In the far north, where the sun set quickly and rose late, it became common to wake up before sunrise. The discipline everyone had to undergo from childhood after baptism made them as accurate as other animals when it came to guessing time.

The Bakur Tribe, who made camp for the night after yesterday’s failure to get on the frozen land, started to wake up early in the morning when the stars and moon were still shining high in the sky.

Illyan, who also took a long nap after his session of meditation, went out topless to do his morning training. While his training lessened so much after he focused on the shamanistic arts, he never omitted it either.

It was one thing to not train every day to break your limits and to neglect this to the point that your body strength regressed and your muscles got weaker. Knowing that the gain from the training isn’t permanent, he always made sure to maintain his condition to his peak performance.

Unfortunately, today he couldn’t focus properly. He had a bad feeling about something. When he woke up, he noticed the fog covering most of the area and the sea couldn’t be seen anymore.

Fogs were common and appeared regularly, but that was mostly when the temperature wasn’t too cold. Once it becomes too cold, the droplets freeze, and the fog changes into ice fog.

Those were also not so uncommon in these lands. However, Illyan felt something was wrong.

So after finishing his training, he hurriedly left for his tent and took out his phalanges again.

Once pulled out, a small table to throw them at, he closed his eyes and focused on the Spiritual Energy around. The phalanges were filled with Spiritual Energy too, so once he felt that they were harmonized, he threw them out on the table.

It didn’t take long for all of them to stop and form a symbol.

Symbol of Death. Again.

He knew that his divination could be faulty or that some spirit was being mischievous, but he didn’t want to just let it be.

‘Even if it is a false alarm, I should warn Degres and the Grand Shaman.’

Unfortunately, even if they would agree with him, the tribe didn’t have any other choice than to charge forward.

As that was their only way to survive.

……..

“So you are saying that you have bad premonitions, Illyan?”

Sitting in the tent, Illyan talked with Degres and Kara with a serious expression.

“Yes. I don’t know the source of it, but I feel it clearly.”

Kara sighed at this. She didn’t have reason to not believe him as seers could have a more acute sixth sense, but at the same time, they didn’t have any other choice than to go forward.

“You know we can’t do much, right?”

“Right. I am not saying to stop. Just let us be more careful. Anything can happen along the way. We don’t even know if the Sea is completely frozen. What if we get stuck in the middle of the ocean with a cut-off path?”

Illyan said something that started to bother him after seeing the Cold Sea being frozen. The water close to shore may be so, but what about the place far in the ocean? What if the ice didn’t connect two lands?

However, Kara calmed him down.

“From what the teacher said, there is one island quite close to here in the northwest. It should be close to us so there is a very small chance that the place wouldn't be connected to here. And from there we can either stay there or build the ships. Although our tribe isn’t very good at it, we should be able to do it in a few years…”

After this, the trio decided to become more careful so they wouldn’t mess up. The lives of the entire tribe depended on it.

……..

One Day Later.

“Haaah… Ice everywhere you look at. This is horrible!”

“Don’t be like child Zers! It’s just one day since we set off! You will be a father soon. How will you take care of a child if you are like this?!”

Zers was complaining along the way as Yii was scolding him. Illyan was listening to this, a small smirk on his face.

After years, he finally found something in himself which allowed him to naturally make small smiles again once in a while. Looking at this couple bickering, he felt a piece.

Or he would if the itchy feeling disappeared.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The ice fog didn’t disappear and instead became even more frosty. People started to hide their children in quilts to hide their skin from the biting cold and hugged their wolves to share their temperature.

After covering the paws of the wolves, they managed to safely step on the ice made from the Cold Energy and started their journey across the sea.

Unfortunately, there was no escape from the chilling air flowing around.

Some of the weaker members, namely the elderly, started to literally break apart from the cold as the frostbites were freezing their body parts. However, everyone went without stopping. They couldn’t stop.

The entire colony went in a row, making no big fuss as the strongest men were at the front and back to guard the weaker ones from the enemy.

That was until…

Crack

The ice under them cracked.

“Damn it, what happened?!”

Degres, who rode on his Tear, was surprised as he noticed the cracks on the ice.

“Ground is cracking! What do we do?!”

Everyone was shocked by the sudden ice cracks happening. They wouldn't be so surprised if it was normal ice but this was ice made out of Cold Energy. Even the strongest warriors couldn’t crack it with their weapons in less than twenty strikes…

Why was it cracking then?

The loud noises spread in the air as the cracking made a loud sound as thunder and the trembling of the ground underneath their legs made their stability poor, making them hesitant to what to do.

Kara who sat on Dor also didn’t know what the cause was but for assurance, she ordered the entire colony the next step.

“Everyone split up! We are too heavy to be in one singular place. Make small groups and go in different directions! Now!”

After saying this, everyone nudged their wolves to start to run.

“Illyan! Let’s go!”

“Coming!”

Zers, whose face turned serious at this point, prompted Illyan who was watching this with a somber expression.

‘Is this the reason for my feeling?’

However, he couldn’t stay for too long as the chance of ice breaking could be still high.

He went with one group that went more towards the west. Same direction as Degres went and started to run.

He was usually riding with Zers on his sled ever since he stopped riding Dor but sometimes he was walking on his feet to stretch his muscles or to feel the nature around.

This time it was the same and he had to run to the sled which was sliding as fast as possible before catching up, getting hold of it and jumping next to Zers.

Zers didn’t even look at him as he was focused on guiding Hunter who was pulling the sled.

Illyan also didn’t care as he could easily catch up to them. That’s why Zers didn’t slow down at all.

While he held reins and rode, Illyan, on the other hand, looked at the cracking ground.

The cracks started to slowly spread as time passed. However, the ice didn’t sink into the water nor did any kind of water start to leak to the surface. That alone was suspicious in Illyan’s mind.

‘What is happening?’

He didn’t believe that this was something as simple as the weight of the colony problem. He felt that this ice could support much higher weight than them.

Furthermore…

‘Is it just my imagination or the ice is breaking in-’

Quake

Crack

Sudden quakes of the ice under them made their slide jump in the air before they fell on the ground.

Thud

The entire ground was trembling as loud cracks started to show up everywhere.

Some of the cracks were wide enough for adult people to fall into, and it didn’t take long for some unfortunate ones to do so as they fell right into them.

“Aaaagh!”

“No! Father!”

Desperate sounds of others sounded out as they watched in horror how the entire place was changing landscape.

The previously flat frozen land was now full of rolls and twirls making it hard to see what is beyond a hundred meters.

But these kinds of hills made of ice confirmed Illyan’s guess.

‘The ice is not breaking from the surface… It was from within!’

“Zers! Be careful! There might be something within or beneath the ice layer!”

“Ugh!”

Zers, who fell badly on the ground, had his left hand bent at the wrong angle as he groaned in pain.

However, broken bones were the least of their problems. As they fell on the ground, their skin that was not covered with clothes made contact with ice and got frozen to it in a few seconds.

Illyan, who fell on the right side of his face, felt the chilling pain on it as he lied down. He tried to pull his face away, but it was harder than just pulling away his finger.

‘Damn.. This is gonna hurt…’

As he prepared himself for the pain, he tensed every muscle in his body and put both of his hands covered in gloves against the ground. With one powerful jerk, he separated his face from the ground.

“URGGH!”

He clenched his teeth as the pain ran across the right side of his face, which was now a complete mess.

Looking at the ground where the parts of his cheek still laid, he frowned and went towards Zers.

“Zers! You alright?”

“Yeah.. But I think- Whoa?! Illyan, your face!”

Illyan rolled his eyes at this. He was the last one who people feared for at this moment.

“It will heal soon. From the look, you should have a broken left arm and a few ribs, right? Be careful to not move in a reckless way or they will damage your insides. Now let me help you with the frozen part.”

With that, he looked at the area around the wrist where he lightly touched the ground. As everyone wore thick layers of clothes, not many had landed with their skin on the ground.

Unfortunately, the only uncovered part was the face, which was also the worst part to fall at.

Only a few covered their faces with the surplus of clothes they had. After using up most of it to cover the wolves’ paws, they didn’t have much.

As Zers had just a small area of contact, Illyan quickly took out the knife and swiftly separated the skin from Zers, who gritted his teeth in pain.

They could try to separate it with the help of fire to not hurt the skin, but there was no time. Tearing it as Illyan did was also not a good way to do so. It could aggravate the injury and even widen it if something goes wrong.

“Yii? What happened to her?”

But Zers didn’t care that much about his injury rather than his wife.

“I will look for her.”

With that, Illyan stood up and went in the direction where the sled of hers was.

But he didn’t find the sled. Only a big chasm was made by the icequake.

‘Damn it…’

Fearing the worst, he looked around hoping to see her somewhere.

“Illy…”

Fortunately, his acute hearing suddenly heard the voice.

Going after it, he soon went after a small crease of ice where Yii lay.

“Yii!”

She didn’t look to be hurt, and as she fell on the back, she didn’t touch the ice either.

However, her eyes were covered in frozen tears.

“What happened?!”

So Illyan ran to her and started to check her up. She was pregnant after all, it would be a catastrophe if something happened to the child.

“Hail… She fell into the chasm because she was tied to the sled…”

Hearing her trembling voice full of sadness, he could only sigh. Not everyone was so emotionally connected to their pets, but Zers always loved Hunter and Yii always loved Hail…

Those two were really made for each other…