Frozen Spirit

(Character description: https://destinyroleplaying.rpg-board.net/character-descriptions-f9/shroud-t214.htm#2817 )

A chilly breeze gave the snow a slight slope as it lightly fell one fresh winter morning. People went about their daily business, leading their cart-pulling horses through the snow and setting up stalls to sell their wares.
But it was clear that Christmas spirit was in the air, children either had snowball fights or talked excitedly about what they hoped to get.

Shroud pulled her hood further up against the cold as she made her way through the village. The ghost hunter had a mission, Christmas was the time when restless spirits were at their most dangerous.
She was after a particular ghost that only appeared in winter: Yuki-Onna the snow spirit. Apparently Yuki-Onna was once a beautiful woman who froze to death all alone in the mountains, now she takes her anger out on men, using various tricks to get them to come near her so she can freeze them to death with her icy breath.

(Note: Yuki-Onna is actually a Japanese myth)

The doors of a nearby home opened as a strange creature came from them. The humans thanked her as she went on her way. Her skin and body like a lizard's but everyone could tell she was a dragovian.
Her tail swished side to side as she walked. Her body was covered green almost elven robes. Leaves were put around most of her to keep her camouflaged in the forests. Her smile darkened as she sensed a demon amongst the town.
A chill ran up her quickly as she moved about the town as if she was being watched.

Shroud paused as a dragovian dressed in elven robes and leaves pushed past her hurriedly.
Then Shroud sensed it herself.
She went in the same direction as the dragovian who had obviously sensed Yuki-Onna too. The hunter had to get there fast before the snow spirit killed again.
Once she was clear of the village centre she broke out into a run, acknowledging the dragovian with a polite nod. Shroud tore towards a lone house a small distance away from the village. She skidded to a halt when she noticed a skinny Asian-looking woman huddled up in the snow clutching a child-sized bundle wrapped up in cloth.
The scent coming through to Shroud's ghostly sense alone was giving her a headache as she approached Yuki-Onna's disguise.
The ghost hunter flipped out her enchanted nunchaku but then a man burst out of the house and stood protectively in front of the misleading snow spirit.
"Have you no heart, girl?" the man demanded at Shroud "Can't you see this foreign woman needs assistance?"
He shoved the ghost hunter back roughly, causing her to stumble back and almost fall. The man turned back to Yuki-Onna and crouched down.
"I'm telling you, sir, she'll kill you." Shroud warned.
"And I'll kill you if you don't be quiet!" the man snapped.
Shroud rolled her eyes and watched. The man offered to help Yuki-Onna with her so-called 'Baby' and gasped as he realized it was just a block of ice. The snow spirit smiled wickedly and turned into her true form - a tall woman in flowing robes all completely made of ice; her fingers were like icicles and her eyes were pale grey.
"YUKI-ONNA!!!" the man screamed.
The snow spirit gouged his eyes out with her cruel fingers, his blood froze even before it hit the snow. Yuki-Onna then finished him off by freezing him completely with her breath.
The snow spirit laughed and disappeared. Shroud just stood there, shaking her head sadly.

Isiria had watched this even from afar. Her bow was ever at the ready but she did not want to take the shot in fear of hurting the man. As the spirit dissapeared Isiria let out a deep sigh.

Instead, she aimed her arrow toward the hunter, she had no idea what she was doing near the spirit but she had to be sure that she meant no harm to her.

Her body suddenly began to weaken, lifting up to reveal her chest, she noticed the seal that had awakened her was beginning to wear off.

"This is not happening..." She said, worried.

Slinging her bow back onto her shoulder, she walked slowly toward the woman.

Shroud grew angry that another man had interfered with her vanquishing Yuki-Onna and had failed to heed the hunter's warnings and stupidly caused his own death.

Shroud decided that she wasn't going to say anything until this mission was over and she'd only speak if she really had to. She turned her head slightly when she heard footsteps behind her.

Turning around fully, she saw it was the dragovian demon hunter.

Isiria saw that she had been noticed. Covering the mark on her chest quickly, she tightened her clothing around her. Isiria was definetly not used to this weather.

"The ghost probably went back to the village..." She commented quietly.

Shroud nodded then casting one last glance around she headed back to the village, knowing it would be a week or two before Yuki-Onna showed herself again.
A small, timid boy approached her in the street.
"Um...Miss?" he ventured.
The hunter listened as she walked along.
"Are you the ghost hunter looking for Yuki-Onna?" the boy asked, braver now.
She nodded, still walking.
"Well we are not just haunted by Yuki-Onna, we also have Springheel Jack." the boy said sadly.
Shroud stopped in her tracks and turned to face the boy, crouching down to his height her eyes alight with curiosity encouraged the child to continue.
"The elders are worried that this village will be haunted by thousands of ghosts every Christmas." the boy concluded.
Shroud's eyes widened and she stood up, she patted the boy on the shoulder in thanks then gave him a coin.
She sat down on a bench in the marketplace, thinking over what she had just learned. Of course the kid could be lying but somehow she doubted it.

Isiria stood next to the hunter, her eyes watching her every fe seconds as if she was going to dissapear. However, she seemed interested in Springheel Jack more than Yuki-Onna for some odd reason. But then it hit her, Springheel Jack...This will be much bigger than I first thought. Isira looked at Shroud and tried to link with her using telepathy. But her powers were much weaker than her family's and with much strain she managed to tell her something.
"I'll go for Sprinheel Jack..." She said, through Shroud's head.

Shroud's eyes narrowed briefly as if the telepathic link was causing her pain by drawing on a power she had little of.
"Alright." she managed to say then broke off the link.
The hunter glanced at Isiria, her spiritual sense picking up something odd about the dragovian.
"She's been resurrected by something..." Shroud thought suddenly.
Surprised at herself for figuring it out, she returned to her small home on the edge of the village to do some more research on Yuki-Onna and maybe on Necromancers too.

Isiria followed her the entire way. Her body pricking with pain as the seal was wearing off quite fast. It was as if Nathillius's power was wore down as he put the seal onto her.
She stopped, her mind in thought.
What if Nathillius is in one of those books? She questioned to herself, catching up with Shroud.
She kept her hand on her bow for a second as if to reassure herself it was still there.

Shroud glanced at Isiria before opening the front door, grudgingly accepting that the dragovian was going to follow her for whatever reason.
The hunter pushed her hood down but kept her black mask on as she walked through to the study.
Bookshelves lined the wall, all filled with books from pretty much everywhere Shroud had been. Two entire walls had been dedicated to ghosts and one to Necromancy.

Isiria glanced back and forth at the many bookshelves that lined the wall. Her eyes locked onto the shelve containing necromancy and without so much as a word snatched one of the books.
Flipping through the pages, she gave a swift glance at each. Her eyes stopped at one page, it detailed the certain hexes and seals involved in ressurection of a dead body.
To ressurect someone of true importance or love, the caster must sacrifice something dear to him or her or use a short-lived seal until they can find the proper ingredients... The book went on but Isiria had found one peice she was looking for.
Her eyes burst into tears as she thought what torture her lover had to go through just to use a short-lived seal.

Shroud looked over Isiria's shoulder and read the page the dragovian had been reading; the hunter's eyes widened in understanding and she quickly went over to the Necromancy bookshelf.
Shroud scanned the titles and pulled out the two books she had been looking for: Names And Histories of Necromancers and Seals And Ingredients. She passed them to Isiria then went to do her own researching of Yuki-Onna.

Isiria nodded her head as a small show of gratitude and then began diving into the two books she had just been given.

She kept skimming through one page after another until she finally found the actual list of necromancers found by the royal guard.

Nathillius Aruskhor.
Age: Uknown at this moment.
Rank: Adept Necromancer.
Danger Level: High.
History: None.

"Damn, this doesn't say anything about him." She chuckled at the thought that he was able to remain so well hidden that no one could record his history.
Scanning through the next book as she came up to the ressurection seal that was used on her something struck her as odd.

To use the ressurection seal which allows for someone who is previously dead to revive for a long period time. One must acquire, a human skull, a vile of the deceased blood and a rare but poisonous mushroom.

The mushroom struck her as an odd ingredient for such a seal and it seemed too simple something had to be missing. She sped through the pages and found nothing. Shutting the book, she smiled at the fact that she was still alive with the help of her husband.

Shroud skimmed through An Index of Ghosts but all the information it had on Yuki-Onna she already knew; things such as the snow spirit is a violent ghost, able to move objects and people and that this particular one took pity on men with pure hearts, and returned the next day under the usual Asian guise to marry them.
The hunter rolled her eyes and shoved the book back in the shelf, she sat down on a chair and went deep into thought.

Isiria had found all the info she needed and began preparing her arrows. Her eyes shifted over to Shroud every so often to see if she was still there as she hummed a tune that Nathillius sung to her. It was in ancient dragovian language but the song was so beautiful that even those who did understand the language bowed in respect.

"Are you ready?" She asked softly to Shroud, securing her bow onto her back.

Shroud woke herself out of her thought trance then nodded.
She stood up and pulled her hood back up and checked the two pairs of nunchaku she carried.
"Maybe we should try and find your man while we ghost hunt, I can tell your seal is wearing off." the hunter said quietly, probably surprising the dragovian by actually saying something.
She pulled open the front door and stepped out into the slightly heavy snow fall.

Isiria seemed both suprised about her speaking and the fact she knew about Nathillius being her lover. Her eyes widened in sudden pain as she knelt down. The seal was dissapearing much quicker now.
"That is a good idea." She said softly as she rose from her knelt position.

Shroud sniffed the air for the scent of ghost ectoplasm; sensing none, she led the way to the outer walls of the village and pushed the gate open. A strong gust of blizzard met them both and Shroud bowed her head against the wind.
"We'll be lucky if we find anything out here." she thought furiously.

Isiria walked alongside Shroud, her robes tightening around herself every once in awhile to keep warm. Her body and skin was still decomposed but she seemed beautiful for soemthing once dead.
Suddenly, she stopped and drew her bow as a figure leapt above her with a ear-splitting cackle.
"Damn, Springheel Jack!"
"Ahahaha, you can never catch what you cannot see." He scoffed as he jumped aeound her before go off into the blizzard.

Shroud's nunchaku were in her hands in seconds; she squinted, trying to see through the blizzard.
"I made this blizzard just for you two dears!" came the soft voice of Yuki-Onna, ringing clearly over the roaring wind.
Shroud cried out in frustration because then Springheel Jack came out with a song from a distance away.
"Two hunters a-walking through the snow,
The grip of the blizzard never letting them go!
What be their names I hear you ask?
Miss Nightshade, otherwise known as Shroud,
A bittersweet girl who tries to stand proud!
The other?
Mrs Aruskhor, Isiria's her name,
Her man did raise her and she came!" he sang in an annoying singsong voice.