FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sub-Chapter 2

The Queen of Winter

A short story featuring Maverick Skye

By Duo Theus

Prologue

There was a world with no name and upon this nameless world there were a species of creatures very similar to humans; though they were bigger, more barbaric, and stronger. They looked almost the same as humans, but they had large noses and were bigger, more muscular, and could control magic more easily. There were once four tribes, two of which died in the great wars for the planet. Only two tribes remained, the tribe of the flame in the northern hemisphere, and the tribe of ice in the southern.

These two tribes continued the devastating war that destroyed the other tribes for many centuries building themselves both large kingdoms that ruled half the planet. The loss of the tribe of gales and tribe of life allowed the newly established kingdoms of flames and ice to invade unknown lands and acquire unknown magic. With newly gained powers, the war escalated and ruled both tribes for many centuries with neither gaining or loosing.

Both kingdoms continued their war with one another, hoping to gain control of the entire world until the latest two kings of the kingdoms, King Dathgar of the northern kingdom of flames, and King Hogar of the southern kingdom of ice, realized that they were just as strong as the other, and started on the idea of becoming a single super power. With both kingdoms as strong as one another, it seemed only logical that they combine forces and rule the planet under one code in two territories. Finally it seemed a peace would be established, but it was unknown how long it would last; peace was a foreign idea to the tribes.

At this time, King Hogar was on his way to the northern kingdom to discuss peace treaties, when he came across a strange baby in his territory's wilderness. Her skin was blue, her nose was small and slender, and though her body was similar, she was different; enough so Hogar knew she had to be from another world. He took the child back to his kingdom immediately, worried the child might die of the cold.

King Hogar commanded his royal wizards to save the alien child or suffer her fate. The wizards did their best to save the child and succeeded, though they also revealed the child was indeed from another world; as to how she arrived, was a mystery.

The king's wizards also revealed that the child had great power inside of her, so much so it was more then any known wizard in history, and should be considered dangerous. King Hogar scoffed the notion; he adopted the child as his own stating that such a powerful ruler would be beneficial for the kingdom. He named the child Ma'Dora after his late wife.

Twenty orbits of peace passed between the kingdoms as Ma'Dora was trained to be both a grand wizard and a wise queen; none could have ever guessed her dark ambitions in those years. Upon the day of the twentieth orbit of her finding, she betrayed her father by murdering him and seizing the throne. Ma'Dora stated to the kingdom that she had the power to take the world, that these peace treaties were getting them nowhere and both could not share one world and rule it at the same time.

The people supported their queen, though one thing kept Queen Ma'Dora from acting upon her words and that was the fact she desired a son as powerful as herself. Like her late adopted parents before her, she had a strong urge to have an heir to call her own. Ma'Dora would not accept the fact that she was different and unable bare a son. Despite this, the young queen called out for strong, wise, and handsome male suitors from around the kingdom to gather before her.

She tried with many suitors for five orbits, though her efforts did not produce the son she desired. Ma'Dora became heartbroken by her failure, leading her to her second option which was magic. If she could not produce a suitable son, then she would make one. Using her own body and speaking several incantations, she produced a son made of spells and magic. She named the boy Lujak, who later became known throughout the land as Ma'Dora's strongest spell.

He was not blue as his mother, more of a bronze flesh tone with shiny golden locks, but he was beautiful. She used spells of the sun to make him strong, enough so he could heat up his body to such incredible temperatures that no one in the kingdom of flame could compare. Lujak could even fly into the air at great speeds; there was truly no other man as great in his feats as he was in his cold heart. Though being made of spells, Lujak was never as intelligent as she desired and when orbits passed, proved to be more of a glorified servant then a son. Ma'Dora did not mind, for he would suit her purposes perfectly.

Once Lujak was the age of combat for males, seven orbits, Ma'Dora declared war on the other kingdom and began to order her son and army to attack. The kingdom of flames was a force not to be taken lightly as many of Ma'Dora's troops were killed. Even the strength of her most powerful spell was not enough to take the kingdom of flames as the thirty-two orbits of peace made her kingdom weak.

The queen then decided to take the war into her hands; she used all of the power in her body to create an apocalyptic ice glacier that covered all of her kingdom and surrounding seas. Every day she would recover and use her returned strength to make the ice sheet advance towards the north and grow larger. She created a magical castle upon the top of this glacier so that the world would know who would be its' next master.

Day after day the ice would grow and move miles and miles towards the north, though tedious and exhausting, she continued her actions knowing it would change the face of the planet. Season after season become colder and colder, the oceans slowly started to withdraw, the sky grew hazier and hazier, and all life began to slowly succumb to illness or the frost. The dark queen's plot was working as the ice became so big it had changed the world's climate.

The fire kingdom tried as hard as it could to stop the advancement, though the ice was harder then diamond and too cold to approach. Nothing could melt the ice, even the hottest of flames would freeze, the only thing known to melt the ice was Ma'Dora's own son Lujak who could create such high temperatures.

The cold climate of the world began to take its' toil; its' first victims were the entire populous of the ice kingdom, leaving the queen to ally herself with the thicker hided orcs and goblins that roamed the plains. By themselves they were not a threat, but as an army of Ma'Dora, they were a force to be reckoned with.

The world quickly feel into a never ending winter by the power of Ma'Dora and her glacier. Ma'Dora quickly became known as the Queen of Winter as province after province fell to her power and ice; there seemed to be little anyone could do and all hope seemed to freeze with the cold.

With the planets' plant life quickly diminishing, King Mandarth, son of Garthdar, commanded his wizards to come up with a solution, to find out what creature exactly Ma'Dora was. They discovered that she was a being from another world, though how she got to theirs was still unknown. During the meeting, Mandarth's wife fell ill from the drop in temperature and in a few days, she passed away.

King Mandarth fell into a terrible depression, all he had now was his son. The king did not want to see his own son fall as his wife to the terrible magical frost that consumed all life. His kingdom or the world would not fall to such an icy fiend, he would not allow it!

Mandarth came to a final decision; if he could not stop the Queen of Winter, he would find someone who could, from another world as herself. If his champion would fail, then he would be forced to resolve to his final plan, the hell fire spell. The king ordered his wizards to look for someone with enough power to stop the Queen of Winter, someone off world. As she was an off world creature, it would take another off world being to stop her.

Ma'Dora was wise, she knew of the hell fire spell from discussions she had overheard of her adoptive father and king Garthdar. They were the fires from inside the planet, though once released and the spell enchanted, massive volcanoes would erupt and cover the world in darkness. Spouts of liquid flame would fountain everywhere, rivers of death would flow across the world killing everything leaving the world a true hell.

The crafty queen quickly devised a plan to stall for time long enough so that her ice sheet would be too large to stop even with the hell fire spell. She had devised this plan ever since she caught wind of the birth of King Mandarth's only son. She awaited the right time to exploit this weakness.

The queen of winter sent her son to seize Mandarth's child, the prince Broon. Lujak only had to fly and bust through a wall and take the prince; there was nothing the flame kingdom's army could do to stop him. Once the prince was taken, Mandarth had no choice but to halt his back up plan on releasing the flames, for now.

Finally, the wizards found a being with enough power to stop the queen of winter, a very young and strange looking necromancer. They were viewing this strange creature from their screening pool, watching him on a world not too far. They quickly used a spell and summoned him to the planet where they took him to meet the king.

King Mandarth explained the situation to the young creature, what was called a silver fox, stating that they were in their final days. There was a large ice sheet in the distance and would be upon the city in a matter of weeks, maybe days, upon that time Mandarth would release the hell fires and destroy all life on the planet unless the fox could save his son and stop Ma'Dora in the process. The timing could not be more urgent and the king stated that the small beast would have to walk as if he were to use the kings fire birds, they would be spotted and taken captive.

The kit agreed to do his best to save the world and stop the queen of winter from destroying it. The king ordered that the best warrior around, a blond haired man named Faous, guard the small kit named Maverick Skye and that their journey be on foot. If young Maverick were to use his wind, he would freeze in the territory above the ice sheet and give himself away for Ma'Dora to find. Ma'Dora had a keen sense on magic and could sense when it was being used; uttermost stealth and speed must be used in order to save the world.

The fox agreed and went towards the warrior, but was soon stopped by an emotional Mandarth. He stated that the queen of winter and her army of goblins and orcs could easily survive if the planet were covered in ice, and he would stop at nothing to allow that to happen and he would indeed release the hell fires upon the world if they would not return by the time the ice sheet reached his mighty city.

The kit agreed and both Maverick Skye and Faous set off to where the ice sheet was touching the edge of a southern city. Maverick was in awe, it was colder then anything he knew of and it was much harder then diamond. The small army around the area were surprised he could even walk up and touch the ice. The kit returned to Faous side as they began their journey down the edge of the ice sheet looking for an opening to traverse.

The events of this small chapter in the life of Maverick Skye are something he often forgets about, though one simple act against the queen's power would set up the events of the third great event in the life of Maverick Skye. This is the second of four noted events in the life of Maverick Skye leading up to the final challenge of his life. This is the short tale of when the small fox Maverick Skye defeated the cold and mighty Queen of Winter.

Act 1

The Fox, Faous, and Glacier

The ground quaked as another thunderous roar crashed across the sky as the giant frozen ice cap extends its' icy grip further across the land. Warriors at the face of the glacier were tossed into the air while others fell to the low temperatures emitting from the mass. Another quake sent a wave of death to others at the edge of the village, toppling stone structures as if they were the toys of a child.

The low strenuous moans echoed off the walls of the castle as Ma' Dora pushed herself to the limits of her magic once more. Her blue body quivered in exhaustion as the ice queen fell off her frozen throne, drained of her energy and struggling to catch her breath. She reached out towards her son Lujak to aid her in standing.

The golden haired prince spent no time idling as he lifted his silver haired mother into his powerful arms and began his pace towards the doorway. "My son, such a good son." The ice queen massaged the back of the male's neck, robes slipping and draping to the side as she looked into the eyes of her muse.

"I will rule this world one day." The man's voice was loud and stern as he carried his mother to her sleep chambers; setting her royal form down upon her downy bed to rest.

"Yes you shall darling, but now mother needs her rest and needs you to send the third horde to the front to slay any survivors." Ma'Dora's voice was weak, she had pushed herself too far in her spell upon the ice sheet that choked the planet of life.

"Yes mother, they will pay." The loyal son saluted his liege and headed out the door closing it behind as the queen began to doze off, unaware of the two who were on their way to save her hostage and put an end to her evil.

Bodies lay scattered across the ruin of the glacier base, cold, limp, and lifeless as they were soon consumed by the growing ice itself. The serene beauty of frozen water glazed in a coating of vanilla colored frost moved with the glowing aura of dry mist. The mass appeared as though it were frozen dunes with massive spears shooting out into the sky floating on a sea of clouds that extended from horizon to horizon.

"We're to late Maverick, let's go to the next village west of here." Faous's voice was sturdy and low, emitting his disappointment in coming across more dead by the vile ice floe that threatened all.

Maverick only nodded as the two set off running towards the next village. The cub did not mind running on this world, to him it was easy, though he could not help but stare at the large male Faous. How could the creatures of this world, very similar to humans but bigger, stronger, and larger nosed, run around wearing nothing but animal skins across their privet areas, feet, and sometimes hands?

Maverick was a furred beast and still he wore a garb of a long sleeved blue shirt with mis-matched white right sleeve, white pants with mis-matched left blue leg, special gray running shoes, and his trusty scarf; he never left home without it.

Faous hated the company of such a strange beast. From the time they left the castle, this child has done nothing more then whine and cry about the accommodations and conditions of the planet. The cub did not seem capable of taking anything seriously and his mannerisms were that of a spoiled and rotten child. How could the fate of his world depend on such a loathsome and annoying beast?

The furre was indeed a site that stood out compared to the half naked humanoids of the planet. With his many two toned features such as his white stomach fur and low silver gray fur. His different shaded eyes, left silver, right low blue, and tail and ear tips matching blue. His hands were a dark gray, almost a shade of black, but his feet were unknown due to the strange shoes he wore.

"Ugh, I'm tired of running, when 're gonna get there?" The child whined, though unknown to Faous, it was all an act as the fox wanted to play and this was a form of cautious play for him.

"Not long now little one, so keep quiet." The larger male grunted, hating that annoying whiny sound the fox would cry every time he would open his mouth. Though the male could not be too angry as their destination was only a league away.

It was hard for the pair to keep a low profile in the village with the fox child dressed in the manor he was accustomed. Whispers and quick glances were quickly replaced by groups gathering around the cub and muttering questions amongst themselves, but it stopped when Faous stated their mission. They were lead to a local inn and were given a room for the night so that they may be warm.

The following morning the pair was awakened by a low rumbling as the ground began to quake. The Glacier was extending its' icy fingers to the village. Panic was the scene when Maverick and Faous exited the inn. The villagers were screaming and running around in a mass hysteria as the sight of an approaching horde of orcs and goblins from the east came to view.

Faous quickly ran across the way to a weapon smith and grabbed himself a large spiked club. With a loud war cry, he caught the eyes of the hysterical villagers and single fox. "Every able bodied man take weapons and join me in combat with Ma'Dora's vile horde. The rest of you, take your children and leave this village as fast as you can before that mass of frozen death destroys it."

"What should I do? Stand by and count my fingers and toes?"

"Maverick you help them escape. Now come on, let's stop that horde before they reach this village!" The war cries of the men began to howl loudly, slightly hauling the horde which hand now began to draw their weapons.

The fox child could sense the queen and all her dark magic in the distance. It was building up in bulk for another push on the ice.

Maverick rushed through his thoughts, the villagers would never get out in time nor would both the warriors and horde be able to escape the thrust of the ice flow. He had no choice but to use his own magic to save them all.

The silver child extended his short arm and chanted under his breath a spell. The air circled around him as his power flexed, his eyes twinkle slightly while the spell was complete.

Crash!

Ma' Dora made her move as the ice pushed towards the village, surrounding it with high walls of frozen water. The horde was all pushed aside and killed by the queens attack, but the warriors and village were safe thanks to the cub's handy work. He could only give a half smile, proud of his little show of power, though Faous quickly realized what had happened.

The humanoid and the warriors made their way back to the village, all cheering for the cub Maverick except Faous. The fox was lifted and carried to the local tavern where the reward of his actions were to be given. Faous made his way to the kits side as he was set down to a table and he muttered to the cub's ear in low key "Thanks fer savin us, but you just gave away your presence to the queen of winter."

The child only giggled as he patted Faous on top of his head. He turned to the others and stood on the table. "A round of your finest drink here and finest feast. Let us celebrate our victory with merriment and filled tummies!" The crowd cheered on and made war cries, calling out the young fox's name.

Maverick sat himself back down and turned to his partner, face dressed in smile and eyes half opened slyly he muttered "I didn't use that much power, she probably didn't even sense me. Might as well celebrate and fill ourselves up for the long journey right?"

Faous was stone faced, unmoved by the kits actions. "I hope you're right young one, I hope you're right."

The silver eyes of the queen shot open, stopping her spell. "What was that!?" she cried. "Who dares to try and match power with queen Ma' Dora?" The smaller female stood off her thrown in a rage and turned to her son. "Lujak, summon Lur of the spell casters." The broad male bowed and walked off into the grand hallway beyond the doors of the circular throne room.

A short moment later, a sky blue cloaked male entered followed by the prince Lujak. "My liege, what honor I am blessed with by your graceful summons."

The queen crossed her legs as she sat upon her thrown glaring down at the wizard. "King Mandarth is becoming bold. He has sent one of his own wizards to stop my glacier from destroying one of his villages. I command you to go to that village and slay that wizard and send his mutilated corpse with a message to the king."

"And what might that message be my queen?"

"If he dare oppose me again, then the next corpse he will receive will be his sons!" She smashed her fist into the arm of her cold thrown, sending shivers into the spine of her fearful and cowardly wizard.

"As you wish my liege." Lur bowed before the queen and muttered a soft spell, circling himself with snow powder. The wizard's body began to fade as he teleported to the village where the fox and warrior were residing.

"You should send me. I will crush the wizard in my hand for defying my mother." Lujak was as stern as ever as he walked over before his mother and knelt on one knee before her, his head bowed in respect as any loyal subject would do rather then a son.

"My precious boy, such a sweet and benevolent son." Ma' Dora slowly rose and descended the three circular steps around her thrown to her beautiful child. She opened her arms and fell to one knee and embraced her grown muse. "You are too powerful and precious for such mundane tasks. You will make your mother proud when you bring me the head of Mandarth when he surrenders his kingdom."

The queen stood and lightly tapped the chin of the larger male. "Now be a good son and rub your mothers shoulders." Her voice was soft and kind, so much more different from her angry screeching that the walls of her castle were so accustomed to.

Lujak stood and bowed his head, left arm crossing his chest in a sign of respect and allegiance. "Yes mother. I will wait to crush your enemies."

The fox cub cringed softly at the smell of the mess of meat before him. It curled his small whiskers, it curled his small toes, why it would even curl his cute black button nose it was so horrendous. Everyone else in the tavern were eating their share of this smelly meat, though Maverick could not get himself to take one nibble of it.

"Eeeaaaaaaat! Is'um guud. Mak'um big 'n strong. Yum." A large male sitting at the child's left stated, prodding the kit with his elbow. Faous gave an assuring nod to Maverick as he swallowed his bite. "It tastes a lot better then it smells, go on try it. You've never had anything this good in your life. Craton is the best meat around."

Maverick stared down at the site of a steamy yellow slab of mush next to an unappetizing pale gray glob of who knows what. Not only would he have to eat this disgusting looking crud, he would have to touch it with his hand paws too since there seemed to be no eating utensils on this planet. The kit could not tell whether his stomach was growling because it was hungry, or to keep the food far away.

The fox hesitantly grabbed both sides of the wooden bowl and held it up. Slowly he leaned in, wrinkling his face as he cocked his head and turned the bowl so the cold fowl smelling glob of gray would be pointed towards him. He closed his eyes and extended his tongue to the odorless goo letting the tip barely touch it.

Maverick quickly pushed the bowl at arms length and extended his tongue in disgust. "Yucky!" he yelled, not enjoying how whatever the goo was made his whole tongue dry up with one touch.

The men around the fox began to laugh loudly at the young kits reaction to the delicacy. "Nort murch ofa faun ev Crayton gaile ez ee?" A large one armed male across from Maverick heckled.

"Try the Craton meat, it far better then the gale, believe me, I'm not much of a fan of the gale myself." Faous smiled as he patted the kits back softly.

Maverick nodded, though unsure what he was getting himself into as he brought the bowl back and picked up the hot and steamy piece of cooked craton meat. He cringed at the smell of the yellow disaster before him; it smelt worse then a case of all day wet swamp ass. Again, the fox closed his eyes and brought the piece to his mouth and using the front of his set rows of teeth, he took the smallest bite and drew it into his mouth.

There was a silence as the entire tavern watched the young cub chew softly on the delicacy, waiting for his reaction. Maverick's neck cringed to his right side, cheek meeting shoulder, hands dropping the bowl and meat on the table as they crinkled, curled, and shook before him. His maw opened and tongue extended out, his throat gagging as the mashed up meat slid out of his mouth onto his scarf. "Eeeaaaaahhh! It tastes far worse then it smells!!!"

The tavern burst out in laughter finding the child's reaction very comical. "An aey av' et en ifen ou won ate it?" Ol one arm asked while he pulled the food away from the cub.

"Ave'd summa dis. Drinka guud guud, mak bad taste goway." The man sitting next to Maverick placed a large cup made of rock filled with drink before the gagging fox.

Maverick did not hesitate to grab the heavy cup and drink from it wildly. He gulped and gulped until there was no more. "Gimme another!" He demanded sending the tavern again into an uproar of laughter.

"The boy's got a stomach on him if he can down that much drink for his little size."

Out of no where, another cup, this one bigger and made of wood, slid before the fox as he again grabbed it and gulped it down without stop.

"Look at 'im go! Ah dink he likes et."

Maverick repeated his action three times until the taste was finally gone and his stomach was filled with the drink. The fox set his forth cup down and felt strange. He was dizzy and woozy and seemed to be swaying all around.

"Oh no, he's drunk." Faous face palmed as the fox began to wobble around the room, hiccuping. Maverick began to laugh as he went about table to table grabbing large cups of the drink and swallowing them down quickly.

Being full and drunk, he needed to make more room for more of this fantastic alcoholic drink. Trying his best to be sneaky he used some of his magic to quicken his digestion, though it went unnoticed to Faous and the rest with his use of magic.

"Oh. Oh oh oh oh oh! Ohh ooooohhhh!" The fox cried and cringed, his new found tavern mates looked worried at the beast. The cub hopped on the table right before Faous and turned towards the bar, his left side facing his partner.

"Wazza rong lil guy? Dwink tu muzz an av a tum tum ake?"

"Wha was that? Yum Yum cake?" the fox hiccuped and crossed his legs as he swayed about.

"Nout yoom yoom kayke, tum tum aaake."

"Oh, no tummy ache. Just pee pee time."

Maverick grabbed the sides of his pants and undergarment, and pulled them both down at once to his ankles and loosely grabbed his exposed self and began urinating off the side of the table. "Free pee! Freeeeeeee! Peeeeee!" He was chanting as a true drunk, though the barbarians continued their laughter and merriment, all as drunk as Maverick himself, they began chanting with him.

"Free pee! Free pee! Freeeeeeee peeeeeee!"

The fox hiccuped and tossed both hands into the air and let himself stream freely "Wee wee!"

" WEE WEE! WEE WEE!"

Faous began to quiver with rage, he had about all he could stand of this immature non-sense that was before him. He quickly grabbed the kit during mid stream and pulled him down to sit next to him.

"Ey! Et im peeee freeeee, ez nut dun et."

"Quiet! Now listen Maverick, were going back to the room and getting a night's sleep and leaving as soon as dawn rides in; we have a mission remember." Faous was ready to strike the cub he was so angered by his actions.

"Stop being such a pissy fit Faous, haha, piss." The fox quickly grabbed the warriors cup and drank it. "All gone."

Faous stood to his feet and raised a fist in his rage when the doors of the tavern burst open and a large round woman entered the room looking halfway to death. "Attack! Attack! A spell caster is attacking!"

Act 2

The Battle

A cold wind was blowing about the panicked village, everyone who would dare to venture out was froze to death by the icy spell of the frozen wind. Lur hacked and wheezed with laughter watching villagers fall to the ground dead and frozen while their homes were submitting to his frost spell. "Dare he the spell caster of Mandarth face me? I command you to come out and face me upon your honor as a spell caster!"

Faous ran to the door of the tavern, watching carefully the movements the wizard was making, looking for an opening. The fox wobbled over to the warrior falling at his legs forcing Faous to divert his eyes to the kit.

He quickly kicked him aside "How can anything depend upon something as ridiculous as yourself? If all our hope is on you then king Mandarth might as well cast his fierce spell now because you are a worthless brat!" The warrior quickly darted out the door and into the haze of the wizards storm.

Maverick picked himself up and tried to swiftly run outside but only tripped over his lowered pants and feel at the doorway. The other men of the village stepped over the fox to join Faous in his fight against the wizard while others lifted the fox from the cold ground.

"Pull up ya pants lad, ya don't want ta get ill, might freezing out there." A young male states as he watched the kit pull up his britches.

"I ain't, fraid of nuttin, hee-up!" he hiccuped.

Faous was agile and fierce as he was upon the wizard in an instant, catching him off guard as he landed a hard right to his lower jaw, sending him upwards and then down to his back. He did not waste time watching his accomplishment, he pulled out his club and jumped upon the wizard ready to strike.

Lur lifted both legs and lunged both feet at the warrior before him, sending him flying to the side as he rolled to his feet. "What matter of spell caster are you?"

Faous flipped up to his feet and crouched, entering his battle stance as he began to move around in a circle, trying to get to the blind side of the wizard. "I'm no spell caster, fiend. I am Faous, the greatest warrior in the land. I've slain many a spell caster in my time, and you're no different from the rest."

Lur felt his heart skip at the mention of his name and quickly thrust his arms and cried "A putta pa ta!" A quick and cold wind blew at the warrior, who proved too swift as he dodged the attack and lunged at the wizard.

Lur hopped to the side as he watched the warrior turn and lunge at him again. He dodged and watched the warrior stand upright. "Fight me, lest you are a coward!" the warrior cried. Lur drew in a breath to scream as he felt blood trickle down his left side. He had been grazed.

The wizard turned and ran as fast as his feet would carry him in his robe. He was a bully at heart and all bullies are cowards. Lur knew the stories of Faous and knew of the wizards he had slain, he certainly did not want to be the next one slain.

Lur began chanting and panting a spell when he saw more men ahead, hoping he could teleport back to the safety of Ma'Dora's castle. "Augre hemas duma ke' to era phas domi gah-"

Thwack!

The wizard fell silent to the ground with a spiked club sticking out his crushed skull. Faous walked over and retrieved his weapon, eyes peering at the onlookers in disgust. "Am I the only fit man around here not drunk? Have you all-" He cut off as a dire sight met his eyes approaching the village.

Torch lights. Many torch lights. A horde was quickly approaching the village for a night attack. Faous looked around quickly, seeing the village was surrounded by the ice glacier on three sides, they would have to fight in order to escape.

"Horde attack!" He yelled drawing more eyes to the approaching group of savages.

"To arms!" a by standard yelled lifting the only item in his hand, a ladle.

War cries began to rise, echoing off the frozen mass of death that surrounded the village.

"Attack!" Faous yelled pointing his club at the approaching horde. The makeshift group of drunken warriors cried out and charged towards the fast upcoming group. There was not enough time to form a strategy, they simply had to charge the horde and meet them in armed combat with whatever they had on them.

"Freeeeeeeee peeeeeee!" The battle cry of the fox caused Faous to stop and run towards the kit. He had almost forgotten about the so called hope of the kingdom and the mission. He picked up and tossed the child on his left shoulder. "Come on, into battle brat." He grunted, running back towards the mob of warriors before him yelling out with his club held high.

"I'll help you out ol Faous face." the kit muttered softly.

"Ugh, just don't pee on me kid."

The horde of goblins and orcs clashed with that of the village men. Javelins met torsos, clubs blunted skulls, and it was soon realized that the village men were out numbered. Faous fought his way towards the edge of the battle, leaving the village to be defended by its' own men.

"There's too many, we'll die and fail our mission if we stay to help." The warrior grunted as he battered in the face of an orc with his large spiked club, doing his best to defend the wasted fox.

"Non-sense!" The kit raises his paw and muttered something under his breath and soon a strong gust of wind picked up the horde of orcs and goblins, sending them flying away from the village and villagers.

"Spell caster!" A goblin cried from the center of the now downed horde, pointing to Faous and the drunken Maverick. The group picked themselves up and began to give chase to the pair.

The queen lifted herself from her bed, eyes wide awake as she felt the strange magical force again. "Lur has failed me!" She screamed tossing one of her lavender colored silk pillows at the door. Ma' Dora paused for a moment, recalling what the magic felt like.

She slowly slid out of bed and walked towards the door, finding the presence familiar. Though she was a queen, she was not dumb and made sure to remember everything she felt, heard, or did. Optics flashed as the memory returned to her "Magic of the gale tribe. Could this be a surviving spell caster from the tribe we decimated ages ago?"

It was true, the ice tribe were the ones who killed off the gale tribe of the west. In the spoils of war, they learned how to use some of their magic and spells, allowing them to create fierce arctic winds. It was because of this advantage that forced the flames tribe to decimate the life tribe and learn the secrets to the hell fires.

Ma' Dora opened her grand bedroom doors and turned to a guard "You, bring me my son. I have a mission for him." The goblin bowed and ran down the hallway to summon Lujak to her majesty.

The ice queen returned to her bedding, crossing her legs and concentrated, hoping to catch another signal from the mysterious spell caster upon her land.

The warrior continued his dash away from the horde of enemies in pursuit of the kit and himself. Running in moonlight did not make things any easier since everything was exposed, though he continued his sprint running along the line of the glacier which seemed to curve south. He was at the edge, giving him an advantage as it went inland towards the queens domain.

Javelins whistled by and stuck in the dirt near his feet all the while his left hand held tight to the singing drunk on his shoulder.

"It's a wonderful thing to be me, why,

Because I'm good ol Maverick Skye,

With a wave of my hand and flick of my wrist,

I can toss anyone into the air like a disk,

But if you catch me in a good mood on the by,

Then I might not let you die-"

The warrior bounced the kit hoping to shut him up. "Will you shut your drunkard trap? If you and I die then the world is doomed to be in a forever winter and all life will cease."

The fox only hiccuped and continued his drunken song.

"Oh it's a wonderful thing to be me,

Though when I'm drunk I cannot sing,

But I can certainly stand my ground and pee,

My voice cracks and head spins when I hear the ring,

Oh boy oh boy how I cannot sing."

The boy peered over and caught sight of something he could use to the advantaged. Though he could not think straight nor see as much, he had enough mind to give it a try. "Hey ding-a-ling, let's jump into that ravine."

Faous grunted at the playful kits tone of voice. "That's what I was about to do, seems our only option since the glacier is just over the canyon. But take this seriously, if we don't survive the fall, then it is the end as we know it."

Maverick did a drunken chuckle, "Only on this world, but I guess it's up to lil ol singing me to save the day and be the hero. Right." The kit watched as the powerful warrior ran right off the edge of the cliff face and hopped into the darkness below.

The child quickly muttered a quick chant and threw his arm to the side. Immediately a gust of wind blew the horde into the air and into the glacier. They screamed and bellowed into the night. Their bodies freezing and forms dropping into the dark canyon below, dead before they even left the frozen surface of the ice.

Lujak entered the bed chamber of the ice queen of the south and walked to the lavender bedside. He lowered himself to one knee and bowed his head, both fists on the ground as he muttered aloud "Mother."

Ma' Dora smiled as he sat at the edge of her bed, hands taking her sons head and pressing it against her bosom. "My sweet, sweet child. Such a good son. I have a mission for you. It seems Lur has failed and fallen to the hands of a gale spell caster."

"I will defeat the spell caster and burn his body into nothing!"

"I know you will darling, but you have never faced a foe like a gale spell caster. They can control the wind, so watch yourself when you fly."

"I shall mother." Lujak stood and crossed his left arm across his chest and bowed his head, though it quickly lifted as there was a loud knock at the door.

"Queen Ma' Dora, it is I Fel, leader of your spell casters. I come with news of your forth horde."

Lujak turned to his mother and she gave a nod letting the sturdy male go and open the door like a good servant.

"Yes, speak."

The wizard went on his knees and bowed before the mighty queen. "My liege, they were all blown into the air by a mighty gale and sent into your great glacier. There were no survivors, but we have sent word to the hordes in the area to search the plains and canyons high and low of the two who dare stand against you."

The queen cocked her head slightly at the mentioning of two. "Two?" she pried, her tone and expression changing quickly to anger. "What two would dare take arms against me? Tell me who these worms are immediately!"

"One is the warrior who has slain many of us, Faous. The second, is a strange beast."

Ma' Dora stood slowly, walking over to the magician softly. "A beast? What sort of beast could cast magic if it were not the warrior?"

"A beast that can talk and sing. With a body and mind as strong as ours."

"There is no such beasts in our land, where can such a beast come from?"

"From off world as your majesty."

The queen gasped lightly, a small hint of fear entered her being after she learned this beast was from another world as herself. Now they were no longer dealing with something local, but unknown and potentially a treat to Ma' Dora herself if this beast sided itself with her countries enemies.

Ma' Dora screamed and kicked her high wizard in the face "Why are you telling me this now!? Idiots! This sort of news should have been reported to me when this foul beast set foot upon my world and dared to touch my glacier." She raised her left hand and brought it down slapping the male on his other cheek, sending droplets of blood flying. "I want you send five of your best spell casters after that beast and warrior. I don't want them to engage those two until they are at their most vulnerable! We're not taking any chances of loosing anymore men, you strike when they are at their weakest, understood!"

Fel nodded and shakily stood to his feet "As you wish your majesty." He bowed to her in respect and walked out the door, only to be glared at by Lujak.

Ma' Dora sat herself back down in her bed and waited till her door closed before turning to her buff son "Lujak come here, there is a change in your mission."

Faous held on with all his strength to the rocky edge of the cliff face with his right hand, his left holding the drunk by his tail. Slowly he pulled the kit back up to his shoulder and grabbed the rock face with his left hand, and began to climb to the top of the canyon. "Best we get out of this canyon and continue our journey by night. It's safe to assume that your actions have caught the eye of the winter queen."

Faous's words feel on deaf ears as the young fox was fast asleep on his shoulder. The warrior grunted in annoyance as he continued to climb out of the ravine muttering softly to himself venting his anger. "Such a brat, passing out in mid fall. The spell casters and king Mandarth better be right in their faith in this one. I am not about to die for a spoiled brat that doesn't know his wit from his stomach."

Act 3

Tor the Wicked

Maverick woke with the ringing of a female voice in his ears, gray mists surrounding him everywhere. He must have been dreaming about that lady again, her words still echoing in his ears 'Wake up. It is not time for you to die, nor is it time for you to rise, but you must wake up.'

Ever since his frozen sleep in the dark rift he would have this reoccurring dream with a female who looked similar to himself. Though he did not recognize her, she seemed very familiar to the young fox; oh how he wished he knew who she was or why she looked like him.

His eyes adjusting to the gray mist around him, he looked up and saw the ground. With a shock, he shook his head, moaning at the throbbing pain he felt as he saw a pair of feet attached to legs meeting the ground.

"Good your awake." Faous tossed the kit down to the ground causing him to moan again. "I was getting tired of carrying your lazy ass. Now you can walk."

Maverick blinked for a moment, trying to recall the previous days events, though was having a difficult time; it almost made him forget about his guise on the warrior.

The kit became water eye and stuck out his tongue "Meany, why do all grown ups have to be so mean."

A good deal of time passed as the pair traveled, all without word. Faous smiled the whole time despite himself being tired, he decided it was his turn to poke some fun at the young necromancer. "I suppose your being quiet because of that throbbing headache you got there from all the drink you drank last night, right?"

The fox child cringed lightly as he looked up holding his throbbing head "What happened?"

Faous laughed loudly, hoping it would cause strain in the fox; he was not disappointed. "You don't remember? Everyone else will at how you drank everyone's drink and danced around bringing merriment and then got on the table and took off your waistcloth and began peeing off the side of the table crying out your new war cry 'Free pee."

The fox went wide eye and blushed brightly behind his fur, not believing his ears "I did that? No way, you're lying."

"Telling the truth. Then afterwards you walked outside with your waistcloth down and tripped as we were attacked by one of Ma'Dora's spell casters then by one of her hordes. You then proceeded to sing, badly I might add."

"Oooooooooo, and I thought I was so good with my poetry that I could never sing bad."

"Well you thought wrong there, but I will tell you this." The warrior turned to face the child. "You saved us from that horde, but you used your magic and I am very sure that fiend queen felt your presence and is now aware of our mission."

The kit could only lower his head in shame, wondering how he could let himself get so drunk; he could not remember why he even began drinking in the first place. "I agree, I wont use any of my powers anymore until I am fighting the queen herself."

Faous raised a brow, half smiling at the mature and serious tone the silver fox was emitting. So much better then the childish whining he had been hearing for the past several days. "Oh, that is a mature thing for you to say little guy."

Maverick only made a frowny face and glared back before yelling "I'm hunger! I wanna eat! Give me sometin to eat! I'm starving!"

The warrior sighed in defeat, the peace did not last as long as he wished, but the two continued on, all the while Maverick crying about food and not eating. "Will you stop all that crying and whining!? We don't need you to put our mission in jeopardy just because you're hungry. It's not my fault you didn't eat your craton last night."

The memory returned to the furre, his hunger pains now stopping at the thought of that horrendous muck they called food. The fox child reminded silent for the rest of the day as the pair traveled along the canyon following the curve of the glacier until it started to curve back north.

"Looks like we'll have to travel in the canyon and go under the ice sheet. Let's camp here for the night." Faous began setting up a small camp next to a dead tree, using some of its' bark to make a fire and one of the braches to make a make shift club. With new club in hand, the warrior instructed the fox to remain alone and out of sight as he set out to find meat for the evening. It did not take Faous long to find a descent sized kill.

The night proved to be long and cold for the pair, now slowly drifting into sleep with their stomachs filled. Maverick found it difficult to sleep in such low temperatures, still amazed at how Faous could easily do so without having fur of his own.

The dawn proved to be even colder then the night as the frozen dew covered all and extinguished the hot charred remains of the evenings campfire. The two started immediately down the slate canyon wall and before long were traveling into the canyon under the ice. Both were worried that they would be buried under the sheet and would never surface, but it was the only path they could find into the queens ice domain.

Several hours passed, the gray haze seemed to follow them everywhere. With the skyline a lovely glow of light blue from the ice above, and the mists surrounding them, the madness began to settle in. Would they freeze from breathing in the mists and camping under the ice floe, or would they manage to starve to death in the canyon?

Maverick was becoming paranoid from the lack of his senses, he had the sniffles from the cold, making it impossible for him to smell and loosing the ability to catch wind of followers. The icy mists blocking his ability to feel much of anything outside his frozen fur, and low temperatures too much of a distraction for him to sense out other magical beings.

Even Faous was shivering under the ice, trying his best to keep himself together so the young male would not panic and cry out. The last thing the pair needed was a rock slide to burry them in the giant canyon.

Maverick had a desire to shift himself into his adult form, though he could not as it would give away their location. He would simply have to endure the onslaught of the cold.

"Hey Faous, if we have to spend the night down here, let's sleep together. I think that's our best chance of not freezing to death."

The large shaky warrior nodded slowly, he liked the idea of having warm fur on top of him. "I believe you are right little one, it's too cold not to do so."

Their fears were becoming reality as the temperature dropped suddenly as evening set upon the pair. Their movements were very slow and shaky to the point that Faous had to carry the fox in his arms. This made the pair vulnerable enough that they had to stop by a downed frozen tree to try and attempt a fire.

Several tries gave no fruit to bare. It was too cold for a fire to even start; ice was beginning to form in streams on Maverick's fur. All was becoming quiet as the two huddled together, worried that in order to survive the approaching doom, they would have to rely on the magic of the fox.

A loud cry broke the silence, echoing off the canyon walls as they were surrounded by five ice wizards. "An ambush!" Faous cried as he stood up as quickly as possible, grabbing his club ready to fight. Sadly it was not quick enough, the cold had indeed taken its' toil on the warrior, making his movements slow and shaky.

A wizard struck the warrior on the side of his head with a hunk of ice, sending him down though not unconscious. His wound froze as he slowly got up, unsure of how he could fend off five wizards in this cold. It appeared as though this was the end; to be defeated by the spell casters he had hunted all his adult life.

"Hooooooooooooooo!" A loud cry called out from a rock above as a very large and hooded male hopped off a small bluff with a large stone ax in hand coming down hard upon the nearest robed fiend. The ax cut and crushed its' way into the spell caster's skull with a loud and sickening 'thack.'

The fur wearing masked warrior quickly pulled out a sling and armed it with a large rock and in an instant, sent it flying into the face of another wizard, sending him to the ground dead. The remaining three turned to fight off this warrior, only having the wizard in front fall down dead with an ax in his face.

Faous took advantage of the encounter and brought his club up and smashed the skulls of the two wizards with their back to him. "Big mistake." He muttered. Though his arms were quivering in cold, he could still land a lethal blow.

Maverick's gaze was fixed on the mystery warrior retrieving his ax from the shattered skull of the spell caster. This man was huge, so much more muscular then Faous and much taller. He was definitely a warrior as he had two knives and a sling attached to his side and his large ax at hand. His face was hidden behind the skull plate of some creature, and a hood of fur caped over his head and back. Two large horns were sticking out of the side of his skull through the fur hood as the only feature of his face that could be seen was his large nose and scared and unhappy mouth; he was one thing and one thing alone, intimidating.

"Th-th-th-ththth-thank, yo-yo-yoyoyou." Maverick could only mutter out as the mysterious male walked over to Faous. He reached behind his back into his fur cape and pulled out a tied up piece of fur. "Here, put this on."

Faous did not hesitate to unroll the large blanket of dark brown fur and wrapped himself in it, gesturing for the kit to join him. Maverick shakily walked over to the warrior and snuggled up with him inside of the warm blanket as both stared at the intimidating male curiously.

"Who are you and why would you save us from those spell casters?" Faous asked loudly, trying to make himself sound more like the warrior he was then the shivering waste he was at the moment.

"Tor. I am called Tor the wicked. I have slain more of that demon bitch's spell casters then you have Faous the mighty." His voice was very hoarse and low, obviously he did not converse with others much.

"I have never heard of you Tor the wicked, but you have our thanks for saving our lives." Faous wrapped the fur blanket around himself and Maverick more, eyeing the warrior curiously. "How is it that you can stand this blasted cold with nothing more then your hood?" He was curious to see if there was a secret technique this male had which kept him free of any sign that he was cold, in fact he seemed as though he could be sweating.

Tor remained silent and turned facing the wall where he had dropped from, raising his ax and flicking it towards his direction. "Come. I know the way to the demon queen's fortress. The way out is this way."

Faous followed the barbaric warrior to the canyon wall and further into the canyon until they came across a cave. The trio went into the cavern and found that it lead deep underground where it was much warmer, enough so that Faous had to remove his fur blanket and began to sweat. Such a difference from the deathly blistering cold above as the trio settled down together for the night.

"We will be safe down here, they will not come down here." Tor stated as he watched the other two lay down while he stood watch.

"Where exactly are we? I never knew such caves existed.?" Faous was amazed at the site around him, a lit cave so warm and so below ground, surely it must be a magical place. The purple stones seemed to glow and sing with ever drop of water that feel from the high stalactites down to the under ground lake set right at their side. It was very calming and relaxing; an ideal place to rest for an evening.

"These were the caves of the tribe of life. They did their many rituals down here until they were all slaughtered. I found these caves many years ago while wandering the plains." Tor huffed as he stared through Maverick, sending a shiver down his young spine. "What matter of beast are you?"

"Um, Maverick Skye. I'm a fox who's gonna save this world."

"Sleep now. Save later. You need your rest."

The pair woke up with Tor standing in the same spot he was when they fell asleep; he must have stood up the entire night watching them. The trio traveled deeper into the caverns, all silent as none desired a cave in.

Finally there was an exit ahead and soon they were back on the surface in the plains , but further south traveling near the looming ice sheet of death.

They began walking towards the source of the glacier with one question in mind. "How far are we from Ma'Dora's castle Tor?" Faous broke the silence now that they were out of the caverns.

"Weeks. The ice is too cold to travel directly."

"We don't have that much time. If we don't get there in a few days, then king Mandarth will enchant the hell fire spell and will burn us all. Is there a short cut into the castle from the caverns underground?" The sturdy warrior asked, his voice filled with worry and muscles flexed with anxiety.

"No. Her fortress is part of the glacier. It is too thick for underground travel."

"But how are we gonna get there at all?" The kit yelped as he adjusted his scarf and skipped after the duo.

"I'll help you, but you must promise me this: I kill Ma'Dora. No one else."

Faous and Maverick paused at the crude barbarian's words. "Why?" Faous dared to ask as the small child began sniffing the air.

"That is privet. I have trained my whole life to kill that cursed cunt, I know what I must do." Tor quickly turned and pointed to the necromancer. "You, Maverick fox, must defeat her most powerful spell, Lujak. You have the power to defeat her, but she is not fit for battle as her precious sun child. He is as powerful as she, he will be the biggest problem." He quickly motioned his arm to point at the warrior. "You Faous warrior, must defeat her guards and save the child prince. I know of your mission, I have been tracking you since you left the kingdom. I have decided to help you."

"Sorry to interrupt, but we're begin followed by those stinky guys again." The child's words lifted the gaze of the warrior and barbarian to look at the horizon. A horde of plain goblins were approaching and would be upon them in a few minutes as this set were riding the plain jumper beasts.

"Faous, take Maverick fox and run. I can defeat this horde and catch up with the two of you later tonight."

"You can do this alone?" Faous sounded concerned as he picked up the kit.

"Get going, I've defeated a legion of that bitch's armies. I am her biggest threat."

The warrior nodded and began running following the edge of the glacier, deeper into the ice queen's kingdom. Maverick watched as the large figure of Tor began to shrink until the mists blocked his figure out, and then the sounds of battle echoed around them.

"Put me down! I wanna get off now!" Maverick began to hit the males head, his tail thrashing at his face forcing the buff male to cry out in anger and toss the furred beast to the ground.

"Then run by yourself and keep up you vile beast!" Faous began his angered sprint again as Maverick huffed and untied his pants and began to relieve himself. "Jerk. I just had to use the bathroom that's all." He quickly gave himself a shake to finish, returned his pants, and caught the scent of his partner, quickly storming after, unaware if they were being followed by the goblin horde or not.

Act 4

Abduction

Frost glazed the remains of five fallen wizards in a small canyon pit. Their crimson blood frozen and dark without the force of life, and their skulls in ruin after the blunt damage of their final moments. Faces all painted with fear as only something fierce and strong could kill five spell casters in such low temperatures.

Lujak eyed the scene before him, looking for any shift in the frost covered ground searching for whom may have did this. His observation was rewarded with small fibers of brown fur slightly away from the fallen bodies, heading down into the canyon.

The muse walked towards the canyon wall, every step he took melting the snow and perma frost leaving seething red hot tracks in the shape of his boots. The opening of a cave was his reward as he continued his trail of the mysterious other worldly spell caster.

The cave was warmer then the rest of the canyon and well lit by the hue of glowing purple crystals that aligned the walls, leading downwards into the depths of the planet. Lujak continued his pursuit, leaving his own trail behind him of burnt stone foot steps. He traveled for hours and hours until he was finally forced to stop and recharge.

The golden locked haired prince fell to his knees and curled himself up in a ball, falling asleep and allowing his body to heal and charge from the particles in the air around him. With the heat of the inner planet warming the cavern, there was enough active particles in the air to charge the muse's body. This was the secret to this spell's power, for he did not sleep, he would simply recharge using the motion of particles around him.

Night was upon the fleeing pair as they finally stopped by the outset of large granite rocks to set up a camp site. It would take several minutes before the two had enough air to even talk to one another, let alone set up a fire or forge for food. Though one thought remained on their mind: did the barbarian Tor manage to survive the horde attack?

"My feet hurt. I'm hungry and tired. I don't wanna sleep here, the ground's too hard." Whined the silver coated beast in his teasing fashion towards the blond haired warrior.

"Then it'll be a long night for you won't it.?" Faous cried back, clapping two flint rocks together to gain a spark. Another slap of the two stones sent a small particle of burning air into the dry brush below. A fire quickly roared upwards, startling the warrior slightly. It crackled wildly as though it were laughing at the reaction it gained.

Maverick ignored the reply of the warrior as he began to play around once the fire sparked up. He did a few cart wheels, a couple of summersaults, and then did the one thing Faous despised the most, he began to sing again.

It started in as a few taps with rhythm, then into humming as the kid had a song he picked up from someplace he had forgotten stuck in his head. Then he finally let it out and began to sing:

Bum gum, bum gum, bum gum, bum gum,

Oh if you want to try some fruity gum,

Try our neeeew bum gum,

With this gum you can chew it,

Until it's time for you to shit,

Faous tossed a piece of flaming cinder at the singing child with the intent of hitting him on the back before he could utter another word. Maverick quickly dodged and stuck out his long tongue at the annoyed warrior "Haha, missed me!" He began to dance and hum the jingle again before the shadowed figure of Tor the wicked walked into dim light.

"Stop fooling around. There is a goblin camp two leagues away and I could hear you one league away." He entered the light revealing he was holding both his ax and a crude goblin sword, both stained in blood. The barbarian tossed the long curved blade before the warrior "Take it. Better then that stick you walk around it."

Faous picked up the weapon with one hand and began to swing it around, slashing at invisible foes and stabbing into the night. "Not very well balanced, but it should do. What did you have in mind?"

"Hey I wanna toy too. Gimme gimme gimme!" The fox child began to hop up and down around Tor, arms extended towards the barbarian grabbing at the air. Tor extended his leg at the hopping child, quickly tripping the kit.

"No. You stay here and be quiet. You're too noisy. Me and Faous are going to sneak up and slay those goblin fiends while they sleep. You need to stay here and rest, you're needed else where in time." His voice was firm and stern with the fox, enough so Maverick only nodded as he crawled over to the fire and curled up as though he were ready to sleep.

Faous smiled as he stepped over to the larger male "Thanks, been trying to figure out how to shut him up for days."

Pow!

Faous immediately found himself laying on the ground, confused as to why Tor would strike him. "What was that for!?"

"You treat that child with respect." Tor was just as firm as he gestured his arm for the warrior to follow.

Faous slowly stood to his feet and stepped into the darkness after the barbarian, somewhat unsure if he could trust him let alone take him in battle. He only turned once to see the curled up beast child next to the fire; a wave of concern rushing into his being. "Do you think he'll be fine by himself?"

"That one can take care of himself."

The two journeyed into the darkness together until a small spark of flame was seen dancing in the distance with several figures sleeping around it. There were three plain jumper beasts tied to wooden cruxes designed to keep the many weapons and shields of the group upwards and easy to grab in case of an attack. This was the goblin camp alright, if the sight did not convince you, the smell would.

Tor and Faous slowly crept up to the camp, keeping themselves at lights length and quiet so they would not upset the jumpers. Tor extended his right hand and held three figures then pointed towards the right half of the group of thirteen. Faous nodded as he awaited the signal from his partner, slowly drawing his crude and blood stained blade.

Three.

Two.

One.

Faous snuck towards the right at the edge of light, keeping a close eye on Tor, who signaled to attack. The duo quickly ran into the light from both sides, startling the jumpers to howl and awaken the camp to a scary sight. A goblin screamed "Ambush!" to alert the others, his hand drawing up a spear to defend himself against the barbarian who was already upon him with ax raised.

A few crackles and snaps were the only sounds of the campfire as Maverick prodded the flames with a small stick, deep in thought. How would he go about saving the planet from the queen and the ice? He was not sure if he could do both in the small amount of time left and with the resources he had. Maverick would be able to do it if he could use his magic, but he did not want to put anyone else in danger.

First of all, they would have to save the prince Broon; once the prince was secure he could deal with the glacier problem. Ma' Dora, he would leave to the mercy of Tor and this other wizard to that of Faous; just the glacier was the biggest concern. The fox sighed and scratched his forehead, trying to figure out the best method of dealing with the problem.

The ice itself was magic and had magical properties so simply making it disappear would not work. It was because it was magic was the reason why Maverick was the only one who could walk up to it and touch it, despite its' cold temperatures. Though he could deal with the magical cold, he could not handle the arctic air created from it; a reason why he worried of freezing in the harsh wilderness.

Killing Ma' Dora would not make the ice go away or loose any of its' magical properties, so the situation had to be handled with caution, especially since a planet's climate was in the balance.

Maverick was so deep in thought, he did not notice that he was being watched by many hungry eyes. He was so focused that it was not until the stench of fowl orcs could not be ignored that he turned around just in time to see a club about to strike him.

Metal clinking, voices screaming in pain, and the spatter of blood were the ballad of the fight at the goblin camp. Body after body fell down before the fire light as the pair of warriors battled the group until all thirteen were slain and displayed before the fire as some sort of crude sacrifice. The only sounds left were that of the plain jumpers, howling and hopping around; they were frightened from all the excitement of battle.

Tor grabbed the reigns of the one north of the fire pit, coaxing it to calm down, when he lightly began to pat its' neck. Faous copied the barbarian bringing his beast to a calm. The third jumper managed to have escaped during the fire fight, leaving them with only two.

Fierce eyes darted around the area searching for provisions and supplies as Tor caught eye of a large round metal shield, its' edges sharpened down to a blade. The firm and sturdy male picked it up and began to polish the surface with the fur bracelet on his right arm.

Faous was searching the corpses for anything that could be salvaged and did not come up short. He managed to find seven travel bags, all which could be fit inside of two jumper saddle pouches. Each of the bags had food, water, flint, and kindle, just the kind of supplies they needed. Faous walked over to Tor, who had been polishing the shield, and handed him three of the bags.

"Here, put them in the saddle pouches. There's enough here to feed thirteen for nine moons. That means we should have enough to last twice that much before it spoils." Tor nodded as he set the bags into the pouches of his jumper's saddle.

"Take this." Tor turned and shoved the shield into Faous's chest catching him off guard and sending him back a several steps.

"A flame kingdom's shield. They must have attacked a troop recently. Why are you giving it to me?"

Tor hopped onto the back of the two legged plain jumper, setting his ax to his side. "You are too slow and leave yourself open too much. You need it."

Faous huffed loudly and furrowed his brow, offended by the remark, none the less he took the shield and strapped it to his back as he went to his jumper. After setting his provisions in the pouches, he hopped on and guided the beast to Tor. The two set off back towards the camp at a far better speed then they had been traveling and in a short time they were there at their empty campsite.

"Hey kid, if you know what's best for you, then you better get back here right now." Faous cried out as he slowly dismounted his jumper. There was no response. No sound other then Tor dismounting his beast. "Come on, no more games kid, it's late." There was a long silence and no response; Maverick was gone.

Tor quickly looked about the area where the kit was laying down finding only a wet drop of spit next to some brush. He brought his large fingers to it and gently touched it. It was cool and had been set in the ground for some time. The barbarian began to shuffle around the brush, catching the eyes of the warrior.

"Find something?"

Tor gestured for the other to come. Faous quickly ran over and squat himself down next to the larger male. "What did you find?"

"He was taken by orcs, see that." Figure pointed to a large print in the dirt next to some broken brush. "They are hunters, look over there." Tor lifted his arm to a broken rock club that they used to bash in the skull of their prey only a few feet away.

"You think they killed him?"

"No blood. They missed and had to bound him." Tor pointed to strands of rope nearby as he slowly stood. "They rode here on a hunt, meaning they should be nearby."

"We have to hurry, they're going to eat him!" Faous ran towards his jumper and hopped on top of the large two legged beast, getting ready to ride out.

Tor slowly went to his own and hopped on. "No. They will not eat this late in night, they are saving him for the morning where they will prepare his meat for the journey ahead. We have to be careful as we approach the camp, with a hunting party, they are heavily armed.

Act 5

Rescue

The sound of something metal sliding against a stone woke up the child beast from his slumber. It was blurry, but the fox could tell it was morning due to the gray haze of the mists that surrounded the open area. He quickly looked up and saw the dirt and then looked down to see the sky along with his arms and legs bound together on a stick, resting between two dead tree branches.

Maverick looked to his right towards the loud metallic sound; his eyes now beginning to focus revealed a chilling sight. An orc was using a sharpening stone to sharpen his large flat blade while another was swinging a stone club in the air. Another chill went into the body of the fox at the realization that they were going to kill him. He began to shake, but not out of fear, rather the chills; he was cold.

The fox looked at himself and gasped softly, his cloths were gone and he was naked. That would explain all the chills, but why was he naked and tied?

"Ay, un acca." A large orc from the left made his way across camp, spotting Maverick's movement. He placed his smelly, greasy left hand on the cub's side fur, rubbing it softly between two vile fingers before he turned his head to the others and muttered something in a language Maverick did not understand.

"Hime to naku resabul mo tay." The others began to cry and stomp about as the male's hand left the small beast and went to the male orcs head. "Shay shay?" His hand traveled now to his right shoulder "Kuhaua?" It then traveled to his waist where he gestured both hands to swing back and forwards, left and right around it. "Bak uha ven ecsha."

From his observations, it appeared the large disgusting things were trying to figure out what to do with his lovely fluffy fur. Maverick eeped softly as he curled his tail to his legs "Not my fabulous and awesome fur." he muttered.

The boy quickly began to devise a plan of escape, when he suddenly caught dim wind of two familiar scents and grinned softly. He quickly extended a claw from his hand paws and one from his foot paws and began to pick at the threads in the ropes binding him. The orcs were to distracted with the argument of what to do with Maverick's fur that they did not see what he was doing until he dropped to the ground.

"Haha, now ya gotta catch me!" He began to run around the campground with several of the orcs running after him. "Perverts!" he mocked to the group following him, jumping over several stones and piles of weapons creating a small chaos in the camp. Several orcs began tossing spears at him, though they were too close in range and the silver beast easily managed to jump and dodge each one. A group of seven ran in front of him, though being a quick and small fox, he was easily able to slip between their legs.

The orcs seemed to expect this as Maverick ran straight into a quickly lifted net and fell to the ground. The chants of the cheering orcs were loud as they began to drag the fox child to the large orc holding the stone club. Despite his struggles, Maverick could not free himself from the net. "Oh no, they're gonna kill me. Whoa is me." He mocked, knowing his friends were nearby and could hear his cries.

Tor quickly ran out from behind a large boulder in the rocky area with sling in hand, he flung a large stone into the skull of the orc holding the stone club. The orcs stopped at the sight of their comrade falling down to the cold ground in a bloody heap. All attention turned to the direction the stone flew from, allowing Faous to jump in from behind; swinging his new shield in one direction, slicing several of the orc's necks. There was a great war cry in the gang, all running about in disorder, trying to grab and gain hold of any weapons nearby. Several orcs began to rush the warrior in an attempt to subdue him, though without weapons, they quickly fell into a silent sleep.

During the chaos of the warrior's entrance, Tor began cutting down the group of orcs by the spears. Faous lifted shield to protect himself from blow after blow, his sword slicing into one orc's throats, spraying crimson liquid everywhere. Shield edge slicing one orcs stomach open, spilling his steaming entrails to the ground below.

Maverick, still trapped in the net, began to frantically search for his cloths, finding them near the boulders where Tor had flung a stone from in a pile on the ground. He did his best to try and roll over, though with all the legs and bodies in the way, he was forced to lay and watch the blood bath before him.

"Gaahhh!" Faous cried out as a large orc managed to slice his upper arm. He quickly turned and implanted his shield in the orc's neck, severing the spinal cord and killing the disgusting creature. The out cry of the warrior forced the barbarian to throw one of his daggers into the lower back of an orc he saw trying to take hold of the netted boy.

Tor quickly made waste of the groups as he plowed towards Faous and the kit, until finally there was only one orc left before them. The two looked at the brave an injured creature before them, who in turn realized he was about to die. Faous huffed in mockery of his small wound "Hmph! Is that the best you creatures can offer in battle? Small scraps and cuts, how humiliating."

The green creature smiled and showed off its' fowl smelling rotten teeth and pointed it's sword tip behind the two. "Ak mo siver, gha fruda temp." The sounds of more orcs could be heard coming from the distance approaching the camp. The creature began to laugh loudly, though it stopped as Tor's mighty ax came crashing down upon the males head, splitting the creature down the center until there were two halves.

Tor ran and grabbed the net that held Maverick and tossed it over his shoulder as if as though it were a sack. The kit's face changed to panic and his little heart began to race as he saw his cloths fade away from sight behind Faous. "H-h-hey, what about my cloths!" he cried to deaf ears as the pair hopped on top of their jumpers and rode off at great speed.

Several long hours of riding passed as the heroes rode deeper into the southern kingdom. The only sound coming from their troop was the crying and sobbing of the fox in the net. "I'm cold. I want my cloths, why'd you guy leave my cloths? Now I'm naked and cold."

Maverick was only pretending in words, his outfit did had a sentimental value to him as it was a gift, which had now been left behind to rot with the orcs. He continued to cry out for clothing to the point where even Tor was becoming annoyed with the childish behavior.

Eventually the netted beast came to a sobbing calm, finding distraction at the appearance of the jumper beast. To him it looked like a larger blue version of what he knew as a kangaroo, though it had no arms. The creatures did not do much hopping, it ran rather fast leaving its' naming a mystery.

Finally the trio came to a stop and began to set up camp. Faous cut the net of the fox, watching as he curled up in a ball ashamed and sad that he was naked. Maverick began to shiver and sniffle as the cold set in upon his small nude form.

Faous could not help but feel pity for the cub, he walked over and picked him up, holding him close to his chest, hoping his body would help keep him warm. The fox lightly smiled, appreciating the affectionate gesture of his brother in arms.

"Tor, can we at least give him a skin?"

The large barbarian grunted and tossed the large brown fur piece to the warrior who caught it and unraveled it around the fox.

"Thank you." The cub muttered weakly as he was being wrapped.

"You should not wear any clothing. You have fur to keep you warm. We wear fur because we have none. We left your cloths because orcs and goblins do not know what you look like. They will think you are dead and eaten and leave our group alone." Tor was loud and stern as he walked through some dieing brush and to a large rocky edge revealing they were on a large mesa plateau.

"Meany, making me be naked and cold while you're all warm and snug. Those guys will come after us you know." The shivering Maverick stuck out his tongue in anger towards Tor who was now out of sight and ear.

"They'll never reach us in time. We slaughtered their riding beasts so they would have to travel on foot. We have a whole day on them and can gain another by riding the jumpers we stole from the goblin camp." Faous lightly patted the kits head as he set him down and began to work on starting a fire.

The night was unpleasant as the fox child complained and cried at the dinner of fine craton cooked over an open fire. He eventually managed to eat it as he had not eaten much in the past few days and Tor's threat of shoving it down his throat helped. The trio decided to call it a night and went to sleep, though Faous was having trouble as his mind was occupied on the riddle of the young necromancer.

The warrior could not figure out how someone so annoying could be as powerful as Ma' Dora. He also wondered why Tor would sleep out of site from the two. Faous quickly turned to eye the sleeping child, only to discover he was gone.

Faous quickly rose to his fur covered feet and began to search the local moon lit mists. His heart raced, worried that maybe the orcs followed and seized him again. He thought the worst when he saw the kit's animal skin blanket was left behind.

The warrior quickly ran into the brush up to the large rock over seeing the land. Maybe he could catch sight of the ones who took Maverick if he hurried. Faous stopped short in the brush; he was taken back by the strange sight before him.

Maverick Skye was standing naked at the edge of the large rock and looking up into a rare hole in the mists at the exposed night sky. His body was different, taller, older, but his eyes were dead serious and hands curled in fists. The wind was blowing softly, bouncing the fox's ponytail and shifting his very fluffy fur. There was a strange air about the silver beast, giving the blond male a feeling of a calming fear.

A hand placed upon the warriors mouth quickly snapped Faous back into reality as he was pulled back into the brush. Tor leaned into the man's ear whispering 'Shhhh' as he pulled him back to the camp site. He released Faous and sat down before him, patting the ground before his large form so that the warrior would do the same.

"Tor, you scared me halfway to death, what's wrong with you?"

"Leave him alone. He is plotting and planning. He needs to be alone." Tor whispered

"I saw that, but how did he make himself older?"

"How is it that a beast can have the form of a man? To speak the language of man? He is a special creature who has more power then any other I have ever seen."

"That little age shift of his, do you think Ma'Dora would have noticed it?"

"No, I did not. It was a subtle change. Do not underestimate that Maverick fox, he is a smart one. He has been playing you for a fool since he first smelt you."

Faous turned his head towards the fox on the bluff, knowing he could not see him, he did so out of instinct. "So he is acting obnoxious on purpose? That little..."

"He is greatly beyond his years, treat him with respect. Right now he is thinking of a way to save this planet from that damned ice and the hell fire spell in case Mandarth decides that Maverick fox is not enough."

There was a pause as the two humanoids glared at one another, Faous was unsure what to say, though felt more respect towards the other worldly fox. The silence continued until finally Tor stood up.

"Wait." Tor stood before the warrior looking down at him with the same unmoved barbarian face.

"Who exactly are you? Where did you come from and how is it that you can sense magic?"

Tor remained silent before turning and walking away.

"Can you at least tell me why you want to kill Ma' Dora so badly and why you feel you have to sleep away from us?" Tor stopped. This question seemed to pose interest in the male.

"Because I am the only one who can. It must fall upon me." With that said, the broad barbarian turned, "You two stink. I cannot sleep with stink." Having said that, he walked away into the mists away from the warrior and the fox.

Faous lay himself back down, thinking about his new found respect for the necromancer. This whole time he played the part of a child to mask his maturity from the world so that none would expect him to have power. Though maybe this was not the truth, it is what Faous believed as he fell into slumber.

Maverick continued to stare into the night, his body slightly aged to protect himself from the cold. He was listening to what the wind was telling him, and it was telling him many things such as the conversation of Tor and Faous, letting the adolescent fox to smile to himself with humor. If they only knew that Maverick was a child at heart, and reflected his love physically by appearing as a child.

More importantly was the winds message about a powerful enemy following the trio, one that the two humanoids did not expect to be trailing behind. Maverick could easily feel the power nearby, it was impossible to miss for someone as trained as himself. It was Lujak. No mistake about it that the prince was close behind.

The golden locked prince looked about the slaughtered remains of the orcs, searching for signs of a path. Lujak walked towards a strange looking pile of garments, something that was unknown to him. He picked up the strange material and sniffed it, cringing slightly as it stunk of a wild beast. The scarf was tossed to the side as the muse walked towards the edge of the camp, following the trail of blood drops from the arm of the warrior.

The trail of frozen crimson lead to the tracks of two jumpers heading further south; they were probably a days journey on foot, but only a few minutes away with flight. Lujak thrust his fists into the ground as it was now time for him to recharge. He frowned in anger and disgust as he closed his eyes and muttered "They are coming for you mother. I must destroy them!"

Act 6

Capture

The night horizon was decorated with star fields dusted in by the green of a nearby nebula and moonlight reflecting off the large smooth surface of the glacier. The air was calm and cool as the moonlight seemed to dance off the surface of the ice. It was a fearful beauty to see from the capital city of the kingdom of flames.

King Mandarth stood on his balcony watching the giant ice sheet on the horizon; it would not be long before the floe reached his city. The thought of that in one or two days the ice would be upon them, destroying the city, was far too nerve racking for the king to sleep. He watched, swirling his golden chalice filled with wine, dressed in his finest night robes as the ice stood there mocking him.

The king grunted angrily, tossing his fine drink off the balcony as he came to a decision. He strode down his brightly lit palace catwalk to the stairwell, down towards his group of wizards who were waiting for him at the bottom in the court yard. "Well, where are they?"

"Our remote viewing has shown us that they are a few days ride away from the castle your majesty, they wont make it in time, even with the assistance of Tor the wicked and jumpers." The head wizard named Bath stated, his head lowered to his king.

Mandarth stood there, doing his best to look fearless. "Then I have no choice. Release the fire birds. Instruct them to take those three to the ice castle with great haste as we are out of time."

The group of spell casters gasped in shock, surprised that the king actually changed his mind about a subject. "Your majesty, will they not be captured by Ma' Dora's strongest spell?" Bath said fearfully.

"That is a risk we must take. They managed to only get less then a day away by flight. If they are spotted, then they should be close enough to the castle to take it. That fox boy has enough power to do battle with the queen of winter and rid the land of this life sucking ice. You said so yourself Bath, that he has more power then all the spell casters and Ma' Dora combined."

The nine spell casters bowed in respect and slowly began to walk backwards, away from their beloved king. "As you command your majesty, the fire birds shall be released tonight so that in the morning they can take them to the evil queen's castle."

The wizards retreated down to the royal stables where they retrieved three birds of fire. They were a subspecies of the phoenix, one that could reproduce by eggs but only in volcanoes where the temperatures were high enough to keep the eggs alive. The spell casters muttered their chants to the birds, giving them their orders to escort the small trope of men across the ice to the cold fortress of Ma' Dora.

The great birds spread their wings and cried out as they lifted themselves into the night sky. Powerful winds circled around the stables coming from the wings of the large birds, now rising high into the air above the palace. With a loud ear piercing screech, they flew off towards the south in the direction of the trio, leaving a slight red glowing trail behind them.

These birds would create a wave of heat around their bodies to protect them from the artic temperatures of the high atmosphere and allow them to fly farther; these fierce abilities mixed in with their naturalness towards fire gave them the name of fire birds.

A loud thunderous crash boomed across the sky as the glacier came alive once more, reaping the life out of the great land. The ground began to quake violently, shockwaves rippled across the sky, and wind was everywhere. The ice floe grew in tremendous size this morning; Ma'Dora was in high spirits it would seem.

The early crash of thunder and ice forced the trio to retreat many leagues north to out run the ice until it eventually caught up with them and stopped. Maverick walked up to the surface, examining it closely while Faous and Tor could only stand away and watch. He was looking for a way to climb to the top.

"We can't get around it, if we're gonna make it in time, we have to travel night and day and on the surface. There's no other way." The kits tone was soft and not serious, obviously he knew something.

"We'll die of cold on that thing if we even get close to it. How are we supposed to ride on the surface?" Faous kicked a stone to the floe before him in his anger. "We've come all this way just to fail? I can't believe it!"

Crash!

They were interrupted by a scorching beam from the sky that pierced the ice face next to Maverick. All three heads turned upwards to see a figure dressed in a tight one piece suit with a short dark brown cape that extended to his knees. Boots were the same color of dark gold as the front and back of the one piece, the sides were bright and golden as the figures hair and bracers. The only marking on his tight armless suit was a symbol of a crown inside a snowflake upon his sturdy chest. His dark skin matched that of Faous and Tor, though his eyes were a lovely shade of silver, hidden under his angry brow and cradled in his full cheeks. He was beautiful.

"Lujak!" Faous cried as he drew his sword and shield ready to fight. The flying figure touched ground with a loud sizzle. He ignored the two humanoids and began walking towards the kit, extended his arms and screeching loudly. Immediately two yellow beams of burning energy came crashing towards the fox, who was barely able to dodge. The ice quickly melted, creating hot steam in the area and a large long path of melted ice into the distance.

"This guy is serious, he uses plasma attacks." Maverick quickly hopped to his feet and braced himself for another attack. Tor and Faous were helpless, they could only stand and watch. "Plasma?" Faous uttered softly.

The kit nodded, watching as the muse began walking towards him again. "Yes. He quickly heats up the particles around him until they become hot plasma, and then sends the plasma as a single mass of energy towards his opponent. That is his power, he cannot control magic, just create high temperatures around him to make plasma."

Lujak screeched again thrusting one arm after another towards the beast sending beam after beam at the necromancer. Maverick seemed to dance around each attack barely; the prince obviously knew exactly what he was doing. "It is such a small amount of plasma, it cools off quickly, that's why he can't melt the entire flow and his aim is fixed."

The golden prince began to rise into the air and heat up the particles to plasma around his body. Quickly he shot himself at the nude fox who hopped to the side, barely missing the attack again. His nudity was becoming too much of a distraction in battle. "You couldn't have even given me a loin cloth!? Assholes!"

Tor quickly ran towards Faous and pushed him down. "Hey whattaya.." Tor picked up the shield he gave the warrior and looked to the sky. The heat emitting from the burning prince seemed to create a hole in the clouds and mists, allowing sunlight to enter.

Lujak flew up from the ice and then back down towards the kit again who cart wheeled out of the way. The bare beast grunted in distress, watching the prince fly into the air. "This isn't good, I need more time, I'm too slow like this. I never fought naked in the cold before."

The barbarian quickly reflected the beam of sunlight at Lujak who was turning to try and find his bearings. It worked! Lujak screamed as he was blinded by the reflection of light, allowing Maverick some time.

"Thanks Tor. Looks like I'm gonna have ta use some magic." The fox turned his head and winked at the barbarian who only nodded understanding what was about to happen. The nude male uttered a chant and lifted his arm, summoning a powerful gust of wind to toss Lujak higher into the sky, cooling off his plasma encased body.

The wind circled around the kit allowing him to fly into the sky towards Lujak who was now spinning to gain control of himself. Maverick glided up to the prince's face and yelled over the wind "I'll make a deal with you. I'll go see your mom Ma'Dora with you if you promise to leave my friends alone and get me some cloths. How's that?"

Lujak remembered his mission, to follow and capture the off worlder and bring him back for interrogation. Ma' Dora wanted to know what kinds of secret powers she could gain from the mysterious magical beast. "Yes. You come with me to see mother!"

The male grabbed the fox by the back of his neck and flew off towards Ma'Dora's castle with the frightened gaze of Faous watching from below. "Nooooooo!" He cried as the two disappeared into the distance. "He's been captured!"

"Calm down. He planned this last night while he was on the rock. We must have faith in Maverick Fox. He knows something we do not." Tor looked towards the now closing hole in the mists, waiting for the answer to come to him

"We have to do something! We can't let Ma'Dora kill him. We need him!"

Several minutes passed when Tor smiled for the first time in front of the warrior, a strange and scary sight. "Our answer has come." He pointed towards the sky as three large red birds came swooping down before them.

Faous gasped lightly at the sight of the magnificent fire birds before them. Such awesome power and beauty all in one lovely creature. They were dressed only saddles, showing the two of their mission.

The pair did not waste a second getting on two of the birds and taking the reigns. The fire birds thrust their powerful wings and took to the skies once more, having their reigns pulled to guide them towards the ice castle of Ma' Dora in pursuit of Lujak.

Faous was more then thrilled to be so high in the air, looking down at the world below, he could gain more of a view on how big the glacier really was as it stretched from as far left as he could see to as far right; horizon to horizon. Tor pointed his ax in front of them, forcing Faous to look at the skyline . It was Ma' Dora's castle! They were already upon it.

Act 7

The Ice Castle

Two light green eyes looked at the furre curiously, having never seen such a sight before. A beast with the form of a man in such detail; what a once in a lifetime sight to behold. Though the furre was caged as a beast, so was he as he watched from behind icy bars across the frozen hallway at the strange sight.

"Hey! How coom you naked?" Prince Broon's voice was as loud as it was annoying when he called out towards the young Maverick Skye who was sitting in a cell across from him.

"Because Lujak lied and didn't get me any cloths." The beast muttered, his own two toned optics glaring back at the prince. The child had black hair, green eyes, and was wearing a thick long sleeved dark furred shirt covered in a small matching vest with chocolate colored pants and a light brown loin cloth. His shoes were like that of any other male upon the planet, animal skins and fur crudely tired around the base of the feet. Broon appeared to be an older child, maybe nine or ten, though he spoke in a voice as if he were four.

The young prince began to toss pebbles at the spectacle before him. "Oh. I thought ip wasum cause you're beast. I can see your pee pee."

Maverick's cheeks flushed red under his fur, quickly lifting his tail between his legs to offer himself censorship. "Shut up! I used to have cloths until they were taken from me."

Broon blinked curiously a few times, examining the alien across from him. "Why would you let anyone take your cloths? You stupid or something? Youm a beast who can talk, beasts don't so you stooped!"

Maverick grinned softly, catching onto the kids devilish game. "Yes I am. I never listened to my parents and now I'm stuck here trapped in this cell."

Broon cocked his head forward and blinked a few times, eyeing the sight still making sure to memorize everything. "Stupid!"

"How about you? You stupid too?" The fox sat himself down on the ice block that was to be his bed, a chill running into his spine from the rush of cold.

The boy shook his head quickly "No! Not stupid, never stupid. Meanies took me while I was sleeping."

"Don't sleep with the window open next time."

"No window. Like a ghost, he came from the wall. But you beast that lookum like me, a boy beast because you have pee pee. You're not a ghost, where you coom from?"

Maverick frowned as he was wishing he had some kind of clothing to wear. "Rushed away from my happy home by magic fire, it was scary. Ended up here and wanted to see what this world was. Tried looking around at the giant ice thingy and wanted to know who made it. Meany bring me here."

Prince Broon nodded and stuck out his tongue. "Stoopid. Stupid naked beast boy thing!"

Maverick frowned again, though did not say a word. The male across began to untie his leather loin cloth from the top of his pants revealing that it was only decoration. "Hear, mommy says it's bad when someone runs around naked. Youm not bad are you?" He tossed the attire across the hall to the kit who smiled and bowed in thanks. Quickly he hopped over to the piece of leather and exposed himself again; a small chuckle from the prince across causing him to blush more.

"I'm not bad, just my cloths were taken from me. You are nice for helping me." Maverick quickly tied the piece around his midsection, feeling much better now that he did not have to cover.

Prince Broon smiled and laughed again, pointing his finger at the funny looking male "Stupid!"

The fox child cleared his throat as he looked at the prince again. "You should be nice, or you'll go to hell."

The young male began to tear up, hands rubbing his bright green eyes. "No! Don't wanna go to hell, scary and hot. Don't wanna um freeze either but gonna freeze tonight!" The child began to cry, attracting the attention of the goblin guard who rattled the horizontal ice bars with the butt of his javelin.

"Hey! Keep it quiet in there!" he bellowed.

The fox did not have much time. The prince knew he was sent by his father and now Maverick knew that the queen planned to make her move tonight. She would have to be resting from this morning's ice floe at the moment, leaving some small amount of time left to form a plan.

He waited till the guard was away before going up to the bars again and smiling. "You wont go to hell or freeze, the angels will save children like us, one for you, and one for me."

The sharp stone ax came down hard into the shoulder of an orc with a sickening thwack! Tor kicked the fiend off the ice balcony while Faous slicee the neck of another, keeping him from calling out to others nearby before tossing him from the ledge as well. The two tied the birds to the decorative edging of the balcony and entered the castle.

"Looks like Ma' Dora and Lujak are too busy to notice the fire birds, talk about a lucky break." Faous whispered as they checked the two way opening of the hallway before them. "Where do you think they have the prince and Maverick?"

The prison cell slid open as the large muse took hold of the kit and began to drag him across the cold floor. "Mother wants to see you." The prison quickly leaving view as the muse ascended a large stairwell. Lujak continued to drag the quiet Maverick across an open catwalk and into a decorative portal and then proceeded down another stair well towards the lower level of the throne room, which happened to be the execution room. Inside there was a throne set out before an executioner's block with the executioner orc standing next to it holding a large metal blade, awaiting the kit. Ma'Dora herself sat on her throne dressed in her finest robes to begin the interrogation. She watched as her son forced the kit to lay his head upon the block with a bright smile upon her cold face.

"What right do you have to attack my kingdom? Why do you side with my enemies?" There was a short pause as the silver furre was too busy eyeing the room, ignoring the fierce queens questions. "Speak worm!" A guard swiftly kicked the kit on his stomach, though he did not seem to mind despite his soft grunt.

"Blah blah blah. You're trying to kill the world so they brought me here against my will to stop you since we're both aliens, cept you're a Dewmame." The fox child was playful, his tail swaying behind as he slowly stood up and spun around knowing his tactics would easily buy himself some time.

The vicious queen lifted her chin, lowering her gaze at the disgusting imp before her. For being a powerful spell caster, he wore nothing but a patch of leather and seemed to dance around with no worries even at his own execution.

"What manor of being is a Dewmame and for that matter, what manor of being are you?" Her voice was stern, but curious as this was her one chance to find out what exactly she was and where she came from. Her curiosity was so strong, she did not even care that the beast was hopping from one foot to another.

The playful fox smiled and giggled softly, eyes fixed on her own sending a wave of anger down her spine. What nerve! To dare hop about before royalty and look the queen in the eye. Ma'Dora raised her right hand having the guard kick the kit again, though he only smiled, unfazed.

"I'm a fox. You're a dewmame, they're kinda like elves but without pointed ears and somewhat like nymphs and stick to a certain element. You seem to be an ice dewmame and were probably placed here by your folks to make it a giant snow ball so they can come back and live here. But don't let it get to your head, you're just an average dewmame, nothing compared to their higher ranks."

Silence. Not a word was spoken as the queen absorbed all she heard. Did this mean that they would take the planet from her when she would start her rule? She shook her head and painted herself an angry face as her subjects were watching.

"You have my thanks for telling me who I am and that it was my destiny to rule this world. Hear that all of you!? I came from the stars to rule this world!" She lifted her right fist into the air causing a rise of cheers from her loyal subjects.

Like lightning, Tor quickly tossed his second knife at the approaching wizard, striking his throat with a loud thump killing him on contact. He did not stop to pick up his weapon, just jumped over the corpse as the pair ran down the catwalk.

"You seem to know where you are going my friend." Faous panted slightly as they began a set of stairs, being careful not to slip on the ice.

"At the top of these stairs head right. That should take you to the prince. Once you save him, take two birds and return to lord Mandarth."

"What about you and Maverick?"

"I'll free Maverick fox and he will follow you. I will stay and kill the bitch. Do not waste your time telling me not too, I have already made up my mind and my destiny calls out."

The top of the stairs was fast approaching, a cold artic wind slowed the warrior down lightly, but he followed the command of his brother in arms and turned right into a tower while Tor the wicked went left into the decorative portal of the main structure. Faous entered the smaller tower portal only to fall face first down to the floor unconscious.

"Faous the mighty. Her majesty will be pleased to have the murderer of her spell casters captured." Fel stepped out from the side of the portal as two guards ran towards his direction only a few meters away. "Take this scum to the prison, I must inform her majesty of this intruder."

The two guards gave a salute and picked up the unconscious warrior and began to drag him towards the prison. Fel smiled and began walking towards the execution chamber, proud of his accomplishment. "Ironic, the last of the ice spell casters to bring down the hunter of spell casters."

The cub's ears pointed up in attention as the familiar scent of the barbarian filled his nostrils. Slowly the kit rotated his optical orbs, searching to where a large stocky male could hide. They became fixed upon a capital to his right; Tor gave a soft nod of assurance as he slid behind one of the sculptures waiting for his chance to strike.

Maverick began to giggle, catching the queen's attention. "Do you finally understand how hopeless your situation is fox?" She turned on her heals and walked over to the bound fox with a smile on his face.

"If you're gonna freeze the world then you better do it quick. While you waste your time talking to me ol' king Mandarth is getting ready to cast his hell fire spell." Maverick giggled again as the queen pulled out a dagger in rage and pushed it at the kits throat.

"Do not lie to your queen! I have the prince and I'll kill you myself if you lie!" She was afraid; the glacier was not at the city yet or big enough to stop the spell.

"No lie. I was supposed to stop you and save the kid so that he wouldn't have to say the spell. But since I'm running late, he'll probably say it within a few minutes."

Ma' Dora's eyes shot wide as she lifted the dagger to strike when the doors of her chamber opened abruptly. The queen turned, stopping her thrust in mid motion allowing the fox to breath a sigh of relief. Fel entered the room and feel to the floor on his knees bowing.

"Your majesty, I have captured an intruder. None other then Faous the mighty."

Maverick's eyes darted towards the large barbarian who gave a small nod of assurance to the kit. He had to have faith in his brother in arms.

"Splendid Fel, I want you to personally carry out his execution immediately."

Fel grew a sinister smile upon his pale face at the mentioning of an execution."I was hoping you would say that your majesty, I'll see to it that he is executed slowly." The wizard bowed his head and turned back starting towards the tall door and back to the prison to carry out sentence.

The queen waited until her loyal subject was out of the chamber before turning to her muse of a son, hand sheathing her dagger to the waist strap on her belt. "My son, my dear sweet son. Please see to it that this fox is executed."

The beautiful male nodded and saluted his queen "I shall ring his neck myself mother!"

The queen smiled and in her calm sweet voice praised her son "Such a good son, so loving and benevolent. Make sure he is dead; mother needs to make the ice bigger."

"Hey stupid! Wake up stupid!" The young prince Broon continued to toss pebbles at the stirring warrior across the hall from his cell. Faous lifted his head and gasped as he bowed to the young dark haired royal heir. "Your highness, I was sent by your father to rescue you. I am Faous, the mightiest of warriors."

"Not so mighty now are you stupid?" The child giggled as he tossed another rock at the warrior who grunted in annoyance to himself. "You seem more annoying then Maverick, I never thought it was possible."

"Oh that furry fellow that was hear earlier? He's funny, I wanna grab his tail." The guard quickly slammed on both gates with the butt of his spear. "No talking to the other prisoner."

Faous stood up and kicked at the ice bars catching the attention of the goblin guard "Hey! Settle down in there or I'll have to kill you myself."

"You don't have the balls to do it coward!" Faous yelled back.

"Why you arrogant slime!" The goblin almost thrust his spear into the cell at the male, but stopped himself short and pulled back with a look of shock.

"Coward! You are afraid of me."

The goblin kicked the cage "Your tricks wont work on me slime. I'm no dummy an-" He cut off as Broon grabbed the butt of the spear and pulled it back, startling the goblin. "Hey!" The guard pulled back against the tip in a game of tug of war until the prince let go of the spear, sending the guard back into Faous's cell.

The large warrior quickly wrapped his arm around the guards neck and pulled as hard as he could cutting off all blood circulation to the head. Slowly the guard fell limp, allowing Faous to grab the keys from the goblins belt. He inserted the key into the lock and let himself out, replacing the guard in his place as he went towards the young prince who was now tossing bits of ice at the goblin chanting "Stupid!"

The warrior quickly picked up the young prince and tossed him upon his shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down!"

"Forgive me your highness, but we have to get out of here now." Faous grabbed the spear and ran out the door way into the spiral stair well leading upwards to the entrance where he was knocked out. Up and up he ran, the prince on his shoulders remaining as quiet as possible as the two slipped out of the portal and back to the main walk.

Fel watched as the two ran down the catwalk, heading towards the outer wall. They must be headed towards the balcony, that is the only place they could have entered and that would explain how his fellow spell caster was killed in the grand hall by knife. He smiled as he muttered a spell, circling snow powder around his form he faded away into the air.

Act 8

Assault

The castle began to shake wildly, knocking all to the ground except the figures of Lujak, Maverick, and the hidden Tor who was holding onto the sculptures of a capital. Loud chimes echoed throughout the castle as the rumbling caused hanging icicles to sing a sweet song of destruction as the ice sheet extended it's frosty hold further. It was becoming dangerously close to the kingdom of flames' capital city at a very quick rate; Maverick could feel it.

Lujak kept his fierce gaze fixed upon the young fox who could do nothing much but glare back at the handsome muse. "So you just gonna stand there undressing me with your eyes, or you gonna ring my neck?" The fox child grinned, lifting his shoulders in a mannerism of disrespect.

"I wanted to wait till mother was finished so she could watch you gag on your soul, but you just made me angry!" The male began to walk towards the defiant fox who gave a quick glare up at the well hidden barbarian, catching a small nod.

Maverick smiled and thrust his arms into the air and stared at the approaching male. "Guess I have to use my magic now your benevolence." He quickly muttered something under his breath and a huge gust of wind whirled around the circular room, sending all the guards, executioner, and devices of torture hurling into the air. The harmonic sounds of screams and flesh being cut and stripped littered the air around the fox who was directing the devices to kill the figures circling the room.

Lujak frowned but stood his ground before the fox, he had to wait to use his sun beams or else the wind would wisp them away. with his mother's warning ringing in his ears not to fly around this one; he quickly began to charge the cub through the wind, right hand glowing and radiating with charged particles.

The fox watched as the figure approached closer and closer, his pace matched by the force of the whirlwind around them. He waited until the male brought down his mighty fist to slide under the muse to get behind him. The ice seemed to prove more useful then a hindrance as it made evasion much easier for the fast beast.

Lujak roared out and began chase after the fast cub who could only smile at the situation. Maverick waited until Lujak was in the right spot so he could stop his whirl wind. "Almost there, just a little bit more and you could grab my tail tip." He teased. Lujak quickened his pace, angry at the mocking of the little devil.

A couple of steps and the prince was in the right spot as Maverick quickly stopped the artic wind. Blood began to sprinkle down as rain along with limbs, guts, and large torture devices. Lujak grunted loudly as he was coated in sticky crimson looking upward to see what was creating the blood rain.

Crash!

The large metal spiked cage came crashing down upon the bulky male, puncturing his arms and back. An annoying high pitched ringing echoed across the room from the metal of the cage causing Maverick to quickly hold his ears down and scream. The noise was too loud for his large sensitive ears even when they were closed. The ringing caused the necromancer to fall and cringe in pain, awaiting for the madness to stop.

There was a short calm as Tor continued to watch and wait from the high capital of the ice pillar. He quickly turned as the metal rubble was tossed aside, sending another high pitched ring to echo across the room and causing the ground beast to scream again. He watched as the injured Lujak rose to his feet, blood exiting from his new holes dripping to the floor below as he walked over to the child as though he were not harmed.

Maverick opened his eyes as soon as the injured male grabbed hold of his neck and lifted him up. "Now you shall pay! I will watch you choke and burn in my hand and there is no spell you can say to escape!" His grip tightened, making sure that the child could not utter a word or even breath.

His two toned eyes looked down at the angry male holding him causing a smile to rise upon his furred face. A small artic wind quickly lifted the pair into the air, though it did not cause Lujak to lessen the hold he had on Maverick, only tighten it. The frantic of the mid air dance instinctively had the prince draw back his arm, bringing the young fox closer to his body.

Maverick quickly took advantage of this by grabbing the temple of the males head and forcing his fox thumbs into his eyes. The beautiful muse screeched out in pain and battered at the cub with his free arm to no avail. He was finally forced to let the fox loose and needed to use both hands to push him away right before they both hit the ground. The muse hit hard while the silver furre softly landed upon his feet paws, ready for in stance for another attack despite the fact the arctic wind almost froze him.

Lujak quickly stood to his feet, hands rubbing his eyes he turned and viewed the hazy form of the fox. "Enough!" His finger nails quickly began to spark and hiss as he ran towards the staggering fox.

Eyes shot up at the battered male above him who was slashing his left hand down at him. Maverick quickly side stepped, grabbing hold of the arm he quickly flipped the male to his back with enough momentum to lay any normal creature to rest.

Lujak quickly pulled his arm away and rolled just in time as the fox had jumped to double stomp his face. The prince quickly lunged at the fox, right hand extending to grab his neck, though the child was too quick and ducked just in time for the prince to fly over his form. Though he managed to dodge, the back of the kit's neck was slashed and cut by Lujak's free left hand.

Maverick screamed out at the burning and stinging pain, small electrical charges stood at the wound sending the kit into a daze. He quickly shoot it off and summoned a quick wind to toss him into the air to buy himself some time so that he may gather himself. The fox was slow, his muscles were cold and stiff from his earlier whirlwind; at his current rate he was not sure how long he could keep up his fight in such low temperatures.

Lujak yelled again, hands charged he began to thrust them both at the silver child's air position, sending beam after beam of burning plasma towards the icy roof. Maverick quickly dodged each beam, though the damage was done as the upper roof and wall melted, exposing the outside and throne room above.

Ma' Dora's strenuous moans were interrupted by the loud sizzling and heat coming from behind her throne. She quickly stood to her feet and turned around, watching as plasma beams were melting the floor behind her. A panic shot through her body, but not of fear for herself, but that of her son.

The ice queen quickly turned and began a sprint towards the door as the beams of plasma stopped. She ran down the stairs skipping one or two on the way yelling "Lujak! My son! Mother is coming!" Heart pounding and mind fixed with worry she allowed her motherly instincts to gain hold, nothing could be more important to her at the moment then the welfare of her most cherished son.

The queen of winter jumped into the air and drop kicked the doors of the torture chamber open, causing both Maverick and Lujak to turn their attention to the door. Ma' Dora quickly hopped into the air and sent a quick artic blast from her extended left at the fox. Maverick grunted, he did not have enough time to divert the wind and was hit by the magical breeze and fell to the ground quickly shivering in cold.

"Mother!" The prince looked towards the ice queen with an angry glare. "Why did you help me mother? I said I would ring his neck and I ment it."

Ma' Dora could only smile as she began to walk to her son. "In your anger, you forgot this castle is made of ice and you melted your mother's throne room floor and wall. I became worried and thought the worst, so I ran here to assist you."

Maverick slowly stood to his feet, thankful of his protective fur; both figures turned their gaze to the shivering fox child. Now there were two he had to take care of, though soon to be only one as he needed to stall for a little bit more time.

Ma' Dora quickly lifted her arm towards the beast and growled behind her angered expression. "You dare to attack my son in my home! I may have used half my strength on my ice sheet, but I still have more then enough to take care of you wor-gahhhhhhhh"

"Hoooooo!" The barbarian quickly came upon her, his ax slashing down at the queen, slicing her back and sending the queen of winter to the icy floor silent.

"MOTHER!" Lujak cried out as he quickly kicked a piece of wooden rubble towards the barbarian's weapon, knocking it out of his grip.

Ma' Dora quickly turned and shot out an ice blast at Tor's feet, immobilizing him to the floor. Tor was trapped as the ice queen was being helped out to her feet. "Lujak, my son, now you have some target practice."

Lujak nodded as he heated up his right hand and began to burn his open wounds, sealing them. Maverick angrily grunted, he was hoping to buy enough time for the muse to bleed out, though perhaps he lost enough blood to hinder his abilities further. He needed a new plan and his quick mind quickly developed one.

Act 9

Escape

King Mandarth watched as his city was beginning to fall by the siege of the glacier. Panic ran across the streets as citizens did their best to try and escape the onslaught of the ice floe. The thunderous quakes were quickly accompanied by the rumbles of falling buildings.

Mandarth lowered his head, fist held so tightly he began to draw blood. He turned to his wizards, eyes moist he opened his mouth and softly muttered "Our champion has failed. Enchant the hell fire spell." The king's voice was quivering in sorrow as another quake shook the city.

The eight spell casters only nodded while they formed a circle before the king and began their chants. "Great spirit of our world, we have failed to protect your beauty and thusly ask for your power to punish the wrongs down onto you." Arms all extended towards the circle, hands glowing red sending an aura downwards into the world itself. "Please, shine your wrath upon us all so that all will know your power and the wicked shall be punished."

The planet was beginning to rumble to life as the team of wizards continued their enchantment. "We sacrifice ourselves and our kin, so that you may punish those that have harmed you. We ask that you accept our noble sacrifice and bring hell fire upon this world." A large thunderous crack tore open around the city and began to glow red.

Pools of red hot lava began to surface in the canyon as a moat, slowly bubbling to the surface. Volcanoes quickly began bursting across the globe, large pillars of ash and soot shot high into the atmosphere darkening the planet with toxic clouds. Lightning danced across the sky everywhere, striking down upon the ice sheet with great force.

The wizards lifted their arms into the air and chanted repeatedly "Hell to the wicked, hell to the wicked, hell to the wicked." Mandarth watched as the lava met the ice and created vast amounts of lethal steam which killed all those with in the immediate vicinity.

The rumbles quickly stopped and the ice melted little and the steam began to freeze. King Mandarth and his wizards watched in horror as the lava began to cool and the quakes began to diminish. The ice had such a grip on the planet's life that it could not even fight back.

The quakes of the planet shook Ma' Dora's castle with so much force that all actions stopped. Faous and Broon could only stand at the balcony in horror as the great wizard Fel stood before them, having teleported to stop them from their escape. The quakes sent all three to the ground and caused the great fire birds to cry out in fear.

The sky became black with clouds and lit up with the sparks of lightening. The dance of chaos continued for a few more moments until it haltered, allowing the warrior to stand and place himself between the wizard and young Broon. Fel turned and looked about in fear. "He actually did it! He cast out the hell fire spell!"

Fel turned to the warrior, his hands coming together and beginning to glow he pointed to the warrior. "I guess we're all going to die so might as well kill you myself and avenge the fallen." A quick blast of artic wind quickly sent the warrior and prince flying into the wall behind them.

Faous cried out in pain as the stingy cold began to freeze his body along with the young Broon. He underestimated the power of the head spell caster, a dire mistake as he did not expect the range and force of this attack to be so large and fierce. Faous could not move, he was quickly freezing, and needed a miracle now in order to defeat the wizard and save prince Broon.

The quaking of the castle could only be matched by the quaking in Ma' Dora's body. She knew what was happening and a rush of fear flushed into her body as the realization of the hell fire spell came onto her. "Nooooooooo!"

All in the room fell to the floor; the queen began to crawl to the doors knowing how urgent the situation was. "Lujak kill them all! I have to stop this now or we're all dead!" The queen quickly jumped to her feet once the quakes stopped and ran back up the stairs to her throne.

Maverick quickly took advantage in the break in quakes and thrust his arms into the air and yelled out a spell "Iv bhkh mxixo lwrw cqvx!" The spell quickly drained more then half of the kit's magic, though the planet itself calmed down. It worked. The hell fire spell was stopped.

His attention quickly returned to the fast approaching sun prince with charged arms ready to kill. The multicolored child extended his right arm and opened his hand paw and cried out sending a powerful spell of wind that encased the body of the approaching enemy. Though the spell cost the kit a third of the magic he had left in his body, it seemed to have worked.

Lujak was hurled into the air by the raging wind, cutting and slicing his skin at ever whirl. The prince howled out in pain, though no one could hear as the force of the wind muted the being and drew out the breath in his lungs. Lujak shot a charged sun beam towards the kit, sealing his fate as it joined the wind and began to burn his body.

There was only one more cry as the entire circle of wind became encased in plasma and engulfed the prince. The spell stopped and the burnt remains of Ma' Dora's most powerful spell fell down before the mighty barbarian who only scoffed at it.

Tor stood to his feet to watch the horror show only to fall again as another smaller quake shook the castle. Ma' Dora had began to push the ice forward again leaving little time to save the world.

Maverick quickly ran over to his friend and uttered a spell to break him free of the ice on his right foot. "Maverick fox, leave me. Go and stop the ice and save the world, I will stop the bitch." The fox child nodded and ran towards the stone ax a few feet away. He took hold of it and slide it towards the warrior who grabbed it "Use it to break yourself out friend, and farewell." Tor quickly began to chip himself out of the ice, paying little attention to the fleeing silver furre leaving the room.

There was no time for goodbyes as another quake shook the castle. Maverick ran as fast as his little legs could carry, feeling the presence of his warrior guard fading along with the brash prince. "Crap." he muttered as he raced down the catwalk towards the balcony.

The second quake seemed to startle the wizard Fel, knocking him off balance to the ground. The grip he had on the spell quickly faded letting large warrior and young prince fall to the ground half frozen. Faous opened his eyes and drew in a large breath, arm shakily grabbing the spear he took careful aim tossing it at the wizard.

"Gahhhh!" The spell caster spat out blood as the spear hit his left shoulder, knocking him back down. He quickly grabbed the spear and froze it on contact, breaking it off he stood to the stalky warrior and frowned. Hand extended forward again as another heavy wind of ice blew Faous and Broon back against the wall once more.

"You're too cold to battle warrior." Fel teased from the balcony. "How does it feel to be bested by that you've hated for so long? I bet it must be agonizing, more so then this wound you gave me." The temperature of the wind quickly dropped as Fel took another step closer. "Tell me warrior, how does it feel to freeze to death in the wind?"

"Why don't you tell me?!" The young voice of a child caught the focus of the spell caster, who turned and saw a young furre to his left with a hand paw extended. The wizard was quickly uplifted in a column of wind high into the air, his screaming faded as he was soon consumed by the toxic clouds above.

Faous slowly stood to his feet and muttered to the fox "Thank you, a few more seconds of that and we would have died of frost." Broon nodded as the trio walked to the fearful fire birds on the balcony. Maverick quickly helped the pair on their birds as they were too stiff to lift themselves up from the wizard's attack.

"Take the third bird with you, Tor isn't coming, I'll go ahead and stop the ice." Maverick's words were serious, his eyes more mature leaving the shivering Faous to watch in admiration.

"But how cou-"

"No time to talk, get moving."

The birds quickly hopped into the air and began to fly back towards the kingdom of flame. The fox child held a hand up to the birds and cast a quick gust of wind at them flowing in the direction of the northern kingdom. "This will help you get there faster!" He yelled as he watched the glowing birds vanish in the distance.

Maverick closed his eyes and muttered a chant and in an instant, he was back at the kingdom of flames before the mighty glacier which was fast approaching the inner city. He drew in a shivering breath and grunted softly, placing his left hand upon the still stinging wound at the back of his neck. A light flex and small uttered chant healed the wound as he now stood before the bigger challenge before him.

The fights at the castle drained the small kit of most of his magic and now he had to do battle with the queen herself and the force of the magical glacier before him. He had only a small amount left, hopefully it would be enough to stop the queen's assault. Maybe she would fear his strength and stop her attack, buying him more time; it was a long shot, but it could work.

Maverick extended his arms groaning, sending out his magical force to push back against the force of the queen of winter. It was working, the ice floe stopped and began to push backwards towards the south. The fox cub could not keep it up forever, the strain to keep a powerful object of such a size was very great and demanding.

Act 10

The End of Winter

Ma'Dora could feel the push back against her flow of magic by the same power that was below her moments ago. She gasped, "How did he get there so fast!? What happened to my son!" Her rage forcing her use the remaining pool of her power to push back against the magical little necromancer at the other end.

Maverick cried out as the ice was about to overwhelm him and destroy the kingdom he promised to protect. He was using his last bit of magic just to keep himself from being overwhelmed and crushed, though sadly it was not enough to stop the power of the queen. He had no choice, he needed to tap into his life force and substitute that for magic in order to stop the ice queen.

A surge of invisible power came pouring out of the kit and began pushing back against the floe of magical ice. Only a small amount of the life force was being used, though with the addition of the cold temperatures emitting from the ice, Maverick was unsure how long he could keep this up before freezing to death.

The sight of the enormous glacier moving back and forwards was absolutely awesome. Faous and Broon could see every push and pull on the of ice from their vantage point high above. The warrior was completely wordless; he now understood why the king's spell casters said the little fox was the only one who could stop the queen. "Unbelievable" he muttered.

Ma' Dora moaned out as loud and low using every ounce of strength and power she had in her small frame. Her body was quivering from exhaustion and her eyesight was becoming out of focus until she fell from her throne to the ice floor before her, gasping for her breath. "No! Impossible!" She was out of power and the floe had stopped.

Maverick quickly pushed the titanic glacier back several leagues from the city before stopping to catch his breath. His eyes darted upwards at the fast approaching fire birds he had only moments ago sent from the ice castle. "They made it, good." The little kit smiled, panting as he watched the birds fly towards the kings palace, though he could still sense that Ma'Dora was still alive. "It's all up to you now, Tor the wicked."

Ma'Dora managed to crawl up her throne and lift herself to her feet when there was a loud burst at the door. She quickly turned to see the barbarian who had attacked her earlier holding a crimson blade and fierce eyes piercing her own. The blue colored female quickly pulled out her sword from the arm of her throne and pointed it at the male before her. "Who are you to raise arms against me?"

Tor began to take steps towards the much smaller woman before him, his left arm grabbing hold of the horn on his hood. "You're guards are pathetic. I managed to rid you of the whole lot of them, mom." He pulled off his hood and mask, tossing them aside revealing his long silver hair and silver eyes to his mother.

Ma'Dora gasped lightly, taking a step back at the sight that was before her. "Skaljak!" Her hand began to quiver as the memory of her first son came back to haunt her.

"Yes mom. You left me in the wilderness to freeze and die because I could not use magic like you. I was not suited for your purposes, so you cast me out to death and replaced me with that thing that you dare named after me; you dirty cunt!"

The small woman quickly regained her composure; drawing a smile to her face and lowering her weapon, she took several steps towards the barbarian heir. "My son, my sweet sweet boy, you are alive! You were taken from me when you were only a babe. I thought I lost you forever, and now you stand before me a mighty warrior." Her voice was calm and sweet, as though she were speaking with her late muse Lujak.

"Liar! You cast me out yourself, your one true son that you gave birth too! You killed my father so no one would know of my existence and replaced me with that pathetic thing you dare to call son? What kind of mother are you, to cast out your one true son."

Ma'Dora's tone quickly changed as she lifted her blade to the man once more. "What would I gain from a powerless son like you Skaljak? I needed a son as powerful as myself to carry on my will once I left this world, what better way to get this son then create one of magic?"

"He was a servant, not a son. I could have given you love. I could have been loyal to you mom, but you cast me out to die, and now I've come back to return the favor!"

Skaljak brought down his ax to the smaller female, only to have it blocked by her small, but strong sword. She quickly deflected the ax and stabbed her son just sly of his stomach and spine under his left lung.

The barbarian kicked his mother hard and away from his body, sending her and the sword falling to the room below where the burnt and cut remains of her former son laid in ruin. He fell to his left knee and held his hand to the open wound spilling blood. "You call this a wound? I've had worse pain mom, but nothing will deny me my pleasure and my destiny."

Ma' Dora groaned in pain, slowly rising to her feet she began to search around the room for her sword. She saw it laying next to the remains of a dark brown and caped goblin. The weakened woman quickly ran over and seized it, catching good sight of what the goblin really was, her dead son. The sight of the remains of Lujak was too much for the queen to take in; her eyes began to water and she screamed out "Noooooo!"

Skaljak quickly jumped off the ledge of the throne room to the ruins down below, right on top of the skull of Lujak, crushing it under his weight. "Even now you mourn his death as though he were your son!" He lifted himself from his knees to his feet, only slipping once catching himself, he started towards his mother.

Anger replaced the pain of loss as she stared at the hulking mass before her. "Lujak was my son!" She cried as she ran at Skaljak and swung her sword at his head. He quickly blocked with his ax, left hand still holding his wound as looked to his mother in disgust.

"I'm your son!" He cried back pushing her blade back before quickly striking at her neck, just to have his attacked blocked by her sword. Though she was small, she was strong enough to block his mighty attacks and her size made her much faster then his bulking mass.

"What kind of son would strike his mother!?" She kicked her earlier wound, sending the barbarian down to his left knee and allowing her to turn and slice his left arms tendon, allowing it to fall limp. Ma' Dora quickly took a few steps back, trying to get as much distance from her son as she was too weak to run and she was injured internally from her fall.

Skaljak quickly stood to his feet and lunged at her, crashing his ax at her small frail form repeatedly. "What kind of mother leaves her child to freeze in the wild frost?!" He battered her weakened arm and defenses until finally the grip on the sword was loose enough to be sent flying across the room.

Ma'Dora stood before her son, looking into his beautiful silver eyes at his mercy. "I've asked myself that question my entire life son." Her tone was soft and frail, as she was defenseless against the muscular frame of anger and revenge that stood before her with ax raised. "Skaljak, my son, will you forgive your mother?"

There was a moment of silence as the barbarian's face remained unmoved, as though he was about to show her mercy. Quickly his face turned back to anger as he looked at the woman before him "I am no longer your son, I am Tor the wicked and you can burn in hell cunt!" In one powerful downward strike, Tor brought his ax crashing down into the skull of his mother, killing her before his form.

The queen of winter was silenced. Her split skull stuck to his blade leaving her corpse to hang from it. Tor looked at the great evil of his world hanging under the might and power of his stone blade. It was so simple, one quick thrust and it was all over.

Tor dropped his weapon, leaving the queen to fall to the ice below them both. A large and powerful quake began to shake the castle apart, sending the walls crashing down all around the mighty barbarian. With the queen dead, there was not a life force to keep the castle up and so it started crumbling down.

The great and new king of ice stood and looked to his castle falling in around him. He closed his eyes and bowed his head and spoke aloud, voice as hoarse and deep as ever "My destiny has been fulfilled." Large pieces of ice came crashing down upon the form of Tor the wicked as the great castle finally collapsed and the ice floe became motionless.

Act 11

Salvation with a Sneeze

With the queen of winter finally dead, and her mighty ice floe stilled, there was only one thing left to do: ride the world of the magical ice forever. A large crowd of onlookers watched from afar as the almost naked kit walked up to the giant sheet in the distance all by himself. King Mandarth, prince Broon, and Faous the mighty watched from the safety of the palace, wondering how the kit would remove the ice.

Maverick Skye stared upwards at the task before him. It was magical and dangerous, so he could not destroy it without harming the planet and it's occupants. There was only two things he could do in order to save the planet with no other options.

The silver fox lifted his hands towards the ice and summoned strength from his life force and began to chant loudly. "Hu vxyi qkxtiwyhm!" The glacier began to glow purple from all sides and slowly began to lift into the air several hundred feet.

The crowd of onlookers began to cry out in fear at the unbelievable sight before them. Such a single, global sized mass of ice now floating in the air created more terror to all those around the planet who could see the sight. If the glacier came down, then the weight of it alone would rip the planet in such great quakes that the planet would be thrown off its' axis.

All muscles in the small child's body were flexed and tense, his eyes closed he began acting a second spell, his teleportation trick. Though the vast size, weight, and magical force of the ice made it extremely difficult. He had to use the majority of his life force to send the ice deep into an unpopulated area of space.

The great icy death vanished before the eyes of all onlookers and cheers of praise began to call out across the globe from those who survived the death grip of the glacier.

Maverick fell to his hands and knees, calling upon the winds of the planet to flow in their natural path to set the world back on its' original rhythm. The amount of magic needed was much as it was an entire planet, enough so that the small kit's life force was very low causing him to pass out.

"Wake up. It is not time for you to die, nor is it time for you to rise, but you must wake up. Wake up and live." The haunting words of the mysterious female fox caused the young furre to stir. The sight of eight red robed men with hands extended around him slowly came to focus. They were king Mandarth's wizards healing the young cub's injured life force.

Slowly Maverick lifted himself back up and looked around, seeing he was at the throne room again with both king Mandarth and prince Broon watching from their thrones above. "Whoa, what's going on?"

"I can see your pee pee again." Broon pointed his finger at the fox, revealing that he was naked again. Mandarth quickly slapped his boy's arm down giving an angry glare to show respect.

"Gah!" Maverick quickly crossed his legs and cupped himself looking up to a now laughing king Mandarth who clapped his hands twice. In an instant, a young servant girl walked over to the kits side, handing him a smaller version of the spell casters robe.

Maverick smiled as he quickly slipped it on and tied the rope around his waist. "Ah it's nice to actually wear some warm cloths again instead of a little loin cloth. Thank you." The polite kit turned and bowed before the king.

"Please, on your feet young Maverick." King Mandarth stood from his throne and began walking to the powerful spell caster. He gestured for the fox to slide off the stone slab to join him. Maverick nodded, hopping off the slate he ran up to the king's side.

Mandarth placed his hand on the child's shoulder and started walking towards the large window behind the kit. The two continued outside onto the balcony where the sight of legions of inhabitants crowded the courtyard and city from all around.

"I wanted you to be up and present to hear the thanks of all the people you have saved." The king lifted his arm upwards causing roars of cheers and chants to rise from the legions in appreciation. They all chanted out in war cries, some in Maverick's name, some in Mandarths, though one small group of people, a village, could be heard crying out "Freeeeeeee peeeeeeeee!" The small chant of this group could easily be heard by the fox child's sensitive ears, causing a blush and smile to burn his face.

The cheers lasted for only a moment before the king raised his arm again to silence the crowd of onlookers. "And now you have my appreciation Maverick Skye, great necromancer from beyond the stars." Mandarth bent down onto his right knee and bowed before the fox. Immediately everyone around began to bow down in respect, from the court all the way out into the legions of bodies, they all bowed.

Maverick could only watch, unsure what to say really since he had never been in a situation where the entire planet would bow before him. He only giggled and placed his right hand behind his head and blushed.

King Mandarth stood to his feet and turned to his kingdom and called out. "Let it be known that this day shall forever be known as the day of Skye. A day of great peace and celebration. A day of feast. And a day of appreciation for all life and our beloved planet. From here on end, I decree that there will never be such powerful spells or spell casters of the land. That we shall all be equal!"

The evening was festive and the feasts were grand in celebration of the small fox and his victory. He sat at the royal table next to the king and Faous, eating fabulous birds known as Brakus from the king's personal stable while others enjoyed the fine luxury of yellow craton meat. He drank royal suvay, a type of whine reserved only for the royalty of the kingdom while others had their share of drink.

Once the feast was over, there were crowds women dancing before the king and his guests, mimicking out the quest and style of Maverick. Their outfits were blue and white, long silver streams attached to their tailbones to mimic the cubs silver tail as they danced out a re-creation of his quest. It was a very flattering and amusing sight to the fox, who cheered on for the heroes and hissed at the villains.

With the show finished, the king snapped his fingers summoning a servant woman who approached the table with a box in hand. King Mandarth stood and took the box, turning to the cub who looked at him with a confused gaze. "Maverick Skye, as a personal gift of my appreciation, I give you this which you already own." The king opened the box revealing the outfit Maverick had lost in the battle with the hunter orcs.

"Hey my cloths!" He grabbed the garb and began to snuggle it smelling it as it was cleaned and scented in royal perfumes. The child turned to the king and bowed, his tail wagging in appreciation. "Thank you your majesty!" He could barely contain his excitement.

The bearded king shook his head and sat back down "No, we are greatly in debited to you. As promised we shall send you back to the world you came from in the morning. Though before you leave, is there anything we can do to help pay you back for your great act in saving our world?"

Maverick shook his head in a fast nod. "Yes, three things actually."

"Name it and it shall be done."

"First, make old Faous face here in charge of your armies, he's pretty handy to have around. Second, you know the male we were traveling with right, Tor the wicked?"

The king thought for a second and nodded his head "Yes, the spell casters and myself watched as you three traveled with remote viewing."

Maverick smiled and lowered his head "I could not have saved the planet if it wasn't for him. He sacrificed himself to kill Ma'Dora and in doing so allowed me to gain control of her ice floe. I want you to build a great monument in his likeness to honor him and his memory, forever."

There was a long silence as everyone in the room bowed their heads offering silence to the memory of the barbarian and his sacrifice. King Mandarth cleared his throat breaking the silence before looking to the fox again "And what would be the third?"

"A good hot bath, I'm cold."

The table began to laugh loudly, Faous gently patting the kit's head. "As you wish." The king stood and looked towards two servants. "You two, go to the royal bath and prepare it for our great friend."

Maverick gave his robe to Faous as he slide into the hot water lightly cringing from the heat. He did not want anyone else to accompany him other then his protector since they started the journey together and had come to know one another. The mighty sat himself next to the pearl tub and set the cub's cloths on the side and shoes at the bottom of the step.

Faous stood and gave a concerned yet puzzled look at the fox who removed his hair tie and began splashing around. His gaze catching the warriors concern as he surfaced "What's up?"

The warrior blinked and sighed softly "There's something bugging me. If you had the ability to transport yourself instantly like you did when we left the castle, how come you didn't do that in the first place?"

The wet and playful kit smile and playfully splashed water at the warrior. "Because I didn't know where Ma' Dora's castle was. In order for me to teleport or teleport something, I have ta know where it is silly. If there is a way for me to just think of some place and poof I'm there, you can be sure I'll find it and use it. Teleporting takes up too much magic."

He sniggered and splashed the warrior again who gave a half smile. "What else is on your mind?"

Faous sighed again looked at the male concerned "Prince Broon is pouting about as he wants to play with you before you leave."

Maverick blinked and shot a stream of water from his hands into the air "Oh? He does?"

"Yes. You are the only other child he's been around and wants to know what it is like to have a brother, so he was hoping to join you in your bath. He was told not to disturb you and now is running around in a fit."

The silver furred child smiled and splashed around some more "Then go get him. Sounds like fun if he wants to splash around in the tub, he's not that bad of a guy and if I'm the only other kid he's been around, then king Mandarth should let him play with others, even your future kids Faous."

The warrior blushed and smiled as he stood, quickly turning to the door so the necromancer would not see his face. "Um, I'll go fetch his highness then." Faous walked out of the bath chamber, closing the door behind.

Maverick's expression quickly turned from cheerful, to concerned as soon as the door closed. He sank into the tub, glad for a small amount of time to himself. Something was wrong, very wrong. Though the water was steaming and hot, Maverick was cold, very cold to the point he wanted to shiver.

Not only that, he was also weak. The wizards said they fixed his life force, though something was wrong as he was very tired and felt as though a sickness was about to strike him, yet he was very healthy.

Something else was troubling the mind of the young fox, the haunting figure in his reoccurring dream said something different. 'Wake up. It is not time for you to die, nor is it time for you to rise, but you must wake up. Wake up and live.' "Wake up and live." The fox muttered to himself. This added line made him more curious to who she was.

Maverick Skye brought his knees to his chest, tips peaking out of the water, tail curling around his ankles as he went into the fetal position. He sneezed suddenly and loudly; something was indeed very wrong.

In the empty depths of space, a large mass of ice was glowing purple and giving off strange signals to a nearby space ship. The ship's systems began to analyze the readings, revealing the purple glow to be a different force from that of the ice itself. Slowly it flew to the surface, landing softly upon the ice.

The hatch of the door opened and the single crew member, the pilot, stepped out onto the ice without any protection against the vacuum of space. He could easily breath in space and desired to examine the ice personally. He slowly placed his last original hand to the surface, feeling to what kind of power brought this mass into this region of space.

His suspicions were confirmed as he slowly retracted his hand and walked into his ship. The male started it up and entered a few calculations into his navigation systems, tracing the source to a planet on in another nearby galaxy. The figure looked at the readings and in a calm, cool voice stated "Finally, a trigger."

What sort of sickness does the cub have? Who is this mysterious figure that has discovered the magical glacier? All shall be revealed in time as there are many ages yet to pass, leading young Maverick to discover other worlds, meet many new friends, and fight many new battles. It is in the next event of the necromancer's life he will first discover the true power of friendship as it is the first time his life will be in the hands of his friends.

This was the second, though small, event in the life of Maverick Skye. This event forced Maverick to use the most amount of magic at one point he ever has in his entire life, something he learned well from so he would not make the mistake again. However, Maverick will have to use more magic then he ever has upon his toughest foe in the final chapter of his life. There are only two more events leading up to that final chapter.

Up next, the third event-The Sacrifice