Ghosts of you

Snow fell, as it tended to always do in these high mountains past the known markers of civilization. A gentle wind would occasionally lift up the drifts that scattered the landscape and create a short dancing silhouette of frosty air before settling back down and disappearing from the naked eye. Most people would have trouble seeing this 'frost dancers' at all as Darataka referred to them. Anyone whos eye sight was not attuned to the endless white of these high frozen mountains would see nothing but blinding white in the middle of the day. The many glaciers that dotted the tundra below the mountains base acted as mirrors for the sunlight, which would explain why so few people ever traveled this far.

The young man sat crouched on the outskirts of his small village, overlooking it without a squint as he had become accustomed to the glare over his life time. The emerald orbs scanned over his village far below, the small wooden huts looking like flakes of bark from so high.
Darataka felt so big up here on the edge of the mountains peak, he felt like he was apart of the sky and could hunt any deer by just leaping from the ledge and swooping down for a fatal lunge with the spear that was currently gripped in his hands. Of course this wasn't the case, he was just scouting the area as was his daily chore for the village....
But that didn't mean his imagination couldn't boost his dreams. One day he would be the Frost King, and rule over all of the northern villages with peaceful reign. He would-

"Day dreaming again?" A soft, but deep voice called from behind him taking the cerulean haired teen off guard causing him to fumble with the wooden weapon in his grip.

"N-No-" Oh who was he kidding? Garud had been teaching Dara personally for almost ten years now and knew the amateur wizard better than even his own parents.
".....Yes." relaxing a bit as the behemoth of a man sat down next to him on the cliff overhand.

Garud was a practiced ice user, but looked more the part of a man who could wrestle a bear with his bare hands and yet had a soft kindness about him that radiated with a calm glow of personality. His mentor stood nearly seven feet tall with long salt and pepper hair that was pulled back, and a matching beard that made him all the more manly. His body was built like a true man of the wilds, covered in furs of beasts he had slain over the many years.

" At least you admit it." The booming voice said with half a laugh, causing a mild fear of avalanche to creep into the younger wizards mind. 'No legacy is so rich, as honesty." he  smiled and looked to his student who just became quiet and bowed his head down to stare at the village.
Silence took the air between them for a moment, holding the scene with a pregnant pause.

" Any signs of game traveling nearby?" Darataka asked while raising his chin to peer at the village once more.
His teacher shook his head and continued to grin. "Thats not what I'm up here for. The village has a visitor."

Unlike Garud who had come here twenty years ago, Darataka had never known life outside of this small village. He had known the same hundred mile radius if even that distance, and the same dozen faces for his twenty years of life. So it was no surprise when his expression turned to shock at the sound of this!
"A visitor?! From where?! Why!" The youngster spouted without realizing that he was spitting at the same time from excitement like an idiot. He had only met maybe five new faces in his entire life, and they had all shared such wondrous stories about what the rest of the world was like from outside this small keep at the edge of the known world. Oh man for someone to travel all this way, they must be here for something really important!!!

Garud raised a hand "Woah woah slow down there cowboy." , this phrase causing the younger of the two to gained a puzzled expression.
Cow...boy.... Was his mentor calling him fat!?

Clearly the bear like man cold see the confusion on his pupils face, and shook his head gently once more. "Cowboy means , er, rough rider." and then realizing this term would also confuse him . "So because you live in hard conditions your a cowboy..."

He pretended to understand with a wide eyed nod. He would have to use this new term with the traveler in the village, to show how culturally exposed he was!
" Right Cowman! Let us go-" Again he was cut off, this time by a raised hand to silence him.

" Relax Dara. Hes just here to seek refuge from the upcoming storm. Make one more scouting round, then head down into the village and join us for dinner." Garud said, taking a rise from his seat on the cliffs face.

Green eyes followed with a somber expression... He wanted to meet the traveler now! Life was so boring up here, it was the same thing day in and day out...

He then sprung to his feet, the spear switching from both to just his left hand as he took off in a sprint! He had to make his rounds in order to meet the new face, but that didnt mean he had to take his time doing it!
The moccasins around his shins caused small storms of snow to kick up as he raced, following around the top of the mountains curve until he came down the furthest northern point where the darkness of night was already creeping in, but that did not slow his haste at all. He continued to race, jumping down a small ledge until he reached the most drastic slope and meeting his feet against it in a skid! Spear still in hand he slid down the half mile of mountain face like a trained professional, before leaping at the last second to land with grace at the foot of the mountain!

His job was to scout the tundra at the mountain base for signs of food or danger, and then return to report them to Garud. Easy enough, as it was usually just a way for them to track a roving pack of elk or warn of a nearby bear. If he just skimmed the basics, he could get back in time to eat early and listen to all of the travelers stories. Maybe he could even show the stranger his collection of rabits feet!

Again, he began sprinting but it wasn't even thirty seconds before he felt the ground beneath his feet shake, causing him to stab the spear into the snow in order to help stabalize him. There was an eruption in the distance, like an explosion that radiated from the other side of the mountain...

He raised a brow and squinted in thought....

It came from his village.[/color]

It was probably one of the few times that Shane would ever wear his uniform for a mission, but it couldn’t be helped. The Rune Knight Captain was going on a joint mission with the General of the Special Ops division, General Ragnos. The only other time he had seen the General was during the hearing for his promotion, where the former had given him a vote of confidence, setting it so that he would report to no one else except the General himself and the Field Marshall. And then the assignment had arrived.

The premise of the mission had been simple enough. On paper, it didn’t warrant the attention of the General and could have easily been settled by Shane or his subordinates. He had been in the midst of developing his men within small units, testing out their compatibility with each members of the team and then further rearranging them to create units of maximum combat power or efficiency. So far, out of the all the teams he had tried with, there had only been a particular team of five that had proved their worth. Given the choice of naming themselves, they had named themselves the Chess Team, with each member being named after a chess piece. Shane was waiting for the perfect chance to bring them out for an assignment to do his own field analysis.

Shane walked with a more hurried pace towards the courtyard, the setting sun casting an orange glow on the open area. A few Rune Knights walking past him saluted the man as he walked past but he dismissed them with a nod. The younger Rune Knight finally saw the Spec Ops General, currently the strongest in the Rune Knight, second only to the Field Marshall. As he crossed the courtyard, his superior office also did the same with Shane taking larger strides to get across the open area first.

Shane gripped the man’s hand in a firm and brief handshake.

“Good to see you too, General,” Shane replied, as he stood up straight, himself almost the same height as his commanding officer. But he was slightly bigger in stature but there was no point to comparing physiques in Fiore. What counted was the amount of magical firepower one could bring to the battlefield, and Shane knew the General had it by the truckload. “I appreciate the invitation for this assignment, General. Rest assured I will be doing my best.”

What was a quake that caused him to steady himself, became a roar of thunderous nature as Darataka gripped tighter onto the splintered wood that acted as his primitive hunting spear. The explosion from the other side of the mountain had begun to subside, the echo now fading into whispers in the miles beyond within the glacier region which had acted like a large audio amplifier for the thunderous boom.

His emerald eyes looked up, and then opened wide at the horror that he had feared.
Whatever it had been that had caused this chaos had stirred the layers of white frozen water which had laid still for nearly months now without any cause of restlessness. Now they began to creep down from the high mountain peak that the boy stood at the base of, and like a hundred chariots of hell beginning to build up momentum, the avalanche began to hasten its way down towards him....

"No...." He grimaced at the sight, but not because of the damage that it could cause the average mortal. You see, snow, ice and water alike were his friends in the same relevance that oxygen was to a fish. Too much and it could kill him of course, but learning to live within it and without it created a balance that allowed him to appreciate how valuable the resource was... That and it was the main source of his magic.
Now, most people would see an avalanche and go "ah crap." and accept their death. No, Darataka wasn't flustered by that at all as the hundred horse like stampede of falling ice closed the hundred or so yards between itself and him. For the young village hunter, it was more so that this would cause difficult terrain to get back to where he was headed. Recently churned snow was much more troublesome to traverse and would nearly double his time getting back to his home to see what exactly had caused the tremor in the first place.
He wasn't dumb. It wasn't a coincidence that the same day a new face showed up in his village, the mountain decided to spit its frozen wad at him.

"Well... If I can surf down a mountain...." Darataka said to himself, clasping his hands together with the index fingers pointed out together, and his thumbs acting as an iron sight. Aiming down his own finger tips, a small circle was created at the tips of his fingers. "I CAN SHOOT UP A MOUNTAIN!" He yelled as if he thought he was going to do something badass.
"ICE MAKER! MAGNUM!!!!"

Around his hands a six cylinder revolver would form, the barrel extending out from his finger tips as they aimed towards the oncoming avalanche.
Darataka squeezed his fists within that weapon, and a blast of ice in the form of a spear shot front he barrel, heading upwards at a slant in an attempt to potentially match the oncoming avalanche bef-

A blur of speed, and the white haired hunter was running beside the bullet at speeds that would seem unreasonable for his own level of training, the muscles in his legs and abdomen straining at the effort of this hastened attempt. Side by side he raced along with the bullet spear he had created, and it didn;t take long before he could smell and taste the oncoming frost bukkake that
barreled towards him threatening to flatten the lad or at least set him back several hours of travel.
"My mountain...." he yelled , although his words were choked out by the sounds of collapsing snow. "WOULD NEVER HURT ME!"
There was an instantaneous crouch, and then leap as he jumped forward before his feet touched atop a slim icy blade. Again he crouched, the muscles in his lower half burning now, before leaping off of the magnum bullet he had created and past the oncoming wave of snow!!!!

No way he was going to miss whatever was going on in his home village!

Shane could sense that the General was appraising him as he stood before his commanding officer, back straight, chest out and hands clasped behind his back. When Mythal had given him the command to ease, Shane let his arms drop to his sides, shifting his weight to his right leg, keeping it straight. Unbeknownst to Mythal, Shane was feeling uncomfortable in his uniform as well, and the moment the General had given him the permission to go casual, the Captain didn’t even wait before using his Requip magic to swap out of his uniform. With a sudden outburst of white steam that quickly dissipated, Shane was now dressed in his preferred outfit.

Where he had once been standing in his neat uniform, the Captain of the Rune Knights now looked every bit a mage for hire. His attire consisted of a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a pair of dark green cargo pants and black combat boots that reached up to the middle of his shin.

“I hope this looks better, boss. Do you mind if I call you boss instead of Mythal? Seems… more appropriate,” Shane offered his opinion, instantly finding himself liking his superior officer. Shane listened intently as Mythal recapped on the mission details again, finally providing an answer to the question that Shane had been turning over in his mind when he was on his way here. The General was assessing his capabilities, and then the mention of his number two. Shane’s brows narrowed slightly at that, doubting if he would fit the bill. Still, it did give him a little confidence boost that the General of the Special Ops division was expecting great things out of him.

“Putting the idea of becoming your number two aside, you can be sure that I will do my best for this mission. I do agree that the reports coming in have been rather troubling, and seems to hint at something far bigger than the picture may show us,” Shane replied after mulling it over. This was Shane Stern. Being Captain had already been a boon for him, something that he had never sought out, as he had the joined the Rune Knights to be on the frontlines anyway. That was all that mattered to him. But it intrigued him at the same time. While he would be able to operate independently as a normal private, Shane believed that being involved in Mythal’s plans would allow him to grasp his usefulness in the long run.

“Impressive,” Shane said, slightly louder than a whisper when the General conjured a portal of black and purple, a hole punched right through space to get them where they needed to go. Of course that was how they would move around, Shane thought to himself. Shane raised an eyebrow when Mythal brought up the topic of a particular spirit, which the former assumed was his pet or something.

The scenery of a white mountains came into view when Shane exited out of the other side of the portal, a blustery gust of cold wind from the top of the mountains brushing past them. It brought a chill to the Rune Knight captain, but it wasn’t going to cause any discomfort to him. His body’s regenerative factor and enhanced metabolism would take care of that. Shane nodded to Mythal’s prompt, following behind him as they made their way to wherever their destination was. A far-off rumble could be heard from among the mountains, to which Shane gave only a fraction of his attention.

His feet landed on the snow once past the avalanche and he sped upwards, each step quick enough to not sink fully with his weight into the cold clouds of pearly snowflakes. His eagerness was the only thing keeping his mind from screaming at the burn going through his body, a full days work and now this lovely exercise he knew that he would not only sleep well tonight but feel that sweet sweet ache in the morning.
Slowly the crest of the mountain came into view closer and closer like a barrier separating himself from the wonders of the world that awaited him in his village...And dinner! "Man I bet Garuda was showing off to the traveler and now is going to be claimed as a mighty warrior and then he will take me away from here!" Darataka shouted to himself, his voice carrying over the winds that began to pick up that helped churn the grey clouds above.

Finally the peak! The one part of the mountain that was not completely snow and more of a rocky surface, perfect for pushing off in a giant leap that would allow him to sail down towards the village below. "A grand adventure awaits!" Hyping himself up as he sprung off the rocky surface into the air, arms spread out in excitement. " A whole wide wor-"

THWACK
There wasnt any words in his mind that described the feeling, but if there was they would have been knocked clean out of him as a massive club swatted him out of the air like a baseball bat to a fly! Dara felt every body in his body crack out, whispers of thunder sent him into a physical shock of pain... His body rocketed down towards the ground from whatever had struck him, a bullet that shot into the snow causing a splash of white fluff to rise around the impact....Knocked out cold....

The wielder of the massive wooden weapon was a human like ogre of a being, hunched over but still standing nearly thirty feet tall. Down in the village? Another one of the massive strange giants, reducing the village to rubble with each swing of his own club.....

[ Image of the Ice giants : https://i.pinimg.com/474x/5a/5b/78/5a5b7844e310caa606a029b8f61b5aac.jpg ]

“Got it,” Shane replied curtly as he instantly charged at the lumbering giant, causing mass destruction with every effortless sweep of his club. His legs were pumping with magical energy, carrying him across the snow much faster. What was originally going to make for a very troublesome sprint with each leg sinking into the deep snow became a light dash across it as his feet barely touched the snow before he was already springing into his next. It took Shane only seconds to reach the village, his eyes reddening at the amount of destruction that had been brought up on the originally peaceful village.

Among the ruins of the houses, some villagers were running away from the carnage while some were trying to rescue their friends or family that were either injured or trapped beneath the rubble. The Rune Knight Captain wanted to give them his aid, but for now, the ice giant had his attention. It was repeatedly swinging the club in its hand, and Shane knew he would do better to take down this abomination before he moved on to the rescue effort.

A thunderous roar accompanied a massive swing from the ice giant’s club, but it wasn’t meant to hit anything this time. With a roar from the Rune Knight as well, Shane kicked off the snow and leapt into the air, right fist clenched tightly as he punched in the direction of the wooden club. A sickening crunch followed, but it wasn’t from the Rune Knight. Instead, the part where Shane had punched the wooden club had completely disintegrated and the power behind his punch overwhelming the ice giant’s, forcing the wooden club to swerve off course. Fortunately, it hit nothing.

However, before Shane could let the monster do any more damage, the moment the Rune Knight dropped to the snow, massive amounts of energy had accumulated around his entire right arm, forming into a large fist. Pulling his arm back, he punched forth at the ice giant, releasing the accumulated magical energy with his punch.

The gigantic fist of magic power collided squarely with the ice giant’s chest, the might of it throwing the ice giant off his feet and flying out of the village perimeter. Ice and snow exploded out of the crater formed by the ice giant’s collapse.

The silhouette of the ice giant was unmoving as the snow settled, allowing Shane to quickly rush towards rescuing the ones in need. Rushing to the nearest collapsed building, with a young girl trying to move the debris that was weighing down on the thighs of an older man, Shane assessed the situation speedily and lent his strength to moving the wooden wreckage, using one hand to hold it up while he used his left hand to slowly pull the man away. Once he was done, Shane released his hold on the wreckage, slowly placing it back down in case it collapsed again and rushed off to the aid of another nearby situation.

[498 words]