The New Champion Rising

Chapter 4: Too Friggen' Cold!!!

I sat stupefied at the cold wasteland in front of me. I look behind me to see a desert. How the hell does this even exist? How does this work? I know deer have magic, but come on! Zona keeps trotting a little dizzily down the road, still drunk after last night.

"For excelsior!" She yelled. I smirked and tread onward. As the temperature drops, I took notice of Arizona's fur. It's a tan color, getting lighter at the hooves. Her emerald eyes seem to gleam with confidence. I sighed, seeing my breath in the air.

It's been five freaking hours and we haven't seen the village. It's supposed to be close at the borders. I know we're on foot, but this is just ridiculous. It is also starting to snow harder every minute. Right now, I don't think I can see ten feet. Arizona started slowing down, at which I took notice. I put my bag down and looked around. I found a blanket and I kept digging while not looking up. "Hey Zona, need a blanket?" I asked. I heard silence. Utter silence, no puns intended. I look up to see a frozen Arizona with a scared look. When I say frozen, I mean she's in a coat of solid ice. I stood up and quickly said, "Game start." Most of the fogginess went away and I saw a deer with blue oddly shaped horns.

"Oh dear," she mumbled. I took out my katana and stood still. "Well, I was gonna bring you back peacefully, but now there's no choice," she said. The word fight appears and I'm off.

I run at her, katana at my side and she brings her hoof up in some sort of dance move. A pillar of ice uppercuts me into the air. I fall down, only to be uppercut by another pillar of ice, this time it had a shape. I growled to myself. I landed on my feet, just in time to launch off the ice sculpture below me. I flew in the air, and slammed my katana down onto the frightened looking deer. My katana sliced at her, and I was sent back because she literally bitch slapped me. I wish one of those power ups came on. As if my prayers were answered, I felt a surge of energy. Everything slowed down and I could see everything almost clearly. An ice sculpture is forming below me, and a needle made of ice is coming my way. I quickly started slamming down with my katana and I sliced the ice building in half. I deflected the needles with the same weapon and they went sailing into the deer. I look up as the deer's stunned to see half my HP is left and the deer has a quarter left. What struck me odd is that the HP bar she has is golden with some fancy markings on it in the shape of a deer's antlers. Out of instinct, I raised my katana to block the ice needle heading my way. I look at the female deer in front of me and ran at her. Time speeds up when I moved, and I feel the powerful surge gone. I jumped in the air and before I struck a blow, the deer blocks my attack. I groaned and jumped before she could see if I'm away. The next thing she knows is that a katana's impaled her back, making her lose the game. I pull it out, finding no blood and look at the deer who's shaking. I put the katana to her neck. "Who are you and why did you attack?" I asked. The deer gulps, trembling in fear.

"Velvet, and I am so sorry to attack you mister, but I thought you were bad news," she said shakily. I look at her and smiled. I think I was supposed to find her. I put my katana back in it's sheath and shook her hoof.

"My name's Jack Curtis, and I am looking for the original six champions so that they could hear a warning about the championship coming up," I said smiling. "But first, how do I unfreeze Zona?" I asked. Velvet looks at my frozen companion and smiles.

"Arizona is that you?" She asked, trotting up to her. "It's been such a long time since I've seen you, so how are things running in that ranch of yours?" She continued. She frowns realizing that Zona is frozen. "Oops," she said. I nodded. "Well, she has to unfreeze naturally," she stated. I sighed.

After an hour of trying to unfreeze Zona by rapping her limp, frozen body in a blanket, we are at the village. I know I should know the names, but there's no way I can pronounce it. I felt a small bit of warmth through the iced skin I have on. I look down at Arizona, wrapped up in a blanket in my arms. I sighed. I look at Velvet who was smiling like some school girl. "What?" I asked.

"Oh nothing, nothing," she said. I give her a stern look. I shrug it off and I hear moaning. I look down to see Zona waking up. Colors on her fur seem to brighten up a bit when she opens her eyes. I set her down gently.

"Arizona, buddy you okay?" I asked. She looks at me groggily and lazily puts her hoof to my face. She starts patting me and whispers something.

"Settle down boy, settle down, I'll get your food in five minutes once I'm done sleeping," she said. I shrug.

"Yeah, you're gonna be fine," I said. I then smelled a smell of food. Arizona must have sniffed it too because her eyes flew open and her floppy ears came up. "Oh yeah, you're fine," I said again. She takes a big sniff, and slowly exhales.

"Hey y'all, what did I miss?" She asked.

"You were frozen by Velvet, I fought her and won, I carried you here wrapped up in a blanket, and we're in the deer village," I said. Arizona turns to Velvet and smiles slowly.

"It's good to see ya Velvet," she said slowly. Velvet allows herself to smile until she was sucker punched onto the ground. "That is for freezin' me," she said. Velvet gets up, smiling wide.

"You'll never change, will you?" She asked. Zona shakes her head. We all laughed a little and went into the cafe that was beside us. I never thought warmth like this would be so good!