The Fire Queen

Chapter 1

The young king awoke to the cold as he had grown accustomed to these past couple of weeks. It was the type of cold that seeped into one's bones and threatened to keep as a prisoner under it's icy grasp. Leom refused to let the coldness claim him though. He had much work to do.

Leom threw on what warm clothes he had, which wasn't much since Relenia hadn't ever seen a winter like this. It was enough though to protect his skin from the harsh coldness that stained the air. Even a fire didn't last long under this wretched curse.

He could still remember the moment when he refused her, when frozen tears dropped from her eyes, splattering the ground in ice. Her cries and heartbreak still thrummed under Leom's skin. It had been his refusal that had caused the frozen goddess to release her curse. But how had it spared him? One thing was certain, Leom refused to do nothing. He would find a way to break this curse and free Relenia.

Before Leom made his way to his father's study, he entered his mother's parlor. His eyes flicked across the icy room. His eyes first landed upon his mother's fragile frame. She wore Relenia's colors of mourning, a rich navy blue trimmed in gold. Her head was tilted forward as she sat upon her sitting chair, as if in reverence. A tear was frozen upon her cheek. Her brown hair was swept up and upon her head rested the Queen's silver crown. Next to her sat Kera, the young woman Leom had every intent of marrying. She was only a year younger than the young King. Her hair was a long shimmering blonde woven into braids that adorned her head. Leom had known Kera since they were children. His heart had always been hers. But there she rested, as if frozen in time itself. The only indication that Leom knew they were still alive was the gentle rise and fall of their chests and the soft thump of their heartbeat. Leom checked their pulse everyday to ensure that they were still alive.

It did little to ease his aching heart.

Leom's chest tightened as he looked upon them, Kera's hand was resting on his mothers, comforting her during her time of despair. Leom had received Azle's summoning before he had even made it to this room to grieve with the two people he loved most. His father, only fifty years old, had only been dead mere hours before the snow white owl with the letter came.

Leom closed the door to his mother's parlor and passed the rooms the King and Queen shared. The young king didn't dare open their room, for his father's frozen dead corpse still remained upon the bed he had died in. Leom still didn't fully understand the former king's death. The Kingdom of Relenia had flourished for years, but for the past five years crops grew slim and the people had begun to starve. King Darven had led an expedition to cross the barren land in hopes of finding the faraway kingdoms told in stories. But when only two other soldiers returned, with King Darven's body between them covered in deep, black burns, Leom his father hadn't ventured into the barren lands.

Why had his father taken his search into the Fiery Mountains? What could have possessed him to travel there for aid? He had died before he could tell Leom, and so the young king delved into his father's most coveted texts searching for information on the Fiery Mountains. And within those books held such hope, but Leom wasn't sure yet if it would set his people free from Azle's wicked curse.

One thing was for certain, Leom's knew he couldn't waste any more time.

Leom's feet padded down the curving hallway, through the too quite castle, until he arrived at King Darven's study. Leom opened the frozen flecked door and headed towards the book on his father's desk that he had found only the day before. The cold had nipped at the pages of the book, causing frost to linger on it's opened pages. Leom scanned the page again.

Within the Fiery Mountains was the bird of flames. An untouchable creature with golden feathers. The bird of flames has the power to grant wishes. To claim a wish, one must capture the bird and pluck one of it's golden feathers. Hold the feather close, and whisper a golden wish. Once the wish has been cast, the bird will burst into flames and die, and as the flames grow higher the golden wish will be granted.

Leom scanned the text again, then looked at the illustration of the flaming bird below. There wasn't much information on the terrain of the Fiery Mountains except that it was filled with heat and flames. He flipped through the book, scanning for a way to capture the bird. As desperation and frustration began to settle in, Leom finally found the text he was searching for.

To capture the bird of flames one must give it the thing it loves the most.

Leom scratched his head, scanning further through the text, but finding nothing about what the bird wanted most. He cursed out loud as he slammed the book shut, trying to reel in his emotions. It mattered little anyway, Leom was too desperate not to try and capture the bird of flames that his father had been after.

He would find the bird, and he would set his people free.