-Charm's POV-
I think it's almost four hours that we have been in Chico's back as we travel the vast ocean waters towards North Coast, where we can locate Ziv Village from there.
While we are approaching North Coast, I notice that the weather gets colder every minute. Even Trash starts to complain regarding this cold weather, so I immediately cast a spell to protect each one of us from freezing over here.
On our entire trip, I suddenly remembered Jade and her stories about us, you know that merchant who helped me pass Citadel's entrance without getting detected. She mentioned there that deities like us are near to extinction. I wonder if it is true.
"Baal, I have a question. So about deities, like..." I started. I saw Baal's head turned to look at me. "...Except for me, are there any deities secretly living as well?"
I was kinda nervous to ask honestly. What if Jade was right? What if we are actually near to extinction? What if... *gasp*... I'm the only one deity existing nowadays?
"Don't worry, there are other deities who are secretly living to survive this Witch Hunt just as you do." he answered, that immediately made me smile. "If we are lucky, maybe we can meet other deities on our way and make some allies to help you on your mission."
Hmmm... make some allies huh? That sounds like a brilliant idea!
"We are here."
My series of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by Chico's deep voice. I immediately looked up and was soon greeted by the vast land made of pure snow and giant ice glaciers.
"Finally, a land that I could step on!" I cheerfully said as I dropped myself on the snowy ground and formed a snow angel.
It was really a scary experience to travel by sea with nothing to see but waters all around me. It kinda makes me dizzy. After a few seconds, Baal decides to jump from Chico's back.
I quickly stood up and faced the talking gigantic tortoise.
"Thank you Chico. We couldn't make it here without your help." I sincerely said, a smile then formed on my lips.
"It is my pleasure to serve you, Deity Charm." Chico said in his formal and serious tone. I instantly blushed when he called me by that name.
"Be safe on your journey back to Misty Cave!" I bid my farewell to Chico as he now slowly makes its way again towards the water. I waved at him.
As he is now slowly fading in our sight, I then turned to face my companion here.
"Let's go Baal." I said.
"You can ride on my back for us to travel quickly towards Ziv Village." he suggested. Ouch, so he secretly implies that I'm the slow poke here?
Even though it hurts my ego, I unwillingly rode on his back and afterwards we started to move towards the village of Eskimos.
"You know where we're going, right?" I asked just to start a conversation with him.
You know, since we both embark on this journey, better start a friendship with him in the process. Operation: be best buddies with this grumpy, talking tiger!
"Are you questioning my sense of direction?" he grumpily asks. In just a blink of an eye, all of my hopes of building a friendly relationship with him disappeared.
"N-no, it's just that-"
I was soon cut off when I suddenly sensed a powerful force that seems to to be on its way to our direction. I bet Baal felt that too, since he starts to jump to his right all of a sudden. It was then that whatever this magical power was soon reached us and made a blast.
Since I wasn't able to make a grasp on Baal because of that sudden movement, I went flying several inches away from my companion. Where the heck did that powerful force come from anyway?
"Oh... it's only rare for me to see a guardian animal and a deity to set foot here in North Coast."
I was quite surprised to hear someone, particularly a girl my age, other than us speaking at this moment. My eyes quickly scanned the whole place until it landed on a tall-looking girl who's height I think is between 5'8 to 6 foot, has a hair as white as snow which tied into a ponytail, pinkish lips, and a pair of almond-shaped sapphire eyes that's currently looking at us.
I can feel from her presence a powerful magical force. The blue metal wand with a crescent moon shape on top of it is indeed the proof that she is one of us.
I can't believe it! I found another deity!
"Hey! I'm so happy to find another deity-" Before I can finish my sentence, she blasted us again with her freezing spell, causing blocks of ice to slowly cover mine and Baal's body starting from our foot. Impaling us from moving.
What the heck is this? Why is she attacking us?
I noticed her take a few steps and locked her gaze at my bag which is packed with food and other supplies that we will need for our journey.
"Ooooh... You have the things I need!" she happily stated as she scans what's inside my bag. Then she slowly took the strap out of my shoulder. "Finders keepers!"
Blocks of ice soon start to make its way towards my chest that makes it more impossible for me to move.
"Why are you doing this? Why are you stealing from one of your kind?" I shouted to this girl who's now slyly making her escapade from us.
She was about to chant a teleportation spell when she paused for a bit and decided to look at me. A smirk instantly formed at the corner of her lips as she looked at each one of us.
"Hmmm... let's just say I'm looking for ways to survive?" she says with a hint of sarcasm. With that, she starts again to do the teleportation spell.
Oh no.. this is not good. I can't let her get away with this!
With my hands now covered with this huge block of ice caused by her freezing spell, there's no other way for me to melt this ice but to breath into it until it melts. I inhaled a large amount of air that I could gather, and with one full blow, I heaved a large amount of hot, steamy air somewhere beneath my right hand to free it.
Just when I felt that my right hand could slowly move, I gathered all of my energy and concentrated it to my right hand, causing this part to smoke in the process. Later, with my right hand now free from the freezing spell, I easily melted the whole blocks of ice covering my entire body and freed Baal as well.
I then raised my right hand upward and soon my wand appeared.
"Ignis Atque Flammarum!"
With a wave of my hand, I erased the magic circle that this girl already made for her escape using a circle of blazing flames that now surrounds her, cancelling the teleportation spell that she was attempting to make.
"No, it can't be!" she shouted, looking flabbergasted while casting her ice magic to put out these flames. "I used some level 4 ice magic spell back there! There's no way for you to escape that attack!"
"As you can see, I'm a fire magic wielder. Fire can melt ice, no matter how much level of ice magic you use." It's now my turn to smirk at her.
"Oh? Is that so? Are you challenging me into a duel?" she says, switching to her fighting stance. "Let's bring it on!"
"No! It's not what you think--"
"Sed Spinas Glacies!"
Well, too late for me to explain. She already chanted another level 4 fire spell which caused large spikes of ice to suddenly rise up from the ground just beneath my feet.
Luckily though, I managed to dodge her upcoming attack on time by leaping several feet above the ground and countered the attack with two large fireballs, causing the ice thorns to disperse right away.
"Wait! Why are we fighting?! I didn't intend to challenge you into a duel!" I tried to explain but this stubborn girl just keeps on shooting me with her ice magic which I quickly dodged. "We should be allies here!"
"Why do you keep on running? Afraid of losing, aren't we?" Her lips formed into another set of evil smirk.
"You're not my enemy! And I meant you no harm!" I quickly responded.
"PYU! PYU!" I heard Trash complain which I held with my other free hand.
This stubborn girl is so close-minded that she doesn't even try to listen and keeps on shooting ice spikes all over the place to catch me off guard. I'm also starting to get tired of all this dodging to her upcoming attacks.
Later on, during my one last dodge with her ice spike, as I ducked my head to avoid the sharp-pointed spike coming towards me, it instead went into a nearby large ice glacier, splitting it into two.
We then heard a loud thud coming from the direction of the glacier, and afterwards we both witnessed a large chunk of ice falling towards our direction.
I wasted no time and quickly chanted a level 3 fire spell
"Flagellum Blazing!"
My wand suddenly morphed into a whip of blazing flames upon casting the said spell. I made another leap in the air and sliced the upcoming chunk of ice into two as my body descends. These two chunks of ice separately made their way towards both sides of the area to where we are currently standing, creating another loud thud upon landing.
I smoothly landed on the ground and immediately turned to look at this stubborn girl who made this mess.
"Are you alright?" I asked with a genuine hint of concern in my tone.
She was not able to respond to that immediately since she still seems to be dumbfounded from what she just witnessed.
"Stop this nonsense!"
Finally! I heard Baal spoke for the first time since the freezing incident when he had recovered from it. He slowly made his way towards us, his tail swinging behind him.
"You should know that the one you're attacking is the chosen one of the supreme deities!" Baal warned the girl here. I noticed her gasped in astonishment upon hearing that.
"How do I know if you're speaking the truth?" Her facial expression then turned into a serious one with a hint of suspicion on her tone.
"Because I'm Baal, Deity Morrel's guardian animal."Baal answered.
After that brief introduction, it seems that this girl is now convinced and quickly handed back to me the bag she stole from me earlier.
"I'm sorry for stealing your bag..." she awkwardly said, both eyes glued on the ground. "...and for suddenly attacking you as well."
I gladly took the bag from her and looked at her..
"Let's just forget about it. I can somehow know where you're coming from." I smilingly said with one hand resting on her shoulder. "Because of the Witch Hunt, you have nowhere else to go and no one to trust that's why you're capable of doing this."
"We are in the same situation. I also have no one to trust nowadays except for this guardian animal over here. Nonetheless, I never even thought of stealing from someone else's belongings."
"It actually depends on us how to handle situations such as this...and how to make decisions in our lives."
By the end of my statement, I was quite surprised when this stubborn girl suddenly grabbed me for a tight embrace before I heard her sobbing into my chest, hands clutching the fabric of the black lace dress I'm currently wearing. I didn't know what to do so I rested my right hand and gently rubbed her back.
After several sobs, she then pulls away from me. With her blinking lashes looking at me with the remaining tears in her eyes, she forced a smile and gently whispered at me.
"Thank you, my friend."