08-01-2016, 09:58 AM
The ice no longer burns to the touch, no longer sears my flesh and leaves me screaming in agony. It is merely...cold. Nothing more than water cooled below its freezing point, allowing the formation of ice crystals. I lower my face to inspect the nearest pile of shards, half expecting the sharp stab of pain as my lips brush against the fragments of what once were cage bars. Curious. Perhaps the absence of the stranger who wielded ice as a weapon accounts for the change.
Much more interesting anyhow is the way those bars shattered around me. Was it some quirk of nature, an unknown phenomenon of some sort? Or...or did it have something to do with the fury that had been building in my chest? I’m closing my eyes to try to recreate the sensation somehow when I hear a quiet laugh from somewhere behind me.
Given my recent experiences in this very spot, it is perhaps understandable that my body’s immediate reaction is a subtle tightening of the muscles along my back, adrenaline pouring into my system and setting my heart to racing and readying my limbs for action. The clenching of my stomach and chest, that’s new and unpleasant, but I distract myself by slowly raising my head to look for the source of the sound.
The girl seems harmless enough, though I am learning appearances can be deceiving. Still, there is quiet curiosity in her eyes, not a hint of the cold brutality that had been in the face of the one who left me covered in scars. And she stays where she is, leaning against a tree and casually watching from a comfortable distance. The tightness in my chest and belly starts to ease, and I tilt my head. Interesting.
“On the contrary,” I answer her, nudging the nearest pile of jagged bits of ice with a hoof. “I’m far more familiar with it than I would like. Or with one of its more vicious incarnations at any rate. It appears to be nothing but ice now, no longer burning to the touch. It was not nearly so innocuous yesterday.” Heat flares in my chest at the memory, and I find myself grinding the ice beneath my hoof. The other piles tremble almost imperceptibly, and the shuddering movement catches my eye and dissipates the heat, distracting me from my...anger?
“Curious.” I tilt my head, and my dark eyes narrow at the now motionless ice. A remnant of its formerly possessed nature, perhaps? Does it move on its own? As a reaction to negative emotion? A reaction to me in particular, or would it happen for anyone else? “Would you assist me in a small experiment?” I ask, looking back at the girl. I step out of the circle and nod my head toward it, inviting her to step within it. “There is something unusual occurring here. And I am uncertain as to the nature of the phenomenon, whether it is something left in the ice itself, an echo of its former nature, or…”
Or something else entirely.
“It moves. When I…” When I remember what happened here. When heat rushes through my chest and down my limbs and builds into fury. “It appears to react to negative emotions. Anger. Rage. It shattered, and just now, did you see how it tremored just slightly? I am curious whether it is a reaction to me, somehow tuned to me because it held me captive, or if another’s anger would have a similar effect. Would you be willing to help me find out?”
Much more interesting anyhow is the way those bars shattered around me. Was it some quirk of nature, an unknown phenomenon of some sort? Or...or did it have something to do with the fury that had been building in my chest? I’m closing my eyes to try to recreate the sensation somehow when I hear a quiet laugh from somewhere behind me.
Given my recent experiences in this very spot, it is perhaps understandable that my body’s immediate reaction is a subtle tightening of the muscles along my back, adrenaline pouring into my system and setting my heart to racing and readying my limbs for action. The clenching of my stomach and chest, that’s new and unpleasant, but I distract myself by slowly raising my head to look for the source of the sound.
The girl seems harmless enough, though I am learning appearances can be deceiving. Still, there is quiet curiosity in her eyes, not a hint of the cold brutality that had been in the face of the one who left me covered in scars. And she stays where she is, leaning against a tree and casually watching from a comfortable distance. The tightness in my chest and belly starts to ease, and I tilt my head. Interesting.
“On the contrary,” I answer her, nudging the nearest pile of jagged bits of ice with a hoof. “I’m far more familiar with it than I would like. Or with one of its more vicious incarnations at any rate. It appears to be nothing but ice now, no longer burning to the touch. It was not nearly so innocuous yesterday.” Heat flares in my chest at the memory, and I find myself grinding the ice beneath my hoof. The other piles tremble almost imperceptibly, and the shuddering movement catches my eye and dissipates the heat, distracting me from my...anger?
“Curious.” I tilt my head, and my dark eyes narrow at the now motionless ice. A remnant of its formerly possessed nature, perhaps? Does it move on its own? As a reaction to negative emotion? A reaction to me in particular, or would it happen for anyone else? “Would you assist me in a small experiment?” I ask, looking back at the girl. I step out of the circle and nod my head toward it, inviting her to step within it. “There is something unusual occurring here. And I am uncertain as to the nature of the phenomenon, whether it is something left in the ice itself, an echo of its former nature, or…”
Or something else entirely.
“It moves. When I…” When I remember what happened here. When heat rushes through my chest and down my limbs and builds into fury. “It appears to react to negative emotions. Anger. Rage. It shattered, and just now, did you see how it tremored just slightly? I am curious whether it is a reaction to me, somehow tuned to me because it held me captive, or if another’s anger would have a similar effect. Would you be willing to help me find out?”