Meav gasped at the first snowslide that hit her, then batted several away with the Force. Finally, she let out a stream of fire from her left hand. It hit the nearest clump of snow, which promptly burst into millions of little sparklies, which, after putting on a dramatic fireworks display, faded into oblivion (although one did find its way down the back of Cassandra's collar, and turned back into ice particles).

"EEeEEE! That's cold!" Cassandra squealed and began flapping her shirt, trying to get the ice out.

When she judged that Meav was properly distracted by her antics, Cassandra used an ancient and little known Force technique to make sparkly sticky glitter fall from an invisible portal and land all over Meav.

"EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Meav's screech hit a decibel level usually reserved for rock bands and a note usually reserved for calling dogs. "I am NOT a sparkly mosquito-elf knock off!" After a few seconds of vainly attempting to remove the sticky, Meav gave up and glared at Cassandra. "Do that again and the sparklies that hit you will NOT be made of water."

Meav splashed some water on her face to remove the most offending glitter detritus, then grinned devilishly.

"Oh no...." Kel groaned as Meav started singing everyone's favorite song ((No worries, no RickRoll)) and cast a small handful of rocks toward Cassandra. They landed at her feet, wobbled for a few moments, then sprouted into full grown Kiley Syrus and Cirsten Mewart clones.

Cassandra screamed in horror as the cloned teen shriekers appeared in front of her. She pointed her lightsaber at them threateningly and said," Sing a note and I will kill you in the most excruciating ways possible."

((Making an executive decision here. Sweeet, I will edit/delete if something's wrong here. Just want to keep things moving. If I don't get a reply in a few days, I'll go ahead and do a second, longer post so we can move on to the larger stuff.))

The icy creature began to speak.

"Badly," G-9's voice grated over the word. "The magnecrystal was a jewel that had existed from the very beginning of time. The elves found it by chance when they settled their lands, and it was theirs for a long time. They had no idea to what extent its power could go, what the gem could do. Long ago, The Vortex asked for the jewel. The elves refused, and rightly so. Our leader could not take no for an answer--Not the vortex."

G-9 fell silent for a few moments, and Neíhudir picked up the thread.

"A bloody war ensued that lasted for fifty years. Even for elves, this is a long time to war. Many were lost on both sides, but The Vortex, the vortex leader, refused to stop. If I am recollecting correctly, a small rebel group of vortex finally resisted the influence of the main vortex's mind and overthrew him, what it sounds like you, G-9, have also done. Anyway, a new, just Vortex was appointed to the throne. He sent an offer of peace, which could not have been more welcome. Unfortunately, well...." Neíhudir sighed. "We had received such offers of peace before, and could not trust it.
"The Vortex decided to do what they could to ensure that peace would flourish again throughout the land. He told his people of his plan, as well as the elves, who disbelieved him, and then brought all of the vortex down into a deep hibernation from which they could not of their own volition awake.
"We heard nothing from the mountains and sent a few scouts up to see what the vortex were doing. All of the vortex had seemingly disappeared. All that remained were ice covered and enormous rocks that had not been there before. Thousands of these rocks filled the mountains."

"The Vortex had kept his word!" G-9 exclaimed. "There will be no more warring over the magnecrystal. And there won't, if you will but listen."

"So what is your proposition?" Neihudir asked.

EDITED RE-SOME PLOT PMS WITH SWEEET

Yonatan spoke up. "Yes, what is it that you want? You said that there will be no more warring. Then why are your... eh, people on the warpath? They sure aren't look too friendly to me."

"Not to interrupt your story, and I'm sure you will be getting to this, but what exactly awoke the Vortex?" Fingon asked. His mind traveled back to darker days from his past, in particular, Khazad-dûm came to the forefront. The sleep and awakening of a threatening menace was a familiar story to the elf.

Crisis in the Snow

Two girls trudged through the snow on the mountain in silence, the wind biting their noses, no matter how tightly they held their hoods closed. But the tinu were warm, the sheep from which the fabric was woven were bred for this sort of chill. Only those most skilled in handling the wool had been allowed to work on them. So far, the love and care that had been put into those tinu was keeping the girls alive.

They reached top of mountain and paused only a moment to catch their breath and survey the scene. But there was not much to look at. The wind had the snow in a constant whirl and their vision was obscured only about 6 ft ahead.

Nena sneezed and shivered, "Come on!" she whimpered, "Let's go!" She stamped her foot in an effort to regain feeling in it, but it was no use.
Rylin peered around for a moment more then began the decent.
She's so slow, thought Nena with disgust, if it weren't for her I'd be there by now. If it weren't for her, I'd be doing this alone and with much better efficiency. Why did they have to send two of us?

Either the weather changed or it was colder on this side of the mountain. The wind began to chill them to the marrow in spite of their tinu. Suddenly Rylin stopped.
"Come on!" snapped Nena, her patience at an end. "Keep moving! We'll freeze if we don't keep our blood circulating!!"
"No, wait!" said Rylin, "don't move!"
"You just bet I'll keep moving!" Nena snarled, "Watch me!"
"No Nena!" cried Rylin and in a sudden move pounced on her in a tackle that sent them crashing into the snow.
An ear splitting crack rang above them and the roar of falling rocks and snow was suddenly heard. The girls sprang up and scrambled back as the debris plunged to the ground just before the spot they had been standing. Breathlessly they stared as the fine powder of snow that had been kicked up began to settle. Their ears rang from the noise, but they were unharmed.

After a few silent moments Nena turned to stare at Rylin. Rylin said nothing but bent down and began to un-sling her pack.
"What are you doing?!" cried Nena, "now that it's over we have to keep moving! What if it begins to fall again?"
"The rocks are blocking our path-"
"Obviously!"
Rylin continued as though she had not been interrupted, "They will still be loose and insecure. If we try to cross them they may slip out from underneath us. However, if we wait until tomorrow they will have had a chance to settle, and it may be safer." She had finished putting up the tent and now went inside to lay down the tightly woven floor cloth that kept them dry. Nena followed her.
"You're so pessimistic! Well I'm going whether you are or not!"
Rylin looked up quickly. Her dark eyes were troubled suddenly, "But it's too dangerous! You could be killed!"
Nena sniffed and said, "Watch me."
Rylin shook her head and opened her mouth but Nena had already left the tent.

Out in the chill air Nena stamped her foot, this time out of frustration. "How could she?" she growled to herself, "she will let our people die because she's too scared to take a chance herself." She crossed the short space between the tent and freshly piled rocks.

Rylin bit her lip and stared at the side of the tent as though she could pierce it with her eyes. She shivered, not from cold but from fear. There was nothing but the screeching of the wind for a long time. Then suddenly a deep rumble was heard from in front of the tent. The cracking of rocks and the rushing of falling snow drowned out all other sound, including Rylin's cry of "Nena!"
She lept to her feet and was at the flap of the tent in a moment. "Ne-!" she began in a desperate scream but nearly bumped into Nena who was scrambling back into the tent flap at top speed.
"What?!" she growled.
Rylin gave a little gasp and put a hand to her heart, "Nothing!" she replied breathlessly, "nothing at all."

A little later that night Rylin shivered under her pile of blankets. It was so much colder on this side of the mountain. The wind was even leaking through the sides of the tent.
"Nena," she whispered.
"What?" came Nena's harsh reply. She was still angry at Rylin's delay, but also angry that she had been right. And she was still sure that she could do the job without help.
"If we were to cuddle close together we could double our blankets and have double the blanket warmth and also share our body heat."
"No." said Nena shortly.
"No what?"
"No I don't want to sleep touching you."
Rylin didn't reply to that, just slid her head under the blankets and shivered to keep warm.

((OOC: Umm... This is about 800 words. O.o Should I try to cut it again?))

Crisis in the Snow

((OOC: that's fine. ))

Deep, dark eyes, like pools of ink, watched the two girls, taking in every movement, every detail. It sat, unblinking, watching, calculating. Every now and again, a red flicker of flame seemed to dance in its eyes. Its sharp ears had heard Rylin's screams above the wind, and its quick nose had caught the sent of Nena. Seemingly impervious to the cold, it had climbed and climbed, its snaky body weaving in and out, above and below the rocks. Then it had settled, watching, waiting, looking almost as if it had frozen in place, except for the few times it stretched.

"What have we found, my love? Does it have something tasty, and is it weak-willed?" With a slithering hiss, another creature like it slid up beside the first. The second creature spoke softly, settling in beside its mate.

"There are two. They are not weak-willed, albeit weak, Rohindron, and I doubt they have anything to feed you. Shouldn't you have eaten before you left camp, my dear?"

"I had no time, my sweet, I was worried about you up here on your own."

Mahindren, for that was the other dragon's name, giggled.

"What could hurt me up here?" she giggled again. "What did your friend Träm say?"

"Anything could happen, dearest," Rohindron replied, playing with Mahindren's ear tufts. "Träm is still with the smelly Force-User, but he says to bring the humans down."

"I wonder what on earth for? He's always either killed them or let them freeze before."

"Who knows...let's set to work, shall we? Then I can eat sooner."

Mahrindren giggled again, then lapsed into silence. After a few seconds of quiet planning, the two moved in, quietly, and searched around the edges of the tent. After a few moments, Mahindren found a loose edge, and, taking it, lifted it up enough for Rohindron to squirm in.

"Sss, no more time for sleep, not here, not now," he said, crawling over first Rylin then Nena. Mahindren popped up opposite him, placing a claw softly on Rylin's shoulder. "You will freeze if you don't move. Come down the mountain. We will show you the way."

Nena slowly woke up to a pleasant warmth running over her and let her eyes luxuriously open. When she saw the face that was looking at her she let out an ear piercing scream that echoed off the rocks outside and seemed to double it's volume.

"Nena, Nena," came Rylin's soft voice in an urgent tone. "Please Nena, hush!"

Shivering, Nena scrambled to Rylin's side and stared at the strange creatures in the tent with them. Funny thing was, she didn't feel cold anymore.

Rylin cleared her throat nervously and said, "What- what did you say about going down the mountain?"

Rohindron leaped backward from Nena, hitting the tent wall, which surprised him even more. A small woosh of flame broke out before him, then vanished.

"Hmph, humans," Rohindron grumped, his lips curling back in disgust. "Should know by now that you can never trust them to respond logically in any way. All chills and goosebumps. Don't know why I bother."

"Hush, my dear," Mahindren said softly. "She's just frightened. You did wake her up, you know."

Rohindron made a few more miffed noises. Mahindren shook her head, then crawled into Rylin's lap, putting a claw on each arm, and looking into her eyes.

"Go down the mountain," she said softly. "You know, stand up, walk, follow us to the camps. We know the way. We were sent up to show you the way down. It is too cold for humans like you up here. If you wait much longer, you will freeze before you reach the end of your journey. Rohindron's friend said to find you, and we have. Now you must come, quickly!"

Rylin shivered ever so slightly at the claws on her arms, but they were gentle and didn't scratch. She wondered if perhaps these creatures were elf-friends; they seemed nice enough. Do Elves live in camps? she wondered, or are they already at war?

"Alright..." she said aloud after a moment's pause. "We will come. Just let us take down the tent first."

"What!?" shrieked Nena. Or at least, she tried to shriek. What really came out was a thin little squeak that Rylin didn't even hear. She shivered violently when she glanced at the creature in Rylin's lap and her mouth went dry. Not like it wasn't already dry, but it got dryer. Maybe that's why she could make no sound with volume above a loud whisper. What, are you insane?!? she thought, We don't know what they are! They might eat us!! But since she could not make her thoughts known, all she could do was shiver and stare and look at Rylin with a pleading look that was supposed to mean No, no please don't go with them!! Rylin, however, didn't notice.

It was short work to take down the tent and get it back into it's pack. When it was done Rylin settled it back on her shoulders and said, "We're ready."
Nena still hadn't got her voice back or she might have something to say about that.

"Good, good!" Mahindren turned to Rohindron. "See? if you have patience, you can work with them."

"I'll go ahead, then, since you seem to have the patience, cupcake," Rohindron said, shaking his head and smiling.

"We'll follow him," Mahindren explained, "at a slightly slower pace. It doesn't hurt us, really, to fall or slip. We're a lot closer to the ground, you know. If he disappears, don't worry. I can still see or smell him."

Rohindron moved quite faster than Mahindren and her new friends. This didn't seem to bother her, and she chattered with Rylin (and ignored Nena) as they wound their way down the mountain. The little dragons new their ways, and were quick to find the smoothest paths over the rough and snowy terrain. After quite some time of walking, Mahindren suddenly turned off of the path.

"Don't be afraid, you won't fall," she said, leading them up a narrow outcropping. "I wanted you to see this, perhaps it would encourage you."

Standing at the highest tip of the frozen stone, a huge landscape came into view. The wind was still, hundreds of feet beneath them, and the snow wafted gently down, quite unlike the driving wind that flung bits of ice and snow into their faces. And, in the midst of this quiet place, were a thousand lights of a thousand tents. A soft whiny could be heard, but other than that, all was quiet.

"This is the camp, yes?" Mahindren didn't wait for an answer. "The mountains spread out with little finger pathways in. If you miss the pathways, you can wander for days. See those high rocks over there? That is where the caves are. A Dragon Rider and a Dragon live there. Very dangerous. Everything is dangerous, here. They say many armies are gathering. There is war in the air. But don't get discouraged. Come! We will be there soon."

"Rather, you will be, if you don't stop gawking," Rohindron muttered, appearing behind them.

Nena followed behind Rylin and the strange creature. She couldn't understand how calmly Rylin spoke to it and how she could actually engage in conversation with it! However, even she realized that the going was much easier with the paths the creatures were taking.
When the thing suddenly broke away from the path Nena halted and for a moment refused to follow. But a puff of smoke coming towards her from the front, indicating the other was coming back, sent her scurrying after Rylin.

She came up beside Rylin before the thing started talking and so heard all that it said.

Rylin's heart sank at the sight of the camp. So they are at war... she thought and bit her lip. We are too late. They cannot help us now. She turned her face away from the friendly little thing by her side to hide the tear that slid down her cheek. It froze halfway down and she brushed it off rather roughly.

Nena also understood what this meant to them and she stared dismally at the lights below. At the mention of being there soon she did not feel the anticipation she had felt before. Nor did she start at the voice behind her. Her heart felt empty and cold, like the mountain they were traveling down. We've failed. I've failed. she thought. But another thought flitted through her mind and she looked up quickly and blurted, "How long have they been in war camps?"

"Hmm? Oh, the camp only moved down here a week ago, not long at all," Rohindron replied. "Only one skirmish, no real fighting yet. I heard that there was another skirmish between two of the other armies on the other side of the caves, though."

"Come, my dears," Mahindren said. "We must keep moving. It is the only way that we will get down, and sooner is better than later. They have been waiting for you."

A week? thought Nena, then if we had been a little faster we could have made it! They could have helped us! Then it is Rylin's fault! If we had only moved faster! Her face flushed with anger and she didn't even hear the female creature's words.

Rylin however ran her mind back over what they had been doing a week before. We hadn't left home yet, she recalled, Our tinu had not been finished... It was hopeless before we even left. Another tear trickled down her cheek, and it also froze. Quickly she brushed it away and then turned to the friendly creature.
"We are ready," she said.

Turning away from the edge Rylin followed the creatures back to the path they had been following. But when she looked around, Nena was not with them. Glancing back, she saw her still standing by the edge and glowering at the camp below. When Rylin called to her she turned slowly and came reluctantly after them.