Snippet #2160029

Her eyes squeezed shut as she felt the beginnings of the burn across her skin. Snow hadn't put her entire wing down yet, but she could feel the intense cold of her icy flames and the searing through her torn shirt. A warm and strong hand clasped over hers as she held tightly to Luca. His voice whispered a curse, and she cracked her eyes opened to look at him. He was doing something, the concentration plain as day on his face. What it was though, Rue didn't know. At least, until she couldn't feel Snow at all.

It was like her body went completely numb as if she'd been injected with some kind of morphine that killed the pain. An eyebrow came down as her breath slowly came out of her lungs and she looked down to Snow who was pressing her ignited wing all across her wound. The only thing that told her the deep cut was being closed by the deep cold was the sharp smell burning. Rue tried not to breath too much as it was making her slightly sick, so she tore her gaze away and looked up at the canopy of wind whipping trees. The storm had continued and it was then she realized that she had no choice but to take in Snow's power because the bird wasn't going to be able to fly properly in the first place.

"I would have managed, you know," Snow said, her voice clipped slightly.

Rue only shook her head. Even if it were so, she wouldn't have allowed Snow to do it on her own anyway. Snow huffed as she finished the cauterizing. Drawing back the white tendrils that had enveloped her dimmed down and the phoenix fluttered her wings as she hopped off of Rue's stomach. With a sharp click of her long beak, Snow announced to Luca that she was done.

Pulling herself upwards, she carefully got into a sitting position. The last thing she wanted was to tear open the closed wound. With her free hand she gently pulled free from Luca's grasp and gave him a small smile, "I'm alright now, you can stop what you did," she told him. Then she turned her eyes to the fighting. Her brother had pulled back to the group but he was on his knees, an arm wrapped around his stomach and a thin trail of blood going from the corner of his mouth down to his chin and neck. Her heart jumped at the sight. Nemesis must have been thrown quite a bit for Erin to be bleeding.

The black wolf was still fighting, though Erin hadn't been shouting orders like before. She guessed that Nemesis told his bond to get back and leave the rest to him. It would be something the dire wolf would do. Rue braced herself against Luca's shoulder and got herself up to her feet. As she lost contact with him, whatever he'd done started to fade away slowly and she could feel the beginnings of a dull ache in her side and throughout her stomach. We'll have to be quick about this, Rue thought.

"Be careful, please..." Snow begged as she hopped over to Rue's feet. With the wind tearing through the forest, Snow could hardly even open her wings unless someone was there to block the storm. Rue looked down and nodded, then she took a deep breath and concentrated on pulling on Snow's icy abilities. She'd never done it before so the first attempt only concluded in Rue's eyes turning a deep silver and a slight white glow encompassing her small frame. Then it faded and Rue's eyes narrowed as she tried it again.

"Take it slow, it will come to you naturally."

Rue nodded and closed her eyes, breathing deeply and feeling her deep connection with the phoenix. Once she was sure she'd gotten a good hold, she began drawing the power to herself. The second attempt was more fruitful and Rue glowed white just like Snow had a moment ago, icy wisps of white fire flicking out around her body. Rue opened silver eyes and turned to face the behemoth. Her thoughts turned from how she could keep a fire from raging through the forest, to what she could do to make this fight easier. She moved towards the battle, her eyes calculating what it was going to take to do what came to mind and how close she had to be.

The creature slammed it's fist into the ground in front of her, making the earth tremble. For the moment it didn't seem to notice her, as Nemesis was it's primary target. The dire wolf took one look towards her and leapt into a frenzy. He growled and barked, scratched and bit at the creature. Slowly he pulled the behemoth's attention to another direction that didn't face Rue. Kneeling down, she placed one hand on the ground and concentrated all of the power there. The hard dirt started to change color from brown to white and stretched out towards the creatures feet at an rapid pace. Once the area underneath it was a burning sheet of dry ice, she channeled the power to begin encasing the creature.

This was a slower process. The ice cracked and shifted as it started up the things feet, burning as it went. The behemoth shouted out in rage and pain and swung wildly at Nemesis. The dire wolf was tossed away and a cry of pain behind her broke her concentration. She looked sharply to the group where Erin was and witnessed him crumpling over on the ground. Her heart skipped a beat and for a moment she almost lost all the power she'd accumulated. The sound of ice shattering pulled her back around and her eyes widened slightly as the creature turned to face her. It growled at first, then leaned over and opened its mouth wide to give an earth shattering roar directed right at her.

Rue pulled at Snow's power and brought back the icy flames in an instant. She refroze the ground and started once more on trapping it where it stood. The foot she'd encased before began to glow with white ice again. The behemoth shouted in rage, trying to pull its leg free as she solidified the dry ice around its foot and worked upwards to its knee and thigh. Rue dropped down, ducking a swing that cut close to her body. The air that rushed passed her threw her hair all around and the clenched fist that was the creatures pulled at a few strands.

All she needed was to encase the other leg the same way and she could back away from the thing. In fact, they all could run once she was finished. Rue ducked again as she started on the other leg, barely missing another swing.

"Rue..." it was Snow's voice, and she sounded utterly tired. With her heart in her throat once more, Rue realized that Snow couldn't keep up her power for much longer and that she was draining her bond as well as herself.

"A little more, Snow. A little more. We're almost there alright?"

"Alright..."