When having something to think of rather than cold is a good thing. The bad thing is that what you are thinking about is why you are out in the cold. Such were the thoughts of three little travelers, well, little by the standards of the location they were in, the highest mountain on the continent, and interestingly, the only one, so that it bore a very simpleton name, "The Mountain".
Our little party consisted of not just human, it contained a dwarf and a lamia. Without too much description, one was short, hairy and lived underground, and another had half body that of the snake, and another one that of a woman, and was the type to be really, really appreaciative of her own beauty.
What they were doing, you would ask? Well, officially, they were a group of adventurers sent to investigate a strange Mana that began emitting from the top of the Mountain (and yes, there is Magic in this story) some time ago, while the truth is a lee bit more interesting.
"Do you know that the lamias are ccc-old bb-loodeed creatures? Then why the hhh-eck am I in this freezing ttt-o death Hh-hell?"
"Oh, don't sue me, you kkk-new that it won't bb-e hot out there?"
"Less tt-alk lasses, or your tt-ongues would freeze"
"Mmm-ine has already frozen ll-long ago, and I-I-uh won't let you ff-forget ww-hat a bb-beautiful one th-the World hh-ad lost"
"All bb-but lost, Dear"
"Sh-shut up, Amelia, orr-r you want me tt-to squeeze your humour out of yy-you?" (Lamias could easily shatter a stone with their long serpentine body)
"Yy-eah, it's all the better than tt-to listen to you, Priscilla"
"Hush, you two, judging by how earth tt-tremors, there is something approaching from the bb-back".
"Oh, it's nice not to stutter beacause of cold in your mind" Thought Amelia, while looking around for some signs of a danger nearby. With a heavy blizzard that began raging on the Mountain the time when the strange mana appeared, the farthest she could see were the backs of her companions, who were also trying to discern something in the falling snow (or Priscilla looked like she tried, while to fix her hair under the hood).
They had been escalating the mountain for 3 days already, in order to reach to strange mana source, and they haven't seen a living thing, which was peculiar, because the Mountain, due to its solitary existence, offered a unique ecosystem that existed nowhere else, inviring all types of adventurers, for there were monsters in this area, whose dietary preferences consisted of Mana-Stones, (and of an adventurer or two) that were concealed at the base of the mountain, and presented the concentrated type of inert magic, having the skyscraping prices even for the smallest one. The most dangerous and common of the beasts were the three-headed snow-gryphon, a bird-like creature, featuring 2 sets of wings, of the size of an elephant, nests of Rock-eaters, half a man big bugs with shiny fur, their numbers reaching hundreds in one colony, Great Mountain troll, a fearful ten-humans tall existence that was so ferocious, that it ate gryphons under the Rock-eater's sauce, and the least, but not last, was the alpha-predator, the Hydra, a many-headed monster, that could regrow its heads if they were cut off, which were already the size of a gryphon, if that tells of its size.
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"If our group didn't see even one adventurer, but still the blizzard could have frightened them off, what about the monsters? And what is making the earth tremble so much?" But it looks like Amelia’s male companion, a dwarf with the name of Beerley, the most experienced out there, had the same thoughts, for he began gathering the mana in his hands, because the magic in this world took form in many ways, the most common being his way or using a magical staff and saying the incantation. After a moment or, a patch of rock began turning the surrounding snowy ground and rose up to form the stony dome, while Amelia, who had a talent in illusion magic, made the walls transparent, and our lamia, Priscilla, was plucking her eyebrows, with a mirror in another hand, while being in the gloves. It looks like they got there in time, (especially Priscilla), because not a moment later, they saw a whole horde of griffins, flying low at a breakneck speed, almost touching the newly built shelter, while it shook violently, on which our group stood, as if something large bumped into it underneath, making all three of them tumble (I wouldn't envy the lamia) like a child’s toys. But it wasn’t the worst thing, no far from it. All around, there were hydras, jumping out and into the snow like the fish in the sea (that's why the dome shook), their way of moving if they wanted to be fast, intermingling with griffins, and some were even lucky to catch one, followed by Mountain trolls, running on all of their fours. While being flung up and down inside their dome, and with all of the snow that was in the air due to a stampede, Amelia and Beerley (Priscilla was sighning over her shattered mirror and fully plucked out eyebrow) could finally discern the very thing that caused all of this pandemonium: a forty-storie tall, dripping with blood of not so lucky escapees, there was a swirling mass of multitude of hydra-heads leisurely strolling towards them.