Hypothermia chapter 10

"So Kei, what is this legend?" Sasame asked the knight of light.

"A power enhancer." he answered.

"Power...enhancer?" Go repeated. The group was gathered in a room vacant of the kids. Dusk now came over Leafania like a veil of dim light. the light crept in though the window and created shadows that danced on the walls.

"In legend, they are able to enhance the power of anyone. Human, prétear, knight, leafanian, animal and so on. Thus, the name. It's also said that they can prét with the knights but it is somehow slightly different."

"But then what about Shin, Hajime, and Mannen? They all seemed to get weaker." Go asked.

"Well, remember when Mannen became sick because he needed to prepare for an event and a task he needed to do?" Everyone nodded. "It's the same concept."

"But why didn't we-" Hayate asked but was unable to finish when Kei intervened.

"They're younger and their powers aren't at their peak yet." Their conversation was cut short when they heard screams from Hajime's and Shin's rooms. The older ones rushed into their rooms. They had split up to cover both rooms.

Takako, Sasame, and Kei went into Shin's room to find the knight of plants holding the top of his head with his tiny hands.

"Shin, what's wrong?" Sasame asked in a worried voice. The young knight was crying like he often did. Shin removed his hands from his head to reveal two cat-like ears that had newly shed blood on them.

Himino, Hayate and Go had gone into Hajime's room to find him huddled over on the bed holding his lower arms. He looked up when the small group approached.

"They just came out of my skin." His voice was quiet and raspy.

"What did, Hajime?" Go asked as he put a hand on the boy's small shoulder. Hajime removed his hands from his lower arms and the group saw what he meant. There was a pair of clear, blue fins that popped out of his arms. Like Shin, there was blood around them.

The older ones tended of the two young knights and, in the commotion, had forgotten about Reki and Mannen.

Mannen's dream-

Mannen stood on the frozen lake. The same one he had been to in his dream when he first met Tsumetai. The only difference was there was no Tsumetai that stood on the ice. In his other dream the ice had cracked and broken but now it was as if that never happened.

"Why am I here?" Mannen asked to no one while staring at the barren frozen lake.

"Mannen." He turned around at the sound of his name to find the snow spirit herself. Next to her stood a young boy around Mannen's age and several wolves. "Mannen. You remember me don't you?" He was speechless from surprise and curiosity so he nodded. "This is my son, Zutto. We thank you for reuniting us. But we are also sorry. Because of what happened, your body has become temporarily fragile and there is something else now that you must do. You will find out with time about what it is. We will assist you as best we can."

They all stood there in silence. Mannen was confused about what was going on. He didn't know what to say. Tsumetai smiled then turned to walk away; the others did the same. It was now that Mannen chose to speak.

"Wait!" They stopped in their tracks; slightly startled from his sudden outburst. Before he could ask a question he had, Tsumetai spoke.

"You will understand when the time comes." Was her advice. The group then turned to leave once again and soon was out of sight from a veil of snow that pulled itself over them.

Mannen stood alone in the snow. It wasn't cold or warm, it was simple vacant of feeling. He felt so much confusion spinning in his head. Frustrated, he sat down in the snow and let the snow from the sky cover him as it did the ground. He closed his eyes and then thought he heard someone humming. But who? It sounded familiar...was it Reki?

Outside Mannen's dream-

Reki had heard the chaos coming from the other rooms but she did not leave Mannen's side even for a moment. She had become bored sometime ago and now hummed a song she had heard in her childhood upon sneaking around villages. She watched as Mannen slightly moved in his bed. No covers had been placed over him due to the warmness of the season.

Mannen seemed uncomfortable to Reki from the observations she made while looking at him. His face was slightly twisted as if in a nightmare or perhaps something else bothered him. Mannen then turned over to lie on his stomach and Reki noticed that his back was bleeding near his shoulder blades.

Reki's eyes soon shot back to Mannen's face and saw he blinked telling that he was now awake. He soon stopped blinking and held his eyes tightly shut as well as squeezing the covers, which he laid upon. Wings slowly emerged from his back covered in blood. Mannen bit his lip and didn't scream but managed to make his lip bleed. (AN/ I like wings, can you tell:p)

Reki had backed away from Mannen in fright but now approached him since the wings had already fully grown. She wasn't sure what was going on today but she knew she had to help Mannen due to the fact that the others were taking care of the other two and probably didn't know what had just happened.

Night had fallen upon the village-

"Go."

"Yes, Hajime?"

"I feel less tired now." His arms still bore the fins but lacked the blood. Go wasn't sure what to say. "I think having the fins helps somehow because now I feel stronger." The older knight thought about this awhile then got up from his chair in Hajime's room.

"I'll be right back." He said while leaving.

Go went and gathered the others to talk about this information he got from Hajime. There must be a connection with the fins, the stronger feeling and with Reki.

few minutes later

"Maybe there was too much power for the younger knight's to handle so there was a reaction to it?" Sasame suggested.

"Makes sense...But then why didn't Mann-" Hayate was cut short.

"Maybe he did." Kei added. Without words, Himino and a few others rushed out of the room with the rest of the group fallowing.

When they reached his room they found him sitting up with bandages wrapped around his chest and back. Two blue-ish white wings came from his back. They were feathers instead of the snow and ice wings he had had before. The boy held his head down to not expose his face until the others walked up which then he looked up to them. They stood next to Reki who stood near the bed. Himino was the first to talk.

"How do you feel, Mannen?" She said in a caring voice. He smiled a little and answered:

"Dizzy." He then remembered what Tsumetai had told him. "-your body has become temporarily fragile-" This moment was cut short when they heard something coming from outside. It was a strange sound. It was something hard to describe and almost unbelievable to hear. If shadows had a sound, that's what it sounded like.

The older knights rushed to the windows to look out. They found shadow-like monsters roaming the streets of the town. For the longest time, no one spoke. They all stared in horror.

"These kinds of monsters, the knights alone cannot beat." Sasame whispered as to not catch the attention of the monsters outside. "They're extremely hard to defeat."

To be continued-

Find out more in the next chapter-