What's up, everyone? Thank you so much for your patience with my uploads ^_^ As always, I do not own ROTG, just my OC. Well, enjoy!
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? An admirer, perhaps?" Pitch Black jeered. He rode astride his favorite nightmare, Onyx, while he spread fear throughout Russia. He had just ridden through one town when he passed right by Amberlynn, who was still trying to raise the temperature of the massive region to her liking. While she could simply do smaller regions at a time, she found that, with focus and practice, she can stretch the perimeter of how far the heat travels. She hasn't done a region of this size in a while, but the farthest she remembers going was warming up Mexico City all the way from Lima, Peru.
Keeping her hair-wrapped arm firmly planted on the ground, she looked up at the Nightmare King and scoffed. "Somebody's feeling awfully cocky tonight, isn't he? What could I have possibly done to bring ye to that conclusion just by standing here? And didn't I just threaten ye the other night to bugger off?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "The way I see it," he replied, "A spirit who has seen me exactly—what, twice—in her nearly 200 years of roaming the earth suddenly stops by within a day after our last encounter?" He hopped off his jet-black nightmare and shooed her away. "And a diurnal spirit, no less, roaming rural Russia in the middle of the night. Aren't you a little lost?"
Pitch knelt down to be at eye level with her. Amberlynn couldn't help but notice his silver eyes were rimmed with gold around the outer edge of his irises. Weren't they completely grey last I saw them? She thought to herself.
Pitch continued, "Now tell me, my dear. What exactly brought you out of your natural environment this time?"
Without missing a beat, she replied, "Apparently some form of penance if Mother Nature knew you'd be here when she sent me off." Seeing his eye twitch (now I know I didn't imagine it last night), Amberlynn lightly chuckled. "Truth be told," she admitted, "Frost and I got into a fight over turf and she sent both of us packing. My only regret is that I didn't get a good-sized fireball thrown at him before she intervened."
It didn't escape her sight when Amberlynn saw the King of Nightmares himself curled the corners of his lips into a slight smile. Not a smirk or a condescending smile when he's taunting somebody, but one of genuine amusement.
"You had a fight with Jack Frost?" Pitch asked. While not necessarily impressed, the thought of two seasonal spirits—especially when one of them is Frost—fighting it out did intrigue him. "Can't say that I blame you, the bloody Guardian most likely—"
"I'm going to stop ye there, Black," Amberlynn interjected. "One, while I did get into a heated argument with Jack, it had nothing to do with him being a Guardian, but rather because he's an annoying winter prat who can't keep things warm and alive—in the middle of Australia! I mean come on! It's not tha bloody difficult to—sorry, I digress.
"But two, I'll spare you the details—or lack thereof. Like I said earlier, Mother Nature intervened before things got too out of hand. Which is a real pity because I haven't had a good fight since…well, I guess you and your nightmares did give me a pretty fair fight just the other day, didn't ye?"
Pitch snorted. He didn't remember actually sitting down from his earlier stance (and yet here he was) but shrugged it off and turned to face Amberlynn. "If you're eager to look for another one, I'd be more than happy to have a rematch."
The summer spirit smirked. "As much as I'd love to beat ye again, I'll have to take a rain check until I'm finished up here." Pitch glanced down at the arm her hair was wrapped around to see her fiery red hair glow. The strength of the glow brightened and dimmed at a steady pace, almost like it had a heartbeat of its own. Even her eyes—which Pitch had no clue how he didn't notice it before—glowed on their own accord. They weren't very bright, but the small golden specks within her eyes shone like the dying flames of ember.
Not bothering to hide his curiosity, he asked, "Forgive my asking, but wouldn't you have finished with Moscow by now?"
Amberlynn shrugged and replied, "Normally I would be, yes. However, there are a couple factors at play. Number one, when I normally am spreading warmth across a region, I'm doing it on my own and completely focused—not, that your company is completely bothersome. It's a nice change, actually, having a fellow spirit to talk to. But anyway, the second factor is I'm not aiming to warm up just the city. If I have it my way, I plan to warm up Russia from here in Moscow to as far away as Novosibirsk. It takes longer, but it winds up saving me time to do it all in one sitting rather than travel too frequently."
She looked Pitch right in the eyes and an unmistakable hint of deviousness danced within her currently glowing, charcoal-ember eyes. She added, "It's also how I get away with screwing around with Frost's winters. While he doesn't mind blatantly disregarding the rules of nature, I prefer a more tactful approach. 'Why, no Mother Nature, I don't know how the Midwest is experiencing 60-degree weather in February! I've been in Mexico City this whole time!'"
Pitch couldn't help but laugh. "Don't tell me. That winter the mortals held their Olympics and were so afraid they wouldn't have enough snow for some of their events?"
"Guilty as charged!" Amberlynn raised her free hand in proud recognition. By this point, Pitch roared with laughter. He exclaimed, "That was brilliant, Amberlynn!"
Amberlynn tried hiding her blush and smile behind her glowing hair. She paused for a moment and added, "I didn't think you actually followed what humans find important unless there was some element of fear that'd be involved."
"You're quite right, I don't," Pitch agreed. "You would be surprised how much fear radiates from those Olympic games of theirs. There is plenty of petty fear that I don't particularly care for: what if someone isn't recognized for their achievements, what will these athletes do after they're has-beens. There's plenty of it to be sufficient and strengthen me just fine, but they're rather dull.
"It's during the events themselves that are the most riveting! That split-second when an athlete makes a jump and he doesn't quite remember if he's made enough full rotations to land without breaking a leg—or worse. When gear essential for the athlete's safety suddenly doesn't feel quite like it has before, but it's too late for her to second guess its functionality."
He didn't realize he had been rambling for as long as he was, for when he saw Amberlynn, not only was she clearly finished with her assignment (he thought it was getting warmer), but she was sitting curled up with her arms wrapped around her knees. She didn't seem terrified, though. More like she was actually enjoying listening to the story and wanted to hear more.
"Please, don't stop on my account!" she said when she realized Pitch was staring at her. Slightly dubious, he asked, "This…doesn't at all terrify or revolt you?"
Amberlynn waved away a hand in dismissal. "If you ask me, anyone who willingly chooses to put themselves in such dangerous positions has it coming to them. Honestly, it's almost like a decrease in fear seems to correlate with an increase in stupidity. Have you seen what some mortals do today to pass off as entertainment? And I don't just mean the 'professional' daredevils either. Honestly I think a good handful of them could afford to be knocked down a peg or two with some good old-fashioned fear and common sense."
Before either of them knew it, tiny streaks of pink began to appear over the horizon before the sun could peak its way through. Luckily for Pitch, it was still early enough for plenty of long shadows to extend behind several large trees nearby.
Upon seeing how quickly he moved to a nearby shadow, Amberlynn facepalmed and said, "You and daylight don't get along, do you? Duh, Sommers!"
After mounting a Nightmare he summoned, Pitch reluctantly admitted, "It really makes traveling much more difficult to say the least. Although with the inevitable sunrise, I must bid a rather hasty farewell and until next time." A sly smile spread across his lips as he added, "Unless, of course, your prior threat still stands after today."
Approaching Pitch's Nightmare, Amberlynn looked up to the spirit and replied, "I suppose I might be willing to turn a blind eye to the other night, no strings attached. When you wind up back in the States, odds are fairly strong you might find me recharging at Death Valley."
Pitch chuckled before he rode his mare off to who-knows-where. Amberlynn couldn't help but wonder just what exactly made her so open to give away that information…and why exactly she kind of hopes to find him there later.