The cool air whistled skillfully through the suspended branches, picking up dry leaves which soared for long distances.
Just yesterday those leaves so healthy and as green if not greener than poison ivy.
The little town, covered in thin sheets of ice and massive piles of snow, lit up nevertheless as people strode gleefully down the beautifully decorated streets.
Creatures of different shapes and sizes blended effortlessly with the people as they shifted shapes when they emerged from the nearby forests.
Some stealing faces of those I humans used to know.
Only the observant noticed the massive increase of the population during winter and as quickly as they came, the immediate disappearance of more than half of the original population during summer.
A little known fact was that this particular winter occurred once in every century.
An unfortunate tale for this century, as the heroes who triumph over the monsters disappeared without trace.
Maybe they got tired of the charade,
Maybe they perished
Or the unthinkable,
Maybe they joined the dark mages.
The bad news continues that, this particular winter lasts for a whole year. The reason being the ice and snow being cursed.
New heroes were born two centuries ago, four elementalists with untamed powers which surpass their predecessors, I should know, I studied greatly on them.
Being born a century and three quarter ago, I dedicated my time and effort into mastering my element, ice, one of the more advanced elements derived from the original element, water.
Which along with the other original elements, are the strongest.
"The season of uncontrollably chaos has started..." I narrowed my eyes at the merry making audience.
"Time to go." Tyler placed a hand on my shoulder and snapped his fingers after about five minutes of utter silence before everything went black.
I never got used to the feeling of transportation, or at least, transporting with Tyler.
Next thing I knew, we were plummeting overhead a dense forest in my realm, the elementalist's realm.
"Tyler!" I shrieked holding on to him, only to remember that transportation of such lengths drain him.
"Ice doesn't make for a good landing but..." I muttered to myself before creating something straight out of a cartoon, an ice slide.
It worked alright, but I may have bruised my entire body when I caught Tyler after I landed a good seven seconds before he did.
I quickly broke the ice into tiny fragments, which glittered in the sky.
During the dark winter, it is a punishable offence to use elements of winter due to... obvious reasons.
Taking a long look around the thick forest, a familiar feature caught my eye, it was a path I cleared and one which I skillfully hid to keep others away from invading my property.
I chuckled to myself, of course he'd remember here.
This is where I really begun to like Ty, he may not have been an elementalist, but his parents and mine were best friends so they often visited.
When I got well acquainted with him and stopped hiding like the professional I know I am, I decided to do something I had never done before, share something important to me.
He was the very first person I showed my hideout to and I am grateful he still remembers it.
ns 18.68.41.179da2
