The Frost Heart

The Hidden Land of Witches

The downtown park is the number one popular spot in Jack's residence. Being near the city center, the place was never quiet with the visit of others not day and also not night.

Usually they visit because they want to unwind with busy activities, gather with friends or girlfriends, or because there are events, such as famous band performances, street dances, or marathon sports events.

But now, the place became desolate like a grave. Because the power of time is taken or also called None Time, the time of all living things will stop and freeze into ice, no exception with humans.

The crowded park is now filled with human-shaped ice sculptures, such as the park has been transformed into a show of ice sculpture minus visitors.

But the assumption that there are no visitors is also not entirely true. There were two people of different gender walking through the many ice sculptures. They are Jack and Mary who are looking for an entrance to a hidden land. Holding the D-compass, Mary leads a search for the entrance that randomly moves around.

"It...Are these statues human?" ask Jack to wonder.

"Well, that's for sure. The power of time in this world was forcibly taken by the ritual-maker." Answer Mary briefly.

"Oh, yeah. You never mentioned the name of the troublemaker. Who's she?"

"Ehm, uh, mentioning his name is taboo for a lower-class witch like us, so we lower-class soldiers do not know his real name and only know his nickname. Who-man."

"O, it's like it's in Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter?"

"Oh.you don't know. Well, forget it."

Then Jack and Mary continue to walk past the many human-shaped ice sculptures, following the instructions of the D-compass. They continued walking until they had passed the last ice sculpture and suddenly Mary stopped in front of a park bench.

"What's wrong?" asked Jack, wondering why Mary stopped.

"We have arrived..."

Then Mary put her D-compass and the compass needle swirled, signifying that the chair was the entrance to the hidden ground.

"Eh, so this chair is the entrance?"

Jack surprised.

"Yes, that's exactly what the D-compass is directing."

"Are you sure?"

"We'll prove it right away if this compass is wrong."

Then Mary took out a silver key from a carving on the waist of the robe. Jack learns from Mary that it is a storage area for important and emergency objects that should not be lost. The storage was quite small, about the size of the contents of a small waist bag and devoted to small objects.

"[offne.die Tur zum Himmel]"

Clutching the silver key, Mary uttered a word unfamiliar to Jack's ears. Then, a small hole appeared on the park bench and the inclusion of the silver key into the hole, after which it was rotated to sound a click.

ZOMM!!!

A white light suddenly appeared in front of Mary and Jack from the small hole. After which, the white light turned into a black-colored hole.

"Come, come in..." Mary told Jack to come in. After that, Mary went in first.

Jack hesitated to enter, as it was the first time he had entered such a door. But just sigh to dissipate his doubts and get into a door more akin to a portal in the first Avenger film series.

***

After entering the place, Jack saw that he was in a large hall with many doors. He saw that there were many people there who went back and forth here and there while following a bubble there.

"Ehm, what is this place?" Jack asked Mary who was beside him.

"Ah, I haven't been back to this place in a long time."

"Oi, answer my question..." Jack felt cold.

It made Mary aware of the wrong behavior, "Ah, I'm sorry.maklum I've been gone too long to the outside world to do a mission and miss a little."

Then Mary took Jack somewhere. After walking past many people, they finally reached where Mary meant. The place seemed to be the reception desk, Jack's inner when he saw the person sitting behind the table.

Mary and Jack advance to a "receptionist" table that is out of service to someone. That person was a man wearing glasses and in the collar of his yellow shirt, there was a yellow bow tie. Mary's face was slightly shocked when she found out who the person behind the table was. The man also looked surprised to see Mary.

"I didn't think I'd see you when I got home, MJ!" Sapa Mary speaks English.

The person called MJ laughed.

Then they talked in English without any Indonesian at all. Jack realized that the official language here was that international language.

"Well, you could say good also not, said bad also not..." Mary said in a dubious tone.

"He has a wound stitch on the right abdomen. He'll get an infection if he's not treated seriously right away."

Suddenly Jack nodded. It made Mary look angrily at Jack and MJ standing up from her seat with a very anxious expression.

"You're hurt, Mary?! How wide is that wound?!! Do you have a fever?! Do you feel like you're having a duel?! Ah, crap! Your body feels hot..."

MJ panics and holds Mary's body as if to examine the body. Mary's eyes darkened, she had already guessed that this would happen. On the other hand, Jack feels sorry to tell Mary the true circumstances when he finds out what happened next. He then held the man's cheeks and said, "I'm fine. So, don't panic."

"But, but..."

"After all, this wound is a small wound. Stay in the hospital, I'll be fine...."

After Mary calmed MJ down, she finally calmed down. He coughed a little while justifying his glasses when he realized that he was being noticed by people.

"Who is he?" MJ is aware of Jack's whereabouts.

"He's an outsider from Dracvale. His name is Jack Zitman..." Mary then introduced herself to Jack.

Then Jack stretched out his hand and introduced himself. MJ did not immediately welcome that hand first. He looked at Jack's outstretched hand in surprise. He welcomed Jack's hand.

"My name is Mike James. Usually my friends call me MJ. Oh, well, I'm also Mary's lover..."

Then Mary kicked MJ and MJ slightly grimaced.

"Don't worry, since when did I become your girlfriend. Don't trust him, Jack. He and I are just ordinary friends."

From the exchange, Jack predicted that they are friends who have a long history.

"Actually, the way you get acquainted isn't standard in the world, Jack..." Then MJ corrected the way he got acquainted.

In the hidden ground, those who are acquainted will exchange respect by holding their right chest with their left hand and bowing for a slow voice or looking up for a loud voice, adjusting the conditions in the introduction.

If there are people who deserve respect or official events, you should get acquainted with how to bow your head. And to raise the head, then it is used for people of the same age, low-ranking people, and others.

"Thank you for the info..."

"It doesn't matter, if it's Mary's acquaintance, it's definitely that person's a good person."

Then MJ sat back in his chair and picked up the object next to him. After that, Mary took something from the carving from her robe. It was a silver medal and he then put the digging face to the object that turned out to be a scanner.

"You want to report the mission, right?" MJ asked Mary. Mary nodded and MJ then fiddled with the button from the scanner. Then, suddenly the capsule came out of that thing.

"Take this..." Then Mary was given the capsule and then Mary slammed the capsule onto the floor. A clear bubble floated up that looked like it had been carried around by the people in the hall.

"What's this?" Jack curiously held onto the clear bubble.

"It was the [Creatures Summon] that was used to point the way leading to the teleportation door. The hall was huge and contained thousands of teleportation doors per corner of the hall. It would take a lot of energy to send people to the intended teleportation doors and It was extremely ineffective. Therefore, we created this [Creatures Summon] for the automatic pointer to the intended door." Obviously straightforward MJ.

"Oh, yeah. Right now the supreme witches are making a decision for the refugees. For a while, you will be placed in a place while waiting for the decision of the high magician."

"So, are we going to split up?" Mary asked.

"What happens if you split up?" Jack answered with a question.

"Nothing, I'm just asking..."

After Mary said goodbye, Mary left.

"You need to find someone who can take care of my stitches, Mary!" Jack said and answered Mary's thumbs away.

"Here comes the bubble. You know how to use it, right? It's the same thing Mary did..."

Then Jack slammed the capsule and came out a bubble which then led Jack to the teleportation door. After saying goodbye, Jack left MJ alone.

***

**Note :

affne ... die Tur zum Himmel, meaning open.door to heaven**.