We had left most of what we needed back at our camp, so after we took what we wanted from the Arthus carcass, we fumbled around a bit until we found our old stomping grounds. We packed up and hit the trails once again. We were glad to be laden down with more food, and even decided to grab a few more of the Arthus spikes.
We spent the rest of the day putting more distance between us and the Narbacor, which mostly amounted to boring walking in a northern direction. I was reveling in the difference that the Chillpool water had made in improving my cold resistance. Things were certainly getting even colder as we marched further north, but I felt it as little more than a slight chill. I could see, though, that the weaker members of our party were freezing, and I felt guilty about having all the Fighters take our dose of the stuff first. Then again, if we hadn’t, our party likely wouldn’t have survived against the Arthus. So maybe Victor had been on to something.
When we finally settled down again, we took the time to cook the Arthus meat and finally give the others their doses of Chillpool water. Eithan got another three droplets, the married couple each downed 22, and Hope was only given 20, much to her chagrin, but she was smaller and theoretically more vulnerable to side effects. Al got the last six, having only drunk his full stash of 18 earlier, making full use of the precious liquid. He was the only one of the five not shivering uncontrollably and totally out of commission as the rest of us set out the tents and cooked the meat.
That night, when everyone was sleeping, I took the time to meditate and examine my Gift. I had been through a lot recently and benefited significantly from surviving all of it. My body felt stronger, more solid, and my endurance was proving to be quite excellent, though less in comparison to somebody with the actual Gift. But that was nothing in comparison to what had happened with my Giftseed itself.
The grey had gotten darker, and the seed felt more real, more solid. The little nubs on top of it had started to curve and grow forward, almost like two little spikes jutting outward. It beat in a strong and steady rhythm and, when I focused on it a bit further, I could have sworn that I heard that same primal rumbling that I had last time. I resolved to ask Victor about that when I had the time.
The next day, everyone was in much higher spirits. With stomachs full of warm food and fire in our eyes, we held fast to the trail again, but this time we had the energy to strike up a much livelier conversation:
“Sorry if this sounds stupid,” Julia was saying, “But why are we still heading north? Haven’t we left the angry monster man mostly behind us?”
I was the one to respond:
“We can’t count on the idea that we have put too much distance between us, even now. If we start going east, that would give it a better chance to catch up with us, assuming it’s tracking us. The only thing keeping us alive right now is that this thing seems to be rather slow and in no hurry to run us down. The more we take advantage of that, the better.”
“Besides,” I added, “we are much better equipped to handle the cold now, and our possible food shortages are a distant memory. A silver lining to nearly getting mauled in our sleep.”
We talked for quite a bit longer, maintaining a solid pace but also trying to lighten a mood that had been weighing heavily on us for some time. We speculated about what the outside world really looked like, and if Victor’s thoughts about the origin of our village were true. Al and Julia started playing games with Eithan, him making funny faces and her juggling a couple rocks for the little punk’s amusement. We all laughed that morning for the first time in a while.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Later, I took the opportunity to ask Victor about the strange behavior of the Giftseed, but he didn’t have much in the way of theories.
“I’ve never heard of a Giftseed growing horns before, but that sounds fascinating. Tell me if something else happens.”
I was surprised that he didn’t have much more to add beyond that, but he seemed just as confused as I was. We didn’t bring it up after that. The time started to flow by on our steady march. After a few days, snow began to fall heavily, and the wind began to whistle through the hillsides.
It wasn’t terrible at first, and our adaptations had made us overconfident, forging ahead despite the worsening conditions. But we soon began to falter. We used the hills as best as we could for shelter, but they could only do so much in what were becoming whiteout conditions. The Glasrock had no effect on the snow, of course, so we were dealing with drastically decreased visibility.
Soon, the cold became a problem again. We huddled together to make sure that no one got lost in the storm. That helped preserve our body heat, but even so, the weaker members of the party were soon shivering as the blizzard worsened. Victor kept us moving forward, but I eventually called for a stop. We needed to take shelter behind one of the hills permanently before things got too bad. But he called back:
“In these conditions, stopping could be a death sentence for the little ones, even with the hillside to break the wind. We need to look for shelter. Check the hills for large divots or openings.”
I didn’t know what kind of shelter Victor thought we could find, besides the simple base of a hill, but I decided to trust him. After another painful 30 minutes, that trust began to bear fruit. Carved into a hillside just up in front of us was the open mouth of a small cave. We hustled into it with little dignity, relieved to get out of the weather and shaking the snow off our clothes. We went deeper into the cave and built a fire while waiting out the storm.
Eithan had begun crying again and, despite her best efforts, Lynn couldn’t get him to calm down with baby talk and quiet reassurances. Eventually, she realized why:
“He’s a hungry boy,” she said with a small smile, before looking over at Julia and Ann, “Would either of you two like to help me feed him?”
Julia looked unsure but willing to help. Ann, on the other hand, looked like she had been struck by lightning, her entire body growing rigid, eyes flitting around, looking for help or an excuse to say no. I’d seen her more comfortable in an active warzone.
With a slightly teasing look in her eyes, Lynn focused on Ann and offered Eithan, who looked at her with pleading eyes. With arms as stiff as boards, Ann mechanically accepted the child and began to feed him as gently as she could, like she was feeding a glass statue. Ann had never been great with kids, a fact I would have teased her for in better circumstances.
Once the little one was satisfied, the rest of us got to eat another hot meal, the chill of the conditions outside totally forgotten. Al had surreptitiously packed a pair of dice, and he took them out, promising a friendly game of chance. We didn’t have any distinct personal goods since the supplies were just for keeping the team alive. The closest thing we had was our weapons but depriving anyone of those would be just plain stupid. No, what Al wanted to wager on was chores and watch schedules. Some duties were more pleasant than others, and first and last watch were the most coveted times. Normally we took turns, but Al wanted to make things more interesting.
We refused, of course, assuming that Al was up to some sort of trick, but he was persistent and just staring at the wall of snow was starting to get boring. Ann, Victor, and I held our ground but eventually Julia fell to his taunts and accepted the challenge. Lynn humored him and accepted. Hope wanted to play too, but I had held my competitive little sister back. The game went about as expected. Lynn won exactly as much as she lost, while Julia got totally cleaned out by Al. I knew he rigged those stupid dice. At least he had the decency not to steal from Lynn as well.
I needed to hold Julia back from exacting her revenge by force, calming her down and indicating to Al with a stern look that earning garnered by cheating would not be honored. He swore up and down that it had been an honest game, but I filed away in the back of my mind that Al was good at cheating with dice. So long as they were his, anyways.
After that, we took up another quiet conversation about what the outside world might look like, especially in the north. Victor said that he had very little data on the subject, so Al had taken to telling a scary story about man-eating snow monsters that haunted the northern lands like a pack of traveling wraiths. He swore that he had heard it from his cousin, which meant that he had made it up on the spot, but Hope seemed to really get into it, gasping and freaking out at the appropriate moments.
When we finally turned in for the night it was with smiling faces and stomachs full of warm food. Even the howling wind outside was not enough to deter us. I was starting to see how we might yet find our way through this terrible disaster.
With that thought, I let the shrieks from the storm outside lull me to sleep.