OPEN | Blood And Ice

[northcliffpass]

Civil Blood

I. News from the West

The story of why gets twisted and distorted between its departure from the Crags and its arrival in Northcliff Pass, but the town criers maintain consistency on a few points: Althea of House Jessamy, Duchess of Black Rock, has at last thrown down the gauntlet against the Duke of Cliffside, and has called on her vassals to rally their bannermen. It seems there will be war within the borders of Maireglenne for the first time in a hundred years.

Given the state of the roads leading through the pass, it is understandable that the news is a few weeks’ stale by the time armed soldiers sporting Duke Galein’s colours march (or gallop, if they are astride a horse) past the village walls and garrison themselves on the festival grounds. Anyone objecting to this new arrangement is encouraged by the soldiers to bring their objections to the garrison commander (who, rumor has it, personally oversees the flogging of objectors himself).

Like it or not, the regiment is here to stay, at least until they receive orders instructing them otherwise. On the bright side, the soldiers did the hard work of clearing the pass for the season; travel between Northcliff Pass and the city of Cliffside just got a heck of a lot easier this winter.

II. Cold Snap

And it’s highly likely that those orders will be as delayed as the news, for the regiment has hardly been within the city walls a week before the temperatures plunge to dangerous lows. This is not the seasonal frigidity accompanied by blustery blizzards that encourage snowball fights and a bit of ice fishing down by Sands Creek, but a cold so biting and bitter that any prolonged period spent outside in it runs the very real risk of hypothermia and death. This is the kind of cold that leaves the air clean and clear, with nothing to impede the watery white light of the sun for the few hours it spends above the horizon each day before setting again; it cuts the lungs when inhaled and bites straight through to the bone. Many of the village’s poor are brought within the sturdy walls of the Town Hall and the chapel, because the alternative is finding them frozen solid in the streets.

The silver lining to this development is bare indeed; avoiding the cold means that, for a time at least, the village residents and soldiers are too preoccupied hunkering down to endure the cold to be at cross purposes.

III. A Howl in the Night

On the third night of the deep freeze, an animal’s piercing howl shatters the oppressive silence that has settled over the village.

It’s not a wolf’s howl; it is far too shrill and keening, and comes from a great distance away, that much is clear. The few villagers brave enough to risk exposure to the cold will find nothing of immediate danger within the city walls--but should they lift their eyes and look to the gossamer clouds near the summit of Gods’ Reach, they will glimpse the dark silhouette of a massive winged beast circling the mountaintop in search of a safe place to roost.

Comments

[strumpeting]

Yes, someone stop him. I know just the someone, who's now got her whole arm looped around Fin's neck and is dragging him forward.

"We have to find it!"

[pestler]

"Oh, no," Finian gasps, buckling forward as the much shorter person drags him, "no no no, no we don't." He focuses first on trying to free himself from Elena's grip.

[matkalainen]

"Or at least get a better look at it," Tuo agrees, delighted--but, all evidence to the contrary, he is only a fool, not a reckless fool.

He turns about smoothly on his heel with a hand raised in objection. "But not you," he says, looking directly at Finian. "I think it would be best if you went back into the sanctuary. Better that the guard captain's son does not become a late night treat for," an idle gesture at the mountain top, "whatever our mystery beast turns out to be."

[strumpeting]

Tuo is very kind and considerate of Finian's fear, and for that he is a good man.

Elena is not. She whirls around and slaps both her hands on his shoulders, facing Finian in full with a somber expression.

"Finian. In twenty years, what do you want your life to be? Do you want to look back and realize you wasted your youth away on idle humdrum goings-ons or do you want to remember that, once upon a time, you flew in the face of mediocrity to live your life to the fullest? What would the gods want? You to piss away the life they've given you? No! Come fly with us, baby bird, fly!"

All of this would likely be far more impactful if she wasn't washing a distillery over him with every word.

[pestler]

Finian almost looks like he's about to relax and turn around, but then Elena has him. His face is a mask of terror and revulsion as she lectures so closely, and it's frankly amazing he doesn't get stone drunk on the fumes alone.

"I'm not pissing anything away!" he implores her, his voice a pitch higher than usual, "I'll be the one sewing you up when you come back in pieces!"

[matkalainen]

"Which is," Tuo interjects, stepping nearer to try to make eye contact with Elena, "an incredibly important job. I myself am prone to exactly the sort of trouble that requires that skillset. But who shall sew our physician up if he is injured?"

He raises his eyebrows at her expectantly. Well??

[strumpeting]

Elena rolls her eyes. And stumbles a bit because yeah that wasn't a good idea to disrupt her equilibrium, but she recovers quickly.

"And then who sews up that physician, and who sews up that one and suddenly we're on top of the mountain with a line of doctors following us the whole way back to town. Look, I'm not going to let Fin get hurt.

"I would protect this boy with my life."

She says it with such conviction that one could probably believe that she means it.