The Castle of Ice

Athilea Majiri

   She was alone, legend to all, but alone none the less. No one ever came to see here because they didn't believe she existed. She was alone. Her mind was slipping away, yet there was no one there to help her. She couldn't keep a hold of it, not even the adventerers made it to her home. They were all to weak to climb to the peak her home rested on. She remained alone.
   The stories that had been passed through her family made no difference. They didn't help keep her warm at night on her icy bed. She knew that no one would ever come. There was no such thing as love being predicted by the stars. She grew to hate the one the story told her of, and devised a plan for what would be done if he ever showed his face on her mountain top. She had lost grasp of her sanity, and was slipping further and further away.
    She walked through the corridors of her icy prison with a dagger in her hand, dragging it along the walls. The inside of the castle had been destroyed. It was not longer beautiful, but the outside had been left alone. It was all part of her plan. If she were to destroy the outside of the caslte then no one would be attracted to it. She had even set a spell to go off when a human decided to pass into the boundries of her little world.
   
    One day there was a man finally made it to the top of the tallest mountain, one that few had even dared to try. He was amazed by the beauty of the place and fell, exhausted, to his knees. He stayed that way for a while as he looked at the blocks of ice that had been carved so perfectly to look like the stone of a normal caslte. In front of the castle there was a tree of ice, it was tall and delicate looking, but it had no leaves. Everything there seemed to be made of ice, even the sculpted animals that sat upon the ground or the various ice plants. It was an absolutely breath taking sight.
    
    Finally her chance had come, someone had dared to approach her home and she would deal with them easily. She wondered if it were a man or woman, what race they were. It didn't matter in the long run though because they would all be falling into her trap. They would all meet the same fate as far as she was concerend. She hurried out to a balcony and began to sing as she comed her long strands of snow white hair. Whoever it was would soon come to see the vocalist and she knew it.

    Then he heard it, the singing that was promenant in the legend. It flowed to his ears upon a chill breeze and filled him with thoughts of winter. It was a hauntingly beautiful sound that brought him to tears. He had to find the owner of that voice, and find out if there were others here. He relunctantly stood up and made his way closer to the castle.
     He did not have to go far, for the maiden was sitting on a balcony that was easy to see from below. She was breath taking with long white hair and pale skin. It was obvious that she had not seen much as far as the sun when, but it kept her complection perfect. She had not blemishes as far as he could see. Her eyes were so blue that they pierced into his soul as they slowly turned to look at him and the brush fell from a slender, nervlous hand.
     
     She was taken aback, it was unexpected. She was expecting someone that was far stronger, and more handsome then he was. But this man still had a certain appeal, with the scar that ran across his right eyes, black hair, and bushy beared. He was darker then her, she had never seen skin that wasn't almost as white as her hair but there was a man standing before her with that hair now. She didn't know what to think.
     After a moment she shook her head and ran inside. 'I still have to complete my plain. I don't care how unexpected he is.' She grabbed up the poisened dagger that she had stached for just this occassion, but she still hoped that it would not come to that. She wanted to play with him a little before she had to strike. Before she when out she pulled on the warm fur lined blue dress that had also been kept perfect for just such an occasion. She then pushed the dagger down into one of her black boots and made her way to the front of the castle where he would surely be waiting.

     He saw her run inside and feared that he would not see her again. He went to the door and started to push on it, but it would not budge. He tried to pull on it, but still to no avail. He was about to use his axe to break into it when the woman came out with an angelic smile on her face. It was all that he could do not to fall to his knees and beg her to come with him. He had to be cautious because one can never know when the very beautiful creature before them turns out to be exteremly dangerous.
    It was hard for him to concentrate with such beauty before him though. He just could not stay on guard while looking into those startling blue eyes. So he quickly fell into the spell that was her alure. Though she had known she was attractive, she didn't realize just how much she could accomplish by just being near a man. She found herself wondering just how much more she could make him do.

     Years passed with the brave adventeror acting as a servent to the Ice Maiden, as she forced him to call her. She would never reveal her name which made him believe that she did not even know what it was. No matter how often he tried he could not raise a hand to harm her though. He was hopelessly in love with the cruel being. She would never look at him that way though. His only good memories of her was when they had first met, but even then she was putting him under her spell.
     It didn't take much longer before it began to wear off though. She didn't get old quickly, but nor did she stay young a beautiful. She was still and exteremly attractive woman, not aging as harshly as most he had met, yet he found it easier to hate her for what she had done to him. Finally he had had enough.
     He decided that it was time to end it, and that he was ready to leave this place of ice, this prison he had been forced to resculpt on several occasions after a spell of her insanity had passed. One night, after she had fallen asleep on the bed of furs he had brought her, he snuck up into her room and carefully grabbed the dagger that lay on the table next to her. Unknown to him it was the one she had poisened before he came, and ensured remained poisened just incase he got out of line.
     The man raised the dagger and when he lowered it felt her skin and bone give way as he sunk it into her heart. Her eyes widened and she reached up to him, her face twisted with pain as a scream filled the room and echoed around the mountain top. He pushed the dagger father into her chest, ignoring her pleas for him to stop, just as she had ignored his.
     He turned when the dead was done and made his way out of the castle. She was still alive and screaming on the bed, pinned down and poisened it would not be long before she died. She had enough strength to get out one last spell that ensure she would not be the only one that died this day though. As he pushed the large frozen castle doors open a sharp blade fell from above and ended his life.

     After that day no one has returned to the castle on the mountain. Very few even remembered the legends based around that castle, and the breed of adventerers had all but died out. There was still talk for years after of the screams that could be heard that night though, and of the blood tinted snow that could still be seen from a distance on that peek. The peek that had become known as Bloodcap peek.

©2006 Pamela "Athilea" Johnson All Rights Reserved