Bladewarriors Book 1: Refresh

"So you really weren't kidding when you said it rained all the time."

Flare leaned against the railing of the patio, staring out at the rain from the deck of the small inn their group had stopped at. With their first objective identified, the Bladewarriors had set out for Sentinel Bay with Myst's mother, Ondine, in tow. In the day and a half they had been walking so far, the torrent hadn't let up once – Flare wasn't even sure it had slowed down. As he stared out at the downpour, he could have sworn it had actually started coming down harder. The group had spent the first night of their journey scrunched into a small tent Myst and Ondine had liberated from their former home before the group of them had left Dalga. After struggling to fit five people in the small three person tent, and barely managing to deal with the uncomfortably tight sleeping area, Ondine had suggested they seek out the inn they were now staying in.

The roadhouse was relatively small, all things considered, but it would due for their purposes, which pretty much amounted to the lot of them not being forced to squeeze into a four by six foot square of relief from the rain around them. Despite its small size, thought, the lodge was quaint and accommodating. It was also unlike anything the young Flamian had seen before. The entire structure was crafted from wood – from the walls, to the doors. Even the furniture was completely made from lumber. The redhead had taken a small bit of comfort in learning that the idea of a wooden structure was equally foreign to the white-haired boy traveling with them as well. Still, both he and Frost had to admit it had its charm.

"I told you." Myst replied, smiling at him from where she sat on the deck behind him. "Rain is pretty much a constant in this realm."

"Must get depressing." Ivy commented, leaning against the railing from where she sat as well, letting a few drops of rain crash against her before pulling back once more.

"Depressing!?" Flare replied, laughing as he stuck his head fully out from beneath the porch awning. "I can't think of anything more energizing and uplifting than seeing all of this rain!"

"I could do without the wetness." Frost responded. The redhead turned his head inward, watching as the fool wrung out his sweater, a puddle of water forming on the wood of the deck below him. "Though I have to admit, it makes this realm a little more bearable."

"Bearable?" Ivy scoffed, eyeing the slightly thinner long sleeve shirt the faire-haired pest was wearing beneath his sweater. It seemed to be drenched pretty thoroughly as well. "Aside from the rain, this place is pretty much perfect."

"I disagree." Frost responded, shaking his sweater a moment before laying it over the back of one of the chairs on the deck. "It's a little too warm here."

"Frost, honey… it's only seventy five degrees out today." Ondine giggled. The woman had become oddly found of the white haired idiot's quirkiness and his idiosyncrasies. "You won't find much nicer weather here."

"I disagree." Frost replied, sighing as he slopped down in his chair, leaning back. "I'm surprised I'm not melting, honestly."

"People don't melt, Frost." Ivy sighed, still easily annoyed by the pest.

"Not true!" Frost argued, lifting his head to stare at the tomboy. "My cousin's friend's brother's aunt once sat by a fire too long and turned into a puddle!"

Ivy blinked, staring back at the fool incredulously.

"And then," Frost continued excitedly, "when the fire finally went out, she froze, and now they have a puddle in their living room that looks like the woman's face."

"I think your cousin may have been messing with you, Frost." Myst laughed, joined by her mother.

"No, it's true!" Frost argued, shaking his head vehemently. "I've seen it!"

"You actually saw it?" Ivy questioned dubiously.

"Well… my cousin saw it." The white-haired fool replied, turning away a moment. "But it's still true."

"I think Myst is probably right this time." Flare grinned as he replied, sitting on the deck's railing as the rain pounded his back. "If people could melt, I'd know for sure. No where's quite as warm as the Fire Realm, after all."

"What is it like in the Fire Realm?" Ondine questioned, turning to look at the fiery haired youth.

"I was wondering that too, actually." Ivy added, shifting in her seat to stare at Flare. "When I try to picture it, all I can come up with is a giant, burning forest, and a sky full of thick, black smoke."

"What's a forest?" Flare asked curiously.

Ivy blinked, staring at the redhead's face, unsure how to respond to the question – unsure how anyone could not know what a forest was.

"It's a large area full of trees and other plants." Ondine answered for her. "Usually a lot of beasts live there, too. Don't you have forests in your realm?"

"Nope. Nothing like that." Flare shook his head, trying to imagine such a thing. All his brain could manage to come up with was a large sandy field filled with sickly looking green grass, and overcrowded by thin, brittle-looking trees almost completely lacking any form of leaves. "The Fire Realm is more of an endless desert."

"Desert?" Myst questioned, raising a brow at the unfamiliar term.

"What's that?" Ivy added, equally ignorant.

Flare grinned, almost wanting to laugh as the two turned confused looks to him. Since they had arrived in the realm, he had gotten the distinct impression he had been left out of some magical loop where everyone knew everything. It was nice to see there was at least a small piece of the world they weren't aware of.

"It's an endless expanse of sand and dirt that tends to be lacking in plant-life, and rain." Flare explained, proud of his own knowledge. "Think of it kind of like a gigantic beach, but without the water. Just sand."

"That sounds…" Myst began.

"Really horrible." Ivy finished, grimacing at the thought.

"It also tends to be incredibly hot." Flare added with a nod of his head.

"Hotter than here?" Frost questioned, frowning as he considered the idea.

"Much hotter." The redhead answered. "It's usually around a hundred and ten, maybe a hundred twenty during the day. Sometimes hotter."

Ondine laughed aloud, shaking her head. But as she turned to see the serious look covering Flare's face, her amusement faded.

"… You're serious." She stated, finding it difficult to consider.

"Alright, so, it's decided then!" Frost announced loudly, drawing the focus of the group to him. "I am not going to the Fire Realm. Because I will melt."

"You know, Frost, you might not be so warm all the time if you weren't wearing such thick clothing." Myst suggested, staring at the sweater draped over the fool's chair, and the heavy pants that were still covering his legs.

"Yeah. Maybe you should change up your wardrobe a little." Ivy agreed. "Like I did."

"You had to. You were wearing a nightie." Frost countered, shaking his head.

"It was not a nightie!" The tomboy yelled, narrowing her eyes at the pest.

"And no." Frost added. "When we eventually get back to the Ice Realm, I'm going to need these clothes."

"I'm sure you'll be able to find new clothes, Frost." Myst suggested innocently. "We can return to your house, too, when we go there."

"We wouldn't make it to my house." Frost replied, becoming uncharacteristically serious as he turned to face the nymph. "If we enter the realm as far from my home as we did from yours, wearing what we all are right now… we'd freeze before we made it."

Frost paused, glancing over his three companions.

"Hell, you'd all probably freeze even if we appeared right in the middle of my house." Frost added, leaning his head back once more.

"You're kidding." Ondine stated, staring at the white haired teen.

"Not in the slightest." Frost replied, lifting a hand to wave away the suggestion.

"I suppose it makes sense." Flare broke in, drawing the attention of the group back to himself. "Fire and Ice are opposites. If my realm ranges at a hundred and twenty above zero, it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to assume the Ice Realm sits at a hundred or so below."

"That's insane!" Ivy shouted, a look of disgust even more tenacious than the one she had given the Fire Realm covering her face. "We'll freeze instantly!"

"Probably." Frost replied nonchalantly.

"So what do we do when we have to go there?" Myst questioned, fear in her eyes as she considered the inevitable event.

"We die!" Ivy shouted, shivering at the mere thought of visiting Frost's home.

"People live there." Flare stated, shaking his head. "There has to be a way to survive it."

"My people are built for cold." Frost replied, lifting his head back up once more. "We've spent millennia there, adapting. And even we have trouble with the frigid air of our realm."

"Then I'll keep us warm." Flare suggested, reaching instinctively back to the handle of his blade.

"The whole time?" Myst inquired, turning to give him a dubious stare. "We've already been in my realm nearly two days, and we don't even know where The Serpent is, yet."

Flare was silent, lacking a proper response as he lowered his hand. The girl had a point. He could probably keep them warm for a little bit with the Flame Sword, but expending that much power for days… he wasn't sure he was up to that task.

"We'll just have to prepare, then…" Flare replied, discouraged as he stared at the wood of the deck below.

"How do we prepare for that?" Ivy questioned.

"Perhaps you shouldn't fret it just yet." Ondine broke in, drawing the attention of the children around her. "While it is definitely an issue you will need to address, you have much more pressing and much more immediate concerns. Like battling The Serpent."

The teens were silent, considering the woman's words. She was right, but ignoring the inevitable issue of freezing to death was difficult; especially when they had no clue when they would enter the Realm of Ice. In fact, they had no clue what order they would travel through the realms at all.

"It makes you wonder." Myst spoke up first, breaking the group from their thoughts as she lifted her head. "A scorching desert… a frozen wasteland… that's only two more realms. What sort of worlds await us in the others?"

No one had an answer as they stared at the nymph, pondering the question. The realms of Wind, Earth, Electric, and Shadow were out there, and while at least one of their group had knowledge of the other four realms, none of them had anything to go on about these four other than stories and legends. And even those myths were vague on details.

"I guess… we'll just have to deal with them when we get there." Flare suggested, frowning at the idea.

"This journey just keeps getting better and better." Ivy sighed, grimacing at the thought of their unknown fate.

"It'll be fine." Frost replied, waving away the concern as he did. "You'll all freeze to death in my realm, anyhow. So you don't need to worry about it."

"Thanks, Frost." Myst sighed, shaking her head. "Very encouraging."

"For now," Flare pushed himself off the railing, shaking the water from his hair, "let's just follow Ondine's advice, and not worry about it just yet. We still have to find The Serpent, and defeat her. We'll worry about what's next when we finish what's first."

"I guess… we'll have to." Myst nodded, lowering her head. Hopefully, they'd figure out something before it was too late.