Frozen Memories: Heirs of Ethra

Impressive Femlin

    I’d been stuck in this prison for days on end with no source of nourishment. Fortunately, food was the last thing on my mind-a surprise seeing as it seemed to always be the first when I was back home. 

    It had been four days by count of the rise and descent of the sun and moon. Or at least what I had decided to consider to be the sun and moon. I noticed that the light shown through the window in the night was quite different in its reflected hue in comparison to the moon on earth. The colors showing through the small bars were shimmering complexions of blues, golds, and purples-nothing outrageously deep and exuberant in color, but subtle in beauty. The glow was imminent and so very magical. 

    During days, I noticed that the sun was not nearly as bright as the one in Washington-on the days that it would decide to make its wondrous display. This sun’s light always gave impressions of a color similar to the moment when our sun peeked over the clouds to make its rise. The light of day would not gain much brightness outside of this.

    To be honest, though I could only witness and gather assumptions from a small taste of light showing through the steel bars outside of my cell that sat what must have been twenty feet above my jail, I’d like to think that I would like Ethra; if I wasn’t imprisoned here in this place.

    Carefully, I dipped my head out as closely as I could to the bar to see if anyone was coming. When I gathered that the coast was clear, I took the tail of my braid, and for the first time noticed that it was...different than I had remembered. The tail end was considerably darker than I remember, leading into a lavender silver. I’d always remembered it to be the other way around.

    “Weird,” A fleeting assumption that maybe it happened through transport to Ethra. Shaking away the thought, I continued toward the Amthirion cell, and wrapped the tail end of my extremely long braid around it, knotting it and tugging at it to make sure that it would not budge. 

    I was weakened in that cell-even more so when I was close to it. However, I fought through that weakness once to get to that stranger holding me captive. I knew...that around the right circumstances I could do it again. 

    Maybe if my skin wasn’t touching the Amthirion, I’d be able to garner enough strength to break the bars. My hair would only serve as an extension of my hands. 

    “Okay, Mina,” I pepped talked myself, taking a deep breath. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes, lifted my shoulders, and with a great heave I mustered every ounce of strength I had and yanked the cell. Immediately following, a loud c***k sounded. I quickly opened my eyes and saw a bend in the cell. It wasn’t enough! 

    I only had a little strength left and knew that I had to use it wisely, but what could I do? What?! Then it occurred! An idea! Ice! Immediately I grabbed the middle of my braided tail and with the little power I had left, I grabbed the tail of my braid and almost suddenly ice began to envelop the braid, traveling down the length of it until it began to frost the bar in black ice.

    “Thank you!” I whispered through tears and immediately pulled again, my knees buckling beneath me as I had depleted what little strength I had left. Thankfully, because the black ice was so strong, I needed very little power to make the bar break. When I pulled again tail end of my braid broke off simultaneously with the cell bar.

    When it shattered, I struggled to stand and shuffled clumsily out of the broken cell. Looking around for some sort of weapon, I knew I could not defend myself in the position that I was in at that moment. My eyes doubled back at the broken frost-bitten cell that was lying on the ground. Apprehensively, I grabbed the steel bar, preparing for the potential sting that might ensue by touching the Amthirion steel.

    When I clasped the steel the burn was only subtle, thanks to the coated burn of the black ice around it. I tore off a piece of my shirt and wrapped it around the bar to better dampen the slight burn of the Amthirion.

    With great caution, I pressed against the wall of the large darkened area. When I heard the subtle sound of footsteps passing by, I quickly tensed, not sure in which direction the steps were coming from. Panicked, part of me knew that had I run into an enemy in the state that I was in at current, I’d no doubt fall prey to whomever I was up against and would wind up back where I had started.  In a large Amthirion-barred cell.

    I struggled to keep pushing down the dark hall of the area that I was in. It was too soon for me to call it an out-and-out prison as I noticed that there were no other cells nearby outside of the one that harbored me moments ago. Was it...some sort of solitary confinement? I had no clue.

    “Whatever this place...I only hope that others’ fates are as lenient as my own,” I mutter under a struggled breath.

     Where the large space started out as a wide corridor, it gradually began to narrow into a straight path following a height of stairs that led to a singular door that I knew had to have led out of the large confinement room.

    Once I struggled up the length of the stairs, Cursing under my breath,  I knew due to rotten luck that the door had to have been locked. The strange tall man that had visited only days prior had already said in so few words that he would err on the side of caution when dealing with me.

    Surely, while he probably had not assumed that I would use unorthodox means to escape my cell, he’d have instinctively locked that door and bolted if he knew what was good for him. Still, this realization did not stop the naive hope deep down in me from tugging at the bar handle of that door.

    With as much weak force as I could muster, I pulled, and just as I expected that door-wait! It was open! I guess he underestimated me after all. Using my body, I shimmied against the c***k of the door and used the thickness of my form to force the door open. Unfortunately, for me, the sound that followed was loud and obnoxious.

    “Who is there?!” I heard a voice demand! It was obviously male, and while I could understand his words I knew that they were not English. ‘Kim var’, he said.

    He must have assumed me to be some guard or something. Surely, I could not assume the guise of one; there was no doubt in my mind that this guard knew who me as well as the others were. I’d make sure that my guards knew every single intruder’s face had I been on the other side of this situation.

    “Uttar dia!” Answer me! He demanded of me, but I knew that I could not or else I’d only end up back in another cell. I had to wait for him to come. I had to sneak attack him and pray that he wasn’t causing a stir that I could not see.

    As his footsteps got closer, I took a deep breath and gripped the Amthirion bar tightly in both hands, preparing myself for the moment to swing. Counting down the moments before the guard’s eventual arrival was like a torturous eternity. I was both glad and terrified when I finally saw the tip of his boot enter the archway. I held my breath and leaned back against the stone.

    “Huh?” He voiced with confusion, and just before he could turn to witness the culprit who had opened the door to the confinement room, I swung the bar one hard and good time towards his head, knocking him down the stairs.

    Admittedly, I immediately felt guilt for what I had just done and hoped that he wasn’t dead, but I could not afford the time to dwell on what I had just done for long and immediately shuffled out of the door, my steel bar still in hand. Not sure of which direction to go, I took a chance and started for the right.

    With the Amthirion steel in my grasp being deadened by the black frost illuminating it, I gradually began to gather my strength again. I knew at this point that continuing to wield it would only serve in slowing me down, and while the Amthirion had been compromised significantly to the point where it had only been affecting me as much as what had already been embedded in my skin by my wicked aunt Neve, it was still one hindrance that I could not afford. 

    I turned the corner and as I did my body slammed hard into felt like full-bodied concrete. I stumbled back, the wind knocked out of me. 

    “Femlin.” I heard in a dark and deeply menacing tone. When I looked up it was a presence, male and significantly more domineering than any that I had run into since my unfortunate arrival at this place. His skin was a pale and flawless blue, his ears pointed and his eyes large and darker than onyx stone. His hair was just as dark and flowed in a pin-straight mass down to his waist. 

    Judging by the seven-armed escorts standing on each side as well as behind him as well as his imperious air, I could only assume him to be of some sort of royalty, and if not royalty this perfectly dark creature was extremely important to someone.

    “I have a name. It is Wilhelmina.” I hissed in anger. If I was going to be snatched away again, taken against my will, I was not going without a fight nor without words. “And you will use it,” 

    The statuesque male, whose species I could not place seemed to find an almost dry amusement at my words. “Saine bolusun kerek,” ‘You..must be the one,’ He scowled. His hand reached out for me, and instinctively I slapped it away and moved to strike him when he grabbed my hand in a swiftness that surprised me. He was extremely strong and I was nowhere near at a level of strength to fight him off. He grabbed me by the back of my hair. “You escaped...cute. But you are not so impressive to me,” He insulted as his black gaze scrutinized me. “Beautiful, but worthless beyond a bedmate.”

    His words were repulsive, fueling a wave of anger in me that ignited adrenaline of power. Before I could resist my anger, I felt my hands emanate the heated black ice. His eyes widened, my hand creating a small black iced blade. The elf-like man seemed so surprised by this he had no time to counteract me before I lodged the blade into his shoulder, forcing him to release me from his grasp.

    He stumbled back and as he did, his guards quickly tended to him while the others readied themselves to attack me. I knew that I would not be able to outrun. I also was well aware that I would not be able to fend them all off in the weakened state that I was in. I did know one thing. I would be taking as many as I could down with me.

    As they steadily approached, readying their attack, I stood, shoving away the weakness that of days without food and the torture of being surrounded by toxic steel. My life was on the line, and it was time to take my last stand.

    “Come on, Bill,” I said to myself, a small smile etching upon my lips as I called myself by the nickname that he’d given me…

    Pushing the saddened thought that I would never see him again away, I took a deep breath wiped the tears away, and created another blade from ice abilities. It was only slightly bigger, and this time it was wrapped in poisonous vines. Every strike would be aimed to take life at this point.

    “Wait!” 

    When his voice sliced through the tension of the oncoming bloodshed, I found myself surprised-apprehensive, thankful, yet still ready for the moment when he ordered them to continue.

    The mysterious and domineering approached, holding his shoulder, with a snarling grin upon his face. “You do not get to die today, femlin,” He said to me. “Seems...you are quite impressive after all,”