![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
It had been a long flight from Magnolia to glaciers, so the Frost Maiden of Dragnof had made camp at the one particular glacier she had flown so far to find. Before resuming human form the night before, she had spotted entrance to the ice cavern Mura had described from the air. She then circled around, and picked a spot on the leeward side of the glacier to set up camp for the night. It was just a short hike back up the glacier to reach the ice cavern entrance.
So after breakfast, she put out her fire, and threw on the cloak Mura had lent her for the journey. It certainly gave her a little extra warmth, enough to have served as her blanket overnight. It also made her feel a little bit badass when it caught a breeze and fluttered just so. Arcadia slipped of the boots that had kept her feet warm through the night. From she understood, she was going to need every bit her magic, and that meant heading in bare foot. Unlike some pervy ice make mages, she could get the connection she needed that way.
Little Arcadia secured her camp, she would leaving her pack and few things behind, and come back for them after the task ahead was complete. This ancient god of frost and ice, Karstaag, would require to need her at her most agile, not bogged down by extra weight. She started on up the glacier, humming softly to herself. It was a little song she remembered from back in Dragnof, not sure if she'd first heard it from her dragon mom or her human mom. The pale blonde slayer just knew at least one of them would sing it to her when she got scared. She started to sing it, the lyrics coming right back to her as she walked.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
Black and bays, dapples, grays,
All the pretty little horses.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
The hike up was short enough that by the time she had sung her old lullaby a third time through she had arrived at the ice cavern entrance she had spotted from the air last night. It was a little more intimidating down on the ground.
She quieted down now, drawing out the paper with the tome she'd need to release the spirit of Karstaag. Despite her current diminutive stature caused by magical affliction, she was still a warrior of Dragnof. Though she had been trained for a long forgotten war, that training still shaped her thinking. Fighting was always last resort. A warrior of Dragnof never fought unless all other options had failed or would be hopeless. Maybe this ancient god of frost and ice could be convinced to celebrate its long existence in some other way besides battle.
With a deep breath, she turned invisible with only a briefly glitter of the ice crystals conjured to reflect and refract the light around her until she was unseen. The littlest slayer crept along one ice wall, not wanting to reveal herself until she was ready and knew exactly where Karstaag was.
Thankfully, he was hard to miss, because as the entrance tunnel opened up into the main cavern of ice. There he was, the ancient massive spirit milling around what she assumed was or used to be his home. From the long frozen skeletal remains she had seen poking through the glacier's surface and that lay frozen and strewn about the cavern floor, Arcadia knew this place had once been so much more. It reminded the little slayer of the centuries old ruins Dragnof now was.
Drying tears from her invisible cheeks, Arcadia decided she would help this poor spirit no matter what. How easily she could have ended up in the same boat without finding a place like Fairy Tail to meet new faces, new friends, a new place to be.
Pulling Mura's cloak tighter about her shoulders, Arcadia dismissed her invisibility, and headed out into the main cavern. She held the tome paper up and called out, "Karstaag! Ancient Troll Chieftain, god of frost and ice. The shaman, Mura Kensho, has sent me to aid you off this world."
The giant spirit chuckled, a deep rumbling sound that echoed around the cavern. His voice did as well, "Are you now? You bear his cloak, but who are you that he would send in his place?"
Arcadia stood as tall as someone who looked five could, her faerie green gaze fearless before the ancient spirit. "I'm Arcadia Fairchilde. Frost Maiden of Dragnof and Daughter of Khione Glacier. And I believe we can celebrate your glory and life by sharing your favorite drink and passing down tales of your storied past so they may live on with me. I promise to spread of your stories, so all will know them once you have been released."
Again Karstaag's laughter and voice bellowed through the great cavern of ice, "Your idea is... intriguing and a little tempting. I'm afraid though, I would rather create one more new glorious story for you to share. Let's see if the shaman chose wisely!"
Karstaag punctuated his answer with a furious swing of of his giant club. The club's heft and Karstaag's might busted another pit in the floor of ice and stone. Fragments of both scattered in all directions from the club's point of impact.
Frightening to think what that club could do if Karstagg could land even one solid blow. Good thing for the little slayer, all she had to do was keep Karstaag in front of her. That way she could keep her attention focused on that club, and natural speed and agility could help her dodge it all day long.
Thus she avoided learning the answer to the question of what that club could do by launching herself into a back handspring. Out of the arc of the club's swing, she narrowed her faerie green gaze, "So.. you wanna do it the hard way. Fine. We'll do it the hard way." The third generation ice dragon slayer willed herself into Dragon Force. Her long pale blonde hair brightening to pure white and her faerie green eyes turning a vivid, almost-glowing crimson as deeply chilling aura frosty power surrounding her. She inhaled and counterattacked with a roar of whirling freezing mist and razor ice shards.
Karstaag bellowed another deep rumbling laugh, something Arcadia was starting to get tired of already. Being an ancient god of frost and ice, the freezing blast of the little slayer's breath barely left a scratch. Still he giant spirit smiled with a deep satisfaction. The instant Arcadia had willfully entered Dragon Force, the magic power he could sense from her nearly matched the base power of wizards a couple ranks above her. ”YES! That's is more like it! Mura delivered a worthy opponent after all!”
To Arcadia's dismay he proved he had more than easily avoidable swing of his devastating but slow club. The great spirit gripped his great club in two hands and aimed the tip at his petite foe triggering a spray of ice spikes, each more than half Arcadia's size. Rather than be impaled by one though, she caught it as was driven hard into the icy wall behind her. Arcadia crunched into into the spike, dissolving the spike back into the magic that formed it for her to consume. She felt it's cool magics spreading out through her, restoring the magic power she had expended to keep herself in Dragon Force.
She was a little bruised from hitting the wall, but little the worse for the wear. Arcadia narrowed her deep crimson eyes, ”My magic be only barely able to scratch you, but yours and this whole cavern is full of nothing but fuel for mine. Pretty sure I can I keep Dragon Force up indefinitely in a place like this! Save us both the trouble, and surrender or things will just get ugly.”
Karstaag smirked and swung his great club into a ready position. ”Then let's get ugly.”
Arcadia would seem to subdivide over and over again she conjured copes of herself made of frosty mist and thousands of ice crystals as mirrors and prisms. At the same time, she unleashed a raging winter blizzard that filled the whole ice cavern. It's biting chill may have little effect on the spirit, but even he was staggered and greatly slowed by the howling winds that stirred ice and snow around. The real beauty of Dragon Force was the ability it gave Arcadia to pile on the spells without depleting her pool of magic power any faster than what it took to stay in Dragon Force over time.
She continued to pile on spell after spell, temporarily encasing his feet I ice, and conjuring a dense and obfuscating bank of dark icy fog, that by the time he was free of it, he would not know which of the still multiplying puppets of mist was the real Arcadia. Misty copies of her were quite intangible, offering only a distraction, but that's all she need from them. The longer she could keep him guessing, the better it was for her. The puppets spread out covering cavern walls and ceiling, until at least 27 of them surrounded the cloud-blinded spirit. By the time Karstaag had broken his feet free of the ice around them and stepped free of the dark cloud, the stage was set.
Every Arcadia puppet kept upon moving, never stopping, each following the commands the little ice slayer mentally gave as she gave them. The puppets on the ceiling crawled along, and a few leaped out across the airspace between walls, appearing to use dragon wings of pure white hoarfrost to apparently glide and extend their leap clear to the side opposite they jumped from.
The real little slayer soon joined a few of her puppets, climbing up one frozen wall, magic in her bare feet and hands to freeze and unfreeze her skin to the ice. She heard the great spirit grumble as the chaotic here and there of all the puppets proved quite an annoyance. With his club he began to learn the swarm of Arcadias was not all quite real. Even with the blizzard conditions buffeting his great spirit form, and slowing him greatly, he still managed to smash one or two as they ran by. Just as he was about register his disappointment, the real thing spread a pair of dragon-like wings made from hoarfrost, and leaped from the wall she was frozen to.
Unaffected by her own spell, the continuing blizzard she had cast upon the cavern did not slow her as it did Karstaag. She was a blur in comparison, and took advantage of it as she swooped in to deliver a powerful kick to his jaw. The surprise blow staggering the spirit back a step, and buffeted by the conjured blizzard as he was, his attempts to swat her from the air were clumsy at best. Not wishing to press her luck, Arcadia put one more spell that worked in tandem with her puppets. She switched places with one that had been running at a safe distance.
Karstaag roared in frustration when finally did swat the puppet that replaced the Arcadia that had kicked him. A process that repeated itself two more times before Arcadia mixed things up, rushing at him from the ground with her four transfer between her remaining puppets. Using her Dragon Force enhanced strength she hefted the giant spirit's left foot and threw it high. While she did not lift his entire weight, throwing his foot was enough to knock him off balance. Karstaag came crashing down on his back.
With a front flip, she landed and ran up over her prone to pummel him in the face. She managed to even stab him through the eye after conjuring a blade of ice to cover one arm, but she had lingered around his head too long, and she was swatted across the cavern hard into a far wall. It seemed he realized he had been going about this fight wrong, focusing on one Arcadia at a time to find the real one was exactly the kind of time wasting effort she wanted him to do. He had been playing right into her hands. To make sure none of the remaining puppets could be used to make him lose track of the little slayer again, Karstaag called on one of his more powerful spells.
He charged his great club with power and it extended to the length of a magical staff, a staff he charged further as he got back to his feet. A dazed Arcadia really felt that last two hits, one from the spirit's great hand and the other from striking the cavern wall. As she got back to her own feet, she watched as Karstaag planted his staff-club firmly into the cavern floor. A frosty shockwave spread out. Bringing a an absolute cold that even the ice dragon slayer felt it to her bones. All was still in the frozen air, the blizzard was gone and so was every single one of her puppets of mist.
Karstaag smiled with a kind of admiration for the little slayer, ”Clever girl. Maybe if you had pressed your attack more boldly instead of dancing around so long, you could have been the one. His smile faded, ”But I tire of this. It is time to end our a little game.”
While he was talking, Arcadia inhaled and consumed the ice that came with the tremendous spell that had left everything so still. She still hurt all over, and even shivered a little. The magic in that spell and little extra ice she had cracked from the cavern wall on impact helped replenish her magic power... just enough to for her to pull once more ace from her sleeve. She dropped the Dragon Force, only for her flesh to turn to solid, living ice, and her form forcefully shifting into that of a dragon wyrmling about the size of a draft horse. She dis all this wall already rushing the spirit to close the distance before he could pull another one of his greater spells.
Just like that, a chaotic ballet of cat and mouse turned savage and violent brawl. She used her wings to plow all four tons of nearly solid ice into his torso. Bowling him over, she was caught by Karstaag, forcing him to drop his great club-turned-staff. Thrashing around she took hold of his throat in her icy maw, dug her icy talons repeatedly into his shoulder and sides. The two rolled about, Karstaag doing all he could to pry the ice wyrmling off of him, but her wyrmling form came with even greater strength than Dragon Force. The very act of wrestling her just helped her tear him further open. The wyrmling's tail whipped around raked his shoulder with the bladed icy tip.
Karstaag slow in his fight, and finally signaled his surrender. Arcadia held her deadly grip on his throat a moment longer just to make sure the surrender was genuine. She released him and back up to sit on her haunches, folding in her wings.
The spirit sat up, looking rather ragged and mortally wounded, or would be if he weren't already a spirit. Reaching for his club-staff, he cast a slow healing glow over himself, and slowly stood. Though he grunted sounded rather old as he did. ”Thank. Thank you, Frost Maiden. I have truly met my match. I am ready.”
Tearing up, the wyrmling reverted to small, pale blonde human self with the faerie green eyes. She smoothed out her dress and fixed Mura's cloak, before drawing out the tome paper once more. Karstaag kneeled down so that after reciting the ritual written out, she could stick the paper and its magical symbols to his forehead. The writing glowed, and slowly spread out to overtake Karstaag's form until he shone so brightly as to be blinding to look at directly. The blinding light burst into thousands of smaller motes that all whirls and swirled on out of the cavern, disappearing up into the sky.
Arcadia followed the motes of light out of the cavern and watched as they disappeared. She smiled weepily, but happy.
Word Count: 2725/2000
So after breakfast, she put out her fire, and threw on the cloak Mura had lent her for the journey. It certainly gave her a little extra warmth, enough to have served as her blanket overnight. It also made her feel a little bit badass when it caught a breeze and fluttered just so. Arcadia slipped of the boots that had kept her feet warm through the night. From she understood, she was going to need every bit her magic, and that meant heading in bare foot. Unlike some pervy ice make mages, she could get the connection she needed that way.
- Little Arcadia:
Little Arcadia secured her camp, she would leaving her pack and few things behind, and come back for them after the task ahead was complete. This ancient god of frost and ice, Karstaag, would require to need her at her most agile, not bogged down by extra weight. She started on up the glacier, humming softly to herself. It was a little song she remembered from back in Dragnof, not sure if she'd first heard it from her dragon mom or her human mom. The pale blonde slayer just knew at least one of them would sing it to her when she got scared. She started to sing it, the lyrics coming right back to her as she walked.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
Black and bays, dapples, grays,
All the pretty little horses.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Go to sleep my little baby.
When you wake you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
- All The Pretty Horses:
The hike up was short enough that by the time she had sung her old lullaby a third time through she had arrived at the ice cavern entrance she had spotted from the air last night. It was a little more intimidating down on the ground.
- Ice Cavern Entrance:
She quieted down now, drawing out the paper with the tome she'd need to release the spirit of Karstaag. Despite her current diminutive stature caused by magical affliction, she was still a warrior of Dragnof. Though she had been trained for a long forgotten war, that training still shaped her thinking. Fighting was always last resort. A warrior of Dragnof never fought unless all other options had failed or would be hopeless. Maybe this ancient god of frost and ice could be convinced to celebrate its long existence in some other way besides battle.
With a deep breath, she turned invisible with only a briefly glitter of the ice crystals conjured to reflect and refract the light around her until she was unseen. The littlest slayer crept along one ice wall, not wanting to reveal herself until she was ready and knew exactly where Karstaag was.
Thankfully, he was hard to miss, because as the entrance tunnel opened up into the main cavern of ice. There he was, the ancient massive spirit milling around what she assumed was or used to be his home. From the long frozen skeletal remains she had seen poking through the glacier's surface and that lay frozen and strewn about the cavern floor, Arcadia knew this place had once been so much more. It reminded the little slayer of the centuries old ruins Dragnof now was.
- Karstaag, ancient god of frost and ice :
Drying tears from her invisible cheeks, Arcadia decided she would help this poor spirit no matter what. How easily she could have ended up in the same boat without finding a place like Fairy Tail to meet new faces, new friends, a new place to be.
Pulling Mura's cloak tighter about her shoulders, Arcadia dismissed her invisibility, and headed out into the main cavern. She held the tome paper up and called out, "Karstaag! Ancient Troll Chieftain, god of frost and ice. The shaman, Mura Kensho, has sent me to aid you off this world."
The giant spirit chuckled, a deep rumbling sound that echoed around the cavern. His voice did as well, "Are you now? You bear his cloak, but who are you that he would send in his place?"
Arcadia stood as tall as someone who looked five could, her faerie green gaze fearless before the ancient spirit. "I'm Arcadia Fairchilde. Frost Maiden of Dragnof and Daughter of Khione Glacier. And I believe we can celebrate your glory and life by sharing your favorite drink and passing down tales of your storied past so they may live on with me. I promise to spread of your stories, so all will know them once you have been released."
Again Karstaag's laughter and voice bellowed through the great cavern of ice, "Your idea is... intriguing and a little tempting. I'm afraid though, I would rather create one more new glorious story for you to share. Let's see if the shaman chose wisely!"
Karstaag punctuated his answer with a furious swing of of his giant club. The club's heft and Karstaag's might busted another pit in the floor of ice and stone. Fragments of both scattered in all directions from the club's point of impact.
Frightening to think what that club could do if Karstagg could land even one solid blow. Good thing for the little slayer, all she had to do was keep Karstaag in front of her. That way she could keep her attention focused on that club, and natural speed and agility could help her dodge it all day long.
Thus she avoided learning the answer to the question of what that club could do by launching herself into a back handspring. Out of the arc of the club's swing, she narrowed her faerie green gaze, "So.. you wanna do it the hard way. Fine. We'll do it the hard way." The third generation ice dragon slayer willed herself into Dragon Force. Her long pale blonde hair brightening to pure white and her faerie green eyes turning a vivid, almost-glowing crimson as deeply chilling aura frosty power surrounding her. She inhaled and counterattacked with a roar of whirling freezing mist and razor ice shards.
- Little Arcadia in Dragon Force:
Karstaag bellowed another deep rumbling laugh, something Arcadia was starting to get tired of already. Being an ancient god of frost and ice, the freezing blast of the little slayer's breath barely left a scratch. Still he giant spirit smiled with a deep satisfaction. The instant Arcadia had willfully entered Dragon Force, the magic power he could sense from her nearly matched the base power of wizards a couple ranks above her. ”YES! That's is more like it! Mura delivered a worthy opponent after all!”
To Arcadia's dismay he proved he had more than easily avoidable swing of his devastating but slow club. The great spirit gripped his great club in two hands and aimed the tip at his petite foe triggering a spray of ice spikes, each more than half Arcadia's size. Rather than be impaled by one though, she caught it as was driven hard into the icy wall behind her. Arcadia crunched into into the spike, dissolving the spike back into the magic that formed it for her to consume. She felt it's cool magics spreading out through her, restoring the magic power she had expended to keep herself in Dragon Force.
She was a little bruised from hitting the wall, but little the worse for the wear. Arcadia narrowed her deep crimson eyes, ”My magic be only barely able to scratch you, but yours and this whole cavern is full of nothing but fuel for mine. Pretty sure I can I keep Dragon Force up indefinitely in a place like this! Save us both the trouble, and surrender or things will just get ugly.”
Karstaag smirked and swung his great club into a ready position. ”Then let's get ugly.”
Arcadia would seem to subdivide over and over again she conjured copes of herself made of frosty mist and thousands of ice crystals as mirrors and prisms. At the same time, she unleashed a raging winter blizzard that filled the whole ice cavern. It's biting chill may have little effect on the spirit, but even he was staggered and greatly slowed by the howling winds that stirred ice and snow around. The real beauty of Dragon Force was the ability it gave Arcadia to pile on the spells without depleting her pool of magic power any faster than what it took to stay in Dragon Force over time.
She continued to pile on spell after spell, temporarily encasing his feet I ice, and conjuring a dense and obfuscating bank of dark icy fog, that by the time he was free of it, he would not know which of the still multiplying puppets of mist was the real Arcadia. Misty copies of her were quite intangible, offering only a distraction, but that's all she need from them. The longer she could keep him guessing, the better it was for her. The puppets spread out covering cavern walls and ceiling, until at least 27 of them surrounded the cloud-blinded spirit. By the time Karstaag had broken his feet free of the ice around them and stepped free of the dark cloud, the stage was set.
Every Arcadia puppet kept upon moving, never stopping, each following the commands the little ice slayer mentally gave as she gave them. The puppets on the ceiling crawled along, and a few leaped out across the airspace between walls, appearing to use dragon wings of pure white hoarfrost to apparently glide and extend their leap clear to the side opposite they jumped from.
The real little slayer soon joined a few of her puppets, climbing up one frozen wall, magic in her bare feet and hands to freeze and unfreeze her skin to the ice. She heard the great spirit grumble as the chaotic here and there of all the puppets proved quite an annoyance. With his club he began to learn the swarm of Arcadias was not all quite real. Even with the blizzard conditions buffeting his great spirit form, and slowing him greatly, he still managed to smash one or two as they ran by. Just as he was about register his disappointment, the real thing spread a pair of dragon-like wings made from hoarfrost, and leaped from the wall she was frozen to.
Unaffected by her own spell, the continuing blizzard she had cast upon the cavern did not slow her as it did Karstaag. She was a blur in comparison, and took advantage of it as she swooped in to deliver a powerful kick to his jaw. The surprise blow staggering the spirit back a step, and buffeted by the conjured blizzard as he was, his attempts to swat her from the air were clumsy at best. Not wishing to press her luck, Arcadia put one more spell that worked in tandem with her puppets. She switched places with one that had been running at a safe distance.
Karstaag roared in frustration when finally did swat the puppet that replaced the Arcadia that had kicked him. A process that repeated itself two more times before Arcadia mixed things up, rushing at him from the ground with her four transfer between her remaining puppets. Using her Dragon Force enhanced strength she hefted the giant spirit's left foot and threw it high. While she did not lift his entire weight, throwing his foot was enough to knock him off balance. Karstaag came crashing down on his back.
With a front flip, she landed and ran up over her prone to pummel him in the face. She managed to even stab him through the eye after conjuring a blade of ice to cover one arm, but she had lingered around his head too long, and she was swatted across the cavern hard into a far wall. It seemed he realized he had been going about this fight wrong, focusing on one Arcadia at a time to find the real one was exactly the kind of time wasting effort she wanted him to do. He had been playing right into her hands. To make sure none of the remaining puppets could be used to make him lose track of the little slayer again, Karstaag called on one of his more powerful spells.
He charged his great club with power and it extended to the length of a magical staff, a staff he charged further as he got back to his feet. A dazed Arcadia really felt that last two hits, one from the spirit's great hand and the other from striking the cavern wall. As she got back to her own feet, she watched as Karstaag planted his staff-club firmly into the cavern floor. A frosty shockwave spread out. Bringing a an absolute cold that even the ice dragon slayer felt it to her bones. All was still in the frozen air, the blizzard was gone and so was every single one of her puppets of mist.
Karstaag smiled with a kind of admiration for the little slayer, ”Clever girl. Maybe if you had pressed your attack more boldly instead of dancing around so long, you could have been the one. His smile faded, ”But I tire of this. It is time to end our a little game.”
While he was talking, Arcadia inhaled and consumed the ice that came with the tremendous spell that had left everything so still. She still hurt all over, and even shivered a little. The magic in that spell and little extra ice she had cracked from the cavern wall on impact helped replenish her magic power... just enough to for her to pull once more ace from her sleeve. She dropped the Dragon Force, only for her flesh to turn to solid, living ice, and her form forcefully shifting into that of a dragon wyrmling about the size of a draft horse. She dis all this wall already rushing the spirit to close the distance before he could pull another one of his greater spells.
- Little Arcadia as Ice Dragon Wyrmling:
Just like that, a chaotic ballet of cat and mouse turned savage and violent brawl. She used her wings to plow all four tons of nearly solid ice into his torso. Bowling him over, she was caught by Karstaag, forcing him to drop his great club-turned-staff. Thrashing around she took hold of his throat in her icy maw, dug her icy talons repeatedly into his shoulder and sides. The two rolled about, Karstaag doing all he could to pry the ice wyrmling off of him, but her wyrmling form came with even greater strength than Dragon Force. The very act of wrestling her just helped her tear him further open. The wyrmling's tail whipped around raked his shoulder with the bladed icy tip.
Karstaag slow in his fight, and finally signaled his surrender. Arcadia held her deadly grip on his throat a moment longer just to make sure the surrender was genuine. She released him and back up to sit on her haunches, folding in her wings.
The spirit sat up, looking rather ragged and mortally wounded, or would be if he weren't already a spirit. Reaching for his club-staff, he cast a slow healing glow over himself, and slowly stood. Though he grunted sounded rather old as he did. ”Thank. Thank you, Frost Maiden. I have truly met my match. I am ready.”
Tearing up, the wyrmling reverted to small, pale blonde human self with the faerie green eyes. She smoothed out her dress and fixed Mura's cloak, before drawing out the tome paper once more. Karstaag kneeled down so that after reciting the ritual written out, she could stick the paper and its magical symbols to his forehead. The writing glowed, and slowly spread out to overtake Karstaag's form until he shone so brightly as to be blinding to look at directly. The blinding light burst into thousands of smaller motes that all whirls and swirled on out of the cavern, disappearing up into the sky.
- Little Arcadia:
Arcadia followed the motes of light out of the cavern and watched as they disappeared. She smiled weepily, but happy.
”Goodbye. Rest easy, my friend.”
Word Count: 2725/2000
