>>5518100`
In silence, you spread the hard sap onto the singed and spent ends of the torches to create a much more turbulent, but stronger flame. No longer did Izurin choose to ride on your back, but treks alongside her fellow Elin with her arms held tightly around her body for warmth.
Perhaps it’s a sympathetic response to those around her, but it’s unsettling nonetheless.
Your group plods ahead like this at an agonizing pace, but once you look upon their purple legs, you cannot fault them for their speed.
In fact, the cold is beginning to seep well past the sturdy leather and fabric of your boots and clothing. Clenching your toes unnervingly demonstrates you how much feeling you’ve lost within them without noticing. The numbness seems to spread to the rest of your body, blurring the progress of the journey of one foot placed in front of the other, again and again.
How many trees have you past? How many more do you need to pass? Is the sled still in your stiff hands, are your companions still nearby?
“Someone’s coming.” Nilo sudden voice suddenly cuts through the haze, startling you to stumble and nearly lose balance.
Her weapon is already withdrawn as she scans the dark treeline ahead of you with her animal ears pointed, listening for the target you can’t hear yet.
By the time regain your balance and place the sled upon the ground to withdraw your sword, your ears catch the strange noise. You had expected to hear a crunching of snow, but instead it sounds as if something is dropping through the air and approaching quickly.
By the time you realize the noise is coming from above you, a shadowy figure descends from the evening sky and into the snow, just barely reach of your torch. The edge of the unstable light reaches an unknown object somewhat resembles the shape of an egg, but with a rigid exterior of dark leather steaming with heat.
You ready your sword as the exterior of the mysterious object begins to unfurl into long, heavy bat-like wings. Within the core of the wings emerges an arresting woman of milk-white skin, generous curves, and stark red eyes and horns that seem to glow with their own internal light.
She’s smartly dressed in flowing blouse and long, dark skirt tailored to accentuate her shape much like one of your contemporaries would to impress, but wears it a far more breezy air of confidence.
