Everyone in the courtyard stared at their king enveloped in blinding white flames.
Wren clenched her fists as her plaited hair swayed. "I'm not going down easily!" She waved her hands towards the sky.
Randall narrowed his eyes. "Hmm… What is she up to?" he wondered.
The clouds above them suddenly twirled together, forming a huge black hole at the center. Randall looked at the sky in amazement at what his daughter was doing. A huge mass of snow and ice slid swiftly from the hole. Wren twisted her left hand; the snow and ice rotated into a tornado. Wren's handler hid herself behind a pillar while the royal guards were struggling to stand still as their yellow capes threatened to tear off their shoulders in the powerful wind.
Thank goodness the courtyard structure can withstand the force. Should I do it now? she wondered, observing the growing damage her storm was causing to the courtyard's floor.
Wren directed the cyclone towards Randall. A direct hit! The white flame was extinguished! Only clouds and gloom were left. And silence. It was almost deafening.
"Father, are you alright?" she asked, as the ice pillars beneath her feet moved towards Randall's last known position. She spotted a shadow lying inside the fog. "Father?!" she cried, jogging closer, afraid she'd gone too far.
Suddenly, Randall illuminated, laughing as he flew up above the fog, surrounded by his white flames. "My dear, don't worry about your clumsy old father." He looked at Wren, the playfulness gone from his eyes. "You've certainly grown in your abilities since I last faced you. I suppose I should treat you as a serious adversary. Let's see if you can withstand my attacks!"
Wren smirked. "All right, Father, bring it-" She leapt to avoid a laser beam fired from Randall's finger. "Too fast!" she thought, as she rolled to her feet. Randall fired more beams at her. She responded by shooting spiky icicles which collided with the laser beams, making the whole courtyard so foggy they could barely even see their outstretched arms, let alone each other.
Wren tore through the fog at Randall. He dodged her spin kick, blocking it with his hands. Immediately, Wren turned her arms into large ice arms, lashing out at Randall in the air with both them and the ice pillars on her feet.
Randall dodged, shielding himself using his laser beams as Wren's moves became faster by the moment, almost pushing through her father's defenses.
Meanwhile, Wren's handler and the guards looked at them fighting in the sky in amazement.
"Is she actually adapting to her father's speed?" The handler murmured, she glanced at the cape. It was still emitting lava out from the ground, though more slowly due to all the ice. Outside the castle Humanes from afar felt both sultry and frosty, wondering what was going on.
Wren fired bubbles from both palms as she twisted around Randall.
He looked at the bubbles. "Not that same move again, my dear?" Randall said with a smile. Suddenly, the bubbles flew up, Randall followed them with his eyes, surprised. Can bubbles move like that? he thought. Then they stopped, hanging in midair. Suddenly, the bubbles charged towards him, changing into a long beam of icy spikes, striking the ground of the courtyard as Randall tried to dodge them.
He couldn't move! The ice spikes were all over him, holding him fast. Wren dashed at the king with her two large frozen arms pulled back, ready for the coming blows. Randall melted the icy spikes with ease, meeting his daughter. The Princess's eyes widened as Randall held her by the hand, melting her frozen arms.
Wren struggled but she couldn't remove her hands from his tight grip. She smirked.
Her father smiled indulgently. "Happy your father won?" he said.
"I don't think so!" Wren shouted as her body fully turned into ice.
Randall blinked.
"She finally made her first ice clone, not bad." Wren's handler whispered.
Randall still held Wren's frozen body, too surprised to realize what had occurred. Wren stepped out from the fog behind her father. Stunned, Randall couldn't reacted fast enough. Wren slammed him from behind with her frozen arms, creating a force field that cracked the courtyard's floor, making a crater beneath Randall. He tilted his head back at Wren, breathing heavily, then removed his hand from the frozen clone as it dropped to the ground, shattering all over the courtyard.
"You never cease to amaze me." He looked at his shoulder. "You actually repelled my white flames from my shoulder, breaking my protective shield." He smiled. "Like father, like daughter."
The king and the princess were still in the air as the fog slowly faded away. Randall looked at Wren's handler and the housemaids hiding behind a single pillar. When did they come in? he pondered while looking at the handmaids. He scanned the courtyard. It seemed strangely full of debris, with ice melting and little ponds of water in every crater they'd created.
His eyes widened. "Handler, what happened to the courtyard?!" he shouted.
Wren also looked down at the courtyard in shock. "What have we done?" she said.
Her handler ran to the courtyard and bowed. "Sorry, my king, I should have protected the courtyard with my barrier but I didn't think it would end like this. I'm truly sorry, my King, please forgive me!" she pleaded.
Randall put out his white flames as Wren removed her hands, frozen arms long melted, from her father's shoulders.
Randall looked to his daughter. "Let's get down, shall we?" He turned to wren with a smile, extending his hand to her.
She giggled. "Absolutely, Father." She held her father's hand as he descended back to the ground.
Reaching the ground, Randall said, "Go freshen up for dinner, my dear."
Wren bowed. "Okay, Father."
The king bowed back with a smile. As she left with her handmaids while they all giggled together, her handler walked over to Randall.
He turned to her with a smile. "Should we tell her, Beth?" Randall whispered, looking Beth straight in the eye.
"That she is getting stronger?" Beth asked, staring back. "I believe she might already know."
"No, not that," Randall said, as he took Beth's waist in his hands. "About our relationship." His eyes were tender now, as they gazed at her.
"My King, I... am- She will never accept me, though she loves me as her handler. But to be your wife, her step-mother, how is she going to react to me taking her mother's place at your side?" Beth said.
Randall shook his head. "She's known no mother figure but you since her mother died giving birth to her and she needs a mother now that she is growing into a lady. You've always taken good care of my child for me. I will soon step down as the king and live my life as I have dreamed. And you are part of that dream." Randall held her hands. "Everyone knows about us; I'm surprised she hasn't noticed. We have to tell her."
She removed her hands from his and turned. "I'm not ready yet. What about her mother?"
"Her mother? She knew I loved you even before I married her. The wedding was purely to create an alliance between the Water Nymph kingdom. I don't mean to say I never loved her after, but..." Randall sighed as he held Beth's shoulder and gently turned her to him. "Wren is the best thing that has ever happened in my life, besides you, and I need you to be in my life once again, as you always should have been."
Suddenly Randall sniffed, smelling something melting. Beth also sniffed. Randall spotted his cape dissolving the ground beneath it. He rushed to his cape, grabbed it before it could do anymore damage, and put it back on. He sighed.
"Your hydrocarbon. Where did you even get that word from?" Beth joked.
Randall turned to Beth with a smile. She smiled back, immediately.
"I will think about it, my king," she said with a bow. Randall nodded and left the courtyard believing he'd finally convinced her to openly be at his side and tell his daughter about their relationship.