A Fiery Battle

Alex aimed his hand and shot an icicle right at the beastial, only for him to swiftly react and move his head away. The icicle raced right through the wooden flooring and carved a deep and narrow hole. Alexen sat there dumbfounded.

"What! What incredible speed! His reaction time is insane!" Alexen thought to himself. He slowly got off of the Beastial and looked at him, almost afraid of him.

"Thank you," said the Beastial as he got back to his feet.

"For what?" Alexen responded.

"For getting off me of course. I was afraid you'd crush my lungs if you sat on me any harder." The Beastial straightened his fur jacket and wiped off any ice that got on it. "Still…your Mom's icicles are way faster. It's like she shoots out blurs."

Alexen looked at him intrigued. He was no longer angry at him, but he was skeptical of him. What was he to his Mother? Alexen wanted to know so bad, and so he asked.

"My mother…how do you know her? How do you know I'm her son?"

"Easy man, one at a time okay!" chuckled the Beastial. "I'll answer any questions you have, but first let me introduce myself. My name is Calumiki and, as you guessed, I am of Beastial descent."

Alexen looked down at Calumiki's tail dreadfully. "Do…Do all Beastials have tails like that?"

Calumiki burst into laughter, his laugh was so squeaky and innocent. It was almost like it was contagious. "Wait, so am I the only Beastial you ever met?" He said holding back the giggles.

"Well, yeah. What's wrong with that?"

"Oh it's nothing. You Glacials sure love isolation, don't even know the outside world. Heck even I know the Glacial traits before I even came here! You Glacials all have silver white hair at the ends, really dark blue eyes, and are always freakishly cold. So much as touching one of you sends shivers down my spine! It's like you all don't have any body heat.

"Well…that's easy to notice," Alexen argued.

"So is my tail!" Calumiki pointed right at his tail as it energetically swung back and forth. He then cleared his throat and got back on track. "That aside, anything else you want me to ask?"

"My mother…" Calumiki cut off Alexen mid sentence.

"Aha! Your mother! I knew you were her son when I saw that navigator in your hand. That gadget is an amazing piece of excellence from the Azurians."

"Azurians? Who are they?" Alexen was sucked in, for he had not known anyone with such knowledge on other nations.

"Nah, don't worry about them for now."

"Calumiki."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I get distracted easily. Now where were we? Oh yeah, your mother. I was your mother's Beastial contact who lended her info on the Beastials and their situation, whether it be financially or militarily. There were more representatives from other nations, but they stopped reporting ever since the Battle of the Wintersong seven years ago. We became good friends through work."

Alexen looked down at the navigator, a shiny, silvery, circular device with teal along the edge. It was clearly something not made from nature. It was as if it were magic or something. Any normal compass would just point any direction, but this thing pointed to a specific location, this cabin.

"My mom said in the letter that you'd look after me, what do you plan to do now?" Alexen asked, still looking at the navigator mesmerized.

Calumiki took a heavy step towards the young Glacial and produced a large smile on his face, one that's warm enough to even thaw out the coldest and the most frozen of hearts. His fluffy snow-white tail continued to wag with glee as he spoke. "I'll just follow you wherever you go. So where do you plan on going?"

Alexen was a bit ticked off with his answer. He wanted to go along this journey alone, hence why he did not allow his brother or Nion go with him. But…this man was trusted by his own mother to look after him, Alexen couldn't just deny the will of his own mother. He wanted to respect her decisions, therefore allowing him to come along.

He gave the Beastial a rundown of his mission and the current state of Glacia, and Calumiki stood in awe.

"Every country!" he exclaimed. His tail became as stiff as a board. "That's crazy! I'm pretty sure the Beastia government would provide assistance to Glacia, because of their tight alliances."

"Calumiki, was it?" Alexen called to him, as quiet and gentle as the light brisk breeze in the night.

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you save my mother? Why didn't you save Glacia? You could have warned Glacia ahead of time, but why didn't you?"

Calumiki's sweet smile now died down and he just looked at Alexen's feet, contemplating about the past. "The government of Beastia did not want me to intervene in the affairs Humania has with Glacia. They feared being conquered by such a powerful nation, so they asked of me not to get involved. I myself tried to muster up mercenaries, volunteers that are willing to help Glacia fight off the human invasion, but no one took up arms. They even turned on me and tossed me in jail for the majority of the battle, so that I wouldn't get involved. The whole country was petrified, scared to death of Humania. I'm sorry I couldn't save your mother."

"Then why are you so sure they'll help now if they didn't before?"

"They'll definitely agree if all the other countries are on our side. But they get scared shitless when they're fighting the humans on their own," Calumiki quipped. He walked over the door and held it open, very gentlemanly as if Alexen was an extremely attractive woman coming out of a restaurant. "Now, shall we?" He stuck his hand and pointed it towards the cold outdoors littered with little specks of white snow and weathered leaves.

Alexen ambled out the door, clutching the navigator tight and close to his chest, to his heart. Calumiki shut the door behind him and followed behind as Alexen ran his feet through the sheet of snow covering the grass and it's beauty.

They continued down the path towards the Beastial border, and Calumiki's preciously fluffy tail gleefully swished back and forth the whole time. It still seemed to bother Alexen though, for he had never seen anything like him. All his life he'd seen Glacials like him, all of them having snow-white hair. But it was weird to him. Tails on a person, he still could not comprehend it.

Alexen focused his eyes onto Calumiki, his face specifically. Calumiki's coffee brown hair bounced side to side across his forehead as he happily strolled along the road, his green eyes squinted with joy. "His face…He looks so young." Alexen thought to himself, and it was true! Calumiki, claiming to be a friend of his Mother, looked way younger than her. He looked to be about eighteen or nineteen. He had young, smooth looking cheeks and was just as tall at Alexen, maybe a bit shorter. He was built like an eighteen year old too.

"Hey Calumiki, if I may ask, how old are you?"

Calumiki turned his head gently to face him, then giggled. He rubbed the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair, and his tail slumped down suddenly. "And here I thought you'd be the first person to not ask me. I'm thirty-five years old. Two years younger than your mother."

Alexen's eyes basically bulged out of the socket as he gawked at him in disbelief. "No way! No way you're thirty-five! You look just as young as me!"

"Guess it's genetics." Calumiki continued down the road with his fingers interlocked together behind his back. He began to whistle softly while Alexen stared at him intensely the whole time, still shocked at the thought of this eighteen year old looking guy is actually thirty-five.

That aside, the two of them made great progress along the road to the border, although Calumiki would stop once in a while to look at plants or objects along the path that caught his eyes. "Oh look!" He shouted as he dashed into the forest. Calumiki walked over beside a tree and held up a sharp, translucent looking rock to where Alexen could see it. "It's a cool looking gem."

Alexen peered at the rock, then shook his head. "That's not a gem, that's an icicle, looks to be chipped."

Almost immediately, an icicle flew through the dense forest towards Calumiki, but he calmly shifted his head swiftly to avoid the icicle. In reaction to that, Alexen quickly returned fire at the attackers, only to realize they were Glacials.

The two Glacials came out from the forest, the female one holding her arm. They both looked and saw Alexen, then lowered their guard.

"What's going on?! Alexen furiously inquired.

"We were ordered to guard the border out of Glacia, and were told to not let any foreigners in… We just figured this Beastial must've slipped into the country." They both grew stiff.

"Ordered by who? Nion?" Alexen questioned.

The guards denied his answer. "It was Captain Sybia," the Glacial woman said, her voice ever so feminine and appealing to Alexen's eardrums. He thought of her voice to be cute, in a way.

But Alexen was confused. Captain Sybia, a fellow captain to Nion, did not have authority to give such an order. He and his battalion were responsible for protecting major cities, meanwhile Nion is responsible for foreign affairs and offensive assaults. This kind of stuff is Nion's responsibility.

"Leave this position now. Your Captain has no right to give out such an order."

"You don't have the authority to give us orders, you're not a captain," remarked the male Glacial.

"You cut my arm too!" The female Glacial held her arm tightly, her sleeve torn and blood dripping down her arm.

"You attacked us."

Calumiki stood back as the three argued, and sat against a tree. He leaned over it, only to feel something strange and hear someone whisper "Ow!" A man in a red and brown robe and hood appeared suddenly. Calumiki was sitting right on his lap.

Calumiki jumped to his feet, and the man did the same. They stared each other down, until Alexen and the other two caught notice. He boasted crimson eyes with what looks to be a dagger sheathed at his side.

"Invisibility magic, eh?" The beastial remained still as he analyzed this person.

"The…" stuttered the two Glacial guards as they trembled in fear. "That's a Mystial!"

Alexen began creating ice as their eyes met. Dark blue eyes clashed with the crimson red eyes. "This guy's probably a scout." Alexen said to Calumiki. He nodded his head as he continued to wait for the Mystial to make his first move. He outstretched his finger and pointed it at Calumiki. Fire emitted from his finger and began to ignite and grow larger, and larger… and larger. It stopped growing abruptly and the man released the fireball and shot it at him, hoping it'll turn him into a smoked dog/human.

But hastily Alexen raised a wall of ice the surrounded the front of Calumiki's body, and collided with the fireball. It hissed and steamed as the fire was quenched. But the wall would fall soon afterwards after taking such a huge blow.

The man then pulled his dagger out from his sheath and charged at the group. He swung at Calumiki, but his sheer speed was leagues ahead of him, and so he avoided the attack and rolled to the side.

Alexen was on his knees, exhausted from using so much ice. He knelt as he caught his breath, taking in so much air, until the man slipped past the Beastial and now went for Alexen. But luckily the other Glacials shot icicles at the Mystial, which forced him to back away from him.

The Mystial then concentrated, then swung his dagger, producing a stream of wind that flew across towards the two Glacials, ripping through any icicles in flight. It was unmovable and did not stop until it hit a target.

Knowing it wouldn't stop, the female Glacial jumped in front of it to save her I comrad. The wind stream smacked right into her chest and cut it up, and so she had a gash through her chest. She fell to the ground rolling in pain, the snow slowly falling on her bloody wound. The Mystial looked pleased at the sight.

As the Mystial clashed with the other Glacial, Alexen rested a bit, and formed an icicle that stuck out from his palm. The two fighters exchanged blows as one another repelled their opponents attacks, and Alexen tried to find the perfect time to strike.

Cling! Clank! Sparks lit up the snowy forest as the Glacial guard and the Mystial scout went at it. The glacial wielded icicles that could be used as daggers, meanwhile the Mystial has the traditional dagger made from iron. It shined in beauty and glory as it lusted for blood of a Glacial, something the wielded wished for a while.

The Glacial thrusts his weapon forward as he fights relentlessly, pressuring the Mystial and wearing him out. Forced to go on the defensive, the Mystial lost his footing as he tripped over a rock attempting to block all of his attacks. Right then and there, Alexen fired his icicle and it went clean through the Mystial's shoulder, but he did not falter to the pain.

Instead, he decided to flee the battle and cauterized his wound with his fire magic so the blood drops wouldn't leave a trail. He ditched the fight and dashed into the forest.

"Don't let him escape!" Calumiki screamed as he hauled ass and was on his tail. Alexen was soon to follow.

The Mystial looked back to see his pursuers, then hissed. He ran even faster through the forest, and so did Alexen and Calumiki. They turned around a tree, only to be met by a fireball aimed at them, and the Mystial fired.

"Alexen!" Calumiki grabbed Alexen by the collar and dove into the snow away from the fireball.

Boom! The fireball smashed into the ground, making a large smokey crater. The two of them stuck their heads out of the snow, and the Mystial scout was gone.

"Crap! He's going to report to his captain and give information to them," Alexen worriedly exclaimed.

They turned back to the Glacials to check on their condition.

"How is she doing?" Alexen knelt by her and looked at her wound. It looked horrifying.

"Alexen?" asked the other Glacial guard. "She needs medical attention."

Alexen thought for a second, placing his thumb onto his chin as he rummaged through his brain for guidance. The ice cold wind blew his bangs to the side, as well as cool down the blood seeping from the woman's chest.

"Take her back to Eiraco, and tell Nion about this. Tell him that information might have fallen into enemy hands. Who knows how long the Mystial's have been scouting for, and there might be more than one of them. We'll try to get foreign help as fast as possible."

And so the Glacial picked up his comrade while Calumiki and Alexen ran out of the Glacial border and toward the Beastial border.