DISCLAIMER: I do not own Malice or any of its characters. They all belong to Chris Wooding. (I'm not even sure if they'll show up in this story, but who knows)
So here we are, my first Malice fanfic.
Please R&R!
CHAPTER ONE-
I don't like this world. There are too many cars and other pollutants, and all the snow scattered around the paved paths called sidewalks is dusted with a thin layer of dirt, so instead of the pure white from back home, it's a muddy brown. Not that it would be like it is back home even if it wasn't dirty. It's wet and slushy and far too easy to slip on.
At least, that's what it's like now, in winter. I glanced at Jordan, walking beside me, and back at Cat and Sam, behind us. I hope they don't notice when my eyes start to turn. Jordan had almost caught me once, and things haven't been right between any of us since then. Cat and Sam sense tension between Jordan and I, and they don't speak to us about ... well, us, as much as they used to.
Sorry, I'm probably confusing you. Let me start from the beginning. My name's Wynter, and I'm from Malice. A mostly unknown part of it, as the train tracks don't reach it, and not many people go there, but there are a few of us who were born there. Like me. I'm not sure what I am, exactly. A nymph, I suppose. A snow nymph. I hate summer, and I love winter. Heat makes me unhappy. Or essentially any temperature above zero degrees does. Some call me picky. Some think I'm just crazy. But if you knew ... you'd understand. So why don't I stop babbling and tell you.
I wake up in the morning and instantly I can tell that something is wrong. Charris, beside me, was not the one to wake me, as he usually is. Also, my skin itches. I glance at my arms and go even paler than I already am.
The thin layer of frost on my arms is melting. The Cube is heating up.
The Cube is what we who live here call this unknown section of Malice. We call it this because of those things people on Earth use to cool drinks. Ice cubes. Creative name, considering that it's just a cube of ice. A couple of Earth kids have found their way here, but nothing exciting ever goes on in the cube, unless you consider sitting in the cold and freezing your butt off exciting. Well, that's what the Earth kids do. We ... people ... from the Cube love the cold. We're so pale we seem white (and probably are), we no longer know our hair colour, it now seems white from frost (but it's actually not), and our eyes are all either white (ish) or icy blue. I know two others aside from myself. Snowflayk, and Ays (you pronounce it the same as ice; as you can probably tell, we're not very creative with names). Snowflayk is a year younger than me. She cuts her hair short to her jaw, and it's darker than most of ours, so we suspect it must be black, naturally. Hey eyes are so pale they seem white, but the edges of her irises are very dark. It's pretty, in a creepy way. Ays is one year older than me. He's got two years on Snow. He used to be very tan before he came here and decided he liked the cold. His eyes are cold, cold blue, like mine, but upon close inspection his are paler. He's tall, unlike Snow and I, and prefers to keep as much skin as possible covered. Snow and I wear thick muscle shirts and khaki capris. Our feet are clad in short, flexible boots, and we always wear a toque. The only cold-sensitive part of a snow nymph is their head. While all of my clothes are white, she prefers to wear a dark shade of grey. She finds it brings out the band around the edge of her irises, which she likes.
We share a cabin, the three of us. It's small, but it has four rooms, which is enough for us. We use three of the rooms to sleep in, and the fourth room is where we have our meals and sit together, as it's bigger than the other three. I'm in my bedroom right now, with a white squirrel, Charris, sitting on my shoulder as I watch the frost melt off my arms.
"Snow," I call, without taking my eyes off my arm. She hurries to the doorway and I look up. I hold my arms out to her. She looks at it and her eyes go wide, until you can see all around her irises.
"You too?" she asks, horrified. She holds out her arm. Water is dripping from her fingertips. She tends not to hold in the cold as well as I do.
"Ays!" we both yell at the same time. He hurries to the door.
"What is it?" he asks.
"The frost on our arms ..." I say.
"It's melting!" Snow finishes.
"To be honest, I have no idea what that feels like," Ays says. "But you girls have had frost on your arms from the moment I met you. If it's melting ..." He doesn't seem to want to think of what's happening.
A silver fox slips around him, rubbing against his legs like a cat. Lavender. He picks her up and lays her on his shoulders, her hind legs and tail hanging over one shoulder, her front legs and head on the other. She lifts her head and licks his cheek. He pets her absently. Charris chatters in my ear as if to say, Why don't you do that for me?
"Because you're a squirrel," I mutter to him, and he settles on his hind legs, offended. If I didn't know better I would swear he is crossing his tiny squirrel arms.
"What?" Ays says to me. I wave a hand dismissively and shake my head.
"Talking to Charris."
"Oh."
"So," Snowflayk says. "Are we gonna find out what's happening or what?"
"Right." I swing one leg out my window, then the other. Then I drop to the ground outside. Fluffy snow surrounds my feet and I smile. "Toss me my boots?" I call up to the window. One boot falls in the snow next to me, and I have to duck to avoid the other one hitting me in the head. I pick up one boot and pull it on, lacing it up. Then I go fetch the other boot and lace it up too. When I turn back to the window Ays and Snow are waiting. Then I hear a crack behind me. I look around at the dead grey and white trees around us. Who made that noise? Then something catches my eyes. I wander over to one of the white trees.
"Does this tree look ... kinda orange to you?" I ask, running my hand down the trunk.
Then it flickers. The orange on the trunk flickers! How ...? Then I get a horrible idea and turn to look behind me. Orange flickers on some of the trees, growing stronger as it gets closer to ... the source of the snapping noise. All of my muscles go slack as I realize what it is. My legs feel like jelly, and then collapse from under me. I lean against the trunk of the tree. Ays and Snow are by my side in seconds.
"What happened?" Ays asks frantically. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," I say, in a quiet, quavering voice that suggests exactly the opposite.
"What is it, Wynter?" Snow asks, kneeling beside me. I don't want to say the word, but I point. She pales further. "No ..." she murmurs. Ays follows my finger.
"But ... who?" he asks, unable to understand why someone would do that. Naturally good-hearted people like him never understand those kinds of things. "How?"
I shake my head. I don't know, so I say nothing. Suddenly Snow is no longer by our side. She is running right towards the snapping sounds. "Snow!" Ays and I call at the same time, then glance at each other. He stands and offers me his hands. I take them and he helps me to my feet. Then we take off after Snow.
She is standing in a clearing when we reach her. Staring at the scene in front of her, tears in her eyes. I stop beside her and my vision blurs. I sense Ays standing beside me, but I hardly care. I only care about what I see, and the people I see doing it.
Chopping down our trees. And burning them.
So let me know what you think please!
Review please!
-The Demons