Ice And Snow

Chapter 7

After changing her clothes, Haley walked home with a smile on her face. When she came in, she greeted her parents happily and immediately went to her room, claiming she had homework to do.

After she locked the door, she jumped onto her bed and hugged her pillow. It's not over. Nothing's changed. That's great...

~~~~~

Shiren sighed. He knew Haley would be happy now, so why is he not?

He knew why. It was because he was too late. He couldn't make it in time. The horrid image of his comrades dying was imprinted into his mind. And it was haunting him.

Had Haley also died that day, he would've probably gone mad.

He let a snarl escape his lips. No more running away. He dashed onto the outer platforms and flew off on his hoverglider.

~~~~~

"What's going on?" She heard someone shouted.

It's almost midnight. Haley and her parents went outside to find the whole town gathered. There was a strange light in the distance, coming from the icy valley.

That's... Haley tensed up. "Father, we have to go!"

He looked confused. "Go where?"

"To Grand Cliff!" Haley dashed off without warning. Her parents hesitated but decided to chase after her. Soon, the whole town came too.

When they arrived, the ground beneath them was shaking violently. The edges of the cliff was falling to pieces. Everyone took a step back, but Haley kept moving forward.

"Where are you going, child?!" Some people shouted for her to move back, but she ignored them.

Finally, her father shouted at her. "Young lady! You come back here this instant!"

Haley stopped right infront of the ledge and turned around with a smile. "Sorry, but I had just turned 15 a few minutes ago, so I'm no longer grounded!"

With her arms spread, she jumped down, hopping onto ice chunks as they fall deeper into the valley.

The adults were hesitant, but when they located a set of stairs, they used it to climb down carefully. After the incident, they had the stairs built to see the people burried alive within the ice.

Once she reached the bottom, Haley immediately dashed off to find the source of light. She run and kept on running. Her lungs were burning but she ignored it and kept going.

She stumbled when the ground shook, but stood up and continued her search. She dodged the ice pieces as they fell. Then there was a bright flash of light and a cry came right after.

"That's...!" Without hesitation, she headed to where it came from.

When she finally got to the scene, she hid behind the thick walls immediately. There was a crash and a painful groan came from behind it. She carefully walked around to find Shiren, in his melee form, on the ground.

"Not... Done... Yet..." She heard him mutter.

"Shiren...?" The boy turned to face her immediately and pushed her behind the wall.

"Whatare you doing here?! It's dangerous!" He scolded. Without looking, he pulled her aside to dodge an ice chunk.

Soon, the adults arrived and Haley's father looked more than a little pissed. Neither of the teens seemed to notice though. Until, a ten year old boy named Touya threw a snowball at the orange haired boy.

"You! It's your fault!" The child accussed. The adults started to mutter about.

Shiren didn't pay attention. Instead, his gaze was fixicated on the silver haired girl. "Get out. Now. And bring the people with you."

"I'm not leaving without you." She insisted. She could feel her father's gaze piercing through the back of her head, but she didn't care. She will never abandon her friend again. Ever.

The boy was about to protest when all of a sudden, his ears perked up and he pushed her out of the way, right before he got hit with a blast from the Gaist.

He was thrown back by the force of power and his back hit the wall with a cracking sound. Despite the shock from the hit, he forced himself to get up and faced the Gaist. The people watching him only stared in silence. Haley was still sitting on the ground, trying to process what had happened. The Gaist merely stared down at them.

It's gaze was scanning the people in the area. When it landed on the Gaist Crusher, it's gaze seemed to shift somehow.

"You are very presistent, even for a human."

It was a female voice. They all looked around, but only Shiren and Haley could figure out fast enough that it was the Gaist talking.

"A Gaist... Can talk...?!" The townspeople seemed to be overwhelmed by this new fact. Only Shiren and Haley seemed perfectly normal with it.

"Why are you attacking us?" Haley stood up and asked boldly.

"You misunderstand. We do not have any intentions of fighting you humans."

Shiren tensed up. "Did you just say 'we'?"

Suddenly the ground shook and there was a form of light behind the ice walls. Each wall collapsed and they revealed a Gaist within each one. 5 in total. One of each element.

Haley's eyes widen in surprise and realization. "You're the Legendary Gaists, right? Or the Ancient Gaists... Basically, you're related to either Punishing Zeus' or Kaos' awakening..."

"So you have heard of us."

Haley nodded while everyone else seemed surprised. "Yes. I read about all kinds of Gaists in books and in some of the GCG files too."

"Weren't they both defeated 10 years ago?" Shiren asked rethorically.

"And as a result, we were forced to endure an eternal slumber!"