So if anyone notices any more spelling or grammar mistakes, please send me a PM with the heading "Clean up". As careful as I am, I don't always catch every typo before I post things, so if anyone catches anything, let me know so I can fix them.
Anywho, let's get back to the story, shall we?
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"Don't you dare say a word," Ichigo warned darkly as he begrudgingly urged Sven forward; it had taken no time to reattach the reindeer's harness back to the sledge, and they were now headed for the Kingdom's mountain range. Uryu had opted to sit in the back, letting the young princess ride next to his brother while he kept watch to the rear.
"I haven't said a word since we left Urahara's," Uryu said, leaning back against the driver's seat. He kept his bespectacled eyes of the forest behind them, alert for any signs of danger.
"I didn't say anything either," Orihime added. She leaned back, putting her hands behind her head and her boots on the railing in front of her, "I've just been enjoying the ride."
"Oi! Boots in the floor!" Ichigo barked, knocking her legs back to the floor of the sledge, "Seriously, I just had fresh lacquer put on; were you raised in a barn or something?"
"No, I was raised in a-"
Orihime was abruptly cut off when Ichigo leaned over and spat on the spot where her feet had been resting, wiping it out with his sleeve.
"...palace," she finished, scouting over slightly to put some distance between her and the uncouth man next to her.
"He gets a little touchy about his sledge," Uryu explained, "He nearly loses his mind when he thinks the paint is scuffed."
"Hey, you would to if you still had seven payments left on it!" Ichigo defended.
They ride in silence for a while before Orihime turned back to Uryu and asked "So is he always so...?"
"No, usually he's worse." Uryu grimaced at the recollection of all the disgusting things his brother tended to do, "Did you know that takes a bite out if the carrots he feeds Sven?"
"That doesn't sound so bad," Orihime said, not quite understanding what the spectacle wearing man was getting at.
"He does it after Sven already takes a bite," he clarified.
That made more sense.
"I only did that once!" Ichigo shouted indignantly. He mumbled under his breath, "A guy gets a little hungry one day and he never lives it down..."
"And he has the most atrocious table manners of anyone I've seen."
"Like you ever see anyone else," Ichigo retorted.
"I happen to visit civilization once a month," Uryu reminded him, "you know how hard it is for Mother to leave the house, so I'm her only link to what goes on outside of our property." He turned back to Orihime, "And don't even get me started on the places I find his unwashed undergar-" Smack! "Ow!"
"My turn to ask the questions," he said, drawing his first back; talking about his undergarments was where he drew the line. He turned to Orihime, "For starters, I'm still curious about why you're all the way out here in the first place."
"It's like I told you before," she explained to him, "I'm trying to find the Queen so she can make the winter go away."
Uryu respectfully refrained from mentioning that he had not been present when she's told his brother this, as the question had been on his mind for a while as well.
"You see," Orihime began, "she and I kind of had a slight disagreement about my fiance…"
"So you didn't approve of him?" Uryu deduced.
She shook her head, "Nope, she didn't approve. Which was kind of unreasonable since she'd only just met him, and-"
"Wait, so she didn't meet with this man in the entire time you two were betrothed?"
"Oh, we'd only just gotten engaged before we told her."
Both boys were now staring agape at her.
"...What?"
"You'd just met this man…"
"And you got engaged?" Ichigo finished.
"Yep!~" Orihime chirped. "So we went to ask for her blessing and we argued a bit and surprise! She suddenly magic winter powers!"
"You got engaged to someone you just met?" Uryu wondered, clearly having trouble wrapping his mind around the concept.
"Yeah," Orihime said patiently, "and then we argued, and then the winter magic, and then people started calling her a witch so she ran away-"
"You got engaged to a man you just met?!" Uryu repeated, louder and with more indignation this time.
"Yes Uryu, that's what happened. Please try to keep up," Ichigo said patronizingly, "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!"
"So you're saying," Uryu said to Orihime, ignoring his brother, "that you got engaged, meaning that you are willing to marry this person and be with them for the rest of your life, to a complete stranger that you just met?!"
"Aizen's not a stranger!" she cried, "I know lots about him!"
"Really?" Ichigo challenged, "Then what's his last name?"
"'Of the Southern Isles'!" she said proudly.
"Favorite food?"
"Chocolate covered strawberries."
"Mother's name?"
"Mrs. Of the Southern Isles."
"Foot size?"
"Foot size doesn't matter."
"Orihime," Uryu asked hesitantly, "why did you agree to that in the first place?"
"True love!..." she said dreamily, causing Ichigo to scoff and roll his eyes.
"Gag me," he said, "Now be quiet."
"Oh come on! Just because you don't have a-"
"No, seriously, shut up!" Ichigo clamped his hand over Orihime's mouth, looking around the forest. "Uryu?"
"I heard them too," he said, digging a bow out from the back of the sledge. "I recommend going faster."
It was then that they could see eyes begin to reflect in the torchlight.
"You read my mind." Ichigo snapped the reins, urging Sven to pick up speed. Unfortunately, the eyes began to follow and keep up with them.
"Those scary, glowing eyes don't look good," Orihime pointed out.
"It's the teeth those eyes belong to that I'm more worried about," Uryu said, just as a snarling direwolf came into the light.
Uryu quickly drew an arrow back in his bow, letting it fly as the the direwolf leapt at the sledge; the arrow found its mark in the beast's skull.
"Wow, good shot!" Orihime praised, impressed with her guide's archery skill.
"I get a lot of practice," Uryu said, notching another arrow, "I could probably shoot a hawk down while it's diving if I wanted."
"Focus on keeping the wolves away from my sledge!" Ichigo retorted, dodging and weaving through trees in an effort to shake the creatures pursuing them. "I'm out of wax to buff the scratches out!"
"I could drive for a bit if you want to help Uryu," Orihime suggested.
"And let you run into every tree in the forest?" Ichigo balked, "Not-"
He was about to say "Happening", but one of the more agile direwolves jumped and grabbed him by his sleeve, pulling him out of his seat. He managed to grab into the side before he fell off completely, but with the wolf weighing him down he couldn't pull himself back up.
"Ichigo!" Orihime cried, grabbing the torch and throwing it at the attacking wolf.
It completely missed its intended target, falling harmlessly into the snow.
"Grab the reins!" he shouted, kicking futilely at his unwanted passenger. Orihime did so, swerving just in time to miss a tree. Thankfully, Ichigo was on the opposite side from the tree.
"Are you trying scratch up my ride?" he demanded.
"Just avoid the trees," Uryu instructed, finishing off his own assailant, "I'll help Ichigo!" He kicked the snout of a direwolf that had jumped on the back of the sledge, then leaned over the side with an arrow at the ready. He shot the wolf holding onto Ichigo right in the eye, causing it to fall to the ground, then helped pull his brother back up.
"You're letting her drive?!" Ichigo yelled at his brother.
"It was somewhat unavoidable!" he protested.
"Nobody drives my sledge but me!"
"We would be more likely to crash into things if no one was driving!"
"Do you have no concept of personal property?"
"Oh! This coming from the man who uses my hairbrush to brush Sven!"
"Only because you never put his brush back where it's supposed to be!"
"I always do that! And if you can't find it, why not just use your own?"
"I use my own hairbrush, genius!"
"And you don't think I do as well?"
"Wait, are you using my hairbrush?"
"Um, Ichigo, Uryu?" Orihime finally interjected, "Is that ravine supposed to be there?"
Both boys stopped bickering and immediately raced to the front of the sledge and otters ahead. Sure enough, there's a deep that's getting closer and closer to them. Thinking quickly, Uryu tossed Orihime onto Sven's back while Ichigo took a knife from his boot and began cutting Sven's harness loose; despite the prospect of him losing his beloved sledge, Ichigo knew that the four of their lives weren't as easy to replace.
As they reached the edge of the deep drop Sven leaped, Orihime holding onto his neck for dear life until he landed safely on the other side of the gap. The sledge itself flew into empty space, suspended in midair for a moment due to its speed, before gravity took its course. The two brothers leaped from the sledge before it fell too far, managing to catch the edge of the cliff and pull themselves up.
"Are you two OK?" Orihime fretted.
"Forget about me," Ichigo snapped, scurrying to the edge of the ravine, "what about the sledge!" He peered over the edge and saw that, miracle of miracles, the sledge had come to rest on a branch a little ways down, a little battered but ultimately still intact.
Uryu and Orihime peeked over as well.
"Wow!" she marveled, amazed at the completely impossible odds coming together. She shifted her position to get a better view, "It doesn't look very sturdy, though."
Even as she said this, a bit of snow fell over the edge, landing in the sledge's seat. This was apparently too much weight for the branch to handle and the sledge slid off the branch and fell to the bottom of the ravine, bursting into splinters.
For a moment no one said anything, not even Sven (who had wandered over to see what the funny humans were doing).
"...and this," the orange haired young man said, getting to his feet, "is why women," he glared at Orihime, "shouldn't, drive." He then stomped over to a nearby tree and began pounding his head against it repeatedly.
"Um…?"
"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Uryu said in answer to Orihime's unasked question, "he hardly has a brain to damage anyway."
"I heard that!" Ichigo shouted before continuing with his head bashing.
"Just give him some time," Uryu assured the princess, sitting down by another tree, "we should probably camp here for the rest of the night; we can continue in the morning after some rest."
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
The next morning the three companions (plus one reindeer) awoke, weary but willing, and set out to continue the search for the missing Queen.
Since the events of the previous night, Ichigo had gone out of his way to give the young princess the cold shoulder, often ignoring her outright or pretending she didn't exist to her face. Despite his protests to the contrary he was taking the loss of his sledge quite hard.
"Look, I said you don't have to worry about it," he told Orihime after a bout of particularly persistent pestering, "I can always buy another sledge."
"But it's partially my fault that you lost it in the first place!" she insisted, "Please let me buy you a new one; I'm the Royal Princess, I can get you any sledge you want!"
"I said forget it!" Ichigo snapped, "I'll just buy one myself with all the money you're gonna me us for going through all this trouble."
"Well, OK, if that's what you want," Orihime hesitantly agreed. "...are you sure I can't just buy you one? It really won't be a problem!"
"Look you little pipsqueak, I said-"
"Let's table the issue of compensation for the moment," Uryu wisely suggested. "Right now, I think we should all just take a break and admire the scenery."
Both the Princess and the Iceman were about to protest, when they actually took notice of their surroundings; they had wandered into a ice covered glade, but unlike the rest of the land the ice hung to everything like dewdrops. With the sun already high in the sky, the effect was quite brilliant.
"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stop for a few minutes," Ichigo relented.
"You're right, it's beautiful!" marveled Orihime, staring in awe at the beauty that surrounded them. "It's like something from a fairytale book!"
"It thure doeth, huh?"
"Are you OK Ichigo?" Orihime asked, "Your voice sounds a little funny."
"What are you talking about?"
"You just spoke in a lisp."
"No I didn't!"
"What'th a lithp?"
"I'm surprised you don't know that, Uryu," Ichigo said. "You see, it's when someone-"
"I know what a 'lisp' is!" Uryu protested, "I didn't say anything!"
"I did!" the new voice clarified, "Down here!"
The trio (plus reindeer) all looked and saw a little girl suddenly standing in their midst. To be more accurate, it was a little girl made entirely out of snow, and she was waving at them with a large, goofy grin on her face.
Ichigo was the first to react.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" On reflex he kicked at the snow child, managing to knock her head off.
Orihime caught it before it flew away, staring at it quizzically; it was very detailed for being made out of snow, and upon closer inspection actually look rather cute and cherubic. In fact, it almost looked like-
"Are dose freckleth or ith your face jutht dirty?"
"It's alive!" she shrieked, tossing the still living head away.
"Aaaaaaah!" the head screamed as it flew through the air.
"Aaaaaaah!" Uryu screamed as the head flew towards him. He swatted at it as it was about to hit him ("OW!"), and managed to hit it back to its body, which was running aimlessly around the immediate area.
"Ahh, dat's better...Why ith evrwyone hanging off dah earth like batth?"
Of course, not particularly concerned with the effect of his action, the head landed upside down on the body.
"Just hang on a second," Orihime said, walking over to the little snowgirl; after the initial shock had worn off she actually found the strange creature kind of adorable. She grabbed the girl's head, turned it right side up, and placed back on her body. "There! Better?"
"Yup!" the snow girl chirped, holding out her hand, "I'm Nel! What's you name?"
Orihime bend down and shook Nel's hand, "I'm Orihime, it's nice to meet you, Nel!"
"Thame here!" Then she leaned in close and whispered "Tho who'th dah funky lookin' donkey over dere?" She pointed to where Ichigo was hiding behind Sven.
"Oh, that's Sven," Orihime explained.
"OK...and who'th dah Reindeer?" Nel pointed to Sven. (Ichigo looked offended.)
"...Uh, Sven," she answered hesitantly. She noticed Uryu cautiously inching closer to Nel with a stick in his hand, "And that's Uryu."
"Hi Uryu!" Nel said, abruptly turning to greet the bespectacled man. She held out her left arm to shake hands with him, only to realize that she didn't actually have one. "Uh, can I thee dat thtick?"
"...Be my guest," Uryu relinquished the stick, having had better luck coming to terms with this new creature than his brother. Nel grabbed the stick with her right hand, sticking it in her left shoulder. Having done that, she flexed the stick experimentally, the stick now acting like an arm (including a set of four fingers on the end of it).
"Remarkable...," Uryu breathed, both wary and intrigued.
"Tho what are you guyth doin' out here?" Nel asked Orihime.
"We're looking for my sister," Orihime explained sullenly. "You see, we had a big fight yesterday, and on top of that Rukia was chased out of town because everyone thought she was a witch-"
"Oh, I know where Rukia ith!" Nel said excitedly, interrupting the princess, "I could take you dere if you want."
"You know where she is?!" Now Orihime was bursting with excitement; having someone take them directly to her sister was much better than wandering around the mountains aimlessly. "Did you meet her?"
"No..." Nel hung her head in shame, but perked back up almost immediately, "But I know dat she made me!" Then her mood shifted abruptly to suspicious. "Why do yah wanna find her?"
"So I can apologize," she assured the snow girl, "and to ask her to stop the winter." Orihime explained further when she saw Nel looking somewhat confused, "See, it's actually summer right now, but now all the citizens won't be able to do all the fun summer activities they'd normally be doing now; swimming in the lakes, having a picnic in a field of wildflowers, running through tall grass while playing tag with friends, laying under the hot summer sun-"
Suddenly she realized who she was talking to, and threw her hands over her mouth to halt her careless rant. She was going to apologize to Nel for being so insensitive...only to find Nel staring off at nothing, with drool leaking from the side of her mouth and making a low, droning sound.
Uryu put his hand on Orihime's shoulder. "Allow me," he offered, before snapping his fingers next to Nel's head.
"Uuuuu- Thummer thoundth awethome!" Nel cheered, abruptly snapping back to awareness.
"It does?" Orihime wondered aloud, confused; this was not the reaction she was expecting from the little snow child.
"Thure doeth!" Nel confirmed. She then started prancing around and singing about the glories of Summer. Well, not so much "singing" as stringing words together musically, sometimes managing to sound like a verse.
During all this, Ichigo had rejoined the princess and his brother, still wary of the little moving snow sculpture and preferred the strength in numbers.
"She's terrible at that," he commented, only to receive an elbow in the gut from the humans in either side of him.
"~... And winter'th a great time tah thtay in an' cuddle,~" Nel sang, "~but put me in thummer and I'll be a-" She stopped suddenly, adopting a hard thinking pose. "Hmm, what word whymes with 'cuddle'?..." she pondered.
"How about 'puddle'?" Ichigo said under his breath, earning a glare from Uryu and a smack to the shoulder from Orihime.
"~Happy Snowman!~" she finally decided, continuing her prancing.
"Well, she seems friendly enough," Uryu said, clearing his throat. "Um...Nel, was it?"
"Yeth?"
"Would you mind taking us to where Queen Rukia is?"
"No problem! Jutht follow me!"
"I'm gonna tell her," Ichigo said as Nel lead them further up the mountain.
"Don't you dare!" Orihime snapped, whirling around and jabbing her finger in his face, "You'll break her little heart, and if that happens I'll never forgive you." She then began to huffily ignore him.
"C'mon! She's gotta learn eventually!"
Uryu then walked up to his brother, leading Sven by the bridle, and smacked him upside his head before going to join Orihime.
"OK, since when did today become 'Pick on Ichigo day'?"
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In the Royal City things had not improved. Granted, Aizen had managed to set up shelters in the unused rooms in the palace, round up as many warm clothes and blankets as could and distribute them to the people, and some of the more altruistic citizens had a large cauldron of soup brewing, but with the princess gone the entire night and no sign of the winter stopping, morale was starting to drop.
However, a bigger problem was beginning to arise; the man on the wagon before had ceased his grandstanding, but had continued to spread his dissent quietly among the people, and had formed a posse of his strongest supporters.
"Mr. Aizen, may we have a word with you?"
Aizen turned around from placing a blanket on an elderly woman to find the man and his posse coming towards him.
"Go on to the cooks and get yourself an extra helping of soup; tell them Aizen said it was fine." He gently shooed the woman away and turned to posse, "What can I do for you, gentlemen?"
"We want to go after the Witch," one of the posse demanded, "If we don't do anything soon she'll freeze the whole country over!" The others echoed his sentiment.
"I understand your concerns," Aizen assured them, "but I'm not going to do anything, rash or otherwise, until the princess returns."
"And who's to say she even will return?" the leader asked. "When I was younger, the village I grew up in was taken over by a witch who could control spiders. It took years and many of my friends dying in the process, to finally deal with the witch and heal the damage she did. Before that happened, the witch would occasionally kidnap beautiful young woman and send them back days later, beaten and barely even alive. My betrothed was one of those victims, and unlike most of the others, she did not live long after that experience."
"Sir Aizen!" One of the servants ran up to the group, "Sir Aizen, the princess's horse just returned!"
This perked Aizen's spirits up considerably.
"Splendid! Where is she?"
"Um, the horse is male, sir."
"I didn't mean the horse," he said, "I meant the prin-" Then it hit him what the servant hadn't said. "Go to the Captain of the Guard and tell him to sent me his best men." The servant nodded and headed off, and Aizen turned back to the posse, "If you still wish to find Queen Rukia, then follow me."
He lead the men out to the courtyard, where they met up with a small squad of soldiers.
"These are my best men," the Captain said, "What are they going to do?"
"I'm going out to find Princess Orihime and bring her back," he explained, "along with Queen Rukia."
"Are you insane!" the posse leader cried, "We should be hunting down the witch and driving a stake through her heart!"
"What were doing is looking for the princess," Aizen emphasized, "not staging an execution. If it comes to it you may defend yourselves, but we will not kill the queen in cold blood." He addressed the posse as a whole, "If any of you have an issue with that then feel free to stay behind; you'll only be a hinderance otherwise."
The leader sighed in resignation, "Let me speak with my men for a moment."
The posse of "Witch Hunters" broke off from the soldiers, speaking amongst themselves just out of earshot. After a couple minutes three of the men returned, the rest heading back to the town.
"We don't mind following your lead on this," one of them said, "But if it comes down to killing the Queen, we want to strike the final blow."
Aizen nodded, finding this acceptable. He had no intention of letting things come to that, but if the Queen's death was the only way to end the unnatural winter then he wouldn't dismiss the option.
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To be continued...