Love Can Thaw

Chapter 6: Fear of One

Crystal takes a large step away, knowing that this is going to end very badly if she doesn't get some help.

"Easy boy..." she hisses quietly. "There's no need to..."

The ice dragon lets out a mighty, ear-shattering roar before she can finish her sentence. It then swings its tale of sharp shards of ice at the first victim. Crystal ducks to the ground before the tail can spear her completely. It strikes the tree behind her and the oak tree falls into the stream with a loud crash from the impact. Despite narrowly avoiding the tale, she sees red begin to drip onto the white snow. Her shoulder is throbbing and she realizes one of the shards got lodged there. She doesn't have time to heal it, but she will if she can escape and warn the others. The beast looks at her again with hollow and now yellow glowing eyes. It opens its mouth and aims at her. It releases white energy from within and she barely escapes the blast. She ends up behind the creature, but the dragon is still emitting the snow/ice energy, completely freezing the stream and waterfall. It also kills all the plant life that was unfortunate enough to be within the "fire's" distance.

"Oh God, we need help..." she hisses. Despite being wounded and slightly disoriented, Crystal knows that she needs to keep the creature at bay before it can go for another attack on her. She also needs to buy herself some time to warn her family and prepare to fight back. Thinking quickly and ignoring her sore shoulder, fire explodes from her hands and melts the surrounding snow and ice. The heat warms her body enough to give the Dark One's daughter a chance to gather her strength. The dragon shrieks like a banshee and backs away from the very thing that could kill it. Crystal then snaps her fingers to vanish.

...

Meanwhile, back in town, Emma is walking with Killian, drinking coffee, and just merely chatting with one another, enjoying a moment of peace before they get back to stopping the Snow Queen.

"I just think that training lessons with Regina will make us better safe than sorry," she says.

"I agree, Love," Killian says, but his mind is very much elsewhere. If his heart was in his chest, it would be threatening to break his ribcage, but instead, it is in the hands of the bloody crocodile. He has no idea what the Dark One plans to do with it, but he knows he cannot feel the emotions he wants to feel with Emma, and he'll be used like a puppet until Rumpel ends his life to free himself from the dagger. His mind is racing, wondering if Crystal was going to do something, he could tell that she knew what had happened, thank goodness for her ability to see hearts, but he knew that her father wasn't stupid. The pains he felt in his chest was likely from the demonic being squeezing the precious organ, threatening his end to keep the heroic child at bay. He wasn't sure what he could do now, he knew Crystal wouldn't risk his life to stop her father, but there had to be another way, it's what these bloody heroes always did.

Suddenly, there is a loud roar that shakes the ground the couple stand on. Emma drops her coffee and Killian does his best to keep both them balanced.

"What the bloody hell was that?" he asks in a panicked voice. He keeps his hook out in case the danger came after them.

"Probably an attack from the Snow Queen," Emma says, removing her gloves and letting her hands light up.

"That didn't sound like her," the pirate responds.

All around them, people are coming out of buildings and filling the streets to find out what that strange noise was. Regina, Robin, and Henry spot their allies and hurry to meet them.

"Mom, what was that?" Henry asks.

"I don't know," she says.

Regina's hands are also light up in anticipation of a fight and Robin drew his bow.

"Henry, you need to get inside," Regina insists.

"But Mom..."

"Now!" Emma adds with emphasis. "We don't know what's out there."

Several others are beginning to take shelter inside the buildings, fear now outweighing curiosity. The young teen is forced to go inside the Dark Star Pharmacy for safety as both his mothers and their male partners step cautiously into the open street.

The brakes on David truck squeal as he nearly hits the four of them, trying to get to the scene in a hurry. He, his wife, and Elsa hop out of the truck.

"Emma, what's going on?" he asks.

"I don't know, we're as much in the dark as..."

Another loud roar tears through the town, sending everyone's hearts into a frenzy. They all get into battling positions, ready for the impending threat.

"It sounds like some sort of beast," Robin says. "But not a beast that I have ever heard in the forest."

"It's not a banshee either," Snow adds, having her bow at the ready. The new mother was almost paralyzed with fear when she heard the noise but knew she had to help, she was the mayor of the town after all. Fortunately, Ruby was visiting at the time and she was willing to watch their infant son.

"It might be a threat from my aunt," Elsa states, her hands raised.

"We all assumed that Love, but what kind of beast would make that noise," Killian asks. "It's certainly not another monster snowman."

"Or that weird knight she created," Emma adds.

"What other kinds of things can you create Elsa?" Regina asks.

"The kind that can fly," a voice calls from behind. Everyone turns to see Crystal holding her shoulder running towards the center of town and leaving a trail of blood behind her.

"Crystal, what happened?" Snow asks as she finally reaches the group.

"Oh god, you're bleeding," Regina says, she raises her hand to begin to heal it. Crystal sighs with some relief as the throbbing pain in her shoulder begins to fade.

"What happened to you?" Robin asks.

She swallows as Regina finishes her healing and the girl can stand up straight again. She gives one guilty glance at Hook before speaking. She keeps her eyes on Elsa for a moment. "Well, I was off in the woods to do some thinking when I ran into your aunt. Lovely woman, a bit of a psycho though. She began to lower my body temperature and tried to convince me to become one of her sisters."

"Bloody hell not again," Killian groans.

"Yes, again." She responds. "She liked that I had magic and that only she, Emma, and Elsa could truly understand. She attempted to bribe me into joining her, saying that I could finally be a hero, stop being associated with my father and have the family I always wanted. She even tried to use the Mason card to get me to join her, but when I told her to go to hell, she gave me a going away present from that exact place.

"What..."

Another loud roar erupts from within the forest, the snapping of branches and trees can be heard and the sound of two wings flapping echo in the almost deserted town.

A strange looking shape finally emerges from the forest and beings spewing what appears to be snow and ice from its mouth. The foliage that lay in its path to the town is frozen into weird looking ice sculptures, turned pure white and instantly killed from the creature's "fire". It lets out another blood-curdling roar, it's hollow eyes aimed at the tiny town.

"What the hell is that?!" Emma screams.

"That would be the world's most pissed off snow cone..."