The Children of Destiny

Chapter 7 - I Freeze a Crocodile

The next day, I woke up Roxie so we could get going and gathered my stuff. We left the cave and I immediately realized how thirsty I was. I looked down at Roxie, who seemed pretty thirsty herself.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the nearest body of water is, would you?" I asked her.

Roxie's ears suddenly perked up and she began sniffing the ground.

"What's that gonna do, girl?"

Roxie just ignored me and kept sniffing with her narrow, brown snout pressed up against the ground and her tail held high. I decided to trust the process and waited until Roxie started walking. After a while of following Roxie, she stopped a few steps away from a pond that glittered in the light of the rising sun. I sighed with relief and scrambled over to the pond, scooping up some water in my hands and drinking it like I hadn't drank anything in days. Roxie settled beside me and lapped up the water until she was satisfied.

After both of us had quenched our thirst, we rested for a bit before hearing a loud hiss from the pond. Roxie sniffed cautiously at the surface before jumping back as something leaped out of the water and snapped its jaws shut where she was a moment before.

"What is that thing?" I yelped, pulling Roxie closer to me.

Suddenly, something slithered out of the pond and onto the sand. Now that I could get a good look at it, I realized the thing that slithered out of the water was a crocodile and quickly got to my feet. Now, I have no idea what you think of when you hear the word "crocodile", but here's what I saw: The thing was huge, and I mean huge as in twelve tons of dark green scales a yard or two long. It had beady eyes as black as obsidian and a tail long enough to wrap at least three times around a palm tree and strong enough to split a boulder in half like a stick. Its claws were ten times sharper than my hunting knife and surprisingly clean for a carnivorous creature.

The croc flashed its pure white teeth at me menacingly and I almost passed out. Roxie immediately bolted the moment she saw the crocodile, and I wasn't at all upset. This thing could bring down a full grown elephant if it wanted to. I, on the other hand, was paralyzed with fear by the sheer size of this thing. Oh, did I forget to mention that this thing also had the ability to freeze any creature in place for at least five minutes, or until it catches its prey, with just a second of eye contact? Well, it can. And that's exactly what it did to me. I made the mistake of looking directly into the crocodile's eyes and became frozen in place. I could still look around if I wanted to, but I was so terrified that I couldn't take my eyes off this thing as it came closer and closer to me.

Finally, the crocodile coiled its tail around me and tightened the thinnest part around my neck. I was able to move again, but only slightly as the crocodile had firmly wrapped its tail around me and restricted my movement. I coughed and gasped for air desperately, but that only made everything worse as I was loosing more and more air in the struggle. Soon, I'd die of suffocation and the crocodile would eat me. I felt the crocodile's tail tighten around me and winced. I was loosing sight as the crocodile dragged me under the surface of the pond, obviously hoping to quicken my death by drowning me, and just closed my eyes, accepting my fate.

Suddenly, I no longer felt the crocodile's tail around me at all. I opened my eyes to see I was still underwater, meaning I wasn't dead, but the crocodile was nowhere to be seen. I swam upwards and resurfaced to catch my breath, then ducked back under the water to look for the crocodile. It was at that moment that I realized how unusually cold the water was. I looked around and saw small, round pieces of ice floating around me like air bubbles.

Did I do this? I wondered, remembering my mother saying that I could control ice.

I continued to look around and my gaze rested on a huge block of ice right next to me. Inside of the ice with a horrified expression was the crocodile. I watched as the ice melted to form the shape of a larger crocodile around the croc inside it, thickly coating the creature in ice and making it look like a huge popsicle. I swam out of the pond and watched as the small spheres of ice floated up to the surface and melted into the pond. I guessed that the crocsicle sunk to the bottom of the pond, which was a lot further down than I expected.

I called Roxie a few times and she cautiously returned to my side. I comforted her and she sniffed me a lot to make sure I was alive. When I was sure Roxie was okay, we set off again. I had to admit I was pretty impressed with myself for freezing an entire crocodile all by myself.

Maybe I really am the right kid for the prophecy...

The rest of that day was peaceful and I decided to shelter in an old dodger; half dog, half badger; set (Of course, I had Roxie check it out to make sure it was safe to take shelter in for the night before actually setting up camp there). Then, we ate and horse played a bit before finally falling asleep.