“It seems that you are the bravest of your companions, and the stupidest!” he shouted in a metallic and heavy voice as he threw one more fireball that exploded on the rock in front of Andria breaking some pieces of it.
“What are you going to do now that you are trapped like a rat?” he said and threw another fireball, breaking the rock even more.
“You invaded my lands, intruder. You are not going anywhere now. I’m going to roast you!”
He set the whole area on fire, even the rock that Andria was hiding behind. As the wave of fire was coming towards her she realised that there wasn’t many options left, so she came out of her cover, screaming and, running across the fiery ground, and attacked the man. Her unpredictable attack caught him by surprise, he didn’t aim accurately and the fireball missed the target. She pushed him back with all her strength and they both fell down the hill, burst through flames, spinning together into the ashes. When they came to a stop outside of the flaming area, Andria found her helmet unlocked and she felt choked by the lack of breath as the smoke was coming in. The fire wizard prepared a fireball to finish her of, but when he saw her struggling, helpless, for breath, he changed his mind and instead cast a spell that created an aura around her body so that she was protected from the heat and provided with oxygen giving her the possibility to breathe again! He then stood triumphantly in front of her who was still sitting on the ground holding her throat trying to take deep breaths.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my lands? Speak now or become ash,” he spoke seriously.
She took off her helmet and managed to stabilize her breath. Her long, dark hair flew around her shoulders and her face and when she stood up, she looked at him with pride in her fearless green eyes.
“I’m Princess Andria, daughter of King George of the Seventh Kingdom of men and I came here on behalf of them to find a solution in our heat problem.”
“So ‘kingdom of men’—you managed to survive … like cockroaches. I thought I had extinguished your corrupted race thousands of years ago,” he said.
“Did you make the sun so hot to destroy us? Why, what have we done to you?” Andria asked, trying to keep her calm.
“Your ‘heat problem’, my dear, is actually me!” He laughed devilishly. “I had my reasons for your punishment and you can’t do anything to change that. Get out of my way now before I burn you too”!
Suddenly the spaceship appeared, flying closer to Andria, but the wizard launched a fireball at it, damaging it so badly that it had to land violently outside of the yard.
“This will be your fate, princess, to watch your friends burn like spring leaves in a bin!”
“Why are you so mean? Why are you enemy of humanity? Don’t you have a heart at all?” Andria asked and the wizard suddenly stopped his attack, the fireballs disappeared and he touched his chest, almost melancholically.
Andria grabbed the opportunity to push further, to learn more about him.
“You weren’t always like this, were you? What changed you … or who?” That last question created a flashback in his mind, the picture of a young, dark-haired woman’s pale skin and a dark cloud behind her head.
“Shut your mouth!” He shouted suddenly and threw a fireball at her, but it exploded just in front of her face the last moment, without harming her at all. When she opened her eyes, wondering if she was still alive, the wizard had gone. Perhaps she had passed some strange test of his. She cleared her mind and ran to the spaceship to see if her friends were still alive, the protective aura around her followed her. She found the ship damaged, but still in one piece and she opened the jammed door with difficulty. They had passed out in their seats, but they were still alive and without serious injuries. She applied first aid and when they woke up she recited what happened. Arthas checked the overall condition of the ship and found out that it was fixable, but it would take some time. Andria instructed him to do so and then left the ship, determinedly walking back to the palace.
“Where are you going?” Erica asked her, following.
“I want to say something to this wizard,” she replied irritably and continued her fast walking.
“Are you mad, after all this?” Erica shouted desperately, but Andria was already far ahead.
“I’m going with her!” Jake said suddenly and ran along Andria’s path to catch her up.
As they entered the palace Jake noticed that she still had the protective aura around her like a transparent cloud.
“It’s strange that this wizard tried to kill us, but then protected you with this spell,” he said, but Andria didn’t bother to answer.
They passed through open metallic doors and entered a high ceiled chamber of black granite and columns made of red firestones. In the middle there was an empty stone throne and behind, on the right, there were spiral staircase leading to the upper floor. They went up and found a short corridor that led to an open door. They went through the door and they found a great room, almost like the ground chamber, with a large bed in the middle, a desk in a corner full of papers and strange devices, a laboratory in another corner with a bench and bigger machines, unknown ingredients and artifacts on shelves and a large porch were the wizard was standing staring at the red horizon. They approached him carefully while examining their surroundings. Jake noticed that the temperature in the room was just thirty degrees and it all seemed to be protected by the same aura that Andria had around her.
“Hey, wizard, hello! What are you doing there?” Andria asked with a provocative tone.
“Sssh, you’ll make him angry,” Jake whispered nervously.
“Mr Angryman, let’s speak! We have problems to discuss!” Andria continued in the same tone.
The wizard turned and looked at her, a bit calmer than before. The fire on his head had gone and though his eyes were still angry, they also seem sadder. Jake was walking around examining the weird devices on the wizard’s desk, touching some of them without taking his eyes of the wizard.
“My name is Farnath and I made this sun overheat two thousand years ago when they cursed me with a frozen heart.”
“Wow, that was quick,” Andria said. “So it’s all about your heart … Did you try to break the ice around your heart?”
“I tried desperately to warm and melt the ice by using science and magic, but the curse was powerful and there was no fire hot enough to melt it, no blade sharp enough to cut it or hammer to break it,” he said sadly.
“So you were a man once?”
“Yes, I was a man once, living among common men, suffering with an unending, unexplainable cold coming from inside me. Medicine could not heal it and darkness covered my eyes slowly, making me hate all those people who could not understand my pain. Everybody was happy except me! I’m incapable of feeling happiness.”
“I’ve felt something similar … well, not exactly but still. I have also felt empty of feelings and I hate that I’m the only unsatisfied person on the planet. That’s why I came here, to change it,” she said in a friendly tone, hoping that this tactic would stop his violent behaviour.
He was thinking, staring at Andria trying to see if she was telling the truth. Jake, meanwhile, had found a small device that had a drawing in the shape of the phoenix bird, the red bird that is reborn from its ashes according to mythology. This bird was probably the symbol of Farnath himself as it appeared on his robes and on other small drawings on his desk.
“It’s unusual that someone like you shows such understanding. It seems that when I changed my reality to make myself happy, it made yours uninhabitable to you so therefore that made you unhappy! We have a conflict of interests here, it seems, but to be honest I can’t find a reason why I should bother to make you happy by accepting your request to lower the temperature,” Farnath said.
“You changed your reality to make yourself happy, but still you have a frozen heart and you don’t seem to be that happy at all, so instead of making both of us unhappy why don’t you make one of us at least happy?” Andri
a responded.
“You have an interesting way of thinking, but still I’m losing in this exchange, you would win and still I haven’t found any reason to make anyone happy when my own unhappiness would remain and I would probably be jealous if everyone except me is happy. So why would I do that to myself?”
“This is very selfish of you,” Andria said crossly. “What do you want to change your mind?”
“Tell me, why do you want to change the climate? Because I smell a selfish reason behind it, like to become the hero, who saved everyone; only to prove that you are capable of doing things and get the glory.”
“I do it for me and my people so that they can enjoy the nature,” she said and Farnath smiled slowly at her answer.
“If you have such an innocent heart and you care about the simple people then this is my price—you will have to stay here with me and in exchange I’ll satisfy your request.” Farnath smiled sinisterly when he saw her surprised reaction.
“I can’t accept that offer? I’ll be miserable forever here! And what about my friends?” Andria started to feel panic at the prospect that she may never see her father again.
“They have to stay too. Nobody will leave from here again!” he said making Andria to outburst suddenly.
“You are a monster and you deserve to be cursed! You shall never find a way to break your frozen heart!” As she lost her calm completely she threw her bottle of magic perfume at him and hit him in the face, outraging him so that he sent a blast at her that threw her against the wall.
“Your people shall live forever in their caves and they will never see the sun as long as I live!” he shouted.
Jake found the opportunity to hastily take the small device with the phoenix on it, hid it in his pocket and then tried to wake the unconscious Andria. She woke up, but she was still weak and they slowly left the palace and started walking back to the spaceship while the wizard was watching them, swearing after them. Erica was already running towards them to help them walk.
“Oh, my god Andria, why did I let you go?” Erica said anxiously.
“You were supposed to protect her!” Arthas said angrily to Jake when he saw them.
“Easy big guy, I’ve done my best! You couldn’t have done more in my position!” Jake replied.
“Oh, really? Why’s that?”
“Do you really want to know, or … maybe you already do,” Jake replied, looking pointedly at Arthas’ large body.
Arthas grabbed him and they started wrestling with each other, holding each other’s clothes. They both fell down, Erica shouted at them to stop, but they ignored her and continued spinning around. A far shrill screeching made them stop and they both looked at the sky as a huge titian dragon flew towards them, spewing fire from its mouth. The serpent looked intent on destroying them all with its fiery breath if something else had not come to stop it. An extraordinary creature, a real phoenix, appeared out of nowhere, a mythological bird equal to the size of the dragon, and grabbed the dragon with its claws while screeching and then burst into flames! The two beasts fought in the sky, trying to bite each other’s neck and then they fell past the cliff next to the palace towards the lava lake that surrounded the rocky hill that the palace was built on. At last moment before they reached the lava, the phoenix managed to seize the dragon by its neck killing it, and then it flew up again and landed just in front of Andria, throwing the dead dragon in front of her feet. Everybody was watching in awe as the bird’s flames disappeared and Andria walked towards it with Erica’s help. The bird seemed to be friendly towards her and even let her touched its beak. Then something scared it and it flew away. It was Farnath, who appeared angry from the palace’s main entrance.
“Stupid bird. making friends with those it should guard against,” he said.
“What was that, a dragon and this bird? I thought you were alone here,” Andria asked.
“These dragons were just fire-lizards when I first arrived here, but when I intervened within their natural environment using magic, they were hugely affected. Every new generation of them was born bigger than the previous. Since then they’ve attacked me once in a while, but we’ve both been using fire, so no one can actually win. Felix, my bird, came with me from Earth. He was so small back then that he could fit in your fist, but he changed thanks to my magic experiments.”
“So there are more dragons out there? Great, it’s time to move along then,” Jake said nervously as he stood up from the ground.
“Nobody leaves from here,” Farnath interrupted him firmly.
“What? You can’t keep us here!” Arthas said as he stood up too. “Do you have at least any video games to play or something to eat as we wait?”
Farnath looked meaningfully first at the dead dragon and then at Arthas to answer his second question smiling devilish.
“Come on, you don’t mean this, you can’t keep us here!” Arthas said again, but Farnath turned his back, walked into his palace again and closed the doors behind him.
Later, they managed to cut the dragon and eat it, as it was already roasted from the fire. They agreed that it tasted like spicy chicken.
“Hey Andria, do you think we’ll gain any super powers after we eat this? It has been affected by magic as the wizard said,” Arthas asked, with his mouth full of the dragon’s meat.
“The only power you are going to get will be that of ‘the big belly’,” Jake answered.
“Maybe it will give you the power to run faster then, coward,” Arthas replied.
“Guys, stop it,” Erica intervened.
Andria lost in her own thoughts, was worried about her father more than about herself. He would be devastated to lose her after he lost his wife, his only love. The entire kingdom would be looking for her. Could he trust her again if she ever managed to go back to Earth?
“I see you lost in the fog of your mind, my lady,” Erica said when she noticed her.
Andria didn’t respond.
“He will forgive you. He loves you, he will accept you back. Don’t have any doubts about it,” Erica continued and Andria was surprised that she had guessed her worries.
Arthas inspected the spaceship’s damages and informed her that it was ready for flight as soon as they could find something for fuel. Andria suggested they try firestones, which seemed to be a crazy, yet possible solution according to Arthas who admired her once more. Erica and Jake started gathering firestones from a ruined part of the wall, using the dragon’s skin to carry them as they were very hot even through their gloves. Two Earth days they stayed there, outside of the palace, eating the dragon, fixing the spaceship and preparing themselves for the next move. They slept inside the spaceship as it was too bright outside and extremely hot.
Farnath appeared suddenly the third day.
“May I join you?” he asked.
Luckily he didn’t notice the missing firestones, just Andria who was sitting near the dead dragon. She offered him a seat on a large bone of the dragon’s spine while everyone was watching with curiosity.
“I have been eating the same food for the last two thousand years,” he said.
“Why don’t you go back to Earth then? New tastes, new life, maybe you could find yourself a job as a magician or a cook,” Arthas said.
“Cook? Maybe I should start with you to feed my bird then,” Farnath answered offended.
“I didn’t mean to insult you, it was just a joke! My god, you are so temperamental!”
“You are making him worse,” Erica whispered to Arthas.
“Have you always been red-skinned?” Andria asked innocently and stretched her arm to touch him.
Farnath flinched and pulled his hand away, but then, after they looked each other, he couldn’t find a reason not to let her. Her eyes captivated him and she touched his hand slowly. His skin was hot, but smooth and could burn her skin if she didn’t have the protective aura around her. He suddenly got angry and withdrew his hand.
“Don’t touch me again,” he said and Andria was
shocked and disappointed.
“You avoid the human touch. How do you except to free your heart when you keep feelings away?”
“Enough speaking,” he said angrily.
“The ice will remains in your heart and you will live in your sun alone forever, counting down how many dragons you kill every day,” she responded spitefully.
“Enough!”
“Don’t you get it? It’s not the heat of the fire that will melt this ice!”
“Stop or else…”
“Or else what? Are you going to kill me? You heart will get even colder then. It’s the heat of love you need! Didn’t you get enough from your mother?” Andria was literally playing with fire with those words.
Farnath stood up, made a fireball in his hand and shot at her, but Andria was expecting it so she jumped behind the dragon’s skull, avoiding it. She shouted “Now!” to Arthas, who sneaked behind the wizard and leaned behind his legs. Erica and Jake appeared from each side and pushed him backwards, making him fall and everybody fell on him, tying him up with wire and dragon fibre, and then they all ran into the spaceship.
“Where do you think you are going? I’ll burn you all, I promise you that! Felix!” Farnath called for his bird while he was trying to burn his bindings. Arthas put the firestones into the nuclear reactor and turned on the engine. Everyone was tense. The wizard was furious and he certainly wouldn’t forgive them after he released himself. They were praying that the firestones wouldn’t jam the systems of the spaceship and luckily it turned on and they took off just as Farnath managed to burn his ties. Arthas flew away, skilfully avoiding a fireball that Farnath had thrown at them. Felix, hearing on his master’s call, landed just next to him and Farnath climbed onto his back. He rode the bird, chasing the spaceship and rapidly throwing multiple fireballs the size of a football. The spaceship weaved back and forth to avoid them, but still some hit, thankfully without damaging the ship. As the spaceship hadn’t yet gained full speed, Felix approached it and Farnath launched larger fireballs, big flaming meteorites, that would do heavy damage if they hit. Arthas was doing his best to avoid them, while Erica was praying silently. Felix managed to fly beyond the spaceship and tried to grab it with his claws, but the surface was too smooth and slippery that he fell back in the rear of the ship, and felt the blast of the turbines in his face making him lose control and fall. Farnath created a last huge fireball with both his hands, as they fell, and launched it. The fireball grew bigger as it approached the spaceship and Arthas struggled to get out of its way. It reached one hundred metres diameter and was almost touching the back of the ship, which was flying on a diagonal course to the fireball. Everyone screamed when the spaceship was hit by the edge of the fireball on the back side, on the turbines. The bump forced the spaceship to spin around itself and start falling. Arthas managed to level it, but couldn’t stop them falling.
Farnath: The Frozen Heart Page 6
