"I see. In that case, we will be glad to keep you around. I bet even those smelly elders won’t complain since we are in need of warriors now more than ever," Degres said to Illyan as he looked at the horizon of the plain in front of them with a serious expression.
"Hmm? Why would they even complain about something so trivial, Degres?" Zers, who had just joined their conversation, asked with a baffled face while kneading his head. It was the first time he had a hangover, so he felt like a pile of shit.
On the other hand, Degres didn’t show any sign of having a hangover despite drinking even more than Zers. It was not only because his body was stronger, but also because he was used to acting under bad circumstances. He was a leader. Being sick or injured didn’t excuse him from neglecting his job.
"By paying the debt off, he basically separated from the tribe. It is one thing for someone like you whose ancestors are the tribe's founders, but for those who are adopted, like Illyan here, it is normal to leave if they pay off everything at once. It is a kind of tradition," Degres clarified as he turned his attention back to Illyan.
"Yeah, I know. Kaoran told me. I won’t really need anything from the tribe. I have my things and can hunt for myself too. I will only go along with you, nothing else," Illyan shrugged, but both Degres and Zers didn’t miss the shadow of gloom passing over his expression when he mentioned Kaoran.
However, he could only release an inner sigh and continue. For the younger generation, it was much harder as time didn’t show them its cruel side yet. But he knew what it was like to age. He had seen many generations of great warriors who could fight ten men at the same time, dying because of a stupid phlegm stuck in their throat. Others were completely confused about their surroundings and couldn’t remember even their family members. Sometimes aging was more cruel than dying on the battlefield. Kaoran, on the other hand, had such a calm way of passing that it could really be called a blessing. Yet, the ‘boys’ in front of him still didn’t know. They would come to know this as they grew older and experienced more of life. Unfortunately, Illyan would need to get used to this as soon as possible. Else, he would sooner or later break…
Days passed by, and the tribe continued in its way unhindered. They passed trees, valleys, and plains of utter cold without a problem as other tribes didn’t have the courage to attack them, and animals were easily sidetracked by the meat bait they prepared from their enemies. That was until they finally saw from the high cliff in the distance the biggest plain they had ever seen. There were no plants in sight. It was just a flat and white plain radiating the unbearable cold into everyone’s bones.
"Hey, what is that plain? I thought there shouldn't be any?" Some of the tribesmen were confused as they voiced out this misconception.
"Yeah, shouldn't the Cold Sea be in front of us soon?"
"We didn’t get lost, right?"
The panic came over the tribe as some became restless. It wasn’t until Kara, the Grand Shaman, stood out to calm everyone down that they finally stopped creating a ruckus.
“This is not a mere plain! This is the Cold Sea! This is where the land ends and the Frozen Sea begins! That’s why we came here! To cross the sea that gave us this opportunity! It just blends in since the snow covered everything! There is no need to fear anything.”
Illyan, who was on the sled of Zers, looked at the Sea in front of them with awe on his face. This was the first time he had seen such a large body of water. What was even more amazing was the fact that it was completely frozen.
“Hey, Illyan, how cold do you think the water must be that even the Sea freezes without waves breaking it into pieces?” Zers, who held the reins of the sled, looked over at his friend with excitement written all over his face.
“I don’t know. But I don’t think it is naturally cold.”
He could only shrug.
Yesterday, he tried the Casting a Dice method of divination with the phalanges that Kaoran gave him, and the outcome that came from it was quite daunting.
‘Death.’
Ever since he learned how to use this, he had been trying it every day to improve his accuracy.
Kaoran explained to him that this kind of divination didn’t usually work unless you had an affinity or connection to Fate and Destiny, yet he taught him this.
Later on, he finally found out that the real core of this power isn’t peering into the future nor feeling your destiny. No, it was much more simple.
The core of Shamanistic powers were spirits. Spirits were much more sensitive to such abstract powers and could help.
That was why this wasn’t true divination. It was the power to borrow the outcome from spirits who did the divination.
Of course, that meant that it was usually inaccurate since the spirits were mischievous ones and even if they acted sincerely, their talent in divination was better than an average person, but they couldn’t really peer into something deeper than vague feelings of danger or good luck.
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But even that was beneficial to a normal person so he trained it every day.
Unfortunately, most of the time his outcomes were random and the most often they showed ‘death’ despite nothing wrong happening.
Often, he would consult with Kaoran but he couldn’t really answer why it was like this. His specialties were medicine and talking with wind spirits.
Now after his passing, he was still training and sometimes comparing his outcomes with Kara.
This time she had a word ‘Hope’ coming while he had ‘Death’.
In the end, he couldn't make sense of it.
However, it didn’t change the fact that he was still more careful.
Being careful wouldn’t kill him…
Soon, everyone started to slide down the cliff from the side that wasn’t steep after Grand Shaman assured them. Below the cliff, there was a small shore from which they could safely step on the Sea. It wasn’t very visible because of the snow but some noticed.
It didn’t take long for the colony to get down, and once again sigh in awe at the sight in front of them. While ice and snow were part of their life and at the same time it was dangerous for fragile humans, it was still breathtaking to see this land of ice.
However, this tribe of warriors, also called barbarians in the more civilized south, weren’t known to be patient, and it didn’t take long before everyone started to cross over the land and take the first steps on the ice.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before the first Arctic Wolves wailed in pain.
"Woo!"
The riders who rode on the sleds showed worried faces as they asked their partners what was the matter.
Illyan who was in the center of the colony heard the commotion thanks to his acute hearing and told Zers to stop.
“Zers, stop the sled. Don’t let the hunter take another step on it. Also, spread this info to others.”
With that, he jumped off the sled and went to look what happened.
“Illayn, wait!”
Zers wanted to stop him but he moved as a ghost and disappeared in a few seconds.
"Sigh"
Zers saw him disappear and couldn’t do anything. However, he believed him and chose to do as he says. After all, even he hears the wolves howling in the front so there should be something happening.
“Yii! Stop the sled! We need to stop the entire colony!”
And so, he called out to his wife who was close by on her sled. She noticed Illyan going by himself so she thought something was wrong.
“What’s wrong, honey?!”
“I don’t know, darling. We just need to stop everyone.”
With a nod they started to yell to stop those behind them but also those in front of them. As Zers was respected in the tribe it became much easier for them.
Meanwhile, Illyan quickly ran towards the front where Degres was.
Once he got to the dividing line he noticed the wolves who passed through had mauled paws on their legs and were whimpering.
Those that tried to lick their wounds were in an even worse state as their tongues started to lose color and get frozen to the paws.
“Frostbite?!”
Illyan immediately understood what he saw in front of his eyes. After all, he had so many times to treat this kind of injury during his years of learning medicine.
Frostbite was one of the usual conditions that could happen in such a cold place as the Frozen Valas Tundra to a naked monkey like a human. But not to animals that adapted to this environment.
He looked at the ground and after a few seconds of pondering he reached out with his naked finger towards the ground.
The first thing he touched was, of course, the snow that was constantly falling from the sky but he continued drilling a hole through it until he touched the ice of the sea…
"Sizzle"
A sizzling noise came out in an instant, and his finger got stuck to the ice. With a twitch, the finger came off but the skin covering it didn’t, which caused the blood to flow out.
When he looked down he realized the skin stayed on the ice.
‘So this is how they got bloody paws, huh?!’
He wiped the blood off the now completely healed finger and went to the place where Degres was.
He could already see him from a distance trying to help his wolf, Tear, with its wounds.
“Degres.” Illyan called out to him in case he didn’t notice him. If that happened and Illyan got closer to him, there would be a chance that Degres’ instincts would kick in to attack whoever managed to sneak up upon him.
“Illyan. Is this what I think it is?!” Degres asked while still looking at his wolf with a frown on his face.
“Yes, this is frostbite.”
Illyan nodded at his question. This was undoubtedly a frostbite.
“How is this possible? Arctic wolves were adapted to the cold even before we started to rear them! Now after being strengthened by the shamans for generations they should-”
“Let’s talk later! Now, take every wolf out of the ice. No one should touch it since it can hurt even me.”
Illyan said calmly, looking Degres into the eyes.
“Yes… You are right.” Degres nodded at him and went to guide everyone back.
Fortunately, they were only tens of meters away from the shore and didn’t have to go over too long a distance.
The problem was that the wolves couldn’t move. If they do, the wounds get even more aggravated and it could possibly cripple them forever.
Thankfully, this was a tribe of warriors who trained their bodies since childhood. Not everyone but most people could lift several hundreds of kilograms.
Thus, they took the wolves into their hands and put them on the sleds they used and pushed them together.
Soon, everyone was back at the shore.
“What is happening?!”
“The sea is too cold! It creates frostbites in seconds!”
“What do we do?!”
Everyone was once again restless. However, both Degres and Kara calmed them down while the physician started to treat the wolves who got their paws injured.
Fortunately, they still had firm bodies and weren’t as fragile as that of humans. That made it all much easier. Firstly, they made an ointment to smear on the paws and then lightly covered it with cloth.
Illyan who was also one of them started to help out with all of them despite a little unkind expression showing his patients.
After treating them for almost half a day, he could finally take a sigh of relief since there were no more of them to treat.
Almost one quarter of the colony entered the sea before stopping so that was several hundred wolves to treat for only a few physicians who could do more than just stopping bleeding.
However, after seeing the legs covered in the paws and then the boots he had on his he thought of something that could be a solution.
Or more like, it was a solution that humans had for years making them one step ahead of animals!
“Hey, Degres, Grand Shaman! We need to cover every Wolf’s feet or we won’t be able to cross the sea!”
And so, he gave his idea to Degres and Kara who were arguing with other elders and members of the tribe about what to do.