It was the 'phoenix' and grabbed in its claw was Hope, the bird of the size as big as a regular human's body, loosened its grip on the guardian angel when they both were completely out of the cold water, making her fell on her back, while gasping for her breath.
Hope coughed violently, greedily breathing in the cold air. She didn't know how long she had been down there and was surprised that she was still alive.
"Hope!" Raine was the first person, who ran toward her with Lidya following behind her closely. "Are you alright?" she helped her up to sit down and hugged her soaked body, in order to give her some warmth, ignoring the fact that act would wet her own clothes.
"What have you done!?" Lidya glared viciously at the dwarf and immediately squatted down beside Hope. She touched Hope and Raine with her palms and the heat from her hands, helped to warm-up their freezing bodies a little.
"You did it," said the dwarf lightly, he let the blue lizard to scramble back in to his hoodie and hide in it. "Both of you did it," he emphasized his words excitedly.
However, to their surprise, Raine stood up and slapped the dwarf's cheek very hard, the sound of it rang through this clearing, the brutal force of it sent the dwarf falling on to his back while holding his burning cheek.
"What do you think you were doing!?" the dwarf flared, but the way Raine looked at him, forced him to swallow the rest of his protest.
Raine was glaring at him murderously. "IF YOU DID THAT ONE MORE FREAKING TIME, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL REGRET THAT YOU EVER GOT TO KNOW ME!" she yelled loudly at him.
Forgetting her nearly death experience, Hope's jaw dropped open when she saw Raine losing her temper. This was the first time for her to hear the guardian angel raising her voice. The sweet girl that she had ever known, turned into a violent woman.
Not that Hope wanted to complain, actually she liked this side of her more.
"If I didn't do that, you will never be able to tap into your power," the dwarf spoke rapidly, trying to justify his actions.
Yet, it only annoyed Raine even further.
At the side, even Lidya didn't dare interfere with the dispute between Raine and Nutdrouk. She stayed with Hope, hugging her to make sure she was warm enough after being frozen under the ice for some time.
"Should I be thanking you for that?" Raine lowered her voice, but it sounded as cold as the wind that was blowing around them, while approaching the dwarf and squatted down so she would be at the same eye level with him.
"You should," the dwarf said bravely. He didn't want to let her know that he was intimidated by her, yet he already knew deep inside that he shouldn't mess up anymore. His gut feeling told him there was something bad would happen.
"In that case, let me thank you by showing what I have got," Raine said grimly as she stretched out her hand and touched the dwarf's hand that was still holding his cheek, which was slapped hard by Raine earlier.
The dwarf prepared himself for the pain that he would experience, he thought Raine would do something brusque to him or even slap him harder, yet none of that happened.
At first, nothing happened, everything seemed normal for Nutdrouk until he heard Hope and Lidya gasping in surprise. That was when he understood that this fuming guardian angel might have done something bad.
Nutdrouk looked at Lidya and Hope in confusion, he was still unaware about what was happening, his brows creased and his nose scrunched upon seeing their expressions.
"What is it?" only when he was about to swat Raine's hand away from his face, did he notice his other hand and screamed at the top of his lungs.
His hands were shriveled and wrinkled, like an old creature! Which only left him looking feeble with skin stuck to his very bones.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!?" Nutdrouk immediately scrambled away from Raine, keeping distance as far as he could before he scrutinized his own hand and touched his face. The skin felt so dry and wrinkled, until he couldn't believe it was him.
And when Nutdrouk looked at his reflection on surface of the frozen river, he got the idea about what was going on.
Dwarfs had a long life span, they wouldn't grow old easily and once it happened, it meant their time was close, as they were not immortal.
Thus, when Nutdrouk saw that he had grown older and shriveled in only a matter of few seconds, he freaked out, shaking his head in disbelief as his heart palpitated violently against his chest.
This was impossible!
"What have you done to me!?" Nutdrouk shrieked and raised his head, staring at Raine, asking for explanation.
However, what he saw was Raine, who looked at him with a face that was devoid of any emotion.
Raine had been through enough of this already. The method that Nutdrouk used for them to push them to their limits, reminded her a lot about Serefina's.
If the witch were here herself, this was what exactly she would do, without any second thoughts. Despite knowing the result was actually worked out for them, as Raine could tap into her power, but the feeling of being forced to witness something that once broke your heart again and again, and constantly being scared under the pressure, those feelings just suck.
She knew she should be grateful, but she couldn't oversee the fact that she and Hope have to nearly face their deaths if it didn't work out.
"Raine…" Hope approached her and tugged her hand, so she could focus on her. "I think he got what you mean already," she said softly. "Let him go, will you?"
Raine looked at Hope, but her eyes were still hard, yet when Hope caressed her back to ease her tension, she finally sighed and approached the dwarf again.
Nutdrouk was afraid by her touch, but he knew he should let her if he wanted to turn normal again.
"I hope you remember what I am capable of doing now, thanks to you, but no more," Raine said.
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