#but yes ezra was discovered inside a frozen block of ice

[whumpwillow]

Aeonian | ice

Here’s where Ezra’s present day story begins, with his introduction into Phoenix’s village. It’s where she first sees him, though he doesn’t see her until later (yesterday’s piece) because he had his eyes closed. 

Whumpay 2021 Day 4: Ice / Fire

warnings: hypothermia (probably), nonsexual nudity, execution mention (doesn't happen tho)

//

Phoenix was wandering aimlessly through town when she saw a crowd gathered around the gallows platform. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of an execution, but she saw no one hanging from a rope and no one chained to a post awaiting one. The proper authorities weren’t anywhere to be found, so Phoenix figured it had to be something else causing a fuss.

She moved closer into the crowd, having to elbow and push her way through to get to the center. There she found a young man, beautiful and cold. He wasn’t bound or chained like a criminal, but soaking wet and shivering. His lips were blue and his skin was tinged the same color, and even in this hot sun he shook so violently it must have been painful.

He was quite good-looking, if Phoenix was going to point out—but she wasn’t, at least not out loud. Long dark hair draped over the man’s shoulders and stuck to his face and neck as shadowy tendrils. His eyes opened and closed slowly, squinted, then shut tight as if the light hurt them. Phoenix saw they held irises nearly as dark as his hair, a deep and haunted blue.

He was about her age, perhaps a few years older, though she couldn’t tell with how emaciated his form was. He was nothing but bone, comprised entirely of sharp angles and harsh ridges. He wrapped his arms around himself and drew his knees into his chest, and Phoenix realized, he was also completely naked.

A small gasp escaped her and she looked away, even though his position so curled in on himself gave away nothing. It just didn’t seem right to stare.

But then again, if he was out here, starving and soaked and freezing cold, why was everyone gaping instead of offering aid? Not even a cloth to cover himself with? She wasn’t so naïve as to think everyone had a pure heart that would help an unfortunate stranger, but usually those sorts just up and walked away. They didn’t linger, motionless, watching. Waiting for something to happen.

“What’s going on?” she whispered to the woman standing next to her.

The woman leaned in and darted a glance from Phoenix to the man and back. “They say some adventurers brought in a block of ice with a body frozen inside, but when it thawed, he just…woke up.”

Phoenix raised a brow. That sounded unlikely. Then again, she didn’t know too much about magic or adventuring. She was just a simple seamstress, never even having left this small village before.

The woman was about to say something more when another interjected before she could.

“I saw it happen! Me and Willy were coming back from the baker’s and saw the adventurers carrying in the ice,” the girl said, eyes wide with excitement. “We stayed to watch and soon enough, it all melted away and just left a body. But not a body.”

The girl’s eyes shifted to the shivering figure on the ground. “He started shaking and coughing and sat up, not dead at all!”

The older woman, the first that had spoken, clucked her tongue. “Unnatural thing. Those adventurers, bringing demons into our town.”

Phoenix regarded the shivering man. He wrapped his arms around his thin shoulders, burying his face close to his chest. Curled into a ball and trembling, he didn’t seem anything like a demon.

—

Cold.

Ezra knew the cold. Knew he’d been cold, been freezing, more so than any human would ever be able to stand. But of course he could stand it—at least, his body could. He’d never die from it. His eyelids were stuck together and his limbs wouldn’t cooperate with what he told them to do, he couldn’t move couldn’t think couldn’t see—

But he was alive.

He was alive, again, after having been frozen to death.

Not death, he reminded himself. Never that.

He lay there for an indeterminate length, time a foreign concept to him now. He had no idea where he was or how much of a vulnerable position he was in, considering he was just sprawled out on the ground like a newborn fawn. Worse than that, because he couldn’t even see if there was anyone nearby coming to attack him. It didn’t matter, that, but he would have liked to avoid getting stabbed in the chest or kicked or beaten. Just this once.

He wasn’t, though, and if anyone was there, they left him alone.

He was so cold. He felt himself shaking but couldn’t move beyond that, couldn’t even wrap his arms around himself. He had no clothes by which to cover himself with and was left exposed to the elements, which he couldn’t even discern. What season was it? What year was it?

Hours may have gone by. He wasn’t sure. When he finally regained enough strength to force his eyes open, they crackled with the release of shattered ice crystals. He pitched forward, his body flying upward as he found himself wracked with coughs. The fit rattled his insides and sent an ache through his whole body, but at least nothing was broken and no one had hurt him yet.

He wrapped his arms around himself and drew his knees in close to his chest, trying to make himself as small as possible to generate what little body heat he could. It wasn’t going to help, he knew, because in this cold he didn’t think he’d ever be warm again.

His limbs ached something fierce, his throat raw and ragged, and he could barely move his fingers and toes. Soaked and coughing weakly, all he could do was lie there like a useless wet rag.

—

After a while, the crowd cleared, having grown bored of watching the undead man shiver and do nothing else but cough and groan. He barely moved, and Phoenix had the feeling he couldn’t, and she had no idea if he heard the commotion around him and was just tuning it out, or if he had no sense of his situation at all. This was all foreign to her, but she found it not as frightening as she would have thought.

The man didn’t look like some ancient evil. He looked like someone wet and shivering and sick. He kept his eyes closed tight, his body wound even tighter. It had to be exhausting on top of the cold, to shake continuously for hours on end.

No one had offered him anything to help warm up.

Phoenix heard the town officials would be coming shortly after having received the reports of the adventurers, and she didn’t want to interfere in their business, but she also couldn’t just leave like him this. The man clearly needed help. Undead ancient being or not, he’d just woken up after having been frozen in solid ice. Hopefully the town officials would give him some proper aid once they came, but for now, Phoenix was all the man had.

She left and came back to the gallows. The man was sitting in the same spot on the wooden platform he’d been unceremoniously abandoned on, so she settled a blanket over his shoulders. His eyes remained closed the entire time and didn’t open, but Phoenix was okay with that as long as she could help a little.

—

Ezra heard voices in the distance, but they felt like they came from underwater. Technically, with all the water in his ears, they kind of did.

Demon, they called him. He wanted to smile and bite, telling them how wrong they were, how right they were, but all he could do was curl up and quiver. He hated this weakness, hated how pathetic he was in this state where he couldn’t run from the crowds and only suffer their stares and their jeers. He closed his eyes and kept them closed, blocking out the sounds and everything else.

He just had to heal. Then he could run away…somewhere. He just had to stop being so damnably cold.

After what seemed like an eternity later, even to an immortal like him, something soft and warm was draped over his shoulders and wrapped around his body and finally, he was able to breathe and be still.

—

#not much happens in this one #but yes ezra was discovered inside a frozen block of ice #and then thawed out #and is now VERY confused because he doesnt know where he is #and the fact that he's on a whole other planet than he was originally on is something too #whump #whump writing #my writing #willow writes #whumpay2021 #original work: aeonian #nonsexual nudity tw #immortal whumpee #immortal whump #immortality whump