Snow swirled around the mountain, pines creaking in the wind, the dunes and seas of white flakes unbroken.
But not for long.
"YEEEEEEHAAAAA!" Haakon screamed and he landed the 360 on his Sparrow.
"Show-off!" Bretomart called as she stuck a normal landing. Colovance said nothing as he came in behind them, too concentrated to worry about the banter.
Haakon briefly twisted on his Sparrow to make a kissy face at her, spurring the Titan on angrily. Together, the three of them zoomed through the snowy, rocky terrain, white powder sent up in flurries in their wakes, along with partially melted trails left behind by their thrusters.
The steaks were high for this one.
If Haakon won... he got to kiss Bretomart. The Titan could not afford to let him stay in the lead, and they were nearing the end of the loop... with Haakon far ahead. Colovace was just along because the Hunter was convinced he didn't have a drop of racing blood in him, and the Warlock wanted to prove otherwise.
"Colovance, Nova Bomb him!"Bretomart screamed as they neared a corner.
"I'm not sinking to his level! And Felwinter would kill me if I caused an avalanche by accident!" the Warlock called back.
"Technically speaking, it's not his mountain anymore!" she argued.
Meanwhile, still in the lead, Haakon looked back and chuckled at the bickering twosome, before turning his gaze back on the track and pushing his Sparrow harder.
But he hadn't looked in time.
He screamed, throwing his arms up to protect himself as the pile of rust loomed in front of him. His Sparrow hit it, and he was bucked off, sent flying over the front at breakneck speed. He screamed as he flew through the air, and hit the ground hard enough that his spine snapped and several ribs snapped on impact and his body hit the snow.
Colovance and Bretomart, alerted by the Hunter's screams, looked in time to spot the Sparrow hung up on a rusty old forklift, and both swerved, Bretomart swearing, narrowly avoiding the same fate as Haakon.
"See ya, lover boy!" She yelled at the pile of snow that was Haakon as her and Colovance drove away. Haakon coughed, vision blurred as his Ghost came into focuse, hovering just over his face.
"You really blew that one, Haakon. Call it karma." he commented. The Hunter groaned.
"Just fix me up, While E." he rasped. When the Hunter got back on his feet one Ghost fix-up later, he glared at the forklift as he approached to re-claim his Sparrow. How in the world can it be so solidly glued to the ground? He dug at the snow built up around it, and found that the forklift had indeed, been melted at the bottom to become one with the rock beneath it. There were faded scorch blasts from long ago faded onto the rusted metal, and he supposed some sort of Weapon must have done this during the collapse. He had, in fact, found similar markings all around the remaining infrastructure around the area.
Perhaps he would ask Felwinter about it.
He removed his Sparrow from the forklift, and walked the damaged vehicle back to where they had agreed for the finish line to be. He found Bretomart and Colovance leaning against a boulder next to their Sparrows, on the other side of the line they had drawn in the snow to signify the start/finish. They both grinned broadly at him, Bretomart looking particularly triumphant.
"You really dropped the ball on that one." Bretomart chuckled. He glared at her.
"Yes, yes, I get it. I lost." he said through grit teeth.
"You know, you never did say what Bretomart got if she won." Colovance suddenly pointed out. Thrall spit! I was hoping they'd forget about that.
"Well..." Bretomart suddenly turned red. "There is... maybe one thing."
Colovance grinned evilly at the Hunter. "Lets stuff snow down his armor."
His grin vanished and his face paled with shock as Bretomart suddenly gripped the Warlock and kissed him. Haakon made a sort of strangled squeaking noise, jaw dropping just as his helmet fell from his hands. No... way...
Colovance looked just as shocked as the Titan broke away both of them red as cherries.
"S-s-seriously?" the Warlock managed to stutter.
"Y-yeah." Bretomart admitted. "What can I say? I'm a sucker for brainiacs."
"I-I guess I can't disagree much either." he took her hand, and they both smiled at each other. "Maybe... we could go figure it out at that village in old Texas? They got a killer view and a population of Fallen that needs cleaning out."
"Yeah. That sound good, Vance." She let her Ghost out, as did Colovance, and very quickly, both Iron Lords and their Sparrows were gone. Haakon remained where he was, staring. Jaw still agape, he sat down on the ground, and ran a hand through his hair.
"What just happened?" he asked out loud. While E. materialized beside him.
"I think they just found true love." he commented. "Ashraven is going to flip; remember when Lord Winston married Lady Adel? You wouldn't think it looking at her, but she really loves to party..."
"Yeah..." he said faintly. He layed down.
"What are you doing?"
"Processing the fact that the girl I've been flirting with for nearly a century just ran off with the new kid."
"Colovance has been with us for three decades."
"He's still a baby!"
"Haakon, he can rip you skull apart with space magic just by looking at you. And Timur has him on the new, advanced arc techniques, too. He'll be a Stormcaller by the end of the week."
"How did it come to this, While E.?"
"If you really liked her that much, maybe you should have stopped with the flirting and expressed your true feelings a lot sooner."
He flung a handful of snow up at the Ghost in response.
And without further ado, we have the forklift's first victim.
Because let's face it; we've all hit that stupid thing. For those of you who don't have RoI yet, basically, there's an indestructible forklift on the Haakon's Precipice Sparrow track, and it's RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK, RIGHT after coming around a corner, so nearly fifty percent of first place losses on that track are attributed to the forklift we've all come to love and hate.
I was going to post the Felwinter one-shot next, but then Sparrow Racing came and I experienced the forklift and... well, now we're here. But next time is Felwinter for sure.
Without further ado, read and REVIEW!