The Legend of Voden: The Rise of the Hollow

Chapter 6: An ice Beginning

Iceleta ducked and hid behind her wings as the barrier shattered, leaving behind a trail of deadly splinters in its icy wake. She clawed onto the ground and quickly casted another Shielding Spell. An aura of blue light surrounded her as most of the ice shards bounced harmlessly off the shield. She had to dodge a few shards that managed to get through but in the end, she was unscathed by the blast.

Iceleta was relieved that she always had her Magic on her. To her knowledge, dragons had practiced Magic for centuries, if not for eons in their long, uncharted history. Sometimes it was an ability. Some regard it as an art or even a luxury. but to her, she preferred to consider it a necessity to survive. 

Iceleta practiced Ice Magic since she was at the early age of four, and by the age of six she went on to become the top of her class in combat training. However, due to certain family issues, she had no choice but to drop out of the academy. She still regularly uses Ice Magic though. She needed it whenever she served ice drinks in the Fire and Ice Tavern, and sometimes to cool off the occasional angry customer whenever things got too hot to handle.

She found another opportunity to use her Magic when she needed to close off the entrance of the cave that night. Although she didn't use the Shielding Spell that much frequently now that she was out of her bygone school days, she was perfectly confident in her earnest capability to cast a Spell so simple that it was well within the magical limits of a five-moon old whelp. 

That is, until the Shielding Spell that she had perfect confidence in holding up against the wind, miraculously shattered. Ironically, she had to use the same Spell to shield herself from the resulting explosion due to magical instabilities. Talk about cold irony.

Of course, she knew she should've cast a stronger Shielding Spell to block out the stronger winds, but she didn't expect the wind alone could make the barrier shatter. She was rather...reserved with her Magic that night after all; not only she needed her Magic to make ice for the tavern but she also had to compete in the Tricaster Competition the next day. Perhaps it was her profound stinginess all along that was the reason why the barrier had shattered, she reasoned.

But Shielding Spells do not break under their own weight, she thought, and it would take much more than just some wind to shatter a barrier created by MY magic.

No. Something heavy must've crashed into the barrier to make it shatter like that. She glanced at the fragments and was about to groan at the mess she was about to clean up when something caught in her eye. Purple fragments. She didn't recognize them, but she guessed it probably came from a crystal, just like the one that Father gave to Voden-

She froze in her steps when she came to a sudden realization. 

Their father must've come home to visit them. In the middle of the night, again. But this time, he didn't know the existence of the invisible barrier. If so, then her father must've crashed into the barrier and been caught in the explosion... 

Iceleta's eyes were filled with dread.

"Oh no," she said. "Oh no, no, no. Please no."

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Author's Notes:

Sorry for the hiatus! in return, I'll publish a(n)ice beginning to start off the second section of the story after the interlude.

Honestly though, what did you see first? Leave behind a comment to let me know! Also, do leae a vote or two; it really helps me to keep going!

Actually, now that I noticed it, this was a really short chapter. Originally, it's longer about 1500 words but I'd figure it would be better to cut this one short and leave the bulk to the next chapter. Do you think I should merge this chapter and the next in the future?

As always, goodbye and stay frosty!

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