The Demon King's Hero Of Light 134 Chapter 134 Something In The Hay

She glanced back to see the others lagging behind, with ice collecting on their wings. Listening through the scream of the wind wasn't working either, so they might as well stop. Flying around, she gathered them together and a brief respite gave her a glimpse of a town. Pointing down, they all followed her as she guided them down into the town. Alfred appeared, shivering, as they landed in front of the largest building.

Aella rubbed her hands together, trying to get her fire to start enough to break through the ice, but it was too cold. She couldn't seem to get her hands to even warm up. Turning to the others Alfred grinned and pulled out his sword.

"I got this," he said, as she stepped back out of the way. Swinging his sword, Alfred smashed through the frozen door.

Rushing inside, into the dark, Horace and Liam tried to prop the door back to block the wind and cold. Aella rubbed her arms, surprised at how cold she was. They may have waited too long to come in out of the storm, but she had wanted to keep looking, so they had.

"I've been waiting to use this thing," chattered Alfred, putting the sword back in its scabbard.

Looking around, Aella decided it would be better to just teleport everyone back to the new town, but when she tried to picture the new city, she couldn't seem to focus.

"I'm sorry, guys. I'm too cold to get us back. We're going to have to warm up some here," she said, noting the stutter she had in her voice.

"This seems to be a barn," said Jack, looking around. "There's plenty of hay, if we can get some together, we should be able to burn it. We'll just have to be careful not to set the whole place on fire."

"Start gathering some, and I'll see if I can get it burning," she said, squinting in the dark. It was already warmer with the door shut, out of the wind. She hadn't figured with her affinity with air and fire that she would be affected so much by the cold.

Alfred held up his hand, creating a light with his fist, and everyone paused in shock. A huge mound of hay filled the entire inside of the building, almost to the roof.

"This must be their harvest from last year," said Brimsey. "Before they had to abandon it and head to the city."

"Burning hay causes a lot of smoke. We'll have to be really careful that the fire doesn't get out of hand," said Alfred uneasily.

"Once I'm warm, I should be able to keep it contained," said Aella.

"I don't know. You haven't had a lot of practice with fire, like you have with air," said Alfred.

"I'm sure the king can handle herself," said Brimsey with a frown, helping Frederik and the others scoop hay into a large pile away from the mountain of hay.

Aella settled down, on the side of the pile, and focused on the fire that flowed in her veins. It was settled and sludgelike, not really wanting to move. The cold seemed to have almost put it out. Fear and worry flitted across Aella's mind as she considered the ramifications of that. If she hadn't had fire in her veins, would she have already frozen to death? Glancing over at the others, they were shivering, shifting from one foot to the other, and rubbing themselves to warm up.

Turning back to the pile of hay, she closed her eyes and started to remember all of the things that excited her fire. The burning bed from her youth, the flickering flame of a torch, the acrid smell of smoke in the air, the snap and crackle as the fire consumed its meal. Opening her eyes, she smiled in relief when she saw the tiny flames dancing along the blades of hay.

That's when she heard a sound that shouldn't have been there. A m.u.f.fled deep thump.

Turning back to the others, they saw that she had made a fire and quickly jumped forward to warm themselves. Aella stood up, out of their way, and looked around. As the fire grew and the heat from it rose, her eyes traveled up as well.

Shadows danced in the rafters, flicking around like little creatures freshly awakened from their winter slumber and excited by the heat of the fire, but nothing tangible met her eyes. Was she imagining things after getting so cold? Stepping back again, Aella scanned the barn for signs of anyone or anything, but there wasn't anything there. Alfred had put out his light, to warm his hands by the fire, so the barn had once again been plunged into darkness.

There was another m.u.f.fled thump.

Turning away from the crackle of the fire, Aella glanced at the door. Had it come from outside? Could the noise be something the wind was rattling or causing to shift? Licking her lips in apprehension, she shook her head and took a deep breath to calm herself. Flexing her stiff fingers, she decided some quick exercises would get her blood flowing and warm her up. It had always worked in the deep chill of the pits, and she hadn't had a good moment to exercise in a while.

Dropping to the floor she quickly did 8 pushups and then jumped up to punch the air. The thump happened again in the middle of the third punch. Freezing, she c.o.c.ked her head to the side and focused on the sound. It was coming from the hay!

Turning, she saw the others were watching her in amus.e.m.e.nt. The thump came again, and the hay behind them begin to shift as something moved.

Rushing forward, everything seemed to slow down. The hay slid off the giant pile, and hit the fire. The dust caused the flames to flash up, as fast as they could, hungry for more. Two yellow eyes peered out at them from the middle of the hay, and then there was a loud whoosh as it exhaled.

The demons were still mid-turn to even see what was going on, when Alfred was suddenly there. He had his sword out and was swinging it up to collect the bolt of lightning that was flickering towards them.

Aella fell to the floor and skidded under the wings of Frederik, into the middle of the fire, reaching out and grabbing at the fire itself. She had to stop it before it set the whole barn on fire!

Everything sped up as her foot hit something solid in her skid, and she felt it jerk away from her. She had slid right through the pile they had made, and into the mountain where the creature was! The fire was everywhere. She wasn't sure she could stop it now.

The thing exploded up into the air, sending hay everywhere, and the fire traveled with it!

Alfred cried out as they all saw what they were up against for the first time. It had two sets of feathered wings, but the body was that of a giant snake.

"It's a lightning snake!" screamed Alfred, "Get out!"

Aella sent a blast of cold air rushing through the room, flinging even more enflamed hay into the air as everyone scrambled outside, back into the storm. Alfred came last, swinging his sword at every blast of lightning the thing threw at them, and catching them all.

Standing in the howling storm, with everyone huddled around her, Aella watched as Alfred stood at the door, while the building burned. He turned and appeared next to her, having used his incredible speed to run away from the fire that flashed out of the doorway where he had just been standing a moment ago.

"I love this sword!" he laughed.

Aella nodded, then swung her hands around, and formed a giant rotating wall of wind around them. The frigid winds were caught by it, fueling its spin, and missing them.

The creature blasted out of the barn with a scream of rage, and spying them, shot another blast of lightning at them. Her wall caught it and the lightning flickered away into nothing.

A loud crack resounded from the barn, and the roof suddenly gave way. Fire danced high into the sky, chasing the snake away into the storm. They stood there, cold but mesmerized as the fire consumed the building before them, and the storm raged around them.
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"I think we should go back to the castle now, Your Majesty," said Horace, calmly. "I kind of want a warm bed and a hot meal tonight, if that's alright."

"No, Horace, I think we all would like that," she said with a nod.

"Best do it quick, too," said Alfred. "That was a mated male. There's bound to be a female with eggs around here. I imagine they'll be back looking for us soon. And the females are larger."