Frozen Sky

Chapter 3: Forming of a Bond

Fatima prepared herself but she never felt anything. Slowly she opened her eyes to see the head dropping off of a beast fiend in front of her. Behind it stood Alastair shaking the blood from his blade and turning to the others. He held out his hand and charged a bit of magical energy before shooting it as a projectile taking out another fiend.

"Hey cat thing look after for me!" Alastair shouted to Josie who was hovering near Fatima as the other fiends came barreling toward him. He cut another down as it shot past him but another grabbed him from behind pinning him to the ground.

"Dark Pierce!" Fatima cried out again as the sharp masses of ice formed in the air and launched toward the swirling crowd of fiends attacking Alastair. Two of them were hit and killed by Fatima's spell but that still left several who were now focusing their attacks on her once again. Fatima unable to move tried to prepare another spell but the fiends were too fast.

"Hands off of her!" Alastair shouted taking the fiends arm off with one clean stroke of his sword. The others launched themselves in to air then shot back down towards Fatima and Alastair. Josie was preoccupied trying to hold another couple of them off from another direction and could not help.

"I guess I have no choice! Alastair throw me my whip!" Fatima shouted to him as she focused as much magical energy as she could as fast as she could. Alastair grabbed the whip from the ground and tossed it to her just as the fiends closed in. As soon as her hand grasp the handle of the weapon, the energy Fatima gathered was channeled through the whip and with one swing of it a very powerful burst of ice based energy was released flash freezing all of the approaching fiends and the area directly in front her. Josie rushed to her catching her by her cloak before she fell over.

"Oh Fatimeow are you ok!? I was really worried about you! Why did you run off by yourself!?" he yelled.

"Calm down Josie I'm fine," she said trying to get up but her leg still hurt and prevented her from standing.

"Well that's not good. Let me take a look at it," Alastair said kneeling down and checking Fatima's leg. "It seems like it might be a sprain but I'll need to take off your boot to check. Is that alright?" he asked looking up at her.

"S-sure…go ahead," she said trying to ignore the pain in her leg. He reached up and grabbed hold of her boot gently pulling it down. Once he had slipped it off he rested her bare foot on his lap and began rubbing her ankle.

"Ouch! Not so hard…," she said wincing a bit.

"Looks like you've got a sprain. You just need to stay off of it for a little while and you'll be fine." He put her boot back on and stood up looking around at all the fiends he had just killed. Stylishly putting his sword away in the sheathe on his back. "Man I thought you were the best. How did you let these things get you Fatima?" he said jokingly.

"Shut up! If I remember right they kicked your ass pretty good as well or did you forget how I saved your life!?" she snapped back.

"Haha there you go. That's how you should be. Anyways these things jumped me after I had been hiking for about 5 days and hadn't had any food and barely any water. I was on my last legs when they came after me and by then I was at death's door when you found me. I guess I should be thankful that you're such a recluse huh?" Fatima glared at him and tried to stand on her own but stumbled falling right into Alastair's arms. "Be careful, you'll really hurt yourself. Allow me." Without warning he hoisted her up bridal style and was carrying her back down the mountain path.

"Hey put me down! Woah, watch where you're touching!"

Alastair laughed but didn't put her down. "You can't walk on your own so I'll carry you until your ankle feels better."

Fatima huffed and crossed her arms while looking away to hide the slight blush on her face. "You fight…pretty good. Where did you learn how to use a sword?" she asked curiously.

"Hahaha, did I impress you? I must have really looked good if I'm getting complemented by the great Shadow Frost Witch!" Alastair said winking at her.

"Blow it out your ass," she snapped.

"Whoa, that's not nice! I just saved you so how about a thank you at least," Alastair said still carrying her down the path. "But to answer your question my father taught me. By the way I heard your little conversation with the current master. Didn't he say not to do anything reckless?" Fatima looked away and sighed.

"I don't take orders well," she said.

"Well it didn't seem like an order to me. Seemed more like he was just concerned for your safety." Fatima said nothing so Alastair just continued to walk. As they approached the entrance of Azul forest Fatima insisted that she was fine and wanted to be put down. Alastair sat her down gently and after making sure her ankle was better they headed back into the forest. As they neared her house Fatima stopped abruptly and quickly turned around staring Alastair right in the eyes.

"What, are you gonna hit me?"

"Enough with the jokes! I'm trying to…thank you…for today."

Alastair stared curiously at her.

"You…saved my life…and I…really appreciate it. You didn't have to come after me. So…Alastair…thank you…truly," she said trying to hide the blush on her face.

"Well you're welcome Fatima. You can call me anytime you're in trouble ok? You just call and I'll come running," he said smiling and placing a hand on her shoulder.

Fatima didn't even try to hide her blush this time but instead was about to say something to Alastair before a voice called her name from above them. They both looked up to see a girl perched on a tree branch. She had short green hair and was wearing a light green dress. But her most distinguishing feature were a pair of pure white wings sprouting from her back. Alastair stared in amazement while Fatima sighed knowing that this wouldn't be pleasant.

"What do you want breeze witch?" The girl giggled and hopped from her perch landing softly on the ground and a small gust of wind seemed to catch her as she descended.

"My name is Sadie and I'm doing fine by the way. It wouldn't hurt you to learn your friends' names Fatima," Sadie said sarcastically. She then looked over to Alastair and smiled. "My, my Fatima you didn't tell us you had a boyfriend. You especially didn't tell us how good looking he is." Sadie began inspecting Alastair which seemed to upset Fatima. She grabbed Sadie by the arm and pulled her away from Alastair in a hurry.

"Just tell us why you're here Sadie!" she snapped which surprised the girl.

"Calm down first, I'm just here to give you your invitation," she said taking an envelope from her pocket. Fatima took the envelope and stared at it curiously.

"What's this for?" she asked.

"For the Magister's Cup of course," Sadie said with a smile.

"Magister's Cup? What's that?" Fatima asked.

"Read the letter and find out. I hope I see you there. I'm looking forward to taking you down," Sadie said taking flight and zooming off.

"What a weird girl…," Alastair said looking in the direction that Sadie flew. He then turned to see Fatima heading into her house and quickly ran after her.

Magister's Cup? What could all of this mean? Fatima thought as they headed into her house.