The Fall of the Dieties - A Liquid Confrontation

She walked with purpose, each step moving the moisture in the soil, causing the trees to scream as their very lifelines were being tortured. Her body ripped through the bushes and trees that gave each Temple its privacy for nothing could stop her from reaching her destination. She knew where the enemy would go for she had finally understood its intention. First, Fire was conquered, giving the deities no defense against an attack by Ice. Then, Light fell, covering the Earth in Darkness so that the sun itself could not warm them. Electricity was taken so that its charge could not counter the chill of the Ice. Finally, Air was taken so that no southern front could not end the cold.

Water was next and she knew it. She could feel the Enemy strolling through her marble Temple, planning its takeover, but Courant had something that the other deities did not.

She had the awareness of what was to come.

A flick of her head lifted the last of the tears from her face and the moisture around her lips could only be from the rage that stirred within her. She was the calm rains during the spring. She was the quiet pond, but she was also the raging sea. There would be a confrontation and the Enemy had to expect it.

After all, she was the Guardian of the Valkyries.

Her sleek body burst through the thick plants of nightshade and thyme. Like blue bolts of electricity, the light bounced off of the numerous reflecting pools and cast their marks on the Temple. The roar of the center waterfall did not distract her for she heard the distinctive sound of hooves on stone. She saw a horse-like shadow make its way around the inner sanctum of her Temple.

Suddenly, the flowing reflections of the pools stopped...unnaturally...and the center waterfall's roar became a clunking noise as it was frozen and the air itself seemed to be sucked from the clearing. The hush was deafening and Courant's body tensed as she saw the figure disappear. The seconds ticked by...slowly...painfully....she listened to her liquid sisters, but nothing sounded like blood. What was once there seemed to have completely vanished.

Lucky for Courant, the Enemy's hooves crunched the frozen grasses behind her.

Courant suddenly jumped from the sound, narrowly missing the beam of ice that caught part of her mane, making it heavy. As her body fell toward the ground, it broke into many droplets of water, falling like rain into the reflecting pools. The pools boiled angrily, but then were still.

The Enemy paced along the pathways, its irritation apparent and its eyes focused on the pools below, but the Waters never gave their Queen away. As always, they hid her secrets well.

With a roar, a wall of water rose behind the Enemy, forming the mouth of a leopard and attempting to bite into the Enemy's flesh, but the Enemy was quick, freezing the water as it fell. Courant jumped from the waters and dodged a beam as her pools were turned solid. Sweat appeared at her brow, which she turned to knife-like ice that soared toward the Enemy, but the figure dodged them completely.

Courant backed against the Temple wall, panting and surprised that such a stranger had such a mastery of her own Element. You...belong....to....the Earth, she said between her breaths as the Enemy closed in, but the figure refused to show mercy. A blue glow began to show at its mouth when suddenly, one of the walls of ice came crashing down upon it.

The Goddess of Water looked for the source of the power for she had not caused the attack, but a flash of a blood-painted coat answered her question immediately.

Her Guardian had arrived.