Avalanche~All~

[Mira]

It was the end of fall and the first major frost of the year had come last night. The smaller frosts were nothing to the Water people, but last night they knew. They knew that the days of fall were numbered and Mira was out in the meadows now, gathering the last of the fall flowers before they all died.

A loud noise ripped through. Mira knew that sound. Her head turned to the mountains, the large peaks hanging high above them. Avalanche. They were common enough in the dead of winter, but that was weeks from now. This was much too early. They had situated the village far enough from the mountain base to be closer to the lake and away from the avalanche fall out (Most of the time anyways), but this sounded far too loud too be any normal avalanche.

Mira's fears were confirmed. The snow that was falling..That was too much. It had just begun. She and the other girls in the meadows had time to get to the village, which was barely a few minutes away. So they did.

They abandoned their baskets where they stood and ran in the direction of the village, screaming and shouting warnings. Mira ran into the arms of her father, the chief and told him what was happening, as if he couldn't see for himself. And she was right. It was too much snow. A normal avalanche wouldn't touch them. This avalanche mostly likely would.

With the advanced warning of the girls and the loud sound the beginning had made, the death was minimal. Only a few people who couldn't make it out of the meadows in time died. The village was practically destroyed, something that had never happened before. It was built out of the path of avalanches and most floods. This was...This was something else.

That night, her father lead all of the experienced warriors to the mountains, just to see what it was like there and what the damage was like. Routine.

Three days later, only he and a few others came back. He wouldn't say anything about it, just that they needed to go to the tree village, a two week journey and they all needed to go now, everyone in the village.

And so they went. And when they got there, her father made the Chief of the Tree people call a meeting which called everyone there, even their enemies. Whatever it was, it was big.

[Smith]

Smith and Kevin were the representatives of the Fire tribe this time around, just like every other time around. In all truth it would be so odd when Kevin becomes leader, or technically he won't, but Kevin was the favorite of the people. But so much could happen in between.

Smith shook those thoughts because Kevin would kill him for them. They were unclear about what was happening, just knew they were being summoned. So they came. When they got there they were met by two people.

[Mira]

The Chief of the Tree tribe, the host and the Chief of the Water tribe, the reasoning for summoning, had sent both their daughters down to greet the incomers together, while the two Chiefs stayed up in the home they were to meet in and spoke of times past and what it might mean, as well as the arrangements for the Water Tribe. They were too far into winter up North where the Water lived and they couldn't return home yet. They wouldn't be able to if the situation wasn't resolved first, but definitely they were not able to return to their home until after the first thaw.

When Ingrid saw the two men approaching, she nudged Mira and whispered the tribe, since Mira had not met many of the dignitaries of other tribes, beyond that of the Air and the Tree, when the Tree Chief came to speak with them a long time ago.

"Fire." Ingrid whispered to Mira. And then she took a look at the two approaching and her smile grew wide. Mira did not know why, she knew that Fire and Tree were currently enemies. But Ingrid seemed happy to see them.

Ingrid ran over to the two.

"Smith! The love of my life! How are you doing?! Oh, I've missed you so! Oh, and hi Kevin." She shouted, running to the two of them and hugging them both at the same time. She turned and motioned Mira over, who quickly came.

"Kevin, this is Mira. Mira, this is Kevin. Smith, this is Mira, you're not allowed to woo her, don't even think about it. Mira, this is Smith." Ingrid said, introducing them. Mira bobbed a small curtsy in response.

"It's a pleasure." She said, softly.

"Anyways," Ingrid said, "let's get you two to where all the other important people are meeting. We're really just waiting on the Earth tribe, since we're pretty sure Spirit isn't going to come and Air came with the Water tribe."

The two girls led them to the meeting room and left them there with the other Chiefs. Barely a few minutes later, the girls lead in a large group of Earth tribe warriors, large tough men who surrounded the Chief, the largest and toughest and probably the meanest of them all.

Mira turned to go, while Ingrid stayed. The Earth tribe Chief glared at her.

"Girl, follow the example of your friend and go."

The Tree Chief looked at the Earth Chief sharply.

"I do not know how it is in your tribe, but in my tribe, my heir is allowed to stay in the room when anything is being discussed. Ingrid stays."

"Mira." Her father said, his voice just as soft as his daughter's was. "If you'd like to stay, you're welcome to."

Mira hung back in a corner with Ingrid. It was noted, but not mentioned by the Earth tribe that the Tree Chief's son, who was a good many years older than Ingrid and by all rights should be his heir, was noticeably absent from the proceedings.

[Creon]

Creon, the leader of the Water tribe began. His voice was soft, but when he was speaking to other leaders, it became strong. Not booming, but strong and demanding of attention.

"My friends," He said, addressing them as such despite that many of them were not his friends, "we have a problem."

He went on to explain the events of the avalanche and how and why it was so odd. And then he described his and his men's advance into the mountains.

"Most of the time, when we go in, we're out by midday the next day. But this was different. We went to the mountains and it felt wrong. Just so wrong. We got to the base and what we saw was enough to frighten even the most strong of men. Ice creatures, higher than two men combined, rising out of the snow. We tried to run, but we were not quick enough and there were too many." He said. He took a breath. Many of his friends had fallen that day.

"We were outnumbered and none of our powers could work on them. We are water and so is ice. Anything we could throw at them only served to strengthen them. They killed half of our warriors before we could find a way to evade them and run back to warn others. We warned our people, but we hung back slightly after everyone was on the move and I sent a scout back to see if they were doing anything. He came to me yesterday to say that they were on the move south, towards here.

"I don't know if they speak our language or what they want. What I do know is that they are dangerous, can kill several men with one swing and are a great threat to all of us if they threaten us. My village was destroyed in the avalanche that created them or reawoken them. I do not know which. But according to the scout, when they reached our village, they should have started melting, due to the unusual heat of that day. But they didn't."

[Kevin]

"Aw! Come on Ingrid! Oh and after all the formal stuff, I need to tell you about the leaf monster!" Smith said, and bowed to Mira.

Kevin followed in suit and smiled at Ingrid. "You're in for it."

The were led to the solemn meeting between chiefs. Kevin and Smith looked at each other, and nodded. Kevin greeted the Tree Chief with a bow of his head and looked around the room not recognizing two tribes, who he guessed were the Air and Water.

At the entrance of the earth tribe, the tension peaked. Even Kevin glared at him, Smith as well, but soon their attention was averted to the problem at hand. Ice giants. Kevin carefully thought this over. If the heat didn't melt them, would any heat melt them. He wondered if there was a way to increase the heat of his fire. If these giants didn't melt under normal conditions would they under normal fire? He doubted it. Or he'd try tricks with the crystal first.

Smith asked the first question, "Do you need any place to put your people? There is room in cabin's along the outside of our village where your people could set up temporary homes."

[Creon]

Creon pondered the question for a moment. There were empty huts with the Tree tribe and people were living with others. But there were still people who were living on the ground, below the village with no place to stay.

"I will bring it up with my people." He said. "Many of those who are currently without a roof over their head will probably jump at the chance to sleep without rain beating down upon them. Thank you for your offer."

The room was silent, with people taking in the new information of the Ice Giants and thinking upon it. The leader of the Tree tribe spoke first.

"We will probably need a few days to discuss all that has come to light. In the meantime, I invite all of you to stay here with my people for as long as we need and please, join me in a feast tonight to celebrate us all coming together, both enemies and friends."

The Earth tribe looked displeased at the prospect, but the Chief gave a slight nod of the head, signifying his consent.

[Kyran]

Kyran nodded. She was simply tumbling the news through her head. She was the only female chief there, and the youngest. Her father having recently died, though considering she thought his death had decent timing. She wondered if the Spirit had known and took him then for that. Kyran wished he had left a better legacy, if she failed at this her tribe would upchuck her from the throne. Her father had been a horrible leader, violent and continuing a war when the general public needed an armistice.

She looked around the tables, the Fire representatives, the Tree heir and the dauhter of the Water cheif were talking. They looked a little older than her, she took a deep breath and went to go make friends. If she could end the war with the Water tribe for good, she hopefully would be at least liked by the younger generation of the tribe. The elders may hate her though...Except Myran, her grandmother.

[Ingrid]

Ingrid was trying to engage Mira in the conversation while catching up with Smith and Kevin at the same time. Which was good, because umm...Leaf Monster. Duh.

She went over to Kevin though and whispered in his ear, discreetly.

"Follow me."

She looked at the group.

"If you will excuse me for a little bit, I have to go check on the food for the feast and make sure it's being done properly." She said, slipping out.

[Kevin]

Kevin decided that it would be a good idea when Ingrid left, to go relieve himself.

Smith turned to Mira and smiled at the girl that had joined them. "Hello," he said to the girl, then turned back to Mira. "Can you tell me anything more about the Avalanche?" he asked.

[Mira]

"Well um...It was really loud. Avalanches usually are, but this one was even louder, that's how we knew that it wasn't a normal avalanche that would stop before it reached us." She said. "And well, the snow was a much larger amount than usual as well. And well, it just felt wrong. We spend so much time around snow and ice and water that we just know when it's wrong."

It was hard for Mira to articulate what the avalanche was like. It was easy for her to know that it was different, but for someone not of her tribe, it was hard to explain to. They wouldn't know.

[Smith]

Smith nodded trying to comprehend.

Kyran nodded, understanding. "I know what you mean. We heard the echo's in our town. The air, it rang wrong. A couple scouts bent the air to see at the top of the mountain, and the avalance didn't look right, I don't think it was started like our other ones. I think something caused it, out side of nature."

[Mira]

(ooc. Ingrid and Mira post)

~Ingrid~

"I've missed you." She said, sneaking a kiss. The two were in a small space between two houses and appropriately shaded by the shadows of the house, a few stray branches that bent down and covered the area and just the general desertedness of the area.

It had been awhile, but he came, just as he promised.

~Mira~

She gave the girl a small smile. For as hated as the Air tribe was with the Water, Mira had been taught by her father to be diplomatic and kind to everyone, because the view of the tribe should never be the view of the chief. And Mira was the eldest. She may not necessarily take over, that was still up in air. But she was in line.

[Smith]

~Kevin~

He smiled and hugged her tight kissing her forehead.

"I've missed you too."

~Smith~

Smith noted the tension, and couldn't help but feel sorry for the young girl, she seemed not to have a grudge against Mira, yet Mira appeared to be cool towards her.

"If I know anything about Kevin, he'll want to see the mountain, can anyone lead us there?" he asked.

[Mira]

"Anyone from the Water tribe for sure." Mira said. "It's a trek we make often during the summertime. Winter has rode in though, so it's a difficult journey once you get past the meadows. It'd take two weeks to get to our village and another day to get to the mountains."

Mira couldn't help it. War made opinions cold.

[Kyran]

Kyran watched the two people. She didn't expect acceptance to be honest, she was glad she got as much as a nod. She was not her father though, and she refused to be like him, or the council.

The boy nodded and said something else about the trek to the mountains, probably about food and supplies. Kyran felt a draft, and looked around, some one was beckoning her. She followed the chill and looked to find an elder. "Sir," she said, accompanied by a nod.

"What are you doing? Talking to that water girl. That is a bad move in you first month on the throne." The Elder told her.

Kyran looked him solidly in the eye, hoping he couldlnt' hear her rattling knees. "And how do you expect we should defeat the Ice Giants single handedly?"

"How do we even know they aren't lying?" he asked.

Kyran sighed. That argument was ludicrous on so many levels. "Because I saw them with my own eyes, Elder. Now, if you please," she motioned for him to move aside.

He did and she stepped past him. When she was out of ear shot, she took a deep breath. Oh. My. Wind-Lord. She just stood up to an elder, a respected one. Shit.