Previous part: Nethersfar 4 – The Angry King.
It had been four days out now since the group had left the Golden Fork. Most of the preceding days had been easy going, travelling through mostly flat lands with the odd hilly areas here and there, there were the odd trees and lakes but mostly it was a boring grassy meadow of nothingness, but now as they travelled further and further on, the air had begun getting steadily more and more cold, until it was common to find the grass to be frosty, and on the 3rd day they had to contend with a strong sleet shower.
So far, they survived off provisions they had brought with them, of which would last around about a week, possibly longer if they rationed the food extra hard, and so they were nearing about halfway through. The lands had yet been too clear to hunt anything on as they could be seen from miles by the wildlife, but Knot had said that as they got further into the Icey Peaks, trees would become more common, enabling cover for hunting. Springle noticed the way that Knot seemed to stick real close to the Princess, and he made conversation with her very often.
The Princess had talked at length with Springle through the first couple of days, such as on his long history, asking him to remember things he had seen over the centuries. She tried to make him remember how he got the sword, but still as of yet nothing on that came back to him, and each time the Princess went on to the subject of the sword, Springle swore that the sword itself seemed to stir, as if it were listening.
Dracomeer had mostly been quiet on the journey so far, which Springle was surprised at, as he was usually rather chatty all the other times they had run into each other through the centuries. But out here it seemed as if he were very alert, looking around often and making sure no one was following them. He seemed at times almost nervous, which in turn made Springle feel a bit nervous as well, as if something far older than himself were scared, then surely that means whatever it is, it could not be good.
Springle wanted to pull back and talk with Dracomeer, oddly, which was fairly unlike him, but he wanted to get into Dracomeers head and understand why he was acting oddly himself. But Springle was yet unable to control his horse, it simply followed close to the side of the Princess’ horse. They would likely be stopping soon anyway for a place to sleep as the sun was lowering down in the sky, Springle would try and talk to him then.
“I hope everything is going well back at home,” said the Princess Christine aloud, she was bundled up in a thick fur coat with the hood up, it made her seem like a round blob on her horse, compared to her usual slender figure.
“Ah, I’m sure Jerry Fortune has everything under control,” said Knot merrily, he seemed to have been rather happy through most of the trip for some reason.
Springle himself was neither angry or sad but being out in this desolate land, heading into a frozen wasteland, certainly wasn’t the occasion for being happy. Springle suspected that Knot had a certain attraction to the Princess, and she seemed oblivious to it.
Then there were the Princess’ Golden Band, her top and most loyal guards. He often forgot they were there, as they were very quiet, hardly ever said anything apart from the odd mutterings to the Princess, and they then outside of that would be shadowing the company at distance, likely looking out for any dangers.
Sleeping was the worst part, due to it being cold. They had bundles of blankets as well as their thick clothes to cuddle up into, but that didn’t stop the outside noises from disturbing them, and it didn’t stop all of the cold, and the ground was still uncomfortable to sleep on, each person would stay up as a lookout and then rotate, to make sure no one came up upon them in the night, so far no one had. The desolate and empty land was eerie though and it could play tricks on the mind during the dark nights, especially if one were tired, sometimes it seemed as if Springle saw the odd shadow in the distance or heard some uncanny noise, but whenever he went to investigate it further nothing was found, and so he played it off.
He knew that this would only get worse as they headed deeper into the Icey Peaks proper, where the terrain would become hillier and more mountainous, where there would be more trees as well as deep snow and slippery ice, and often blizzard like conditions – but that wasn’t the worst of it, no one truly knew entirely what was out in the Icey Peaks, there were a few settlements of humans, but many of them were barbaric and unkind and best to be avoided. It was also known that snow ogres existed out in the Icey Peaks, living within colonies in cave networks, they were blue of skin, massive, very tall and extremely strong, again best to be avoided. Dracomeer, in one of his brief moments of speech, had also talked of wizards who lived in settlements out here to, but that they were different from others, with iced-based powers and abilities, rather than arcane or fire like most back at home, Dracomeer believed that they would be friendly enough to perhaps allow them some accommodation if they were even to come across any, they were not easy to find, nothing was really out in such a place.
And there were legends of other far worse things as well, although not officially documented, but Springle would not be surprised if some such legends out in such unexplored parts were true. The furthest out that had been officially mapped ended at Mt. Chillington, which was officially the tallest mountain in the Kingdom, up until that point Mt. Beastly within the Rockie Beastie mountain range, had been the tallest mountain, this mountain range was located deeper within the kingdom, back beyond the capital and the Jungle Lands, wedged between the Barrens and the Barbaric Lands.
Thinking back on it, the Kingdom didn’t really sound like such a friendly place. But the Icey Peaks were certainly unfriendly and challenging. He wondered how they were going to sleep out in Icey Peaks, Knot claimed that he was able to scout out caves that didn’t have Snow Ogres living in them, but failing that, he could make a temporary shelter within deep snow, which he called a snow burrow. Springle could only imagine such a thing being extremely cold, but Knot actually claimed sleeping within a burrow dug out in the snow is warmer than sleeping on the surface, especially when they were all huddled together in it. This made Springle feel rather uncomfortable.
They eventually stopped to settle down, the area they had stopped at was frosted over, but there were also a few patches of snow as well, which was new, meaning they were getting closer to the Icey Peaks proper; the land had also been getting more rugged and trees were getting more and more common, in-fact just a short distance away from them a forest loomed, which excited Knot who planned to hunt within it at the crack of dawn. Apparently Springle had made this trip once before into the Icey Peaks and back again, alone, but he had no memory of it and wondered how he could possibly have survived it, what could have drove him to do it?
Springle sat down next to Dracomeer around a fire, the fires were created using his wizard powers, which was a massive help to the group, meaning they didn’t have to waste too much time getting a fire going each night to warm up at, all they had to do was collect bits of wood from under trees they passed, the fires would soon be useful to cook the animals that Knot hunted, but for now the provisions could be eaten straight up without being cooked, these provisions were not so pleasant, they were hard cheese, simple bread – not the kind you’d get from a bakery – and also oats that could be mixed with water, suffice to say that Springle was somewhat looking forward to eating some hunted meat, but that was about the only thing he looked forward to, the rest was pretty gloomy.
They also needed sprites for energy, a strange source that all living things needed to stay moving and active, otherwise one would begin to lose power, and tire more easily, even lose their voice, until eventually one would become immobile and die to the elements, thirst or hunger. Springle had always wished that they could simply just survive off food and water, but it wasn’t so simple. Springle could already feel his legs stiffening, this type of stiffening was different to the stiff legs of a long walk, it was deeper and a bit more painful, a sign of sprite deficiency. The only way to get sprites was to hunt and absorb it from the dead carcass before it all leaked away into the air, you could also kill people and absorb their sprites – Springle could only imagine that this had happened before in desperate situations, people turning on each other.
“You’re oddly quiet,” said Springle to Dracomeer, “normally I can’t get you to shut up.”
“I assume you know of some of the horrors out here?” asked the wizard in a monotone voice, “it is wise for even someone such as myself to be very afraid. Even I do not fully know what is out here, but I have seen some terrifying things before.”
“Such as?” nudged Springle, curious.
Dracomeer sighed, “things made of the elements. Gigantic beastly terrors. Massive humanoids that blend in with the environment. Snow that… that, seems to be sentient, I call them snow golems, I had originally thought they to be a creation of the Ice Wizards, but it seems they were malevolent creatures, made by something darker. And that’s just scraping the tip of what’s out here. Most of what I mention is unrecorded, and so deemed to be myths, but believe me, they exist. I would not be surprised even if now something un-comprehendible had its eyes on us.”
Springle felt an uncomfortable cringe move throughout his body, making the hair on his neck stand on end, he glanced a look behind himself, the darkness beginning to close in on them. “Hey, did you happen to see any shadows about during your lookouts?”
Dracomeer nodded, “and they aren’t a trick of the mind. They are real creatures; I like to call them shadow people. Generally, though they may watch us at a distance, they do not seem to be dangerous, just curious. I say just leave them alone and they leave us alone.”
Springle realized he absolutely hated this place now. He kind of wished he had not asked the wizard about the shadows; he was rather content believing they were a figment of his imagination. Springle found he wasn’t too hungry and so only ate some hard cheese and a half a piece of bread and saved the rest, at least that will make the food last a little longer. Springle felt sick, like a deep sickness caused from being full of dread and fear, he was not looking forward to tonight, knowing now that the place they were in, and the place they were heading into, was very mysterious and unexplainable, even to a centuries old wizard.
Deep into the night Springle sat up on his lookout, he had hardly slept, he could not now, knowing what was possibly out there, every time he did get a brief period of sleep, he’d be woken up by nightmares of sentient snow that begun strangling him in his sleep or from being crowded around by shadow people with glowing red eyes that seemed to growl at him in unhuman fashion.
Luckily so far, he had not seen anything this lookout, and there was little sound, in-fact hardly any sound at all, it was deathly quiet, which seemed to make it even worse. To top it off there was no fire going either as it was put out before sleeping, as a way to keep hidden better from anyone… or thing that may be stalking about, and so it was basically pitch black, for all he knew something could literally be a few feet away from him, and he would be none the wiser. Springle you were a mad man, he said to himself, he… had been through this land and into it and back again… what was he on? Suddenly he found something flashed through his memory, he saw blizzard conditions, and before him something obscured, shadowy, like some kind of fortress in the snow, but then it was gone and he could not think further on it.
Suddenly he was startled by someone whispering his name, he stood up with a slight squeal and a sharp intake of breath, his heart thudding in his chest, but then he turned and saw it was just the princess, he calmed but felt rather embarrassed, a large bloke such as himself showing himself up like this in-front of her?!
The princess shook her head amusingly, “I understand how you feel,” she said, “this place is what nightmares are made of, and we are just stubbornly heading further into it.”
“Ah, Princess. I’m sorry for that display. You can imagine what Dracomeer has told me. Even someone such as myself is afraid if he is also scared.”
“You have nothing to prove or explain to me, there is no shame in being afraid of the unknown, it is wise, any man who claims to not be afraid in this place is a fool, and a liability,” she looked over at Knot who was snoring asleep, bundled in his clothes and covers, “fool of a man indeed.”
“I guess you could also not sleep?” asked Springle, unsure of what else to say to a princess.
“No, not at all. I reckon almost all of us can’t, including Dracomeer.”
Springle nodded, “well I can hand over lookout to you if you want.”
“Ah no, stay, we can both look-out. I’d rather not be on my own, and I doubt you want to be either.”
“Of course not,” said Springle, eyeing a patch of snow that he swore had just moved.
They stood for a while in silence, looking out into the inky blackness, there was a strange noise, sounding like some kind of machinery, but the sound was off, very unsettling, foreign. Neither Springle or the princess took audible note of it, it was best to just leave whatever it was alone. Springle then remembered his brief memory and wanted to tell the Princess, but just like that it is almost as if his sword knew what he was thinking, and was trying to dissuade him from saying anything on it.
But he knew he had to, the Princess would want to know, and so he pushed through the silent arguments of the sword, “I had a brief memory pop up, I think related to the sword, princess.”
The princess perked up and attained eager eye contact with Springle, “tell me what you saw.”
“Well, it wasn’t really anything to go on, but I remember a strong blizzard and something… some kind of fortress in the distance, but it was heavily obscured by the blizzard-like conditions, and so could not make much of it out. But I think it may be where the sword came from, or at least is related to the time I trekked into the Icey Peaks.”
The princess nodded, “at least we seem to have something to go on, some sort of large structure up in the Icey Peaks. Just the problem is the Icey Peaks is such a huge place, and that’s only the area we have mapped, one can only assume that the place you found was off the edge of any known maps. One can only wonder how you survived your trek up there.”
“Oh, I do wonder, well at least now anyway, beforehand all that mattered to me was killing green critters. I’m starting to see now that it may have been a distraction. Something is very wrong with this sword,” he patted its hilt with his large palm, “it tries to stop me from revealing things about it. One can only think that no good can come of that. I won’t be surprised if it is responsible for my memory lapses.”
The Princess seemed troubled at this, and Springle was worried he may have said too much too soon, his sword burned at his side, as if angry at him, but he ignored it. Just as the Princess was about to open her mouth to say something, they were interrupted, a glow in the sky that seemed to be heading towards them, then as if by instinct Springle grabbed the Princess and threw her to the side, she screamed loudly, and Springle landed on his back to the side of her, and saw an arrow lit with fire puncture into the ground where the princess had been moments before, it lit a small area up, revealing them to the open.
“Everyone up,” yelled Springle at the top of his voice, “we’re under attack!”
The princess sat up. Noises begun about as everyone scrambled up at the commotion. Ahead of them Springle could hear the sounds of galloping heading towards them, as well as more glowing arrows in the distance, they had been found.
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