War

chpt 2 : ice and fur

It was the aftermath of the invasion - men, women, even children were being brought into the main hall of the chieftains grand home, all hurt - smelling of singed flesh and blood. The stench circled around the thick columns and up to the raised ceiling of the big room. Furs and water bowls littered the floor in disarray, with no real pattern or organization. They hugged tired bodies and in some cases, covered corpses.

An older woman stood up from one such body, the scar of tears indented in her features. Her sunken eyes were hollow, body drooped and shiny. Wrinkles that were nowhere close to forming two days prior were now etched into her skin. She choked on a sob and - without a word - left the room to the wide balcony overlooking the tribal city.

The air turned cold and sharp.

It was well into the night - the moon shining vibrantly above. Looking up at that glowing white was indescribable. When it had vanished before, fear like she's never known took hold of her heart.

She was sad, that it was the princess up there now, but so incredibly relieved.

As she came closer and closer to the rail of the ice balcony, more and more of the post invaded city came into view. Smoke rose from several of the lower huts, the ones closest to the big wall… which was also smoldering, sporting several steaming holes.

Her steps became more hesitant and slow.

One more tentative step forward and she all but crumpled on the railing. A heavy sigh escaped her chapped lips. She rubbed at her eyes, tears still threatening to fall down her face.

It all had happened so fast. The avatar, the invasion, the fight, the princess and then the avatar again.

She took a long inhale and almost choked on the exhale when a bright flash suddenly blinded her. Her arm came up to protect her eyes on instinct. After a few minutes, she opened them and what she saw almost made her stumble back.

There was a boy- no - a teen, lying not two feet away from her. He was dressed strangely, in a white and red shirt accompanied with blue pants. She couldn't identify the animal skin or materials the clothes were made of. The second thing she noticed was the fluorescent, almost glowing green that stained the clothes, then the red that was quickly overpowering it.

Blood.

There was a fair amount of it, all mostly centered around some unforeseen injury on his shoulder. His lips were blue and he was incredibly pale.

Falling out of her shook, she fell on her knees next to him, hands hovering and eyes assessing in the way only a healers did. She called for help and two guards who were close to the exit had came out to answer her call.

Together they carefully picked him up and carried him inside with all the other injured.

The first thing that reached the fog of his mind, was the warmth. He felt it as it pressed every part of his body. It was comforting, yet borderline uncomfortable. Sweat was trickling down the crevice of his back and eminitating from his legs, the blanket on top of him was heavy, almost suffocating.

The second thing he noticed was how itchy his shoulder was. It was definitely still raw (he could tell that much even without moving) but felt like a typical injury for him so, as he awoke, he mechanically shifted to his good side slow and steady, wincing only slightly.

He brought his arms up out of the blanket to his pounding head and rubbed his eyes. They felt bruised and watery. He just breathed for a second, then when he felt sure enough, he opened them.

His vision was hazy, but that was to be expected.

He blinked slowly.

Was he on the floor?

The only times he ever slept on the floor was at either Tucker's or Sam's house.

Did he stay over after a fight or something? Was it skulker again? He couldn't remember for the half-life of him.

Suddenly, the heavy scent of copper wafted up to his nose-the smell so potent, it had to be more than just his.

Someone else was hurt.

After that, he became much more aware and began to sit up.

Then he stopped.

And kinda stared.

The walls-and the floor-were made out of ice?

…

Did he do that?

He looked closer.

There was careful tribal-like design etched into the walls and beyond that, the ice was smooth, smoother than he'd ever been able to make his ice. All in all, it was pretty, and well thought out.

So no.

He didn't do that.

Then there was his little make-shift bed.

Under him, there was thick fur, so thick it almost felt like a mattress, and above him was a heavy stack of brown and blue dyed animal skins. They smelled slightly stale, almost cardboard like.

He shimmied up a little more, still a little to warm under the load.

That's when he noticed he was shirtless.

Well, except for the makeshift bandage covering his upper arm, torso, and shoulder. He prodded at it for a couple seconds, testing what stage the injury was at. He came to the conclusion that it would probably only hurt for a day or two more before it was back to 100%.

"You're awake?" He jumped and snapped his head to the right where a woman was standing. She, herself, had jumped at his reaction. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

She was a bit on the older side, maybe a little older than his mother and she was dirty. Post perspiration shone on her forehead and what he thought looked like soot decorated her clothes, which consisted of a long dress like shirt, thick pants, and fur boots - all of it was made of light blue animal skins.

She was slumped over with small bags under her icy eyes, small indications of her old age. "I thought you'd be asleep a little longer."

"Um… I- where?" He stammered over his words and took an assessing look around. There were other people, like him, lying in a variety of bundles. Their limbs hung out of the blankets, all bandaged to some degree.

Guess they're the other hurt people.

…

The room was relatively small, with a high ceiling. There was a decent sized door across on the other side of the room and he was two feet from the farthest wall.

"You're at the Northern Water Tribe."

…

Her voice cut through his wonderings.

So… definitely not Tuckers or Sams.

The woman came closer and got down on her knees next to him. His eyes tracked all her movements as she slowly reached over to pull some of the stacked blankets away (which he was thankful for) then she spoke.

"My name is Tonarri. I- " She hesitated. "-found you outside the chieftains home yesterday night. Do you remember anything?"

"I don't-" He attempted to raise an arm to rub the back of his neck but was reminded of his injury. He winced and looked away. "Did you say.. water tribe?"

"Yes."

"Ah…" His eyebrows furrowed. "Okay."

I'm somewhere completely new… never heard of a water tribe before. What happened? Did I go through a door in the Ghost Zone or something? Or did I go back in time?

He thought hard about it and just when he was about to give up on remembering, it all came crashing back. The fight with Skulker, the blistering cold, the weird berserk ghost… then - Clockwork.

He groaned and rubbed at his temples.

God dammit

"Are you alright?" The woman, Tonarri, was watched him intently. "Is your shoulder hurting?"

The halfa sighed tiredly and looked back up at her. "O-only a little bit, but it's nothing."

She looked concerned, eyebrows creased the same way his mothers would when he came home hours after curfew. She looked about to say something, but stopped, and said something else.

"Do you need any anything? Water? Food?"

He was feeling a little thirsty. "Water would be awesome, thanks."

She nodded - shifting over towards a couple bowls by his feet he hadn't noticed were there before. One was full of clear water and the other was filled with some murky substance. Based on the bloody rags lying next to it, he assumed the murky stuff was blood. Most likely his blood.

"Alright. After you drink something, I'd like to take off your bandage and see how your injury is doing after its treatment last night." As she spoke her hand hovered over the clear water bowl. "I'm one of the water tribe's best healers so you're in good hands."

She made a small movement with her wrist, then the water actually came flowing up out of the bowl and to his face. Later, if you asked him how he reacted, he would say that he, in fact, did not jump in surprise and that he did not karate chop the water out of the air.

"Whoa!" He shuffled back. "What was that?!"

Tonarri looked genuinely flabbergasted. For a second he felt a tad guilty, having almost given the older woman a heart attack. "T-That was water bending… have you never seen bending before child?"

He didn't really know how to respond to that.

But one thing's for sure, he really had no idea where he was now. People aren't supposed to control water, especially living people.

Sensing his discomfort, Tonarri simply reached over and picked the bowl up with her dainty hands. She brought it closer to him, clearly wanting him to take it but Danny looked at it skeptically.

"I'm… suddenly not very thirsty." A lie, but he just wasn't sure about all this. Magic water? He needed to distract her so he could figure this all out. "... Do you think you could get me some food instead?"

Tonarri blinked, slowly placing the bowl back on the ground. "Of course child. I'll be right back."

She got up and walked away. Once she went through the door on the other side of the room, Danny gave one look around to see if any of the other injured people were looking his way. Finding no one was, he promptly went invisible then intangible and slid out of the rest of the blankets and through the wall.

The sun was out, bright and blazing.

The sudden light had him bringing his arm up to offer some shade. But he felt like a fool when it didn't help at all due to his intangibility.

He quickly dropped it.

The air was light and frigid outside, a pretty significant change to the humid and thick air of the room he was just in.

He shivered slightly and crossed his arms over his partially naked chest.

Making a quick decision, he went back to the room and inconspicuously grabbed one of the blankets on his pile before going back out.

He turned invisible and transformed to his ghost half, taking to the sky to see if he could tell where he was. It didn't take him long to figure out that he didn't.

He was basically in the arctic and last time he checked, there was no arctic places close to Amity. Let alone an entire community as big as this one was.

But he had to admit, the place was an incredible sight.

The sun shone on ice houses and intricately built bridges, blinding but beautiful. The whole city was within high ice walls shaped in a circle. The room he had phased out of, was actually apart of a huge palace. The shape and size of it reminded him of some sort of Aztec temple. It had one predominant water looking symbol etched on the side of it and, finding the same symbol all around the city, he came to the conclusion that it was probably the people's tribal symbol or something that resembled a flag for a nation. There were also a lot of people bustling about, all dressed in the same type of fashioned animal skins as Tonarri.

Frostbite would have a field day here

He took a closer look - and noticed that something was off. People were clumping around specific areas - destroyed areas - reconstructing bridges and structures with the movements of their body - turning the water from multiple canals into ice. The biggest clump were gathered around an ice wall dividing the city from the sea, which was where the most damage was - whatever happened, it was recent and the attack had come from beyond the horizon.

It explained why so many people were hurt.

But who had attacked them? Why?

The halfa frowned and drifted into to a random alley. No one was around so he dropped his invisibility and sunk down to the ground. He leaned onto the small wall behind him and rested his elbows on his knees. His thick white hair hung down in front of his eyes and he sighed, the breath coming out in a thick puff. In a flash he was Fenton again.

His eyes narrowed and he pulled the blanket tight to his body.

What was supposed to happen now? How was he supposed to get home? What game was Clockwork playing?

Grahhnnn

A loud guttural sound interrupted his thoughts. The teen's head shot up.

When the sound came again, it came from his left. He got up and wandered towards it.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to go towards the strange sound when your in a territory that isn't yours, but hey, it was in his nature - plus it was better to see a potential enemy first, then get the drop from said enemy later on.

Though what he found behind the corner wasn't something he was expecting.

It was a… Bison?

But it was huge.

And had… 6 legs?

With a big beaver-like tail.

That's new

The animal was eating from a large stack of hay, jaws crunching loudly. It's fur looked incredibly soft, and being a creamy color only made it look softer. He found himself oddly compelled to touch it.

Slowly, he stepped out from around the corner and took a couple floating steps forward. He didn't get that far before the big animal's head turned to look directly at him. The halfa jumped and almost bolted, but as the creature looked at him, he found that he couldn't look away. For a long while they both examined each other. The big bison then took a couple big steps towards him.

Danny didn't react, afraid if he moved, he'd scare or provoke the animal. The bison sniffed him, then made a strange grunting sound before it's huge tongue came out and licked him - and he means really licked him. As in, two seconds and he was covered in what had to be gallons of slobber.

His eyes widened.

The thick slime dripped onto the floor and looped between his sides and arms. The teen shivered in disgust then, abruptly, started laughing. "I guess you're a friendly giant then, huh?"

His body went intangible and the drool fell to the ground with a quiet splash. He took a couple steps closer and started petting its large arrow head. He (or she) quickly nuzzled into his arms.

"Well," A large smile spread onto the teen's face. "if this whole thing ends up being a bust, at least I got to meet you."

The animal made an approving noise in the back of it's throat.

Danny probably spent the better part of an hour with the bison. Petting, playing, feeding… Since he blipped to this strange place, he felt like everything would be okay.

He was in the middle of rubbing the bison's stomach when, out of nowhere, a small projectile rammed into his side. The teen yelped and almost tumbled down from the force, but was able to keep himself upright.

The projectile screeched, loud and annoying in his face.

…

A flying lemur.

…

With bat wings.

…

He really shouldn't have been surprised, but he was.

It started flying around him, screeching like tucker when he didn't get his 3 o'clock snack. It flew so fast and so close, he stumbled back before landing, non-too gracefully, on his butt. When he was down the lemur stopped berating him just as fast as it started. It turned and zoomed back the same way it had came.

Danny blinked, he turned to the bison for some sort of explanation of the bizarre event.

The animal was still lying on his side - stomach up - probably completely unaware of what just happened. That - or it knew and didn't care.

The halfa got up on one knee and started dusting off the small bit of snow that had gotten on his pants. "That was weird."

He stared at where the lemur had gone then looked up to the sky. It was getting pretty close to evening - the sky starting to gain a purplish hue. He must've been out for the first half the day before he woke up.

…

What now?

…

Part of him wanted to just start flying around again, even try his chances at going across the sea to find his home, but another, slightly more rational part of him, felt the need to go back to the room he woke up in and curl back into the mountain of blankets to sleep off the hovering exhaustion still in his head. He wasn't completely healed yet, his shoulder still ached and his bones were still sore from the near hypothermic temperatures he endured the day before. Subconsciously he picked up the blanket he had set down earlier and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Would he be able to trust the people here?

He had to assume the lady he woke up to wasn't the only one who could control water and if that was true, the people are potentially dangerous.

But he did want to find his clothes, or at least a shirt. The pants he wore now were fine, but he would really appreciate a layer or two for his torso. Especially since the warmth was slowly leaving with the sun.

…

His stomach rumbled.

…

Maybe he should've stayed for the food.

…

Danny turned back towards the bison. He found his hand coming out of the warmth of his blanket and into the fur of the animal's head. "I'm gonna head out buddy, it was nice to meet someone as cool as you though."

The big creature let out a small roar. The halfa smiled.

"Hey!"

A little more than 3000 words - not to mention an update. Sorry not sorry it took so long! Hope you enjoyed! Give a review, ask me some questions, favorite… read it and forget about it within a week - idk, I'm good with anything XD

Next chapt. will probably be out relatively soon, I've been feeling pretty inspired lately to be even more productive than I already am.

But between work, school, soccer, basketball, family, and my new puppy (He's amazing XD) I can't promise anything - plus I want to make every chapter pretty long - there's nothing I hate more than a super short chapter update.

Anyways! Catch y'all later!