The landscape was completely dark and as usual the air reeked of rotten eggs. Suddenly Shadow heard a scratching sound. She tensed ready to touch her Stygian Ice ring. She heard a whooshing sound and as her bow and arrow formed she drew back only to gaze into the eyes o...

Shadow snapped to a sitting position, as she woke up from her dream, so fast that she got whiplash. Every night was the same. Every night she dreamed of Tartarus and the horrors she experienced.

Checking her watch she let out a quiet groan. 3 am. Really?

If she woke up two or even three hours before 5 she would not go back to sleep.

She kicked off her covers and began to walk towards the restroom her knee creaking in protest at the movement. She looked in the mirror quickly and let out a gasp. It looked like one of her mini tornado illusions danced through her hair and her pale blue eyes were nicely outlined by the permanent purple circles under her eyes.

Shadow grabbed her hairbrush of the sink and began to work on the mess that was her hair.

When that was done she simply grabbed her golden dragon ring and Stygian Ice ring off the counter and slipped them on. The ice ring rested familiarly on her left thumb while similarly her dragon ring lay comfortably on her right middle finger.

Considering she had fallen asleep in her jeans and camp t-shirt she didn't bother changing those and instead just slipped on a pair of combat boots before padding silently out of her cabin.

She made her way down to the beach and sat down in the soft sand before zoning out.

6 years and she still didn't completely control her power all the time.

Being a daughter of Boreas was hard. If you weren't careful, when you were upset you would quickly make the temperature drop to the point that if anyone touched you there was a decent chance they would get frostbite.

Plus there was the small fact that she could create snow and ice from thin air and then control it. Let's also not forget the fact that if anything became cold enough she could control that to.

Let's not even go into the Hecate powers she had.

And what's worse is that by the time she was 5 she was constantly in her mom's machine shop, helping out by doing math and handing her mom things but not being allowed to touch anything important because she couldn't control her powers. If she ended up freezing the motherboard for any of her mom's inventions let's just say the results would not be pretty.

At age 6 she started to get a handle on her powers and could help with everything around the shop. For a while she lived for helping her mother with the machines. With the things that made sense. In mid-May she ended up getting a surprise visit from Hecate who gave Shadow a blessing and to symbolize a bronze ring shaped like a dragon that when tapped became weapons. Hecate warned her to never tap it unless she knew what to do afterwards.

The day before she turned 7 was the day it all went wrong. Her mom had left the machine shop and was waiting for her to come out of the shop. Shadow was finishing up a machine and as she tightened the last screw she heard a terrible scream. Forgetting everything she tucked the machine under her arm and ran outside. A monster that looked vaguely like a bull stood less then 8 feet away from her mother.

Time seemed to slow down as the bullish monster charged toward her mother. Shadow felt a scream rip through her teeth as she yelled at her mother to get out of the way.

Her mother didn't move and when the bull was 3 feet away she yelled, "Boreas, our daughter is in terrible danger. Please! Get her someplace safe!"

As the bull's horn pierced her mother straight through the heart Shadow felt her control crumble to rubble. Waves of pure ice so cold the ground began to become permafrost began to roll off her and fury engulfing her Shadow dropped her machine before she swirled her hands around an invisible sphere she envisioned in front of her. An icicle longer than she was tall floated in front of her.

Miming throwing a javelin Shadow watched the arc of the deadly icicle as it embedded itself right in the spot where the monsters heart would be if it had one. Filled with satisfaction Shadow bent down to grab her machine before she watched as both the she and the monster dissolved.

Although she didn't know that she would visit the place where the monster dissolved to Shadow braced herself expecting the worst as she reformed on a hill next to a massive pine tree.

There she collapsed against the tree, her back resting against the tree while her legs were sprawled out in front of her. The machine lay against her left side. One of the only two things she had left of her mom.

Shadow was brought back to reality when she felt the tears fall down her cheeks. Not bothering to wipe them away Shadow reached up into her hair and began to braid.

Left over middle.
Right over middle.
Left over middle.
Right over middle.

When she reached the end of the braid Shadow tied it off before pulling all of her hair into a side ponytail.

An unusual style for an unusual time.

Suddenly feeling as if a vacuum had sucked all her energy away Shadow laid back onto the sand and closed her eyes.

Within seconds she fell asleep. The second she had lost consciousness her body began to dissolve.

The only one there to see it was a 13 year old son of Hades who was also Shadow's best friend.