I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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THe MySTeRiouS ViCTiM iN THe iCe

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...Ow... My head... How much did I have to drink last night?

I rub my eyes and open them. I'm sitting at a table. Isis is sitting to my right. Sarah and Austin are sitting across from us. Everyone has a plate of food in front of them. I'm wearing my shendyt and sandals, and Isis is wearing her dress. Sarah's wearing a sheet tied around her chest, and Austin has a sheet tied around his waist.

I close my eyes and rub them again before taking another look. Nope, Sarah and Austin are still practically naked. I guess they were serious about sleeping together during the night. Good thing Austin doesn't have an old-man body, otherwise... I don't want to think about it.

"Austin, I'm curious," Sarah say as she clasps her hands together, completely ignoring the food in front of her. "How exactly did you keep Chaor from rounding up all the Humans in the Overworld?"

"Most of it was already done," Austin says as he leans back in his seat and puts his hands behind his head. "Maxxor had already recognized us as Overworlders several months before Chaor arrived. When I explained that to Chaor, though, he still seemed like he was ready to round everyone up anyway."

"Big surprise," I mutter. Ugh, there's something I've forgotten about, something very important...

Austin continues, "Anyways, that night, my two brave little grandsons sneaked over to where Chaor was sleeping, and after they made sure he could hear them, they started whispering to each other about how they'd spy for Maxxor if they were taken to the Underworld." Austin smirks. "Chaor wasn't terribly keen on taking anyone back with him in the morning."

"Brave kids," I say. "They better have received awards for that." Arg, what was that thing? I can't remember!

"Yes they did," Austin smiles, "directly from Maxxor himself. They were the happiest little kids ever." He turns to Sarah. "How did you prevent Chaor from-"

"I didn't do anything," Sarah says. "It was all Queen Illexia. You see, officially, all the Humans in Mount Pillar are slated to be assimilated, thereby making us the property of the Danians. Chaor didn't want to deal with all the red tape."

I shiver. Assimilated, infected... anything that can control the mind like that is terrifying...

Isis yawns. "Michael, you think it's about time we head back? I miss Hera."

"Me too," I say as I stand. "It's been a pleasure meeting everyone, and I hope we accomplished... whatever it was we came here to do..."

A look of confusion flits across Sarah and Austin's faces. Sarah mutters, "What did we come here to do? It was pretty important."

Before anyone can spend enough time thinking to remember, Chaor appears at the entryway to the dining room. "Good, very good, you're all still here," he mutters. He steps inside and closes the door. "I can't quite remember why you came here, but your timing is incredible. Something bizarre was found in the dungeons this morning." He looks like he's struggling through a horrible hangover.

"Bizarre?" I ask. "How so?"

"There's an entire section of the dungeon completely covered in ice," Chaor exclaims. "Lilth is down there right now taking a look for herself."

-\/\/\/-

Chaor wasn't joking. The walls and floor of this section of dungeon are absolutely covered with ice. "Are you sure it wasn't already like this?" I ask. "It's a lot of ice to suddenly appear overnight."

"I'm confident it wasn't here before," Chaor growls.

Isis looks nervous. "Well, this is great and all, but Osiris and I were just about to leave, so-"

{No, you NeeD to CoMe aND FiND Me. auSTiN, DeCiDe To eXPLoRe THe DuNGeoN.}

Austin mutters, "I wonder what's in there that's making this happen. What say you to a little investigating?"

{SaRaH, you aRe iNCReDiBLy CuRiouS aBouT THe STaTe oF THe PLaCe.}

"What if there's a machine making all of this?" Sarah wonders aloud. "Image what we could create if we figured out how it worked!"

"Did nobody else hear that?" I ask as I look around. I could swear I heard something speak just then.

Isis stares at me. "Hear what?"

{WHaT? HoW CaN you StiLL HeaR Me? MiCHaeL, THe VoiCes ReaLLY Do NoT MaTTeR.}

"Never mind," I mutter sheepishly. I'm probably just tired.

Lilth looks at the frozen dungeon. "Well, this is a hazard anyway. We might as well try to find the cause."

Chaor nods. "I'll call for a servant,"

{CHaoR, THe MySTeRy TauNTS you.}

Chaor suddenly bares his teeth. "On second thought, I want to see what it is with my own eyes."

Everyone but Chaor puts on a coat of some sort, and we all head into the frozen halls.

-\/\/\/-

I'd expected some kind of battlegear, or even something mugic related. What I did not expect was to see a creature frozen in a chunk of ice!

The creature has slick red skin, with paler areas on running from his lower jaw, down his chest and stomach, and also on his biceps. A set of violet blades start on the top of his head and trail down his back. He almost appears to have no neck, and his muscles are large and sharply defined.

He wears gold-colored arm guards, shin guards, and armor over his left shoulder, the shoulder armor held in place by a leather strap that loops under his right pectoral muscle. A belt hold up his leather kilt, and his clothing and armor are studded with emeralds, or at least green gems.

...Did... did I ever have that exact thought before? Nah, it's not possible.

"I didn't expect to see a creature in here," Lilth mutters, wrapping her bulky coat tighter around her body.

Chaor's brow furrows. "I doubt it's the cause of all the ice."

Austin breathes, "Is he still alive in there?"

I chew on my lower lip as I think. "Stranger things have happened, but he's incredibly lucky if he is still alive. If he's not lucky, then the act of freezing will have caused the water to crystallize and rupture every cell in his body."

"The universe's most extreme form of frostbite," Sarah mutters. She raises a hand to her face and strokes her bottom lip. "Do you... Do you think he can be thawed out?"

I shrug. "I don't know, I've never thawed out a living icicle."

Isis shivers and grabs a hold of my arm. "I don't want to look at this anymore."

"Me either," I say. We turn to leave the area.

Chaor grunts, "I want to know who he is and why he's in my city. I'll find a way to thaw him out."

{MiCHaeL, iSiS, you WaNT To See WHaT THe CReaTuRe iS LiKe WheN iT iS FRee FRoM THe iCe.}

"We don't have to leave Underworld City quite yet, do we?" Isis suddenly asks while we walk away.

"I did say we'd be away for a month," I muse. "Maybe we can stay long enough to see what that creature is."

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The block of ice holding the creature was moved to a washing room inside the palace and placed next to a drain. Chaor, in a bizarrely uncharacteristic manner to his usual, decided that he'd try to melt the ice himself rather than have a servant do it, so now Lilth, Sarah, Austin, Isis and I are seated on one side of the washroom while Chaor bathes the block of ice with a steady gout of flames from his hands.

The ice shrinks, and water melts away and disappears down the drain. The creature inside is getting closer and closer to being free.

Who is this creature? Why was he frozen? How long has he been in there?

Chaor extinguishes the flame coming from his palms. "There's only a shell of ice left," he mutters as he sits down close by. "Time to see who you are."

The minutes are painful as they pass as the shell slowly melts away. I can't tell when it will all be gone, and my heart is starting to race in anticipation as the tension grows. Or... is that fear I'm feeling? Why would I be scared?

There's a small cracking sound, and jagged fractures appear in the ice around the creature's nose and his torso. I see his chest expand and contract, and pieces of ice fall away.

"He's alive," I breathe.

More and more ice peels away and falls to the ground. The figure starts to tilt forward, and-

The creature lands on its hands and knees, coughing and gasping for breath. One of his hands reaches for his throat, and he lets out a strangled cry. His voice sounds weak and shaky, but it's strong enough for me to understand what he's saying. "Oh great Cothica, help me. It hurts... It hurts so much..."

I'm frozen in my seat as I stare. So is everyone else. Everyone but Sarah, that is. She springs to her feet and rushes to the creature's side. "Where does it hurt?" she asks, her voice sounding panicked.

"In-inside..." the creature breathes before shouting in pain.

I rise partway from my chair. "Sarah, is he shivering?"

Sarah places a hand on the creature's back. "I don't think so. Are you cold?"

"N-no..." the creature says. "It's... it's so very warm..."

"He too cold to feel cold," I say, standing up completely. "That's not good. We need warm water now."

Chaor turns to to door and shouts, "Someone start a bath up!"

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A wooden tub filled partway with water arrives a minute later, and everyone help carefully lift and place the creature inside, not even bothering removing the clothing he wore. Many long seconds pass as the creature lies face up in the water. His eyes are closed, and his breathing is shallow.

Suddenly, his eyes fly open, and he lets out a wordless shout. His body snaps up into a sitting position, his arms press tightly to his chest and stomach, and he shivers. "Augh!" he screams again. "It's so cold!"

I let the air escape from my lungs. I didn't even know I'd been holding my breath. "It's all right," I say quickly, "it's all right, you're going to be okay."

The creature looks around. His eyes are pale green, and his pupil are pinpricks. "Wh-who are you?" he stammers.

Chaor moves so he's in front of the creature. "I am Chaor, King of the Underworld. Who are you?"

The creature stares at Chaor. "Ph-Phelphor, Your Majesty. Wh-what happened to King Kothal?"

Chaor gives Phelphor a blank stare. "Who's-? Never mind that. Which tribe are you from?"

Phelphor gives everyone a wide-eyed stare. "You... you can't tell? I'm a M'arrillian."

Chaor glances at Lilth. "You recognize that tribe name?"

Lilth's eyebrows pinch together as she thinks. "Not that I can recall. There were only four tribes."

Yeah, there were only four tribes in the show and card game, weren't there?

Phelphor blinks, and his face slowly fills with what looks like realization. "The M'arrillians are gone, then," he mutters. "They really were wiped off the face of Perim." His shoulders sag a little. "Then... then I'm the last of that horrible tribe..."

The look on Phelphor's face is bizarre, like he's both mourning and celebrating the loss of his people.

Phelphor suddenly has another attack of the shivers. He takes his arms away from his torso, and his hands fumble with the clasps of the armor on his forearms.

I take a hold of Phelphor's arm. "I'll get that off for you," I offer.

The other Humans join me in helping, while Isis and Chaor step away. Austin helps me with Phelphor's left arm, while Sarah and Lilth take his right. Those pieces of armor come off and are set aside. Sarah reaches down for the armor on Phelphor's legs-

"Gah!" Phelphor shouts. His leg jerks and smashes the wall of the tub, creating a huge crack. Water starts draining away.

Chaor calls for a new tub, while Sarah apologizes profusely. "Sorry! Sorry, I thought you would want those taken off too."

Phelphor gasps, "No, I want them off... My legs just hurt. Please, I need to get out of all these..."

-\/\/\/-

The tub has been replaced with one made of metal. Phelphor is lying in it with his eyes closed. Servants come in with buckets of warm water, and Sarah takes the buckets and slowly pours over him. Phelphor seems to be moaning silently as the water touches him.

Another bucket comes in while Sarah is pouring out the one that came before it. "I'll get it," I say, taking the bucket and heading over.

I've noticed that Sarah's taking a long time pouring the water. Yes, we need to make sure not to shock him with the temperature change, but she's going a bit slower than is really necessary, and her eyes keep lingering on his chest and stomach and...

Oh. "Sarah?" I say to catch her attention.

Sarah glances at me. "Oh, thank you." She sets her bucket down and takes the one I'm holding.

I cringe. "Sarah, were you staring at his penis?"

Sarah turns bright red. "Absolutely not why would you even think of such a thing?" There's not even a pause between her words she's speaking so quickly.

"Do you ever not think about sex?" I ask, not fooled one bit.

Phelphor's eyes snap open, and they focus on Sarah. Sarah turns even more red. "Like you can judge me, Mister Married-to-a-Mipedian."

I stand up and return to my seat next to Isis. "I'm more concerned about the timing, that's all. He did just wake up from who knows how long of being frozen."

"Two thousand solans," Phelphor mutters.

Every turns to look at him. Phelphor gaves at everyone in return. "King Kothal said I'd be frozen for two thousand cycles of the seasons, and that I would reappear near him afterwords."

Two thousand solans? "Sounds like this Kothal expected to live a long time," I mutter.

"Kothal did it to protect me from the rest of my tribe," Phelphor continues. "I had turned away from them, given critical information to the Underworld..."

And Phelphor continued to tell his story.

…Why do I feel sick to my stomach?

{you aNNoy Me. THeRe iS NoTHiNG WRoNG.}

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uP NeXT: THe DeTouR

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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