Ice Saviour

• Reilly Morrison, Grade 8, St Brendan's College
• Short Story
• 2014

Finalist in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

The day was almost over. The autumn breeze was catching the orange-tinged leaves and whispering a song of perfection. I could hear the birds chattering in their endless communication of peace and serenity. I leaned forward, stretching my hand to catch the last rays of light as the world was sent into night’s cold embrace.
Watching the light slip through my fingers, I was overcome by a sense of dread and I leapt forward, suddenly unaware of my situation. I was standing on a cliff edge. A sheer drop of at least one-hundred feet to a river riddled with rocks both big and small, but still I pursued the light as if my life depended upon it. I leaned forward hoping against hope to catch that last ray. I felt the sudden alteration in the ground before I heard it and abruptly the earth had fallen from under my feet. All I could do was brace myself until oblivion consumed me.
Images of my life flashed before my eyes filling me with emotions both wonderful and devastating. Accepting all the wrongs done to me over the years, I sunk into a calm abyss, my body overflowing with an abnormal power. My eyes snapped open as my feet sunk into the cushioning softness of grass after a light rain. My eyes scanned my immediate surroundings in awe, landing on an unnatural slope of ice a few feet behind the spot on which I had stood not ten seconds ago. The second thing my eyes noticed was the river now frozen over with ice. It was almost as if I had created the ice, freezing the river and crystallising the air to form a steep slope to ease me down the sheer cliff face.
It took me the rest of the day to scramble my way hastily up that cliff and I arrived in town just as the great dam gave way sending thousands of gallons of water tumbling its way down the mountainside.
People were screaming as I stumbled into town, feet numb with the cold. I could vaguely hear the smithy gathering everyone into his forge as well as a small girl cradling an injured wrist calling out for her mother in despair. My attention was not on them but on the coming wave. Stepping forward I raised my hand and slowly seeped back into that calm abyss where anything felt possible. The water cascaded into town crushing buildings in its wake but still I stood, hands raised.
The water barely touched me before it froze making a creaking sound as the water expanded, freezing over and trapping half the town in a frozen tome. There was no celebrating that day or the next, instead everyone mourned for their losses, both property and life.