.

Why couldn’t I go a different route?

One that didn’t involve me abandoning my humanity?

“Leave me alone,” I shouted into the wind. “I don’t want your help! I’ll make my magic my own! I’ll get stronger without you!”

“If you won’t embrace death as an ally, you must embrace your wits. Every magic can be improved through clever means.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I just wanted the god-creature to go. His gruff voice haunted my thoughts.

“A clever hunter will never go hungry. Outsmart your opponent, and sheer power will be unnecessary.”

Easy for a giant wolf to say.

I ran faster and faster, trying desperately to make it back to Regal Heights. Once I was in town, the wolf wouldn’t follow me. He was too large—he was a god-creature, massive and towering. I could hide in a building, near a fire.

“Careful,” Adelgis said, his telepathic voice a whisper in my ears. “The fenris wolf is leading you astray. You’re about to run off the edge of the gorge.”

I stutter-stopped, almost unable to slow my momentum. When the fog dissipated, I spotted the edge of Hydra’s Gorge. It was just five feet away. I could’ve easily plummeted off the side.

Had the wolf been trying to kill me?

A growl-laced laugh emanated out of the fading mist. “I could’ve killed you then—and I never had to lift a claw.”

He was just trying to make a point?

I tensed and glanced around. Wraith circled around my legs, his fur still on end.

“You needn’t fret. I would have saved you from the fall. But now you have learned the lesson. Even weak magics can win, when wielded by sharp minds.”

I swallowed, still cradling the flower. When I glanced down, I noticed half the white petals had fallen off. With a frown, I turned my attention to the walls of the gorge city. They weren’t far. At least I had Adelgis’s flower.

“Sorry, Moonbeam,” I said aloud as I jogged for the gates. “I tried.

“You did beautifully.”

“I think the flower will die.”

“There will be more.”

Wraith ran at my side. When we neared the gate guards, he cloaked himself in invisibility once more, disappearing from sight. I almost did the same, but for some reason, I didn’t want to be a ghost this time. I remained visible as I slowed to a jog and entered the city. The guards nodded to me, like I was a normal person.

“The fenris wolf said something interesting to me,” I whispered as I walked the narrow walkways of the city. “He said the arcane plague can change…”

“That’s right,” Adelgis replied. “Also, take the flower to city hall? That’s where I am.”

“Okay.” But as I walked, I glanced around at the moonlit buildings. “What will the arcane plague become?”

“It depends on the god-arcanists, and their aura. I think… I think if they transform the plague, something great will happen. Something powerful.”

I held my breath as I walked, wondering if Volke would do something like that.

Probably. He liked helping people. I could see him giving power to everyone.

“What do you want with this flower again?” I asked, a little confused I still had it.

“I want to answer a few questions. Thank you for helping me, Fain. You’re one of the few people who listens to my strange ramblings.”

With a smirk, I just shrugged. “Don’t worry, Moonbeam. I’ve got your back.”