Wind howled through stark pillars of pine and spruce, powerful gusts tore their snowcapped crowns from their canopy and to the snowpack below or into the air which served to grow the near whiteout conditions of the late afternoon.
Eneri drew a warm breath, allowing the remnants of breakfast seep into her core like rainwater. The trapped warmth of her mother's cooking mixed with the select ingredients provided the final layer of protection against the Hoarfrost’s cold. Even now with her several layers of coats, and her Qi realm core mingling with Flame it snipped her skin like a voracious beast.
The Rabbit tensed her shoulders and relaxed her breath, drawing the string of Royan, in tandem it pulled Qi from her, and the dense ambient Ice Qi carried by the wind. It sprouts small horns of verglas with an odd spark within it…
She took aim at a boar rivaling the largest of bears in size currently pawing and digging through snow and earth alike with its icicle-colored tusks. Snowy blue hide is broken by several arrows spawning rivulets of now frozen blood, and two broken spears decorate the chest, remnants of a sprung trap.
Eneri stalked the Frosttusk Boar since the early morning. Only once, it laid those baleful, blue eyes on her and gave chase. By no means did that make it dumb, it knew when to run, when to hide and when to hunt.
The Beast relied too heavily on recently cultivated senses to decipher where she hid. Eneri’s minute core and trained talent allowed her to seamlessly blend her Spiritual Prescence with the dense wind… To the boar, it’s predator was dead or gone… It simply never dawned on it; the wind shows as much patience as it does ferocity.
It twitched to a familiar sound, a soft thunder barely heard over the roaring a wind as the arrow flew, impacting against the flesh and gliding through bone. A quiet, dying squeal drowns within the squall. Eneri counts to three as the beast fell silent.
Stepping from her hiding place, Eneri laxed a weary sigh she’d been holding in. “Tough bastard…” She mocks, ripping the final arrow out of its skull. “These aren’t cheap.”
The arrowhead, fashioned from a shard of its kinsmen's tusks emanate a dim blue light from within the icy make, before the warm blood could freeze over the head, she wiped it on her cloak. These arrows weren’t hard to make, the bastard Eneri loaded onto her sleigh would alone provide a dozen quivers. The issue arises when it came to talent.
Anyone could make an arrow with the refined material with the Hoarfrosts conditions… However, making an exquisite arrow, one that properly utilized the latent Qi within the head required a professional fletcher. Unfortunately, on the frontier of the Winter Wraith Sect’s hinterlands, such talents are hard to find… And Kalun’s failed ascension to the realm of the Nasceant Nebula left him crippled, stealing his life a year prior. Relegating the task to a number of apprentices and the merchants when they arrived in Spring.
“Which means…”
She looked to her bow named after her late father, the horns receding back into the pale blue wood of its make.
“You won’t be shooting any of the…” She heaved, cursing under her breath as she pulled the corpse along. “Good one’s till late spring.”
Already, sweat welled around her brow. Eneri steeled herself, the worst part of being the Hoarfrost Sentinels greatest, and spiritually stunted hunter had to be dragging the damn things back to the village. As dangerous as they were, she preferred Galezard, they were lighter.
Trudging through the snow felt like an eternity, when Eneri saw the stark, nearly shining marble white walls of Snowhaven her shoulders relaxed, a smile crested her face. The closer she came to the walls, the warmer the air became and the white out conditions simply disappeared.
All thanks were given to the Pavillion, the large building fashioned like a chapel at the center of the village constructed from wood and stone. Within, Ice Qi Gathering arrays were formed and the presence of every Cultivator within the village drew the dense ambience toward them so they could grow.
Save a select few of course, the Hoarfrost Sentinels. Like Eneri, some were given the task due to inferiority with their cores. Others, like her mother, did so by choice. Naturally, most that chose were the few Demihumans within Snowhaven. Unlike humans, the laws of the world prevent us from ascending into the Refined Nebula realm, and even ranking within the Nascent Nebula realm is filled with danger.
This allowed the village to work like clockwork, The Sentinels were responsible for hunting monsters that crept out of the Hoarfrost Wilds just beneath the Eroais Plateu and came close to the village, whilst their Cultivators remained in meditation, at their prime in case a monster they couldn’t handle, or Nirvana forbid, a barbarian attack.
Eneri didn’t hate it. Thrill comes from the hunt, satisfaction from the work and training with her mother. There’s purpose to it, and pride as a reward, unlike in the spring. Where her pitifully small core made her an attraction for the merchants that came.
With a final huff, she pulled the corpse through the gate, setting down the reins as she recollected her baring's. Having a small core has drawbacks of course, mainly, she was mortal. Very, very mortal, and mortals tire easily.
“Eneri’s back!” A boyish voice called the moment she entered the gate, belonging to Mok, the thinner of the two children greeting her.
“She is! That’s the third one this week!” Baang, the chubby kid beside him pointed, examining the beast.
“It’s a big one too!” He further exclaimed.
Eneri wanted to swat them away, to be finished with her work and back home.
“Yes, it sure is…” Eneri smiled beneath her mask, “I’m sure you’ll… Enjoy it in a stew later.”
“Mhm!” Baang answered, a wide smile on his face which spreads to Mok.
Damnit, now she felt like an asshole for wanting to swat them, thankfully, she wouldn’t have too.
“Come now, Mok, Baang.” Anarei spoke to them softly, coming beside Eneri, “I’m sure our Sentinel would much rather be at home with her mother and sisters with a pot full of stew then out here.”
She paused for a moment, grabbing the reins.
“let's help her and take this beast to the butcher.”
Relieved, Eneri stepped back and allowed Anarei and the kids to take the boar away. Anarei did most of the labor, at the end of the Qi Realm a body like this is easily moved. The Sentinel didn’t watch long either, heading to the northern edge of town where the large wooden hut she called home sat atop a small hill, overlooking the Wilds in the distance.
By no means does it have a lavish exterior, but the interior is far from impoverished when compared to the other houses. Heating arrays are etched into the walls and floors, keeping it at a cool temperature.
Eneri closed the door behind her, stripping herself of the various coats drenched in equal quantities of frost and sweat. Finally free from their constricting cap, her tall white rabbit ears twitch in the freedom.
“I’m hooome!” She calls out with newfound energy, a beaming smile coming to her face as she ignored her red nose.
“Eneri’s home!” The voices of her younger sisters blurt out without warning, alongside something crashing against the floor.
“Settle down!” Her mother calls out, the sound of a ladle slapped against skulls followed by the twins whining. “Don’t make a mess of my kitchen and spill my stews.” Her tone is far from angered, but it carries a scolding intent.
“Sorry!” Miyo, eldest of the twins cried out whilst Iyomi remained quiet, sucking her bottom lip as she fought against tears.
Eneri entered the kitchen with a chuckle, her siblings had their heads bowed for forgiveness, their fluffy ears pressed against the cozy rug decorating the floor whilst their mother stood tall and proud, a small mole rests beneath her right eye, and a small scar under the left, her white hair has the occasional gray strand tied into a ponytail.
Despite her looking as if she’s in her early thirties, her mother is a Nascent Nebula cultivator, dwarfing Enrei in age by a century. If she continued cultivating her hair wouldn’t have started to lose its shine… But after the death of Royan, their mother took a more supportive role within the village.
“It’s about time your back.” She crossed her arms, a soft and tired smile creasing her thin lips. “I was beginning to worry you ran into the Wilds to chase fairy tales.”
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Eneri softly chuckled, plopping between her sisters and placing a hand between their ears.
“And be a bad example for these two lumps?”
“Hey!” Miyo protested, pushing the hand away. “We aren’t lumps!”
“Y–Yeah!” Iyomi spoke sheepishly, leaning into the hand petting her hair.
“Suuure.” Eneri glanced around, noting rubbish swept underneath the furniture.
“Why is there dirt hiding under the furniture again?” She raised an accusatory brow.
The twins fell silent, Eneri wore a smug smile.
Their mother softly chuckled, filling the bowls with warm stew.
“Alright, alright calm down you three…” Enrei is the first to receive hers, a mix of boar meat and vegetables rich with Fire Qi. “You must be starving, please, eat and tell us of your hunt.”
The latent Qi in the stew filled her body, whilst she allowed a small amount of the Fire Qi to enter her core so she could regulate her heat better.
Eneri reached the end of her tale, “... Sadly the trap was wasted…” She groaned, “The damn thing tripped it, and tore it from the earth.” Her grin grew, “But in the end, I got it.”
There’s a brief moment of silence before Miyo speaks with an excited stutter, nearly choking on her food.
“Sp-Speaking of hunting! U–Uhm! Could we start… Using the Pavillion? Me an Iyomi are just ready to ascend into the Roaming Comet Realm.”
Iyomi’s eyes lit brighter, nodding with a wide, enthusiastic smile.
“Mhm! Mhm! We’ve made lots of progress!”
Their mother looked between the three of them, settling on Eneri as she lifted the bowl and shoveled the scraps into her mouth.
“I’ll leave it up to Eneri…” Her mother spoke, continuing “But remember the final decision is up to Elder Aarou.”
Eneri cursed beneath her breath as her mother laid the responsibility onto her. Ascending into the Roaming Comet realm is dangerous. According to her mother, and the other eighteen cultivators of the village, it fills you with a sense of euphoria. For it’s when your body ceases being mortal.
Even as her sisters beady red eye’s bore into her from both sides, Eneri already had her mind made up. Miyo and Iyomi were only eight, they may’ve cultivated fast but… The future Sentinels lacked maturity, if they ascend now, their rebellious natures will only grow, and they’d enter the Hoarfrost and chase death as did their father.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you two are ready.”
“B–But!” Miyo spat out.
“I know, I know… You two are at the cusp of Ascension, you might even reach it without the Pavillion if you work hard but…” Her soft smile grew, “You both need to grow a little bit more.”
“I know, you two are at the cusp of Ascension and you might even reach it without the Pavillion but…” Her soft smile grew, “You both have room to grow into who you are going to be.”
Their frowns deepened.
“I know I seem mean, and you did the puppy eyes but…” She shook her head, “I can’t let you do it.”
“But I’ll cut you two a deal!” Eneri raised a finger, “If you keep up with your chores all week, I’ll bring you both on my first hunt next week.”
“Deal!” They both said in unison, earning a chuckle from Eneri.
According to her mother and Evrin, the twins did well in their physical education from sword play to bows, but skipped out when it came to studying.
“Sweet.” She ruffled their hair, “You two better hold your end of the deal– Every time I come in, I’m checking under the rugs.”
With dinners end, Eneri is the first to retire into their communal bedroom. A mess of mats, heavy blankets and furs sprawled across the floor. It’s a byproduct of her situation, a corner that needed to be cut for comfortable living.
The Sentinel tucked herself in, even with the constant moving of furniture coming from the kitchen and living room she’s out like a light. Her dreams aren’t anything interesting, a session of sword training with her father, and training with the bow from her mother.
It continued as normal, until sometime later she makes out a distinct humming whistle. It didn’t feel off putting, in fact, it felt as natural as birds singing in the wind… However, it made her heart race and a chill run down her spine, shattering her dream as she shot up in a cold sweat, gasping for air.
“Sssh…” Her mother finished shaking her from the side, “You’re alright, barbarians, they snuck into town while we were asleep.”
“What of the other Hoarfrost Sentinels, the guards the…”
“I don’t know.” Mother plainly states, “The guards and whoever remains are fighting at the Pavillion.”
Eneri’s blood ran cold after hearing that, looking to her peacefully sleeping sisters.
“We have to–”
“We can’t run, Snowhaven is surrounded and even if we could…” Her mother’s lip twitched, “You wouldn’t last the trip to an outpost…”
“Then leave me, I–”
“You will not.” She responded softly, but firmly. “I’ve already lost Royan, I will not lose you.”
“Then…” Eneri raised to her feet, “You stay here. I’ll…”
Before her mother could cut her off, Eneri continued to a full stand, already searching for her boots.
“I– Have enough Fire Qi left over from dinner.” She states, slipping into her boots and grabbing her white jacket. “I can last out there like this for an hour and— My core, my core is smaller, dimmer, I can hide easily.”
Eneri swallowed, her chest bubbling, hands clammy.
“I can’t do that if these two lumps are alone.”
Eneri spoke with a joking tone, trying to make light of the situation she woke into.
Her mother bat an eye, her robes already covering with an icy light to form armor.
“I’ll stay.” She raised a finger, “Be quick, and stay low.”
Without hesitation, Eneri seized Royan and a quiver of the village's finest arrows. Quick to enter the growing snow mist of the village and find cover, Royan’s horns began to grow without her putting Qi into it.
The usually clear air of Snowhaven is now obscured, a mix of ash and snow stain the peaceful atmosphere whilst the cracking of burning wood and screaming of battle shatter the serene silence this time held.
Cutting through alleys, and houses that still burned she saw bodies of her kinsmen. Some were slashed, others smashed, and a few suffered a grotesque fate, as if their ribs and bones became traitors and stabbed them from within, contorting their very form.
She heard the barbarians, the clanking of metal armor and their shouts but never saw them… There’s nothing she can do but assist the Cultivators.
‘If they’re still alive…’
Eneri shook doubt from her mind, cutting through the final window of a burning building and ending in the small rock decorated courtyard surrounding the Pavillion… Her blood ran colder than the hoarfrost biting at her skin.
In front of the great wooden doors, eight of the villages eighteen cultivators lie impaled on large, curled bones summoned from the ground. Their size, and shape akin to a great devourer seeking to fill its gullet.
Bodies of soldiers, no, Barbarians litter the ground, donning armor made of Iron and infused with Qi. She’s seen warriors of House Min’Gual before, heard stories of them from her mother. It couldn’t be theirs, but it doesn’t quite fit the barbarians either.
Enrei’s body tenses, as she hugs the snowy earth; instinctively drawing an arrow as thunder sounded from within the pavilion with a guttural roar. The stone exploded out in a heap of debris and smoke crackling with static.
One stone turned an unfortunate barbarian into paste, as a man with long, ice colored hair shoots out and slams against a nearby building in a broken heap. Elder Aarou, covered in blood and bruises, the thin Verglas armor he summoned beginning to falter as he stood.
His blade of ice quick enough to block and parry the charge of the brawny woman who chased after him, baring her fangs with a hungering grin as if to mimic the wolf head she wore as a helmet whilst she swung her massive war hammer with ease.
She’s thrown off foot, the bone hammer sinking into the snow the Elder slashed across her skin, earning a growl. Quickly, Aarou continued with a flurry of attacks, entering a fatal dance with the woman.
A barrage of ice stiletto’s form for his fingers and fire into her midsection, tearing through armor and flesh alike as scarlet stains her armor, the titaness growls.
“Asarge!” She howled, “To me!” It echoed throughout the violent town, earning howls from war beast and man alike.
Eneri held her breath long enough, the Elder struggled against this beast of a woman who had more experience battling her fellow man then he did monsters. If, there is any hope of saving the village, then Elder Aarou would be the candle lighting the way.
Her arrow fired, claiming the life of an encroaching barbarian. His helmet failing him against the arrow. Adrenaline rushes, quick to draw she dispatches another one before turning her sight on the woman.
Royan shimmers the arrow drawn within it, the arrowhead sparkling as it cut through the mist. It failed to claim the titaness life but drove into her back and exploded with ice.
“Cowardly archer?!’ She howls in pain.
Seizing the moment, Elder Aarou rushed forward, ducking beneath the hammer as his icebound blade cut through her stomach and armor, but it was an act too late. Her strong hand grabbed his head and before he could beg… His head popped as if it were a berry, blood and bone splattering every.
Adrenaline rushed through Eneri’s veins as if it were flood water, her hands shook from the energy. She had slain beasts, gutted them too… Yet, to see her fellow villager, their Elder slaughtered and cast aside like a rat…
Would her sisters be next? Her mother? The thoughts froze her in place, even as her brain screamed for her to move.
“Find me the cowardly archer!” The chieftess roared, her fiery blue eye’s scanning around the courtyard as her hot breath blew the snow-stained blonde locks from her face… Then, she drew a bloody grin. Eneri knew she had been caught.
“There you are!”
In a blur, the titaness rushed forward with a split moment to decide, Eneri drew Royan, as it unleashed; the horns grew solid and serrated, the arrow shone like a beacon in the dead of night.
The arrow struck the woman in the knee, an explosion of ice connected her lower half to the earth. The second arrow cut through the womans pauldron, before the third, Eneri’s legs found the courage to move and so she did.
There’s nothing more she can do here. The courtyard is filling with Barbarians, and while steel clashes all around; her aid would be minimal at best… If, she wanted her family to survive, she needed to break her mother's heart.
Courage mixed with adrenaline as she retraced her steps back to her hut, her world a stark red. Eighteen barbarians lie in bits around her home, shards of and their bloodstained, flash frozen bits of crude armor decorate the ground like gems alongside shrapnel of wood.
Evrin, a fellow sentinel lay dead, staked through by bone like his fellow cultivator. There’s a moment of relief, her mother isn’t among the dead, nor her siblings but relief is scarce in supply as it is duration. From within, the sound of bone clashed with that of steel. Her mother grunts, choking down a scream from within their broken home.
Eneri rushed in without thought.
Her mothers iridescent ice armor hugged her form as if it were plate, her left arm hung limply as several jagged bones jut out from the flesh.
“Stay back!”
She shouts to the twins, holding her blade up against the mountain of a man who wielded a sword fashioned out of a singular, massive fang.
“If it weren’t fer’tha bosses orders.” He stepped forward, “I’d’ave killed ya’ for what you did ta’ my men.”
He sneered, taking a step closer.
“Made you watch as I burn ya’ brats alive an’ fed’em to my hou–”
An arrows crack cuts him short, the arrow drove into the thick muscle of his shoulder. Eneri burst into hut, drawing Royan.
“Go– Run! Get out of here!”
Desperation and determination mixed in her voice, choking back the tears welling within her eye’s. In the corner of her sight, she saw her mother's arm barely holding onto her bloodied blade, her armor of Ice cracking. A pained expression mixed with fright and shock whilst her siblings whimpered behind her, not registering what’s going on.
This is for them— Her mother can run now, and Eneri will die happy knowing they’re alive, they’re free. Her second arrow notched, ready for the monster's head. Instincts drove her to the side just in time to dodge the bone sword, feeling her joints tingle from the cut air.
Mother moved to aide Eneri… But it was too late. The young Sentinel twirled Royan, ready to use the unleashed horns like swords as she did in the past. The man's voice boomed like thunder.
“But I’ll take somethin’ els’ from ya!”
His sword cut through air like lightning, before she could blink, the serrated blade cleaved and split Enrei’s skull in two. Her body fell to the floor as her soul raised from it, thankfully… She couldn’t hear her mother's screams nor her sister’s sobbing.
The last thought on her consciousness before it too fades, is the hope they’ll live long, happy lives after this… And when all is done, they’ll meet each other in Nirvana once more or reach the idyllic peaks of heaven together… Her world turned red, and then, it turned black and quiet.