“This creature… or monster? What is it?” I asked, curiously.

Clayton raised an eyebrow at me while petting the thing.“You’ve never seen a Snow Cradal before, Voker?”

“I might have seen them from a distance, but I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Isn’t it just a giant bird?”

Clayton shrugged and gave the Cradal a scratch behind the wing. “You could say that… a bird that can’t fly even though the thing has wings.”

“Mhm, a land bird. Wouldn’t it be bad in the snow? I mean I know it has snow in its name, but it’s just an overgrown bird, right?” I asked.

The animal let out a cooing noise as Clayton got deeper underneath the wing. “Nah, not at all. These bad boys move pretty fast in the snow. And their feathers keep them pretty dang warm despite their appearance. Here give them a feel, when they shed for the summer they make for amazing pillow stuffing.”

The Cradal looked like a grayish-white bird that had grown to nearly the size of a horse. It walked tall on its two bird-like legs, and the wings on its side were rather large, considering it couldn’t fly. If I had to guess, it must use them as a shield against the snow or keep their young warm.

I was slightly apprehensive about getting near an unknown animal though I guess it seemed docile enough. Clayton had no problems getting close to it, so I stretched my hand out to feel its feathers, but before I reached it, the Cradal bent its neck backward and squawked at me while trying to peck my face.

I took a quick step back and brought my hand back to my chest, only to hear Sylvia giggle behind me. Clayton gave me a wry look. “Not an animal guy?”

It looked like the Cradal was scowling at me with its white eyes, and I returned it. “No, never have been,” I said coldly.

Even back in the village, I didn’t get along with animals. Mom tried to convince me to pet one of those giant lizards pulling the carriage, and the stupid thing tried to bite me on our way to Eastport.

Maybe I’m destined for animals to hate me…

Clayton chuckled nervously to himself. “Guess that’s more of a Wood Elf thing. I don’t suppose you have ever ridden one of these things before?”

“Never. I don’t actually know how to ride any animals,” I said honestly.

Sylvia palmed her mask and shook her head in disappointment. Clayton merely shrugged. “Not a problem. I made something to pull my kids around, so it should work just fine for you. But, uh… I do admit it might be a bit uncomfortable…”

“Your kids?” I questioned.

“Ah, forget it, you’ll be fine.” Clayton gave me a thumbs up and a wide smile.

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

—

“How you holding up back there!” Clayton yelled over the roaring of snow and thundering of animals running.

“Miserable…” I grumbled far too low for him to hear.

I was being pulled in a wooden sled by Clayton’s Cradals while Shambs stampeded around us. We drove the Shambs to greener pastures to graze while there was still vegetation left. Clayton guesstimated that there were probably two or three days of green left for the Shambs to consume before the snow covered everything.

“Don’t worry, Voker! I see some green up ahead, so we can take a breather there!”

I nodded simply at Clayton, and he gave me a thumbs up and turned forward to steer his mount. Being on the sled was… difficult. Clayton had constructed a makeshift snow barrier for me, but it was just that, makeshift.

Snow from the pulling Cradal was kicked up and rolling over the shield to fall right on top of me. I had to admit this was better than being blasted constantly by snow, but by no means was this enjoyable. At least Ms. Pruit had supplied me with blankets and better winter gear combined with my mana weave cloak. The temperature wasn’t much of a problem. However, the snow turning into water in my lap was starting to get really annoying.

I didn’t even get to enjoy a pleasant view either, as the mini snowstorm from the stampeding animals was blocking my vision.

After a few minutes, I noticed a change in the animals. They all started making more noises than usual, and some of them had begun picking up speed. Clayton craned his back and began looking out into the distance. His eyes narrowed, and he even took off his goggles to see better. His face morphed into a grimace as he brought his Cradal to a halt.

Clayton dismounted, and I shook the snow off my body while clambering out of the sled. Many of the Shambs had continued running, and Clayton was using wind magic to herd them.

“We’ve got some stalkers. So get ready,” Clayton said in a low tone.

Through the snowstorm blocking my vision and the deafening footfalls of the Shambs, I could hear a distinct set of loud footsteps. It was large, and whatever it was, it was getting closer and closer. I could tell just by the footsteps that it ran on two feet, and it had a bit of weight behind it.

The last few of the Shambs ran past us, and the snow clouds began to settle. In the distance, a humanoid figure began to take shape. It looked like a giant person with white fur and thick overgrown limbs.

“Huh, it’s a Yeti. Never seen one in person before,” I muttered.

“Stop gawking and help me kill it! We can’t let it get close to the herd! Wind Blades!” Clayton shouted.

A flurry of white wind cycles flew through the air and towards the encroaching monster. The blades of wind bit into the monster’s flesh as dark blue blood sprayed out from the wounds. However, those minor flesh wounds only enraged the beast further. The Yeti gave us a death stare with its frosty blue eyes and let out a howl as it barreled toward us.

Clayton shook me and with eyes wide as saucers yelled at me. “What are you doing?! Help me out here!”

“Sorry,” I grunted.

This Yeti is like a threat level of fifty or something. Hardly a threat at all.

I extended my hand and a burning ball of orange fire the size of a Human head flickered to life. With more speed than I was used to, the Fireball left my outstretched hand and flew straight towards the monster. The Yeti attempted to dodge the ball of flame, but it was far too slow.

My spell impacted the monster and exploded. Its bottom half was the only thing left, which managed a few wobbly steps before falling to the ground. The upper half had disappeared entirely.

I opened and closed my hand a few times and nodded to myself. It seems going through puberty didn’t just grow my mana pool but my overall spell casting abilities. That Fireball came out faster and stronger without me doing anything special to the spell core. The warm water coursing through my body that correlated to my mana felt full and rearing to continue the onslaught.

I looked over to my side to see Clayton's jaw dropped and looking at me with wide eyes. “What?” I asked.

“I—I… what… what did you just do? What spell was that?” he asked apprehensively.

“Just a Fireball.”

Clayton was mouthing words to himself slowly and shaking his head. “Just a Fireball… just a Fireball…I don’t think Fireballs are supposed to be that strong, Voker…”

I shrugged my shoulders. “That was nothing.”

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“Should I be worried about you?” Clayton asked apprehensively.

“That depends. Do you plan on hurting me?” I asked.

“No… no, I don’t.”

I gave Clayton a thumbs up. “Then we have nothing to worry about.”

Another Yeti was running towards us from the same direction, so I decided to use a spell I hadn’t touched in a while. A smaller ball of orange fire left my hand and floated into the air like a miniature sun. Once the ball reached a certain height, it exploded into trails of orange fire, which exploded upon hitting the ground.

The ground rumbled as my spell destroyed the Yeti and soil alike. This spell used to cost me four times the usual amount of mana for a standard Fireball, but now it barely scratched my mana pool.

Very nice.

“So this is the power of a Ruby adventurer. I’ve never been happier knowing I’m retired now…” Clayton whispered to himself.

“You shouldn’t compare yourself to others. Just focus on yourself,” I said reassuringly while giving him a small pat on the back.

He gave me a half-hearted nod of confirmation and saddled back into his Cradal in silence. The bird creature gave a cooing noise and attempted to assuage its master, but I don’t think it worked too well. I went over and burned the corpses to ash so as not to attract any more monsters.

We spent the next few minutes corralling the animals. The Shambs lazily ate the bits of greenery that were left standing through the pockets of white snow while we kept a watchful eye.

The weather was cool, and the winter breeze rolling down the mountains ticked my exposed ears. The mountains seemed even closer now, and now I could make out their full glory much better. The mountains, which were barely snow-capped a few days ago, had morphed into white icebound peaks. They reached far higher into the air than I had been expecting as fluffy white clouds rolled over their tops with the light blue sky in the background.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? Every time I come out here, it keeps getting better and better,” Clayton whispered, afraid to ruin the picturesque scene.

I hummed in agreement and continued to take in the beautiful scenery while filling my lungs with the fresh winter air. I had been unimpressed at first. At a distance, all mountains appear to be the same, and when you have seen as many planets as I have, they all sort of meld together. Back then, my mind was filled with how to cross the mountains, not how beautiful they were.

However, it was moments like these that reminded me things were different now. This world was my only world, the one in which I lived along with all the people that mattered to me. These mountains were a part of it, and I found them to be comforting in a weird sort of way. Being able to admire these wondrous winter mountain peaks was something I would never have done thirteen years ago.

Even the notion of all the dangerous monsters lurking in those mountains didn’t detract from the moment. And Clayton appeared to find them equally as mesmerizing as I did.

“How long are we planning on staying out here?” I asked.

“I’ve packed supplies for two nights. So I figured we might as well get as much in as possible while we still can.”

“I see… and what about after? Do you lead the animals this far out later in the winter?”

“No, there’s no reason to go this far out. We do have to keep them outside, so they grow their coats properly, and the colder, the better. But the closer we get to the mountains, the more dangerous it will be. I’ll pen them on our property, and from there, we can set up guard shifts to watch for bandits and monsters. This year, I even have a few tricks up my sleeves,” Clayton said proudly.

“Tricks?”

“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise now. Just a few things I picked up from another rancher,” he said with a grin. “Let’s set up camp here for the day. Should be plenty of grass for all of them in this area.”

The two of us unpacked what was needed to make a small camp and set to work. Clayton drove stakes into the ground while I set up the tarp that would protect us from the elements. In the end, we had a medium-sized teepee set up with a small opening at the top to let out some smoke from our fire.

Clayton explained to me that this setup was for when the weather wasn’t bad, and there was no need to hunker down like you would for a blizzard. He had specially made one-person tents that stayed low to the ground for occasions such as those.

The inside of the teepee was warm and cozy. Clayton set up some firewood and gave me an awkward smile, so I obliged and ignited the wood. The campfire smell filled the tent, and we sat down cross-legged in front of the roaring flame.

“We’ll take turns going outside and watching the herd, but for now, we can just relax for a little while,” Clayton said.

“When nightfall comes, what then?”

“I’ll round them up and have them stay closer to us for the night. If any monsters or people come around, they won’t get very close without us knowing. As you saw earlier, Shambs are really sensitive to predators. They will get quite rowdy and alert us if they sense a threat.”

I nodded my head as we continued to enjoy the fire in silence. We warmed our cold hands and feet while Clayton ate some of his lunch.

“Not much of a talker either,” Clayton said with a warm smile.

“No, no, I’m not. Is that a problem?” I asked curiously.

Clayton chuckled. “Nope, not to me anyway. I always heard High Elves were full of themselves, so I thought you would be talking my head off, but I prefer things to be like this. There are just those people who feel the need to fill the silence with idle conversation. I could sit here for hours and not say a word to you.”

Isn’t that the same thing you are doing right now? Ah… maybe it’s different?

“I guess there are those types of people. I don’t mind talking. I just don’t feel the need to talk.”

Clayton stoked the fire and took a bite out of a sandwich. “You seem pretty different compared to your companion in that regard. You guys have two completely different attitudes from what I can tell.”

“We are… an interesting pair to say the least. I doubt we would have been companions if it wasn’t for the… extenuating circumstances we found ourselves in.”

“Extend-nating what now?” he asked.

“Just… the weird place we found ourselves in at the time.”

Clayton gave me a look of understanding and bobbed his head side to side.“Ah, I see..but do you regret it?”

What?

I tilted my head in confusion. “Regret what?” I asked.

“Meeting her, of course,” Clayton asked me. His face showed that he was genuinely curious.

“I…don’t know…”

Do I regret meeting Sylvia? All things considered, if my life went the way I wanted it to, I never would have met her. Even if I didn’t have a disposition towards Vampires brought on by an entire year worth of suffering, would I have trusted Talgan’s granddaughter? No, I probably wouldn’t have considered the amount of backlash it would have brought with it. But those are all what-ifs.

Now that I know… I would want to meet Sylvia again…

Clayton was warming his hands on the fire and just looking over my masked face, waiting for a response. “I don’t regret meeting her. If anything, I’m thankful we crossed paths. Having somebody I can entrust my life to is a rare commodity these days,” I said.

That’s right, I really do trust her. The more I think about it, the happier it makes me feel that I realize that. Having someone that has your back as she does… makes things easier. We both know each other’s secrets, and we’ve accepted each other… well… most of our secrets anyway.

This slight detour because we can’t cross the mountains means more months I’m away from my family. Part of me has been away for so long that I’ve grown complacent. But that was just a tiny part that lived within me now. My burning desire to return home has not wavered whatsoever just because there were a few detours along the way.

Giving up isn’t an option for me.

I will make it to Luminar. I’ll get into contact with Dad’s friend, and who knows, maybe Dad will be there waiting for me. And even if he isn’t, hopefully, his friend will be able to help me. But if this friend can’t help me then it is what it is. I’ll be on the first ship to Syn’nari either way. If Sylvia doesn’t want to come with me, that’s okay as well. I can hardly fault her for it.

Now that I think about it, I owe Sylvia a lot. I would have never made it out of the dungeon without her. And she personally ended six long years of pain and suffering for me…

Clayton whistled to himself. “Damn, didn’t expect those words coming out of you. But that’s good… real good. Not many people can say they have that kind of trust in someone. I personally think that’s the ultimate form of trust.”

“The ultimate form of trust?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t even want to entrust my own life to my wife. Not that I don’t trust her or anything… it’s just I wouldn’t want her to carry that burden, you know? I’d happily give my life for her or my children but I would never want them to do the same for me. To me, your life is one of the most precious things you have, and if you are willing to trust someone with it and they, in turn, trust theirs to you then… I think that’s the ultimate form of trust.” Clayton looked up from the fire and blushed from embarrassment. “Ah… sorry… didn’t mean to rant like that…”

I wonder… does Sylvia have that kind of trust in me? She said she trusted me to watch over her but is that really the same thing?

“No… I’ve never thought about it that way before. Thank you, Mr. Pruit,” I said honestly.

The man gave me a thoughtful nod and started putting his shoes back on. “I’ll go herd them closer. Take some time to get more rest, alright?”

“Sure thing. You’ve given me some things to think about.”