Days of Ice

By MedliSage

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Chapter 1: Encounter

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I tumbled onto the cold, hard ground, after being thrown away by the brutal talons that had been gripping onto me for the past terrifying twenty minutes or so. Absolutely terrifying twenty minutes. I gasped wildly, sitting up as quickly as I could and looking at my surroundings. I was in a large, bare room, and icicles hung from the ceiling. The walls and floor were made of stone. The two large windows were frosted over – one was open, and I assumed that was how I was tossed in, as the one door was wooden and had a large lock.

I began to stand, but immediately fell back to my knees – my legs were cut up from the giant bird's talons, and my blood began to drip onto the floor. I fell back, catching myself on my palms, and scuttled away from the puddle that had begun to form. Tightly pulling my knees to my chest, I shuddered not only from the coldness of the room but of from pure fear as tears began to stream down my cheeks. I was five, and I had just been kidnapped by a huge bird and tossed into this scary, lonely place.

The door made a loud noise as it opened, both from creaking and the metal lock churning. I looked up, only to see a tall, cloaked figure with a white mask approaching me at rapid speed. Its footsteps rung off the walls with a strong resonance, and I backed away as best I could, still using my palms.

"Calm down. I'm not going to harm you so long as you do as I say." From his cloak, he produced a mask identical to his own, and threw it at my feet. "Put it on. Don't take it off at any time."

I gulped, quickly taking it and putting it over my face.

"While you are here you shall be called number five. You shall call me the Mask of Ice. From this day forth, you're my servant. I should have one more arriving soon – then we will have a proper orientation. Come with me."

He swiftly moved to the door, but I stayed where I was, completely petrified with fear.

"Are you deaf? I said come!"

I carefully stood, trying not to further injure my legs. I took two steps forward before I fell.

Before I could react, he was next to me, grabbing me by my wrist. "Come on!"

I hiccuped, almost sobbing, as the tears continued to form in my eyes.

"Stop crying!" He threw me forward, and I tumbled to the ground again, barely preventing myself from a head injury. "Get up and get down those stairs now, or you're staying in here for the next two days, five."

I sobbed, but did as I was told. I went threw the door and made my way down the stone, spiral staircase. It was then that I heard it; the sound of another child being tossed in through the window.

The cloaked figure behind me stopped, mumbling to himself. "Hmph. Sooner than expected. Five, wait here." Without hesitation, he walked back up the stairs and into the large room.

I listened as he gave the same lecture I had just received to another one cursed with my fate. I wrapped my arms around myself – it was so cold here, but more than that, I was so scared.

"Five! Come!" The dark voice bellowed. Sobbing once, I made my way back up the stairs.

He stood above a tiny figure, a child even younger than me. His face, too, was covered by a mask.

"Help this boy walk. It seems one of his legs was injured."

I walked over to him, gently taking him by his bare hand. His skin tone was pale, in contrast to his black, red-trimmed clothes. His hair was also red – long for a boy, touching his shoulders. Gingerly, I helped him stand. The Mask of Ice began heading down the stairs.

"It's okay," I murmured as I noted him leaning on his good leg, having trouble with simply standing. "Just lean on me." The boy pushed himself against me, and I noticed something drip onto the floor – blood, seeping from his pants.

I gasped a little. "Hold on." Kneeling in front of him, I pulled up his pant leg. His calf was completely cut up, worse than mine. I bit my lip; what would mom do in this sort of situation?

Looking down, I had an idea. My dress was too long for me anyway. I stood, and then proceeded to tear off the very bottom. Taking the black strip, I wrapped it around his cut. "It's pretty deep," I said to him as calmly as I could, "but this will help it a little."

He looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw his eyes. Even through the darkness of his mask, they were easily seen. A sparkling, pure silver.

"Five! Six!" A voice boomed from downstairs. "Come here quickly!"

I swiftly took the boy by his hand again, leading him towards the stairs as he leaned against me. No words passed between us for a while after that; we headed down the stairs to a large set of double wooden doors into a dining-hall like area. Like the previous rooms, it was cold and made of stone, with icicles hanging from the ceiling. The large, rectangular table was wooden, as were the chairs. We took the two remaining. I sat next to Six and another boy – Four – and on the other side of the table sat two girls and a boy; one, two and three. They were all older than Six and me. At the head of the table sat the Mask of Ice.

He explained it in simple terms. We were now his servants from this day on, and we were each to be trained in a special skill. Quickly, he assigned us – I was apparently going to be trained in the area of Pokémon evolution, and Six was going to become skilled in the art of exchanging Pokémon. We were never to question the Mask of Ice, always do as we were told, or severe punishment would follow. We could never take off our masks, and we were to refer to ourselves as our numbers. Our Pokémon could have no nicknames, and if we ever even thought about escaping, it would be "the worst decision of our lives."

And so Six and I were confined into a small room that night with our beds – if you could call them that. A thin mat with a thin blanket. There were three bedrooms for us, two of us in each.

It was pitch black the first night. There was one window, so usually some moonlight would flood in, but our first night there was black and moonless. However, even the sort of darkness where I was unable to see my hand in front of my face, I could see his eyes, that brightly shone even when no light reflected off of them.

We hadn't spoken to each other since our first encounter. I drew a deep breath before I said anything. "My name is Blue. What's your name?"

I saw him blink – I didn't know how much he could talk. After all, he was only two, according to the Masked Man – all of us were three years apart, and Six was the youngest, and I was the second youngest.

"I don't want to call you Six. That makes it feels like... we're robots, you know?"

He blinked again.

"I... I'm going to call you Silver for now, okay? Because of your eyes."

Silence fell over us for a few moments.

"Home," he said quietly, and suddenly, which surprised me. "I want... to go home."

"We're going to get out of here as soon as we can. I promise. We'll get out of here together." I paused. "Let's get some rest. I'm really tired."

He blinked again, and I saw him nod, and then his eyes shut.

As I huddled my knees to my chest, I realized that I really was exhausted. My eyelids felt as if they had weights put on them. I shut them, but despite that water still formed in and began streaming down my cheeks. Life could not possibly be any worse.

And then I opened my eyes, looking at the silhouette of the sleeping boy.

I didn't know him at all, I didn't even know his name, but he had been cursed with the same fate as me. We hadn't even exchanged a proper conversation, but I felt connected to him. I can't explain it all, but I felt as if I was lucky that he was here with me.

Life was terrible right now, but it could have been worse. That was my last thought before I fell asleep on the first night.

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Chapter 1 end.

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A/N: So um. This was written on a total whim, and I started at about two in the morning and finished at almost four. It was originally just going to be a oneshot, but I've decided to make it a multi-chapter story. Although this story was written from Blue's perspective, I was thinking of switching it into Silver's to give a different view, and then back to Blue, etc., though I haven't finalized that yet. This chapter I guess is kind of a prologue of sorts, and the rest of the story is going to be about various times Blue and Silver spent under the Mask of Ice, eventually leading to their escape. The rest will probably be longer chapters, since again, this is kind of a prologue. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed, reviews much appreciated!

- Medli