Moldoff lunged forward, Ice-Ghost shoved Moldoff’s tooth deep into its owner’s chest. Moldoff collapsed and slid down Ice-Ghost’s body.
Ivanoff, the second-in-command, seeing Moldoff’s death became enraged and charged at Ice-Ghost. Having so much anger and hatred in his heart, he hit the Ice-Ghost so hard that he broke the ice-witch’s snow weld, which sent him and the Ice-Ghost sliding several feet onto the ice before they stopped. When they stopped, Ivanoff had pinned Ice-Ghost to the icy ground as he tried to bite Ice-Ghost’s neck. Ice-Ghost quickly put his arm up to act as a shield, which slipped into Ivanoff’s mouth. Ivanoff began to tear at Ice-Ghost’s arm. He screamed in pain. In his other hand, he still held Moldoff’s broken tooth and with one last desperate lunge, put the tooth deep into the eye of Ivanoff. The giant rat released Ice-Ghost’s tattered arm. Ivanoff rolled off of Ice-Ghost and reeled in pain. Then, with one last heave, Ivanoff was no more.
The six remaining rats wailed and hissed at Ice-Ghost. They circled around for a final assault. Surrounded and exhausted, Ice-Ghost was forced to draw nearer to the body of Moldoff. As the ice-rats circled around Ice-Ghost, a strange thing began to happen. The inside of Moldoff’s mouth began to glow a brilliant blue. His mouth opened wide and a large, glowing blue pearl rolled out from within it. As it lay on the ice, it began to shoot brilliant light blue beams into the air. These lights lasted for a few seconds and then it stopped. Next, it radiated a somber blue glow that could easily be seen in the daylight. As it glowed, a thick smoke began to emanate from it. The heavy blue smoke began to amass itself into the shape of a woman.
The shape was that of a beautiful, tall, slender woman who was attired like a princess. She turned her head from side-to-side until she found what she was searching for. Taking a few steps, she kneeled where Moldoff lay. “Anaz azule requi,” she said with sad, imploring eyes. Then, she asked, “Who killed Moldoff, the beloved? His heart was obedient and belonged to me.” The princess stood and walked toward Ice-Ghost. Quickly, he took off his tunic and began to fan it at the princess. As he did, the outer appearance of the shape was blown away and the smoky blue image of the short, cruel witch was revealed.
When the witch’s image was revealed, she screamed and hissed at the Ice-Ghost. “You dare to kill my greatest of pets? You will pay. Oh, yes, you will pay.” Then, the image ran toward Ice-Ghost, wrapped its hands around his neck and began to choke him. Pulling on the silver chain he wore around his neck, he brought forth a locket that shined out like the tiniest ray of sunlight. Putting the locket in between him and the witch’s image, he continued to gasp for air. The witch’s image grabbed at the locket and missed, but broke the locket’s chain. With an act of desperation, Ice-Ghost plunged the locket into the heart of the witch’s image and she began to disintegrate. When the image completely disappeared, Ice-Ghost slumped to the ground. The other rats shook off what seemed like a dream to them and fled.
Magic Book
Meanwhile, back at the castle, the witch was rethinking her strategies. She went to her 5,000 page magic book and impatiently scanned it. Section one contained over 1,000 magic spells and lore. The witch began to search thoroughly through the section. For hours, she read until she found what she had been looking for: The Extraction and Handling of True Ice Crystals.
As she looked through this section, page 999, line 15, something odd occurred. The lines disappeared and the page became blank. The witch looked around the room suspiciously. She began to wonder if, perhaps, there was someone else nearby who was foolish enough to be tampering with her book. “Who’s there?” she screamed out. “Come out now and I won’t be too harsh on you. Otherwise, my dear, you’ll suffer for your foolishness.” No one answered. Could it be my sister, the Witch of the South? she thought. She is the only one with power equal to mine, but my sister? She wouldn’t dare…would she? No, yes, maybe so…no, of course not. She dismissed the thought. She searched her room and nearby rooms until she was sure that she was, indeed, alone.
She went back to her open book and, once again, line 15 faded away, only to return momentarily. “What is this magic?” Every time she tried to read the entire line, it would fade away before she could finish reading it. This frustrated and infuriated the witch. She constantly turned about to see if someone with great magic was playing tricks on her. Deep into her thoughts she searched for an answer. Finally, she came up with an idea. “Oh, yes, indeed,” she cackled to herself. “The spell of Verse Recantation.” Long she thought about this delicate spell. Knowing any wrong word or gesture while casting this spell could give her very adverse results, the witch carefully prepared herself for the incantation. Standing on one foot with one eye opened and one eye closed, she raised one hand and lowered the other before beginning:
“Lines both seen and unseen
Known and unknown
Meant to be read and unread
By the open and unopened eye
Reveal to me now
The Message of the King.”
The book of spells quickly snapped shut. The witch took a half step back. Everything went silent. The crystal moths that had been flying high above the witch’s head were frozen and suspended in the air. Frozen higher above the ice-moths was a raven that had just flown into the room through a large window opening to report to his master. The witch looked around the room and was in awe. Everything seemed to be motionless. The witch stepped back from the book. Suddenly, a strong wind began to blow into the room. Several pages of the book turned over.
When the wind stopped, the witch stepped forward and saw that, once again, the pages of her book remained blank. Seeing the pages, she became infuriated and began to curse and yell. Feeling frustrated, she tried to close her book, but, in turn, received a terrible shock. “What is wrong with this book?” she muttered. Not knowing what else she could do, she stood there and stared at the book. Feeling tired and frustrated from casting such a powerful spell, she turned and started to walk away.
As she was leaving the room, she heard a slow, heavy, creaking sound. Then, she heard a large bang, like a heavy dungeon door had been ripped open and struck the wall. Quickly, she ran back to the book and stared at the empty page. To her surprise and delight, writing began to appear on the empty pages.
“Extrication of true ice crystals
Must be done with true heart
And gentle hand
To break this edict
Is to break the solemn king’s command
Failure of your own folly
To do this deed wrong
Will bring eternal torment
Of hot shale and hot sand.”
Once the message was read, the air unfroze itself. The ice moths continued to fly in circles and the raven flew down to its perch and squawked. “Quiet, raven! I must think for a moment.” Having now read this passage, the witch stood as still as a stone. No worse thought could she have had than never to stand on ice again. She called for Gloo and he quickly returned to the room. She looked at Gloo and uttered, “Gloo, you worthless simpleton, let me see your hands again.” Gloo held his hands out as the witch examined them. “They’re repulsive, you little blighter. No wonder you couldn’t touch the skates.” The raven began to squawk over and over again until the witch could no longer take it.
She raised her hand to cast an awful spell on the raven and said, “Raven, tell me something worthwhile so that I should spare you.”
The raven bowed his head and squawked out, “Moldoff is dead. Moldoff is dead.”
Hearing this statement, the witch let her spell loose and the raven exploded as feathers flew everywhere. All that remained of the raven was a tiny, black beetle with large blinking eyes. Letting out a dreadfully long scream, the witch then held her breath and stood as still as a statue, with her fists balled, eyes bulging and nostrils flared. The room was so quite that you could hear the beetle’s eyes blink. Before the witch exploded, she exhaled as she tried to calm herself. Once she began to breathe, she quietly said to hersel
f, “Out with the good air, in with the bad, out with the good air, in with the bad,” which made no sense at all. She continued this manta until her frustration eased away. Finally feeling calmed, her old rottenness arose and she recalled her spell.
“Speak now, crow, or giblets you shall become.”
The crow began to tell the tale. “My lady, Moldoff alone tried to kill the Ice-Ghost and that was the beginning of his falling.” The crow continued to tell the story about the battle between Ice-Ghost and her beloved Moldoff. He then told of how Ice-Ghost also defeated Ivanoff. The witch listened closely to the crow’s tale as the crow spoke of how the rest of the ice-rats fled from the scene after the battle had ended.
The witch thought aloud to herself, “Why did my rats run? They still outnumbered the Ghost, six against one!”
Hearing the witch’s thoughts, the crow spoke, “A warrior with a true heart and a deadly tooth can prove to be more than a worthy adversary.”
This statement broke the witch’s concentration and she eyed the crow closely. ”What did you just say, crow?”
The crow, fearing that the witch would put another spell on him, squawked, “Nothing my lady, nothing. I just meant that a man with a true heart and quest may be just too much for ice-rats alone to handle. That was all that