Red Amongst the Snow

Tala began to show mild concern when Hitomi started to giggle and turn red.

"H-hey...maybe go a little easy on the--"

But Hitomi slid the paper asking about amnesia and took another shot.

"Oh. oh my."

While Hitomi was older than she had first appeared, Tala had to say she was still uneasy about letting a younger person drink in front of her. Scratching her cheek, she answered the Enkidu's question.

Oh, I didn't mean anything too much by it," she said. And then, a little quieter as she cupped her hands around her tankard, "Just things I've forgotten and will probably forget over time. It happens to the best of us. And I guess if we're talking about such things, it would benefit you, too."

Speaking of serious things, Hitomi offered that Tala should drink, to which the older woman shook her head and smiled.

"Trust me, it is better I not be inebriated tonight, deary," she said. "But on the topic of more serious things..."

The tavern door would burst open, letting in a gust of cold air and flurry. Tala had to use her cloak to prevent getting blasted. A villager stood in the doorway looking rather distressed.

"There's a Frosteater in the vicinity!" he called out in distress.

"So?" Jim called out back. "Just leave them be. They can't touch us if we're on land."

"No, but there are still ice cutters outside! The Frosteaters broke through the ice sheet and men are stranded!"

Hearing this, Tala downed her milk, the liquid streaming down the ends of her mouth and onto her blouse like a messy child. She then slammed her tankard on the counter.

"I'm sorry to leave you, my child," she told Hitomi. "But it looks like I'm needed elsewhere."

Her cloak flying behind her, she started rushing out the door.

"Which portion of the lake are they at?" she asked.

"By the docks! Hurry! The Frosteaters might just pull them down in the water!"

"Got it!"

Whether Hitomi would follow was unclear, but the door was open for her for sure.

For fuck's sake.

She had no time to respond to Tala before some new problem was dropped into their laps. She had to admit, she was upset. Could be the alcohol talking, could be the fact that she had just dealt with several problems RIGHT. OUTSIDE. of their town. For the love of god, these people needed to learn to defend themselves.

Oh, she was angry wasn't she? She was certainly not feeling like the faceless hero she should be. Eisleyn had been rough hadn't it?

As Tala rushed out, Hitomi would rise herself. For the first time in awhile, she'd push her mask upwards, affixing it right behind her ear. The cold immediately hit her face, she was already quite uncomfortable...Still, the mask shouldn't be on if she can't keep herself in check. She'd fight angry then. She grabbed the bottle, almost glaring at the barkeep before turning and walking out. It wasn't his fault, but HE was going to get to sit back and enjoy himself while they did all the work.

Yeah, it was the drink talking...

She sighed and began to rush forward after Tala. Even drunk she was probably a better fighter than anyone in the town. It wasn't overconfidence, she'd killed more beasts/men than the town had citizens. She bounded forward, she'd heard them mention the docks right?

Towards the autumn season in the other kingdoms, Eisleyn's docks were frozen solid. Save for the help of ice cutters who broke the way for certain imports from Saoirse, most of what people would see were wooden strips of ports against a white ice sheet.

This is what Hitomi would see now as she caught up with Tala who had stopped just at the start of the docks. The lake was indeed frozen, but veins of dark blue water began to run across it, dilating and spreading like evil roots, and breaking the sheets into floating islets. On the islets were stranded men, trying to hold on for dear life with their ice cutting equipment by keeping delicate balance.

"A huntress!" a man at land said as he rushed towards Tala. "Please, you have to use your magic to bring them back and--"

The man would be met with a curved blade. Tala was holding her scythe outwards, stopping the man from coming any closer.

"Where are they?" she demanded in a sharp tone, her former gentle voice basically non-existent.

"What do you mean!? The men are right there in front of you--"

"Not the men, you idiot! The monsters!" she snapped.

At this, the man nervously stepped back.

"I-I don't know. It attacked briefly before retreating back into the water. It's probably still down there and--"

Just as he'd say this, the ice near the more solid ground began to crack. Tala's grip on her scythe tensed and she darted forwards.

"There!" she said to herself as she ran.

From the ice burst forth a large serpentine creature, followed by the echo of its loud, high-pitched screech. The creature in question was almost transparent, its form only apparent from the shadows and bluish reflections its scaly and horned skin made in the light. It had the head of a large fish with fins just at its base. Its eyes were large silver disks and its mouth jutted open to show jagged teeth that shone like crystals.

FROST EATER

Description:
A corrupted beast species found only in Eisleyn's ocean waters, Frost Eaters are ice fish-serpent hybrids that can grow as long as forty feet in length and seven feet in width. Its scales and jagged horns on its skin provide it a tough exterior, as hard as ice that has been frozen solid. Defeating Frost Eaters are often a challenge due to needing a lot of force to penetrate its skin. In addition to this, its exterior almost makes them close to transparent in the water.

Abilities:

• A Frost Eater's powerful jaws can cut through thick layers of ice, much more so human flesh.
  
• It can rapidly swim as well as leap great heights in the air.
  
• It can produce powerful gusts of air and frost from its mouth towards anyone it faces.
  
• Its powerful shrieks can pierce the ears, temporarily debilitating its opponents
  

As the Frost Eater emerged from the water, waves lapped across the broken pieces of ice. Hitomi would notice five men spread across on different floating pieces of ice. She would also notice Tala rushing towards the Frost Eater jumped into the air, hoping to close distance between itself and the men.

She'd see Tala leaping with almost too much ease from ice piece to ice piece before jumping towards the Frost Eaters side and tossing her scythe towards it. The golden-rimmed scythe would hook partially into its skin. The Frost Eater barely felt it nor did it notice he chain connected between the scythe and Tala. Holding the edge of her chain, Tala would be flung into the air before forcing herself to loop around and onto the Frost Eater's back. If Hitomi had been paying attention, she might have caught a glimpse of the use of Cartic marks in order to redirect herself into that position.

Once on its back, she used force to pull at her scythe and try to drag a line against the Frost Eater's skin. The creature would shriek, causing Tala to stop and cover her ears. To her surprise, the beast wriggled its back, making her lose balance and start following towards the icy water.

This situation was a complicated one. One giant beast, five men and a partner scattered across the battlefield. Choices needed to be made immediately. She knelt down and kicked off the ground, propelling herself over the ice and towards the battle. Initially, she was heading towards one of the men. She needed to get them out of the crossfire so her and Tala could really go wild.

Of course, the plans changed the moment Tala began to fall. She landed on the ice, unsheathing her sword and stabbing it into the ground to stead herself. After a moment she grabbed her left arm and twisted the prosthetic off, unsheathing the blade within. Next she jumped once again. Without magic, the margin for error was incredibly small. She'd try to intercept Tala's fall and grab her in mid air. If she succeeded, she'd use her momentum to drop her right off where she'd fallen, slide across the back of the beast while trying to cut its back with her prosthetic blade, and kick off its side, heading right towards one of the men.

If she didn't manage to get that far, she'd keep Tala from falling into the water at all costs. In Hitomi's eyes, Tala was the best hope of defeating this thing quickly and with minor loss of life

Tala quickly noticed she was falling and was planning to use her scythe to bring her back onto the beast, but she promptly fell into Hitomi's hold.

"Oh, hello again!" Tala said a little too carefreely as Hitomi held her and then dropped her off.

As Tala landed, she'd see Hitomi going for the beast's side. Hitomi would feel the thick icy exterior grind against her blade. She would be able to cut in partially, but much like Tala, it wasn't enough just yet to break through its scales. As she did this, she'd reach one man who was wobbling on a piece of ice.

"O-over here!" he begged. He was holding onto an ice pick and waving it in the air.

Meanwhile, the beast would dive back into the water, causing a large wave and for the water to lap across the men. Seeing this, Tala rush to one of the other men on another piece of ice just as the water tried to push him off the it. Summoning a Cartic mark, Tala fling the man onto another, larger piece of ice.

It wasn't going to do to just leave him on a piece of ice. She needed to get him and the others back. A part of her cursed herself for not easily having ice magic in her arsenal. Still, there was more solid ice towards the east of the docks that was hard and flat. The men could run from there.

"Hey!" Tala would call out to Hitomi. She'd then use her scythe to wave towards the remaining solid ice. "Send them this way!"

Hitomi would simply smile at Tala as they had a brief exchange. She only wished she could speak to give something witty back at her...She should make post it notes with pre-written wit on them...

Hm...

Oh right the battle!

Hitomi crashed against floating piece of ice hard, rolled and quickly kicked off again. She was in danger of slipping every time. It is a REALLY good thing she had decent balance. Hitomi gave a loud "Mm!" as Tala ordered her to send men over. For now, that was her current focus. Anyone she could get to, she pick up roughly and jump over to where Tala directed her. She mostly just let her legs do the work. Hell if she could she'd use her momentum to simply kick the ice towards Tala's direction.

She'd do this as many times as needed until stopped.

As Hitomi started to transfer people, Tala would do the same, grabbing the man she had by the waist and hoisting him towards the flat sheet of ice. A glyph would appear briefly underneath him so he didn't hit the ground too hard. She followed by heading to a second man and tossing him over there, and the five men would successfully make it to the docks. That just left one problem.

Tala could have chosen to do the wise thing of leaving the Frost Eater alone, but she knew it'd be back to chow on these folks when they started fishing or ice cutting again. She had to deal with this now.

Hopping from islet to islet, she scanned the water. All she could see was the dark deep blue that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles. However, she would notice some of the islets up ahead wobbling near Hitomi. Her eyes widened and she broke into a sprint.

"Hey! Watch out!" she said.

Near Hitomi's feet, she'd see a blur of white. A swell of water would come from underneath her as the Frost Eater burst from the ice again, stretching its neck straight like a python and trying to blast her with a flurry of cold air in an attempt to freeze her.

Once Hitomi was finished getting the men to safety, she had a similar idea as Tala. Fortunately, she saw the swell of water before the Frost Eater struck. With her free arm, she drew her sheathed blade and pulled back her arm. As it burst from the ice, Hitomi rolled backwards and threw the blade into its opening mouth. She hoped it would cut up its mouth at least a bit before it attacked.

She felt the frost start to envelope her as she knelt down and kicked off the ground, sending herself sailing to the next floating piece of ice. She slid, he feet finally giving way at her rushed landing. She spun across the ice, scrambling like a panicked rabbit as she tried not to fall over the edge into the icy water. She noticed her movements were noticeably slower and quite a bit stiffer. It appeared that attack had hit her harder than she had thought. She would be shivering if not for her adrenalin (and the alcohol) keeping her warm.

Throwing the blade inside the mouth of the Frost Eater served partially effective. While it had been successful in blowing frosty air in Hitomi's direction, as it tried to close its jaw, the blade would lodge in its larynx, causing it to choke. The cold air would stop coming out, and it would start hacking. Its head shook as it tried to dislodge the blade.

Meanwhile, Tala had seen Hitomi getting hurt.

"NO!!" she shouted.

Her blood turned hot and gritting her teeth, she started sprinting towards the beast at full speed across the ice. As the beast choked, both Hitomi and Tala would notice the gills at the beast's neck opening up to show its frosty interior. Tala immediately had an idea.

Using a glyph to launch herself into the air, she began twirling with her scythe at her side and the blade perpendicular to the beast's neck. The blade of her scythe would slash underneath the left open gill. Deep black ooze that looked like aged blood splattered out and Tala shifted her weight using her marks to hook her scythe inside.

The beast growled and began to lower its neck, making its head and other gill high enough for Hitomi to strike at again. However, Hitomi would slowly notice crystals forming around her clothes and her feet. Whatever the creature had breathed at her was now trying to freeze her in place.

Hitomi took a moment to assess the situation as Tala launched herself at the creature. Her eyes followed her movement. Slowly, she placed her prosthetic blade on her other prosthetic arm. With a quick tug, the arm came off, revealing her second blade. She sighed, rocked back on her crouched legs before suddenly noticing the frost spreading across her clothes.

Huh...

Idly, Hitomi kicked off her sandals, her bare feet were NOT happy touching ice, but she'd be off the ground soon. She wasn't happy about what she had to do next...With a sigh she pulled her robes apart with the edges of her blade, dropping it to the ground. Beneath there was simple cloth wrappings keeping her relatively decent. Those looking would see bruises all over her body from recent fights. In fact, a majority of her stomach and legs were covered in medical tape. There were old scars running up and down as well. She sighed and looked furiously at the beast. Then, she rocked back and launched herself forward. At least it couldn't spit ice like that again. She was NOT going fully nude!

She lunched out, trying to latch onto the gills similar to Tala. If she pierced in with one of her blades, she would simply start slashing as much as she could. If they bled it enough, that would also serve to weaken and eventually kill this thing.