Dragon Riders: Legacy(Book 2) Completed

Chapter 20:Cryokinesis:Ermine

Ermine was standing on a battle field, under a blood red sky with red demonic fire spewing out between the cracks in the ground. It was so hot and the air was so oppressive that he felt like the heat was burning the air right out of his lungs, making him feel like he was suffocating.
The metallic clashing of swords brought his attention to two figures in armor fighting; their swords moving so fast they looked like blurs with sparks jumping every time the swords struck each other.
One of the armored, masked figures were wearing blood red armor. The figure was accompanied by a blood red dragon that was currently grappling with a stark white dragon; blue blood running down the white dragon's sides, and dark red blood was running down the red dragon's blood red scales, almost blending in perfectly with its scales.
The other figure was dressed in pure white armor that looked almost the same color as their dragon's scales.
The figures continued slashing wildly at each other till the one in white slipped on a blood covered rock and was scorched on the arm by the red hot flames jumping from the earth. The white clad figure let out a muffled cry when the hungry flames bit his forearm, turning his white gauntlet grey like smoke.
Taking advantage of the white figure's volubility, the red figure rushed at the white figure with inhuman speed, and sent their blood red sword through the white figure's chest; the red sword going through the breastplate like it was made of paper.
Crimson blood started spreading on the stark white breastplate as the red figure ripped the red blade out of the white figure's chest.
A loud roar thundered across the blazing hellish battle field as the figure in white fell to the ground.
He looked in the direction of mighty roar, and saw the huge white dragon slam the red dragon down on the ground, and rush towards the red figure with surprising speed for such a large creature. The ground shuttered as the white dragon stormed towards the murder, the cracked plates breaking apart and letting lose more demonic fire as they were tore up.
He saw the figure in white laying on the ground in a sprawled pile, their white blade in one hand while the other hand clutched the hole in their chest like they were trying to keep the blood from spilling out.
As the white dragon thundered towards the red clad figure, the blood red dragon came out of no where and latched onto the white dragon's throat, shoving the white dragon away from the red figure; slowly turning the white dragon's neck.
The white dragon struggled to get free. Snarling and snapping its jaws at the red dragon, while trying to slash the red dragon with its spiked tail and a talon; its other talons were busy trying to hold its ground against the blood red, demonic looking dragon.
As the struggle continued, the red figure walked over to the white figure and nudged them with their foot.
The white figure didn't move.
The red figure bent down, and hook their fingers under the helm and ripped it off. Revealing a handsome looking man with jet black hair and ice blue eyes that were somewhere between a light ice blue and a dark ice blue.
Ermine strained to get a better look, but he didn't want to get too close incase he alerted the murder of his presence because he would prefer to live, not get shish kebabed by a murder.
He saw some black mysterious glyphs on the white sword, and a familiar looking shield he just noticed slung across the white figure's back.
Then a loud crack ripped him from the burning plain and battle of the two figures and their dragons.

"Ermine! Ermine wake up!" He heard a feminine voice yell at him from far away.
He didn't want to wake up and see those startling ice blue eyes that reminded him of Korren and Kya and his siblings. Those eyes looked so familiar, like he had seen them before, but he had never met that man in the plain before. But he did look a lot like—.
"Ermine wake up! NOW!" The feminine voice yelled again, leaving a ringing in his head.
He jolted up, cold beads of sweat rolling down his back and face from the intensity of the dream. It felt so real, like he was actually there.
He shifted on the bed and he heard and felt something crack underneath him.
"Ermine don't freak out because what you are about to see is going to be hard to explain, but I will explain, if you give me the chance to." Snowdrift said hastily.
Taking in her words, he took a deep breath and looked down.
There on his bed was a thin layer of ice. It was all over the underneath his blanket and on his shirt and pants and socks. As well as in his hair, making it stick up, stiff and heavy like a crown of icicles.
The most startling thing of all was the thin layer of ice covering his hands, and his hands were glowing ice-blue as if his hands were waiting to release more ice.
What in the name of Suka! He exclaimed to himself, terrified at what was happening to him; ever since he bonded with Snowdrift he had felt stronger, faster, able to hear and see and smell better, like he was gaining abilities from Snowdrift.
   "Ermine don't scream. It's still nighttime, and I don't think your parents and siblings would appreciate being woke up in the middle of the night." Snowdrift said calmly, calming him down a little, but he was still a little shaken up by this disconcerting matter.
"W-what—What is happening to me?" His voice quivered.
As soon as he said that his hands started glowing brighter and more ice gathered on his hands, that now looked more like they were made of ice.
"M-make it stop!" He cried to Snowdrift, terrified at what would happen if the ice kept spreading.
More ice spread on his hands, and gathered together forming thicker icy patches on his clothes, bed, blanket, making him feel heavier as the ice weighed down his clothes and hair.
"Ermine, you need to calm down. The ice is spreading like this because it is attuned to your emotions. So the more emotional you are, the more uncontrollably it will become. So in order to stop the ice from spreading you need to calm down and listen only to my voice." She said calmly, like she wasn't the one slowly turning into an ice statue!
His slight anger at Snowdrift made the ice start climbing up his neck and towards his jaw.
He swallowed nervously, his anger turning to fear as the ice slowly continued its way to his head.
"Ermine listen and focus on nothing but my voice." Snowdrift said soothingly, soothing his emotions.
His pulse slowed down, and his mind became empty as he listened to Snowdrift describe her life inside her egg before she ever bonded with him. Apparently Snowdrift had been trapped in her egg for a hundred and ninety-one years, waiting a century till some Ardu found her egg and placed it at Suka's feet as an offering, thinking her egg was some enchanted stone that cane from the heavens. And so her egg laid at Suka's feet for ninety-one years till he found her and freed her.
While she kept talking he noticed the ice starting to leave his throat. The ice started melting on his bed and blanket and clothes and in his hair. His bed and blanket and clothes and hair became cold and wet, making him shiver as his ice cold clothes stuck to his skin and his jet black hair was plastered to his head.
   He grabbed a warm dry blanket from the side of his bed and kicked the cold, wet one off. He draped the warm over his shoulders, trying to shake the icy chill from his bones.
   He heard the bed creak as Snowdrift climbed up the side of his bed and over to his side, curling up next to him.
   "I'm so sorry this has happened to you. But I promise you I will help you learn to control this. During my time stuck in my egg I learned much about my dragon tribe—there are fourteen tribes, I will explain later—from Suka's dormant mind. I was able to communicate with her subconscious. I provided her company and she provided me with hundreds of years of information about my dragon tribe. I learned so much that I mentally learned how to control my ice ability, much like yours. If I was able to learn to control it mentally. Then you can learn to control it by keeping your emotions in check. We begin tomorrow." Snowdrift finished, and went to sleep, leaving him along to face his fears.
   He sat there for a few hours, afraid to go back to sleep and face the horrible nightmare and his uncontrollable ice ability that was in more control of him than the other way around.
   He later went to sleep after he became to tired to evade the lure of sleep any longer.

Ermine awoke to the prodding of his little brother, Sokka, urging him to get up and play.
He didn't feel like playing. His head hurt, he felt like he had gone swimming in the ice chilling waters of Arctica and now he felt like he couldn't get warm again.
But he reluctantly got up when Sokka screamed in his ear.
He ate breakfast with his family, and spent the rest of the day till nightfall playing with his siblings. It surprisingly took his mind off of things and allowed him at the same time to think about nothing else but what was going on in front of him.

When night fell or since it was the eternal day for six months, he and his family went to sleep.

A couple hours later Snowdrift woke him up.
"It is time for our lesson." She said simply, and forced him to get up and get dressed for the cold weather outside.
When he was ready to go, they slipped out, and walked far out from the village so no one would hear or see them.
Once at a spot that looked good to Snowdrift, she had him stand in front of her.
"Now, what I want you to do is think about how it felt when you were unintentionally using you ice powers." She said to him.
He closed his eyes and clung onto the emotions he felt when he first used his powers unintentionally. He felt a sense of strength and power as well as fear and anger when he first used his power. He also felt a sense of freedom, like he forgot about all his duties and responsibilities and was just free like the wind.
"Good. Now, just focus on that freedom part, nothing else. The fear and anger will make you lose control because you are blinded by those emotions and are giving into the darkness; everyone has darkness in their souls, some just don't notice it. Just focus on the freedom you felt when you experienced you abilities."
He focused on the freedom part, letting his mind only think about freedom and the time she had briefly experienced it.
"Very good. Now, peal off those pesky gloves and put both your arms before you and imagine your hands beginning to grow cold like ice and all the ice within you going to your arms. Then once you've done that let out that blizzard inside you that had just begun to break free. Just let lose. Let the snow storm inside you out. It's not good to keep it in or else it will destroy you from the inside out because scavengers can't handle power like that building up inside them."
He was confused by what she said but decided not to question her, and focused on the task at hand.
He put both hands out in front of him and focused on the ice that had gathered in his chest last night when he first used is ice powers. He forced the the ice down from his chest and to his arms till the chill disappeared from his chest and went down to his arms till his arms were numb with cold and his hands were beginning to glow a pale ice-blue color like last night.
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the chilly Arctican air.
He forced the ice to leave his hands and the ice in his arms obliged and left in a vortex of ice and snow. The snow and ice made a mound of ice and snow about a foot tall and five feet away from him.
He went on till he no longer could feel any of the ice that had formed in his chest last night.
He dropped to his knees, utterly exhausted. He had never felt this drained of energy before, even when Yutu kicked him in the ribs, knocking the air from his lungs, and gave him a bloody nose.
"I know you are exhausted, but do you feel better now that you let the snow storm out?" Snowdrift asked, clearly concerned with his wellbeing.
He nodded. "Ya, I do feel better now that I don't feel the constant chill anymore?" He confessed.
"Good. If you're up to it tomorrow we can continue till you have better control."
"Probably in a day or two when I feel less drained and tired." He responded.
"Ok. When you feel stronger. Now lets go before your father wakes up and wonders where you're at, since it's about three hours till morning." Snowdrift said, and started on her way back to the village.
He pushed himself to his feet and followed like a puppy, dreary and tired from the short but intense lesson.

When they got back to the igloo, he stripped off his parka and boots and gloves, and collapsed on his bed, spent.
He had no bad dreams. He just fell into a dreamless sleep, glad for the lack of dreams because it kept his nightmares at bay.