Frosted Dreams (NaNoWriMo2020)

Iwakālua

An aura of heat hovers around the stick, something the pa'oa has never done. Even Pele's fire stick never did this. It's a very strange occurrence. Hika glances between the fire stick and Jaak, frowning.

"Did you feel anything when you picked it up?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. It just felt like a stick."

"What does it feel like now?"

Jaak reaches out to touch the fire stick. "It's . . . cold. Burning cold. What happened to it?"

"I don't know, but it's not supposed to be like this. Also, did you say it was cold?"

"Yes, why?"

"It's warm to me. Hot even. How can it be cold?"

Jaak frowns. "Could your . . . pa'oa be broken?"

Hika shrugs. "There's only one way to find out."

She kneels by the bare patch of dirt and plunges the fire stick into the ground. Orange liquid wells up from the base of the stick, liquid flame. Jaak jumps back in alarm, saying something under his breath. From the tone of his voice she can guess that it was a curse.

"What are you doing?! This is what is going to make the snow hate you!"

Hika snaps back. "It isn't going to touch the snow!"

She quickly pulls the fire stick from the ground and scoops the liquid flame up, cradling it in her hands. Somehow now that she has control over all her flame, she can manipulate this liquid fire. It curls in her hands like ocean waves, moving as one solid mass. One of the fiery waves curls over itself and foams, moving to spill over her hands.

She pulls the wave back before all of it can spill over, but she misses one drop. Pulling the fire into one of her hands, curling it like a band against her wrist, Hika swoops down with the other to catch the drop before it hits the snow. Jaak catches it before she can, the drop only a few inches from the snow.

He has a thick layer of ice between his skin and the droplet, a precautionary measure. Hika fully expects the droplet to at least partially burn through the ice layer, but it doesn't. It turns blue instead and Jaak gasps, staring at it. Hika gazes at his hand with wide eyes, forgetting about the band of fire around her own wrist.

"I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

Jaak prods the blue drop. "It doesn't hurt. The drop isn't hot now, it's gone cold. Like what I felt from the stick when I touched it."

"Very strange. Can you control it like you can the snow?"

Jaak frowns as the droplet stretches and takes the shape of a snowflake, its edges flickering. "I can, but it's difficult. Of course, that is how my snow was when I was first learning to control it.  Can you control this strange flame?"

Hika reaches out towards it and the flame dances towards her, quickly morphing from the snowflake into the shape of an actual flame, just blue. It jumps from Jaak's palm to her own. The blue fire is cold against her skin but not painful, a blend of cold and heat yet both separately. It sits on her palm for a moment before it, without her prodding, melds with the rest of the liquid fire circling her wrist. Hika can see it traveling separately from the rest of the flame, a dot of blue in a red sea. Hika looks up at Jaak.

"I can control it, but it is definitely something else. Something new."

"What?"

"I don't know. For now, shall we call it icefire?"

Jaak tilts his head, frowning. "I suppose that is acceptable."

Hika laughs. "I'm glad you agree."

She looks down at the liquid fire again and coaxes it to collect in her palm, a pool of shifting color. She plucks the icefire droplet from the rest and frowns at it, trying to absorb it into her skin. It does get absorbed, at least partially. Hika swears as frost bites into her skin, quickly summoning a flame beneath her skin to burn it away. Jaak frowns at her.

"What happened?"

"I was trying to absorb it and it must have separated back into two parts because I suddenly had ice stabbing into my skin."

"Let me see."

Hika extends her hand to Jaak and lets him turn her wrist to reveal the splotch of white where the ice made contact. He presses his finger to her skin and the residual pain fades along with the white mark, her skin as rich brown as it was before. Hika frowns at the fire in her palm.

"The icefire must be a direct result of our two magics blending, for it to separate like that. Nothing else makes sense."

Jaak grimaces. "Let's not think of it for right now, I think your brain would explode. We needed your pa'oa for something, yes? How about you show me what you were planning."

"Oh! Yes, I can do that."

Hika crouches again and separates a few droplets of the fire. After a moment of hesitation, she presses them into the dirt, watching steam rise from the site as the moisture left behind by the snow burns away.

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Iwakālua = twenty, when counting

What do yo thing happened to the pa'oa? Why had ice fire been created? What do you think will happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out