The smell of frost, earth, and drying blood heralded the morn. Sanshall and Ilsebek had hung the Blue Beak upside down and let it bleed out. The carcass was lighter without the blood and organs. Sanshall and Yagbur carried the carcass between them and Ilsebek carried weight of the delirious Murkie. Both were fortunate that it was now too cold for the biting birds to be drawn.

On Murkie's part more of the oyuyu powder had been applied and his skin was streaked with blue stripes and hatches. His mouth drooled as he repeated, as he had been through the night, "I killed him. I bit and ripped his throat out with my teeth. I killed him" and Yarbug remained silent though the other two didn't speak either. Yarbug knew it was because of the fever, he knew it was because of the loss of blood, but he also knew that he and Ving had dragged him before the Dreamer and asked to kill him.

The meat would keep for the next several days. It would be cold and raw if they didn't find a thermal, but the cold freezes and it preserves. It was heavy and slick with blood and black fatty oil. It dripped down his shoulder with his sweat and clung in his fur. It stank and was bitter.

"It stinks." he complained. His words were quiet, but they may as well have been rain during a clear day.

It was awkward. They all just kept walking.

"Well it does" Yagbur stated. "and it's heavy too. We have plenty of provisions. Why are we even carrying this. It's not like we don't need it."

"Quiet" Sanshall said. It was singular and short. Yagbur stopped talking.

"My claw dug into Yagbur. It dug and dug, and I jiggled it around. I did it until he stopped moving."

"Quiet" Sanshall repeated as he led them further north. They were.

* * *

Plodding through grass became crunching through frost and then became stepping through snow. They'd been quiet through the last couple days. Even Murkie's ravings became less frequent. The blue beak's carcass became lighter as they ate the frozen meat from it rather than consume their own provisions. The taste had the salty bloody flavor of raw meat, the bitter tang of the oil the pervaded all of their senses.

They were all tired. They'd been walking for the better part of 12 days now, and they'd eaten the raw meat for 4 of those. Everyone was in a foul mood and no one spoke.

The cold bit into them. It soaked into their feet first making toes sting. Then their fingers, their ears and then their joints. Their short fur kept them warm enough to keep going but it would be much worse the further on they went.

Sanshall began changing their direction taking a sharp turn away from the direction they'd been going. Yagbur had wanted to ask but didn't. Still Ilsebek spoke up. "Where are you taking us. The Black Lands are further north."

"We'll get there." Sanshall responded with no explanation.

"How do we get there by going off course."

"Not off course. Just making it longer"

The thought of being out in this cold any longer than needed baffled Yagbur. There is no reason, just head up straight. Ilsebek must have had the same thought.

"Longer" Ilsebek cried, "Why for the summer sun would you make it longer!?"

"Don't want to be cold."

It was too much for him. The runt spoke up, "If we're out in this cold for much longer we'll die."

Sanshall nodded to Yagbur, "See he gets it. Follow me, so we don't die."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

They continued in silence. The sky was just blue and the ice under their feet was white. Seldom there was a cone of green or blue sticking up from the ground. Rarer still were the spiral plants. They just seemed to be there unaffected by any weather anywhere. They just were.

Yagbur tried to begin his chanting again, but Ilsebek stopped him quickly with, "We don't need any more of that."

"What do you mean?" Yagbur said. Did he know how I saw everything before it all happened?

"I mean we don't need any more of your curses." Ilsebek stated with some amount of vitriol.

"I don't know what you mean. It's just the calmness call."

The wirely build examiner chortled. "That was not calm. My skin stung like a thousand eyes were looking at us, and then there was that blue beak."

Sanshall nodded and spoke, "and then there's Murkie. Not right what you did to him. Havlek died because he did, Ving because he was weak, but what did you do to snap Murkie?"

"I didn't break anyone."

"You had him entranced since we started this trek. Then you jinxed him with his knife"

Ilsebek joined back in "We don't need you calling any more of those birds either or whatever else it is you do."

"I can't do any of that." Yagbur said, but he remembered he was the bird he saw from it's eyes and was the wind on its wings. "I can't do any of that he continued. I just sing the Kin's Songs"

The two looked at him. Murkie looked at the frost forming at his finger tips and laughed.

Sanshall spoke, "The Dreamer took you to his tent. He has power. He sent you up here and us to guide and protect you."

Ilsebek joined in "There's no reason why he'd let you live let alone send you on some sacred journey if you're that useless. So just don't do it to us."

Yagbur blinked. Confused he repeated the last thing

"Don't do it to you?"

They both nodded. "Don't go making us insane or eaten by some wild beast."

"I can't do anything like that."

"I killed him and now he's dead" Responded Murkie.

"I can't", said Yagbur, though much less confidently.

* * *

Sanshall's first thermal was a gift from the earth. They all warmed themselves feeling the pricks of sensation come back. Here Sanshall began rubbing grease into his fur and face. When he finished they all asked and he shrugged saying that it was grease and it would keep them warm. When asked why he didn't use it earlier he shrugged and said "Wasn't cold enough to kill us yet."

With a day of warmth by the thermal they finished the last of the Blue Beak. Even the marrow had been cracked and gone through. Thinking of the fat Sanshall had shared Yagbur asked Ilsebek about getting the skin from the bird.

"It will stink, why do you even want it."

"If the fat in our fur will help us, maybe the oil from the feathers will help."

"Wrapping youself in skins? You'll look rediculous." still he shrugged "Just don't jinx me"

Ilsebek helped cut the skin from one of the wings and then another. Yagbur draped them over each shoulder overlapping them at his waist. Tying them together with a cord.

"Can you do something for my head."

Another shrug. Ilsebek cut the dome of hide and feathers away from the birds face leaving little holes where the eyes would have been.

"You're right I do stink."

"You look like a small ugly blue bird too. So here's your beak." Ilsebek handed him one of the bills with the base chipped away to fit as a handle and a small cord of leather wrapped around it.

"It's not much good for cutting, but I imagine you could poke lots of holes in things with it."

He stank and looked like some monster, but he was at least very warm.

* * *

There were 3 more thermals on their path. The distance seemed to grow longer between each. The sun never seemed to end anymore but still Sanshall seemed to know where to go. He'd been given the gift of travel when he was anointed and would always know where he was meant to go.

The first sign they were near was the the snow had changed from crisp to a damp icy slush. The next were the black tendrils that wove through the ground wherever there was any clearing. They were here. They would defend their kin. They only had one job to do.