Monster Girl World Ch. 15

A couple of hours later, Kai and Gerda packed their essentials for the long trip up the mountain. They wanted to leave as soon as possible in order to make it at least halfway to their destination while the weather was still good. Though, considering who they were dealing with, the weather could turn against them in the blink of an eye.

“Are you sure you don’t want more people coming with you?” Mary asked the pair at the edge of town.

“Yes, the less people going, the lesser our chances are of being discovered and possibly attacked on the way.” Kai said. “We’ll be fine, Mary. We’re rushing off into war.”

Mary growled and crossed her arms. “That’s what you say.”

Kai and Gerda were decked out in cold-resistant winter gear that was enchanted by the fire mages on the emergency team to keep them warm when the outside temperature reached a certain level. Gerda carried the heavier loads on her back with ease, while Kai had the snowflake and the weapons that Mary had given them.

Gerda hugged Mary tightly, ignoring the hellhound’s high body temperature that made her sweat in her heavy coat. “We’ll be back, Mary. I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” Mary said, hugging the white horn girl.

The pair said their final goodbyes and walked down the path, disappearing into the snow covered forest as they went off on their unaware of the implications of this course of action.

XXXXXX

Elsa loved her mother. She was the strongest woman she ever knew, a “force of nature” as her father described. Elsa could see why she was called that.

Her mother was like the embodiment of a blizzard-coldhearted, hard, yet she was beautiful. Most of the time, she sat on her throne, ruling over her distant, icy kingdom of human men and their monster wives, who were mostly glacies who served their queen. To all she was a cold woman with great power, but to her husband and daughter, she was-even if only slightly-a caring mother.

Following her return from Freezenburg for the summer, Elsa went to see her mother to ask her an important question.

“What troubles you, daughter?” She asked, before Elsa had even spoken. Somehow, she always knew when Elsa was confused or troubled about something.

“Mother, it’s...it’s about the boy I told you about.” Elsa said. She didn’t notice the minute raise of her mother’s brow at the mention of Kai. “There’s something about him, mother. Whenever I’m around him, I get this feeling in my chest.”

“Oh?” Her mother, clad in an ivory white dress and wearing a crown made of icy blue roses, rest her chin on her delicate hand and looked down at her daughter. “And what is this feeling, Elsa?”

“It’s, similar to how it feels to stand out in the sun for too long. Or being near a fire. It doesn’t hurt, but it feels strange.”

“That’s warmth, Elsa. It’s an alien feeling to our kind. We, who are born and raised amidst the frozen glaciers and mountains, do not feel warmth as humans or other monsters do. Our hearts, our souls, are little more than complicated frozen fractals.”

“What does this mean?” Elsa asked. “Is it dangerous for us to feel this way?”

“No, my child. This is natural.” Her mother answered. “Many women of our kind experience this feeling when they meet their chosen one. It’s an emotion that we rulers of ice seldom feel for anyone other than our families. It is an emotion called...love.”

“Love.” Elsa muttered. “Is that what it feels like when my chest gets warm around him?”

“It’s more complicated than that, but yes, that is one of the signs. Do not worry, child, this warmth will cool and you will feel normal again.”

“But I don’t want to feel normal!” She exclaimed. “I like this feeling! I like being warm!”

“Careful, child,” Her mother said coldly. “Love may feel good to you, but remember that it goes hand in hand with pain. The warmer you feel, the more open to pain you become. Life is full of uncertainties and even for the children of Nyx one’s fate is not certain. Do not let yourself become blinded by the warmth of love or it will leave you vulnerable.”

That was all her mother had to say to her, and though Elsa tried not to think about it, she couldn’t forget the warning. How could love make one vulnerable? It was so warm and comforting, it made her feel things she never felt before and she didn’t want to lose that. If this was what being with Kai was like, then she’ll never give him up!

If only the world shared her feelings on the matter, for just a week later, things in Freezenburg had taken a turn for the worse.

XXXXXX

Kai and Gerda’s journey into the mountains started off well enough. They walked through the dense, snow covered forest and reached the path that led through the mountains. It was a route that was charted by the yeti explorers who lived in the area, but despite how often it was traversed, as the deeper one got into the mountains, the more harrowing the weather became. The higher you got, the thinner the air became, and within a week of their journey, Kai and Gerda were forced to take it slow lest they suffered from the aftereffects of the climate.

This trek through the mountains was only made slightly easier thanks to their training in cold, uneven climates. They were used to how things went in the forest, and it made their trip smoother. Nevertheless, when night fell, they set up camp, and used the enchanted spark stones Mary lent to them to make a proper fire. They were exhausted from the arduous walk up the rocky slope, but neither of them could sleep.

“You should get some sleep.” Kai suggested. “I can keep watch for about an hour or two.”

“I can’t. I keep thinking that those glacies are out there, watching us.” Gerda said, glancing nervously at the dark forest around them. She was rarely afraid of another monster, but she knew that monsters like the glacies and their ice queen mistress were known for being very vicious when it came to protecting their turf.

“I don’t think they’ll attack us. At least, not until we get close to their castle. Don’t ask me why, but something tells me that they don’t know we’re coming.” Kai said, gazing at the snowflake in his hand intently. In the dark of the night, it was actually glowing whenever he pointed it in the direction of their destination, like a little beacon to guide their way. Beautiful and effective, as expected of a glacie creation.

“Kai, are you alright?” Gerda asked concerned. “You’ve been rather quiet since we left Freezenburg.”

Kai put the snowflake down and sighed. “I’m fine, Gerda, it’s just...this whole situation is bringing up some bad memories from my childhood. All this snow and ice, and this snowflake, it’s making me remember a friend I once had as a boy.”

“A friend?”

“Her name was Elsa. She was this noble girl who would live in the town with her father every summer when her mother was away. Funny enough, I think I was her first and only friend since moving into Freezenburg, and we played together whenever we could.” Kai smiled at the memories. “She was also a mage. Elsa had this odd form of ice magic that she used to make the most beautiful ice sculptures and carvings. She’d show off her powers to me and I’d stare at her in awe like magic wasn’t common in our town. She was cold and aloof at times, but the more we got to know each other, she warmed up to me.”

Gerda didn’t like where this was going. She heard enough tragic stories like this to know that it didn’t end well. Sadly, she was right.

“Gerda, remember those terrorist attacks on human/monster settlements 10 years ago?” He asked. Gerda nodded.

“Yes, most of them were caused by Ilias Kruez, right? They’re rogue members of the Order that attack monsters and their sympathizers.” She said.

“Well, Freezenburg was one of the last towns they hit before the Church got involved. When I was a kid, there was this mad priest who would rant and rave about how our souls would be sentenced to damnation for consorting with monsters. No one paid him any mind until he somehow got into contact with those same terrorists that were attacking other towns.” A dark look came over Kai’s face. “When we turned thirteen, members of Ilias Kruez attacked Freezenburg. They set houses on fire, attacked anyone in sight. It was terrible.”

“And...what happened to your friend?” Gerda asked quietly.

“We were in the middle of the attack and we were trying to find our parents. In the chaos she ran off to find her father, while I was saved by one of the hellhound guards who drove the terrorists off and fought them. Elsa...I never saw her again after the attack.”

Kai went quiet after that, still fingering the snowflake glowing in his hand.

“She’s been on my mind a lot lately. I still wonder what she would’ve been like had the attack never happened. We didn’t even find a body.” Kai muttered.

“Well,” Gerda cleared her throat. “Maybe she...survived? You know what Mary says about dead people. If you don’t see a body-”

“Gerda, please. Even if she isn’t dead, however unlikely that is given how thorough those raiders were, I doubt she’d want to come back. At least she won’t come back to this ugly mess.” He said and pocketed the snowflake before picking up his crossbow. “Get some sleep. We’ve got a long walk tomorrow.”

Gerda frowned and slowly stood up, giving Kai a soft good night before crawling into their tent. Kai sat at the fire staring into the flames. He didn’t know why he was thinking about her now, but he was sure that he wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.

XXXXXX

Elsa’s father was the complete opposite of her mother. Whereas her mother was the personification of a winter storm, cold and frigid, her father was like the sun, warm and bright. He always found reasons to smile, which was mostly found in his wife and daughter. He was the only one who saw his enchanting wife smile, especially in the throes of pleasure, and Elsa was the light of his life.

Elsa didn’t know much about her father’s life before he met her mother. She knew he used to live in a bigger city further out west before moving to the countryside. It was by pure chance that he met her mother while exploring the mountains for some archaeologist team, offering himself up to protector the weaker members of his group. Something clicked for her mother, who found herself drawn to this courageous man. The warmth hat she felt for Kai blossomed within her, and within a year the two were married. Within a couple of months after that, Elsa was born.

Both Elsa and her mother loved her father. He was the light of her life. He was an experienced explorer, who had traveled all across western and central Europa, gained vast knowledge about the various cultures both human and monster. He was the smartest man in the world to her and no one could argue that. He moved to Freezenburg to teach the children there, where another fact about him clashed with his personal life-he was a follower of the Order.

The Order was a point of contention in her family. Elsa was taught by her mother that they were a religion of intolerant warm-bloods who worship a false goddess. Her father said that the Order had long since changed, now they were more tolerant, helping of others, and stayed true to the ideals of the Prophet Andraste. Elsa had seen them argue back and forth on the Order’s ideals, but she largely didn’t care. She’d be careful around them, of course, but she saw that they weren’t entirely bad. Kai’s family was a member of the Order and they were fine people.

Elsa would learn the hard way that the Order had its own dark side that sometimes ran rampant like rabid animals.

“Ah!” Elsa screamed as a house exploded next to her. She hastily summoned an ice shield to block the flames and ran down the street, trying not to run into the panicking people running around her. “Kai! Kai!”

“Elsa!” Kai ran up to her and took her hand. “We need to leave. They’re burning everything to the ground and all this smoke will suffocate us!”

“But my father, I can’t find him!” She looked around but only saw houses on fire and people running around with their families trying to evacuate. All this was the work of one mage who came with the raiders who suddenly attacked the town. “Please, Kai, help me find him!”

Kai wanted to argue that they should get to safety, run to the forest and wait for help to arrive. But seeing the normally calm and reserved girl look so scared and frightened, not just for herself but also for her father, he couldn’t help but give in to her pleas. He nodded and she dragged him through the burning town towards the church where her father visited for afternoon prayer. It was the only place aside from the schoolhouse that she thought he’d be.

She was right, of course, but they also found some other people with the man there.

Elsa recognized her father, a handsome man with a clean shaven beard and short brown hair tied back in a ponytail. She didn’t recognize the other three men, one of them holding a fireball in the palm of his hand, the other clad in dirty Order priest robes. The other was a big, burly man wielding a large axe.

“Father?” Elsa squeaked out, clutching Kai’s hand tightly.

“Elsa? What are you doing here? You need to leave!” Her father yelled.

“That’s right girl, run along.” The priest said, glaring down at her with eyes that spoke of madness. “You wouldn’t want to see your father be branded a traitor to his own species.”

“How dare you talk of treachery when you spit in the face of the Order!” Elsa flinched at the tone her father used. He was rarely angry, and when he was, it was usually about the things he cared about. “You spit in the face of Andraste with your actions!”

“I’m preserving what the Order is truly about! Enforcing the will of Lady Hemera and exterminating these creatures you so willingly consort with! I’m preserving the human race, that is my divine duty. Not preaching the ramblings of a madwoman!” The priest ranted.

“Then you are no true servant of Hemera. Just someone using her name to justify killing innocent people.” Her father growled.

The priest made to retort, but was stopped by the fire mage. “Wait.” The man who wore less clothing than his two companions slowly turned his head and looked at Elsa. “His daughter...she’s one of them.”

The priest’s eyes practically bulged with rage while the taller man next to him narrowed his eyes. “S-She’s...” The priest stammered and glared at her father. “You blasphemer! You mated with those monsters and dared to stand in the house of Light?!”

“The only monsters I see stand before me. Now take your band of flea-ridden mercenaries and leave this place before the hellhounds come and rip you apart!”

“No, it is you who will be leaving. Ron, kill the girl! Make an example out of her!” He ordered, and the fire mage raised a hand at Elsa and Kai.

“No!”

Her father sprinted forward faster than any normal man should be able to at his age. Being her mother’s incubus had changed him to be stronger, faster than the average human. He closed the distance between him and the three terrorists in a heartbeat and brutally slammed his elbow into the priest’s throat, crushing his windpipe. He quickly spun around and punched the fire mage in the face, diverting his fire spell so that it missed the children.

The axe man swung his weapon at him, but her father dodged the attack and kicked him in the chest. The blow only pushed the axe man back, and the man retaliated with another swift strike that buried the axe blade into his side, right between the ribs.

“Father!” Elsa tried to run toward him, but Kai held her back.

“Worry about yourself, you little demon!” The fire mage growled and thrust his arms forward, shooting a large fire blast at the children. Elsa ran forward and summoned all the ice she could must, creating a glistening shield that evaporated as soon as the fire blast hit it, though she was untouched. Elsa, going on adrenaline at this point, weaved her hands and created another large wave of ice that encased the mage’s arms in a frozen prison. “Shit!”

The axe man kicked her father away and glared at the little ice princess. He clenched his axe, which glowed with a green aura, and he threw the magically enhanced weapon at the girl. Elsa, tired from using so much of her powers at once, gasped as the axe flew at her head faster than she could process.

A blur sped through the church and just barely past the flying axe before stopping in front of Elsa. There was a sickening crunch as the blade pierced human flesh and Elsa and Kai stared at the horrific sight in shock.

“Father!”

XXXXXX

Kai and Gerda followed the snowflake’s trail through the mountain pass, where the weather grew steadily worse. It started with a light snowfall, which steadily grew heavier the deeper they got into the mountains. Then the winds began to pick up, and the snow turned to hail. It wasn’t long before they were pushing through gale force winds with biting hail stinging their faces. Gerda forced Kai onto her back as they trudged through the blizzard that pelted them, but it got to the point where even Gerda was having a hard time seeing more than a foot in front of her.

“I can’t see where I’m going!” Gerda shouted over the rushing winds. “Are we going in the right direction?”

“We’re on the right trail, but this blizzard’s getting worse!” Kai shouted back. “I can move or else we’ll get blown away!”

“Just hanging on to me. I’ll get us there!” Gerda said, wrapping Kai’s arms around her waist tightly before pushing her hooves through the thick snow, her heavy coat thankfully keeping her lower body warm, but at this point, with how cold it was getting, even her fur might not save her this time.

‘We’re not going to make it. This has to be the ice queen’s magic!’ Kai thought, pressing his face into Gerda’s back to protect it from the hail. ‘We haven’t even made it the castle yet and we’re already about to fail!’

He felt the snowflake in his pocket started to grow warm against his shirt, which shouldn’t even be possible. Cracking his eyes open, he reached into his coat and pulled out the snowflake, which to his surprise, was actually glowing. Kai had to shut his eyes again when the snowflake’s glow intensified and even Gerda had to stop when the glow engulfed them both and blinded the pair for a moment.

Kai didn’t know how many minutes passed when his sight returned and the stars faded from his vision, but when things cleared up, Kai found himself lying on his back in the snow. He quickly sat up and looked at the snowflake, which had stopped glowing and sitting in the snow next to his hand. And not too far from him was Gerda, kneeling on the snow looking dazed and confused.

“Gerda, are you okay?” Kai stood up and walked over to her.

“What happened?” Gerda asked.

“I think this little trinket just saved us.” Kai said, holding up the snowflake. Gerda looked over his shoulder and gasped. He spun around and even he couldn’t help but gasp in awe.

Kai and Gerda, without even realizing it, were standing just a few feet away from a long, intricately made ice bridge that went across a deep gorge and connected to a massive palace made completely of ice. The castle, unobstructed by the fierce blizzard, glistened in the sun as light shined through its refracted surface. Diamond dust flittering about in the air twinkled like stars and made the once threatening place seem enchanting and beautiful. But they knew better. They had reached the ice castle, but now they had to make it to the ice queen in one piece.