Will of a Prince

"Argh. What the hell, Jacob?!"

Lidia grabbed his head with both her hands firmly. A light glow started flowing out of her fingertips and into Jacob’s brain. After a few moments, Jacob’s eye seemed to shimmer less violently, and he fell limp in Lidia’s grasp. She set him down gently close to the fire and rubbed her wound. Luckily, he didn’t manage to cut too deep so the wound would heal on its own given enough time. Squabee stared at Jacob panting heavily with wide eyes.

"I thought he lost his powers?! Why is he still so hungry?!"

Lidia walked over to the fire and stuck at the tip of Slimo’s broadsword in it.

"I’m not sure. I thought he didn’t have those powers as well. However, he and Maria still bear that curse mark. Perhaps there is still a residual of their previous powers that are ingrained into their souls."

More blood was gushing out of Jacob’s previous wounds. It was clear that he wasn’t going to last much longer without interference. Squabee ran over to him and lifted his body up, trying to wrap some extra pelts on the wounds.

"I would get away from him if I were you. I think his body is reacting like that because it’s looking for something with a regenerative power."

She lifted the sword out of the fire that was now a dark orange, steam coming off its edges.

"I’m taking matters into my own hands."

She walked up to Jacob with the wide blade and squatted down next to.

"Hold him as still as you can. This is going to hurt like hell."

Squabee swallowed hard and grabbed Jacob from behind. His body seemed to sense the danger he was about to be put in and started to twitch and convulse. Lidia pressed the hot metal against his first wound, causing a loud hissing sound to fly out in the air. Jacob screamed and thrashed in Squabee’s arms. Sweat started beading down his forehead, even with the arctic winds surrounding them. Lidia lifted the blade to prepare for another round.

"I have to do three more. I’m sorry, Jacob."

Jacob’s screams rolled across the across the ice for miles. This was easily the most painful thing he had ever experience in his life. However, despite the cruel and painful treatment, his wounds were no longer bleeding. However, his body was now riddled with scars. He laid weakly in Squabees arms, breathing heavily.

"No more. Please no more."

Lidia walked over to the fire and laid Slimo’s blade inside of it once more.

"I’m just cleaning it now. I’ve done plenty for you. I hope you remember this pain next time you fight so recklessly."

Jacob nodded his head. He reached out his hand and grabbed a large slab of cooked meat from Squabee’s pile. He ate it slowly and cherished every bite. He didn’t know that food could taste so good, even though it was extremely burnt and dry. He had no doubt that if Sarah was the one who cooked the meat, he would have cried happy tears.

"Thank you, Lidia. And thank you, Squabee."

Lidia raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you thanking me? You don’t have to thank me for saving your life."

"I’m thanking you for... snapping me out of it."

He held his head and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I wasn’t aware that these feelings were still inside of me. I just felt so incredibly hungry. It felt like I was about to try eating through the ice if I couldn’t find anything soon. And if that wasn’t enough, I would try to eat myself."

Lidia walked over and sat close to him while putting a hand on Maria’s unconscious body.

"You remember everything this time?"

Jacob hesitated. What Lidia was asking was a simple, yet extremely important detail to the events that had just occurred. Almost every other time Jacob had lost himself to his hunger, he couldn’t remember a single thing that he had done while in that crazed state. However, now it was as if he could recall every single detail of what he had done in stunning accuracy, almost as if forgetting about that knowledge was an impossible task.

"I... do. I remember how I felt and what I did. You did not taste very well."

Lidia started laughing.

"Well, I would hope that I wouldn’t, otherwise you would be looking at me as emergency food."

Jacob didn’t want to tell her, but his mind was already considering his entire group to be emergency food if it came down to it.

Suddenly, both Maria and Slimo appeared to move. Jacob ran over to Maria and dragged her closer to the fire. Maria coughed heavily underneath the wolf pelts. Her skin was extremely pale, her teeth were still chattering, and her hair was thin and messy. She shook as Jacob held on to her, trying to help her body regulate its own temperature.

"Maria? Are you okay? Your eye is glowing very brightly."

Maria continued staring at the ground.

From Maria’s perspective, her ears were ringing loudly. All she could hear were the muffled voices of those around her along with her own heartbeat thumping against her ribs. She moved her head trying to gauge what was happening with her and where she was.

’Where... who are these people? I’m so... cold.’

Jacob shook her slightly while putting a large chunk of cooked meat in her shaky hands.

’Food?’

It didn’t take her long before taking a large bite, swallowing it whole with one large gulp.

’My head hurts. I feel so weak. Why won’t my mouth move?’

Maria opened her mouth to speak. All that came out were soft, slow croaks. Jacob rubbed her back.

"Please don’t talk yet. You’re in really bad shape."

Maria couldn’t hear what he was saying but she could see the familiar man in front of her waving his one hand around weirdly while the other rubbed her back.

’What does he want? Do I owe him something?’

His actions felt nice, so she didn’t try to stop him. She silently kept eating her meat while her brain continued to unthaw itself. Slimo was in a similarly bad condition to Maria. His limbs were all a different shade than they used to be. Frostbite had appeared to start taking affect over his entire body, not just the tips of his fingers and toes. His movements were awfully slow, and he couldn’t speak without needed to take a breath between words. He was so close to the fire that Lidia had to make sure he wouldn’t put himself in it. It was clear that he was still feeling the cold extremely badly. Putting on the steaming armor would have been a bad idea, so Lidia pulled it away from the edge of the fire to cool for a little while so Slimo could put it back on and have extra layers.

"Squabee, how much more fuel to we have? How long do you think it will last us?"

Squabee poled through her stash.

"If we’re lucky, this should buy us a few more hours."

"That’s perfect. No one leaves this fire for anything. We need to stay as warm as possible until this goes out. Everyone, take off your boots and warm those as well. Maria and Slimo can stay under the pelts. I’m going to try and sew a bunch of them together to make everyone a make-shift cloak for travel."

"I can try and get us some water. Maybe I can use Slimo’s sword to cut out some ice, and I’ll find a way to melt it."

Squabee hesitantly nodded towards Jacob.

"Just do it far away so you don’t crack the ice under us. I’m not sure how thick it is."

Jacob grabbed Slimo’s sword that was resting in the dimming fire. He walked away thirty feet before coming to a stop and plunging the sword down through the ice. He continued this movement until he managed to cut a large block of ice from below him. However, he noticed something odd. He cut a perfect square of ice, but he still hadn’t broken through the bottom of the ice yet. Slimo’s sword was not exactly short by any means, which meant the ice underneath them was incredibly thick. Jacob decided to cut the ice from an angle to try and cut as deep as he could. His eyes widened the deeper he cut.

"W-What? Is this... really the ocean? Where is the water?"

Jacob now had a massive hole in the ice, large enough to fit their entire group. However, his curiosity wasn’t satisfied. He needed to find out how deep this ice went. This was supposed to be the largest body of water in existence, and yet there wasn’t so much as a drop to be seen. He continued swiping away, digging deeper and deeper. It was until he was thirty feet deep in the ice did Jacob start to panic. He looked up at the large climb he now had ahead of him. He whispered under his breath in disbelief.

"There’s... there’s no water."