Where the Ice Melts (fire_by_rain)

OoC: Ah! I worked as fast as I could! Celia... In... Sig...

BiC:

The demon girl tiptoed across the smooth ice. Her breath could be seen, and her normally comfortable clothes made her begin to freeze. "Hm... I see the forest. It's not far off..."

From her uneasy perch on the ice, she could spot the foliage that the forest brought. "This takes the cake when it comes to odd locations..." Celia's feet struggled to stay even on the rough wet surface. Suddenly, a squawk could be heard behind her. She almost felt like jumping, but that would only complicate things further.

Spraying chilling water all over her, a black and white winged creature emerged from beneath a thin layer of ice. Its beady eyes stared at her questioningly. "A penguin... Now I've seen everything."

Ignoring the adorable creature, Celia continued across the ice toward the approaching forest, not realizing she'd picked up a hitchhiker...

~ ~ ~

As Celia entered the forest, which didn't relieve any of the cold she felt, she could sense eyes watching her. Her eyes darted back and forth, hoping to uncover this mysterious presence.

A loud squawk rang through the air once more, startling her. She spun around to see that the penguin from before had followed her. "What? Go back to the ice you cute little thing!"

All she got in reply was another squawk. After a prompt rolling of the eyes, she continued on, hearing the soft footsteps of the tuxedoed animal behind her. But something wasn't right... There was still something missing. There was another presence.

OoC: You wanted it fast... Well... I wrote... Fast... And badly... *is out of breath from the rapidness*

Iyasis walked through the chilled forest contentedly, dressed in a black tank top and dirty jeans. Patches of snow were found in random places around her on the forest floor, but she didnt seem to notice.

She jumped as she heard a loud squawking noise. "What the?" she asked curiously. She turned and walked towards where she heard the sound, where she sensed someone else. Someone familiar. Intrigued, the warrior continued towards the sound.

The squawk sounded again. She turned around a tree to see a little penguin, and a young women glaring at it. "Celia!" she cried, surprised.

The demon girl turned to face the person which exclaimed her name ever so familiarly. "Iya?" She asked in wonderment. "Wow... Long time no see." Celia moved away from the squawking creature in front of her in order to more properly greet the woman who she'd met before. "So, how've you been? Still singing and dancing to yourself?"

At this the penguin squawked and waddled up to the two females, as though wanting to be acquainted with this new person. Celia rolled her eyes and said, "Where ARE my manners... Iya, this is a penguin that has been following me... A penguin that has been following me, this is Iya... So, like I said before I was so rudely interupted," she shot an angry glance at the penguin, "How have you been? Hopefully still not staring at the sun, right?" Celia almost began to chuckle, recollecting all that had happened when they'd met...

Iyasis laughed at the penguin; a sweet, musical sound. "Nice to meet you, a penguin that has been following Celia." then she turned to the demon girl. "Oh, i've been alright. Same old stuff, really. Wandering randomly though forests, blah blah blah. And i only stared at the sun that ONE time to check the time, and you'll never let me forget it, will you?" she laughed. "Anyway, so how have you been, Lady Celia?"

"You can count on that..." Celia said in response to her remark about the sun. "I can't help but remember the funny things." Yet again she was almost on the verge of laughing, but contained herself. There was something about Iya that made the demon girl almost want to cut loose, but Celia would still not allow herself to do so.

When she could tell that Iya sensed this she said, "I don't want to burn in Hell for a thousand years... Right?" The demon girl asked with a straight face, but inside, she was laughing. Iya was truly the only person in years that made Celia comfortable, even slightly.

"Heh... Well, I've been roaming. Still being annoyed by miscellaneous people here and there, but I'm learning to ignore them," She said, pointing at the penguin. "You can see an example of that right there."

The penguin squawked in agreement, though most likely not understanding what they were talking about. "There's something odd about that one... Not that I would know how a penguin could be... Seeing as I don't know them when they're normal... Anyway, this forest is abnormally cold, wouldn't you say?"

Iya shrugged. "Well, considering it's winter, dear, i imagine it's cold. But im afraid ill have to take your word on it." she said regretfully, looking at her bare arms.

"Yeah... Hey, Iya? Remember you once told me that you'd fight me? How about it?" Celia looked up to meet the woman's eyes. Hopefully she continued, "I still want to see you in action. That poke-feast only showed me some of your excellent abilities..."

The demon girl looked to the penguin and poked it. The penguin jumped a little and squawked almost nonchalantly. "See? Even the penguin agrees with me." For a moment Celia was lost in her own thoughts, all about the penguin, "Wow... That was fun. Maybe I should poke it again... Do penguins ever need to rent tuxedos? That must save them quite a bit of money... Do penguins even use money..."

Celia was snapped back to reality as the penguin let out another squawk. She realized that her finger had magically appeared on its head and was poking it every couple of seconds. Iya just stood there, chuckling. With all of her willpower, the demon stopped poking the flightless creature, "Sorry about that... Don't know what came over me... Anyway, how about it? Let's fight!"

Iyasis chuckled still at the demon girl, then looked her in the eyes. "Yes, i think i would enjoy a good spar, Lady Celia. But do you mind if i go blind?

Celia was delighted to hear that Iya was willing to fight her. This was one of those few times where the demon girl was ecstatic about a duel, in a sense. But once the immortal had finished talking, Celia was left with a single, very perplexing question, "Go blind?"

Her mind started to race again, her tendency to over analyze things kicking in. "In a literal sense? Or figuratively? Though I can't see how you would be able to do it literally... Then again, you ARE Iya... Well, um... I guess I don't mind. Either way. Though it may give you a slight disadvantage to not be able to see me..."

Iyasis snorted. "Disadvantage. Right. Well, we'll see i suppose."

Iyasis closed her eyes, and opened them a few seconds later. Her silver eyes looked more bluish, a film cast over them. She was now completely blind.

"Shall we then?" she said, smiling. She drew Aroklia and knelt one knee on the ground, sword point down. Her blind eyes closed.

Celia raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Is there some sort of catch?"

"Not that I know of..."

"Oh... Well, then. Let's start... After seeing all those amazing tricks, how can I not be eager?" the demon girl's eyes lit up with excitement and was twirling her staff around absentmindedly. "Even though you're blind, I have a feeling I may just get my ass kicked... No matter though."

The immortal stood, eyes closed in front of her and Celia's eyes narrowed, trying to see what would be the wisest course of action against such a skilled woman. Before she began the fight, she said, "Come to think of it... You've never seen me use my magic, have you? And considering you're blind... You won't see it this time either, will you? Oh, well..."

With a sigh, the demon began gathering her magic. "I guess you won't be seeing my mad skillz." The darkness formed around the top of her staff, blooming out like a giant black rose. Not that these theatrics mattered, considering that Iya couldn't see them. "I wonder how she'll be able to dodge... The only way to find out is to attack..."

"Ready or not Iya, here it comes..." Celia released the darkness, letting it spin around momentarily before swooping down upon her friend.

The black energy shot at the blind immortal head-on. When it was about two inches from her face, a wall of fire shot up from the ground in front of the blast of magick and curled around it, and sank back under the earth. The immortal rose an eyebrow. "Arent we cheating now, miss Celia? You didn't say magick. If we're going to be using magick things are going to have to be different." she said.

"Oh... Um... Yeah. Magic is kind of my thing. Physical combat is nice and all... But I would lose in a spectacular glory..." Celia spoke, looking at the immortal almost apologetically. "So... If you wouldn't mind..."

The demon girl stopped as she saw the penguin waddling toward her. Her eyes shot the penguin a look, telling it to not get any further. Yet on went the penguin, with its adorable little flippers swaying back and forth, approaching the cold demon like there was no tomorrow.

"Iya, this penguin is starting to scare me..."

"Don't worry, it means no harm." Was the response.

As it found its way to Celia's feet, its flippers reached up, as though asking for a hug. She looked around, so as to make sure no one would see her. She assumed that Iya was still blind and that the chances of someone making a surprise visit would be unlikely, so she did as the penguin suggested. She bent her legs and crouched to meet the flightless creature eye to eye.

Once more, Celia surveyed her surroundings. As soon as the coast had been sufficiently cleared, the girl reached forward and picked up the penguin, hugging it with all of her might, all the while poking its delicate head. "This penguin is just too awesome... Iya, want to hug the penguin?"

Iyasis cocked her head. "You're.... hugging it? ...Celia, why are you hugging the penguin?" she asked, bewildered. Her bluish-sliver filmed-over eyes narrowed and she could make out a vague outline of it through her senses and the vibrations coming through her bare feet. "And.... no.. thanks, i'm good... it seems to be much happier with you " she smirked, amused.

"And in that case of magick," she went on. "i do not think this spar is wise after all. I usually only spar with sword." she said regretfully. You could see in her eyes that she was disappointed. "Hm... well, we would just have to find a safe way..." she blinked a few times and opened her eyes a last time, the film gone and her eyes a pure, glowing silver once more. "Any ideas?"

"This penguin is so soft..." the demon continued to poke and squeeze the animal to her hearts content, ignoring the immortal that was staring at her, asking for ideas on what to do now. Once she took in the fact that Iya was staring at her, expecting an answer, she looked up, sternly. "I think that we should... Have a contest."

She could see the skeptical look on the immortals face and continued. "Well... Whoever catches the penguin can send one magic attack at the other, though in moderation of course... Don't go all 'apocalypse' on me..." Celia expressed the look of a big boom with a quick outburst of her hands.

"Anyway, we keep going until one of us goes down, therefore, losing... I'm just hoping this won't be like those other contests where you completely kicked my ass..." She looked to the floor, thoughtfully. "What do you say? I'm always open for better suggestions..."

The immortal thought a moment. "Hmm.. catching a penguin. Too easy. Would end too quickly, need something more challenging. And as for the magick blast, i wouldnt know what would hurt you, so i'll have to experiment. Maybe we should just fight it out regularly, as we were before."

Iyasis grinned at her playfully. "Dont worry though, i'll go easy on you..." she said as she lowered into a fighting stance. "Just dont cry when you lose... i hate it when they cry..." she said, smirking. After a minute she shrugged again. "Either that or another, more challenging, contest. Pick the way you want to lose, Celia." she said slyly.

"Hm... You certainly are a sly one... But I have to administer some pay back for the whole wing-hit-his-head-blame-it-on-me incident... So bring it on." She poked the penguin one last time before setting him in the sidelines, giving him some sticks to wave around, fashioning him like a cheerleader. Celia then turned away, muttering, "Even if I am doomed to lose..."

"What was that?"

"Oh... Nothing..." the demon girl said, quickly trying to recover some of her dignity. "A fight it is... So, let's do this."

She calmly walked toward Iya and said, "You're going down. Or up. Depending on whether or not you use your wings..." Menacingly, though turning out rather foolish, the girl waved her staff in the air, just trying to faze her immortal friend. "Ready? Go."

Upon saying the word 'go', they both sprang into action. Celia gripping her staff, and diving in for a hit, while Iya was...

..while Iya was drawing Aroklia and re-instating her self-inflicted blindness. The blue-white film once again cast over the immortal's eyes. In an instant, there was a crystilline sound and a blur of silver as Aroklia was drawn and blocked the demon girl's staff. After a few seconds of staying in that position, Iyasis slid the sword blade down the staff and flipped it to rest on Celia's shoulder between her arm and the staff. The warrior smirked as the sword point glistened at the demon's throat.

With her blind eyes, she could not see the demon girl was smirking also. But she braced herself nevertheless; she could sense a new move coming to strike.

BiC: Battle, battle, battle... ACTION.

BiC:

Celia expected the immortal to be so skilled. This reassurance only made her happier to fighting such a powerful ally, despite how contradicting that statement was. The blade licked her throat, and as it did so, the demon girl did not hesitate in countering it with an attack of her own.

While lacking the physical strength to deal a great amount of damage, her resistance and persistence was to be unchallenged. She let herself drop completely to the ground, caring not for her butt bone. She dug her staff into the ground and slide her body along the forest floor, sliding rather pathetically. None the less, she'd gotten from her grasp with what she considered to be time to spare.

Still, the swiftness never relented. Celia released the staff, sliding it out in the fashion as she had herself. The demon sat up, in the way of a sit-up. She took the rounded end and jut it into Iya's back. “Phew...”

She'd taken this too well. She lay down again, giving herself time to rest while the immortal did so herself, though it was obvious by the next action that from this point on, rests would only leave a weakness...

OoC: Short!? You know it.

Iyasis's blind eyes followed the demon girl's actions, watching. Before she knew what Celia's action was, she felt a sharp jab in her back. She sucked in her breath, wincing slightly.

As a warrior, the blow struck a reflex for her and she immediately swung around, spiraling down as she did so. She noticed that the demon was down also and swept her left hand over the demon's body in the air, and out of nowhere vines sprung from the ground and wrapped around the demon tightly, but not painfully so. Iyasis held up Aroklia over the demon, at the head/neck area. The sword came down, plunging into the ground less than an inch away from Celia's ear. The blind immortal raised an eyebrow.