Valerian's Vengeance

Chapter Three: A Trail of Frozen Tears

   As I sit here in my special spot, remembering the tales I've been told and thinking thoughts I wish I weren't, I notice the cold.

   That's pretty unusual for me, as my heritage stops me from noticing the frozen and bitterly cold elements. In fact I am not not really allowed to be out here alone. Yet I have been doing it for years. It's the usually the most peaceful,calming part of my days. To sit alone in the silent night, enjoying the peaceful beauty that can inhabit the nights here. Dreaming of All the glorious things that must lie throughout Eonius. I can only imagine all that is out there! In places I won't ever get to see. No matter what I might wish or want, my life is here. In the cold, frozen and isolated world of this place I was born into. The lands of the Frost Giants. A Royal for that matter. Which inhibits my existence all the more. As a Queen or a wife to another Royal in a nearby tribe, that's my future.

   I know Jonna knows of my nightly outings. For she literally caught me coming back in. Tip toeing as silently as I could back up the cold stone dungeon steps. Who knows how long she knew, for she certainly wasn't in the least surprised to see me as I crept through the old wooden door. Right smack into her solid frame, arms crossed across her chest, with an evil gleam ashine in her silvery eyes and an amused smirk upon her plump lips.

   All she did to my most frightened being, was toss her bejeweled head as if I were a rat exiting the cellar and spout off over her fur covered shoulder ;

  "You must watch yourself, Princess, (that moniker spat spitefully) you can't know what dangers may lurk outside the safety of the inner keep, especially in these darkest of hours!"

  And I still remember the shudder of fear that I felt at her statement. Because I did know one or two of those potential dangers. Her and my Uncle for sure!

   And ironically or sadly- however one would choose to perceive it, is exactly why I didn't catch on sooner on this fateful night that there was something terribly amiss going on. And I damn her for that. As I accept my own immature stupidity in believing that I was safe from other dangers!

  Now as I perceive the horror approaching, I know not what to do! Everything's going to collide any moment and I have been sheltered by my father to the point of idiocy! I am to blame for not noticing the little signs so prevalent. The excess cold! The somewhat strange, sulfurous tinge of a scent on the wind! The rattles below that I blamed on wind!

  Something evil came on the wind! And now as the guards began pouring out of the keep, even I knew what we were facing. Gremelda, the Demon of the Icy Dales and her army of the undead!

  Now I know that the rumours are true! The Demons once more walk our lands, and not just the weaker ones summoned by those with the proper magks!

  These are the strongest ones, ones whom held titles of deities prior to the Great Banishing Spell more years ago than there is an accurate count to judge by. Gremelda was one of the most feared and angry demonesses to be found throughout the realms in those dark days.

  She could freeze anything no matter how cold it already was. She could freeze an entire body of water, along with anybody inhabiting it in mere seconds. And that includes we Frost Giants. So it's obviously cold! An unnatural, magically enhanced fridgidness.

  As I hunch down behind the rock wall, teeth clattering like dancing bones, I can see that her rotted old ship has reached the shore. Right in front of her in a small decrepit canoe sit the three ladies of mourning. Legend claims they were three beautiful woman in another part of the realm where it's always warm and luxurious. It sits between the great desert and the mighty river of the jungles far in the southwest regions.

One day many years prior, Gremelda had went to meet with one of the evil princes there, and the three ladies renowned for their great beauty and excellent talent playing musical instruments were in attendance. They snickered at Gremelda's lack of fancy clothing and unusual ship. They made a very grave mistake, as they quick to learn. The Prince may have been powerful, but he was no demon. The three were taken by Gremelda and stripped of their beauty, left looking like living skeletons to forever entertain Gremelda in a ratty little fishing boat. Their sad songs of mourning could heard from far distances, alerting all of her arrival.