OK guys, Chapter 5 is finally done! (And what a doozy it is, too! ...hehehehehe!) Hopefully I still have people out there wanting to know what happens next, so for you guys, dig right on in!
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"Tho you guyth thell ice?" Nel asked Uryu as she rode on Sven.
"Pretty much."
"Theemth kinda pointleth when dere's ice everywhere."
"Well, it isn't always winter. Which reminds me, how do you know the Queen anyway?"
"I don't. I just know Rukia wath the one who created me. What'th a queen?"
"Do we really have to bring her with us?" Ichigo whispered to Orihime, having grown quickly tired of Nel's constant chattering. "There's something off about her, it's weirding me out."
"I think she's kind of cute," Orihime said haughtily. She had no love for the orange haired boy's rough mannerisms and almost perpetually scowling face, and he was downright rude on top of everything else. Between him and his brother she prefered Uryu's company (he actually seemed intelligent, for starters), though neither were as kind or as sweet as Aizen was.
"Yeah, if you like little freaks of nature, I guess…"
"Nel'th not a freak!" Nel cried indignantly, hopping down from Sven and climbing atop Ichigo's head. "Now Itsygo'th my ride!"
"I guess she heard you, 'Itsygo'," Uryu sniped.
"It's Ichigo!" Ichigo yelled, "And how come you're not freaked out by this...thing?"
"Has she tried to kill us yet?" Uryu asked by way of answer.
"No-" Ichigo said before his brother continued.
"Does she look particularly dangerous?"
"Well no, but-"
"What do you think are the chances she'll beat us in a fight?"
"Is there a point you're trying to make?" Ichigo asked, swatting at Nel. (She'd taken to chewing on his hair.)
"She's completely benign," Uryu stated, "and on top of that she's been nothing but helpful since we've met her; you're the only one who's bothered by her."
"And that's the problem!" See as he wasn't getting through to his brother, he turned to Orihime, "Come on, back me up here, Princess!"
"Hey Nel, how much farther id it?" she asked, apparently not having paid attention to the brothers' argument.
"Oh, we're almotht dere," she said, taking a short break from Ichigo's hair to answer, "It'th jutht up dah mountain here."
The trio (plus one reindeer) stopped and looked in front of them; they were standing at the bottom of a huge cliff face, craggy but completely vertical.
"You can't really thee it from here," the snow child said, hopping off of Ichigo's shoulders, "but it'th right at the top."
They all dreaded the climb up.
"You know," Ichigo said, "it probably wouldn't be such a bad climb with all that new equipment we got yesterday- Oh wait, we don't have it anymore! It fell into the ravine with my sledge!" He glared pointedly at Orihime, who hid behind Uryu at Ichigo's sudden burst of anger.
"That wasn't her fault!" Uryu was quick to defend. "Besides, we still have this." He uncoiled a length of rope from around his shoulder and unhooked a picaxe from his belt, holding them up for Ichigo to see.
Ichigo was flabbergasted, "Where did you get those?"
"I've had them ever since we left Urahara's," he explained, tying the end of the rope to the picaxe, "though I'm not surprised you didn't notice."
Before Ichigo could fire a retort back at his bespectacled brother (probably something to do his his spectacles) it dawned on him that the Princess was no longer cowering behind Uryu. But before either brother could worry, the sound of adorable grunting reached their ears, and they turned to see Orihime with her sleeves rolled up, already attempting to scale the massive rock wall on her own.
"Attempt" being the operative word, as she seemed rather stuck in place.
"Get down from there!" Ichigo groaned.
"You shouldn't be doing that without a rope!" Uryu smartly reminded her.
"It's fine!" she called back, "It's actually easier than it look- Eek!" Her footing slipped a bit and she almost lost her grip. "...Still fine!"
"You know," Uryu said, "it really would be easier if you let one of us help you."
"I know," she said, stretching to reach an outcropping higher up, "but I'm so close now, and I could probably use the exercise." She grabbed it, and was able to climb a little higher. "So...how much farther?"
"Well, considering that you're only about four feet off the ground...I'd say you still have a way to go."
Orihime looked down, and saw that she was indeed not very far from the ground. Ichigo was snickering off to the side.
"Uh, yah know," Nel spoke up, standing next to a trial the lead up the mountain, "I jutht thought we could uthe dah thtairth here."
Orihime looked incredibly sheepish, Ichigo was now laughing uncontrollably, and Uryu shook his head sorrowfully, wondering how much longer he'd have to put up with all...this.
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The climb became much easier when the group used the natural stairs that grew out of the mountain. Orihime hung towards the back, still a little embarrassed over her (admittedly ill conceived) stunt on the cliff. Nel continued to lead the way, and Uryu had positioned himself between the princess and Ichigo, who was still going on about Orihime's stunt.
"The trail was right in plain sight and you still tried to scale the cliff!" he chuckled.
"I'm just eager to see find my sister," Orihime protested, pouting.
"You aren't really one to criticize her about making an impulsive decision," Uryu remanded. "Remember the time with the 'birthday stew'?"
Ichigo nearly lost his footing, but managed to right himself before he slipped off the stairs and fell to his death. "I thought you'd forgotten about that…."
"What'th a birthday?" Nel asked, "And what'th thtew?"
"Things you don't have to worry about right now," Ichigo said quickly, before his brother could blab about that monumental disaster. His face now burned red with embarrassment. He turned his eyes forward so he could ignore the disapproving stares Uryu was surely giving him. "Let's just focus on the big-"
He stopped dead at the top of the stairs, staring in awe at the frozen structure that now stood before him, the others following suits when the caught up with him.
"...ice palace."
"That'th a lot of ithe!" Nel breathed.
"My guess is this would be where your sister is," Uryu said. "Unless there was an ice palace we missed on the way up."
"It's...amazing!" Orihime marveled. "It almost looks like a crystal watchtower!"
"...I don't see it," Ichigo said, squinting at the giant structure to try and see what the Princess saw.
"She'th probably inthide," Nel said, tugging Orihime up the stairs, "Come on, I'll introduthe you!"
"Hey, don't just let her drag you in there!" Ichigo warned, "There could be other freaks of nature waiting to impale you with giant ice spears for all you know!"
"Somehow, I don't think that will happen," Uryu deadpanned. He patted Ichigo on the shoulder reassuringly, "I'll go with her in case we run into danger, you just stay here and keep Sven company; I doubt he'll actually be able to make it up the staircase."
"What makes you say that?" Ichigo asked, looking over at their pet reindeer; he was shakily climbing about seven steps up before slipping and falling back down.
Hooves were not designed for walking on ice.
"Oh…." Shrugging, he sat on the bottom step, patting Sven comfortingly on the nose. As he heard Uryu's footsteps get higher he fished around in his pockets, managing to find an extra carrot he forgot he had, "Sweet, I was getting hungry anyway! Want a bite, Sven?"
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"That's disgusting, Ichigo!" Uryu called down as he, Orihime and Nel reached the top of the stairs.
"Shut up, Four-eyes!" Ichigo called back, pouting.
"What wath that about?" Nel asked, tiling her head.
"Nothing any of us need to worry about," he said, turning back to the princess and the snow girl, "What we should be worrying about is whether we can get inside." He gestured to the doors, massive in scale and just as ornate.
"Maybe you could try knocking?" Nel suggested.
Orihime looked up at the enormous doors, suddenly dreading what she would find on the other side. She'd come all this way (blindly, she might admit) to make things up with her sister, and now that she was finally here, all the anxiety and worry she'd been ignoring came flooding in.
"...Doeth the not know how to knock or thomething?"
"I don't think that's it," Uryu said, kneeling down next to the snow girl, "She and Rukia just had a big fight yesterday, she's probably worried about what her sister is going to-"
Rap rap rap! Orihime knocked on the ice doors, screwing up her courage.
"Yay! Thee can knock!" Nel cheered.
A moment later the doors creaked open.
"OK," Orihime said, "only slightly creepy…." She turned to Nel and Uryu, "Well, wish me luck."
"You're not going in alone, are you?" Uryu asked, "I'm sure your sister is nice and all, but we don't if she doesn't have any traps to keep nosey people out of her sanctuary."
"Maybe," Orihime agreed, "...then again, she did get pretty upset the last time I suddenly brought someone to meet her."
"HA!" Ichigo laughed, enjoying the irony of the situation.
"Be quiet and eat your slobbery carrot!" Uryu shot back. He turned back to Orihime, "If you think you'll be fine going alone then I won't stop you. ...but don't hesitate to call for help if you need it." She nodded, and headed into the frozen tower.
"Do you think the'll be alright?" Nel asked the bespectacled young man as Orihime disappeared inside.
Uryu said nothing, sitting down and waiting patiently for the young princess to return. In the short time he'd known her she'd proven to be sincere, determined and, for lack of a better word, untried; he honestly had no idea how she'd fare in this situation, though whatever happened he was sure that she wouldn't let it stop her.
"I'm sure she will," he said confidently, before leaning closer to the snow girl and whispering in her ear (or at least his best guess where her ear would be). "Now why don't I tell you about the Birthday Stew while we wait?"
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Inside the tower of ice looked remarkably like the Great Hall back in the Palace, only smaller and obviously made of ice. Orihime found it both enchanting and intimidating as she made her way further inside. To the right of the threshold was another ice staircase (this one didn't have a railing) that lead to the higher levels of the tower.
She's probably at the top, Orihime figured, keeping one hand against the wall as she walked shakily up the stairs. She thought of what she would say once she finally reached her sister, going through the options to find the one that would convince Rukia to stop the winter and come back with her. She didn't want to sound angry; her anger was what started this whole mess in the first place. She wanted to apologize first, but what to say without sounding fake? Would Rukia even accept an apology, or would she insisted that this was all her doing and shoulder all the blame? It's not like anyone knew she had magical ice powers except their parents, and they'd never told anyone about it before-
"Hime-chan, is that you?"
Orihime was snapped out of her thoughts, seeing Rukia coming down the stairs. Had she known she was coming?
"What are you here?" the Queen asked once the two young woman met, "How did you even find me?"
"Not easily," Orihime said, suddenly at a loss for words now that he and Rukia were standing face to face. She wrung her hands nervously. "Um…," she struggled to find something to say, "...so, you made this tower?"
"Yes, I did," Rukia answered, "it was actually rather easy." She twirled a whisp of snow between her fingers, causing it to dance in delicate patterns, "Everything's suddenly become easier, I can finally control it…"
"That's great!" Orihime praised, "That means you can come back home and make this winter go away, right?"
Rukia suddenly seized up, the snow she was playing with falling to the ground.
"...Rukia, what is it?"
"I'm not going back," Rukia said, gingerly rubbing her shoulder, "Everyone's scared of me; they'd string me up and burn me alive just as soon as look at me." Then she looked at her sister quizzically, "And what do you mean, 'winter'? It's still summer."
"Um…," Orihime shuffled nervously, "well, you see…." She tried to breach the subject delicately. "...You kinda made winter come early when you ran off."
"But how is that possible?" Rukia asked. Granted, she didn't know that many other snow mages, but to cause the town to freeze over? "Surely my powers couldn't have frozen the entire town…"
"More like the entire countryside," Orihime hesitantly corrected, "It's pretty bad. ...but you can control your powers now, so you can make it all go away, right?"
"Why?"
Rukia's question caught Orihime slightly off guard.
"What do you mean 'why'?" she asked.
"Even if I could reverse the winter," Rukia explained, "why should I help the people who drove me away in the first place? They'll just have to suffer the consequences of their actions."
Orihime would have rebuked her sister for being so callous, but the feeling of something soft bumping into the back of her legs distracted her. She looked down and saw Nel smooshed in her skirt. "Nel! I thought you were waiting outside?"
"I got bored," the snow girl shrugged as Orihime knelt down to her level, "tho I came to thee what you were up to." The she noticed Rukia staring perplexed at her. "Oh hi Rukia!" she waved, "I'm Nel, and I like warm hugth, and thummer, and-"
"Do I know you?" Rukia asked, cautiously approaching the tiny creature, "And how are you even alive?"
"Uh, you made me, didn't you?" Nel wondered, scratching her chin with her [stick] arm.
"Please come back with me?" Orihime pleaded, determined not to let all her efforts be for naught, "I can explain to everyone that you're good and don't mean them any harm! You can bring back summer and thing will be just like they used to when we were younger!"
Despite her cold words, more than anything Rukia wanted her sister's words to be true. But, no matter how much she wished, the scene from that fateful night kept replaying in her mind over and over; Orihime being hit with her magic, of the young girl falling into the snow, and of herself trying to revive her in a futile effort.
The scene that had haunted her the rest of her life.
"No," she said, turning and heading back up the stairs, "You'll just have to find some other way to stop the winter, I'm staying here."
"Rukia, wait!" she cried, hurrying after her adopted sister; she had to keep trying, the whole country would suffer if she didn't get through to the Queen.
"Go away!" A small blizzard began to kick up, getting more and more intense as the chase continued. "Just let me be alone!"
"But I don't want to be alone!" Orihime protested. "I miss you Rukia, I want to be with me sister again!"
Why did Orihime have to be so relentlessly stubborn, Rukia wondered, why couldn't she realize that she was better off without her, not to mention safer?
Maybe just a little scare to prove my point, she thought, regretting that she had to resort to force to get her sister to leave. She whirled around suddenly, shouting "I don't want to ever see you again!" she she fired a blast of magic in Orihime's direction.
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"Oo-we-oo! Itsygo!" Nel called, rushing back out. She didn't really understand why the two young women were arguing about, but she could tell that it wasn't going to end well. "Where'd you guyth go!"
"We're down here!" Uryu answered. He and Ichigo were at the bottom of the stairs, Ichigo bending over and dry heaving.
"What'th up with him?" she asked, pointing at Ichigo's protruding rear.
"The carrot Ichigo shared with Sven was slightly rotten," Uryu explained, standing beside his brother. Sven was rooting around the snow, presumably to find some grass with which to cleanse the carrot from his mouth. "...as if sharing it with a reindeer wasn't repulsive enough. Anyway, where'd you go? I looked over a few minutes ago and you'd disappeared."
"I went tuh go find Orihime," she said, "Thee and Rukia are arguing, and I tink the's in trouble!"
"What happened?" he demanded, grabbing Nel's shoulders, "Is she alright?"
"Yeah, but I don't tink thee will be for very long…"
"Show me." He turned to his brother, "Ichigo, come on!"
"Yeah, sure thing," the orange haired boy groaned, "right behind you!"
Uryu and Nel raced back up the stairs and into the tower, hurrying up the stairs Nel indicated. They only reached the second level when they found Orihime, who was clutching her chest in pain as she knelt on the icy floor.
"Orihime!" he cried, rushing to kneel beside her, "What happened, are you OK?"
"I think so," the princess answered, "it doesn't hurt that much anymore…" She managed to stand back up, leaning on Uryu for support. "What are you-?"
"Nel came and got me," he explained.
"Hey, ith Rukia alright?" Nel asked, pointing at the white haired queen; she was leaning unsteadily against one of the ice pillars, her breathing ragged and shaky and she kept muttering "I didn't mean it…".
Uryu was about to ask what in Heaven's name had happened when he heard another set of footsteps coming up the stairs behind him; a moment later Ichigo ran up, panting for breath.
"Thanks for waiting for me," he panted, "So what's so urgent that you couldn't wait for-" And then he noticed the scene in front of him. "...Did I miss something?" He looked over at Orihime (she seemed fine) before he noticed Rukia leaning against the pillar.
"W-wait a second," he stammered, "she's...from fifteen years ago..."
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"These young boys are Ichigo and Uryu," Unohana said to the king and queen, maneuvering them in front of her as she reentered her cottage. "They'll be staying with me from now on. Boys, say hello to the King and Queen," she told them, shutting the door behind her.
"Your Majesties," Uryu said, bowing to the royalty present. Ichigo bowed as well, though with a little more urging in the form of Unohana pushing him down. He didn't say anything.
Rukia peeked out from behind her mother's skirt, hiding there when she saw the two boys come in. They didn't look too dangerous, (in fact, she was probably more dangerous than they were, all things considered), but her shyness was greater than her curiosity.
"Excuse me," the Queen asked, "but when do you think our daughter will wake up?"
"I'd say she should return from dreamland in the morning like normal," the healer said, "For now, you should let her rest. In the mean time, I'll make some tea for us."
"Um, ...can I help?" Uryu asked in a small voice, "I'm pretty handy in the kitchen."
"'May I?'," Unohana corrected, "and yes, I'd love the help." She took Uryu's hand and led him over to the stove, leaving Ichigo to stand awkwardly in front of the King and Queen and their daughter.
As Ichigo stared at the floor, the queen nudged Rukia forward, presumably to interact with the boy.
"Um...hi," Rukia said shyly. "I'm Rukia."
"I'm Ichigo," Ichigo replied, still not looking her in the eye. "...Your hair looks weird."
"N-no it doesn't!" she protested, self consciously brushing some of her pure white hair behind her ear, "I was born this way…" Then she looked at Ichigo, noting his own unusual hair color, "Besides, orange is an even weirder hair color than white!"
"Is not!" Ichigo retorted, "I know lots of people with orange hair!"
"I don't believe you," Rukia stated haughtily, crossing her arms. "You must rubbed oranges in it to get it like that."
"Stupid! Oranges don't work that way!"
"How do you know, have you ever seen an orange?"
He was about to come back with a clever retort, but he couldn't do to the fact that she was right, he hadn't ever seen (or eaten, for that matter) an orange; all of his knowledge that didn't pertain to staying alive came from his brother.
"N-no…," he stammered, at a loss for a witty retort. And so, with a final declaration of "You're stupid!" he grabbed a footstool and sat facing the wall, ignoring the royal family until they left at dawn.
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Orihime snapped around, bewildered eyes staring at Ichigo. "You know Rukia?" she asked, surprised that her escorts knew her sister.
"Sort of; it's kind of a long story," Uryu supplied.
"We met her once when we were kids," Ichigo said, "just before our mother adopted us. She was with her parents and her sis-"
And then his brain puts the pieces of his memory together, "YOU WERE THERE TOO!"
"Huh?"
"You were the white haired girl's sister who was asleep the whole time!" he continued.
"You're right," Uryu said to his brother, "I can't believe I haven't noticed it before now!" Then he adopted a puzzled looked on his face, "I'm not sure how I should feel about that."
"What are you doing here?" Rukia demanded, now standing on her own. She was slowly inching forward, like a cornered mouse trying to sneak past the cat. "Who are you two?"
"They helped me find you," Orihime explained, "without them, I probably would have ended up hopelessly lost or something." She pointed to each of the young men in turn, "This is Uryu, and that one is Ichigo."
"Well, I don't care if they're both King of the Western Mountains, they need to leave," she said, "All of you."
"Please come with us," Orihime continued to beg, shaking off Uryu's attempts to lead her away, "I can explain that you don't want to hurt anyone, and…."
Rukia cursed her sister's blind stubbornness; she didn't want to shoot more of her magic in Orihime's direction, for fear that she'd end up freezing her solid this time, and she was actually starting to get annoyed that she wouldn't take the hint that she didn't want to go back. Still, she needed to drive her point home some way….
Her eyes traveled to Nel, the little snow girl who had follow Orihime inside, and an idea started to form. She focused on an area of the icy floor between her and her sister, imagining a snowy figure rising up. (If she was able to create one living snowman on accident, why couldn't she make another on purpose?) Pooling some of her magic in her hand, she resolutely stated "I said leave!" before tossing the magic at the floor. It took a moment for the magic to sink in, but soon snow began coalescing, eventually forming a behemoth three times the size of anyone in the room.
"Show them the way out," she told the golem, which then began lumbering towards the "intruders".
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Outside, Sven had managed to find a patch of grass under the snow and was happily munching on it as he waiting for the funny humans and the weird snow creature to get back.
As it happened, said funny humans and weird snow creature landed right in front of him after being thrown by an even larger and more monstrous looking weird snow creature.
"Is everyone OK?" Uryu asked, glancing around at the motley crew; they all seemed to be alive (though Nel's head had separated from her body again….) and looked none the worse for wear.
...with one notable exception.
"Wow Ichigo, it's so artistic the way you landed!" Orihime praised her orange headed escort.
Ichigo was currently laying on his back, bent in half, with his rear end sticking high in the air.
"Alright, that tears it!" He picked himself up and stomped back towards the snow giant, gathering up a handful of snow as he did.
"Um, Ichigo…?
"Ichigo, what are you doing?"
"Nel can't thee anyting!"
"Hey Frostbite!" he called, patting the snow into a snowball, "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to throw people?" He drew his arm back and let the snowball fly, watching as it sailed off and landed right in the back to the giant's head as it headed back inside the tower.
It froze the moment it felt the collision.
Uryu smacked his head, "You idiot…."
All of a sudden "Frostbite" whirled around, now covered in icy spikes, and roared before he charged at the group.
"Everybody run!" Ichigo yelled as he tore past his brother and the princess, running as fast as he could away from a very snowy and painful death that was following him.
"This is why we can't have nice things!" Uryu called after him, grabbing Orihime's arm and pulling her along. She had just rescued Nel's head, and was about to return it to Nel's body when Uryu grabbed her, causing the head to once more fall to the ground.
This time however, it landed right side up, so Nel was able to see the three of them (Sven had run off when Frostbite roared) disappear as they ran off.
"Don't worry about me," she called after them as her body managed to find her head, replacing it firmly on her shoulders, "I'll catch up!" She was about to head after them when she felt heavy footsteps behind her. She turned around around slowly, coming face to face with the snow giant.
"...Hiya!" she said, apparently not phased by the 20 foot tall monster, "I'm Nel!"
Meanwhile, Orihime notice that another member of the party was missing.
"Hey, where's Sven?" she asked.
"He'll be fine," Uryu told her, "he always manages to find us again if we get separated. We should probably-"
He cut out before he could say anything, skidding to a stop and causing Orihime to bump into him. ("Oof!")
"Why'd you stop?" she asked once she recovered from the minor collision. She peered around him and saw Ichigo standing a few meters away. "Oh hey Ichigo! ...Um, why did you stop running?" Ichigo said nothing, merely pointing down.
Orihime went over to look where he was pointing and saw that they had reached the edge of a very high cliff.
"...Oh."
"Don't worry, we're not dead yet," Uryu assured the other two, "I still have the rope, remember?" He uncoiled the rope and began to tie one end in a loop, "Ichigo, make a snow anchor so I'll have something to-"
"GRAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOWWWWW!"
They heard the ice giant roar again.
"Ichigo!"
"On it!" Ichigo immediately began pounding out a circle in the snow while Orihime stood to the side, out of the way.
"Is the rope long enough?" she asked.
"It ought to be," the dark haired man said, looking over the cliff, "but if it's not, it looks like there's a pretty big drift at the bottom, so if we need to jump it'll cushion our fall."
"Oh, just like landing on a pillow!" the princess reasoned.
"Uh, yeah, something like that…."
"Anchor's ready!" Ichigo called, motioning for Uryu to toss him the rope. He did, and Ichigo fastened it around the anchor, throwing the rest over the cliff after afterwards.
"Alright, I'll make sure it's safe," Uryu said, giving the rope a light tug. "Ichigo, you take Orihime down once I give the all clear. No arguments," he added before Ichigo cloud argue, disappearing over the side a moment later.
And just as he did, the trees behind them started to rustle.
"Uryu!"
"It'll hold!" Uryu called back, "It reaches the bottom!"
"Alright Princess, get on my back!" he barked, looping the rope around his foot.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Orihime asked, gingerly climbing on Ichigo's back.
"As opposed to the ice monster about to get us?" he countered.
"Oh, good poi-eeeee!" Ichigo began repelling down the cliff, using short, quick hops so he didn't jostle the princess too much.
They were about halfway down the cliff face when they heard "Itsygo, Orihime, Uryu!".
"Nel, is that you?" Orhime called.
"Yup!"
"GRAAAAAAAOOOOOOW!"
"...and I brought a fwiend!"
Ichigo began descending at a faster pace.
"Hey Ichigo, I know this might not be the best time-"
"Oh, ya think?"
"-but why are we going up instead of down?"
He was about to point out how utterly stupid that question was, but he quickly found that he was, in fact, not heading downwards anyone. He realized just how bad the situation was when he came face to face with Frostbite a moment later.
"That's why," he said.
"Tho...Fwostbite thayth that you guys aren't allowed tah come back here ever again," Nel said, held aloft by her head. "I'd listen tah him if I were you."
"How can you understand that thing?" Ichigo asked, flabbergasted, "Seriously, all he says is 'graaaooow'."
"Eh," she shrugged. "It'th a gift."
"Well, I'm not giving up on my sister!" Orihime defiantly stated, before grabbing a knife from Ichigo's boot and slicing the rope just above them.
...causing them to fall straight down.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
When Orihime opened her eyes again, she found that she had in fact landed in the snow back Uryu said was at the bottom. She didn't feel any pain, so she guess none of her bones had broken during her and Ichigo's fa-
Ichigo!
"Ichigo, where are you!" she cried, looking around frantically for the more brash of her guides. "Are you alright-"
A dull Fwump! sounded next to her, and when she spun around to look she saw Nel sitting there comfortably.
"Nel! ...Are you alright?"
"Yup!" the little tyke answered cheerfully, "Jutht fine!" She also appeared to be playing with a pair of boots as well. "Though for thome reason I can't feel my feet."
"That's because those are my feet!" Ichigo voice came from under the snow, his head and upper torso popping up a second later, "Stop playing with them!"
"You're alright!" Orihime cheered.
He turned around slowly and glared at the princess.
Very. Glared.
"So…," she said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, "I admit that I might not have thought cutting the rope through…."
More glaring.
"I got caught up in the emotion...," she whimpered. "Anyway, we're still alive, so no hard feelings?"
"Hey, are you two OK?" Uryu called as he trudged over to the two humans and Nel, leading Sven by the bridle.
"We're fine," Ichigo said before Orihime could say anything else, jerking his thumb back at her, "no thanks to her."
"Well you're both still alive," he brushed aside, "so no use complaining about it." He was about to ask what they were going to do next, when something about the young princess caught his eye, "Um...I think something's wrong with your hair."
"Oh don't worry," she assured him, brushing off the powdery snow as she stood up, "my hair's been this way for...well, as long as I can remember."
"Was it always that white?" Ichigo asked, glancing over briefly as he tried to shake Nel off.
"Yeah, it-"
She stopped when she took a look at her odd streak of hair, finding that it was noticeably thicker than she remembered it being all of a sudden.
She gasped when she saw another streak of white running down to join the other.
"Ith that thah-posed to happen?" Nel asked, hanging off of Ichigo's arm.
"It's never done that before…," she said, looking perplexed.
Then she fainted.
"Orihime!"
"Princess!"
"Wh-what happened?..." she asked, trying to pick herself up again, "trying" being the operative word.
"I think you need to meet our mother," Uryu said, frowning.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
And now y'all are gonna have to wait another couple months for the next chapter, mwuhahahah! (But seriously, if I don't get another chapter done by the end of October, December is the earliest I can do, because November is NaNoWriMo!)