A\N: Hi everyone, I know it's been a while between updates and I thank you for your patience and understanding. I am hoping to have The Blood Wars and Winx Chronicles updated as well over the next month or so before I will be experiencing another lengthy delay of a few months. I apologise for the delays but thank those of you who are loyal enough to wait.

Thanks for the support of this fic so far, I hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry that it is shorter than usual.

Chapter 7

Long Way To Go

"Fine," Icy sighed, turning on her heel and walking away, leaving Helia with a smile ten feet wide. His feet scampered and closed the distance between them as quickly as he could. "So, what's the plan?"

"We need to find shelter for the night," Icy replied, looking at the sky which had been gradually filling with dark grey clouds. "Judging by the look of it we are in for one hell of a storm."

"So a good place in the forest should do us, right?"

"No," Icy's head shook, "it's going to hail, and I don't mean marble sized stuff." A loud clap of thunder sounded overhead, earning their attention. Icy continued forwards, aiming for a nearby cliff face in search for a safe location while Helia followed loyally behind. He couldn't help but notice how beautifully white Icy's hair looked in contrast with the darkening world, it practically glowed. A thunderous roar of thunder, like a wooden barrel being rolled down a mountainside, passed overhead before the heavens opened and billions of heavy raindrops coated the world below.

Helia covered his eyes with his hands while Icy didn't seem worried about it at all. "I see a cave!" she announced over the spray before the two ran inside and got themselves comfortable. Icy stood at the cave entrance and smiled before conjuring her magic into creating two glasses. She held them under the running water and collected enough in each glass before returning to Helia who was ringing out his shirt.

"Thanks," Helia replied, taking the ice cold goblet into his hand and swallowing eagerly. With his thirst quenched he took a seat against the cave wall while Icy did the same opposite him. Silence again filled the distance between them and Helia was sick of the uncomfortable nature of it all. He had yet to entirely warm up to the ice cold queen but held a hope that maybe he would at least be able to make her smile. Standing to his feet he walked to the entrance again and breathed in the familiar scent of home, of beautiful trees and never-ending valleys full of freshly watered plants.

Then a single ice shard landed at his feet and Helia leant down to inspect it before the hail came. A particularly large piece bounced into the cave and landed near Icy. She took it between her fingers and threw it into the air a few times, judging its weight and stability. "I told you it would be big," she explained, chucking it in his direction. Helia reacted and caught it just in time before throwing it outside the cave entrance to join its brothers and sisters.

"How did you know it would hail?" He asked, returning to take his seat.

"My younger sister used to have a difficult temperament. I suppose hanging around her long enough got me used to identifying changes in the weather. My control over ice helps too, especially when clouds are really made up of ice crystals and most of the worlds weather patterns revolve around temperature change."

"You don't talk about them much."

"I've never had to," Icy replied rather coldly, eyes watching the water inside her cup swirl from side to side as Helia's began to melt on the caves dirt carpet.

"I know it can be difficult," Helia explained, earning her eye contact. "It's hard to talk about people who have left us behind. I found it hard to talk about Flora after what happened… my friends tried to help but I just couldn't face them."

"Some days I just feel like pulling my knees to my chest and lying in a corner to cry," Icy sighed, making Helia sympathise. "But they left us behind and now we need to move forwards for them… and you are lucky to have people who care about you so much. My sisters were all I had."

Helia's immediate response was 'but you have me now' though he was unsure of her reaction so instead he rephrased his question.

"Could you tell me more about them?"

Icy looked into his eyes though didn't show any signs of answering. She hadn't told anyone about her sisters or who they were as people; she always kept knowledge of her heritage and her family under the bandages that covered her broken heart. Anyone with too much knowledge ended up in danger because of the stories that she told and she wasn't sure whether Helia was in a position to be trusted. He hadn't left her side yet, how would a short story make him want to flee.

"My sisters are Darcy and Stormy, Stormy is the youngest and Darcy is the middle child. Ever since we were born we were all given this seal," her eyes flickered to the tattoo, "and stuck together through most of our childhood, attending school wearing long sleeves to stop people from seeing the marks. But one day The Shard attacked the school we attended and our father and mother managed to save us. When they both…passed away, I made the decision that I'd look after the two of them and that we would get through it together. Darcy had a control over darkness and dark mind control while Stormy had a control over the weather and-"

"Was the temperamental one," Helia noted and Ice nodded with a half hearted grin; the pain of losing someone that you loved hurt more than anything else in the world, it hurt more than a physical wound, more than a cut or break within the bodies mortal existence. The pain left behind when someone passed beyond this life and into the next, leaving others behind, was a wound that never truly healed. Was a memory that was always there and tainted the soul of whoever witnessed it. For those who had never lost someone the feeling was foreign, how one could go from being perfectly fine the one moment and withdrawn the next at the mere mention of a name or anything related the deceased.

But Helia had felt that pain. He wore that un-healing wound, he understood where she was coming from, he knew what it felt like to have someone important ripped from his life. He even understood what it felt like to feel responsible for another's death. But he didn't understand what it was like to be a murderer.

"You okay?" Helia asked, snapping Icy from her thoughts. She nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just tired I guess."

"It's been a long day," Helia agreed, "how about you get some rest, I'll take the first watch, not that I expect many of them to be following us in this weather."

"You'd be surprised," Icy commented before finding a semi comfortable position for her to lie in. "Helia." He turned. "Thank you for being patient, I know it takes a while for me to open up to people, especially about my past."

"It's okay, I understand. Try and get some sleep." Helia took a seat at the caves entrance, the roaring thunder slowly passing away while the rain poured, drenching everything below that it touched. Icy's eyelids began to close and soon she found herself back in the land of her dreams.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review.