Icebound

Chapter 34

Here's the next chapter (at last)! I was getting really frustrated with what I'd already written of this chapter, so I decided to completely rewrite it. I hope you enjoy!

Also, I'm hosting a giveaway! I'll be making a book trailer for the winner- check it out on my profile!

The song above is one that I've listened to a lot while writing Icebound. It's given me a lot of great inspiration!

As always, thank you for reading!!! ^_^

XXX

Shesh bounded down the mountainside as Anyu clung tightly about his neck with both her arms. Wherever Shesh's hooves touched, the scorching liquid fire dulled and cooled into soft black earth, moving with them to speed them on their way.

Anyu watched the molten fire move and twist around them with awe and fear. Somehow, not of the blazing drops splashed onto her or Shesh. Shesh continued to leap and run around shaking boulders and rising ridges, frantic and desperate but unharmed.

Around them, the mountain seemed to be tearing itself apart. Waves of fire the size of tidal waves rose from the peak of Yahal and surged to meet the equally massive storm of ice and snow that ascended from the tundra. The noise of it was indescribable, louder than anything Anyu had ever experienced before. The roar of thunder magnified a thousand times.

The mass of ice, like a living and breathing glacier, tumbled with Seqineq's fiery waves, and the two forces rumbled and clashed into each other. Anyu couldn't look away, her eyes trapped by the simultaneous majesty and destruction. It was like watching two gods collide, like seeing the sun itself battling the collective force of the tundra.

Shesh neighed in fright and suddenly swerved sharply to the side as an icy projectile shot straight for them. Anyu's arms began to slip from his fur. She felt her body become weightless for a split second, but at the last moment reached out and clutched Shesh's mane with her right hand, keeping herself astride his back.

Her heart pounded inside of her chest and she wrapped her arms securely around Shesh's neck once more, thinking with horror about what would have happened if she'd fallen into the liquid fire around them. With only one hand left to her, it was harder to hold on tightly.

She spared a glance back to the ice storm. More projectiles began to detach from the main storm and shoot towards them, but tendrils of molten earth rose up to block each of the attacks. But sooner or later, Anyu feared, the attacks would reach them. Shesh's pace gre even faster.

They were almost at the base of Yahal now, the path of black rock and earth still guiding their way. A few more bounds, and Shesh's hooves hit snow, leaving the epic battle of flame and ice to play out on the mountain behind them.

"You're doing great, Shesh," Anyu tried to encourage him. 

Now that they were on flat, snowy terrain, Shesh's home element, he began to reach his fastest speed, his legs pumping harder and harder with every second. Anyu could feel his heart hammering and his lungs reaching for as much air as they could get. "Just a little more."

There, in the distance, only small dots on the flat, white horizon, Anyu saw them. She couldn't see more than their mere outline, but her stomach flared at the sight of them- both in hope and in fear.

The icy wind stung her eyes and blew loose strands of hair from her braid. She loosened her grip on Shesh and straightened, forcing herself to take a deep breath. It was clear Siku intended to take Tavra and Kano as prisoners to somehow use later- she wouldn't have killed them. At least that's what Anyu fervently told herself as Shesh's hooves pounded against the ice, kicking up snow as he flew across the plain.