Damn this snow!

His eyes narrowed at the thrusting of the icy winds, and the white mist around them made it almost impossible for him to see anything.

The drakarian was having a hard time controlling the steed, the cursed thing had been dashing through the blizzard relentlessly ever since it began.

And that sound, what could it have been? Jack thought. It was faint, but he had heard the howling of something in the distance. Something big, a monster. The other two were on foot. If anything they were the ones in most trouble.

“Do you see anything?!” Jack shouted.

“No!” Cried back the goblin, worryness present in his voice, “Where are we going Jack?! What about Jillian and Hasib?!”

“There’s nothing we can do for them now, they’ll just have to fend off the blizzard on their own.” He looked down at the worried goblin with a frown, “More importantly, we have to find shelter before this fucking horse drops dead on us from exhaustion.” Kirkley whimpered as he shrunk back to his seat.

Fitz leaned in from the back “I don’t care what you do, but you better keep this bloody horse alive! There’s produce to be delivered! He added insistently.

Jack turned to acknowledge the young man for a moment, “Right”, then gazed off to scan the vicinity once more. That’s when he noticed an opening at the foot of a snowy ridge.

“There!” He pointed, shaking the reins to rearrange the trajectory of their mount. That’s when, almost as if to spite Jack, the gods had intervened in his path–an overpowering gust of wind blew from their side, throwing the horse and cart off balance.

As the cart went on its side, it began sliding down the side of the hill they were traversing. Kirkley jumped off, followed by Fitz. Jack, however, wasn’t quick enough as the cart turned once more, burying him underneath it. As the thing continued to slide down, Jack was pushed along with it, plummeting deeper and deeper into the sea of snow. Jack sneered, anger began to take over his senses, this wasn’t going to be how he was going to die–buried underneath a damn cart! In an instant, his body was covered in scorching flames which melted through the snow quickly enough for him to escape the cart. The fires around his body disappeared as he made it back up to the surface.

He looked around as the winds grew more violent around him. The cart had stopped at the bottom of the hill, the horse was still alive but struggling from what he could see. Up above he noticed the shape of a man approaching–it had to be Fitz. Jack moved towards him, looked down and saw the back of a red bandana peeking out of the snow. He reached in and grabbed Kirkley by the head with one hand. He shook him from side to side, “Still alive?” He shouted. The trembling goblin nodded his head.

Fitz had finally reached them, “Are you two alright?” The trembling goblin continued to nod his head, "Where's the cart?” He asked impatiently. Jack pointed down the hill.

“What are we waiting for then?”

When they reached the cart, the horse was lying on its side shaking, unable to get up. They placed their hands under the cart’s edge, “Push!” Yelled Fitz. In one swift motion they lifted it up on one side and as they did they sent Kirkley, who was still hanging onto the railing, flying towards the opposite side. The cart then continued to turn, finally falling on its wheels.

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As Jack went to take care of the horse he noticed Fitz hastily searching for the casks and placing them on the cart.

“Leave the damn barrels, the horse’ll never make up the hill!”

Fitz placed another cask on the cart, “Then we’ll have to push!”

Jack’s fingers had begun to go numb, he could feel it; that if they wasted any more time it would be the end of them, “We won’t make it in time! Look at that damn thing,” he pointed at the horse, “it’s barely able to stand up!”

“We won’t know till we give it a try!”

“GODS DAMN IT, A FEW BARRELS OF APPLES AREN’T WORTH DYING OVER!” Jack exploded. At this point he was ready to leave the young swordsman to his fate. But then the winds blew towards him and a familiar scent originating from Fitz spiked inside his nose.

A sudden tug from his side shook him back to his senses, it was Kirkley. “Jack. We. Go. Now!”

Fitz had already started pushing the cart from the back. “Man the reins!” He ordered.

“Fuck it!” Jack rushed over to help, while Kirkley limped towards the front and tried to guide their mount to the top.

The horse marched against the raging winds stumbling every now and then. With every last bit of strength the two pushed from the back. Their struggle finally brought them to the top of the hill and in front of the entrance.

Without a second thought, they marched on inside into the unknown.

* * *

They had traveled for about an hour or so. The tunnel had led them pretty far into the hill by now. It was dark inside; the only thing illuminating their path had been a tiny mote of light hovering in the air which Kirkley was able to conjure up with a bit of tunechanting. Many smaller tunnels led from the larger tunnel to deeper and darker areas of the cavern, but the cart had been far too wide to pass through them.

After about a little more than an hour of travel, the tunnel finally gave way to a wide cavern.

Kirkley focused on the mote, strummed a single chord of his lyre and the mote began to move. It traveled around the interior before the goblin finally settled it at the center of the chamber and intensified the light until the whole room lit up.

Jack got off from the cart to take a look at their surroundings. The high ceiling above them was covered in long icicles and only one other exit was visible in the chamber other than the one they had come from. There was also a ledge made from ice a few dozen feet above them on their left.

Other than them the room was empty. Kirkley gave a deep sigh of relief, his green skin seemed slightly pale. He wrapped himself tightly around Fitz’s cloak.

“Right. I think if we start heading back, by the time we get out the blizzard will have probably passed.” Fitz said.

Jack glanced over to the horse, the beast was shaking all over. ‘We can’t make a fire. We don’t know where we are or where we’re going. The horse won’t be able to survive the journey back. If we don’t get a move on we’ll also be dead.’ He rubbed his eyes with a hand. ‘We’ll have to get going, but first I’ll have to deal with you.’ The smell was still fresh in Jack’s mind.

The drakarian pulled out his shadowy blade as he approached the dying creature.

“What are you doing?” Asked Fitz, he took a step towards him. “Wait…”

In that instant, Jack sank Dhim’faris deep into the horse's neck. The beast groaned as it took in its dying breath before falling to the ground.

“NOOO!” The human began to dash in the drakarian’s direction.

Jack pulled out the bastard sword from the horse’s corpse and turned to face Fitz as blood dripped from the dragon’s maw at the hilt of the blade. The human came to a halt just a few inches from its edge.

“Nobody’s going anywhere.” Jack said with unsettling calmness.