BOARDWALK : Dragons of Legend Chronicles

Chisumn Storm and Jax Quinton

The house is as silent and motionless as ever. The only sound that may be heard is the floorboards beneath my footsteps.

My saggy pants drag at my ankles. My shirt sways around my thighs. My pale skin looks like the sun in this dungeon-like house. My hair is as creamy and bronze as usual. But my eyes...they're like a flashlight, glowing slightly. They're a bright blue tint. Brighter than the sky.

I'm still half-asleep but I jump when I attempt to push my glasses up my nose and ice freezes them inside and out.

The shards, or the ice that grew sharp, pierce through the rim of nose and the sides of my head just above my ears.

Before they draw too deep, I fiercely rip them off. Where they land, the glasses split in two and transparent ice with a small tint of blue, devours a part of the floor. By the looks of it, the part of the floorboard where the ice had touched, rotted immediately. Just like the glasses after I made the mistake of touching them.

That's one more thing I'll have to replace without the capability to do so.

There was a thriving knock at the door.

I'm surprised anyone would show up here. All lights are out so it doesn't appear anyone should be home.

The knock came again; impatient it quite is.

I took another step forward but something caught my eye. I turned my head to a giant frozen ice cube; the size of my own head.

I gazed at this block everyday.

Frozen inside, was a picture of myself with others; others who I didn't know.

I began to approach the cube but the knock came once more.

I grunted, displeased. Uneasily, I walked up to the door.

I slowly opened the door, being a little bit more than cautious.

"Chisumn?" He, who I hadn't known, asked immediately, soundly slightly worried.

I nodded and his face flooded with relief.

"We're here to take you somewhere."

We're? No one is with him.

I clung tightly to the door, it turned to ice in an instant; no longer the material it once was. Only ice. Yet again, another daily item.

His eyes observed my actions and his eyes met mine. "It's safe," he smiled. "I promise."

I took a step back and moved the door open wider. "My hands..." I muttered thinking of an apology of some sort for freezing the door.

"That's right!" The man thrusted a hand into his pocket and drew out a pair of gloves. "Here." He said, offering them to me.

I shook my head, "They don't--"

"They're different." He interrupted. "They're not ordinary gloves. They were made by taking the thinnest steel we could, and turning, or forming, it into a kind of cloth. It took us several attempts, and they may not have the most comfortable texture, but they'll help you control your powers." He sounded slightly unsure.

I nodded. I reached out a hand and hesitantly took the gloves, careful not to touch the man.

Surprisingly, the gloves, like he said, didn't freeze in my grasp.

I smiled at this.

It's the first time I've held something for an amount time without it totally becoming solid, losing all value it may have once had.

It warmed my cold heart.

"Put them on." He urged.

I looked up and him, then back at the gloves. I gently slipped them onto my hand, almost a perfect fit.

"Do you like them?" He asked.

I nodded eagerly, gazing up at him.

He gave a short sigh from his nose. "Good." He held out his hand, "Then shall we go?"

My shoulders tensed.

I stared at the world behind me; the house I had lived in for so long, alone. It was a world of suffering.

Then I gazed forward at the world in front of me; a new world, that was being offered to me. A world of hope and anew.

I looked back once more. "Can I take the picture?"

He looked pass me, but I knew he wouldn't notice where it was at. To him, from where he stood at the entrance of this house, he only saw a large block of ice in the direction I was staring in.

"Sure." He said.

I ran back into the house and grabbed the block off the shelf.

Absorb me.

I looked down at the block and it glowed with a bright blue, similar to my eyes, as though calling me. I rubbed my hand across the top of it. "How am I supposed to do that...?" I whispered.

"You coming?" The man from the doorway asked.

"Yeah..." I said quietly, holding the frozen cube with the picture inside of it close to my chest.

The light slowly faded as I approached the man and the edge of the outside world.

As I began to reach my hand out, now holding the block with a single arm, I asked, "What's your name, sir?"

He smiled. "Did you forget? We've met once before. My name is Jax Quinton."

Uncle Quinton?
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