Frozen Echoes: The Last HallowFrost

Chapter 1: Memories

13 years later, in the Frozen City...

She gazed upon the pinewood message board, which had stood untouched by HallowFrost talons for over a decade, the majority of it taken up by a large map of Elementia. She had studied this map multiple times over, her claws having struck a hole in the map where her mother had been slain, that snowfield was forever a haunting place of sorrowful memories. I don't care what it takes, CryoFangs thought as fury boiled inside of her, I will avenge my parents, I'll murder every last one of those... things that took her from me!

She heard the distant echo of agony that was her mother's scream, the spikes on her tail stood erect and shook with nerves as BitterWynd's amethyst blood was suddenly coating her claws and splattered down her front, her heart raced as everything tried to come flooding back into her mind faster than gale-force winds.

She was seething as her anger rose, tears sprung into her eyes as she knocked her head against the message board, and upon the first strike of her skull against wood she stopped, it would do no good to hurt herself, she knew it only brought pain that would further her fury.

She heard the small footsteps of a familiar being quickly approaching her, his feet crunching the snow. "Mistress, don't DO that!" He yelped, and Cryo whirled towards her friend, the dull ache in her head was starting.

She sighed, "sorry, Nimbus," she mumbled, he frowned as his silver eyes glared up at her, his glittering pale bluish-white scales shimmered as he approached her, it was clear that he didn't believe her.

"I really must put my magic to good use," he huffed, "Cryo, you must come to me whenever you feel emotional like this!"

She felt her eye twitch, "I'm stubborn, ok? What else am I supposed to do that'll help me settle my emotions?" CryoFangs wondered, her eyes holding in their depths a look of despair, she had been asking that question for years and looking for an answer, but to no avail.

"Just talk to me, I can help you." Nimbus said calmly, she heaved a sigh through her nose and muttered, "maybe later..."

She wasn't really in the mood for talking, she was in one of her moments where she would simply shut down, refusing to acknowledge Nimbus, at times it would become so bad that she simply refused to sleep, her mind stuck in the past and her heart aching.

She opened her wings and got a running start before taking off, the buildings of the abandoned City that she'd lived in for so long soon falling behind her. 

The Frozen City was once a prosperous place full of fisherdragons, the city making its coin through trade of fish. The best fishers of the city had done business with not only the rulers in the HallowFrost Palace, but with the rulers of the Aquaz as well, for the semi-aquatic dragons were always looking for more fish to stock up on.

I should know, she thought as she circled the collapsing courthouse. My father worked here and he was one of the best fisherdragons around.

CryoFangs let her mind wander in the past as she remembered traversing the City many times, not just with her parents, but she remembered her time wandering the dead streets with Nimbus by her side. As she wallowed in her thoughts she felt herself turn and fly in a random direction, unaware of her surroundings.

She remembered the morning after her mother was killed, Nimbus had guided the barely-adolescent dragoness to the Frozen City, saying that it would be the safest place to be for now– but at the time, she had no idea that she was being stalked.

Cryo remembered the impossibly dark nights, when the snowstorms cloaked her world in frost and cold, the nights where the wind would howl its haunting melodies, keeping the disturbed dragoness awake. She could feel Nimbus sleeping beside her, he was a light sleeper at times, and no doubt he would lash out at anything that harmed or startled little CryoFangs.