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 Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:14 am
The Ice Kingdom
by Sukie Frost
The winter princess there did sit,
On throne of ice and frost,
Whistling up a chill, for fun,
Though her land was all but lost.
Her nemesis, the prince of cold,
Knocked at the door in glee,
But it was sealed, with her own life,
Against evils such as he.
Without her, he could not win,
The world would not be his,
So she sat and waited, for him to change,
And greet her with a kiss.
But then he left; he couldn't change,
Not for all his might,
Nor could he stay, by himself,
Lost without his light.
Time went by, and he was trapped,
In a world grown old,
Wondering just how he'd stepped through,
Into this place so cold.
A world of myths and fantasy,
Far from what they'd known,
When they both just students,
Heroes, long ago...
Bethan took the last of her clothes out of her wardrobe, and shut the doors. Turning to pack her last blouse into her suitcase, she saw a carefully written note, pinned to her pillow. It hadn't been there before.
Moreover, it was covered in a layer of frost, which was melting onto Bethan's pillow.
As she picked it up and read it, to wondered to herself, Who was Sukie Frost?
The poem, the first half of it anyway, reminded her of a story she'd heard... she rushed to tell Ava.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:53 am
Snow fell in Coldice City, as it did in Larkford and the area around it, covering everything in a blanket of snow, stopping everybody in their tracks. Luna Terry held her children to her, curled in a blanket by the fireplace, and told them stories to calm them during the blizzard. Stories told to her in other blizzards, when she was at school.  "This is the story of the ice kingdom, and the winter princess, and the prince of cold... In the beginning, there were two ordinary children, called Sukie Frost and William Dreame. Well, I say ordinary; really they had superpowers, just like you will one day. Sukie was a telepath, and she could call to somebody from the other side of the world. As well as that, she could make snow in winter, for all her friends. And she had a lot of friends. Everybody loved Sukie. She was the most popular and beautiful girl in school.  William, on the other hand, had no friends and no family. His power was his ability to daydream. He could put himself into a different world, one he made up, and he could put other people in too, if they wanted. But they never did. Anyway, one day William met Sukie, just briefly, in the hall. He held the door open for her, and she smiled and said thank you. William thought she was the most lovely girl he'd ever seen, and he fell right in love with her. But she didn't love him. To her, he was just a strange boy who stared at her all day, and she started to get angry with him, and avoid him, and above all, she fixed him with her icy stare and told him to go away... because she was powerful. If she said something, you did it, because she was so popular, and everybody loved her. And now we come to exciting part... William had a plan. He would put her in a world where she wasn't popular, and he was, and see if she loved him then. So he lured her to his room one day, room 1, and asked her if she would give him one kiss on the cheek, and then he'd never talk to her or look at her or think about her again... and she agreed. As soon as she touched his cheek with her lips, she vanished into his world. His idea had been to make a world in which he was the king, but Sukie resisted him, and the world was changed...  She was princess of a dying kingdom, and he was the kind and gentle prince who would marry her and make it better. And so, she fell in love with him, because who wouldn't fall in love with a kind and handsome prince? Then, on the eve of their wedding, she had a dream. The dream was of what had happened in his room that day, when he had brought her to the new world, and then she remembered it all. Weeping bitterly, she filled the land with snow and ice, and shut herself in her throne room. So William went mad with sorrow, and began to conquer the kingdom, threatening to harm Sukie's subjects if she didn't come out. But, even though she did love him at one time, she couldn't bring herself to see him. So she sealed herself into her chamber, and put herself to sleep. With her unconscious, William found he couldn't get them out of the dream... Maybe one day she'll wake up, and he'll change his mind, and let her go... But anyway, it's just a story, it's not true..."  She looked down and saw that her kids had fallen asleep, probably with boredom. "Well," she whispered to herself, "It could be true... they did disappear. Sukie dropped that book, didn't she? Her book of fairy stories... The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Snow Queen, Rapunzel..."
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Valerian Eclipse Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:01 am
Ava sat on her bed in her dorm, watching the snow fall outside her window. It seemed quite peaceful to her. She sighed and glanced at her engagment ring on her left hand. She then stared down at her black boots and her light blue jeans that had tiny tears in them. She wasn't wearing a jacket, for she wasn't cold. She was almost never cold. Her red hair fell down in ringlets onto her shoulders. Slowly, she stood up and layed flat on her stomach on the floor. She peered underneath her bed. She hesitated, and then reached in. A second later, she pulled out a small trunk and stared at it. It needed a key. Ava put her hand into her back jean pocket and pulled one out that seemed to match. She turned her head to look at her dorm door, which was open. With a wave of her hand, it slammed shut. Ava put the key into the lock and it clicked open quietly. She flipped the trunk open carefully, as though it was about to break. There was a pile of knick-knacks inside. Also, a small journal and a bunch of photos. One particular photo stood out. She picked it up and examined it. A young woman and a little girl about the age of seven were there. They both looked identical-bright red hair and green eyes. They smiled together. Ava cringed as though she had just been slapped in the face. Like the photo and the trunk were on fire, she dropped the photo in the trunk and slid it under her bed quickly. Immediately, she was mad at herself for even opening it. She tried to hold back tears as she jumped up and ran out of her room. I'm okay...I'm okay.... She kept telling herself, though it probably wasn't true. She walked down the hallways, trying to calm herself down. Ava smiled when she spotted Bethan a ways away and waved at her.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:22 am
Bethan crunched her way through the snow drift in the entrance hall from the bottom of the stairs to Ava. "Hey, I think we might have a problem... Come into my room?"
She went to turn her laptop on and access the archives.
"There were these two kids, about 5 years ago, called Sukie Frost, and William Dreame... and they disappeared. But, I think they're connected to that old story... Can you hear music? Like a music box or something?"
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Valerian Eclipse Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:30 am
Ava nodded and followed Bethan. "They disappeared?" She repeated in disbelief. Her eyebrows raised as she heard the music Bethan spoke of and nodded. "Where do you think it is?" She asked.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:42 am
Bethan shut her eyes and tried to listen, to hear where the music was coming from... "Above us I think? The attic rooms? Hey, didn't they used to be students' rooms? I think..." She turned to her screen and opened a window of information on Sukie Frost. "Yep, she was in the room above us. Let's go!"
The wind was still howling and the snow beat on the glass.
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Valerian Eclipse Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:49 am
A grin spread across Ava's face. She loved adventure! She was feeling better already. She ran upstairs to the attic. She couldn't deny it, but the rooms up there had a really creepy feeling to them. She was almost scared to go up. Ava smiled as her boots pounded on the wooden stairs and she nodded at Bethan.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:10 pm
Bethan followed, black mary janes clicking on the old wooden floor behind Ava. Finding the right room, she pulled the cobweb curtain from the door. It creaked as she slowly pushed it open.
Terrified, she stepped into the room to find...
It was just a teenage girl's room, decorated with posters, and photos. there was even a textbook open on the desk. But there was a layer of ice coating the whole room, and the floor was slippery with it... A tinny version of the Waltz of the Snowflakes from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker came from the wardrobe.
"Ava? Should I?"
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Valerian Eclipse Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:17 pm
Ava followed Bethan in and a chuckle escaped her lips. It was normal. There really wasn't anything to be scared about. In one swift movement, she slipped on the ice and fell down on her butt. She laughed out loud and got up. "Yeah, go ahead!" A crooked grin was on her face as she slid around the room as though she were ice skating. She stood behind Bethan and watched her curiously.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:40 pm
Bethan opened the door. Inside the empty wardrobe was an open music box, with a porcelain ballerina spinning in a heap of icy diamonds...
"Wow, since when has that been there..." she began, but trailed off as the ballerina began to spin faster and the diamond began to shine... It was almost impossible not to touch them... Bethan reached out a hand...
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Valerian Eclipse Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:03 pm
Ava watched Bethan and the music box in awe. When she saw what was happening, she shouted out, "Bethan!" and grabbed her hand. "You have to be careful! We don't know what this thing is. I mean, it could be magical or something!" She looked at the ballerina. She resisted the urge to touch it.
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:12 am
Jo sat in the hallway - she was waiting for someone to trip over her long, tan legs - when she heard the strains of her favourite music and some random conversation. She skipped around a corner in time to see Ava and Bethan disappear into a room, so she followed, her steps silent.
She peeked over Ava's shoulder.
"OOH, pretty!" she said. She poked a long, black-painted nail to the large diamond at the foot of the ballerina.
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:23 am
Bethan snapped out of it in time to see Jo disappear in a puff of snow. Even if Jo hadn't touched it, she'd got close enough to be sucked in.
Bethan screamed.
Anya heard the scream, and rushed upstairs to see Ava and Bethan and a pile of snow. "What was that?..." she began, before she spotted the music box. "Umm, you two should get away from that. It's... not natural..." She twitched. Turning into animals so much had heightened her normal senses and she sensed it wasn't good.
Kara heard voices upstairs and broke away from Java. "Come on! I want to see what's going on!" she said, and she ran up the stairs, with Java following.
"Wow, is that... is that the ice princess' music box? Javed, remember? She was trapped in a music box!"
Bethan shook her head. "I heard Sukie disappeared into thin air... but there could be different versions of the story." She remembered Jo. "So where's Jo?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:06 am
Anya's eyes widened. "Jo was here? Did she touch it?"
Bethan nodded.
"She's been sucked in then. She's in the Ice Kingdom... I'm going too!" she said suddenly, and grabbed the music box. She was transported instantly, leaving only a pile of snow.
Anya hit the frosty ground with a thud. "Jo?" she called.
She was in a cave made of ice, a few metres wide, which went on into the distance to a tiny pinprick of light.
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