The Anti-Fairy Tales The Ice Of The White Demon Arc Part One

The White Demon

Pheoshan and her companions had been travelling and training for a month after she was exiled by her father. She had seen that the snow had not subsided. She had thought that winter ended when New Years ended but Coalphyre had told her that it was about nearer the end of Nimon which was like February. At the moment, he had told her, they were in the final two weeks of winter. This she was grateful, she could swear that her fingers and toes would be frozen forever.

They could see that the night was drawing in. So they decided to set up camp and Phyredoor set up the fire as they set out to find a rabbit in hibernation. This was how most of their meals were obtained during winter. They then took the corpse back and Coalphyre skinned them and stewed it. They then handed out the bowls and ate.

Pheoshan spotted a lump of snow in the far distant horizon and they ate. They all spotted that the lump of snow as coming closer and closer and when it was time to clean up the lump of snow was next to them and took the shape of a woman with high cheekbones and long hair and her eyes glowed light blue.

“Hello murderer of my son!” she said in a lyrical and cold voice that welcomed one into icy arms.

Pheoshan frowned slightly, beginning to wonder what she was on about, until she remembered what happened in the Mirror Of The White Demon and it clicked.

“Yes, I am the White Demon, however I go by another name, the Queen of Winter or Winter Queen, whichever is easier for you to say. I do not need to say why I am here for I know that you are intelligent enough to figure it out by yourself. Believe me I know what I have to do and I know that I will like it even more less than you, so I will ask this before I do anything, will you join me or are we gong to have to do what nether of us will like?”

She huffed and shrugged acceptant of whatever she had planned. Seeing this the Winter Queen let out a long light sigh as if he too was acceptant of her choice.

“Then looks like I will be sending my snow owls to collect the prince and his sister then!” she sighed.

“What.”

Soon she heard a hoot of several owls that were louder and deeper than usual owls. She snapped around and looked up at the sky to see that there was five snow white owls diving towards them! Then as they got closer and closer they became bigger and bigger until to their horror they spotted that the owls were the size of a large door! And as their wings flapped it blew their hair around so much that it was getting in their eyes.

They tried to blink the strands out as it stung but the act only made things worse as strands got into the upper and bottom lids. Pheoshan took out her knife and had to cut her hair short to stop it becoming a liability. And she did it in time for she quickly spotted the tip of a talon almost reach Coalphyre and she threw her knife into the owl's throat.

She ran to them and plucked it out. She looked to him who also took out his sword and swung it at one but it's talons dug into his arm and his hand dropped it. Then the Winter Queen smirked.

“That is one of your friends on her way.” she said as she pointed to the sky. They both looked at each-other and then realised who she was talking about and they then looked up as if to confirm it.

“Phyredoor!”

They both looked at her in anger as they looked at each-other and ran for her only for a snow owl to dig it's talons into Coalphyre and whip him off the ground. Pheoshan spotted it and as she went in to cut him free she was pulled back and stabbed above her and fell and helplessly saw her friends and the last snow owl fly away. She heard a weak hoot from behind and in her anger picked up Coalphyre's blade and chopped off it's head.

“Well that was not very nice or ladylike!” she sang as if she was more mildly amused rather than shocked or angry.

“Well,” she sighed like a yawn. “It hardly matters, for my snow owls did their job. I would say that there is a chance, however you already know what I would say. I have decided to give you that chance so I will tell you how and to make it easier I will say it in rime. Come to my castle of Ice, girl not made of spice, follow my path, fall to frozen wrath, from here you must go, to the Fields of Snow. Now repeat it or you will never see your friends again.”

Pheoshan huffed.

“Come to my castle of Ice, girl not made of spice, follow my path, fall to frozen wrath, from here you must go, to the fields of snow.” she gritted.

“Good!”

She smiled as the snow dropped leaving her to pack up and quickly clean up. She then spotted a blue scroll as she put out the fire with her foot. She picked it up as she stepped on the pile. She opened it and spotted that she was going in the right direction. She walked and walked until she came to an icy road. She spotted a frosty pole with arrow boards with the one that said Fields Of Snow pointing left. She turned and walked on, not wanting to waste her energy that she knew that she needed for fighting.

She soon came to it which was several long fields separated only by ice coated white stones. She walked on and spotted the Castle of Ice amongst the mist of water vapour. She had to admit to herself that it did look beautiful. She took her first step onto the snow as a new coat fell lightly.

She set her foot on the snow feeling slightly guilty that her footprint would taint such a beautiful landscape. Then again, she knew that her friends were more important than beauty and since when had she started to have an appreciation for it anyway?

She heard a crunch after crunch and was able to see that there were blades of grass so frozen that they were broken! She felt a chill run down her spine.

This grass has not been frozen over the winter! She realised. Then this must have been frozen for a great amount of time...

She continued hoping that her feet would not get cut by the frozen grass then came some odd trembling though the ground and she soon fell. Her hands were only mildly cut but in this weather and shallowness caused them to feel less like cuts but as if her hands were on fire! She then spotted a large shadow in front of her. She tilted her head and spotted something that she did not believe existed, a Yetti!

She scrambled back as it came for her. She knew that it had been sent by the White Demon so she sliced it's overly-large human like hand and then as it roared she dug the blade up and deep into it's furry guts and pulled it out and as it fell she used her legs to keep herself steady. She quickly dug her hands under her armpits to keep them warm as she walked the rest of the way.