The Shadow of Ice

New Day, New Land

The next morning came quickly. Aura jumped from her bed and snuck out of the building. Elias followed, slowly and steadily. 'Restless when excited. Just my luck.' He thought to himself.

Aura basically had the day off of chores. The necklace remained around her neck through the whole night. Aura ran to the labyrinth, weaving her way through the tall hedges. Elias went to his tree and watched from above. Aura, too excited to feel the cold stare of Elias, found the center of the labyrinth. A frown came to her face when the swan was no where to be found. "Maybe it'll be here later." She said, going to the bank and looking at her reflection.

Aura studied the shiny snowflake necklace in the water, a smile growing on her face. But.. As she looked back at her own reflection, her eyes flashed blue. Aura jumped in surprise as the same snowflake shape formed in ice on the water. As soon as the  snowflake took its form, the necklace glowed and Aura was surrounded in cold wind portal. Elias stood on his branch dove after Aura, him making it into the portal and they both disappeared.

Aura screamed as she flew through the portal. It seemed like a long time to her, but soon she ended up on the ground with a thud. "Ugh..." She groaned as she pushed up. Elias snuck behind a tree and watched. Aura finally stood, her head swimming as she looked around. Shocked, she looked behind her to find the no longer existing pond. "Oh no.. What did I do..??!" She asked herself, looking around fearfully. Where was she? Why was she there? Aura took a deep breath to calm herself. "Ok, I need to find a way back home." She said, looking straight into a forest. "St-straight I go.." She muttered and began to walk.

Her feet felt weird as she walked. Aura looked down to find her boots were replaced with black, sapphire pigmented pointé shoes. She gasped, not knowing where they came from. "Um.. Ok." She said and began to walk again.

Aura was making her way through the forest when she suddenly heard laughter. But, it wasn't children. It was women. Aura snuck her way over to find a woman with pointy ears, white eyes, darker skin, and clothes made from nature. But what scared Aura is she had sharp teeth and pretty long nails. Next to this mysterious woman was another of her kind, only she had grey eyes and lighter skin.

Aura stepped out into the open, the women snapping their attention to Aura. "H-hello.. I'm Aura, and I don't knew where in heavens sake I am." The women just watched her. What was this being? Aura felt a little uncomfortable, afraid they would attack her. "What, are you?" Asked the woman with white eyes. She got up slowly from her rather large mushroom stool. Aura took one step as the woman walked up to her, studying her. Aura watched and looked down, not wanting to make eye contact. "I'm a human. But something happened, I was brought here somehow." She explained, the two creatures now in front of her and studying her.

"She's a rather beautiful creature." Said the woman with grey eyes. The women smiled and one took her hand. "Come. You must see what we can do." She said. Elias had been following, watching closely. "Tch. Nymphs." He muttered and smirked. "Lets see how well Aura will like the nature of a wild nymph." He muttered and chuckled evilly. A black matter formed in his hands. This matter took form of a bow and two arrows. "They won't feel a thing. Yet." He said and took his aim. "One. Two.. Three." He counted and shot the arrows.

As the lovely nymphs were showing Aura what they could do, they were shot. The one with white eyes through her head back as the arrow went threw her back. The other, screamed as it hit her chest. Aura gasped and covered her mouth. "Are you ok??!!" She asked, going towards them. But the nymphs looked at her with red eyes. Aura jumped back and watched them stand. She had no hesitance to run. Taking off in a rather odd direction, the nymphs chased her. Elias smiled and disappeared, predicting where Aura would go.

Aura kept running. Her breath getting shorter and shorter as she sprinted through the trees. Finally, some ruins came into view. Aura smiled and went faster. Soon she was in the ruins and she hid behind a pillar, covering her mouth as the nymphs kept going. Aura peeked from behind the pillar and saw they were gone. Stepping out into the open carefully, she looked at the ruins. "Wow.." She said in a short breath. "Lovely, isn't it?" Asked a male voice. Aura turned around as a boy in a dark long coat, a silver and gold eye, black hair, and scars down the right side of his face emerged from the shadows.